450 ISLAND OF QUELPART. 



man interposed, with gesticulations and tears in his eyes 

 making us signs that the trees were his. On our men 

 proceeding in their work, the poor fellow grew quite 

 frantic, clasping now the trunks of his beloved trees, and 

 then the knees of those who were felling them, using 

 every possible sign and gesture to save his firs from de- 

 struction. He was however eventually pacified by bottles 

 of sweet wine. 



The same custom occurs along the coast of Korea, as 

 among the Malays, namely, lighting beacon fires on the 

 summits of the hills and projecting points of land, to in- 

 dicate the movements of a supposed enemy. La Perouse 

 alludes to the same procedure where he says: "It is pro- 

 bable we occasioned some alarm on the coast of Korea, for 

 in the afternoon we perceived fires lighted on all the points." 



The large island of Quelpart or Quelpoert, which we 

 circumnavigated and surveyed in the boats, is the most 

 southern island of the Korean Archipelago. The proper 

 name is the same as that of Korea, namely, "Chaou-Seen," 

 and it is somewhat remarkable that the name of the 

 principal city, King-Ka-Tou, is the same as that of the 

 peninsula, Quelpart may be said to be an oval iron- 

 bound island, covered with innumerable conical moun- 

 tains, topped in many instances by extinct volcanic craters, 

 and all bowing down before one vast and towering giant, 

 whose foot is planted in the centre of the island, and whose 

 head is lost in clouds. The whole surface, including the 

 plains and vallies between the hills and even that of the 

 mountain-flanks, is carefully, richly, and most beautifully 

 cultivated and covered with a pleasing verdant vegetation, 

 laid out in fields divided by neat walls made of piled-up 



