Welsh Journals

Korean: What is your purpose on meeting the governor? Thomas: We want to negotiate with him for trading. We have brought some western clothes, glasses, telescopes, alarm clocks etc. We want to exchange these goods with Korean products rice, gold, ginseng, paper, tiger skins etc. Korean: To trade with westerners is prohibited by the law of the Korean government. It is impossible for the governor of the province to negotiate trading with westerners. A lengthy conversation is recorded which repeats some of Thomas's concerns. He tries to explain that he was a Protestant and that the Korean people had nothing to fear but his interrogator claimed that he saw very little difference between that and Catholicism. There is one snatch of dialogue in the record, as follows: Thomas: There is a white pagoda in the P'yongyang. Is it true? When was it built? Korean: I don't know the date when it was built and even the existence of it there. Dr Goh comments: This is a very strange question for Thomas to have asked. It causes us to re-think the purpose of the General Shermans voyage to Korea. It was believed in China at that time that the royal coffins in the tombs of P'ongyang, wherein more that one dynasty of Korea lay buried, were of solid gold, and it was suspected that the expedition was connected with this. This suspicion grows stronger when we read that a body-snatching expedition was mounted by a Jacob Oppert in 1868, two years after the General Sherman incident. Thomas then asked the inspector for food and this was provided in keeping with traditional Korean custom of, 'giving mercy to those who have a long journey'. On 21 August six of the crew members sounded the depth of the Taedong river by sailing in a small boat towards P'yongyang and on the same day the schooner moved nearer the city and the people came down to the riverside to see the 'strange' ship. Here Thomas was known to have distributed some books to the people. On 22nd August, the schooner anchored at a small island called Turo-do near Man'gyongdae, a popular place with the natives. At that time the governor of P'yongyang ordered a barrier to be built around Man'gyondae to protect them against a possible attack by the schooner, and the patrol policemen on the river warned the people that nobody was to contact or trade with the foreigners. There was much tension. The official records of Korea, however, make no mention of the schooner for the next five days. On 27 August six crew members sailed in a small boat towards P'Yongyang. At that time, the chief of police, named Yi Hyon-ik, chased the boat. At 6.00 p.m., it was said that the crew captured the chief of police and detained him in the schooner. This was one of the decisive factors which led to the attack on the General Sherman. His official seal was taken away from him and according to Korean law, anyone who lost his seal was to be exiled or beheaded. As the schooner sailed up the river with him on board, other policemen and people on shore shouted and demanded his release. Curiosity turned to rage. The next day August 28, 1866, at 9 o'clock in the morning, the schooner opened fire with cannons and guns Five crewmen sailed on a small boat in order to measure the depth of the water.Atthat moment the crowd on the shore shouted for Yi Hyon-ik to be set free and threw stones. However at the same time the Korean soldiers shot bows and arrows, and fired their rifles at the five crew memebers. They were frightened and turned back to the schooner. Because of the sudden attack by the people, the crew were upset and took the schooner down to Yanggak-to island, releasing the chief policeman. The tension finally turned into a battle. which became more and more violent.At 4 o'clock in the afternoon of the same