a to the West before the first
missionary arrived. In 1884 Dr. Allen, a Presbyterian physician (afterwards
United States Minister to Korea), arrived at Seoul. It was very doubtful at
this time how missionaries would be received, or how their converts would
be treated. The law enacting death against any man who became a Christian
was still unrepealed, but it was not enforced. Officialism might, however,
revive it at any time. It was thought advisable, when the first converts
were baptized in 1887, to perform the ceremony behind closed doors, with an
earnest and athletic young American educationalist, Homer B. Hulbert,
acting as guard.

Dr. Allen was soon followed by others. Dr. Underwood, brother of the famous
manufacturer of typewriting machines, was the first non-medical missionary.
The American and Canadian Presbyterians and Methodists undertook the main
work, and the Church of England set up a bishopric. Women missionary
doctors came, and at once won a place for themselves. Names like
Appenzeller, Scranton, Bunker and Gale--to name a few of the pioneers--have
won a permanent place in the history of missions.

The missionaries found a land almost without religion, with few temples and
few monks or priests. Buddhism had been discredited by the treachery of
some Japanese Buddhists during the great Japanese invasion by Hideyoshi in
1592, and no Buddhist priest was allowed inside the city of Seoul. Young
men of official rank studied their Confucius diligently, but to them
Confucianism was more a theory for the conduct of life and a road to high
office than a religion. The main religion of the people was Shamanism, the
fear of evil spirits. It darkened their souls, as the tales of a foolish
nurse about goblins darken the mind of a sensitive and imaginative child.
The spirits of Shamanism were evil, not good, a curse, not a blessing,
bringing terror, not hope.

Christianity was very fortunate in its representatives. I have seen much of
the missionaries of Manchuria and Korea. A finer, straighter lot of men I
never want to meet. The magnificent climate enables them to keep at the top
of form. They have initiative, daring and common sense. Those I have known
are born leaders, who would have made their mark anywhere, in business or
politics.

In the early days they had to be ready to set their hands to anything, to
plan and build houses and churches, to open schools, to run a boat down
dangerous rapids or face a dangerous m