The ship's captain was Hugh Hamilton Lindsay

On July 21, the 32nd year of King Sunjo's reign, a British merchant ship docked on an island called Ancient Island, now south of the Taean Peninsula.

The ship's captain was Hugh Hamilton Lindsay (1802-1881), who spied on the situation on China's east coast during the Opium War and informed the British side.

He was able to communicate when he came to Joseon because he was fluent in Chinese. This left a pretty detailed record in the Annals of the Joseon Dynasty.

Captain Lindsey briefly wrote down his visit to the shipbuilding in his book, "A VOYAGE TO THE NORTHERN PORT OF CHINA," and "IN THE SHIP LORD AMERST."

I think I can get a lot of information by comparing these two records, but due to my time relationship, I will skip it (someone will do it, well), and I will only translate Captain Lindsey's contents about Joseon. (Of course, I got a lot of help from Dipl.)

Korea. Chaou-sen. (Korea, Joseon)

There is probably no country in Asia with access to sea that has few European visits. But its language has never been known to Europe. There is no definitive explanation for this remote country, other than the stories of several Dutch people who were shipwrecked off the coast and resided in it for a long time, and information by several Jesuits who went there. The area we visited was fertile but uncultivated. The able-bodied natives lived in very miserable conditions, and they showed great distrust, but became more familiar the longer we stayed. They were extremely anxious that we should not have access to their homes. Their mandario imposed harsher punishments than China.

We were invited to come to the port of Ganggyeong (Gan Keang), not very far from the capital city, apparently referring to the port of Ganggyeong. I think I got the word close to the capital city wrong). When we sent the petition, we had to formally pass the matter on to His Majesty, and she was confident that he would give us an answer at our request. After a considerable period of time, a high official (吳繼淳, Oh Gye-soon, who was not a high official, as he was a translator as the grandfather of Oh Kyung-seok) arrived, who informed us that Korea could not allow our trade because it had no independent diplomatic power as a prosperous country and was tacitly obeying the will of its sovereignty, and therefore not authorized by the empire for such an unconventional transaction (In fact, Joseon also reported this to Qing at the time. Qing also rewarded it for being hypothetical). We proved that they had a power over themselves and were merely tributes to themselves, refuting these claims of vulgarity. They were ashamed of themselves that they had been obsequious to foreigners' eyes to make a pretext to refuse trade. We left here, very dissatisfied with the unnecessary delay. We have occasionally requested that all UK vessels that can reach here be provided with provisions, and they have fully agreed.

In the south of Korea, there is a well-positioned and well-cultivated island named Kelpart (Jeju Island), which can continue trade with Korea, Japan, northern China, and Manchuria Tatar (the separation of Qing and Manchuria is also quite interesting). But we didn't visit in person, we just looked from afar.

When we arrived here the natives were shy and showed little kindness, but became more friendly and still kept us from walking around. We tried to have the means to communicate with them freely (speaking in Chinese) and to impress upon them the friendly feelings that Britain cherishes for the evidence of their indifferent kindness that they have shown us enough. They were reluctant to do any commercial transactions because they gave us food very easily, but commercial transactions were against the law, and their homeland was so small and barren that it could not give us anything in return. We cited the Sandwich Islands to them as an example of the happy outcome of trading with Europeans, who were astonished at this but were so influenced by Chinese politics that they could not accept us and change their exclusive system. Their trade is largely done with the Fujian Province. They send ships carrying food and sulfur cargo every year and pick up Chinese products in return. They denied having any exchanges with Japan, but there were three junk ships from the country at the port. If we had not been disturbed by the Yugu (Ryukyu = Okinawa), we would have been able to talk freely with the Japanese who wanted to share friendships, since the Yugu was under the control of the Satsuma Domain at the time.

China seems to exert a very large influence over its surrounding countries. If China signals that it is beginning to trade with the United Kingdom, all small nations will be ready to follow the example of a celestial empire. This may not apply to Japan, which maintains independence from China and acts at its own discretion, but it can be applied fully to Yugu (Ryukyu = Okinawa), Korea, and Cochin China (Vietnam). Korea, the most exclusive country, only trades with Manchuria Tatar and Japan. Their ambassadors are free to open shops or warehouses in Beijing, and Cochin China (Vietnam) or Sham (Thailand) also have an embassy in Guangdong and are granted permission to bring one or two junk ships to Korea without tariffs. If it is true that the Chinese idea of an ambassador permeates these commercial embassies, then should we be surprised that our ambassadors were treated so rudely because they viewed our ambassadors in the same light?