The History of Korea (vol. 2 of 2)Hulbert, Homer B. (Homer Bezaleel)
History
The History of Korea (vol. 2 of 2)
Hulbert, Homer B. (Homer Bezaleel)
Korea -- History
As a last resort the
Japanese threw gold and silver over the wall to bribe the soldiers
without and keep them from making an attack.
But the tables were about to be turned. All the other Japanese forces in
the south had become aware of the desperate straits to which their
comrades were reduced at To-san. And so now at the last moment a large
fleet appeared and the hard won victory was snatched from between the
teeth of the Chinese and Korean allies. The exposure had greatly
weakened the besieging force. Their provisions were almost exhausted and
they had used up all their arrows. They were far stronger than the
beleagured Japanese but were not fit to cope with the fresh army which
was burning with zeal to avenge their starving compatriots. So it was
that Gen. Yang Ho was compelled to raise the siege and fall back toward
Seoul. During this siege the Chinese loss was fourteen hundred, though
many thousands were wounded.
From this time date the first efforts of the Roman Catholic Church to
enter Korea. Japan had already many thousands of converts to Romanism
and Hideyoshi was determined to leave no means untried to eradicate the
foreign cult. To this end he sent many of the Catholic converts to
Korea. But the most distinguished of them all was the young and vigorous
Gen. Konishi who had received baptism at the hands of the Catholics and
had received the name of Augustine Arimandano. It may have been because
of Hideyoshi’s desire to get the Catholics out of the country that Gen.
Konishi was appointed to the post in Korea. Kato was as pronounced a
Buddhist as Konishi was a Christian and this of course intensified the
hatred and rivalry between them. Gen. Konishi was desirous of having
Catholic teachers come over to the peninsula and attend to the spiritual
needs of the Christians in the army; and to this end the Vice-provincial
of the Jesuits in Japan appointed Padre Gregoris de Cespedes to this
arduous and important post. With him went a Japanese priest. The two
first went to Tsushima and finding no means of getting to the peninsula
remained there over the winter and carried on a successful mission work.
The next spring they made their way to Korea and finally reached Gen.
Konishi’s headquarters at a place that the Japanese call Comangai, which
was without doubt the fort of Ul-san. Here they worked a year but
finally, through the machinations of Gen. Kato, who worked upon the
prejudices of Hideyoshi, both the foreign and native priests were sent
back to Japan, and this had no little to do with the return of Gen.
Konishi, who went to clear himself before his master.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account