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the Japanese embassy, of whom there were twenty-eight in all. The subsequent
adventures of this little band of brave men reads more like a page of a
romance than a fact of to-day's occurrence. After fighting their way through
immense odds crossing rivers in open boats amidst flights of stones and
arrows lying down to rest, to find themselves, on awaking, surrounded by a
revengeful and infuriated people they at length reached the shore to find no
junk or vessel of sufficient size to convey them across the narrow sea to
their own country. Driven to face their enemies on the very verge of the
ocean, they eventually succeeded in retreating to some small boats in which,
wounded and bleeding, but all alive, they confided themselves to the sea, as
being more merciful than their relentless and cruel foe. All this, I say,
savours of the romantic. Fortunately for the [227]poor worn-out voyagers help
was at hand, for soon H.M.S. "Flying Fish" hove in sight, on board which they
were kindly received, and brought to Nagasaki.
These stirring events have actually occurred whilst we have been lying quietly
at anchor, in Gen San and Chosan. Under such a state of affairs, who shall
predict the fate of Admiral Willes' treaty?
I trust I may be pardoned for being thus prolix; but surely, we who are
actually on the scene of events ought not to be more ignorant of what is going
on in our immediate neighbourhood than our friends who are so many thousands
of miles removed from it.
I cannot say much of the Coreans, for, in the first place, the usual sources
of information are almost silent on the subject, there being about only one
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reliable English work on Corea; and secondly we have no means, had we the
desire, to study this people, who are so jealous of their women that they wont
allow you to approach within a mile of their dwellings. On one occasion I
remember I sought, for the purposes of this present narrative, to set aside
this prohibition, and feigning ignorance of it I penetrated to the outskirts
of a village, when half-a-dozen big fellows rushing up to me, and
gesticulating, I thought it advisable to "boom off." However, I saw what I had
ventured thus far to see, notwithstanding one of their women; but I am afraid
an ugly specimen of the sex. So far does this feeling prevail that they would
not permit even our admiral's lady to satisfy a woman's curiosity about women;
though the chief of the village did condescend to allow her to sit beside him
on his mat, and even went so far as to offer her a smoke of his pipe.
[228]One of the accounts of their origin is peculiar. A certain beautiful
goddess once descended from the celestial regions and sojourned in Corea. But
it would appear that she left her hat behind, for shortly after arrival she
received a sun-stroke, which caused her to lay an egg of abnormal size, out of
which there stepped minerva-like a full blown Corean of gigantic stature. This
young fellow, in one of his incursions into the mountains, one day returned to
his mamma with a beautiful white-skinned maid whom he had picked up in a fairy
bower. His mother was not at all pleased so the story goes with this maid of
earth, and made it so hot for her that in a fit of rage the son, whom she had
hatched with such tender solicitude, slew her. Remorseful at the deed, he
swore that henceforth a similar misfortune should never again occur to any
man; hence the seclusion of the women. I need scarcely add that from this
stalwart first Corean and his pale bride all the present race is descended.
The mandarin at Gen San came on board, attended with great ceremony flags,
banners, pennons, soldiers, and trumpeters, in boat loads; the latter
gentlemen being furnished with brass instruments, such as angels are usually
depicted with, but which can be made to shut up like a telescope to vary the
music. The men are certainly a fine race tall and upright as an arrow, and
rather intelligent looking than otherwise. They wear long coarsely-fabricated,
white cotton garments, split up behind, in front and on the hips all tails in
fact; but the great national peculiarity seems to be the hats, some made of
bamboo, others of horse hair, of very delicate net [229]or gauze work, and
shaped like a reversed flower pot with a rim attached. Its purpose cannot be
to keep the head warm, to protect it from the rain, or to answer any other
purpose to which a hat may be applied: for instance you could not get a drink
of water by means of it, nor would it serve as a pillow. The ordinary color of
these hats is black, but in consequence of the queen's demise they now don a
white one white being, as in China, the symbol of mourning. Some who cannot
afford, or have not the inclination, to purchase a white one, paste a patch of
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