272 APPENDIX I. 



deceived. Hiddyoshi landed almost iinoi^posed, captured and burnt the city 

 of Seoul, the capital, and departed with much plunder, having made two of 

 the princes prisoners. He was on the point of marching against China when 

 he died, and the war came abruptly to an end. 



Chang-ning, however, was destined not to escape the anger of the 

 Japanese, in spite of the death of Hideyoshi. The tribute he had paid to 

 the Prince of Satsuma up to the time of the invasion of Corea had not been 

 resumed, and on his refusal to renew it the prince, acting in concert with a 

 Liu-kiu noble who had revolted and retired to Satsuma, fitted out an 

 expedition against the islands, and landed his troops in the spring of 1609. 

 The result might have been foreseen. The invaders were completely victori- 

 ous, and having sacked the palace and killed the father of the king, they 

 brought the latter back to Satsuma as a prisoner. The Chinese were unaware 

 of this occurrence in time to render any assistance, and would in any case 

 hardly have been able to lend them efficient aid, owing to the extremely un- 

 settled state of their own country. The Liu-kiu king accordingly remained 

 in captivity for two years, but his conduct so won the hearts of the Japanese 

 that at the end of that time they restored him once more to his people and 

 his throne. On his arrival in his own country so little was his independent 

 spirit broken by captivity, that one of his first acts was to render homage to 

 the Emperor of China, and to warn him that his late captors contemplated a 

 descent upon Formosa. But he was nevertheless wise enough to resume the 

 payment of tribute to the Prince of Satsuma, and we thus find Liu-kiu once 

 more in the anomalous position of being subject to two hostile nations at one 

 and the same time. 



A little later, in the year 1643, occurred the great revolution which 

 placed the Tartars in possession of the throne of China, and the Liu-kiu king 

 had to bow to the force of circumstances, and to send in his submission with 

 the rest. The Tartar emperor was happily well disposed towards him, and 

 it was agreed that the tribute should thenceforward be paid biennially. 

 Twenty years later the great Emperor Kang-hi succeeded his father, and 

 during his reign the islands throve and prospered. Kang-hi loaded the 

 Liu-kiu king with presents, built a palace in honour of Confucius, and 

 instituted a college for the study of Chinese arts and letters ; and when, in 

 1708, the towns of Napha and Shiuri were ravaged with fires, typhoons, and 

 pestilence, he came so quickly and generously to their aid that he gained 

 the lasting gratitude and affection of the islanders. The length of his reign 

 (1663-1736) was so great that he lived to see four Liu-kiu sovereigns on the 

 throne, and in the year 1719 he sent Supao-kwang, one of the learned 

 doctors of the empire, as ambassador to Chang-king, who was then monarch, 

 with instructions to gather all the information possible with regard to the 



