COREA. 



265 



the Sea of Japan, from the Tumen river to 

 Fusan, is a barrier of precipitous cliffs or steep 

 inclines, with a narrow margin of sea-beach. 

 Only three provinces lie on the east coast, and 

 but few cities, harbors, or islands, and most of 

 the river-sources are in the mountain-tops of 

 this portion, but on the side toward China. 

 The interior is broken up by countless smaller 

 chains and spurs, making the surface one of 

 continual undulations traversed by river-ba- 

 sins and valleys, with few or no plains of nota- 

 ble size. On the west coast lie five provinces, 

 many cities, harbors, and river-mouths, besides 

 that vast number of islands constituting " the 

 Oorean Archipelago." The chief rivers deter- 

 mine the political divisions of the kingdom, the 

 eight provinces of which are so many river- 

 basins. The chief rivers are the Tumen and 

 the Yalu on the north, dividing Oorea from 

 Russia and China ; the Han, " the river " by 

 excellence, is the largest, and on it the capital is 

 situated. Traversing the whole breadth of the 

 peninsula, its channel is conspicuous even in the 

 sea, and its spring floods are often very de- 

 structive. The Tatong, Kim, and Nak-tong 

 are important and historic streams. Few are 

 navigable to any considerable distance, but 

 French war-vessels have anchored in the Han, 

 off Seoul, and Chinese gunboats have ascended 

 the Yalu a distance of twenty -five miles. Co- 

 rea has " scientific frontiers," and her bounda- 

 ries are wholly of mountain, river, and sea. 

 The bodies of water on either side the Sea of 

 Japan, Yellow Sea, and Gulf of Pechili are 

 quite shallow, but full of the fish that forms so 

 large a portion of the national diet. The cli- 

 mate is one of great variety; the northern 

 parts, in which are many mountains and much 

 ice and snow, being like British America, and 

 the southern reminding one of the Carolinas. 

 With a heavy rain and snow fall, and the ex- 

 tremes of summer and winter temperature, the 

 fauna and flora partake of the characteristics 

 of both glacial and sub-tropical countries. 



Foreign Influence. Christianity was intro- 

 duced into Corea in 1777 by a native who had 

 visited the Jesuits in Peking, and returned with 

 Christian literature, and the plain of Nai-po is 

 called "the cradle of the faith." In 1794 the 

 first Roman Catholic Chinese, and in 1835 the 

 first French priest, crossed the ice of the Yalu 

 river in disguise. So successful was the propa- 

 gation that in 1860, the year in which, by Count 

 Ignatieff ' s diplomacy with China, the bound- 

 aries of Russia touched those of Corea, the 

 converts numbered 20,000, led by twelve for- 

 eigners. In 1864 the direct royal line founded 

 in 1392 came to an end, and a lad twelve years 

 old was named heir, his father, a court noble, 

 being made Tai-wen Kun, or regent. Under 

 his instigation, in 1866, persecutions broke out ; 

 nine French priests were seized, and, with a 

 number of native Christians, beheaded. Admi- 

 ral Roze, with a French force of seven vessels, 

 sailed into the Han river to avenge their death. 

 With 660 marines he burned Kang-wa, but, 



meeting witli reverses at a fortified monastery, 

 came away ingloriously to find his hasty action 

 disapproved at Paris. Stories of golden coffins 

 in costly mausoleums in Corea had long at- 

 tracted the cupidity of adventurers, and dur- 

 ing this same year a party of Americans and 

 British ascended the Ping-Yang river in Au- 

 gust on the armed schooner General Sherman, 

 but near the city in which rumor located the 

 royal tombs they were all slain by the infuri- 

 ated natives. In April, 1867, a refugee French 

 priest piloted a party of grave-robbers to Nai- 

 po to steal the bones of the regent's ancestors, 

 to hold them to ransom. Though foiled by 

 heavy masonry, the party got off with the loss 

 of only two men. 



Relations with the United States. Two Ameri- 

 can officers, Shufeldt and Febiger, in the 

 Wachusett and Shenandoah, visited the coast, 

 but obtained no satisfaction. Rear-Admiral 

 John Rodgers, in 1871, entered the Han 

 river, landed 750 men, and shelled the forts 

 from the gunboats. In forty-eight hours the 

 naval battalion captured 5 forts, 50 flags, and 

 480 pieces of artillery. Diplomatically the 

 mission was a failure, but, from a naval 

 view, a superb success, which so impressed 

 the Coreans as to incline them to treat with 

 civilized nations. In 1876 the Japanese secured 

 a treaty of commerce, and on the 7th of May, 

 1882, Commodore R W. Shufeldt, after a year's 

 preliminary labor in China, signed at Chi-mul- 

 po, near In-chiun, a treaty on behalf of the 

 United States. In July the Japanese legation 

 at Se"oul was destroyed in a riot, and several 

 of its members were slain. Japanese and Chi- 

 nese troops were landed in Corea, and, by order 

 of Li-Hung Chang and the stratagem of Chi- 

 nese officers, Tai-wen Kun, the old regent, was 

 carried otf to China. Corean parties had l>een 

 divided into Progressive, or " civilization," and 

 Conservative, or pro-Chinese and " port-clos- 

 ing." The Liberals, now in considerable power 

 after the fall of Tai-wen Kun, compelled the 

 making of treaties with other nations. In 1883 

 Gen. Lucius H. Foote, appointed minister of 

 the United States, Feb. 26, arrived at Seoul and 

 exchanged ratifications May 19, the Monocacy 

 saluting the Corean flag with guns that had 

 sent shells into the Han forts in 1870. 



In September a Corean embassy, consisting of 

 Min-Yong Ik and Hong-Yong Sik and nine other 

 persons, arriving in New York, had audience 

 of President Arthur. Three of the embassy 

 returned home by way of Europe on the U. t*. 

 S. S. Trenton. The British and German trea- . 

 ties were signed Nov. 26, 1883, followed later 

 by those of Italy, Russia, and Austria, and Herr 

 Paul von Mollendorf was made adviser to the 

 Corean Foreign Office. 



Improvements. On the 28th of February, 

 1884, Corea was connected by telegraphic 

 cable from Nagasaki to Fusan with the rest 

 of the world. The issue of silver coins, the 

 placing of the customs service under the super- 

 vision of foreign experts, the appointment of 



