[KS] Re: Hamel again, from Cheju-do to Seoul (Quelpaert to Sior)

[Jan Boonstra]

At 12:06 01-10-98 +0200, you wrote:
>Dear list,
>
>Obviously van Hove didn't like to translate the journey of Hamel to Seoul,
>so I
>decided to transcribe that part and translate that into English, there are a
>few place names which puzzle me, but somebody has some ideas. Here comes the
>translated transcription (if there are people interested in the original
>transcription I can send that too) Does anyone has an idea about the missing
>place names or other ideas about the city names?
>
I think this part of Hamel's journal is very interesting and it is amazing
how well Hamel could remember where they stayed each day. About the town
names: Maybe professor Kim Tae-jin was right when he interpreted "Huingh"
as "Kimku". I checked the route with a map and come to some conclusions and
questions:

1. The first four days they proceeded through Chollanam-do with a speed of
35 kms a day. The next 6 days they did about half of this distance per day. 

2. Till Kongju, the report is detailed. But the part from Kongju to Seoul
is not reported at all, other then they passed a big river and that it took
several days to reach Seoul. Why would that be?

3. On the 11th day they stayed in "Insaen". In the various publications of
Hamel's journal, the authors have translated this as Yongsan and indeed,
there is a village of Yongsan-ri in the district of Nonsan-city. But I
doubt if they stayed in that village. Simply, because it is far off the
obvious route from Unjin fortress (near Nonsan, on the 10th day) to Kongju
(the 12th day). IMHO there are 2 possibilities: A. They stayed in
Nosongsan-castle, about 12 kms north of Nonsan. B. They stayed near
Kyeryongsan, a litlle further north on the road to Kongju.

4. Which route would they have taken from Kongju to Seoul?
Henny Savenije translated from the original manuscript:
 
>and arrived at night in a city called Kongtio (Kongju), where the 
>Cityholder of the province of Shaelde has his court. The next day 
>we passed a big river, and came into the province of Senggado 
>(Kyonggido) where the Kings city lies.

Which "big river" would that have been? One would say: the Kumkang, which
flows directly north of Kongju. But the border of Kyonggi-do lies still
another 60 kms more north! It is not 100% sure that Hamel meant that they
entered Kyonggi-do after passing the river, but it looks obvious. Nowadays,
you would enter Kyonggi-do near P'yongt'aek. But it is possible that they
took a more western route, in that case they had to cross a big river
indeed (Asan Man) to enter Kyonggi-do. 

Does anybody know about roads from Seoul to Kongju in the 17th century?

Jan Boonstra
http://bora.dacom.co.kr/~boonstra


%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%