PREFACE. I_? submitting this book to the public, the author wqshes it to be distinctly uffdersteod that all be claims for his work is that it may be considered what it is iutended to he--? missing, though as yet incomplete liuk in the res?arehes o? one of the most interestlog countries of the great Asiatic Continent. With thi? object be combines the hope to be able to direct the attention of the public at large to the anomalous state in which thl.s country has so long and so successfully maintained itself, and to contrl- bute his share in having those ohetaclos removed at last which hitbette have prevented foreigners from entering ita gates. The scanty and shadowy accounts which have from time to time appeared. and still occasionally appear in journals and periodicals, on the peni?sul? form?ug the Idngdom o{ Corea, have scarcely been able to contribute much to the extension o? general knowledga on tbls subject. And there are yet many people pretending to be called well educated in other respects, whose notions about the existence and the position of the country are so vague ?nd in-
