or religious ceremony. There are here no temples, idols, nor
tombs, whereas in China, villages much smaller than these
of Corea have them in every corner. The other Coreans
took no notice of the stump, and the man who was prostrating
himself before it finding that his behaviour produced
nothing but a number of questions from us concerning the
nature of the tree, got on his legs and walked sulkily away. In
the course of our walk we saw six bullocks of a small breed
and very fat, but which the Coreans were not to be tempted
to sell by any thing which we had to give them. Dogs were the
only quadrupeds besides that we saw. There were pigeons,
hawks, and eagles, but few small birds. Crows were as
numerous here as in every other part of the world. We
returned on board to breakfast, and afterwards set out
on an excursion to the top of a high island lying some
leagues to the south-east of us. On our way we landed,
and observed the sun’s meridian altitude with an artificial
horizon, by which we ascertained the latitude to be 34° 22
39" north, the longitude by the mean of two chronometers
is 126° 2' 45" east.
We passed, for the distance of five miles, amongst islands,
all, except the very smallest, inhabited. The villages are
built in the valleys, where the houses are nearly hid by
trees and hedges. The sides of the hills are cultivated with
millet and a species of bean; and in the numerous small
gardens near the villages, we saw a great variety of plants.
As the peaked island which we had undertaken to climb
was steep, and covered with a long coarse grass, it cost
us a tiresome scramble to gain the top, which is about six
hundred feet above the level of the sea. The main land of
Corea is ju st discernible in the north-east and east, from
this elevation; but it: commands a splendid view of the
islands, lying in thick clusters, as far as the eye can reach,
from north-west quite round by east to south. We
endeavoured to count them- One person, by reckoning
only such as were- obviously separate islands, made their
number one hundred and twenty. Two other gentlemen,
by estimating the numbers .in each, connected cluster, made
severally, one hundred and thirty-six, and one hundred and
seventy; a difference, which a t once shews the difficulty of
speaking with precision on this subject. But when it is
considered, that from one spot, which though considerably
elevated, was not centrical, one hundred and twenty islands
could be counted, and that our course for upwards of one
hundred miles had been amongst islands no less crowded
than these, some idea may. be formed of this great Archipelago.
After enjoying this scene for some time, we went down