In early August 1902, Horace N. Allen, the American minister to Korea, received a message from Admiral Robley D. Evans informing him that the American fleet would arrive in Jemulpo (modern Incheon) on Aug. 6. The admiral added that he would appreciate it if Allen could arrange for him and his naval officers to have an audience with the Korean emperor on the following day. Allen promptly complied and the Korean palace immediately set to work on preparing for the audience and a banquet for the esteemed American naval officers.
After leaving Songdo (Gaeseong), John Baptiste Bernadou, a 24-year-old ensign in the United States Navy and temporarily assigned to the legation in Seoul, traveled to Hwangju - a town “surrounded by a heavy wall which extends to the summit of the hills in the rear.” Hwangju was important for a number of reasons, both the military commander and the governor of the province resided in the area and due to its great stretches of well-cultivated land, it was a great agricultural center that shipped large quantities of grain to Seoul. Apparently, Bernadou stayed only long enough to climb the wall and do a little sightseeing (a.k.a. scavenging for relics and curiosities) before resuming his journey.
Seoul, in the summer of 1884, was filled with rivalries among the small handful of young Western men. Each of these men (naval officers, diplomats and anthropological collectors) s.
In the summer of 1884, there were a handful of Westerners exploring the Korean peninsula - one of them was John Baptiste Bernadou, a 24-year-old ensign in the United States Navy temporarily assigned to the legation in Seoul.
“The position of court physician [in the mid-1880s] was no sinecure,” especially if you were a foreigner, declared Horace N. Allen in one of his many publications of life in Korea.