I was awakened next morning by the roar of the anchor-chain running
out, and found the yacht at a standstill, with the vibration of the
machinery temporarily at an end. On looking out through the porthole I
recognized the town of Chemulpo, which had grown considerably since I
last saw it. Beyond stood the hills of Corea, rising wave upon wave, as
if the land had suffered a volcanic eruption.
Mr. Hemster and I had breakfast alone together, after which we went on
deck.
“Now,” said he, “the captain has brought us safely here without running
down an island, and the next move in the game is yours. What do you
propose to do?”
“I shall go ashore at once, engage ponies and an escort, change a
quantity of silver money into ropes of sek, then I shall make my way as
quickly as possible to the capital.”
“What are ropes of sek?” asked Mr. Hemster.
“They are bronze, iron, or copper coins, which are strung on ropes
of straw by means of a square hole in the middle. They are the most
debased currency on earth, and are done up in strings of five hundred
cash. Sek is useful in dealing with the natives, but when I come to
the capital I shall need silver and gold. When I have made arrangements
at Seoul I shall return to Chemulpo and let you know the result.”
“You told me I could not take the ‘Michigan’ up the river,--what do you
call it,--the Han?--and you were doubtful about the advisability of
using the naphtha launch.”
“No, the yacht would be sure to run aground before you had gone very
far, and as for the naphtha launch, the Han is rather a treacherous and
very crooked piece of navigation, and if you had to stop half-way we
might be farther from the capital than we are now, with a worse road
ahead of us, and no chance of getting ponies or escort. I strongly
advise you to stay where you are till I return, and meanwhile I’ll find
out more about the river than I know now.”
To this Mr. Hemster agreed, and, being well provided with the sinews
of war, I went ashore. Chemulpo proved to be quite a commercial town,
and there was no difficulty in my getting everything I wanted. I was
shocked but not surprised to find that the Prime Minister, whom I
formerly knew, and on whose help I had somewhat counted, had been
deposed and beheaded, while all his relatives, male and female, had
been eliminated from human knowledge by death, slavery, or exile.
However, even if this man had remained in office, my best plea with him
would have been money, and as I was well provided with this necessity
I foresaw no obstacle to my purpose. Having had an early start, and
pushing on with more energy than my escort relished, in spite of my
promises of recompense, I reached the capital before the great bell
rang and the gates were closed.
I had some thought of calling on the British representative, and if I
had done so would doubtless have enjoyed better accommodation for the
night than fell to my lot; but as, the last time I saw him, I was,
like himself, a servant of our Government, I could not bring myself
to acknowledge that I was now merely the hired man of an American
millionaire, as his daughter had so tersely put it.
Next day I very soon bribed my way to the presence of the then Prime
Minister, and was delighted to find in him a certain Hun Woe, whom I
had previously known in a very much more subordinate capacity. After
our greetings I went straight to the point, and told Hun Woe that I
represented a gentleman and his daughter, now at Chemulpo, who wished
the honour of a private conference with the Emperor. I also mentioned
casually that there was a certain amount of money in this for the Prime
Minister if he could bring about the interview. Hun Woe, with many
genuflections, informed me that the delight of serving me would more
than recompense him for any trouble he was likely to incur, ending his
protestations of deep friendship and regard by inquiring how much of
the needful the gentleman in Chemulpo would be prepared to place on
the table. I replied by naming a sum about one quarter of the amount I
was willing to pay. The Prime Minister’s eyes glittered, and he made
various shrugs of the shoulders and motions with his hands, during the
time that he politely intimated to me his rise in the world since last
I met him. A cash dividend which would have been ample in those days,
he gently hinted, was little less than an insult at the present time.
So far as he was himself concerned, he added, his services were freely
at my disposal, and none of the silver would stick to _his_ fingers;
but, as I must be aware, the Court at Seoul was a most grasping and
avaricious body, and he should need to disburse freely before my object
could be accomplished.
I sighed and shook my head, rising to leave, regretting it was not to
be my good fortune to add to the wealth of an old friend, whereupon
Hun Woe begged me to be seated again, and, after many declarations of
affectionate esteem, was good enough to name a sum which he thought
might be sufficient to cover all expenses; and as this came to less
than half of what I was willing to dispose of, we speedily reached an
agreement. This haggling at the outset was necessary, not only to save
Hemster his hardly earned money, but also to satisfy the official that
he was driving a shrewd bargain. I accordingly paid the sum in prompt
cash to Hun Woe, and then informed him that if everything went off
to the satisfaction of my employer a further bonus would be awarded
him, depending in size on the celerity and satisfactory nature of the
interview. This delighted the honest Premier, and I must admit that
he conducted the business with an energy and despatch which was as
gratifying as it was unexpected.
East or West, money is a great lubricator, and, as I have said, I was
well provided. That very afternoon Hun Woe secured me an audience with
His Imperial Majesty, and for the third or fourth time in my life I
stood before the ruler of Corea. I do not know whether he recognized
me or not, but it was quite evident that the scent of gold was in the
air, and the Emperor did not leave it long in doubt that he intended to
acquire as much as might be available of it. By way of introduction,
and to show that I was prepared to do the proper thing, I placed a
heavy bag of the seductive metal on the shabby deal table before him,
begging His Majesty to accept it as an earnest of more to follow.
He poured it out on the table, and gloated over it with a miser’s
eagerness. He had not improved in appearance since last we met. The
seams of dissipation had cut deeply into the royal countenance, and his
little crinkling pig eyes were even more rapacious and cruel than I
remembered them to be.
The proposal to come aboard the yacht was at once dismissed as
impracticable. His Majesty would not venture away from his capital,
and, above all, he would not risk his precious person on board of
anybody’s steamship, so, on the whole, it was just as well that Mr.
Hemster had not essayed the navigation of the river Han. However, His
Majesty was good enough to inform me that although he would not trust
his royal person to the care of the infidels, yet he would make up for
that by giving so generous a suitor a suite of rooms in the Palace
itself, and my principal would therefore have the honour of being the
guest of Corea, as one might say. I imagined that this would look as
well in the columns of the “New York Herald” as if the Emperor had
gone on board the yacht. I fancied that a few lines, something to the
following effect, would read very acceptably in the Sunday papers of
Chicago, under the head of _Society Notes_:
“Mr. Silas K. Hemster, of this city, and Miss Hemster, occupy a
suite of rooms in the royal Palace of Seoul, as guests of the
Emperor of Corea.”
So, all in all, I was more than satisfied with the speedy and
gratifying outcome of my mission to the Corean capital. After retiring
from the royal presence I congratulated the Prime Minister upon his
method of conducting negotiations and gave him a further payment on
account, so that he would not be tempted to falter in well-doing; and
as for Hun Woe himself he looked upon me as the most valuable visitor
that had set foot in Corea for many years. I distributed backsheesh
somewhat indiscriminately among the underlings of the Palace, and early
next morning left the royal precincts on my return to Chemulpo, which
port I reached without any mishap. Possibly never before in the history
of Seoul had business been so rapidly transacted.
I found Mr. Hemster, as usual, sitting on deck in his accustomed chair,
as if he had no interest in the negotiations I had been conducting. He
listened quietly to my account of the various interviews, and received
without comment the bribery bill I presented to him. He did not appear
to be so tremendously impressed as I had expected with the royal
invitation to visit the Palace, and said he would have preferred to
take up his quarters at the chief hotel in the place, but when I told
him there was not a hotel in the city fit for a white man to sleep in,
he made no demur to the Imperial proposal. It seemed he had visited
Chemulpo during my absence, and in consequence of what he heard there
he now made some inquiry regarding the safety of a stay in the capital.
I told him that as a rule the Coreans were a peaceable people unless
incited to violence by the authorities, and as long as we were willing
to bribe the authorities sufficiently they would take care that the
influx of the newly acquired affluence would not be interfered with. So
he asked me to go to Chemulpo and make arrangements for the transport
of the party next morning.
I had not seen Miss Hemster on the day I left for Seoul, but she
welcomed my return with her former girlish enthusiasm, just as if
nothing particular had happened. She seemed to have entirely recovered
from her disappointment in not getting to see the Emperor of Japan,
and was now effusively enthusiastic over our coming journey. The young
woman more than made up for her father’s lack of interest in the
royal invitation, and I was asked question after question regarding
the Palace at Seoul, which I feared would disappoint her when she saw
it, because of its dilapidations and general lack of impressiveness.
However, a palace was a palace, she averred, and she further pronounced
the opinion that the news of their residence there would make Chicago
“sit up” when it was cabled over. Miss Stretton sat silent with
downcast eyes during this cross-examination, her intelligent face as
inscrutable as that of the old millionaire himself. I did not get
a word with her that evening, and, as it was drawing late, I had to
return to Chemulpo to make arrangements for the trip the following day,
and so stayed ashore that night.
We had a beautiful day for our expedition, and rather a jolly trip of
it,--almost, as Miss Hemster said, as if it were a picnic. At Miss
Hemster’s request I rode by her side, with Miss Stretton sometimes with
us, but more often in front, with the old gentleman, who jogged moodily
on, absorbed in his own meditations, saying nothing to anybody. Miss
Hemster chatted very gaily most of the day, but as evening drew on she
became tired of talk and began to look anxiously for the gate of Seoul.
When at last we passed through it she expressed great contempt for the
city of shanties, as she called it, giving somewhat petulant expression
to her disgust at the disillusionment for which I had unsuccessfully
endeavoured to prepare her. Of course by the time we reached the Palace
the ladies were tired out, and, if we had had the slightest notion of
what was before us, anxiety would have been added to fatigue.