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130 extinguished any hope the Koreans might still have cherished of preserving the southern frontier of their kingdom intact. Although cordons of armed sentinels and palisades, barriers of mountains and miles of ruined and deserted wastes protected the northern borders against the incursions of the Chinese soldiers to some extent, the south was vulnerable.

Fusan was the floodgate through which poured the hostile masses of Japan, an unbroken stream of men, to deluge the land. They invaded Korea as enemies, levying tribute; they came as allies against China; they appeared as the embassies of a friendly State and returned enriched to the Court of their Sovereign. Actuated by feelings of mercy, they sent grain-ships to Fusan when famine overtook their neighbours. Between Japan and Fusan there was the continuous passing of ships. Around this outlet, the one gate to the southern half of the kingdom, the spasmodic beginnings of the present important commerce between the two countries grew out of a fretful exchange of commodities.

In the years that followed the earlier visitations, Japan became so embarrassed by her own internal troubles, that the Kingdom of Korea was left in that peace and seclusion which, always preferring, it had found so much difficulty in securing. This happy state of things prevailed for two centuries. At the end of this interval, the annual embassy to Japan from the Court of Korea had ceased. The kingdom in general, lulled by visions of perpetual peace, no longer maintained defences. Military preparations were neglected; the army was disorganised; the old fighting spirit of the people died down, and martial exercises disappeared from the training of the militia. Dissipation and profligacy were rife. In the meantime, order having been restored in Japan,