Many writers upon Korea seem prone to attribute the mapping of the country to the result of explorations and observations made by foreigners. I believe this assumption to be erroneous and think it can be readily proven that, although the Koreans may have known practically nothing of the outside world up to the time of the treaties, some twenty years ago, they had, nevertheless, long before this formed an excellent idea of the configuration of their own country. The first important work accomplished by outsiders was the survey of the common boundary of Korea and China by the Jesuits, acting under the orders of the Chinese Emperor Kang-hsi, in the year 1709. Severity of climate and roughness of country prevented the party from making more than a preliminary examination of the districts that they passed through, but a few fair determinations of latitude and approximations to longitude were obtained, and the general direction of the boundary determined. With the aid of these data, supplemented by information from native sources, a map was constructed, in which the Korean peninsula was connected with the general system of the world's coördinates and proper names were given in our own alphabetic characters. This map, which forms the basis of most of the representations of Korea in use at the present day, shows its origin in the transliteration of proper names in accordance with the Mandarin Chinese and not the Korean pronunciation of the Chinese characters employed to represent them. The information from Korean sources which the missionaries must have utilized in completing their work was doubtless attained by them in the form of native maps. Of these there are several good ones in use at the present day, two of which would seem especially worthy of notice: (1) the large map of twenty sheets dividing the peninsula into sections by parallel lines drawn from east to west, and (2) a map giving the country in eight sheets, by provinces. The key to the latter, showing the entire kingdom, as well as one of the expanded sheets showing the Kyöngsang province in the southeast, and the Nakdong river, the most important stream of the land, are appended to this paper, and will serve to indicate the progress independently attained by the Koreans in the art of map making. These plates have been reproduced from a copy of an original now in the possession of Mgr. J. G. Blanc, the French Missionary Bishop of Korea, to whom it served as an accurate guide at the time of his perilous entry into the country, fifteen years ago, during a period of severe persecutions. [Illustration: KOREA.] [Illustration: Province of KYÖNG-SANG-DO] The preface of the Korean geographer, which is written in Chinese upon one of the sheets, is of interest, as it illustrates the object of the work, enumerates the classes of data utilized and alludes to difficulties contended with. I therefore quote it here.