CHAPTER I

Christmas on board--Fusan--A body-snatcher--The Kiung-sang Province--The
cotton production--Body-snatching extraordinary--Imperatrice
Gulf--Chemulpo.


[Illustration: CHEMULPO]

It was on a Christmas Day that I set out for Corea. The year was 1890. I
had been several days at Nagasaki, waiting for the little steamer,
_Higo-Maru_, of the Nippon Yusen Kaisha (Japan Steamship Company), which
was to arrive, I think, from Vladivostock, when a message was brought to
me saying that she was now in port, and would sail that afternoon for
Tsushima, Goto, and the Corean ports.

I went on board, and, our vessel's anchor being raised at four o'clock,
we soon steamed past Battenberg Island and got away from the picturesque
Bay of Nagasaki. This was the last I saw of Japan.

The little _Higo_ was not a bad seaboat, for, following good advice, her
owners had provided her with rolling beams; but, mind you, she had by no
means the steadiness of a rock, nor did she pretend to cut the water at
the rate of twenty knots an hour. Still, taken all in all, she was a
pretty good goer. Her captain was a Norwegian, and a jolly fellow; while
the crew she carried was entirely Japanese, with the exception of the
stewards in the saloon, who were two pig-tailed subjects of the Celestial
Empire.

"Numbel one Clistmas dinnel has got to-night, Mastel," expostulated John