Yi Wan, the nephew of the fallen Admiral, still urged on the battle; but the work was almost done. The fugitive boats became fewer and fewer. Admiral Chil Lin happened to come near the boat of the dead admiral and noticing that the sailors in it were quarrelling over some Japanese heads he exclaimed, “The Admiral must be dead.” He entered the boat and found it even so. Throwing himself three times at full length on the deck he uttered this lament: “I thought that he would save me and still live, but here he lies dead and there is no soldier now left in Korea.”
We have now come to the end of actual hostilities in the peninsula but we must cross to Japan and inquire into the immediate causes which led to the final recall of all the Japanese troops. The Korean account of these events is very remarkable and faith is to be put in it only in-so-far as it is not directly antagonized by the Japanese account. For events that transpired in Korea the Korean account must be taken as the standard, but for events that transpired in Japan the Japanese account must of course be accepted as the more trustworthy. The Korean account is as follows.
When the Japanese first invaded Korea, in the year 1592, it so happened that a young Korean boy named Yang Pu-ha, a native of Tong-nă, became attached to the Japanese army as a slave, and was eventually taken to Tsushima. From there he made his way to the mainland of Japan and at last reached the court of Hideyoshi. That observant man spied him out and said, “Korean and Japanese boys resemble each other strongly. Take this boy and teach him Japanese, and if he does not learn well cut off his head.” With this incentive it would be strange if a less intelligent boy than Yang Pu-ha would not learn rapidly. In the space of three months he could converse creditably in Japanese, and Hideyoshi as reward made him one of his body-servants. For some years the boy performed the duties of this position, until at last the Chinaman Sim Yu-gyŭng arrived. That official was kept practically in confinement at the court of Hideyoshi. One day the Korean servant asked his master to be allowed to see Sim Yu-gyŭng. Permission was granted and the young man found the Chinese envoy in great perplexity, in fact in tears. This excited the pity of the young man and he secured the release of the Chinaman, who from that time was often called into the presence of Hideyoshi, with whom he soon became on familiar terms. One day as he sat with the great Taiko he took out a pill and swallowed it. He did the same on several days in succession until at last the curiosity of Hideyoshi was excited and he asked what it was. The Chinaman answered that it was an antidote to indigestion and that by eating it the strength and vigor of the body was preserved intact. Hideyoshi took one in his hand and eyed it suspiciously. On one side of the pill was written the Chinese character _so_ meaning “hot.” The Japanese deliberately took a knife and cut the pill in two and handing half to Sim said, “You eat half and I will eat half.” Its immediate effects were stimulating and pleasant but in the end it proved a deadly poison for it slowly dried up the blood. Each day Sim shared one with his captor but upon retiring to his room swallowed a potion which entirely neutralized the effect of the poison. Before long Hideyoshi’s hands began to grow hard and dry and one day when he happened to cut his hand he was astonished to find that no blood followed. He called for a moxa and applied it to his hand and yet no blood came. Then he laughed aloud and cried, “I am a dead man. When I cease to breathe take out my bowels and sew my body up again with horse-hair; and then preserve my body in wine and do not let the outsiders know that I am dead.” He wanted to have the fact concealed for he feared it would have a dispiriting effect upon the troops in Korea. Shortly after this he died and his orders were minutely carried out. For two months no one outside the palace knew of his decease, but at last the stench became so great that they confessed that the great Hideyoshi had passed away. Such is the Korean story.
