Manila-men a descent was made on the Korean coast and the locality of the tomb reached. The earth was removed from the mound, but the sarcophagus was found to be too strong for the shovels and other instruments carried by the workmen. On the return of the armed party to the vessel, one of the crew captured a calf, and was carrying it away when he was attacked by the natives and a general conflict followed, resulting in the loss of some of the crew and the killing of a number of the Koreans. This action defeated the object of the expedition and the party returned to Shanghai, where Mr. Seward caused the arrest and trial of Jenkins, on the charge of fitting out a hostile expedition. He was acquitted upon a Scotch verdict of "not proven," but Mr. Seward states that there was no question of his guilty connection with the disgraceful affair.[1]
Just before the massacre of the French and native Christians in 1866 a Russian man-of-war appeared off Gensan, a port on the eastern side of the peninsula, and demanded the right to trade, but the request was refused. In 1869 the German minister to Japan made a visit to the Japanese settlement at Fusan, and sought through a Japanese, whom he had brought on his ship, to open negotiations; but the Korean authorities not only refused to receive the proposals, but threatened to break off all relations with the Japanese settlement if the effort was persisted in; whereupon the minister quietly returned to his post at Tokio.
- ↑ U. S. Dip. Cor. 1868, pt. i. 548; For. Rel. 1870, p. 337; Griffis's Corea, chap xlv.
