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Rebels at the Gate By Robert Neff In the summer of 1894, the community of Westerners residing in Seoul were greatly alarmed ― not of the on-going Sino-Japanese War but because of the growing insurrection and unrest spreading throughout the southern part of the peninsula which threatened to spread to Seoul and endanger their lives. On September 17, 1894, Sallie (the wife of the American ambassador to Korea, John Sill) wrote in her journal-letter that on the night before last the rumor was rife that all the missionaries in Seoul were to be massacred. It wasn t the first time a massacre of Western missionaries was threatened. In April ― the previous year ― placards and notices were posted on the doors of foreign residences in Seoul and even on the Japanese legation s gates proclaiming the city to be the lair and den of barbarians ― filled with the Japanese and foreign rebels and thieves [who had been] introduced into the bowels of our land. ....