One of the most interesting as well as the most
authentic, things that have appeared in regard to the Corean situation is a letter from Mrs. Bishop (Miss Isabella Bird), published in the St. .Tames'e Gazette of Wednesday. Mrs. Bishop, though she writes before the outbreak of the war (i.e., on June 23rd), notes. the virtually hostile acts of the Japanese. At Fusan, the- Southern Treaty Port, she found that Japanese troops had already taken possession. Japanese soldiers filled the streete, and trains of forage-carts blocked the roads. "It looks ea if the Japanese had come to stay, as they are provisioned for three months. They have cavalry, and a large number of horses of the mountain battery train, all serviceable animals, under fourteen hands high, carrying improved pack-saddles of the beet Indian pattern, and in excellent condition." The Japanese had also occupied the approaches to the capital, and had demolished a part of the ancient wall of Seoul. In, all, they had six thousand troops disembarked. The object of the Japanese, says Mrs. Bishop, was clearly not to attack Corea but China. "it has been said of late that if Japan would not have a revolution, she must have a foreign war, and all this looks as if she were picking a quarrel on the old battle-ground between her and the Chinese." She ends her- letter by an Recount of the racial hatred that has broken out. "I have never before seen the Chinaman otherwise than aggra- vatingly cool, collected, and master of the situation ; but here he has lost his head, and, frenzied by race-hatred and pecuniary loss, is transformed into a shouting barbarian, not. knowing what he would be at." Even her Chinese servant, an excellent fellow, is beside himself and mutters in English, through clenched teeth, "I must kill, kill, kill !" Mrs. Bishop. declares herself deeply impressed with Corea. It has a fine- climate, an abundant rainfall, and a most fruitful soil. "Its fourteen million people deserve a better fate than they are likely to have."
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