About the end of the 16th century, it appears the Japanese invaded and overran Corea, but were driven out again by the natives, assisted by the Mantchew Tartars. The latter, at this time, attempted to compel the Coreans to cut off their hair, and alter their dress; but this occasioned a general revolt, which was only appeased by the Tartars yielding their point*.

The law against intercourse with foreigners appears to be enforced with the utmost rigour †. At one of the islands to the north, where we first landed, a Corean, in an unguarded moment, accepted a button which had attracted his attention; but soon after, as the boats were shoving off, he ran down into the water, and insisted on restoring it,

*The Chinese, in a similar case, evinced a very different kind of spirit. An empire consisting, according to their own returns, of three hundred and thirty millions, tamely permitted a handful of Tartars to shave their heads and dress them as they thought proper.

It is said that the crew of a Dutch vessel, a considerable time since wrecked on the eastern coast, were detained in slavery for nineteen years, without being heard of, when some of them managed to get away.

at the same time (by way of reparation for his fault,) pushing the boat with all his might away from the beach. On almost all occasions they positively refused every thing offered to them.

His Corean majesty may well be styled "king of ten thousand isles," but his supposed continental dominions have been very much circumscribed by our visit to his shores. Except in the late and present embassies, no ships had ever penetrated into the Yellow Sea; the Lion kept the coast of China aboard only, and neither touched at the Tartar or Corean side. Cook, Pérouse, Broughton, and others, had well defined the bounds on the eastern coast of this country, but the western had hitherto been laid down on the charts from imagination only, the main land being from a hundred to a hundred and thirty miles farther to the eastward than these charts led us to believe.

The Jesuits, therefore, must have taken the coast of Corea from report, and not from observation, for their chart is most incorrect, and by no means corresponds with

It has been already

their usual accuracy. observed that the Chinese written characters have found their way here; but they would appear to be confined to the literati, for the common language has no resemblance in sound to the colloquial dialect of China.

F

CHAPTER III.

Arrival at the Island of Grand Lewchew-our kind Reception by the Natives-with some Account of the History, general Character and Manners of this singular People-Remarks on the Climate and Produce of the Island.

ON the 10th we got under weigh and proceeded on our voyage, standing through the south passage, and made sail to the southward, (giving the name of Lyra to an island which bore east of Alceste's about ten or twelve leagues, and distant nearly the same north-westerly from Quelpart). On the 11th, sounded in forty-nine fathoms muddy bottom, in lat, 31° 42′ N., long. 126° 30′ E. On the morning of the 13th we made Sulphur Island, an active volcano, situated in lat. 27° 56′ N., long. 128° 11′

E.

Whilst yet at a great distance, we

TO CHINA, COREA, AND LEWCHEW.

67

We

could observe volumes of smoke at short
intervals bursting from its crater.
hove-to for some time under its lee, in front
of a horrid chasm, from whence the smoke
issued, but found it impossible to land, as
there was much wind and swell, and the
surf broke with tremendous violence around
its base. The island, which does not appear
above four or five miles in circumference,
rises precipitous from the sea, except in
one or two spots; and its height must be
considerable, judging from the distance we
saw it, perhaps 1,200 feet. The sulphur-
ous smell emitted, even when two or three
miles off, was very strong *. One end of
the island displayed strata of a brilliant red-
coloured earth, which had been noticed
before on some part of the Corean main.
One would almost be induced to believe
that the mercury and sulphur, so abundant
in these regions, had combined to give this

* A few families are placed here, at certain periods of the year, to collect the sulphur emitted by this volcano, which forms a considerable branch of revenue to the king of the Lewchew slands.