He was. That little shit took out more people than I did.
But you two were on the same side, weren’t you?
Hey, hey, enough of that. We’re not on any side.
Long, long ago, an American ship called the General Sherman sailed out of Tianjin harbor in China. The owner of the ship, a man named Preston, had heard rumors that precious treasures were buried in the royal tombs of Pyongyang in the Chosŏn kingdom. Acting in concert with a British firm, Meadows and Company, he set out for Chosŏn on June 18, 1866. His ship carried Western goods popular in China at the time and an assortment of weapons, not to mention nineteen sailors, two friends named Wilson and Hogarth, a Danish man named Page who acted as captain, and a Protestant minister of Scottish origins known as Thomas — the designated interpreter and guide.
Prior to this journey, while doing missionary work in Shandong, Thomas had encountered two men from Chosŏn who claimed to be believers of the Catholic faith. The Reverend Thomas longed to spearhead the first Protestant mission in Chosŏn, known then as a mysterious hermit nation. Setting out with this goal in mind, he eventually reached Paengnyŏng Island, off the west coast of Hwanghae Province. There he remained for two and a half months, handing out sixteen copies of the Bible (translated into Chinese) to the islanders. Apparently under the impression that Chosŏn was some kind of tiny, feudal realm, Thomas reportedly tried to meet the king in person in order to get direct permission to carry out his sacred mission. He was, however, unable even to find his way to Seoul. As it was his first time in the country, he promised himself he would one day return and headed back to China. With that first event serving as the impetus, the Reverend Thomas applied himself to studying the Korean language. Eventually, he became competent enough to communicate directly with native Koreans. He even gave himself a Korean name, Ch’oe Ranhŏn, using Chinese characters.
Due to a minor disturbance caused by the invasion of a French fleet a few months before the General Sherman’s arrival, the royal court of Chosŏn was adamantly against the entry of foreign ships into any of the nation’s ports. On the night of July 11, the General Sherman sailed up the Taedong River and dropped anchor at Sinjangp’o in Ch’oribang, Pyongyang Prefecture. A great commotion ensued, as the general populace understandably assumed that the French fleet, which they heard had retreated, was mounting another attack. The governor of P’yŏngan Province dispatched his number one man to ascertain the purpose of the ship’s visit to his shores and to observe its general movement. When the man arrived, Ch’oe Ranhŏn, that is, Reverend Thomas came forth to act as the interpreter. Thomas introduced his company, explained that their sole aim was that of commercial trade, and suggested the friendly exchange of various Western goods with Chosŏn articles such as gold, ginseng, paper, and fur. In addition, Thomas clarified that his party consisted not of troublemaking Catholics but of peaceful Protestants. The governor’s man replied that Chosŏn law not only prohibited trade with all Westerners, it explicitly forbade the presence of Protestants as well as Catholics. He asked for their immediate departure, even supplying food to replenish their stores, as per their request, in the hopes that this would send them on their way. On July 13, however, the General Sherman simply sailed farther up the river and dropped anchor again at Turodo, slightly below Man’gyŏngdae, and sailed up and down along the river in a small boat, observing the state of affairs in the city of Pyongyang.
The official Protestant stance, however, is slightly different. They insist that from the outset, they mistook the Taedong River in Pyongyang for the Han River in Seoul. Upon his arrival, they say, the Reverend Thomas came ashore at Changsap’o, in the vicinity of Sŏkhojŏng, and began handing out Chinese translations of the Bible along with various missionary pamphlets to a crowd who had gathered on a hillside to get a glimpse of the General Sherman. It is likely that the governor’s men, who had a duty to fulfill, felt the need to put a stop to this activity. On the sixteenth, these Korean officials were taken aboard the General Sherman and held as hostages.
On this last point, too, the Protestants have their own story. The Reverend Thomas, they say, tried to reason with the governor’s men, reiterating the purpose of their visit to Chosŏn: “We did not come to your nation to do harm; we have no underhanded schemes. We only aim to, first, share Christianity with you. Second, we hope to trade wonderful goods with you, and third, we wish to appreciate the beautiful scenery and famous historic sights of your land.”
It was during this discourse, according to the Protestants, that an official document was found on one of the governor’s men, a document containing an order to the effect that the crew of the General Sherman was to be lured onto land and massacred. They say the crew was so outraged by this discovery that they took the men hostage, and not for any other reason.
Greatly dismayed, the perturbed provincial governor dispatched an officer in an attempt to conduct some sort of negotiation, but the Westerners refused to settle for anything less than open trade. On the nineteenth, the General Sherman set sail once again, traveling even further up the river to Hwanggangjŏng, where they dropped anchor once more and took to smaller boats so that they could move up the Crow Rapids. The populace, shocked and enraged by this inexcusably rude behavior, gathered en masse along the riverside. The people chanted in unison demanding the release of the hostages and mounted an attack built around the legendary Pyongyang stone-throwing technique, whereupon the government soldiers joined in, doing their part by shooting arrows and firing guns. In the midst of this pandemonium the hostages somehow managed to escape from the ship. The Western ship, far from turning back, responded by raiding the village along the river, looting food and cattle and killing people.
On the morning of July 22, an intense battle broke out. Chosŏn government troops began by showering artillery fire. The Sherman countered with its two cannons. Though the Sherman was able to block her opponents’ artillery fire for a time and employed the use of both cannons and rifles, the limited gunpowder and manpower on board was exhausted by the end of a full day’s combat. On the following day, the twenty-third, the General Sherman started its retreat downriver. Downstream, however, the Chosŏn soldiers that had been ambushed earlier lay in wait, ready to carry out what would prove to be a virtually ceaseless series of attacks. Meanwhile, the river itself, which had been swelled by a particularly rainy spell, was growing shallower; at the end of an ongoing offensive-defensive battle that lasted three days, the ship became stuck in a sandbank. At this point, the people of Pyongyang set fire to several boats and sailed them down the river. As intended, the Sherman caught fire and its crew, no longer able to resist, came out on the bow to plead for mercy. The ship’s remaining gunpowder exploded and its barrels of oil burned fiercely. Some of the crew jumped into the river and drowned; those who reached land were slaughtered by the murderous crowd. The Protestants remember the scene of the Reverend Thomas’s martyrdom as follows:
“The Reverend Thomas did not consider running away to save his life. Instead, he did his utmost to save the Bibles he had brought with him from the flames and deliver them to the people of Chosŏn. He carried a box full of Bibles on his back, and, avoiding the fire, climbed up a low hill along the shore. We are told that he took out the Bibles one at a time and tossed them to the people standing along the hillside.