withdrew to report. It was decided that as the flag had been fired upon, an immediate attack was necessary in order to uphold the honour of the American Republic. A considerable force was sent against the little fort; the party landed, made its way across some very rough ground and stormed the place at the point of the bayonet. The Koreans fought with desperation, and every one of them fell at his post. Their ammunition gave out, but they caught up gravel in their fists and threw it into the faces of the Americans. The fort was taken, and the honour of the flag was vindicated with the loss of a single American officer. The victorious party then withdrew ; and as it was now manifestly impossible to effect a friendly settlement of the matter, and the force at his command was utterly inadequate to accomplish anything decisive, the whole fleet sailed away. The regent cared little for the loss of a few earthworks on Kang-wha. Even if the Americans had overrun the peninsula and yet had not unseated the King, their final withdrawal would have left the government in the firm belief that the foreigners had been whipped. The approach of American gunboats up to the very " Gibraltar of Korea " was taken by the regent as a declaration of war, and the loss of the little garrison on Kang-wha was but a small price to pay for their exultation upon seeing the American vessels hull down in the Yellow Sea. The regent immediately caused the erection of a monument in the centre of Seoul, on which were carved anathemas against anyone who should ever propose peace with any Western power.
But in the interval the great awakening had taken place in Japan, and a new force was launched upon the troubled seas of Oriental politics. In the first flush of this wonderful dawn of modern Japan, the people who had steered the ship of state into that desired haven fancied that a similar success might be achieved in Korea, and an envoy was sent by way of Fusan, where still existed the Japanese trading-station, to see what could be done in Seoul. This was Hanabusa, and he succeeded in getting into communication with the Queen's party. It must
