In Eastern Seas Part 15

The "Foxhound," outside, was signalled to repair to Hong Kong, and the "Zephyr" ordered up to take her place. The "Foxhound" has shewn herself to be a most indifferent sailer and steamer, and not at all suited as a handy auxiliary to the squadron.

July 5th.--Four years in commission to-day! Are we ever to hear anything of our relief? I think we shall be preparing for eventualities if we meditate a serious study of the Chinese and kindred languages to fit us for an indefinite stay in the far east. Have they forgotten us at home?

On the pa.s.sage to Hakodadi the "Cleopatra" and "Curacoa" each lost a poor fellow, of cholera. Thus it is evident had we not cleared out of Yokohama when we did the epidemic might have taken alarming hold on the squadron.

We have left Hakodadi, and are now cruising up the gulf of Tartary to as far north as our first year's round. Pa.s.sing by Dui we braced sharp up, encountering, with double reefs, a strong wind and heavy sea for the sixty miles stretch across to Castries bay, making that anchorage in a dense fog. Hence we recrossed to Dui, coaled, and continued southward to Barracouta harbour. For the future this anchorage will possess a melancholy interest for the "Cleopatra;" for, a day before sailing, the squadron was startled to hear that a shocking and fatal occurrence had happened to an officer of that s.h.i.+p, who was unfortunately shot through the inadvertent discharge of a fowlingpiece. He was an officer much beloved by the s.h.i.+p's company.

August 12th.--A day's sail from Vladivostock we fell in with the "Champion," one of the "Curacoa" cla.s.s. I suppose, from her appearance, black must be the uniform of the Pacific station, a color which looks confessedly proper and s.h.i.+p-shape, but one which our admiral will not allow on any account.

On arriving at Vladivostock, sc.r.a.ping operations were commenced on her, and by the following morning early her crew had greeted us with "Good-bye, 'Jumbo,'" which they had erased in great straggling letters along one broadside.

Our last mails, brought up by the "Zephyr," have narrowly escaped total destruction--at least such might have been the fate of one of them; for the steamer conveying it to Yokohama struck on a rock in the Inland Seas, and foundered--the mails being immersed for so long a period that when our letters reached us they were reduced to what Sala would call an "epistolary pulp." But no news came of the "Audacious," only what the poor mothers and wives say.

August 24th.--For the first time during our already long commission we are about to make an acquaintance with the "hermit kingdom"--that, I believe, is what one writer calls Corea. j.a.pan has for a number of years held a sort of _quasi_ intercourse with this country, and has even gone so far as to send an emba.s.sy to the court at Seoul, and to establish two or three settlements along the coast within the last two years. But the Coreans, taking their cue from their suzerain, China, have ever looked with a jealous eye on the j.a.panese and any other foreign relations.

However, China's Bismarck, the astute Li-hung-Chang, has recently altered his tactics, and is now as anxious that Corea should enter into the community of nations as he was before, that it should stand outside; thus, when our admiral, at the beginning of the recent treaty, solicited the prime minister's aid it was readily given; for, argued he, what Corea, concedes to foreigners surely China has a right to demand.

Since we have been on this station two countries have attempted to enter into treaty relations with Corea--the "Vittor Pinani," for Italy, in 1880, and Commodore Shufeldt, for America, in the "Ticonderego," in the same year; but both, I believe, have resulted in failure--the first because, instead of the Italians calling China to their aid, they relied too much on the mediations of j.a.pan, a nation whom the Coreans mortally detest: and the second because, though Li-hung-Chang was the medium, Corea, whilst admitting her inferiority to China, claimed equality with America, or with any other of the great civilized powers.

Of course no European nation is willing to concede so much; hence, for the present, that treaty is annulled. It remains to be seen if ours is a more honorable one or not.

At present Corea is in a state bordering on anarchy. Sundry rumours have reached us recently of some disturbance south. So far as I am able to glean, this is what is actually occurring. The late king dying without issue, his adopted son, the present king, ascended the throne. During his minority his father acted as regent--a position the latter found to suit him so well that, by-and-by, when his son became of age he refused to abdicate the throne in favor of its lawful occupant, threw off all semblance of allegiance, and a.s.sumed a high-handed and arrogant bearing, especially exhibited towards the queen and her family, with whom the regent was at bitter feud. To compa.s.s their destruction was then his first care, and he openly declared to the mutinous palace guard that their grievances would not be redressed until they had compa.s.sed the queen's death. He even suggested to them how they were to set about it--nay, even offered to aid them. On a certain night during last July, and according to previous arrangement, the soldiers repaired to the palace, shouting "the queen, death to the queen." That innocent lady, turning to her unnatural father-in-law, asked what the shouting meant and what the people wanted of her? and he, pretending to advise her for her good, told her that rather than live to be outraged by the soldiers it was better she should die by her own hand, at the same time placing a cup of poison before her, which she in her extremity actually drank, sharing it with her son's wife, a girl only eleven years old. The king was compelled to seek safety in flight, and according to last accounts is still in hiding.

The regent, now left master of the situation, next turned the people against the j.a.panese emba.s.sy, of whom there were twenty-eight in all.

The subsequent adventures of this little band of brave men reads more like a page of a romance than a fact of to-day's occurrence. After fighting their way through immense odds--crossing rivers in open boats amidst flights of stones and arrows--lying down to rest, to find themselves, on awaking, surrounded by a revengeful and infuriated people--they at length reached the sh.o.r.e to find no junk or vessel of sufficient size to convey them across the narrow sea to their own country. Driven to face their enemies on the very verge of the ocean, they eventually succeeded in retreating to some small boats--in which, wounded and bleeding, but all alive, they confided themselves to the sea, as being more merciful than their relentless and cruel foe. All this, I say, savours of the romantic. Fortunately for the poor worn-out voyagers help was at hand, for soon H.M.S. "Flying Fish" hove in sight, on board which they were kindly received, and brought to Nagasaki.

These stirring events have actually occurred whilst we have been lying quietly at anchor, in Gen San and Chosan. Under such a state of affairs, who shall predict the fate of Admiral Willes' treaty?

I trust I may be pardoned for being thus prolix; but surely, we who are actually on the scene of events ought not to be more ignorant of what is going on in our immediate neighbourhood than our friends who are so many thousands of miles removed from it.

I cannot say much of the Coreans, for, in the first place, the usual sources of information are almost silent on the subject, there being about only one reliable English work on Corea; and secondly we have no means, had we the desire, to study this people, who are so jealous of their women that they wont allow you to approach within a mile of their dwellings. On one occasion I remember I sought, for the purposes of this present narrative, to set aside this prohibition, and feigning ignorance of it I penetrated to the outskirts of a village, when half-a-dozen big fellows rus.h.i.+ng up to me, and gesticulating, I thought it advisable to "boom off." However, I saw what I had ventured thus far to see, notwithstanding--one of their women; but I am afraid an ugly specimen of the s.e.x. So far does this feeling prevail that they would not permit even our admiral's lady to satisfy a woman's curiosity about women; though the chief of the village did condescend to allow her to sit beside him on his mat, and even went so far as to offer her a _smoke of his pipe_.

One of the accounts of their origin is peculiar. A certain beautiful G.o.ddess once descended from the celestial regions and sojourned in Corea. But it would appear that she left her hat behind, for shortly after arrival she received a sun-stroke, which caused her to lay an egg of abnormal size, out of which there stepped--minerva-like--a full blown Corean of gigantic stature. This young fellow, in one of his incursions into the mountains, one day returned to his mamma with a beautiful white-skinned maid whom he had picked up in a fairy bower. His mother was not at all pleased--so the story goes--with this maid of earth, and made it so hot for her that in a fit of rage the son, whom she had hatched with such tender solicitude, slew her. Remorseful at the deed, he swore that henceforth a similar misfortune should never again occur to any man; hence the seclusion of the women. I need scarcely add that from this stalwart first Corean and his pale bride all the present race is descended.

The mandarin at Gen San came on board, attended with great ceremony--flags, banners, pennons, soldiers, and trumpeters, in boat loads; the latter gentlemen being furnished with bra.s.s instruments, such as angels are usually depicted with, but which can be made to shut up like a telescope to vary the music. The men are certainly a fine race--tall and upright as an arrow, and rather intelligent looking than otherwise. They wear long coa.r.s.ely-fabricated, white cotton garments, split up behind, in front and on the hips--all tails in fact; but the great national peculiarity seems to be the hats, some made of bamboo, others of horse hair, of very delicate net or gauze work, and shaped like a reversed flower pot with a rim attached. Its purpose cannot be to keep the head warm, to protect it from the rain, or to answer any other purpose to which a hat may be applied: for instance you could not get a drink of water by means of it, nor would it serve as a pillow. The ordinary color of these hats is black, but in consequence of the queen's demise they now don a white one--white being, as in China, the symbol of mourning. Some who cannot afford, or have not the inclination, to purchase a white one, paste a patch of white paper over the crown of the black one which answers the purpose just as well.

They betray a weakness for rum, and a knowledge of the vessels in which it is usually issued on board a man-of-war, scarcely credited of a people who have so few means of acquiring such familiarity. But so it is, and if noses can be accepted as indices of truth in such matters, something stronger than water has been used in tinting them.

The soldiers of the party presented the appearance of guys, rather than men of "fight." What do you say to a mixed uniform of pink and light blue glazed calico, over dingy under-garments of impossible a.n.a.lysis, and a mushroom hat of the coa.r.s.est felt, with the distinguis.h.i.+ng red horse hair attached to the crown; wooden shot and powder pouches of the roughest and rudest make slung across the shoulders by a piece of thin cord? And such shot! irregular pellets of raw iron and lead, of which all I can say is that dying by such help would be far from an aesthetic operation. And yet these same soldiers, as a mere pastime, are employed in a service which requires no mean bravery. When not fighting the two-legged enemies of their country, they are engaged waging war against the four-legged ones, their land being infested with tigers of great size and strength.

In the evening the local mandarin sent a present of fruits, fowls, eggs, vegetables, and a pig, to the admiral. "Dennis," however, made a terrible fuss at the prospect of being converted into a toothsome dish for the sailors, and sent up such a squeal, in choicest pig-Corean--piercing, prolonged, torturing--that the band was compelled to cease, in the midst of the most pathetic part of "_La Traviata_," out of respect of his superior music.

As the ladies of this country are for ever immured within the four mud walls of their houses, the men have usurped a right generally conceded to females, namely, that of indicating by some sign their state in life--married or single. The married men do their hair up in a knot at the top of the head; those who have not yet seen the girl they like better than themselves wear theirs in a loose trace behind; whilst some others who have successfully pa.s.sed through both states, and are quite willing to try it again--for marriage amongst them is honorable and universal, as in China--indicate this desire by donning a sort of skull cap. I thought it not a little curious that the men, and not the women, should take the initiative in this matter. Men, in general, after having committed a mistake, don't like to admit it.

After Gen-San we moved a little further south to Chosan, where, scarce had we anch.o.r.ed, when the arrival of a small steamer threw the whole squadron into violent commotion. She had been chartered either by Sir Thomas Wade or Sir Harry Parkes expressly to convey despatches to the admiral--what the subject was none of us could even guess, though it subsequently leaked out that a disturbance of some sort had broken out at Foo-Choo. The "Zephyr" was at once signalled to raise steam; and all the admiral's staff were warned to hold themselves in readiness to turn over to the "Vigilant" on the following day. Next morning the admiral sailed, preceded by the "Cleopatra" by a few hours, and followed by the "Swift."

September 12th.--We are now at Port Hamilton, and drawing towards the end of our cruise. The "Vigilant" came in this morning with Mrs. Willes on board to witness the regatta got up for the squadron. It was a success in every way--especially so to the crew of our first cutter; in fact a more than average share of prizes fell to "Jumbo." I quote the flag borne by our boats (arms, an elephant pa.s.sant-argent; motto, "Jumbo"). The sailing races were to have come off the following day, but at daybreak it was blowing so hard, and the barometer falling so rapidly, that a second anchor had to be dropped. On the gale increasing cable was veered; and it went on increasing until a third anchor was let go.

The third day came in fine, with a breeze all that could be desired. To prevent loss of time, and to simplify matters, all the boats, of no matter what race, started at once. It was a pretty sight to witness this mosquito fleet clapping on sail after sail--balloons, outriggers, skyjibs, and other extraordinary bits of duck. Our second cutter--under the joint control of the commander and Mr. Alexander, mids.h.i.+pman--went around in splendid style, the manoeuvring of Mr. Alexander being beyond all praise. She came in first, and carried off the admiral's cup. The whaler was managed equally well by Mr. Patey, and came in an excellent second.

This regatta brought the cruise practically to an end, though each s.h.i.+p has to repair to Chefoo for provisions, independently of the other.

On the pa.s.sage we ran against something dirty, which succeeded in whipping our main-topsail clean off the yard, and left it dangling by the starboard sheet, at the lower yard-arm; and as misfortunes don't happen singly, the jib made most energetic and partially successful efforts to hang up beside it. It did not reach quite so far aft as that, but it did manage to coil itself around the fore yard arm. Such a terrific squall we have never encountered before. And such lightning and rain! who ever saw the like?

But joyful news was awaiting us at Chefoo. Mr. Robinson, in fulfilment of a promise he made on leaving us at Nagasaki, telegraphed the welcome, long-expected intelligence that the "Audacious" commissioned on the 5th instant.

And now, dear s.h.i.+pmates, I must leave you, and I do so at once regretfully and joyfully; regretfully, that I have to bid farewell to what has given me not a little pleasure to write; joyfully, that I have--as I would fain hope--been enabled to bring my narrative to a successful termination. If any of you are disappointed that I have not pursued it further, think how necessary it was that my ma.n.u.script should be in the printer's hands as speedily as possible. I thought no more opportune ending could have offered itself to me than the telegram before quoted.

If "In Eastern Seas" shall have in the slightest degree contributed one pleasure to you or your friends, or shall be the humble instrument of calling to your mind some pleasant memories of the commission, I shall indeed feel amply rewarded for any little trouble I may have been put to in helping you to such pleasure or to such memories.

We have seen many lands together, many and strange peoples, much that is delightful beyond description in this, our beautiful world; but, after all, one feels his soul filled with enthusiasm at the thought that he is an Englishman, though he may be but a sailor. Persons at home scarcely realise what an inheritance that is.

In conclusion, may we all find happy homes; happy mothers, wives, sisters, and sweethearts, all the more willing to treasure us because we have been loyal to them for such a long, long time. I don't drink--as you know--but I don't mind cracking a bottle of lemonade to the future success in life, and happiness of all my late, much-respected, s.h.i.+pmates. G.o.d bless them all.