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The "Hyenik" was on the berth for the mid-August trip, and I took passage by her on the 18th instant. I found, however, that, despite the announcement in the Gazette that she was bound for Fusan, her agents here bad altered, at the last moment, her destination. She would, I was informed, call at Kunsan, Mokpo, and Chei-ju, but on quitting Chei-ju would proceed, not to Choa-sei Yêng and Fusan, but to Chennampo, on the Ping-yang inlet. The change, embarrassing as it might have proved, was not unwelcome, as it gave me an opportunity of again examining Chennampo, the other suggested Treaty port.
We left Chemulpo on the afternoon of the 19th instant for Kunsan. A month earlier, on the occasion of a further experimental cruise round the coast, special corre- spondents of the local Japanese newspapers, the "Kanjo Shimpo," of Seoul, and the "Shin Chosen" of Chemulpo, had accompanied the steam-ship "Hairiong." The results of their inquiries are now appearing in their respective journals, and as they represent the views of those not least interested in the Corean coast trade, I shall have frequent occasion to refer to them. Mr. Osborne, moreover, the Commissioner of Customs here, who visited Mokpo at the same time as Mr. Kodera, has kindly placed at my disposal his most useful notes.
In common with all the ports (Chemulpo hardly excepted) on the west and south coasts of Corea, Kunsan cannot be entered except by daylight. There are no lights along those coasts, or for that matter elsewhere in the peninsula. Recently, it is not clear on whose initiative, a small Japanese Government steamer has arrived in these waters, and has commenced to make note of the various points at which lighthouses or beacons should be erected. Their erection, if it is really contemplated by the Corean Govern- ment, must in any case be a matter of time, as sufficient funds for the maintenance of the forty or fifty lights which the "Shin Chosen" calculates to be needed can hardly be provided out of the present tonnage dues. The absence of lights obliged the " "Hyenik " to anchor, or at least lie-to, until daybreak before attempting to enter the successive ports. Further delay is caused on this west coast by the obligation to wait upon the tides. Kunsan cannot be approached at dead low water, while Mokpo, as will be explained, for a few days in each month, is only safely to be entered at slack water.
We anchored, then, at 1 A.M., off the mouth of the Keum Kang, North Brown Island, bearing east, and Helen Island, north-north-west. At 9-30 we weighed, as the flood was beginning to make, and steamed up the channel. Captain Benzenius, of the "Hyenik," pointed out to me, as we proceeded, certain rocks which are not marked in the Admiralty charts. Two of these are of importance, as they are close on the fairway (126° 36′ 5′′ east, 35° 59′ north). A third higher up, also on the south edge of the channel, is of less consequence, since it lies off the track, and the same may be said of a fourth on the north shore opposite Kunsan. The rock in Kunsan Harbour shown in the charts is actually some way further east, In any case, Kunsan should not be entered without a pilot or very explicit sailing directions, and it would be, even with these, a difficult harbour to navigate for vessels of any considerable size. To the north of the channel stretch mile-long sand-banks, over which the sea breaks heavily in the winter monsoon. The port itself is formed by the Keum Kang or Satin River, flowing here east to west. The river forms the boundary between the two Provinces of Ch'ung-ch'èng and Chulla, and is the waterway by which the important cities of Kong-ju in the former province and of Chên-ju in the latter are approached. Properly speaking, the town, which is on the south or Chulla shore, is a "chin" or guard-station in the Prefecture ("Kun") of Ok-ku, in the new department or county of Ch'ên-ju. It has hitherto been the residence of a "Sei-kun Ch'emsa," or naval Captain, whose public office is picturesquely situated on the top of a wooded bluff facing the river.
"The present Ch'êmsa," says the "Shin Chosen," "is, for a Corean official, not a bad fellow, and has undertaken to do his best for the regular steamers."
His office, however, is in a sad, but by no means unique, state of disrepair, "worse than many an old temple in the bills." I saw nothing of it, or him, for we only stayed long enough to land four passengers. It was high noon, and, as far as I could observe, neither the inhabitants at large nor the accommodating Ch'emsa took the slightest interest in our proceedings. This insouciance is characteristic of the Corean, in office or out.
As long as he has rice to eat, tobacco to smoke, and a "gesang" to sing to him, the Corean would rather not be troubled with trade, still less with steamers, and time-tables are a mystery and a weariness. This disposition of his, antiquated but enviable, is the great hindrance to the development of the coast trade, which, with a more vigorous race, would long ago have attained noteworthy dimensions, where both fields and waters are so prolific. It would be a mistake, however, to despair of the future of the many ports of the peninsula, especially when regard is had to the growth of Chemulpo during the
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twelve years it has been opened. Kunsan, though offering no great facilities for steamer traffic, is the port for the two most fertile provinces of Corea. At present, it is practically a storehouse for Government rice, which, until the changes of the past twelve months, had to be seut hence ou Government account in bulk to Seoul.
Some 30 miles up stream, at a point accessible by junks of 800 piculs (50 tons) burthen, is the entrepôt of Kang-Kyeng, a place even now of considerable trade. It is, it may be remarked, a noteworthy feature of Corea that all, or almost all, of her chief towns are situated some miles from the sea, so that a very imperfect idea of the commerce or population of the country could be gathered from a review of her coasts, the only access possible till two decades ago, In this lies, indeed, bope for the future prosperity of her ports, which, however unfrequented now, may be expected under favourable conditions to attract what traders there are from the inland cities to the coast. The present population of Kunsan is set down as seventy or eighty households, or some 350 souls. "The people," says the "Shin Chosen," "are mild and tractable in disposition, and submissive to foreigners, towards whom they indulge in no vituperation or abuse." The staple article of export, as has been said, is rice; other goods are screens (from Ch'ênju), fans, paper, and hempen cloth.
The next place of importance along the coast to the south of Kunsan is Pêpsêng, which is not on the list of ports visited by the regular steamers. The town is, neverthe- less, a busy centre of native trade, and a congregating place for fishermen. The auchorage, however, is bad, as there is not sufficient water for steamers to approach; the shore.
I may remark, in passing, that the anchorage is not situated off the "Popsong" of the charts, but by two islets west-south-west of Mujang. We did not visit it, but pursued our way southwards, anchoring for the night between Fire Island and the Clump group. Weigh- ing at daybreak (4·30) we reached Mokpo at 9 A.M. The course followed has only been surveyed as far as the South Tivin, and even where it has been surveyed, the charts leave certain dangers still unmarked. The approach, of which a more reliable survey has been made, that through Lyne south to the south of Mokpo Forks, I shall have occasion to refer to later. What, through ignorance of its native name and self-restraint, or failing imagination on the part of the Hydrographers, I have called "Mokpo Forks," is a narrow and deep cleft which forms the only steamier entrance to Mokpo. The south bank is the mainland, lofty hills covered with pines; the northern is an island almost equally beautiful, the larger of two which shut in the Mokpo River. The strait is only some half-mile long, and 500 yards or so in breadth, but it is the main exit for the waters of the Yong-san-kang, and the wide basin into which they empty. The tides at Mokpo, 7 miles from the Forks, rise 12 feet at springs, and all the vast body of water such a rise implies, or nearly all of it, has to find its way twice a-day through that narrow channel. The consequence is, that for some four hours for two or three days after each full and change, a current races through the Forks which a steamer of 12 knots can hardly.stem. Once through, close attention to the sailing directions of the China Sea Directory will bring the vessel by a zigzag course to Mokpo. The chief, if not the only, danger is a sboal, marked on the chart, near the northern end of the bend above the Forks, formed doubtless by the swirling of the water round the remarkable wall of cliffs opposite to the Mokpo Peninsula.
The chief feature of that peninsula is the hill of Yu-tal, 750 feet in height. Round this, as a centre, the river winds through an are of 90 degrees until, at a point some 2 miles south-east of the bill-top, it is joined by a creek from the north. At the junction of the two is the tiny walled town of Mokpo.
The accompanying sketch plan will give some idea of the surroundings of this townlet. Mokpo is built upon two boulder masses, which together must have at one time formed an island. The erstwhile island is now connected with the peninsula by two causeways, one running, roughly speaking, north from the north-west angle of the town, the other west from the south-west angle. All between these two causeways, that is, all space west of the town, but east of the mainland hills, is reclaimed or reclaimable ground, covered, as I saw it, with paddy, except that just above the southern dyke are the usual waterpools and beds of rushes. South of that dyke, which is some 300 yards long, stretches at low water a bank of mud, but at high water the whole of this is covered. The creek east of Mokpo town is a most promising element in the port, for even at low water springs it is, in the reach alongside the town, from 20 to 30 feet deep. The one drawback to Mokpo as an anchorage-a drawback it shares with all ports on the east coast--is the strength of the tide, particularly the ebb-tide. But in the creek this is less felt. Eastward of it, at low water, stretches a wide mudflat, in the middle of which are
* Not printed.
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