Account of a Voyage of Discovery to the West Coast of Corea, and the Great Loo-Choo Island. Hall Basil
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he happened to select a volume of the Encyclopædia Britannica, I was under the necessity of refusing; but offered in its stead a less valuable, though more showy book, which he accepted with much gratitude. No return, of course, had been looked for, and I was for a moment at a loss to understand what my friend meant, by slipping his fan into my hand, under the table. He did this in so mysterious a way, when the Chief was looking in another direction, that I saw it was his wish to conceal what he had done, and the fan was sent privately away. But unfortunately, my precaution was fruitless, for a few minutes afterwards, on finding the crowded cabin very hot, I called for a fan, and the servant, unconscious of the mischief he was doing, brought the Courtier's present; which no sooner met the old man's eye, than he rose half off his chair, and gave his unhappy companion such a look of furious anger, as made him tremble from top to toe: but he was soon pacified when he saw that we took an interest in the question, and the Courtier was allowed to keep his book.
After sitting half an hour, and drinking a glass of Constantia, the old man proposed to go upon deck. I accordingly led the way, and had gone some steps up the ladder, in advance, before I perceived that he had stopped at the door of the gun-room, where the officers mess, and was looking in, with his usual curiosity. I begged him to go in, which he accordingly did, and entertained himself for some time, with looking over the different cabins of the officers. From having observed the pleasure which he took in the sight of any thing new, I was induced to propose his going round the lower deck, and he looked quite pleased when I pointed along the passage. The state hat, which had been resolutely kept on during all this time, notwithstanding its perpetual inconvenience to himself and every one around him, was here destined to come off; for after making two or three attempts, he found it impossible to get along and wear the hat too; and being of a very inquisitive disposition, he chose the degrading alternative of being uncovered, and his researches proceeded without interruption. Nothing escaped the old man's observation; whatever was shut or tied up, he requested to have opened; and in this way he rummaged the midshipmen's chests, and the sailors' bags, all along the lower deck. He looked into the holds, took the lid off the boilers, and turned every thing topsy-turvy. Seeing a cutlass tied to the deck, overhead, he took it down, and on drawing it from the scabbard, its lustre, and the keenness of its edge, surprised and delighted him so much, that I asked him to accept it. At first he seemed willing enough, but after holding a consultation with the Courtier for five minutes, he reluctantly put it back again. As he went along, he took samples of every thing that he could easily put into his sleeve, which served him instead of a sack; so that when he came upon deck, he was pretty well loaded, and looked about with the satisfaction of a school-boy, on having visited a show for the first time in his life.
Whilst we were below, one of the natives had been busily employed in taking the dimensions of the ship with a string, and another person was engaged under him, taking an account of the guns, shot, and rigging, all which details he wrote down; but not being able to ascertain, himself, the exact number of people on board, he had recourse to me for the information; this I communicated by opening eight times the fingers of both hands. The only part of the ship to which he had not free access was the cabin under the poop, and from which he felt much annoyed at being excluded: but when told that a gentleman was shaving there, he shewed himself quite satisfied with the explanation, and waited patiently until the door was opened to him.
The old gentleman and his followers appearing anxious to see a shot fired, an eighteen pound carronade was loaded before them, and discharged with the muzzle so much depressed, that the shot struck the water close to us, and then rose and fell eight or ten times, to the great entertainment and surprise of the whole party. In the mean time, Captain Maxwell had come on board, and breakfast being ready, we prevailed upon the Chief to sit down with us. He ate heartily of our hashes, and of every thing else that was put before him, using a knife, fork, and spoon, which he now saw, probably, for the first time in his life, not only without awkwardness, but to such good purpose, that he declined exchanging them for Chinese chopsticks, which were provided for him. In fact, he was so determined to adopt our customs in every respect, that when the tea was offered to him in the Chinese way, he looked to the right and left, and seeing ours differently prepared, held up his cup to the servant, for milk and sugar, which being given to him, the old gentleman remained perfectly satisfied.
The politeness and ease with which he accommodated himself to the habits of people so different from himself, were truly admirable; and when it is considered, that hitherto, in all probability, he was ignorant even of our existence, his propriety of manners should seem to point, not only to high rank in society, but to imply also a degree of civilization in that society, not confirmed by other circumstances. Be this as it may, the incident is curious, as shewing, that however different the state of society may be in different countries, the forms of politeness are much alike in all. This polished character was very well sustained by the old Chief; as he was pleased with our attempts to oblige him, and whatever we seemed to care about, he immediately took an interest in. He was very inquisitive, and was always highly gratified when he discovered the use of any thing which had puzzled him at first. But there was no idle surprise, no extravagant bursts of admiration, and he certainly would be considered a man of good breeding, and keen observation, in any part of the world. Towards his own people, indeed, he was harsh and impatient at all times; but this may have arisen from his anxiety that no offence should be given to us by the other natives, whom he might know were less delicate and considerate than himself, and therefore required constant control.
When breakfast was over, and the old man once more upon deck, we endeavoured to signify to him that we meant to land, according to our engagement yesterday evening; but this he either did not, or would not comprehend; for whenever we pointed towards the shore, he directed our attention to the frigate. At length he got into his boat, pushed off, and was making for the Alceste, when Captain Maxwell followed in his boat, and drawing up alongside of him, tried to prevail upon him to accompany us to the village: the Chief shook his head by way of disapprobation, and turning towards his attendants, entered into a discussion with them, which terminated by the Courtier and himself stepping into Captain Maxwell's boat.
We ascribed this measure to a desire on the Chief's part to show publicly that he had not himself invited us on shore, and had only acceded to our request to land. We had not proceeded far before the Chief repented of his ready compliance, and tried to persuade us to return; but finding the ordinary signs of no avail, he held his head down and drew his hand across his throat, as if his head was to be cut off. It was now our turn not to comprehend signs, and thinking it would be idle to lose so favourable an opportunity, spared no pains to reconcile the old man to our landing. In this, however, we did not succeed, for, as we approached the shore, his anxiety increased, and he frequently drew his hand across his neck, as if to shew that he would lose his head if we persisted. We again tried to re-assure him, by explaining that we had no intention of going near the village, but merely desired to walk about for a short time, and then to go to the frigate to dine. He was of course included in this invitation; but his only answer consisted in pointing to us and making signs of eating, and then drawing his hand across his throat; by which he was understood to mean, that it might be very well for us to talk of eating, but, for his part, he was taken up with the danger of losing his head. We could not but laugh at this, as we had no notion of any such apprehension being well grounded; and, in a short time, landed at the distance of half a mile from the village.
The old man was lifted out of the boat by several of his people, and we were amazed to find, when they set him down, that he was in tears, and looking altogether very unhappy. In a few minutes a crowd, consisting of more than a hundred people, assembled round us, and we began to think we should pay dearly for our curiosity. But the poor old man had no thoughts of vengeance, and was no better pleased with the crowd than we were; for turning to his soldiers, he desired them to disperse the mob, which they did in a moment by pelting them with great stones. The Chief now began crying violently, and turning towards the village walked away, leaning his head on the shoulder of one of his people. As he went along, he not only sobbed and wept, but every now and then bellowed aloud. We had been nowise prepared for such a scene, and were extremely sorry for having pushed matters to this extremity. It had never occurred to us that the old Chief's head was really in danger; and even now we could not satisfy ourselves whether he was sincere, or merely acting in order to prevail on us to retire. The perfect tranquillity, nay even cheerfulness of