chance arrival of a packet of translations in Chinese of the works of the Jesuits in Pekin. From this small beginning the ideas spread, until the King's Preceptor was compelled to fulminate a public document against this new belief. Finding this insufficient, examples were made of prominent enthusiasts. Many were tortured; and others condemned to perpetual exile. Persecution continued until 1787; but the work of proselytism proceeded, despite the injurious attentions which converts received from the public executioners.
The first attempt of a foreign missionary to enter Korea was made in 1791. It was not until three years later, however, that any Western evangelist succeeded in evading the vigilance of the border sentinels. Where one came others naturally followed, undeterred by the violent deaths which so many of these intrepid Christians had suffered. While the French missionaries were prosecuting their perilous labours, in the face of the undisguised hostility of the great proportion of the people, and losing their lives as the price of this work, the walls of isolation which Korea had built around herself were gradually sapped. Ships from France, Russia and Great Britain touched her shores during their explorations and trading ventures in the Yellow Sea. Under the association of ideas which sprang from the appearance of these strange ships, the Koreans grew accustomed to the notion that their world was not limited by the resources of their own country and the more distant territories of China. However, judging the sailors who fell into their hands by the standards of the French priests, who had set every law in the land at defiance, they at once killed them. This practice continued until 1866, when word reached the Admiral of a French squadron at Tientsin of the slaughter
