Fortunately for the whole work of our Protestant missions, the most favorable impression had been made upon the Korean Court and upon the people by the striking and most valuable service which had been rendered by Dr. H. N. Allen, our first medical missionary, and now U. S. Minister in Korea. He had healed the wounds of some distinguished Koreans, who had been nearly killed in a midnight conflict between the Chinese and Japanese garrisons at Seoul. Although there were strong prohibitory decrees against the admission of foreigners in the interior, Mr. and Mrs. Underwood ventured to presume upon the connivance of the officials at their proposed journey to the far north. Traveling as missionaries and without disguise, it was a plucky undertaking for the young bride, since, so far as known, she was the first foreign woman who had made such a tour. The journey was a protracted one and involved all kinds of hardship and privation. Nothing worthy of a name of inn was to be found, but only some larger huts in which travelers were packed away amid every variety of filth and vermin. The curiosity of the people to see a foreign woman was such that the mob everywhere scrupled not to punch holes through the paper windows and doors to get a peep. After having been borne all day in a chair, not over roads, but through tortuous bridle paths, over rocks and through sloughs, it was found well-nigh impossible to rest at night. All sorts of noises early and late added to their discomfort. As to food, the difficulty of subsisting on such fare as the people could furnish may be well imagined. They were not wholly free from the fear of wild animals, for some districts through which they passed were infested by tigers and leopards. But their greatest danger was that of falling into the hands of roaming bands of robbers. Mrs. Underwood’s account of one experience of this kind will be read with thrilling interest. Fortunately, Mr. Underwood had already made one or two shorter tours through the country alone, and had baptized a few converts here and there. The passports also which he carried with him secured the favor of some of the district magistrates, so that the two were not exposed wholly to hostile influences.