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three islands, joined together by what appear to be natural dykes. North of Mokpo town is a fourth islet, round the east of which the creek winds. Between the creek and the town lies a short stretch of hard mud, only just covered at high water, and therefore easily reclaimable. Across this extend at three points irregular lines of boulders, that form natural, but not altogether efficient or comfortable, jetties.
Mokpo in its present condition, however, has little use for jetties. The river on which it stands is the main artery of trade for Chulla-do, but the trade so far has passed Mokpo by; 20 miles up stream is a mart variously known as Sa-ho-kang, Sa-ho-chin, or Sa-po, which serves as a distributing centre for Na-ju (the chief town of southern Chulla-do, 40 miles from Mokpo), Nam-p'yeng (50 miles), Kwang-ja (60 miles), and Neung-ju. From this place the river boats bring down rice, cotton, fans, raw silk, paper, and grass-cloth; but these goods are not landed at Mokpo, where there are no godowns or storehouses, as at Kunsan. The boats remain moored in the stream, and discharge their cargoes into sea-going craft direct. The officials in charge of them-the rice has hitherto been mainly on Government account-might, perhaps, spend the night ashore, but that would be all the interest Mokpo town has hitherto had in their proceedings.
It does not, however, follow from this that Mokpo will not make a good Treaty port. On the contrary, it has a very great deal to recommend it. It is only 7 miles from the sea, and, except for the occasional race in the Forks, is easily accessible at all states of the tide to ocean steamers; it is well sheltered, particularly on the north-west, while the creek and mudflats afford all that will be necessary for junk trade. It will be easy and compa- ratively inexpensive to construct a bund on the western edge of the creek, alongside which lighters could at all times discharge, and to widen, should it prove necessary, the creek itself. The rice-fields once filled in would supply sufficient level space for business premises for many years, and the rising ground surrounding them to the north and west would provide at the same time material for such filling in and desirable sites for resi- dences. It may be that higher up the river an equally good position exists, but the pre- sumption is against it. It is true that the launch of Her Majesty's ship "Flying Fish," in 1883, proceeded for some 10 miles in this direction, finding 8 fathoms or more the whole way, but that equal alongshore facilities are wanted would seem established by the fact that it is Mokpo, and no other spot on the river, that was selected by the Japanese authorities, who are in the best position to decide, for the proposed open port. There can be no ques- tion, in any case, as to the desirability of opening some port on this river. Chulla is in normal times the richest province in Corea and its chief granary, while Na-ju and the neighbourhood are reputed to be the richest districts in Chulla. The archipelago that fringes its coast is renowned for its sea products, fish of all kinds, sea-weed, sharks' fins, and the like, and for these Mokpo forms a convenient centre for collection, better than Pêpsông, because it is approachable by ocean-going vessels, and better than any place higher up the Yong-san River, because it is nearer to the sea. The opening of Mokpo would have, at first at any rate, a prejudicial effect on the trade of Fusan, and even, but to a less extent, on that of Chemulpo. This is recognized by the Japanese merchants at Fusan, who have been agitating against its opening. They endeavoured to get the Japanese Chamber of Commerce at Chemulpo to join them, but the latter very wisely refused, on the ground that though the local interests of Japanese at the two present ports might seem to be for the moment threatened, the trade of Japan itself with Corea as a whole would largely benefit.
I have described the condition of Mokpo as favourable to the formation of a general foreign Settlement. It appears, however, that an attempt has been made on the part of private speculators to buy up, in advance of the anticipated opening of the port, all the available land. This was freely stated on the occasion of Mr. Osborne's visit, and two months later the correspondent of the Shin Chosen" writes (30th July): “The report that the ground said to be available for a Settlement on the opening of the port has been bought up is really true." This ground, he says, comprises all the level fields, and he adds that the extension of the town hill on the south-east side has been marked out as a site for the future Customs establishment. I, myself, noticed on the hill to the north of the paddy-fields stakes with the inscription (to give the hieroglyphs their Japanese sounds) "Tai-tsu Shagwai Kichi," or "Site of the Tadong Association." The speculators appear to be all Japanese, and it is needless to say that in face of the Treaties restricting land purchase to the Treaty ports, and the 10 li (3-mile) radius round them, the transaction is entirely illegal, and cannot, it is presumed, be recognized by the Corean Government or the foreign Representatives. To indorse it would be to put all but the speculators When Mokpo at a disadvantage so great as to mean practical exclusion from the port. is about to be opened an area for a general foreign Settlement should, I would suggest, be marked out by the Corean Government and the foreign Representatives, no exclusive
privileges being allowed to any individual or nationality. The Settlement area should then be divided into suitable lots, aud these lots should be put up to auction on a date of which not less than one month's notice should be given in the Gazette. The precise limits of the Settlement area would naturally be a matter of consideration between the Representatives and the Government, but the space should, think, include the whole of the present town, the fields and foreshore to the north and west, and, at any rate, the southern and eastern slopes of the hills behind them. The portion of the city hill south of the wall, and the foreshore east of it, might be reserved for Customs purposes. It is here, as I have said, that the present rough landing-places are situated, and no better place could be found for their more commodious successors.
The little town of Mokpo contains between 40 and 50 families, or between 200 or 250 inhabitants. These live in thatched hovels with mud-floors, and can hardly be said to have any trade; at any rate, there were no shops to be seen. They subsist by husbandry and fishing. The town wall is from 8 to 10 feet high, overgrown, when I saw it, with wild creepers and gourds. Gourds were everywhere, sprawling over the thatched roofs and bushes of purple hibiscus. The streets of the miniature town are only a yard or two in width, and looked and felt like the dried bed of some shelving mountain stream, Indeed, the permanent features of the town (the gourds will be all water-scoops by winter) might be summed up as "boulders and burrows," so stony and narrow are the streets, and so low and dark the houses. On the north the town runs up to the edge of an almost sheer descent of over 50 feet. Here under shelter of the wall is a small grass-grown space approached by a covered archway; below this space-the use of which I had not time to learn-lies on the cast the residence of the local official. He is, or perhaps it would now be more correct to say was, a "Manhu," or Lieutenant, under the old system. He was still in office when my predecessors of the local press arrived, and the "Shin Chosen " describes hun, with some acerbity, as "a dullard close on 50, ignorant of the world, and unable to grasp the main points of any topic discussed." The poor man bad left before my arrival, and it is to be presumed that no successor will be appointed-none at any rate with his obsolescent title. Under the latest rearrangement, Mokpo forms part of the Prefecture ("Kun") of Mu-an, in the Department of Na-ju. When it has been opened as a
Treaty port it is probable that the precedent set at Wönsan will be followed, and the Prefect ("Kun-su") of Mu-an will be directed to reside at Mokpo.
The foreshore north of the "Manhu's" Yamên will form in time to come an excellent business site, for it abuts on the creek, navigable here all along its eastern face, and it is skirted by the road that runs northward to Mu-an. Behind it are hills on which The residences can be built, and in which are the wells that supply the town with water. lower slopes of the hills are cultivated, and were covered with flourishing crops of cotton, tobacco, inaize, and other cereals. There are not many trees except in and about the town, and on the headland I have provisionally called Pine Point. Among these hills are to be found in their season abundance of pheasants, and, farther inland, tigers, panthers, and other dangerous game, while the flats abound with duck and geese. On the whole, Mokpo as a place of residence and settlement shows not less promise than Mokpo as a seaport, and it is to be hoped, and indeed confidently expected, that in not many years from its day of opening it will become one of the principal places of trade in Corea, situated as it is near the centre of a circle on whose circumference lie Chefoo, Chemulpo, Nagasaki, and Shanghae.
We left Mokpo at 3 P.M., and passing out of the Forks steered south-west by south down Lyne Sound through a maze of lovely islets, some cultivated, all, or nearly all, green with grass and trees. No more delightful place for a cruise in the bright summer weather could be found in Corea, and the southern approaches to Mokpo may challenge comparison with the inland sea of Japan or the Chusan archipelago. We met several fishing craft, all apparently Corean, though this used to be, and doubtless again will be, a favourite fishing ground of the Chinese, as it still is of the Japanese. Lying well in shore under Chindo was a Russian man-of-war, with most of her boats out. Some few miles further south, ou the westernmost point of the mainland, a white flag was flying with a single horizontal red stripe. This we assumed to be a Japanese surveying post, for the white marks of a survey are to be seen on the rocks all about the archipelago.
We were bound for Chei-ju, the "North City" of the Quelpart charts, and, as it is not safe to approach the island in the dark, slowed down at nightfall. Quelpart possesses no harbours, for that to the east, Beaufort anchorage, between U-do (“Ox Island") and the shore, hardly deserves the name, Should a north wind spring up, a vessel riding at anchor off Chei-ju must in many cases run to So-au-do (Creighton Harbour), or to Ku-men-do (Port Hamilton). So it was in the grey dawn that I first saw Quelpart. Sir Edward Belcher, of the Royal, Navy, whose officers surveyed its coasts in 1845, declares
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