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This anthology is a compilation of Westerners’ accounts of their visits to Korea, originally published in books or newspapers before the country opened its doors in the late nineteenth century. The opening of Korea made it possible to explore the country in detail and write detailed accounts. Prior impressions were garnered mostly from brief visits to remote islands along the coast. The accounts published here are mainly anecdotal, and contain many generalizations. However, the accumulated impressions of these early encounters surely influenced the perspectives of later travelers, and help explain the overwhelmingly negative image of Korea that Western governments harbored at the time.

The book can serve as a useful resource for studying Korea’s early interactions with the outside world, and will give readers an idea of the criteria by which Westerners judged the foreign “other.”

Table of Contents

Pictorial Records of Korea from the 16th to 19th Century

Editors’ Preface

[Part 1] Europe’s Knowledge of Korea: The First Steps

The Portuguese

Early Dutch Reports: Dirck Gerritsz and Jan Huyghen

The Dutch Reach Japan

Matteo Ricci

Alvaro Semedo

Martino Martini

Arnoldus Montanus

Hendrick Hamel

The Impact of Hamel’s account

Nicolaas Witsen

Jean Baptiste du Halde and Jean-Baptiste Régis

[Part 2] From the late 18th century into the 19th Century

Lapérouse Sails Past Jeju Island in 1787

William Robert Broughton in Busan and Jeju Island in 1797

First News of the Catholic Church in Korea

The Silk Letter of 1801

Basil Hall and others Visit the Korean West Coast in 1816

Korea Seen from Japan in 1828: von Siebold

Hugh Hamilton Lindsay Sails into Korean Waters in 1832

Sir Edward Belcher Explores Jeju Island and the South-West Coast in 1845

Arthur Adams Admires the Ecology of Jeju Island in 1845

The French Begin to Look Toward Korea: Cecille’s 1846 visit

Lapierre’s 1847 Double Shipwreck

An Expedition to Korea to Rescue the Crew of The Narwal in April 1851

Fr. Maistre Reaches Korea in 1852

A Visit to Korea by the H.M.S. Barracouta, August 1855

[Part 3] The Opening of Korea

Keeping Russia out of Korea

Theophile Aude Visits Korea on Guerin’s Expedition in 1858

Ernst Jakob Oppert Sails Up the Han River in 1866

The French Expedition of 1866

Father Dallet’s Histoire de l’Église de Corée (1874) Relates the 1866 Expedition

Knowing About Korea Without Ever Going There: Alexander Williamson in 1870

A Japanese Visitor’s Secret Trip into the Interior of Korea in 1875

Miyamoto Okadzu’s Visit to Korea in February 1876

Fr. Gustave Mutel Enters Korea in 1880

George Clayton Foulk’s First Visit in June 1882

A Stroll in Korea by Unknown Men in August 1882

John Carey Hall’s Visit to Seoul in 1882

G. James Morrison’s Visit to Corea in July 1883

A Naval Officer Travels from Seoul to Songdo in June 1884