Sir T. Wade to Earl Granville.—(Received August 31)

(No. 51 Confidential)

My Lord, Peking, July 6, 1882

IN continuation of my earlier despatch of this date, I have the honour to inclose, confidentially, copy of Mr. Maude’s Report of his visit to Corea.
Mr. Maude himself attaches but little importance to his Report, but I think that it does him credit, and do not doubt that it will be perused with interest by your Lordship.

I have, &c.
(Signed)　　THOMAS FRANCIS WADE

Inclosure

Mr. Maude to Sir T. Wade.
(Confidential)

Sir, Peking, June 24, 1882

IN compliance with your request to be furnished with a Report on my visit to Corea with Admiral Willes, I have the honour to lay before you the following details :—
As I have already reported in my letter of the 28th ultimo, Her Majesty’s gun-boat “Sheldrake,” on board of which I left Chefoo on the 25th May for Corea, was fortunate in falling in with the Admiral’s dispatch-boat “Vigilant” off the westernmost group of islands of the Corean Archipelago. By Admiral Willes’ invitation, I at once went on board the “Vigilant,” and before noon on the same day, the 27th May, we can’t anchor about 27 miles from the capital, in what has now been called the anchorage of Jin-chuen, a part of the southern estuary of the Seoul River, which is called the district of Jin-chuen. Lying close to us were the two Chinese gun-boats, the “Wei-yuan” and the “Yang-wei,” and also a Japanese gun-boat, which had brought Mr. Hanabusa, the Japanese Envoy, to Corea a few days before. Our anchor was hardly down when an officer came alongside from the “Wei-yuan” to ask “what we wanted.” The Admiral said that he wished to see Ma Taotai, to which the officer replied that Ma Ta-jên had on the previous day gone to the capital on a visit to the King, but that he was expected back that evening. I begged the Chinese officer to say that I would have the honour, that evening, if possible, of delivering to Ma Ta-jên the letter from the Grand Secretary Li with which I was charged. In the meantime, I accompanied Admiral Willes a short distance up the river in his steam-launch. Going first to the western shore, which was about a mile from the ship, we saw that this part of the coast was or had been strongly fortified, according to the ideas of the inhabitants, for within a distance of not more than 1½ miles four or five batteries were to be counted, with five or six embrasures in each. I had not an opportunity of examining any of these works closely, as, in the only one which I approached subsequently, the guns, if there were any, were concealed from view by wooden screens; but the Admiral, on another occasion, saw some oval-bore guns in one of the forts. We did not, however, land the first day, but, after passing near the west shore, kept more to the middle of the mouth of the river, whence we had a good view of the surrounding country. All this portion of the coast appears to be hilly. To the north some higher peaks were visible, but we did not appear to be within sight of any mountain over 3,000 feet high.
The scenery of the mouth of the river is certainly picturesque. The soil seems to be a red loam, the colour of which, mixed with the bright spring foliage of small trees and underwood which grow luxuriantly on the hill-sides, made an effect which we were, perhaps, not inclined to underrate from having just come from the hideous sterility of North China.
On our way back to the “Vigilant,” we first noticed evidences of the great rise and fall of the tide on this coast, places which we had steamed over not half-an-hour before having become a mass of brown rocks, and miles of mud-flats having appeared on each side of the river.
On returning to the “Vigilant” I found that Ma Taotai had come off to his ship, and I lost no time in going to pay him a visit. Though evidently very tired by a hot journey from the capital, he begged me to tell Admiral Willes that, as soon as he had read the letter which I had brought him from Tien-tsin, he would come to see the Admiral on board the “Vigilant.” In about half-an-hour he arrived, and said that he was charmed to find that his instructions gave him the opportunity of being of service to Admiral Willes, and that we might rely on his best assistance in the negotiations with the Coreans. He said that he had been invited to pay the King a visit, otherwise he should have left immediately the American Treaty was signed, on the 22nd May. He had, however, made all his arrangements to leave the next morning, so that we had arrived exactly at the happy moment. The journey to the capital and back was the most painful he had ever made; it was very hot, and the conveyance was a Corean chair, a machine like a dog-kennel, on poles, in which, as it had no seat, the traveller is obliged to crouch or sit cross-legged; the only other alternative being a wild-looking pony, with an uncomfortable saddle.
On the following day I paid Ma Taotai another visit. He told me he had already written to the Corean Envoys, asking them to fix a day for an interview. That if Admiral Willes was ready to accept the American Treaty as it stood, he apprehended no difficulty in signing the Treaty at once. I replied that I feared it would be necessary to wait for the arrival of Mr. Spence, who was to be charged with comparing the Chinese and English texts. The only version of the Chinese which was in the Admiral’s hands was a rough translation made in a hurry at Tien-tsin, and though I understood it was Admiral Willes’ intention to adopt the terms of the American Treaty in substance, it would be more satisfactory to us that our text should be carefully drawn up by an experienced sinologue, who would be responsible for the English and Chinese agreeing accurately. Ma Ta-jên replied that he quite understood the desirability of our text being carefully drawn up, but that he would give me a copy of the English text of the America Treaty, which he could guarantee to be an exact translation of the Chinese.
This document only differed from the translation of the Chinese draft Treaty made at Tien-tsin in that the first Article, respecting the dependency of Corea on China, was omitted and that a clause was inserted in Article VIII prohibiting the export of breadstuffs from Jin-chuen.
The first alteration was made owing to Commodore Shufeldt objecting to the question being raised in the Treaty, and an arrangement was made by which the King of Corea wrote a letter to the President of the United States explaining his relations with China, which, however, had nothing to do with his relations with foreign Powers. The insertion of the stipulation respecting the non-exportation of rice from Jin-chuen was a compromise. The Coreans proposed to prohibit the exportation of bread-stuffs from all the open ports, but they were persuaded at last to agree to limit the permanent prohibition to Jin-chuen, the port nearest to the capital, where in case of famine the greatest distress would be felt.
Admiral Willes being anxious to know whether the King of Corea would receive him, I begged Ma Taotai to sound the Corean Envoys. He said he would be happy to do so, but he did not seem to think a visit to the capital would be feasible. He proceeded to say that, though the King of Corea was an autocratic Ruler—the Government being “une espèce de féodalité”—and though the Sovereign himself was convinced of the necessity of entering into relations with the outside world, he stood almost alone of his family in holding this opinion. There was a strong anti-foreign party in Corea, which had not yet given up the struggle to maintain the old system of isolation.
In consequence, the Envoys were unwilling to do anything, or encourage any demands which might be taken advantage of to their detriment by their adversaries of the anti-foreign party. “To give you an instance,” said Ma Taotai, “of their timidity, I was invited to pay the Plenipotentiaries a visit at the village in which they are living, about 3 miles inland, and took with me Captain Clayson (an Englishman, Naval Instructor in the Chinese service). No sooner did they notice his presence than they became evidently disturbed, and even when told that he was in Chinese employ were not reassured, but said they feared they had compromised themselves by receiving him.”
Whether this picture of the state of Corean feeling was quite accurate, I had, of course, no means of judging, but I took its intention to be to deter the Admiral from making any demands beyond the American Treaty, which would be sure to protract the negotiation.
Ma Taotai's description of the country was that it was very fertile but ill-cultivated. The capital, he said, contained 350,000 inhabitants, a statement which I ventured to doubt, the more so when he estimated the population of Corea at 30,000,000, whereas all other accounts agree in putting it at between 8,000,000 and 10,000,000 at most.
With regard to industries he did not seem to have much information. On arriving in Seoul he had been conducted to the apartments provided for him, and was given to understand that, should he wish to buy anything, it would be sent for, but that he could not go out to get anything. His chief purchases had been books, but he had been unsuccessful in trying to get a copy of a History of Corea, which be knew existed, and he attributed this to the suspicious timidity of the Coreans. What had most surprised Ma Ta-jên was the demeanour of the Corean Court. In a purely Oriental country he had never heard of a throne surrounded with so little of ceremony or restraints. He had been entertained at the Palace as at a family party. The King moved about and talked with every one. His age is a little over 30, and he has one son, an intelligent boy. The Crown is not strictly hereditary, but, as in China and Japan, the Sovereign chooses his successor from the Royal family.
During the two or three days which elapsed between our arrival and the visit of the Corean Envoys, we paid frequent visits to the shore, and Admiral Willes gave it as his opinion that, owing to the great rise and fall of the tide (30 feet), which would oblige ships to anchor at a distance of a mile and a half or more from the shore, it was impossible ever to expect to open a port with any success at Jin-chuen. He was therefore inclined to insert a clause in the Treaty providing for the opening of another port on the west coast, if a suitable harbour could be found. I was asked to speak to Ma Taotai in on the subject. He said he believed it would be useless to ask for such a concession from the Coreans. The Japanese were going, he believed, to open the port of Jin-chuen in the autumn. They were probably negotiating on the subject at Seoul at that moment. The Coreans would not be at all pleased to be asked for another port, as they thought they had given too much in having allowed the Japanese to select Jin-chuen as a port. On my relating to Admiral Willes what Ma Ta-jên had said, he abandoned the idea of making such a demand, and quite coincided with the latter’s view that, the Treaty being only for five years, nothing would be lost by not making an effort to obtain an advantage which, as the capabilities of the country were quite unknown, would be more than doubtful.
The Admiral was, however, anxious to arrive at an understanding on three points. He wished to have the ports named; to provide for visits of the fleet to Corean waters; and to have permission granted that the coast might be at once surveyed by a British vessel. I therefore, at Admiral Willes’ request, drew up a draft, copy of which I have the honour to inclose, of three Supplementary Articles to the Treaty, which the Admiral proposed to ask the Coreans to sign. I was indebted to Ma Taotai for the form of the IInd and IIIrd Articles. The form of Article II I had taken form Article III of the Treaty of Tien-tsin, 1858, but, at his suggestion, the law of nations was quoted in support of our demand. The last provision, respecting the survey, which was the most important of all, would, Ma Taotai said, be much more easily agreed to by the Coreans if it was put in exactly the same terms as Article VII of the Treaty between Corea and Japan of 1876. At Ma Ta-jên’s suggestion. the draft was sent to the Corean Plenipotentiaries, with a covering letter merely saying that the Admiral desired to arrive at an understanding on the points raised in it. The reply of the Corean Envoys, which was only handed in on the day the Treaty was signed, though Ma Taotai had previously informed the Admiral of its sense, I shall refer to further on.
At the interview which took place on board the “Vigilant” four days after our arrival between the Admiral and the Corean Envoys, Ma Taotai acting as interpreter, it was agreed that the terms of the Treaty between Corea and the United States should be accepted for our Treaty, and that immediately on the arrival of Mr. Spence, who was then expected in a day or two, the Admiral should pay the Plenipotentiaries a return visit at the village in which they were living, and arrange to sign the Treaty at an early date.
The two Corean Plenipotentiaries, Tsao-Ling-Hsien and Ching-Hung-Chi, were accompanied by another official, whom I understood to hold the position of an Under-Secretary of State in the Government, and two interpreters. These last, though they were brought to talk Chinese, could not converse with Ma Taotai, and, in fact, soon left the Admiral’s cabin and the restraints of business for the congenial occupation of exploring the ship. With the exception of the two Plenipotentiaries, who, in their manners, resembled educated Chinese, none of the Coreans whom we saw seemed to stand on any ceremony with strangers or with one another, the Under-Secretary of State going to sleep during the interview on board, and only being aroused by receiving a kick which the interpreter rose to administer.
The preliminaries as to signing the Treaty being arranged, there was nothing to be done but to await the arrival of Her Majesty’s ship “Swift,” which was to bring Mr. Spence from Shanghae. During the next few days I went on shore several times, more often on the island to the west of the anchorage called in the French survey “Teung Tchong.” The natives always received us with a rough good humour, which found expression in shouts and slaps on the back. They seemed entirely devoid of the natural politeness of the Japanese or the studied ceremoniousness of the Chinese. But, unlike the latter, the Coreans never appeared the least timid, even the smallest children coming out boldly to stare at and touch the foreigner. Their greatest peculiarity seemed to be the jealousy with which the women are secluded. At no time, as far as I know, did any one on board our ships see a woman or girl on shore, and though, when we were walking, we occasionally saw figures precipitately retreating to the houses at the warning signal of a man who always preceded us, we were never close enough to guess to what sex they belonged. Ma Taotai even told me that in his visit to the capital he had not been able to perceive a single woman among the crowds which surrounded him.
The only thing which appears necessary to make the country very productive is more industry in the people. The crops we saw, though only sown in patches, were very promising; they consisted of barley, rye, and rice. The inhabitants, however, seem satisfied to live in their mud cabins in a very primitive way, and their chief occupation, like that of the Irish peasantry, seemed to be smoking. Though rough in manners, the ordinary people whom we met were far better educated than the same class in China, for they could write and read Chinese. My servant, a Pekingese, who was the only interpreter we possessed, and who carried on conversation with them in writing, generally found his stock of knowledge of characters not equal to theirs. In appearance, the Coreans that we saw were generally well built and tall; there is a great diversity of type, however. Sometimes we saw men with finely-cut features, others resembled more the Japanese, and others, again, looked like the Chinese of the North; nearly all were dark, but at least once or twice I saw a man with grey eyes and regular features of the purest Caucasian type.
With regard to the state of native industries in Corea, it would be presumptuous in me to set up an opinion. I may mention however one or two facts, which had me to believe that the idea I have heard universally expressed that there exists nothing worthy in the name of manufactures in the country to be exaggerated. Corean paper, as is well known, is of excellent quality, and even with the present small encouragement given to trade, is much used in China. The Corean hat, the most characteristic part of the national costume, is beautifully made of woven strips of bamboo, covered with light cotton or silk gauze. Though it must be as inconvenient a headdress as could well be imagined, the ingenuity of the workmanship might well be turned to account in other directions. Among the better dressed inhabitants white leather shoes are very commonly worn; these are extremely well made, apparently of fine deerskin; they have leather soles, studded with nails which resemble exactly those put into shooting-boots at home; both leather and nails are of much superior manufacture to anything I have seen in China, and, as far as I know, they are not Japanese exports. The dwelling-houses which we saw were for the most part mere hovels, with mud walls and thatch roofs, but we occasionally came on a house built of rough stones and brick, with a tile roof; there was, however, evidence of the use of stone for monuments. I observed near graves the two stone pillars with carved capitals which often in China are placed at the entrance to tombs, and also some square blocks of what appeared to be marble set up as grave-stones. On one occasion we came upon a small building resembling a Chinese mortuary temple, inside of which was an upright square pillar about 4 feet high, apparently of cast-iron; it was covered with Chinese characters in relief, and my Chinese servant, who professed to read them, pronounced it to be a mortuary tablet; as it stood near the road, with no bank or inclosure round it, I was inclined to suppose it was a complimentary monument.
Never having had an opportunity of entering a dwelling-house, I can say nothing as to the materials to be found there. Any cups or basins which we saw were of the coarsest earthenware; but on one occasion, when we were hospitably entertained by a village official in an open shed in his yamên, the wine-bottle and cups with which we were served were apparently of Japanese porcelain.
Several days elapsed, and nothing having been heard or seen of Her Majesty’s ship “Swift,” Admiral Willes began to fear that something had occurred to detain Mr. Spence. On the 5th June Ma Taotai and Admiral Ting, who was flying his flag on board the “Wei-yuan,” had invited the Admiral, Captain Lindsay, of the “Vigilant,” Captain Hoskyn, of Her Majesty’s ship “Flying Fish,” and Mr. Perry, the Admiral’s Secretary, and myself to dine on board the Chinese gun-boat. While we were at dinner the French gun-boat “Lutin” arrived, and dropped anchor. A note almost immediately came on board from M. Dillon, the French Consul at Tien-tsin, who had come in the “Lutin,” saying that he should be glad to pay Ma Taotai a visit. It was then that Admiral Willes, fearing that the French negotiations might interfere with ours, and seeing the impossibility of ascertaining whether Mr. Spence was coming or not, told Ma Taotai, in answer to the latter’s inquiry whether he thought it necessary to wait for Mr. Spence any longer, that he would be happy to rely on his (Ma’s) assurance that the Chinese text was in strict accordance with the English, and that he would sign the Treaty the next day.
Owing to the regrettable absence of Mr. Spence’s assistance, it was impossible to alter the language of the American Treaty without risk of departing from the sense of the Chinese, and the phraseology of the English text of Commodore Shufeldt’s Treaty was adopted throughout.
The Corean Plenipotentiaries proposed to meet Admiral Willes in a tent near the beach at 4 o’clock on Tuesday the 6th June. At the appointed time the Admiral, accompanied by most of the officers of Her Majesty’s ship “Vigilant,” and some of those from Her Majesty’s ships “Flying Fish” and “Sheldrake,” together with myself, went on shore, and were conveyed in chairs to the tent. We were there received by the Plenipotentiaries, who immediately conducted the Admiral to the centre one of five large wooden sentry-boxes, which were placed fronting the entrance. In each box was room for three persons, and we were all invited to walk into them. It did not appear, however, that we were required to stay inside, as, the ceremony of introducing us over, the Corean Plenipotentiaries walked away. We therefore came out and stood or sat in the tent.
Within a short time Ma Taotai and Admiral Ting appeared, accompanied by Captain Clayson, and, after a little delay, the ceremony of signing and sealing the Treaty was gone through. The Corean Plenipotentiaries then handed over to Admiral Willes the letter from the King of Corea to the Queen, and also their reply to the Admiral’s note on the subject of the supplementary understanding. Admiral Willes said a few words, expressing a hope that the negotiations just brought to a satisfactory conclusion by the signing of a Treaty between Great Britain and Corea might be the beginning of a long and friendly intercourse between the two countries. Ma Taotai communicated the Admiral’s speech to the Corean Plenipotentiaries in writing, who replied in suitable and cordial language; and we then took leave of them and returned as we came. The Admiral, who intended to leave for Nagasaki at daybreak next morning, also said good-bye to Ma Taotai and Admiral Ting.
Admiral Willes, I know, quite appreciates the valuable assistance which he received from Ma Taotai in negotiating with the Coreans. But I must take this opportunity of stating my conviction that if the termination be considered satisfactory, it is mainly to Ma Ta-jên’s ready and able intermediation to which the success will be due. To his good offices I attribute the concession which we obtained to be allowed to survey the coasts, really, perhaps, at this moment the most valuable of any obtainable, and one which, as I shall have occasion to show further on, Commodore Shufeldt gave up as unobtainable. In taking leave of Ma Ta-jên, I had good reason to thank him on my own account for his courtesy and kindness to myself.
At Admiral Willes’ invitation, I accompanied him to Nagasaki in the “Vigilant,” the only other alternative being to have stayed at Jin-chuen on board the “Sheldrake,” which was to remain there till the arrival of Her Majesty’s ship “Swift,” and then take Mr. Spence back to Shanghae, should he arrive in her. Events proved that by going with the Admiral to Nagasaki I took the quickest route to return by.
We left the anchorage at daybreak, and at 8 A.M. sighted a vessel, which was at first supposed to be the “Swift,” but which turned out to be Her Majesty’s ship “Kestrel,” coming from Japan with Mr. Aston, Her Majesty’s Consul at Kobé, who had been sent by Sir Harry Parkes to be of assistance to the Admiral if possible. Mr. Aston, who has studied Corean, and is one of the few authorities on the country, was also accompanied by a Corean interpreter, and it was disappointing both to him and to us that he should have arrived too late. He, however, went on in the “Kestrel” as far as Jin-chuen to pay a short visit to the coast.
On the 9th June the “Vigilant” got to Nagasaki, and the next morning, as he was leaving at once to rejoin the fleet, I took leave of Admiral Willes, after thanking him for the kindness and hospitality which I had enjoyed on board the “Vigilant” for a fortnight.
MR.Hall, Her Majesty’s Acting Consul at Nagasaki, made a translation of the note from the Corean Plenipotentiaries in reply to Admiral Willes’ note inclosing the Protocol, and he called my attention to the fact that no answer was given to the first point respecting the names of the ports. Learning this after the Admiral had left, I wrote to him to remind him that Ma Taotai, in telling us the contents of the note which we afterwards received, had said that it was understood that the ports were those open to the Japanese, though, at the time, it did not occur to me that he meant to say there was no answer in the note to this point. The omission does not appear of any great moment, as the ports of Gensan and Fusan, being open to the Japanese, would naturally come under the head of ports open to foreigners, and the port of Jin-chuen, which has not yet been opened, is expressly denominated an open port in Article VIII in the clause prohibiting the export of rice.
Hearing that Commodore Shufeldt was in Nagasaki, I went to call on him. In conversation about his visit to Corea I asked him why the ports had not been named in the American Treaty. He said he had thought it better to leave it to be inferred that the ports were those open to the Japanese. He had heard that the Coreans were anxious about having allowed the Japanese to fix on Jin-chuen, but the Japanese had no intention of giving it up. I asked about the survey of the coast. He said he had desired to put an Article in the Treaty providing for it. This had, however, been met with opposition and suspicion by the Coreans, and he had relinquished it. I may mention, in confirmation of what Commodore Shufeldt said about Jin-chuen, that the Captain of the Japanese Government mail-steamer, in which I crossed to Shanghae, told me he had been told he would have to go with his ship to Jin-chuen at some time in the summer, as he said, “to show her to the Coreans.”
In closing this account of my proceedings, I must apologize for venturing to offer crude observations on a place and population which will soon be visited by able critics.

I have, &c.
(Signed)　　C.T. Maude