thence in the course of various
wars, took refuge in the peninsula which they still possess, between the
Yellow Sea and the sea of Japan. You often, in these parts of Tartary,
meet with the remains of great towns, and the ruins of fortresses, very
nearly resembling those of the middle ages in Europe, and, upon turning
up the soil in these places, it is not unusual to find lances, arrows,
portions of farming implements, and urns filled with Corean money.

Towards the middle of the 17th century, the Chinese began to penetrate
into this district. At that period, the whole landscape was still one of
rude grandeur; the mountains were covered with fine forests, and the
Mongol tents whitened the valleys, amid rich pasturages. For a very
moderate sum the Chinese obtained permission to cultivate the desert, and
as cultivation advanced, the Mongols were obliged to retreat, conducting
their flocks and herds elsewhere.

From that time forth, the aspect of the country became entirely changed.
All the trees were grubbed up, the forests disappeared from the hills,
the prairies were cleared by means of fire, and the new cultivators set
busily to work in exhausting the fecundity of the soil. Almost the
entire region is now in the hands of the Chinese, and it is probably to
their system of devastation that we must attribute the extreme
irregularity of the seasons which now desolate this unhappy land.
Droughts are of almost annual occurrence; the spring winds setting in,
dry up the soil; the heavens assume a sinister aspect, and the
unfortunate population await, in utter terror, the manifestation of some
terrible calamity; the winds by degrees redouble their violence, and
sometimes continue to blow far into the summer months. Then the dust
rises in clouds, the atmosphere becomes thick and dark; and often, at
mid-day, you are environed with the terrors of night, or rather, with an
intense and almost palpable blackness, a thousand times more fearful than
the most sombre night. Next after these hurricanes comes the rain: but
so comes, that instead of being an object of desire, it is an object of
dread, for it pours down in furious raging torrents. Sometimes the
heavens suddenly opening, pour forth in, as it were, an immense cascade,
all the water with which they are charged in that quarter; and
immediately the fields and their crops disappear under a sea of mud,
whose enormous waves follow the course of the valleys, and carry
everyth