1st of September.—This morning at daylight the land of Corea was seen in the eastern quarter. Having stood towards it, we were at nine o'clock near three high islands, differing in appearance from the country we had left, being wooded to the top, and cultivated in the lower parts, but not in horizontal terraces as at the places we had last visited in China. We proceeded to the southward of the group, and anchored in a fine bay at the distance of two or three miles from the southern island. Shortly after anchoring, a boat came from the shore with five or six natives, who stopped, when within fifty yards of the brig, and looking at us with an air of curiosity and distrust, paid no attention to the signs which were made to induce them to come alongside. They expressed no alarm when we went to them in our boat; and on our rowing towards the shore, followed us till we landed near a village. The inhabitants came in a body to meet us, forming an odd assemblage, different in many respects from any thing we had seen; their colour was a deep copper, and their appearance forbidding, and somewhat savage. Some men, who appeared to be superior to the rest, were distinguished by a hat, the brim of which was nearly three feet in diameter, and the crown, which was about nine inches high, and scarcely large enough to admit the top of the head, was shaped like a sugar-loaf with the end cut off. The texture of this strange hat is of a fine open work like the dragon-fly's wing; it appears to be made of horse-hair varnished over, and is fastened under the chin by a band strung with large beads, mostly black and white, but occasionally red or yellow. Some of the elderly men wore stiff gauze caps over their hair, which was formed into a high conical knot on the top of the head. Their dress consisted of loose wide trowsers, and a sort of frock reaching nearly to the knee, made of a coarse open grass cloth, and on their feet neat straw sandals. They were of the middle size, remarkably well made, and robust looking. At first they expressed some surprise on examining our clothes, but afterwards took very little interest in any thing belonging to us. Their chief anxiety was to get rid of us as soon as possible. This they expressed in a manner too obvious to be mistaken; for, on our wishing to enter the village, they first made motions for us to go the other way; and when we persevered, they took us rudely by the arms and pushed us off. Being very desirous to conciliate them, we shewed no impatience at this treatment; but our forbearance had no effect; and after a number of vain attempts to make ourselves understood, we went away not much pleased at their behaviour. A Chinese[1], who accompanied us, was of no use, for he could not read what the Coreans wrote for him, though in the Chinese character; and of their spoken language he did not understand a word.
On leaving these unsociable villagers, we went to the top of the highest peak on the island, the ascent being easy by a winding foot-path. From this elevation we saw a number of islands to the eastward, and the main land at a great distance beyond them. The top of the hill being covered with soft grass and sweet-smelling shrubs, and the air, which had been of a suffocating heat below, being here cool and refreshing, we were tempted to sit down to our pic-nic dinner. We returned by the other side of the hill; but there being no path, and the surface rocky and steep, and covered with a thick brushwood, we were not a little scratched and bruised before we reached a road which runs along the north face of the hill about midway. By following this, we came to a spot from whence we were enabled to look down upon the village, without being ourselves perceived by the natives. The women, who had deserted the village on our landing, had now returned; most of them were beating rice in wooden mortars, and they had all children tied on their backs. On a sudden they quitted their work and ran off to their huts, like rabbits in a warren; and in a few minutes we saw one of the ship's boats row round the point of land adjacent to the village, which explained the cause of their alarm. After remaining for some time in expectation of seeing the women again, we came down to the village, which the natives now permitted us to pass through. On this occasion one of the gentlemen of our party saw, for an instant, a woman at no great distance, whose feet he declared were of the natural size, and not cramped as in China. The village consists of forty houses rudely constructed of reeds plaistered with mud, the roofs are of all shapes, and badly thatched with reeds and straw, tied down by straw ropes. These huts are not disposed in streets, but are scattered about without order, and without any neatness, or cleanliness, and the spaces between them are occupied by piles of dirt and pools of muddy water. The valley in which this comfortless village is situated is, however, pretty enough, though not wooded; the hills forming it are of an irregular shape, and covered at top with grass and sweet-scented flowers; the lower parts are cultivated with millet, buckwheat, a kind of French bean, and tobacco, which last grows in great quantity; and here and there is a young oak-tree.
We saw bullocks and poultry, but the natives would not exchange them for our money, or for any thing we had to offer. They refused dollars when offered as a present, and, indeed, appeared to set no value upon any thing we shewed them, except wine glasses; but even these they were unwilling to receive. One of the head men appeared particularly pleased with a glass, which, after a good deal of persuasion, he accepted, but, in about five minutes after, he, and another man to whom a tumbler had been given, came back and insisted upon returning the presents; and then, without waiting for further persuasion, returned to the village, leaving with us only one man, who, as soon as all the rest were out of sight, accepted one of the glasses with much eagerness.
These people have a proud sort of carriage, with an air of composure and indifference about them, and an absence of curiosity which struck us as being very remarkable. Sometimes when we succeeded, by dint of signs and drawings, in expressing the nature of a question, they treated it with derision and insolence. On one occasion, being anxious to buy a clumsy sort of rake made of reeds, which appeared to me curious, I succeeded in explaining my wish to the owner, one of the lowest class of villagers; he laughed at first good humouredly, but immediately afterwards seized the rake which was in my hand, and gave it a rude push towards me with a disdainful fling of the arm, accompanying this gesticulation by words, which seemed to imply a desire to give any thing upon condition of our going away. One man expressed the general wish for our departure, by holding up a piece of paper like a sail, and then blowing upon it in the direction of the wind, at the same time pointing to the ships, thereby denoting that the wind was fair, and that we had only to set sail and leave the island. Several of the people were marked with the small-pox. The children kept out of our reach at first, but before we went away, their fears had, in some degree, subsided, for the boys, who, from their feminine appearance, were mistaken at first for girls, accompanied us to some distance from the village.
Captain Maxwell named these islands Sir James Hall's group, in compliment to the President of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. They lie in longitude 124º 46' E. and latitude 37º 50' N.
At eight o'clock in the evening we weighed and stood to the southward, but as the coast was quite unknown, we kept rather off shore during the night, and in the morning no land was in sight. On the 2d we stood to the eastward, but not having daylight enough to get in with the coast, it became necessary to anchor for the night, though in deep water.
3d of September.—Having reached nearly lat. 36-1/3 N. and long. 126 E. we sailed this morning amongst a range of islands extending as far as the eye could reach, both to the southward and northward, at the distance of six or seven leagues from the main land. By two o'clock we were close to the outer cluster of the islands, and the passages appearing clear between them, we sailed through and anchored inside. While passing one of these islands in the ships, at no great distance, it looked so curiously formed, that, on anchoring, we went in the boats to examine its structure more minutely[2]. While we were thus engaged, the natives had assembled in a crowd on the edge of the cliff above us; they did not seem pleased with our occupation of breaking their rocks, for, from the moment we landed, they never ceased to indicate by shouts, screams, and all kinds of gesticulations, that the sooner we quitted the island the better; the cliff being 200 feet high, and nearly perpendicular, it was fortunate for us that they confined themselves to signs and clamour, and did not think of enforcing their wishes by a shower of stones.
As soon as we had completed our investigation of this spot, we went round in the boats to a small bay where there was good landing. Here we were met by the natives, who addressed several long speeches to us in a very loud tone of voice; to which we replied in English, that our wish was merely to look at the island, without interfering with any body; at the same time we proceeded up a foot-path to the brow of a hill. This the natives did not seem at all to relish, and they made use of a sign which was sufficiently expressive of their anxiety, though we could not determine exactly to whom it referred. They drew their fans across their own throats, and sometimes across ours, as if to signify that our going on would lead to heads being cut off; but whether they or we were to be the sufferers was not apparent. It was suggested by one of our party that they dreaded being called to account by their own chiefs for permitting us to land. All these signs, however, did not prevent our advancing till we had reached the brow of the hill to which the path led; from this place we had a view of a village at the distance of half a mile, of a much better appearance than that above described. Trees were interspersed among the houses, which were pleasantly situated at the bottom of a little cove, with fishing-boats at anchor near it. We explained readily enough that our wish was to go to the village, but it was all in vain, for their anxiety increased every moment, and we desisted from any further attempts to advance.
The dress of these people is a loose white robe, cloth shoes, and a few wear the broad hats before described; by most the hair is tied in a high conical knot on the top of the head, but by others it is allowed to fly loose, so as to give them a wild appearance. Some confine the short hair by a small gauze band with a star on one side, forming, along with the top knot, rather a becoming head-dress. Their beards and whiskers which, apparently, had never been cut, and their fans and long tobacco-pipes, and their strange language and manners, gave a grotesque air to the whole group, which it is impossible to describe. They crowded about us, and, by repeated shouts, manifested their surprise at the form and texture of our clothes; but on a watch being shewn, they disregarded every thing else, and entreated to be allowed to examine it closely. It was evidently the first they had seen, and some of them while watching the second-hand, looked as if they thought it alive. From the watch they proceeded to examine the seals and keys; with the former they shewed themselves acquainted by pressing them on their hands, so as to cause an impression. Their attention was drawn away from the watch by our firing a musket, which made the whole party fall back several paces.
After amusing ourselves in this manner for some time, we walked back to the boats, to the great joy of the natives, who encouraged us by all means to hasten our departure. They took our hands and helped us over the slippery stones on the beach; and, on perceiving one of the boats aground, several of them stript and jumped into the water to push her off. This gave us an opportunity of observing their remarkable symmetry and firmness of limb; yet, as their long hair was allowed to flow about their neck and shoulders, their appearance was truly savage. During this visit we saw no women; but the children came round us without shewing any symptoms of fear. The people, upon the whole, are more free, and not so surly as our acquaintance on Sir James Hall's group. They have a singular custom of speaking with a loud tone, amounting almost to a shout. Captain Maxwell named this island after Dr. Hutton the geologist.