Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1882-08-30

: Corea, anchoring three days afterwart
i in the Sale River, west Coast of Corea
and finding there before him thre
! Chinese and one japanese man-of-war
one of the former having on boarc
Ma Taotai, who had been appointed
/ by Ii Hung Chang as an intermedi
arv in the negotiation of the treaty.
On the 14th two commissioners
appointed by the King, visited th'
ship, attended by a numerous suite
As they came on board a mandarin:
salute of three guns was fired in thell
honor. The senior of the two com
missioners was very old man, Shir
Chen, president of the royal Cabinet o
Corea. Although, as far as | coult
see, be was perfectly courteous he ap
peared to me as though he did mo-
think much of making treaties and q:
if he might be mentally consigning u:
all to-any place but Corea. His
tottering footsteps, supported by his
son at one elbow and grandson at the
other, and his long, white beard
made him, as he ought to have been
the most CONSPICUOUS member of The
party. His complexion was much
lighter than that of the Chinese and
the general expression of his face
pleasing, Notwithstanding the look Of
impatience which often passed over it
He was dressed in long, flowing
wide sleeved robe of white brocade
gauze, with an under robe of pink
silk showing through His hat and
belt were his ensignia of Office and
they were unique. The former was Of
finely woven horse hair, oonical In
shape and having eliptical-shaped
wings standing out on each side. The
belt was square and stood away out
from the body in front and behind.
1t was made in sections of polished
moss agate on dark blue ground.
His manner of saluting as he come on
board and as | afterward found to be
the manner among the people, was by
raising the hands and bringing them
together before the face. The second
of the commissioners was very young,
only twenty five, and his round,
beardless face was strikingly in con-
trast to that of his chief. His card
pronounced him Chin Hung Use,
Member of the Royal Cabinet. He
was short and stout and had a very
bright, intelligent face. His dress
differed in no respect from that of the
old man, except that it was of differ
ent colors and that his belt was of red
diamond shaped stones on an amber
ground.
The third in rank of our visitors
was the Court Chamberlain, and he
was to me the most interesting one of
the party. He was tall, slender,
saturnine looking man of about forty,
whose perfect non-chalance among so
much that must have been new and
startling to him would have done him
credit in any society in the world.
He evinced none of the eager curiosity
that rather detracted from the dignity
OF the others, and with his regular
features and olive complexion would
either have escaped notice or been
taken for Spaniard had he been
dressed by fashionable tailor and
dropped in a New York salon.
All of the party except the two
commissioners were of good height,
and with compilations that were as
nearly as possible mean betwe en-
those of the Caucasian and Mongo-
liam. Their eyes were of different
degrees of obliquity, some being as
slanting as those of the Chinese, while
Others were nearly If not quite straight
Their profiles were much more prom
inent than those Of the Chinese, some
aquiline noses even being observed,
never, l believe, found among the
Chinese.
While the commissioners were in
the cabin one of the servants who re-
mained lettering about outside ad-
dressed the officer of the deck in
pigeon English informing him that he
had spent several years in Vladivos-
tok and that he spoke Russian well.
He proved very communicative,
ans @ering all Of our questions freely
and, as I afterward had some reason to
believe, falsely. His name, he said,
was Mitri.
After the reception in the cabin,
where the conversation was carried or
in Chinese, several of the Coreans
speaking that language huently, the
crew was sent to quarters at the beat
of the drum and short exercise hac
for their amusement with the eight
inch rifle, blank charge being free
from it. As they left the ship another
salute Of three guns was fired in thei
honor.
On the day following this visit, per
mission haying been granted, severa
of US landed on a small rocky island nea
the ship from the summit of which w
expected to get good view of tn
I surrounding country. We climbed a
once to the top and were amply re
warded for our exertions, for the view
was one the prettiest imaginable. ST
or eight hundred feet below us lay
little fishing village, whose existenc
was until now unsuspected by u
Gas it lay on the opposite side of th
island from the ship, with Ion
curving white beach before it, O
which the receeding tide had left thre
OF four OF their curious looking junk
Beyond and separated from the islam
bv narrow arm of the river lay th
forbidden country" and forbidding il
deed it did look at first glance, wit
it's long yellow hills which seemed
meet in maze in the horizon but
closer inspection revealed well trodde
paths leading up the valleys, with hel
and there a clearing, surrounded b
, fields of waving grain and rice paddle
, and near each we could see the stra
,, thatched roofs of the houses gleamin
: through the surrounding itrees in tt
: midday sun. On our left was Il
5 river, which disappeared in the di