Page:History of Corea, ancient and modern; with description of manners and customs, language and geography (1879).djvu/295

 THE NEUTRAL TERRITOBY. 271 For those families were recalled westwards, where they could be protected ; and only two and a half centuries after, and a couple of years ago, was the land known as " Neutral territory " again thrown open to the Chinese plough. It is now, however, no longer "neutral/' but almost all occupied by Chinese farmers. During that interval of thirty years much had happened in Liaotung. The Tooman Mongols had again and again pillaged the country, and plundered the towns; and before they were quieted down, the " city " of Joolwun was taken by the yonng founder of the Manchu dynasty at the head of 130 men, — ^thirty of whom had coats of mail, consisting of many folds of cotton. Because of the Tooman ravages, Chungliang was degraded ; but when thicker clouds began to gather, he was, ten years after (in 1601), reappointed generallissimmo of Liaotung, with the title of count ; for though seventy-six years of age, he was considered the best man for that troublesome post His future belongs to Manchu history. In 1592, a tremendous storm broke upon Corea from the east There were then numerous converts to Romanism in Japan among all ranks of society ; and, as usual, where Jesuits are present and have many to listen to them, the civil government found itself greatly embarrassed. It is supposed that this was the true reason of the expedition against Corea ; both officers and men of which expedition were largely composed of Romish converts, who could remain in Corea if they conquered it, and who must remain if they were conquered. Thus victors or vanquished, the Japanese government believed, or is supposed to have believed, it could get rid of a difficulty which it afterwards got rid of by wholesale massacre, as Louis XIY. and St Bartholomew Claries, in France, of their Protestant troubles. Some time before, Sinshang, a governor of a province in Japan, was travelling and came across a young slave peasant lying under a tree. As he did not get up and pay his respects, Sinshang ordered the boy to be put to death, but with so much grace of manner and eloquence of speech did he defend himself, that the governor, instead of slaying him, attached him to his own person.