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| Part of the Hwanhae Great Wall at Handong on Jeju Island in 2015 Robert Neff Collection |
By Robert Neff
Up until the latter part of the 19th century, many Western sailors regarded Jeju as a mysterious island surrounded with myths and legends, exaggerations and fabrications and steeped with danger ― a place to avoid at all costs.
It does not challenge the imagination to assume that many of these seafarers were aware of the epic tale of Hamel and the wreck of the Sperwer (Sparrow Hawk) on the island in 1653. Undoubtedly, the tale morphed with each retelling and many sailors came to believe that to be cast upon Jeju was a death sentence ― either from the hostile islanders or the many poisonous snakes. Despite the historical anecdotes of shipwrecked survivors in the mid-1850s through 1880, this unreasonable fear persisted ― perpetuated by the occasional articles appearing in Japanese newspapers reporting alleged outrages upon shipwrecked Japanese sailors and attacks upon fishermen by the islanders. Some of these accounts claimed the helpless shipwrecked survivors were decapitated by the islanders. There was some degree of conflict between the islanders and Japanese fishermen and the outrages were committed by both parties.
In his 1888 State Department report, Charles Chaille-Long, the secretary of the American legation in Seoul, described his recent journey to Jeju Island which "has been until now terra incognito and has maintained an isolation from the world more absolute that that of [Korea] of which government it is nominally a part." He went on to add:
"Hostility to the strangers and an absolute isolation from the world without is the distinguishing characteristics of [the] islanders whose names even now is mentioned with bated breath by the ever superstitious [Koreans] to whom Quelpaert [Jeju] is almost as unknown as to the world without."
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| The West Gate of Jeju City photographed by Malcom F. Anderson in 1905 Overland Monthly 1914 |
Chaille-Long claimed his journey to the island was not for geographical research but more along the lines of ethnographical research in an effort "to determine [the islanders'] origin and their relationship to the strangely mixed people of the [Korean] mainland." But it wasn't research that inspired him ― it was adventure and fame.
He boasted to the State Department that prior to his trip, "[neither] before nor since the days of Hamel had any one set foot upon the sacred soil of Quelpaert." He was the first! Which is obviously not true, but setting aside his self-aggrandizing claim, his narrative is quite interesting.
While on Jeju, he asked the islanders frequently for more information "about Hamel but all remembrances of [the Dutchman's] visit had faded with the generation which saw him."
It is a shame that Chaille-Long failed to obtain any further information about Hamel, but it is even a greater shame that he did not elaborate on the claims that the Portuguese had once established a small colony on the island. According to Chaille-Long, he had heard the stories of the former settlement but dismissed it as there was "not the slightest basis for the assertion judging from the complexion and type of the [Jeju islanders who were] absolutely Tartar and Mongol in appearance."
When Chaille-Long arrived at Jeju City he was impressed with the fortification. The entire city was surrounded by a wall six and half meters tall and a meter thick ― made from black volcanic stone ― and ingress into the city was through three gates which he described as "imposing structures." Unlike in Seoul, the gates of the city were never closed at night, and men and women were free to mingle in the streets as they pleased.
This was not his only comparison of Jeju with Seoul. "The homes are constructed of the same rock peculiar to [Jeju] and are thatched […] and present an air of solidity." He acknowledged that the streets were "certainly dirty but there are none of the disgusting trenches filled with the unutterable filth which characterizes the city of Seoul."
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| Fred Dustin's photograph of wild ponies on Jeju Island in May 1968 Robert Neff Collection |
Later foreign visitors echoed his observations.
When Sten Bergman, a Swedish explorer and travel writer, visited the island in the 1930s, he wrote: "The houses of the Korean inhabitants were for the most part built of volcanic stone and were surrounded by walls of the same material. The roofs were thatched with straw generally, and to prevent the straw from blowing about it was held down by a network of straw ropes."
Siegfried Genthe, a well-educated German journalist who arrived in Korea in the summer of 1901 and was obsessed with the idea of climbing Mount Halla, was not overly impressed with the stone buildings. To him, the stone accentuated the darkness of the island. Upon his arrival he noted that "the soil, the houses, the beach, and the people" were all black. His views of the streets of Jeju City were equally dark and squalid. "Nasty black pigs, with their abominable paunches dragging in the dust, dug into the dirt alongside naked children and meager black dogs."
While Chaille-Long was appreciative of the use of volcanic stone in the construction of the common people's homes, he did find fault with the maintenance of the public buildings ― including the governor's residence ― that were "once elegant and imposing but [were now] rapidly falling to decay." His description darkens when he described the Buddhist temple. "As arts and architecture in [Korea] came with Buddhism from India so it died when the monastery was no longer [able to maintain] a foyer to sustain it." The bell at the temple no longer summoned the faithful to prayers but "became an instrument with which during the night the evil spirits" were kept at bay with its mournful toll.
At another point in his report he added:
"It is certain that [Buddhism] obtained a footing in [Jeju] for along the streets through which I passed in [Jeju were] four large statues of Buddha worn and defaced by the fingers of time. The audience hall and the governor's house give another proof of the existence of the Buddha faith for these buildings are undoubtedly the result of a school of architecture which has been adopted throughout [Korea], and which owes its birth to the Buddhist priests."
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| Iconic stone images of Jeju in 2014 Robert Neff Collection |
In 1899, two Western missionaries visited the island and wrote:
"A Confucian temple in each of the three cities [of the island], six or eight large idols cut of lava and placed outside of each gate, and a few shrines seem to satisfy all the spiritual needs of the hundred thousand people. There is not one Buddhist temple nor a priest on the whole island. It is said that about a hundred years ago a skeptical governor ordered all the temples to be destroyed and all the priests driven out. Since then they have never been allowed to return. The governor was punished, tho, for his atheism and soon died at [Jeju] far away from his relatives and friends."
In 1930, Walter Stotzner visited the island and wrote that the "blue-black volcanic rock" was the "most characteristic feature" of the island. As the others had noted, the public buildings and the monuments which over the centuries the various governors of the island had erected were all made from this very hard stone ― "even the extraordinary stone images which protect" the island. Stotzner had been told that these stone "images originally stood guard over the four roads that lead to [Jeju], but today [in 1930] they are only found on only one of these, since the Japanese have removed the others to [build] roads which lead to newly erected Japanese temple shrines."
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| Stotzner's picture of a stone image in 1930 Courtesy of Diane Nars Collection |
Perhaps he was referring to this spot the missionaries wrote about in 1899:
"Within ten li [about 5 kilometers] from [Daejeong] one sees a peculiar rock rising abruptly to the height of some eight hundred feet. In the south side of it at the height of about three hundred feet there is a cave of some twenty feet wide at the entrance twenty feet long and forty feet high. From the opening of the cave the view over the country and the sea is magnificent. We were told that many years ago a Buddhist temple was standing in the cave, but was destroyed at the same time as the others."
There were other spots the missionaries wanted to visit but were unable to find ― such as Samseonghyeol.
"We were very curious to see the famous three holes from which the founders of three noted Korean families are said to have come into the world. But I fear that these holes as well as the three heroes are legends. Nobody on the island seems to know anything about it either."
I tend to believe that it wasn't ignorance that prevented the missionaries' guides from taking them to Samseonghyeol but rather the guides' desire to keep the meddling missionaries away from the sacred spot.
There was, however, one sacred spot that could not be hidden from the eyes of curious and skeptical foreigners ― Mount Halla.
My appreciation to Diane Nars for her invaluable assistance and kindness in allowing me to use her images. I would also like to thank professor David Nemeth for providing me with copies of his articles about Siegfried Genthe's trip to Jeju.
Robert Neff has authored and co-authored several books including, Letters from Joseon, Korea Through Western Eyes and Brief Encounters.
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