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 Korea. He visited Fusan in 1880 in an effort to execute his instructions, and met with the same refusal that other foreign officials had experienced. But the American legation in Peking had received intimations of the change of sentiment in the Korean court, and Commodore Shufeldt was temporarily detached from sea service and ordered to report to the minister at the Chinese capital, with the object of studying the situation of affairs, so that he might be prepared to take advantage of any favorable opportunity which should present itself in Korea.

The commodore spent the winter of 1881–2 in Peking, and by March it became known to the legation through Li Hung Chang that the Korean government was willing to enter into a treaty with the United States. As soon as the season would permit, steps were taken to make ready a naval vessel, and on May 7 Commodore Shufeldt in a United States man-of-war arrived at Chemulpo, with full power to negotiate and sign a treaty. He was accompanied by three Chinese naval vessels bearing Chinese commissioners, likewise authorized to make a treaty on behalf of China. Both parties being of the same mind as to the general object, little time was required to agree upon the details. On May 24, 1882, a "treaty of peace, amity, commerce and navigation" between the United States and the kingdom of Korea was signed, with simple ceremonies, in a temporary pavilion on the shore opposite the anchorage of the commodore's vessel, and the "Hermit Kingdom" of the East entered into the family of nations under the auspices of the young republic of the West.