This brook flows from a spring which bubbles up in the top of the mountain, so that any garrison stationed there need never surrender for want of water, nor indeed of food, for after a steep ascent of about a mile, the path suddenly pierces the rocks, and entering a picturesque gate in a more picturesque wall, all hung with ivy, dips into a verdant valley surrounded on all sides by lofty barriers of rock. Here are fertile fields where food can easily be raised and stored against an evil time.
Some of our missionaries often come here, and spend the hot and unhealthy summer weeks among the cool shades of these lofty rocks—in some of the Buddhist temples. There are some delightful little pavilions, near clear, cool pools of water, with scenery on all sides very wild, beautiful, and picturesque.
At that time, in the history of our mission nearly every foreigner possessed a horse, most of them Chinese ponies, very gentle and easy to ride. Utterly unacquainted with the nature of the people, it was feared by many that danger might suddenly arise, and that we ought to have means of escape at hand. We found them very useful and pleasant accessories, and often when the hot afternoon sun was low we explored some of the pretty and interesting surroundings of Seoul.
This city lies encircled by low mountains, whose treeless and bare outlines cut the blue horizon with a bold abruptness. Among the hills and mountain passes are pretty woods and groves—and here lies nestled many a little hamlet, entered through some charming lane, bordered with blossoming bushes of clematis, eglantine, hawthorn or syringa, in richest profusion. Mr. Underwood was often my guide on these excursions; sometimes we walked on the city wall, and saw the distant mountains and the sleeping villages beneath us, bathed in glorious moonlight, and thanked God for casting our lives in a land of so much beauty and among a people so kindly and teachable.
THE GREAT MARKET AT CHEENJU
SURROUNDINGS OF SEOUL. [PAGE 32]
During all these months and the following winter foundations were still busily laying, language helps and Bible translations were under way, and through hospital and school, as well as by direct evangelistic effort, people were being reached. The number of attendants upon the services in the little chapel was daily increasing, and reports came from the natives working in the country of inquirers and converts there, which made it seem necessary to make another extended trip as soon as possible. A second trip had already been made by Mr. Underwood, selling books and simple medicines, and gathering in here and there a little handful of converts. He met with great encouragement, but baptized few. During his first trip he traveled to the northern border of Korea, stopping in all the large towns, Songdo, Anju, Pyeng Yang, Kangai, Haiju, Ouiju. During the entire year less than twenty-five were baptized, and from the first altogether up to that time hardly fifty, while Methodists and Presbyterians together up to 1889 numbered only a little over one hundred. In April of 1888 he baptized seven men at Sorai, a village in Whang Hai, where the Gospel had been brought in from China by a Mr. Saw Sang Hyen, a convert of Mr. Ross’. Some of these men had come to the capital in the spring of 1887 and three had been baptized after careful examination.
The seven who were received in their own village had been for more than a year in preparation, and then were baptized only after Mr. Underwood had spent ten days in their village, talking with and examining them. This is mentioned to show that extreme caution was used in making the first admissions to the native church, in order that its foundations might be laid securely, if slowly. In the trip made in November, 1888, certain Koreans had been placed in a few localities to instruct, sell tracts and pave the way for the work of the foreigner on a succeeding visit. One of these men was stationed at Pyeng Yang, one at Chang Yun, and one at Ouiju. Extremely encouraging, but in some cases exaggerated reports came from all these places as to the increasing number of hopeful inquirers, and it seemed imperative that a trip should be taken as soon as spring opened, for the examination, encouragement and instruction of these new believers, and to oversee the work of the employed agents, who were necessarily unproved as yet.