similar Korean embassies had come centuries before, with great display of barbaric splendor, the ambassador being borne on a platform covered with tiger skins, and resting on the shoulders of eight men, with a servant bearing an umbrella of state over his head. During his stay in Japan he resisted all attempts of foreigners, officials or others, to have any intercourse with him. The treaty was rather a renewal of the ancient relations, than a manifestation of any disposition to open the country to foreign intercourse.[1]
Encouraged, however, by the success of the Japanese, various European nations continued their efforts to communicate with the government at Seoul. A British vessel was wrecked on the island of Quelpart in 1878, and the Koreans rescued the crew, salved the cargo, provided transportation for both to Nagasaki, and refused to accept any compensation for their services. Taking advantage of this event, the British secretary of legation at Tokio was sent in a British naval vessel, ostensibly to make formal acknowledgment of this worthy conduct, but with instructions to establish permanent intercourse with the Korean authorities, if possible; but his mission to that end was a failure.
Other attempts followed in 1880 and 1881. Russian, British, and French naval vessels touched at different ports, and sought to communicate with the authorities
- ↑ Leading Men of Japan, by Charles Lanman, New York, 1883, pp. 356–386; Griffis's Corea, 420–423; U. S. For. Rel. 1876, pp. 370, 376; Gundry's China, 244; Problems of the Far East, by George N. Curzon, 1896, p. 191.
