further encroachment. The efforts of the local officials were, however, of little avail, and by the middle of September, in addition to the colony at Yong-an-po, the settlement at Yong-chyön had increased to one hundred and twenty-eight Chinese huts, with thirteen hundred Chinese, seventy Russians, and twenty tents. Complaints of the high-handed action of the Russians in appropriating the property of the Koreans to their own needs began to arrive in Seoul, and on September 13th came the information that a telegraph line had again been laid between Yong-an-po and the lumber concession on the Yalu. Coupled with the intelligence of this renewed activity was additional, and much more disquieting, information. The Russians had constructed on the elevated ground about the Tu-ryu Harbour a high watch-tower, and were preparing emplacements for three batteries of field artillery. Meanwhile, however, as a counter demonstration to the movement of a company of five hundred Russians under two officers, on October 23rd, who had crossed the Tumen River into Korean territory by night, a Japanese warship dropped anchor in the estuary of the Yalu, in close proximity to Yong-an-po.
I make no apology to my readers for giving in this detailed fashion the history of this little Russian concession. As a chapter of contemporary history I cannot think that my words are of any value, but there are doubtless many who, like myself, prefer to begin in the beginning, and so slowly trace through the developments of any question. In respect of Russian action on the Yalu, therefore, I have endeavoured to do this.
Note.—An-tung is known also as Sha-ho; the Yalu River is known also as the Am-nok River.
