Preacher James Gale in Korea

James Scarth Gale was born in Feb. 1863 at Miami as a boy among 5 boys and I daughter..He came to Korea in Dec. 1888 with his probable motive to explore a hidden treasure land and had stayed for 40 years travelling 25 times Korean peninsula including Hamhung, Wonsan and Seoul in which he cooperated with Dr. Underwood..It can assumed for him to travel 2 times a year on his foot…It was time Japan China war had broken out in 1884 and the business trade had agreed with British in 1883. At that time in 1863 Korea had agreed with France to preach Christian. Korea had seen China was defeated by British at the Narcotic war in 1840 and in 1882 Korea saw Holland commercial ship had been wrecked in Jeju island to know the western world. Russia Japan war was followed in 1904 around the peninsula..

As an American, he might know the ship Sherman accident that Sherman came upstream to anchor the city of Pyongang, asking trade but, in process of communication with Koreans gathering along the river, were killed and, in retaliation, the ship was destroyed completely with fire… He might be heard of American marines’ Kangwa landing operation in 1871 as an American citizen.

China had only lost her supreme national power for 200 years in the world history meanwhile she has maintained 5,000 history with confidence of the global center.. We can see Chinese potential power when we consider her population, 1.3 billion in the mainland China which number is bigger than European: 2.3 billion if out of China among 6 billion world population.. 

During his stay, he understood the power of Korean language that was easy to learn. He had translated Bible in Korean to preach Christian toward Korean peoples who were blocked from the authority by the Korean upper layer authority as an way to dominate and treat like slavery…He had great conviction of successful Christian campaign with the translation because Korean were realized facts and new value..At that time peoples had been suffered for the corrupted governmental authority that had the exclusive trade authority to import from foreigners under the agreement, making officers to get private profit and peoples to pay higher rice for the goods…Donghak civil riot was broken out 120 years ago in time Gale had stayed…Due to the brutality of the riot, he simply regarded it as riot..     

He had written his book Korean Sketch and Vanguard(pioneer) at every early dawn, depicting people’s daily life and customs as like the annual stone fighting where many lower level of peoples engaged, the big trousers, rolling mountainous country, the Ondol system as the most energy efficient for heating and cooking at once and insects prevail due to Buddhism. He had realized Japanese took advantage of Korean’s ignorance on contract records during colonial era for grabbing property. He described Korean as friendly and sympathy but lazy though promptness was always key in the action…