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that "its general appearance, as viewed from the sea, is inviting, there being a pleasant variety of hill and dale, and on the northern and eastern sides much cleared land, cultiva- tion rising probably to the level of 2,000 feet. Above this, all appears to be buried in thick forests of pines and other northern trees, even to the highest peak, Mount Auck- land, 6,558 feet above the level of the sea." As I saw it, however, 3 miles out to sea, and just before sunrise, the appearance of the great island was weird and gloomy in the extreme, a repellent contrast to the smiling archipelago I had left the night before. There among the islets is indeed "a pleasant variety," the peaks are frayed into a thousand shapes, and flushed with red sandstone where they are not green with grass. Here the land rose smoothly from the sea like the back of a monstrous cachalot studded with huge bosses, grey cones that seemed like ghosts of, what in truth they are, dead craters. Over Mount Auckland, whose mass might have broken the spell of this gruesome procession, hung a thick pall of clouds. The island, in its silence and awesomeness, appeared indeed such as we imagine to be at closer quarters, the scenery of the moon.
It was not till I got ashore that the irrational horror began to lift. Quelpart is in fact of volcanic formation, and the cliffs along which we were skirting are formed of masses of black lava. It is in an opening in these cliffs, some 600 yards wide, that the city of Chei-ju fronts the sea. Why it was built there became more apparent as we drew near the shore in the ship's boat. At first nothing could be seen but a forbidding beach of lava pebbles, on which the surf was breaking. Guided by the people on shore we steered for the east end of the beach, where the stones had been cleared out at the mouth of a stream and a rough bund built up. The tide had not risen sufficiently to lift our boat over the bar of pebbles until she was lightened of her passengers, who were carried ashore on the islanders' shoulders. We then observed that the stream, protected from the sea by its natural breakwater of pebbles, formed a small boat harbour, in which lay a few fishing craft, among them one Japanese with two men aboard. I was taken into the city to call on the Chief Magistrate, a friendly crowd at our heels. Our way led us past the boat harbour, creek, lagoon, or whatever it should be called, westward to the city wall. Chei-ju claims to be 1,900 years old, but was restored and reorganized only two or three centuries back. The wall looks worthy of the earlier date, so grey is it, and overgrown in parts with
that have thickened into wood. The gates are remarkable. The arch creepers is not more than 12 feet high or broad, and the two leaves of the gates do not fill the whole space, squared off as they are at top. The wall, the houses, the streets, are built of lava, and this, though it makes Chei-ju a gloomy city to the eye, at least keeps it comparatively clean for the feet. The shops, such as I saw, and I think I was traversing the main street, were equally novel to me. They appear as so many cupboards, as it were, 4 feet, or little more, in depth and breadth, and 6 to 7 feet high, opening on to the street through the usual Corean window space. There can be room for only two persons in the shop, and the purchaser, I presume, negotiates from the street.
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The public offices of Chei-ju open on to the market-place, through which a flagged causeway runs. The market, they told me, is held six times a-month. On the north of the square is the Yamun proper, displaying over its gateway the legend "Tan-la Pro- cheng-sa T'an-la "
(pronounced Talla), was the old name of Quelpart when, some 600 years ago, it was an independent kingdom, and governed by a Queen.
To this day, indeed, the islanders are regarded by the Coreans as foreigners. Under the system prevailing till the present year, Quelpart was governed by a "Moksa," or Prefect (literally, a pastor), residing at Chei-ju, with a "Kunsu," or Warden, at Chêng-wi, and a Hyên- kam," or District Magistrate, at Tai-chêng. All these officials were under the orders of the Governor of Chulla-do. Since the Reformation, Quelpart has become an independent county or department, and a "Koanchalsa," or Governor, has been appointed. Pending his arrival the former "Moksa" is acting in his stead, and it was to call on this official that I was being taken. He received me, not in the Yamun proper, but in a compound on the other (the south) side of the market-place. As I entered he rose and bowed, then immediately reseated himself, cross-legged, on a small square mat covered with green cloth. I sat down on the only article of furniture that at all suggested a seat, a kind of wooden grating to his right, elevated some 8 inches from the floor. The " Hyenik's linguist meanwhile knelt on a mat in front of the "Moksa," and handed over the despatches he had brought from Seoul; for the "Hyenik" had conveyed to Quelpart six persons under sentence of banishment, two for ten years, the others for life. These men were said to have been concerned in the murder of Kim Hak-o, Vice-Minister of Justice, last September. Their sentence, which, under the new rules, should also involve hard labour, seemed to trouble them little, as they made no secret of their expectation that another turn of the political wheel would shortly release them.
Kim Hak-o, by the way, was at one time for some eight months purser of the "Hyenik," and Captain Benzenius
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described him as an accomplished linguist, who spoke Japanese, Chinese, and Russian, and had visited Tôkið and St. Petersburgh.
The "Moksa" read his despatches and talked to me, puffing the while at his long pipe, which, with its polished brass ash-tray and the inseparable brass commode, lay handy at his side. He insisted on my sharing his breakfast, and three of the little octagonal tables were brought in (the third was for the linguist) loaded with vermicelli, bêche-de- mer, and pickled vegetables, inscrutably acrid. "Sul" (Corean spirit) was served, hot as in China, and the "Moksa" emptied three cups in our honour. I can, however, indorse the remarks of the "Shin Chosen's" correspondent, to whom he showed himself equally hospitable: "He was in appearance studiously simple, self-possessed, and amiable, with the air of a gentleman." His secretaries, who stood in a semi-circle facing him, but behind us, were dressed in the old camisole of light blue or purple; indeed, I only observed one Corean at Chei-ju who wore the regulation outer coat of black. The "Moksa's" own garment was of dark grey, and he had on the old-fashioned amber hat string with a jade side button. The room in which we sat was bare of everything but the articles I have described and an old halbert in one corner; opening out of it, in full view, was the "Moksa's" bed-room, with the usual bed-mat and small oblong pillow, pile of books, and crossed paper slips at the bed-head for memoranda. The doors to the courtyard were wide open, and were crowded with an assortment of very orderly natives. When I came out I found my Chinese servant surrounded by some dozens of them, his face beaming with satisfaction. He confided to me that the disposition of the islanders was equally friendly with that of the inhabitants of Ping-yang, whither he had accompanied Mr. Osborne last June. My brief experience pointed the same way, but perhaps I shone in the reflected light of the "big country' man. On the other hand, the Japanese press men affirm that the people are not well behaved, and received them on their landing with abuse. This, they say, is due to the harsh treatment of the natives by Japanese fisher- men, who have indeed nearly driven the Quelpart fishers from their own seas. I was told that the Awabi shell-fisheries were chiefly worked by women, who at times used to dive for pearls; and that on one occasion at least their seclusion was invaded by Japanese, and a fight ensued, in which some of the latter were killed. The Quelpart women shy of strangers than their sisters at Chemulpo and Seoul, old traditions lingering longer in this unfrequented corner.
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Quitting the Moksa's " Yamên, I turned north to the city wall to see if the clouds had lifted from Mount Auckland. That giant, for such he is among Quelpart hills, is known locally as Han-la San (read Halla), and abundant traditions cluster round him. The "Moksa" told me that not more than one or two in 10,000 would have courage to ascend to his top, and other Coreans declared that of those who had in times past done so, the few who returned came down in a tempest of thunder and rain. It was possible, the "Moksa said, in answer to my question, that a European might escape these influences, but I do not think he quite relished my proposal to come back later and try. The mountain is evidently the principal crater of the rolcanic system that has raised this island, and from what glimpses I could catch of his summit, and the reports of those who, like Captain Benzenius, had circumnavigated the island, there should be little natural difficulties in climbing his sloping sides. The woods with which they are clad would probably be the chief hindrance, and the superstitious fears of the people.
I went along the eastern wall of the city, accompanied by my Chinaman and a dozen or so of volunteer guides, youths of 15 or 16 for the most part, whose hats proclaimed them already married. The wall is very picturesque in parts, reminding me of the city ramparts of Wênchow in China. The mountain stream, whose embouchure forms the boat harbour, approaches the wall at this side down a wooded ravine, and passes through it in a double arch. Near the south-east corner is a kiosque, whose chief glory, according to my guides, is a slab bearing the four words, "Snowy north, fragrant south," written, as they proudly informed me, by the hand of Kim Chêng-hui, better known by his nom de plume of Ch'u-sa ("the Autumn Author "), a calligraphist of the first half of this century, whose renown penetrated even to China. From the wail I had a good view of the neighbouring fields, if such they can be called, for they grow to all appearance little else but lava. A melancholy but not unmusical singing induced me to look over at one point, where a row of women were weeding a field in time to the chant. My guides did not quite approve my curiosity, for the reason, as far as I could gather, that the weeders were of the other--for really in this case it could hardly be called the fair-sex. Quelpart of late years has not been self-supporting. Even in good seasons, says the "Shin Chosen," 2,000 bags of rice have to be shipped thither from the mainland, while in famine time 5,000 bags or more must be sent. His fellow-pressman remarks, with admirable candour,
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