little faith
was reposed in the commander. Still, it must be said for its members that
until they departed they played their _role_ well. Corea was then
practically a closed country; wherefore a certain amount of curiosity was
displayed at Shanghai when three or four Coreans, dressed up in their
quaint costumes and transparent horse-hair hats, were seen walking about,
and being introduced here and there by a French bishop called Ridel. A
few days later the curiosity of the foreign residents grew in intensity
when the news spread that an American subject, a certain Jenkins,
formerly interpreter at the U.S. Consulate, had, at his own expense,
chartered a ship and hurriedly fitted out an expedition, taking under his
command eight other Europeans, all of a more or less dubious character,
and a suite of about 150 Chinamen and Manillamen, the riff-raff of the
Treaty Port, who were to be the crew and military escort of the
expedition. A man called Oppert, a North German Jew, and believed by
everybody to be an adventurer under the guise of a trader, was in command
of the 'fleet'--which was composed of a steamer, if I remember right, of
about 700 tons, called the _China_, and a smaller tender of little over
50 tons, called the _Greta_. Oppert flew the flag of his own country, and
in due course gave the order to start."

"Well, so far so good," I interrupted; "but you have not told me what
connection there was between Bishop Ridel's four Coreans and your
body-snatching friends?"

"Well, you see, the American and Oppert took advantage of their
appearance in Shanghai to let people believe that they were high
officials sent over by the king, who was anxious to send an embassy to
the different courts of Europe to explain the slaughter of foreigners
which had taken place in his country, and also with the object of
entering, if possible, into treaties with the different European
monarchs--in fact to open his country to foreign trade and commerce. It
seemed somewhat a large order to any one who knew of the retiring nature
of the king, but everything was done so quickly that the expedition was
gone before people had time to inquire into its real object.

"The fleet, as I have remarked, in due time started, and after calling on
its way at Nagasaki, where rifles and other firearms and ammunition were
purchased with which to arm the military escort, steered a course to the
mouth of the Han river. Among the eight Europeans of dubious char