Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1882-09-14

Inc conclusion of a treaty between
United States and sCorea adds an
otner TO the peaceful successes of Ameri
can diplomacy in the far East. Nearly
tnirEy years ago the American Commo
G0ES Kerry, overcoming obstacles which
.a0 oAHed almost every European ma
aona, and without firing shot :or leay.
ING sll-feelipg behind, succeeded in
opening Jspan, to foreign intercourse.
Eour years later Mr.. Townsend Harris.
ne. American Envoy, from the seclusion
u ms legation at Shimoda, without the
moral" support of a single gunboat,
negotiated the treaty with the Japanese,
winch has been the model for all the
treaties made up to the present moment
with the people. Two years ago Com
modore Schufelt, in the course of a
cruise round the world in the United
states wal: vessel Ticonderoga, called
INTO one of the Corean harbors with a
letter for the King, expressing the de-.
sre OF the President for treaty of
amlty and commerce. Leaving this
document, he departed as peacefully as
ne had arrived. When the Coreans had
had ample time to digest his request and
20 consult their suzerain, the Emperor
Of China, the Commodore returned
alone, and after few months stay in
North China, wendell his way to the
United States to obtain the ratification
OF treaty in which the King of Corea
expresses sshis earnest desire to estab-
lush relations between the two countries
on permanent and friendly footing,
and to facilitate commercial inter
course.n The sssolid substratum OF
force" on which distinguished English
dlpiomatist said our relations with Eas.
tern counties must alone rest has been
conspicuous all through the American
officers negotiations only by its alb.
sence.
The history of European intercourse
with the inhabitants of the little penin-
sula in Northeastern China is brief and
melancholy. The touching story of the
crew Of the Dutch vessel wrecked on
the Island of Quelpaert in the middle of
the seventeenth century, who were de-
tanned among the Coreans for more
than thirty years, as told by their ssSec-
retary," will be found in the pages of
"Pinkerton," and need not be further
referred to here. It was not until the
treaty of Tien-tsin had opened North
China and Manchuria to the zeal of
Roman Catholic missionaries that Corea
was ag ain visited by Europeans. The
Jesuit fathers seem to have made their
way there about 1S62-63. We have now
only their own accounts of what took
place.. Their efforts to make converts
were, they say, crowned with success
for few years. But in 1865 commenced
persecution unparalleled even in the
frightful annals of religious persecution
in the East. 1t is said that $4,000 Co.
reans. men,. women and children, lost
their lives on this occasion. Of the
French priests, four alone escaped in
disguise and assisted by some of the
faithful of their flock. An attempt was
made by the French feet in the China
seas to take vengeance for this slaugh-
ter, bat it was unsuccessful. Until the
history of modern Corea is studied by
our. scholars in the native works them
selves, we can not correctly ascertain
the cause of this persecution. Meantime,
the student of the history of other
Oriental nations who finds analogous
events will probably look for analogous
causes. a 5
The subsequent attempts of the
Jesuits to cross the Corean frontier, and
the success that attended them, will be
found recorded in the annals of the
Etrangeres. Mgr. Ridel,
who evaded the frontier guards and en-
tered the country in 1878, has left us an
trated Corea, he tells us, in the hope of
attaining the crown of martyrdom. In
this he was disappointed, for ne was
promptly discovered and imprisoned, to
be released few months afterward at
the intercession of the Governments of
China and, Japan. But tens of thousands
of wretched Coreans, who were sup
posed to be tainted with Christianity,
suffered death, many of them with the
most horrible torture, because of this
pentleman's ambition to be a martyr.
An American naval expedition sent to
punish an outrage on ship which
sailed up one of the Corean rivers met
with little more success than its French
In 1868 steamer manned
BY American and European filibusters
set out from Shanghai to rob the tombs
Of the Coreau Kings, either for the sake
Of the gold collins in which Mendez
Pinto SAYS they were inclosed, or be-
cause the Jesuits reported that the body
Of dead King could be held for almost
any ransom. In 1860 Ignatieff, then
1USSl8u REPRESENTATIVE dG L Ohihs
advantage of the Chinese difficulties
With England and France, obtained the
.ession of vast tract of Corean terri
tory lying in the Amour region.
These are few of the salient points
IN the history of Corean intercourse
With the civilized nations of the West,
snd it hardly seems a matter for great
surprise that Corea should have prefer
red exclusion to more intercourse of
his description. Nor is it difficult to
believe the tales told by Japanese trav-
,lers of pillars erected over the whole
country calling down a curse on the |
head of him who should first propose |
with the hated foreigner. |
Political considerations have ultimately |
prevailed. Chinese and Japanese states |
1ien have long been persuaded that the
,nly chance of preserving Corea from
absorption into Russia and their own |
countries from a standing rnenance was
o open ito foreign intercourse. Fol-
owing their counsels, Corea has now