Robert Neff has authored and co-authored several books, including Letters from Joseon, Korea Through Western Eyes and Brief Encounters.
A honeymoon in Joseon: Part Two
A Korean tiger killed in the early 1900s. Courtesy of the Diane Nars Collection
By Robert Neff
By Robert Neff
After Horace and Lillias Underwood left Pyongyang, they spent several weeks exploring the lesser-traveled places. Tigers were a constant threat as they prowled the lonely wilderness seeking prey. They would have readily welcomed the Underwoods as a change to their normal diet. To remind them of the danger, many tiger traps ― huge pens made out of logs, weighted with great stones on top ― were encountered. Fortunately, they were spared an encounter with the monarch of the darkness.
In some places, there were altercations due to overly curious villagers and the subsequent perceived disrespect to their foreign guests. These slights were answered with tongue-lashings or, when that failed, feet and hands. Any altercation had to be handled in a careful manner as the Underwoods were far from Seoul and political aid.
According to the casual observer in Seoul: “At one place, the newly married couple were received with banners, bugles and umbrellas; at another, they were laid in wait for with a shot-gun. 'These foreigners' were to be killed.”
The murderous attack mentioned was at a small village where some thirty men had planned on attacking and robbing the party. The leader, however, had consumed a little too much alcohol and told anyone and everyone who would listen what he and his band of outlaws had planned. He was promptly seized by the village headman and locked up, with his old-fashioned gun taken from him so that he could do no harm.
It was not their only encounter with brigands and highway robbers. They barely escaped with their lives and money at one desolate spot. Their only salvation was that they held passports and the robbers were afraid that if they harmed the foreigners, the Korean government would exact revenge on the nearby village where the robbers' friends and family lived.
Tiger trap in the late 19th century. Robert Neff Collection
Sometimes the Underwoods were well received ― as noted above ― with music and gifts. But at other places, they were greeted with studied indifference. One magistrate “who had been so long in the interior and who was so ignorant and illiterate that he neither knew the uses of a passport, nor could read it when presented,” had to be terrified into action by the less-than-patient Horace.
They also traveled down the Yalu River in a Korean junk (boat) that was flat-bottomed and about ten meters long and one meter wide. With some straw mats and ropes, the Underwoods erected an awning over themselves and a partition to separate them from the Korean passengers. For some four days, they traveled in this manner. Lillias, however, seems to have reveled in the beauty and contrast that greeted her from either side of the bank.
“[With] China lying on one side of us and Korea on the other, the contrast was wonderfully marked, almost as much, indeed, as if the two nations had been separated by oceans rather than a river…. On the Korean shore, the trees were mostly of pine; on the China side, of oaks and other deciduous varieties. The Korean peasants' huts were of mud, straw-thatched; the Chinese houses of brick or stone, roofed with tile. Koreans dressed in white were plowing with oxen; Chinese farmers in blue were plowing with horses. Rhododendrons gave a lovely roseate tinge to the rocks and hills on either side.”
Off the beaten path in the late 19th century. Robert Neff Collection
Her description is beautiful, but not everyone had the same vision. Some twenty years later, an American gold miner recalled that the Chinese side of the river often had long boxes ― coffins ― of visitors who had died. They were placed on the bank so that their families could come and arrange to ship them home. According to the miner, sometimes there were thirty or forty of these visitors patiently waiting for their loved ones to take them home.
Traveling along the river wasn't without its dangers. There were pirates ― per se ― who would murder the crew and passengers and then plunder the boat. Years later, the piracy was not so much against boats but rafts of timber ― again, the raft-tender would be murdered and his timber stolen.
Mother Nature was also dangerous. They encountered a storm that stripped the awning from their boat. Lillias noted that in the rainy season the river was rather dangerous, but at this time, it only had a swift current. An act of carelessness almost led to their possible demise.
Lillias recalled that one night they were awakened from their sleep to find the boat on fire. “Someone had fallen asleep while smoking and dropped hot ashes among combustibles; but we were close to the shore, there was plenty of water and people to use it. The blaze was soon out, and nothing thrilling came to pass.”
Junks on the Yalu River. Circa 1890-1910. Robert Neff Collection
Later, the casual observer in Seoul describing their adventures hinted that there was more at work here than nature and carelessness: “This was probably the first time a Western lady ever crossed on the swift current of the Yalu River and the storm, rain, and fire were got up on purpose for such an unusual occasion.”
The contrasts, however, did not end there. After they arrived in Uiju on April 27 and sent their passports to the local magistrate, they were dismayed when their servants were suddenly hauled away, beaten and locked up. As they were still processing the news, a group of messengers arrived from the magistrate with “a very generous present of chickens, eggs, nuts, fruit and other edibles.” Within a very short time, another group of the magistrate's men arrived with orders to arrest and beat the landlord of the house in which the Underwoods were staying.
Before this could be done, “the deputy or vice-magistrate” appeared and tried to smooth things over. He admitted that the magistrate had been “imbibing rather freely” with alcohol. According to Lillias, the vice-magistrate hoped we “would overlook [the magistrate's] slight playfulness in arresting and beating our poor innocent people.”
The city of Uiju near the Yalu River. Robert Neff Collection
His hopes were unrealized, especially when it was time for the Underwoods to return home to Seoul, and the magistrate could not find their passports. Only after a great deal of threats and searching were the passports found and the Underwoods were able to proceed.
When they arrived in Seoul they were heartily greeted by their friends and received an invitation to the palace. The Korean king desired to know about their adventures and the queen wanted to know more intimate things about Lillias' wedding ― that is an amusing tale for another time.
Robert Neff has authored and co-authored several books including, Letters from Joseon, Korea Through Western Eyes and Brief Encounters.