250 KOREA. 



turaing and twisting into the heart of the islands. 

 Very little cultivation is tried owing to the hilly forma- 

 tion of the land. Wild boar, deer, and pheasants 

 abound. It was to these islands that the Christians 

 fled for safety when, years ago, they were, as before 

 mentioned, so persecuted on the mainland ; and here I 

 found them stUl living in small villages amongst the 

 hills. Periodically they cross over to Nagasaki for a 

 supply of books, which are always ready for them at the 

 priest's house. They are all Eoman Catholics, and 

 wear a charm suspended round their necks, which, of 

 course, marks them at once from their fellow-country- 

 men, and points them out as believers in the once 

 much-persecuted religion. I never heard that the per- 

 secution extended to these out-of-the-way islands, and 

 should say that it did not. Considering the little value 

 of this group of wild rock-bound and weather-beaten 

 islands, and how little even now the Government con- 

 siders them, it seems almost certain that here a safe re- 

 treat was found. All these Christians, I have said, were 

 from the old stock — from the seed that great man 

 Francis Xavier sowed in the sixteenth century. The 

 Eoman Catholic missionaries have told me themselves 

 that, as far as making converts, their success was all 

 but nil. They frankly acknowledged that what Chris- 



