The Korean peninsula remained virtually unknown to the West for much longer and more completely than either China or Japan, although for a long time both of these countries were virtually closed to foreign exploration. The Portuguese and the Dutch had dealings with Japan and China, and the Jesuit mission to China had privileged access to Beijing and a few other areas. But with the exception of shipwrecked sailors, Korea remained completely unvisited. Early texts describing Korea depended either on Chinese sources evoking its history or on the book written by Hendrik Hamel after his years of captivity there in the seventeenth century.
In the West, the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries were a period of industrial expansion and of exploration, when intrepid individuals set out from Europe to survey the coasts of the still largely unknown lands around the Pacific Ocean in preparation for large-scale trade. Even then, very few paid much attention to Korea since there seemed to be no prospect of worthwhile trade, and it was known to be very hostile to outside visitors. We have therefore found it interesting to bring together an anthology of the few texts written and published in those years, in which the first direct contacts between westerners and Koreans are recorded. Those contacts were few in number and did not go very far because of difficulties in communication. Usually, it was simply a matter of a short attempt to establish contact with the inhabitants of a few offshore islands including the minor officials serving as magistrates there.
Until 1866, nobody from a western country had any clear idea of the exact location of Seoul or how it could be reached. The sea surrounding the multiple islands of the west coast remained uncharted for the most part, and the primitive maps followed by the earlier navigators proved to be quite useless. The general description of Seoul by John Carey Hall, published in 1883 after his visit in 1882, constitutes the first detailed, eye-witness portrayal of the hitherto unknown city published in Europe, and it is still very slight. Yet, within a few years, there were American, British, French, German, Russian, Italian, and Belgian legations in Seoul, Protestant and Catholic missionaries were moving around Korea freely, and schools and church buildings were springing up while merchants and adventurers had started to explore and exploit the country’s resources. From that moment on, many books and articles about Korea were published, texts that are familiar to many.
In this anthology, we have brought together a selection of texts from the earlier decades, prior to the opening of the country, including extracts from Charles Dallet’s Histoire de l’Église de Corée (History of the [Catholic] Church in Korea) and other French-language texts that have been translated by Brother Anthony. They are often entertaining human documents, evoking the perplexities of both Koreans and foreign visitors when faced with each other. Nowadays, “Travel Literature” is a recognized category of historical document since these texts allow us to trace the development of both knowledge and stereotypes with indications of the prejudices brought by western travelers of an earlier age. In today’s post-colonial era, academic studies often focus on such topics and require access to contemporary documents. For the general reader, old tales have a lasting charm, and it is fascinating to read about travel in an age without radar or maps, steam engines or planes, dictionaries, or guidebooks.
A particularly well-documented study of the nineteenth century approaches to Korea, focusing mainly on French initiatives, was published in French in 2012: Pierre-Emmanuel Roux, La Croix, La Baleine et le Canon. Paris: Editions du Cerf. This is referenced in the text by the name of the author.