ain formed on the surface of the
bucketful which she had brought. It was bathing under difficulties, I can
tell you; but though I do not much mind missing my dinner, I can on no
account bring myself to deprivation of my cold bath in the morning. It is
to this habit that I attribute my freedom from contagious diseases in all
countries and climates; to it I owe, in fact, my life, and I have no
doubt to it, some day, I shall also owe my death.

The evil of cold was, however, nothing as compared with the quality and
variety of the food. For the best part of the week, during which I stayed
at the Dai butzu, I only had an occasional glance at a slice of
nondescript meat, served one day as "rosbif," and the next day as "mutin
shops," but unfortunately so leathery that no Sheffield blade could
possibly divide it, and no human tooth nor jaw, however powerful, could
masticate it.

As luck would have it, I was asked out to dinner once or twice by an
American gentleman--a merchant resident at Chemulpo--and so made up for
what would have otherwise been the lost art of eating.

Chemulpo is a port with a future. The Japanese prefer to call it Jinsen;
the Chinese, In-chiang. It possesses a pretty harbour, though rather too
shallow for large ships. The tide also, a very troublesome customer in
that part of the world, falls as much as twenty-eight or twenty-nine
feet; wherefore it is that at times one can walk over to the island in
front of the settlement almost without wetting one's feet.

Chemulpo's origin is said to be as follows: The Japanese government,
represented at Seoul by a very able and shrewd man called Hanabusa, had
repeatedly urged the Corean king to open to Japanese trade a port
somewhat nearer to the capital. Though the king was personally inclined
to enter into friendly negotiations, there were many of the anti-foreign
party who would not hear of the project; but such was the pressure
brought to bear by the skilful Japanese, and so persuasive were the
king's arguments, that, after much pour-parleying, the latter finally
gave way. Towards the end of 1880, the Mikado's envoy, accompanied by a
number of other officials, proceeded from the capital to the Imperatrice
Gulf and selected an appropriate spot, on which to raise the now
prosperous little concession, fixing that some distance from the native
city. In course of years it grew bigger, and when I was at Chemulpo there
was actually a Japanese village there, with its o