Chapter I (2)

The case was now utterly hopeless; and after an ineffectual attempt to cheer him up, we went on board, as the last, and indeed only favour we could grant him. Thus we quitted this inhospitable shore, after a stay of not quite an hour, in which time we had never been twenty yards from our own boats. We saw the village, however, to some advantage; it is neatly built, and very pleasantly situated under fine trees, in a valley cultivated like a garden, in small square patches.

It was now determined to prosecute the voyage to the southward, and the Lyra was accordingly ordered to proceed as usual to sound the passages a-head of the frigate, but had not gone far before the Alceste, still at anchor, was observed to be surrounded with boats. In about an hour she weighed and stood to sea. Captain Maxwell had received another visit from the old Chief, whose appearance was described as being quite altered; his sprightliness and curiosity all gone, and his easy unceremonious manner exchanged for cold and stately civility: he looked embarrassed and unhappy, as it appeared, from an apprehension of having offended Captain Maxwell. When this was discovered, no pains were spared to convince him that, in this respect, there was not the slightest cause for uneasiness. He would not accept any presents, but appeared much relieved by the unexpected kindness with which he was received, and before he went away, was restored, in some degree, to his wonted spirits. When looking over the books in the cabin, he was a good deal taken with the appearance of a Bible, but when offered to him he declined it, though with such evident reluctance, that it was again shewn to him just as he was pushing off in his boat, and he now received it with every appearance of gratitude, and took his leave in a manner quite friendly.

We quitted this bay without much regret. The old Chief, indeed, with his flowing beard, and pompous array, and engaging manners, had made a strong impression upon us all; but his pitiable and childish distress, whatever might have been the cause, took away from the respect with which we were otherwise disposed to regard him: yet this circumstance, though it makes the picture less finished, serves to give it additional interest; whilst every thing ridiculous in the old man's character is lost in the painful uncertainty which hangs over his fate.

From this bay we steered amongst the islands, during all the 6th and 7th, to the S.W. before the natives were met with again; we saw them indeed, but never got near enough to converse with them. They were frequently observed seated in groups watching us on the islands which we passed. We saw several fishing-boats, with a crew of about a dozen men, crowded on a sort of poop. At a little distance these boats appeared to be formed of two vessels lashed together. This appearance we believe to be caused by their having an outrigger on one side, on which their oars, sails, and masts are piled, in order probably to keep the boat clear when they are at anchor fishing. Their mast is lowered down and hoisted up by means of a strong tackle from the mast-head to the stern, as in the barges on the Thames.

We threaded our way for upwards of a hundred miles amongst islands which lie in immense clusters in every direction. At first we thought of counting them, and even attempted to note their places on the charts which we were making of this coast, but their great number completely baffled these endeavours. They vary in size, from a few hundred yards in length to five or six miles, and are of all shapes. From the mast-head other groups were perceived lying one behind the other to the east and south as far as the eye could reach. Frequently above a hundred islands were in sight from deck at one moment. The sea being quite smooth, the weather fine, and many of the islands wooded and cultivated in the valleys, the scene was at all times lively, and was rendered still more interesting by our rapid passage along the coast, by which the appearances about us were perpetually changing. Of this coast we had no charts possessing the slightest pretensions to accuracy, none of the places at which we touched being laid down within sixty miles of their proper places. Only a few islands are noticed in any map; whereas the coast, for near two hundred miles, is completely studded with them, to the distance of fifteen or twenty leagues from the main land. These inaccuracies in the charts naturally gave a very high degree of interest to this part of the voyage; yet the navigation being at all times uncertain, and often dangerous, considerable anxiety necessarily mingled itself with the satisfaction produced by so new and splendid a scene. We always anchored during the night, or when the tides, which were very rapid, prevented our proceeding in the deliberate manner absolutely required by the nature of the circumstances. An instance of the necessity of these precautions occurred on the 7th of September, at four o'clock in the afternoon, when, it being quite calm, we were drifting along with the tide, which suddenly shifted and carried us rapidly towards a reef of rocks, which was invisible till the strong rippling of the water shewed us our danger: we let go the anchor immediately, but the jerk was so great, as to break the Lyra's cable. A second anchor, however, brought her up at a sufficient distance from the reef.

As soon as the tide slacked, a boat was dispatched to examine the anchorage on the other side of an island near us. The officer landed about sunset, and from the top of the island could discover a village on the other side, on the shores of a fine large bay. He afterwards sounded the anchorage, and found it of a convenient depth. On his way back he landed near the village, but though it was bright moonlight he saw none of the inhabitants.

8th of September.--About noon we weighed and sailed round the north end of the island, which had been visited last night. The Alceste anchored nearly in the middle between the two islands which form the anchorage; but as the Lyra draws less water, she was placed as close off the village as was safe, being then about a quarter of a mile from the beach. At this distance, by means of a telescope fixed on a table on the poop, we were enabled to see what was going on in the village, while the people were unconscious of being observed. Mr. Clifford, who was too unwell to land with Captain Maxwell and myself, placed himself at the glass, and made many observations which must otherwise have escaped notice.

At first the only inhabitants visible were seated on the top of the hill watching us, the village itself being quite deserted; but shortly after our anchoring, the inhabitants began to assemble from different parts of the island. Of these several were women, some of whom had children on their backs, and others carried them in their arms. They looked stout, were fairer in complexion than the men, and were dressed in a long white robe, loose and open in front, with a petticoat of the same colour reaching a little below the knees; their hair was tied in a large knot behind; a small piece of white cloth was thrown loosely over the head to protect them from the rays of the sun. Some women were engaged in husking rice in a mortar with a wooden beater; these had no dress above the waist. The men and boys were seen carrying loads on a wooden frame hooked to the shoulders.

In a square flat place near the village a number of women and children were employed winnowing corn by pouring it from a height, so that the husks blew away. Fishing-nets were spread to dry on most of the houses. We landed about five o'clock, and found in the village only two men, who obstinately remained at one place without speaking, and looking anxious that we should go away; they refused the buttons which we offered them, and resisted our persuasions to accompany us to the upper part of the village, which we were anxious they should do, to shew that we had no intention of hurting any thing, but merely to look about us. We went on alone, and on reaching a deserted house thought it a good opportunity to examine it. Before the door, on a neat clean level space, enclosed by a hedge covered with a sweet-scented white flower, we found several heaps of corn and straw, and several of the wooden mortars in which the rice is pounded, also a number of vessels, some filled with water and others with rice. Cooking utensils were lying about, and a number of fishing lines coiled neatly in baskets, and split fish spread out to dry on the top of little corn ricks on one side of the court. The inside was dark and uncomfortable; the mud floor was full of hollow places; the walls were black with soot, and every thing looked dirty. On the left of the entrance two large metal boilers, twenty inches deep, were sunk in the brickwork, the upper part being about a foot above the floor. The fire-place was between the boilers, and on the hot embers lay three split fish. On the wall opposite to the fire were shelves, having a number of cups, basons, and cooking utensils, principally of coarse stone ware, and some few of a sort of bell-metal. The number of inhabitants in one house must be considerable, if we can form an estimate from the quantity of their dishes and vessels. There were three neat small pieces of furniture on one of the shelves, the use of which we could not discover; they were made of wood, elegantly carved and varnished, with a round top about a foot in diameter, and four legs a foot and a half long. The roof was well constructed, the rafters being mortised into the ends of the horizontal beams, and tied to the middle by a perpendicular beam or King-Post. Over the rafters is laid a net-work of rods, to which the thatch is tied. There was no chimney to this house, and only one window made of slender bars of wood, forming square spaces three inches by two, covered by a thin semi-transparent paper defended by the roof, which extends so far beyond the wall as to shelter it not only from the rain but from the sun. Most of the houses had a sort of raised verandah under the eaves, about a foot or more above the ground, extending from the door on either hand to the end of the house; these places were neatly levelled, and must afford a cool seat. The walls of the houses are from six to eight feet high, and from fourteen to twenty feet long; the top of the roof being about fourteen. The walls are of stone and mud, the door moves on the bar, which forms one of its sides; this bar is prolonged, and works in holes in the beam above, and a stone below. There was a back door to the house which we examined. On opening this we found a bare bank of earth as high as the house, at the distance of three feet from the walls, and a hedge rising still higher on the top; this effectually excluded all light.

This minute survey of the house being completed, we returned to our friends, who seemed in some measure re-assured. We tried to prevail upon them to accompany us in our walk, in hopes that the rest of the cottagers might be induced to return when they saw how peaceably we were disposed. Captain Maxwell used every sign he could think of to no purpose, and tired at length of these attempts, took hold of the oldest man's hand, drew it through his arm, and walked off with him. I followed his example with the other; and this familiarity amused the natives, who now accompanied us in perfect good humour. The ease and apparent indifference with which they walked along with us was curious, and had so little of awkwardness in it, that one might have supposed it to be the fashion of Corea to walk arm in arm. Having reached the house which we had before examined, we sat down in the verandah, and made signs that we wished to smoke a pipe with them. In the meantime a boat was observed to come to the landing-place; the crew quitted her and came towards us at a rapid pace. The quick manner of these people, so different from the ordinary behaviour of the Coreans we had seen, made us apprehend that some violence was meditated; but in this we were mistaken, for they sat down with us, gave us their pipes to smoke, and laughed immoderately at some of our words: we took the hint from them, and laughed heartily whenever we observed that any thing good had been said amongst them; this was well received, and proved afterwards a good mode of introduction.

Their curiosity was strongly excited by our clothing, which they examined minutely; they wished to see some parts of our dress taken off, and in order to gratify them they were allowed to have our coats, shoes, stockings, hats, &c. They were more struck with the stockings than with any thing else, frequently shouting "Hota! Hota!" This word, which is pronounced with a strong aspiration, was noted down in our list as the Corean word for stockings; but it was found afterwards to be an expression of approbation, applied indiscriminately to whatever they consider remarkably good. After sitting some time with these people, and smoking several pipes with them, we gave up all hopes of seeing the villagers return while we were there, and as the night was falling we proposed taking a short walk with our friends, and then going on board. But as soon as they saw us go up the hill instead of returning to the boat, they became very uneasy, and wanted us to turn back. As we had reason, however, to conjecture that the women and children were on the other side of the hill, we went on in the expectation of getting a sight of them before dark. This the Coreans prevented by following us with shouts wherever we went, so as to give warning of our approach. The women and children probably retreated before us to a ravine on the north side of the island, for when we approached it the Coreans became more anxious than ever for our return; and one man seeing us still advance, took hold of my arm and gave it a sharp pinch. I turned round and exclaimed, "Patience, Sir!" He drew back on observing my displeasure, and a moment after called out himself, "Patience, Sir!" The others hearing this caught the words too, and nothing was heard for some time amongst them but "Patience, Sir," pronounced in every instance with perfect propriety. They seemed surprised themselves on discovering powers of imitation hitherto in all probability unexercised. This incident brought us better acquainted, and we remained on the top of the hill teaching them English words till it was dark. They were certainly entertained with our instructions, but nevertheless shewed much more satisfaction in attending us down hill again to our boats. Before going on board we invited them to come to the ship next day, which one of the party was supposed to comprehend: he first made preparations for going to bed, then closed his eyes, hung his head on his hand, and snored very properly; after a time he opened his eyes, started and looked about him, then laid his hands on Captain Maxwell's shoulders with an air of welcome. This was interpreted by some into a wish for our departure till the morning, and by others that he himself would visit us at daylight. As he never came on board, and received us on landing next day with any thing but welcome, probably both guesses were wrong: of one thing there was no doubt, his anxiety to get rid of us; and his signs may have meant that it was time for all honest people to be in bed.

9th of September.--At sunrise we landed at the same village, and found it deserted as before. We left it and made for the highest peak on the island, accompanied by a few of the Coreans, who did not interfere with us till about halfway up, when on our entering a grove of fir trees, with the appearance of which we had been struck, one of the Coreans objected; we went on, however, and upon reaching the stump of an old tree the Corean fell on his knees, bowed his head to the ground, and as he raised it again held his hands closed and pressed together towards the stump. This had very much the air of a stratagem to dissuade us from going further in that direction, where the women probably were concealed. Admitting this to have been the motive, it is curious that he should have supposed such a shew of religious form calculated to restrain us. It is further remarkable as being the only circumstance which we have seen on this coast implying a knowledge of religion or religious ceremony. There are here no temples, idols, nor tombs, whereas in China, villages much smaller than these of Corea have them in every corner. The other Coreans took no notice of the stump, and the man who was prostrating himself before it finding that his behaviour produced nothing but a number of questions from us concerning the nature of the tree, got on his legs and walked sulkily away. In the course of our walk we saw six bullocks of a small breed and very fat, but which the Coreans were not to be tempted to sell by any thing which we had to give them. Dogs were the only quadrupeds besides that we saw. There were pigeons, hawks, and eagles, but few small birds. Crows were as numerous here as in every other part of the world. We returned on board to breakfast, and afterwards set out on an excursion to the top of a high island lying some leagues to the south-east of us. On our way we landed, and observed the sun's meridian altitude with an artificial horizon, by which we ascertained the latitude to be 34º 22' 39" north, the longitude by the mean of two chronometers is 126º 2' 45" east.

We passed, for the distance of five miles, amongst islands, all, except the very smallest, inhabited. The villages are built in the valleys, where the houses are nearly hid by trees and hedges. The sides of the hills are cultivated with millet and a species of bean; and in the numerous small gardens near the villages, we saw a great variety of plants.

As the peaked island which we had undertaken to climb was steep, and covered with a long coarse grass, it cost us a tiresome scramble to gain the top, which is about six hundred feet above the level of the sea. The main land of Corea is just discernible in the north-east and east, from this elevation; but it commands a splendid view of the islands, lying in thick clusters, as far as the eye can reach, from north-west quite round by east to south. We endeavoured to count them. One person, by reckoning only such as were obviously separate islands, made their number one hundred and twenty. Two other gentlemen, by estimating the numbers in each connected cluster, made severally, one hundred and thirty-six, and one hundred and seventy; a difference, which at once shews the difficulty of speaking with precision on this subject. But when it is considered, that from one spot, which though considerably elevated, was not centrical, one hundred and twenty islands could be counted, and that our course for upwards of one hundred miles had been amongst islands no less crowded than these, some idea may be formed of this great Archipelago.

After enjoying this scene for some time, we went down on the other side of the peak, which is much less steep. We found the boat's crew preparing dinner for us, under some trees, close to a well of cool water. The village to which the well belonged not being many yards off, we proceeded to explore it, and found it deserted by all except an old woman and a man. The woman, seated on a pile of stones, in the middle of the village, took no notice of us as we passed; and indeed, she was herself so very homely, as to occupy but little of our attention. The man was seated at the door of a cottage, making a straw sandal: on our entering his inclosure, he looked up for an instant, and immediately resumed his work, with as much composure as if we had been a party of the villagers. A button was offered to him, which he accepted without scruple: he agreed, with equal readiness, to exchange his unfinished sandal for another button, which having carelessly put away, in a bag lying near him, he took some straw and re-commenced his business, without seeming to notice that we were rummaging his house. He is the only Corean we have met with, who has not shewn some slight symptoms of curiosity: indeed, he seemed totally indifferent about our staying or going, or about what we were doing in his house; and we left him without knowing whether to ascribe his apathy to fear, or to absolute stupidity.

On returning from the village, we saw a party of the natives assembled on a rising ground near us; they were invited, by signs, to join us at dinner, but they kept their places unmoved. While we were at dinner, the sailors, who had been rambling about, joined the natives, and in a few minutes became very good friends with them; the natives giving up their pipes, and the sailors in return supplying them with tobacco. We have frequently remarked during this voyage, that the sailors make acquaintance with the natives much sooner than the officers. This seems the natural effect of the difference in our manners. On meeting with natives, we feel so anxious to conciliate, and to avoid giving offence, that our behaviour, thus guarded and circumspect, has an air of restraint about it, which may produce distrust and apprehension on their part; whilst, on the other hand, Jack, who is not only unreflecting and inoffensive himself, but never suspects that others can possibly misconstrue his perfect good-will and unaffected frankness, has an easy, disengaged manner, which at once invites confidence and familiarity.

In about an hour after we had sat down, one of the natives hastily rose, and without appearing to deliberate, but as if actuated by a sudden impulse, strode rapidly down to us, and in the most unceremonious way possible, presented his lighted pipe for us to smoke. We received him as kindly as we could, and prevailed upon him to take a glass of wine; which he had no sooner drank off, than he roared out, "Hota! Hota!"

This exclamation brought the rest down, who seating themselves by us, drank freely, and became very cheerful and communicative, telling us the Corean names of every thing we pointed to, and asking, in return, the English names for our clothes.[5] But though the wine made these people far more sociable than any we had yet seen, they never forgot the principal object of their thoughts, and suggested, every now and then, by pointing to our boats, the propriety of our going away. After sunset, they became very impatient and uneasy at our stay; but when at length we yielded to their entreaties, the whole party accompanied us to the water's side, and took leave with the most lively marks of satisfaction at our departure.

10th of September.--This morning, about ten o'clock, we got under weigh, and stood to the southward. By sunset we were clear of all the islands, and could just distinguish the island of Quelpaert in the south-east quarter.

The shortness of our stay on this coast, and the difficulty we experienced in communicating with the inhabitants, will account for the scanty and disjointed nature of the information obtained. A future voyager would do well to be accompanied by a person who can write the Chinese character, and should have full leisure to overcome, by patient management, the distrust of strangers evinced by this unsociable people.

A chart of our track along this coast is subjoined to this work, in the hope that it may prove useful to a future voyager. As it was constructed under circumstances of great haste, it is necessarily incomplete; yet it will probably be found more accurate than any maps or charts hitherto published.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: A servant of the embassy, left behind by accident at the Pei-ho river.]

[Footnote 2: We found the north-east end composed of a fine-grained granite; the middle of the island of a brittle micaceous schistus of a deep blue colour; the strata are nearly horizontal, but dip a little to the S.W. This body of strata is cut across by a granite dyke, at some places forty feet wide, at others not above ten; the strata in the vicinity of the dyke are broken and bent in a remarkable manner; this dislocation and contortion does not extend far from the walls of the dyke, but veins of granite branch out from it to a great distance, varying in width from three feet to the hundredth part of an inch: the dyke is visible from the top of the cliff to the water's edge, but does not re-appear on the corresponding cliff of an island opposite to it, though distant only thirty yards. This island is composed of the same schistus, and is cut in a vertical direction by a whin dyke, four feet wide, the planes of whose sides lie N.E. and S.W., being at right angles to those of the great granite dyke in the neighbourhood, which run S.E. and N.W. The strata contiguous to the whin dyke are a good deal twisted and broken, but not in the same degree as at their contact with the granite dyke.

The whin dyke is formed of five layers or sets of prisms laid across in the usual way. Beyond the small island cut by the whin dyke, at the distance of only forty or fifty feet, we came to an island rising abruptly out of the sea, and presenting a high rugged cliff of breccia, fronting that on which the granite dyke is so conspicuous: the junction of this rock with the schistus cut by the granite and the whin would have been interesting; but although we must have been at times within a few yards of it, the actual contact was every where hid by the sea.

The whole of the S.W. end of this island is formed of breccia, being an assemblage of angular and water-worn pieces of schistus, quartz, and some other rocks, the whole having the appearance of a great shingle beach. The fragments of the schistus in this rock are similar to that which forms the cliff first spoken of.

The theory which presented itself to us on the spot was, that the great mass of strata which forms the centre of the island was formerly at the bottom of the ocean; and that the western part, which is now a firm breccia, had been a beach shingle produced by the action of the waves on the strata: the granite which forms the eastern end of the island had been forced into its present situation from beneath the strata, with sufficient violence to dislocate and contort the beds nearest to it, and to inject the liquid granite into the rents formed by the heaving action of the strata as they were raised up. It is natural to suppose that the ragged edges of the strata forming the sides of these cracks would be subjected to a grinding action, from which the strata more remote might be exempted; and in this way we may account for the extraordinary twisting, and separation of masses along the whole course of the granite dyke. In the dyke, as well as in the veins which branch from it, there are numerous islands of schistus. That this last was softened, seems to follow from the frequent instances which occur of its being bent back upon itself without producing cracks. The same heat, propagated by the melted granite in the neighbourhood, may also be supposed to have reduced the shingle beach to a state of semifusion by the aid of some flux contained in the sand scattered amongst it. We could not discover any circumstance by which the relative antiquity of the two dykes mentioned above, could be ascertained.]

[Footnote 3: _Note on the peculiar character of the written language in that quarter of the globe._

In China, Japan, Corea, and the islands in the adjacent seas, the spoken languages are different from one another; the written language, on the contrary, is the same in all. Thus a native of China is unintelligible to a Corean or Japanese, while he is speaking, but they mutually understand one another when their thoughts are expressed in writing. The cause of this may be thus explained. We in Europe form an idea in the mind, and this we express by certain sounds, which differ in different countries; these sounds are committed to writing by means of the letters of the alphabet, which are only symbols of sounds, and, consequently, a writing in Europe is unintelligible to every one who is ignorant of the spoken language in which it happens to be written. The Chinese and the other natives in these seas have, on the contrary, no alphabet; no symbols of sounds; their ideas are committed to writing at once without the intervention of sound, and their characters may therefore be called symbols of ideas. Now, as the same characters are adopted in all these countries to express the same ideas, it is clear that their writings will be perfectly intelligible to each other, although their spoken languages may be quite incomprehensible.

The case of the Roman numerals in Europe furnishes a ready illustration of this symbolical language. There is nothing in the symbols 1, 2, 3, &c. by which their pronunciation can be ascertained when presented to the eye, yet they communicate meaning independent of sound, and are respectively intelligible to the inhabitants of the different countries of Europe; while, at the same time, the sounds by which a native of one country distinguishes the written symbols 1, 2, 3, &c. are unintelligible to all the rest.

The knowledge of writing is supposed to be very generally diffused over the countries using what is called the Chinese character, and, as probably none but the lowest vulgar are ignorant of it, the surprise of these people on discovering our inability to read their papers is very natural. The case, we may imagine, had never occurred to them before, and it was highly interesting to watch the effect which so novel an incident produced. At first they appeared to doubt the fact of our ignorance, and shewed some symptoms of impatience; but this opinion did not last long, and they remained completely puzzled, looking at each other with an odd expression of surprise.]

[Footnote 4: This paper, presented by the Corean Chief, has been translated by Mr. Morrison at Canton, and is as follows: "Persons, of what land--of what nation (are you)? On account of what business do you come hither? In the ship are there any literary men who thoroughly understand, and can explain what is written?"]

[Footnote 5: See note at the end of the Loo-choo vocabulary.]