Ch 14 - Western Contacts

The Great Escape

In September 1666, eight Dutchmen escaped from Yosu, Korea, aboard a small boat and reached Deshima Island in Nagasaki, Japan. Their escape provided the Japanese with new information about Choson and led to a further tightening of restrictions against foreigners in Korea.

Governors came and went. Some were good, some were tolerable, and some were quite cruel. Unwilling to do slave labor in Choson the rest of their lives, Hendrick Hamel, quartermaster Govert Denijszen, gunner's mate Gerrit Janszen, and cabin boys Benedictus Clercq and Denijs Govertszen decided to escape as soon as possible or die in the attempt. Mattheus Eibokken and Cornelis Dirckse decided to join the group during one of their visits from Sunchon. Jan Pieterszen, a knowledgeable navigator, joined the group on September 3, 1666. None of the other Dutch exiles were told of the plan since only the eight men involved had permission to freely move about. Furthermore, Jan Claeszen and few of the others had married and established families .

The Dutch persuaded a friendly neighbor to act as middleman and purchase a ship, "to be used to sail to one of the islands to buy wool." After the Dutch promised they would share all profits, the man agreed and bought a boat from a local fisherman the next day. The fisherman saw the Dutchmen rigging the boat and, realizing they wanted to escape, tried to cancel the sale. To calm his fears of punishment by the authorities, they gave him all the money they had and told him to tell the governor that the Hollanders stole his boat. They impressed on him the importance of not reporting too early and warned him that if they were picked up by patrolling war junks they they would name him as an accomplice.

On September 4, 1666, the Dutch began making numerous trips over the village wall to load their boat with food and gear. To distract local villagers, they lit a large bonfire on the beach and announced they were having a beach party. They drew quite a crowd of onlookers, but as the evening wore on, fewer and fewer villagers remained. After everybody had gone back to the village, the Dutch let the fire slowly die out. Under a moonless sky, the Dutch weighed anchor and set sail for a nearby island to take on fresh water. Beyond the island, the boat's sails caught a steady wind and moved quickly into the open sea. Although Koreans rarely sailed to Japan, they knew which direction to travel and how far to sail. Had the Dutch not obtained this information from friends before they departed, they would have been lost, since none of them had ever been to Japan and they had no map.

Using the stars to guide them, the Dutch sailed a straight course to the south-southeast. Just after sunrise they changed course directly downwind to make the best possible speed and approached the northwest coast of Hirado Island on the evening of September 6. Sailing under weak and changing winds in unfamiliar waters, the Dutch carefully sailed down the west side of the numerous small islands of the Goto Archipelago. Having no idea where they were and largely ignored by the few Japanese fishing boats in the area, the Dutch anchored in a small bay at one of the islands on September 7. Late that afternoon, a ship carrying six men sailed into the bay and steered toward the Dutch, soon followed by more ships. Believing they could not escape, the Dutch hoisted the regimental colors of the Prince of Orange, which they had made earlier for just such an occasion.

When the Japanese got within hailing distance, the eight Dutch shouted in unison, "Hollando, Nagasaki." The first ship to enter the bay sailed alongside, took the Dutch ship under tow and proceeded to sail around a small cape to a small fishing village. After securing the Dutch ship, the Japanese tried to interrogate some of the men, but since neither party could understand the other, little was accomplished. Jan Pieterszen continued to shout, "Hollanda, Nagasaki," and the Japanese seemed to understand the second word just fine, because more and more of them began nodding in agreement and pointing in a certain direction. Toward evening, a large ship sculled into the bay with lowered sails. The Dutch were taken aboard and greeted by Kyushu's third highest ranking daimyo, an impressive gentleman who smiled as he told the men that five Dutch ships were anchored in Nagasaki and that they would be taken there in four or five days.

At sunrise on the morning of September 13, the Dutch ship set out for Nagasaki in the company of two large and two small Japanese sailing ships, arriving around midnight under clear skies. Tears of joy streamed down their cheeks as soon as they spotted the five Dutch ships sitting at anchor in the harbor. The eight Dutch survivors embraced each other and shouted with joy until their throats were hoarse. Early the next morning, exactly 13 years and 28 days after being shipwrecked on Quelpaert Island, they stepped onto the Nagasaki docks. The VOC representative and Japanese officials who met them were intensely curious about the sudden appearance of the eight men. Two interpreters, one Dutch, one Japanese, both of whom spoke Portuguese, accompanied the Dutchmen to the governor's residence in Nagasaki, where they were interrogated for the better part of the day about their long stay in Choson.

The eight men told an unbelievable story. Beginning with the wreck of their ship, de Sperwer, on Quelpaert (Cheju) Island on August 16, 1653, the Dutchmen provided a wealth of information about their adventure in Korea. At the time the Dutch arrived, Choson was a vassal state of the Manchus and its eight provinces included 360 major cities and numerous fortresses and castles. There were no feudal lords, such as Japan's daimyo, who owned cities, villages or islands. While some did control islands or special domains on loan from the king, as soon as they died, the territory reverted to the king's control. Provincial governors served a three year term in office, although many were relieved of their duties much sooner for fraud, corruption or any other offense deemed misbehavior. The king's spies were quick to report any irregularity and any man caught risked either lifelong exile or death. The king derived his income from taxes raised on the profits of agriculture and fishing. Taxes were often paid in kind and stored in the king's warehouses in nearly every city and village. Choson's aristocracy earned its income principally from farmland and slaves and some yangban owned no fewer than 2,000 to 3,000 male and female slaves. Those in service to the king also received an allowance from the royal treasury.

What Hendrick Hamel and his shipmates saw of Choson society was little more than the tip of an iceberg, the surface effects of generations of social turmoil. The Dutch saw first hand the effects of Choson's rigidly structured Confucian society on everyday life. In a nation that seemed from the earliest age to be addicted without thoughts of teaching and learning, the nobility and all freeborn men in general took great interest in the education of their children . Students were imbued with Choson's history at private academies and learned to condemn those who had been put to death for crimes against their country. They were taught to honor their ancestors and that to gain great wealth was a worthy goal. Appointment to either a civil or military post was the reward for students who passed the national examination and received the attention of the king. The Dutch also witnessed the darker side of this system, noting that aspiring candidates would go to any length to bribe or otherwise seek favor from higher officials in hopes of gaining a government appointment.

The Dutch found Korean a hard language to learn, as it looked like no other language and was pronounced in different ways by different people. According to Mattheus Eibokken, who spoke Korean very well, the Chinese and Koreans could read each other's writing, but their spoken languages had nothing in common. Scholars and most yangban spoke slowly, commoners spoke a bit faster, and merchants spoke very fast. The Koreans wrote with brushes like the Chinese, and wrote their language three different ways:  printed books used a script that appeared much like Chinese and Japanese;  ministers and bureaucrats used a handwritten script;  finally, most peasants and women used the much simpler Hangul and could write quickly using just a small pencil. The Koreans treasured their many old printed and handwritten books and stored copies and the wooden printing plates to produce them in several different cities and fortresses to prevent their destruction.

The Hereen XVII in Amsterdam had issued standing orders applicable to all VOC ships that directed them to disrupt and obstruct trade among the different nations as much as possible by capturing their ships and confiscating their cargo. When the Japanese asked the Dutch if they had any orders to capture Chinese or other junks, or to undertake raids on the coast of China, they carefully answered:  "We didn't receive such kind of order. Our assignment was to sail straight ahead to Japan."

The Dutch told their interrogators they believed the Koreans practiced the same religion as the Chinese and did not attempt to convert others. They saw many temples and monasteries filled with statues, where they assumed the Koreans worshipped the same as the Chinese. Korean monks were abundant and made their living by working and begging. They dressed the same as Japanese monks, but wore hats of horsehair, cow hair or sometimes bamboo and also wore shoes and socks. The Dutch did not report meeting any Christians in Korea, but when asked if they had seen any other nationalities they mentioned some Chinese who had fled to Seoul to escape the fighting in China and told of their meetings with Jan Janse Weltevree.

The Dutch told the Japanese they last saw Weltevree at the ferry crossing over the Han River south of Seoul in 1656, and had heard nothing from him since. During a later meeting with the VOC chief on Deshima Island however, Hendrick Hamel reportedly said that Weltevree was about seventy years old when they left Yosu Chwasuyong and was still alive. When asked how Weltevree got to Korea, the Dutch explained that he had been aboard the yacht Ouwerkerck when it was stranded off the coast of Korea. He and two of his shipmates rowed to shore to fetch water, where they were surprised and captured by the Koreans. The remaining crewmen escaped to sea aboard the yacht. In their later meeting with the VOC chief however, the Dutch made no mention that Weltevree was ever on board the Ouwerkerck. Weltevree was clearly involved with a group of privateers and the Dutchmen knew it. They saw no reason to mention such an incident to the Japanese.

The Dutch reported that Choson troops were armed with muskets, swords, bows and arrows, and some artillery pieces. Near every city there was a fortress or walled battlement provisioned with food and ammunition for three years. In addition, every city maintained a war junk, which was typically equipped with some small artillery pieces and manned by a crew of 200 to 300 men, oarsmen and soldiers. The Dutch also told the Japanese that while Choson was not at war with any country, it did pay tribute to the Manchus, whose envoy arrived in Seoul two or three times each year to collect. Curiously, the Dutch never mentioned the fact they had trained the Koreans in Seoul in the use of modern guns.

The Dutch explained they had been told that Choson and Manchuria were connected across a high mountain range in the north which made it practically impossible to travel between the two countries. The two countries share a common sea which links them by boat in the summertime and by horseback over the ice in winter. The mountains were impassable during the winter because of heavy snows and severe cold. The large numbers of tigers, brown bears and wolves made crossing the sparsely populated landscape during the summer a dangerous proposition. The existence of a land passage between China and Korea was proven to Matteus Eibokken during his stay in Seoul when he witnessed the arrival of six horses sent to King Hyojong as a gift from the Qing emperor by way of Manchuria. According to Eibokken, "they were speckled like the skin of a tiger with yellow and black dots on a white ground. Their mane and tail were white, hanging down to the ground."

The Dutch explained they had repeatedly asked the Choson king and his Crown Council for permission to leave, but they were always denied with the same argument:  Choson never let foreigners leave. The Yi government wanted to keep its existence in the world a secret. The Dutch tried to escape Choson twice before, but failed once because a Manchu envoy had been bribed by the king and a second time because they were unfamiliar with the rigging of a fisherman's boat. Although none of them had ever been to Japan before, they received help from a few Korean friends who had been to Nagasaki and told them how to make the trip. They also remembered the directions given them by their Chief Pilot, Hendrick Janse. The Dutch also spoke of their hope that the eight men who remained in Korea would soon be liberated and returned to Holland. When asked how they could ever leave, the Dutch answered that since Japan's emperor sent Korean shipwreck survivors back to Choson, surely Choson's king would not refuse a request from the emperor to release them.

After their interrogation, the Dutch were led across the small bridge to Deshima Island, where they received new clothes and a warm welcome from Lord Willem Volger, the VOC chief, Mr. Nicolaas de Reij, his replacement, and a number of VOC employees. Hendrick Hamel and his companions hoped to depart Deshima for Batavia with Lord Volger on October 23 aboard the Esperance. They could not leave without the permission from the governor of Nagasaki however, and despite repeated oral and written requests by VOC representatives, the governor refused to grant permission. The Esperance and six other Dutch ships sailed on schedule. The eight Dutchmen were obliged to remain on Deshima for another year.

The notoriously "precise" Japanese transcribed all questions and answers given during the interrogation. On October 25, the completed transcript was read to the eight Dutchmen through two interpreters and verified for accuracy. In accordance with the seclusion edicts of Shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu, the governor of Nagasaki sent a full written report of the interrogation to the shogunate in Edo to get the required permission for the Dutch to leave. The authorities didn't react immediately, but wanted to verify the Dutchmen's story with the Yi government in Seoul. The complicated protocol for such correspondence made it impossible for the shogun to write directly to the Choson monarch. All correspondence first had to pass through the daimyo of Tsushima Island, who had the monopoly on all trade and contacts with Choson. The documents then traveled to his small enclave at Tongnae near Pusan, where Choson permitted the daimyo to send only 21 ships each year.

The Japanese wanted to know if there were any Christians hidden among the Dutch who lived in Choson. Following the obligatory ceremonial language, the letter of inquiry sent to the Pusan authorities stated:

"Recently a Korean fishermen's boat ended up near one of the islands of the Goto Archipelago. Because it was suspected that the persons on board where foreigners from Holland, they were sent by the governor of the islands to Nagasaki. Here they were interrogated. They claimed to be Hollanders, whose ship was wrecked 13 years ago on the coast of Korea on their way to Japan. That they have lived for thirteen years in your country and that they escaped recently."

"Though the barbarians call themselves merchants, it is well possible that they are followers of Jesus, who have come to your and our country to deceive the people with their pernicious doctrine. We know that your government is just as apprehensive as ours for the infiltration of ideas which could affect the national identity of both our nations. That is why we request you urgently for further information. Further detail will be informed orally by our representative in Tongnae."

The Japanese tone and demeanor of the verbal inquiry in Pusan was unceremoniously blunt compared to the diplomatic niceties of their letter. In his meeting with the Pusan mayor, an arrogant and intimidating Japanese representative pounded the table for effect as he demanded Choson to provide the Japanese government answers to the following questions as soon as possible:  Is it true that thirteen years ago a ship from Holland stranded off the coast of Korea and that you stole the cargo?  Don't you know that every foreign ship that strands off the Korean coast has to be reported to the authorities of Japan immediately?  You do know that Holland is a vassal state of Japan?  The Japanese always sent very courteous and highly formal official reports, but the tough tone of voice and intimidating manner was a typical Japanese tactic intended to speed up the Korean response.

The representative's questions were written down by the mayor in his official report on the meeting and translated into Korean, which took some time. Since the Pusan authorities had no right to have written contact with the Japanese, they contacted the provincial governor. The frightened governor knew that eight of the Dutch had escaped his jurisdiction and that the fisherman who sold them the boat had been executed, but he kept the matter quiet on assurances that the Dutch would never reach Japan in the small boat and would vanish without a trace. Now the news was out in the open and he had little choice but to forward the documents on to Seoul. Unaware of the Dutch escape, the news raised a great deal of concern in the royal court and it took some time to formulate an appropriate answer.

In its response to the Pusan mayor, the royal court noted:

"Indeed a ship was stranded thirteen years ago, but we didn't steal the cargo. It was given back to the shipwrecked persons. In our opinion only the stranding of Chinese ships has to be reported to Japan. How could we know that Holland is a Japanese vassal state. These people were not dressed in a Japanese way. And they neither spoke nor understood Japanese. They claimed never to have been there."

Shortly afterward, Choson authorities sent a formal written response to the daimyo of Tsushima. After the usual courtesies, the letter went on to state,

"In the year 1653, a foreign ship stranded in front of the coast of the southern island. Half of the crew drowned. Thirty-six persons survived the shipwrecking. Nobody understood their language nor could read their handwriting. They stayed here for fourteen years. They supported themselves with fishing and chopping wood. They have never been caught trying to preach the doctrine of Jesus or to pollute in any other way the people with pernicious ideas. Would this have been the case, then we would not have hesitated to inform you immediately. If these foreigners were really Christians, they wouldn't have fled to Japan. They were namely told that followers of Jesus were killed instantaneously. There are still eight barbarians in our country. When you appreciate that, you can see these and if necessary, interrogate them."

The letter ended with the usual assurances of highest esteem and deepest respect which the Koreans held for the Japanese. Satisfied that the Dutch were not Christians after all, the shogunate finally granted the request from the VOC chief on Deshima and issued the license for the eight men to leave Deshima. The governor of Nagasaki forwarded the departure permit to the Dutch on Deshima around noon on October 22, 1667. Early the next morning, the three-masted freighter de Spreeuw, the Starling, hoisted anchor and rode the dawn tide out of Nagasaki Bay. After an uneventful voyage, de Spreeuw arrived in Batavia on November 28, fourteen years, five months and twelve days after de Sperwer left Batavia for Formosa.

Shortly after the Dutch departed Nagasaki, the Tsushima daimyo wrote the following to the Choson authorities:

"Recently we asked information about a vessel that stranded thirteen years ago off the coast of Korea. We understood that there are still eight of these people in your country. Since they are subject of a vassal state of our country, we request you to promote that these people are transferred to our island."

The letter was carried to Tongnae by courier in the spring of 1668, where it was handed to a local Choson commander and forwarded to Seoul. King Hyonjong and his Crown Council, pleased to be finally rid of the Dutch, granted the request immediately and sent the appropriate instructions to Cholla Province.

Seven of the eight remaining Dutch exiles were taken to Tongnae, where they were handed over to Japanese authorities. In August 1668, the men were moved to Tsushima Island, and the daimyo ensured their safe arrival in Nagasaki. The daily VOC records of September 16, 1668, record the following men arrived at Deshima:  Johannis Lampen, assistant, 36 years old;  Hendrick Cornelissen, sub officer in charge of the rigging;  Jacob Janse, quartermaster, 47 years old;  Anthonij Ulderic, gunman, 32 years old;  Claes Arentszen, cabin boy, 27 years old;  Sander Basket, gunman, 41 years old;  Jan Janse Pelt, junior boatswain, 35 years old. To avoid future trouble from the Japanese, the Koreans reported that one of the men, Jan Claeszen, the ship's cook, had died a year earlier. The seven remaining Dutch exiles confirmed the message to avoid the risk they would not get permission from the Japanese to return home. Actually, Jan was quite alive at the time. He had married and started a family in Namwon, had fully adopted Korean life, and decided not to leave .

After a brief stopover in Batavia, the last of de Sperwer's survivors sailed for Rotterdam, where they were extensively interrogated about every aspect of their adventure. The VOC administrators in Amsterdam and the High Government in Batavia were particularly interested in the profit potential of trade with Korea. It was already known that several products exported to Korea from Japan were being imported by Japan from the VOC. In anticipation of a new market, Amsterdam launched the merchant ship Corea in 1669, while the High Government in Batavia directed Mr. Daniel Six, the VOC chief on Deshima, to look into the matter. Daniel Six explained that Japan's trade monopoly with Choson was in the hands of the Tsushima daimyo and that the Japanese would never allow that monopoly to be broken. If the VOC valued continued commercial relations with Japan, they should forget any ideas about trading directly with Choson. Given Japan's powerful position in the region, the VOC rejected further exploration of Choson and the Corea never set sail toward its namesake.

When the Sparrow Hawk survivors appeared before the Heeren XVII to demand payment for their years of imprisonment in Choson, their demand was rejected out of hand. VOC employees had the right to wages only for the time they were actually on board a VOC ship or when they worked in one of the VOC factories. The Heeren XVII had no desire to deviate from this strict rule under any condition, but as a humanitarian gesture they gave each surviving crewman a small gratuity for their years of hardship, a clear indication the VOC was a trade company and not a charitable institution .

The thirteen-year adventure of the thirty-six survivors of a Dutch shipwreck was but a brief incident in Korea's long history. After the departure of the last survivors of de Sperwer in 1668, Korea went to sleep once again and for over a century there was no report of another Westerner setting foot in the Kingdom of Choson, either accidentally or by design.