In this connection I have said to the Secretary of the Navy, in returning the
original dispatch, as follows:
[Inclosure in 1 No.44].
Acting Secretary of the
Navy to Mr. Bayard.
Navy
Department,
Washington, October 24,
1887.
Sir: I have the honor to send you herewith,
informally, for the information of the Department of State, a dispatch
from the commander-in-chief of the United States naval force on the
Asiatic Station, dated the 18th ultimo, with reference to his visit to
His Majesty the King of Corea, and the courtesy shown himself and the
officers and men who accompanied him, by our minister to Corea, Hon.
Hugh A. Dinsmore.
May I ask that the dispatch, which is sent you in the original, may be
returned for the files of this Department when you have finished with
it?
I have, etc.
D. B. Harmony,
Acting Secretary of the
Navy.
[Inclosure 2 in No. 44.]
Admiral Chandler to
Secretary of the Navy.
Office
of the Commander-in-Chief United States Naval
Force,
Flag-ship Brooklyn,
Nagasaki, Japan, September 18, 1887.
Sir: I have the honor to inform the Department
that on the 30th August I left Nagasaki in the flag-ship for Chemulpo,
Corea. I had previously informed our minister to Corea, Hon. Hugh A.
Dinsmore, of my intended visit, and he wrote me that as the King of
Corea had never heard a foreign band, he had expressed a desire for me
to take our band to the capital when we arrived at Chemulpo. I arrived
there on the 1st September. The only way of reaching Seoul overland is
in chairs, carried by four coolies, over a very rough road. I therefore
hired two junks, one for myself and officers, and the other for the
band, and, in tow of the steam-barge and steam-gig, started by river for
Seoul at I p.m. on the 5th instant. The trip would have been made in
nine hours if we had not been stopped by a sand-bar. At 11 a.m. of the
6th instant we arrived at Mapu. 3 miles from Seoul, and at the head of
navigation of the Seoul River. Mapu is the port of entry for the
capital. Chairs for the officers were sent down from Seoul and horses
for the band, and we reached Seoul at 3 p.m. of the 6th instant, where
most of the officers and the band were quartered at the United States
legation.
On Thursday, September 8, at 3 p.m., an audience was had with His Majesty
and the Crown Prince, at which the King expressed the highest
appreciation of the United States and the cordial manner in which his
visiting countrymen were received and treated on their arrival in the
United States in September, 1883. His Majesty informed me that he would
soon send Pak-Chun Yang as minister to represent Chosen at Washington.
In reply I stated to him that our Government and people felt a great
interest in the progress and welfare of Chosen and would welcome his
representative most cordially. His Majesty and people always speak of
their country as Choseu, not Corea. Our band accompanied us to the
palace and played for two hours much to the delight of the King. The
reception was followed by a banquet, the dances of the country by boys,
accompanied by a native band with string and reed instruments. The
cordiality of the King, the banquet, and the dancing that followed were
novel and interesting and lasted until after 10 p.m. The King is a man
of more than ordinary intelligence, progressive in all his ideas, and
anxious to adopt our customs, fostering trade with us, and encouraging
his subjects, who seem to be a docile, good-natured people, to
advancement in their different trades and callings. So far as I could
learn foreigners are as safe and as well treated in Chosen as they would
be in their own countries.
We started on our return by river at 11 a.m. on the 10th September, and
reached the ship at 4 p.m. on the 11th instant, and left Chemulpo for
this port on the 15th, where we arrived at 2.30 p.m. on the 17th
September. I can not close my communication without expressing my
obligation to Hon. Hugh A. Dinsmore, our chargé. He has been ill for
some time, but accompanied and introduced us to His Majesty and remained
until the close of the evening’s entertainment. His hospitality was
unbounded, and his genial and cordial welcome will long be remembered by
myself and all who accompanied me. The following is a list of officers
who went with me to Seoul:
Captain Matthews, Lieutenants West, Mason, and Wadhams, Captain Mannix,
Lieutenant Badger, Passed Assistant Engineer Denig, Ensign Hoogewerff,
Assistant Surgeon Norton, Ensign Shoemaker, and Naval Cadet Dodd, of the
Brooklyn; and Lieutenant-Commander Bicknell,
Passed Assistant Paymaster Smith, First Lieutenant of Marines
Wainwright, and Ensign Poundstone, of the Essex.
I left the Essex at Chemulpo, Corea, to look after
American interests.
I am, sir, etc.,
R. Chandler,
Rear-Admiral, U. S.
Navy.
