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284 been instructed to bid you welcome in the name of the Corean Government, and to hail the arrival of your vessel in these parts as a symptom of a beginning intercourse which, in course of time, may spring up between this country and foreign nations. Upon receipt of the report rendered by Ni-Eung-ini the council of state has been called together to take your wishes and proposals into serious consideration; nor is the Government at all disinclined to entertain the same. But the king (i. e., the regent), my master, does not wish to decide an affair of so much moment by himself, and without the advice and approval of the Emperor of China. Cannot you proceed to Pekin, and there procure yourself a letter from the Emperor, authorizing the king to throw this country open? With such a letter in hand your wishes will be listened to readily, and all difficulties can be removed in this manner."

Pang-Ou-Seu had delivered his address very solemnly and impressively, and at the conclusion looked up rather eagerly to observe how it had been received. I was not surprised, after the allusions made previously by Ni-Eung-ini, that the Government would try to evade the question in the manner it had done now, and would anxiously avail itself of any pretence to postpone the period for granting the demand for free intercourse with the country. But I was naturally vexed that so shallow a subterfuge had been chosen, which supposed an utter ignorance on our part of the actual state of the