KOREA. 239 



discovered there was another entrance to the south- 

 ward. 



Very soon after returning on board, the chief 

 official of the district came off. He was accompanied 

 by numerous personal attendants, two of whom never 

 left his elbow, but always on his moving held his arms. 

 About 200 soldiers constituted the old man's guard. 

 After the usual ceremonies were gone through, he 

 begged me to tell him what I wanted by coming to 

 Korea, and to this particular place, and expressed 

 repeated hopes I would go away. I tried to get him to 

 understand my object was perfectly friendly, and that 

 my wish to land unmolested, and make some observa- 

 tions from the peak of the island, was entirely harmless. 

 The poor old man then explained most emphatically 

 that his head would answer for such proceedings. The 

 law of the land, and which he had to maintain, or lose 

 his life, was that " no foreigner was to land in his 

 district." 1 could not help feeling that this argument 

 was unanswerable. All I could say was, that I must 

 obey my orders, as he his ; my repeated assurances that 

 I had no evil intentions, but merely wished to examine 

 the locality, only added to his fears and perplexity. I 

 did land, of course, and with instruments, surrounded 

 by rifles, obtained the observations I required. The 



