한국 국왕 알현

An Audience with the King of Corea.

The following is an interesting extract from the letter of a Naval Officer who has lately visited the Mission:—

PORT ARTHUR:

November 8, 1891.

... We got to Chemulpo on the 29th, and the captain sent for me and said, "I am ordered to try and get an audience with the king of Corea, and expenses will be allowed for two officers to attend me: would you like to come?” Of course I jumped at it, so went ashore to try and get ponies, as there is thirty miles to do to get to Seoul, where the king lives. I went to the Consul, and he said he would have them ready by 7.30 next morning. At his house I met Bishop Corfe, and had a long talk with him. ... The captain slept at the Consul's that night, and I joined him there early next morning, and had breakfast there, but was dismayed to hear that, on account of nearly all the bullocks having died lately from disease, the ponies couldn't be got at such short notice, as they have to take the bullocks' place in carrying goods about the country, so we came to the conclusion that we were not good enough to carry about! The Consul, Mr. Fraser, lent the captain his pony, a very nice one, and lent me his mountain-chair, which consists of two long poles joined together near the middle by a piece of wood which forms a back; the seat is suspended from the poles by four strings, and a footstool is suspended in the same way; the ends have a strap over them, under which a stout stick, about 6 feet long, is put, and a coolie gets at each end of each stick and puts it on his shoulder: that makes four men actually carrying. Then there are four others who walk beside them and take the weight of the chair while the carriers change the stick from one shoulder to the other; by this means they get along between four and a half and five miles an hour on good road. I walked about ten miles of the way, and was carried the remainder. The country is very pretty, and looks very good pheasant cover, but they say it is not. We stopped about halfway up for lunch, and got to the Consulate-General in Seoul by 4.30. The captain had already wired to Mr. Hillier, the Consul-General, about the audience, and he answered that we were to come to him. The house is quite new, and he only got in the day before we came. We had tea, then strolled round the grounds and went to call on Dr. Wiles, who is the Mission doctor. He is a retired surgeon-general, and has been through six campaigns, including Crimea; he does such a lot of good in many ways, and is one of the Mission's hardest workers, and lives in such a funny little Corean house. His bedroom is no bigger than my cabin, and the whole house not much bigger than 20 feet by 8 feet. We slept very well that night, and were up at 7.45 next morning for service at 8 in the Mission Chapel, which is very small. There are seats for about twenty sitting close, and it is about 28 feet by 8 feet wide by 8 feet high. There is a harmonium, but it wasn't used that day. After service we were introduced to Mr. Warner, the Chaplain, who showed me over the Bishop's quarters, as I knew you would like to hear about that. His room is under the same roof as, but on the opposite side to, the chapel, and is 14 feet long by 8 feet wide. Everything is very plain and simple. The bedstead is boards supported on trestles; there are no pictures; a table, chair, and several books comprise the furniture, and a straw mat for a carpet. In the morning and afternoon we went out and looked about Seoul. It is, without exception, the very dirtiest place I have ever been in; the streets are very narrow and uneven, and so filthy—as are all the people. They have a novel way of warming their houses, which are all one-storied with a stone floor. Under the floor there are several little tunnels made about 9 inches square, which all converge to one point on each side of the house; they light a wood fire at one end, and the smoke goes through the tunnels and out the other end, where there is a chimney generally in the wall, and ending about 6 feet from the ground, and it is quite an alarming sight the first time to see the smoke coming out halfway up the side of a house. (N.B.—The fireplace is outside the house, and it is only necessary to light the fire for about half an hour and the whole floor is heated up for hours.) It is so cold here; I can hardly hold my pen. Mr. Hillier had people to meet us at lunch and dinner every day. On Sunday he asked an American who is in Corean employ as an instructor for their army; he has the rank of colonel, and, of course, passes as a big swell. He gave us some very amusing details about their army: the pay of a soldier is 1s. 1d. a month and 133 lbs. of rice, out of which he provides his own clothes, so very few of them are dressed alike. They are so dirty and untidy; they are not allowed any cartridges for fear they would shoot each other. The cavalry are the most amusing, though there are only 24 of them mounted, and they are only for show; they wear complete suits of armour, of which the helmet alone weighs 12 lbs., so they have one man to hold them on and another to lead the horse. On Monday morning we got into undress uniform, and went to call on the President of the Foreign Office, who received us in a very nice room, and asked a lot of questions, during which we were kept from starving (though we had only finished breakfast an hour before) by tea, champagne, persimmons, pine seeds, coffee, and cigars! After lunch we got into full dress and started for the palace in official chairs, which are very like the chair I came up in, except that the seat is fixed and has a cover over it. When we got to the main gate of the palace we had to get out of our chairs, and were received by the Secretary of the Home Office in his court dress, which is made of a very fine sort of silk, light blue, very pale, in colour, with a square patch of embroidery in front and behind; he wore an official belt, which looked much too big for him, but, as all the other big-wigs wore the same, we found it was uniform, but it certainly struck me that this Secretary was in an economical turn of mind when he bought his belt, and had an eve to making it last a great many years! We had to walk about half a mile to the waiting-room, where we found the Presidents of the Home and Foreign Offices, and we had more tea, coffee, champagne, &c. After waiting about half an hour a messenger came in to say the king was ready, so off we went, the two Presidents going ahead, each with two servants supporting him, which gave them the appearance of having had too much champagne, but it was all right, and we found it was quite usual. Eventually we arrived in a big courtyard with a house on one side, with a long flight of steps up to it, and we saw the king at a table close up to the back wall, with a crowd of courtiers on either side of him, and a man holding a big sword on each side close to him. The Presidents went slowly up the steps and kow-towed, banging the desk with their foreheads three times, and then got up, and we came on and were presented by Mr. Hillier, through the interpreter. His Majesty responded to our bows by putting his fists (closed) together and slightly bowing his head; then he asked how we were, and hoped we had a good journey up. The next question was, “How is your Queen?” and Mr. Hillier replied, “The last time we heard from Her Majesty she was enjoying salubrious health," at which K. and T. nearly exploded. It all seemed so stupid, and everybody was so solemn about it. The captain explained that the admiral was very sorry he couldn't come up himself, but he hoped to do so next year, and His Majesty replied he would be very pleased to see him, and hoped the English ships would come to Corea oftener; also that, as the relations between Corea and England were very friendly, and he hoped they would always remain so, as he respected the English very much. He then sent his best wishes to the Queen, and we thanked him for the honour he had done us in granting an audience, and then withdrew, going out backwards, and we nearly fell down the stairs. The king is a very bright-looking and intelligent man, and quite the most animated Corean we saw (as they are all so fat and lazy-looking). We were with him about a quarter of an hour, and then went on to do the same show with the Crown Prince, who is more than half an idiot, and had to be prompted by his attendants in asking us questions. The king was in half-mourning, and was dressed in very pale coffee-coloured silk, and a white hat which I can't describe, but I have photos of him. After the audience we were given special permission to see over some parts of the palace; one place especially, viz., the lotus pond, is very rarely shown to foreigners. Mr. Hillier said the audience was very satisfactory, His Majesty being much more pleased and affable than usual, and he wished the British could be presented oftener at Court, as the Americans seem to have it all their own way, which will tend to injure our trade if the country is opened up more. …