was proposed that only Mr. Gutzlaff and myself should accompany them, and we should be invited to a house. I said if Messrs. Simpson and Stephens were included, I was satisfied; and this was agreed to, and a message sent to prepare a house to receive us. "We were now invited to proceed into the village; the chiefs ascended their chairs, the trumpeters blew, the soldiers pummelled away right and left among the crowd, as in China. On approaching the entrance of the village, a halt .was made, and soldiers with trumpets were sent inside, probably to see that no women were loitering about. The procession moved on, and the chiefs entered one of the first houses in the village; so that we saw little more of it than from outside, every lane being wattled so that no houses are seen: even in the one we entered, the doors and windows were closed; but a commo. dious place was left under the roof, on which mats were spread. I was asked if I would now send for the presents, and accordingly did so. They were packed in three cases, and were laid down on mats before the chiefs. I now rose, and in a formal manner, with my hands raised up, walked forward to the principal chief, and delivered the letter into his hands, with a paper requesting it and the presents might be forwarded with the utmost speed, which we were promised should be done. "Wine was now again handed round, with raw garlic as a relish, and we were made to take a glass, and the chiefs informed us of their intention again to pay us a visit to-morrow, and we parted on very friendly terms. On going away, the poor fellows whom I had rescued from a cudgelling came and expressed their thanks most strongly; and the circumstance appears to have created a much more kindly feeling in our favour, as on going away almost all the people joined in giving us their salutation, which consists in clapping the hands together on a level with the face. We now returned on board, and found that in our absence practical signs of friendship had been sent to us in two fine pigs, ready killed, a bag of rice and some vegetables, accompanied by a card, with the seal of the chief. We therefore have a right to feel that we have made some little progress towards a friendly intercourse with this misantrophic race of beings." The visits, interviews, and conferences were numerous during the time they -awaited a reply from Court. The communication was tedious, as it was entirely by writing. The information thus produced was consequently rather scanty, though the communicants appeared to be intelligent and curious. They stated that the books read and studied in Corea were mostly Chinese, e.g. the Woo-king, though it has a literature of its own; that their religion was Chinese and temples were dedicated to Confucius, Mencius, &c. One day, they succeeded in inducing Yang-yih to write out a copy of the Corean alphabet, and Mr. Gutzlaff having written the Lord's Prayer in the Chinese character, the same native both gave the sound and wrote it out in Corean characters; but after having done it, he expressed the greatest alarm, repeatedly passing his hand across his throat, and intimating that if the chiefs knew it he would lose his head. The Coreans are described by Mr. Lindsay as appearing naturally a suspicious race; every village and even isolated houses are surrounded by a high wattled hurdle, which effectually prevents any person from seeing into the interior. No reason could be extracted from them for their repugnance to suffering the strangers to enter their villages; some very strong cause," Mr. Lindsay remarks, "must exist to render this feeling so powerful and universal." The manners of the Coreans are represented as more friendly than has Asiat.Journ.N.S.VOL.12.No.47. been imagined. Two of the chiefs dined on board the ship. The customs of the Coreans at their meals are like those of the Japanese. Each guest has a separate little table, about a foot high, before him; the chop-sticks used were like the Chinese; but they carry a small knife at their girdle to cut the meat with. Mr. Lindsay, with a party, in the long-boat, explored a deep bay in the vicinity, in the course of which they landed, and from a high hill had an extensive view, not the least curious object in which was a crowd of women hurrying from the presence of the visitors. The Coreans seem extremely jealous of their women being seen by strangers. They were always rudely driven back and confined to the house by the men when the Europeans approached, though they are employed in various kinds of labour, and treated with very little consideration by their partners. Mr. Lindsay attributes this mysterious dread of exposing the fair Coreans to the eyes of strangers, to "a prejudice deeply rooted in their minds by education, and enforced by the severest penalties of an arbitrary and oppressive government." This mode of solution he applies to almost every difficulty: thus he supposes the refusal of the Coreans to admit the strangers into their villages to be in obedience to some law "enforced by dreadful penalties." At length, on the 9th July, after nearly three weeks' delay, an envoy from the capital brought a decision on the petition. He visited the ship, accompanied by Kin and Le, and, owing to the mode of intercourse, by writing, Mr. Lindsay was able to preserve a verbatim record of the conversation. The substance of the envoy's statement is that Corea, being subordinate to and dependant upon China, cannot engage in commercial intercourse with Europeans without permission of the emperor; that the petition could not be laid before the king, as the officers at the capital dared not report the receipt of it, which was contrary to the laws. Mr. Lindsay urged that "Siam and CochinChina are both tributary to China; that Corea is on the same terms as these two nations, yet both China and those countries admit our ships to trade with them." All the envoy answered was my nation does not act thus." After observing that the petition and presents had been received through the stupidity and ignorance of the local officers, Kin and Le, the envoy ordered both letter and present to be put on board the ship. This proceeding Mr. Lindsay resolutely withstood, alleging that they had been received at a public interview, and positive pledges had been given that they should be forwarded to the king. This reduced the envoy to great perplexity. He declared that Kin and Le had told falsehoods; he entreated, bowed almost to the ground, and made signs that his head would be cut off and his bowels ripped open if Mr. Lindsay persisted in his refusal. This gentleman says he could not help feeling that he had just and strong ground of complaint against the Corean government for the treatment he had experienced, and in spite of the repeated denials of the envoy, he cannot for a moment doubt that he acted by express orders from the king. "It is evident," he remarks," that all hopes of establishing commercial intercourse with these people must for the present be abandoned." He resolved to adhere to his determination not to receive back the letter and presents unless they were accompanied by an official document; for, he observes," I cannot help consiing that, in all intercourse with these nations, a character for undeviating truth is the first point to be established:" an observation which tends much to corroborate the justice of the strictures passed by the Court of Directors upon the line of conduct adopted by Mr. Lindsay, so " entirely opposed to that frank and ingenuous course, which the Court has been at all times anxious should mark our bearings towards the Chinese.” Before he departed, Mr. Lindsay drew up a ɛtatement of all the principal occurrences, in a "memorial for the inspection of the king," of which four copies were made for four different functionaries, between whom discord seemed to prevail, whence it was augured that one of the copies at least might reach the royal ear. Mr. Lindsay learnt that there were a few Chinese at court, to whose ill-offices he attributed the failure of his application. On leaving Corea, the Amherst proceeded to the southward, sailing outside the Corean archipelago, and on the 22d August, anchored in Na-pa-keang bay, in Great Loo-choo. 66 "The principal object which I had in view in visiting Loo choo," Mr. Lindsay says, was to make the experiment whether the inhabitants might not willingly engage in commercial intercourse, now that an opportunity was offered to do so. The description given in Captain Hall's voyage of the hos pitality and amiable manners of these people has excited a lively interest concerning them. I therefore could not avoid feeling that it was incumbent on us to bear in mind that what little connexion has hitherto subsisted between our countrymen and its inhabitants has been marked by the purest benevolence on their part. No British ship has ever touched here without experiencing their hospitality. Their motives for this conduct might appear doubtful, did it only apply to the King's ships which touched at Loo-choo in 1816 and 1827, but exactly similar hospitality and kind feeling was exhibited to our countrymen in distress, when H.M.'s ship Providence was wrecked here in 1797. I determined to deliver a short statement expressive of our wishes, but if it was objected to comply with them, not to press it in any way which might prove disagreeable, or tend to lessen those friendly sentiments which were established by the kind and judicious conduct of Captain Maxwell towards them. I therefore drew up an explanatory paper, to be presented to the chiefs with whom we might first communicate; and if the proposal made was favourably received, it would then be a fitting time to write a petition to the King, and accompany it with suitable presents, 6 JOY A ge TA "We anchored in the roads about a mile from the town; but the weather was so boisterous that no boats ventured to come to the ship.. The wind was directly off shore, but so violent that Mr. Gutzlaff and myself had considerable difficulty in getting on shore. We landed on the jetty, at the entrance of the river. A crowd of people came down to meet us, one of whom accosted me in English, of which he knew a few words; but they were much pleased and astonished at hearing us address them in Chinese. We went to a temple adjoining and held a long conversation, in which we explained to them the object of our visit. We inquired for Madena and Amjah, who are mentioned in the voyages of Captains Hall and Beechey; they at first declared they were both dead; but Amjah shortly made his appearance in direct contradiction of this assertion. Two of the principal persons in our conference were named Eechih and Osoko; they both inquired after Captain Beechey, and told us that a whaler, the Partridge, Captain Stavers, had visited Loo-choo in the February previous, and had stayed there three weeks on the most friendly terms. Ee-chih showed me a short English and Loo-choo vocabulary, which he had made by the assistance of Captain Stavers. We were surrounded by a great number of decently-dressed natives, most of whom spoke Chinese fluently, and we were overwhelmed with questions on subjects of every description. The terms in which we spoke of their countrymen appeared to give much pleasure to all. Before we went away, Ee-chih requested we would give him a list of any things we wanted, that they might be sent to us; this was quite a voluntary offer on his part. With regard to our hopes to trade with them, Ee-chih shook his head, and said they were too poor to have anything to exchange with us for our valuable goods. At parting, Ee-chih and the other chief promised to come to the ship the following day, if the weather moderated; and if not, I told him I should come on shore to deliver my letter at the temple inhabited by Captain Maxwell in 1816. Three Japanese junks were lying in the river, but the chiefs strongly disclaimed having any intercourse or trade with Japan; and declared that these junks had been driven to the southward by stress of weather, and merely taken shelter here to refit. "Next day (3d August) the gale continued unabated, so that no boats ventured out; in the evening we landed with some difficulty at Pootsong, and were shown to the temple; Ee-chih and Amjah soon arrived; the latter accosted me in English, of which he could speak several phrases very intelligibly. We were requested to enter one of the apartments; tea and pipes were brought, and the utmost friendliness of manner shown. However prominent urbanity and gentleness of disposition may be among the Loochooans, it could not blind us, though strongly prepossessed in their favour, to the utter indifference to truth which they manifest on all occasions. Truth, indeed, appears barely to be considered in the light of a virtue among them, if we may judge from the careless manner in which they saw themselves convicted of the most flagrant self contradiction in the space of a few minutes. Having waited for some time in the expectation of the arrival of a chief of rank, I delivered my letter to Amjah, with a request it might be forwarded immediately. t "24th August:-This day the wind moderated, and during the forenoon we had a visit from Amjah and two other chiefs, all of them wearing their hatcheematchees, or caps of ceremony. They staid all the morning on board, and showed the greatest curiosity on every subject; Amjah clearly told me that the request to trade could on no account be granted; he also inquired if ours was the same ship which had been to Fuh-chow in the spring, and said he was there himself at the time, in the Loochoo junk which annually trades with that port. Our object throughout the conversation was to convince them of the friendly feeling entertained by my countrymen towards them, the unreasonableness of their suspicions, and the great advantages they would derive from trade and free intercourse with us. Nothing seemed to surprise them more than our acquaintance with various parts of their manners and customs, which we had acquired from the works of Captains Hall and Beechey, and it was evident that our knowledge of Chinese rather increased than diminished their suspicious alarm. "Early on the morning of the 26th, Amjah, Ee-chih, and several others came off, bringing the following letter in reply to my statement: Ma, the che foo of Chungshan-foo, in the kingdom of Loochoo, gives the following reply to a document presented by Hoo-Hea-me Tajin, which he has respectfully received. Therein it was stated [bere follows the statement, omitting all parts of it complimentary to themselves.] Upon examination, it appears that the wish entertained by your honourable kingdom to establish trade with our mean nation originated in sentiments of cordial friendship, for which we feel highly grateful; but our mean country is a mere jungle and by no means extensive; the land is sterile, so that there is scarcely any produce; neither is any gold or silver found in it. Thus we possess nothing to offer in exchange for your cloth, camlets, and calicoes. Moreover, our mean kingdom has never had any laws for the regulation of trade with foreign nations. Though this is a trifling concern, yet we can by no means change our laws, which are very strict; therefore it is truly difficult to report on the subject to the king. A To conclude, we beseech Hoo Hea-me Tajin to examine thoroughly the reasons, as before assigned, which prevent our trading, This is the reply. Taoukwang, 7th year, 12th moon, 30th day. "This reply," as Mr. Lindsay observes, set the question of trade with the Loochooans entirely at rest." The following morning the Amherst got under weigh, and the party landed at Macao, in the evening of the 5th September 1832. This expedition, therefore, as a commercial speculation, failed, a fact admitted by Mr. Lindsay himself, in his official address to the Select Committee; and we believe few persons will dispute the justice of the conclusion of the Select Committee, that "the undertaking may be considered as having failed in removing those feelings of jealousy on the part of the Chinese government which have long excluded foreigners from a more intimate connexion with China; it has, however, succeeded in effectually silencing the assertions, so boldly advanced by persons whose ignorance on this subject it has exposed, of the facilities that are experienced on the coast from a more widely extended commercial intercourse with the Chinese empire; and the merit of having substantiated the fallacy of such assertions rests with the Honourable Company." Edicts have since been issued,* which show that this voyage greatly excited the observation of the imperial court, which has evinced its determination to prohibit more strongly the resort of foreign ships to any other port than that of Canton. ARMY STATISTICS.CO bowode bas bagod no enim the Returns, showing proportional numbers of Deaths and Invalids in Jesupas ont ted 90 ior 9803891 981 the European Branch of the Indian Army. ones adran arvo liberiupol oelsed: batagin ad 2010098 of a bluon shart of Neemid orech new ad bin ban period of bre oben mot-ovinob bluovo bra of bus anbola riads Supos INDIA od ge orbscose gold Bengal Army.doides 1825 1826 17,976 774 97 379 4-7 145 Madras A Army 1808 1809 28,717 713 8:1 1815 1821 7 12,592 794 6.3 186 3 1010 1803 1823 20 895 69 7-7 1818 182003 654 184 28-1 35 5:333-4 534 20 37 24 4.5 lo8.20m For guitar a good anden gistol diw obru to nonlyger on ot See our Asiatic Intelligence in last vol. pp. 124, 145, and 231, and in our present number, + By Hen. Marshall, Esq., Dep. Insp. Gen. of Army Hospitals,-Edin. Med, Journ., No. 117. |