374 RESUME. 



why she should hesitate in so doing : an unknown 

 peninsula, standing isolated, it has no friends. Formerly 

 Korea was under some sort of protectorate, or, at 

 any rate, in some way came under the wing of China ; 

 but this is not now the case, and there is little doubt 

 she would have to fight her own battles in any dispute 

 with other nations. This was clearly shown to be the 

 case when Japan, in 1877, singly, and uninitiated by 

 string-pullers, made her own terms in a treaty which 

 they insisted on Korea signing. She is the only 

 nation that has been able to do so. Able appears an 

 absurd word to use in relation to a semi-barbarous 

 people and any Western power ; none other, however, is 

 applicable to the expeditions both of the French and 

 Americans, which these two great nations attempted 

 with and also against the Koreans. 



As for ourselves, we have never done more than 

 send an occasional ship to waste her time in trying to 

 survey their coasts. A similar result attended each 

 and all of these ill-advised expeditions ; we were always 

 insulted, and had to leave the coasts without being able 

 to carry out any thoroughly done work, and to this day 

 we know nothing regarding the south coast except that 

 a magnificent sound, which I called "Sylvia Basin," 

 exists a short distance to the westward of Chosan 



