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Maori Messenger : Te Karere Maori, Volume 3, Issue 73, 9 October 1851, Page 4

"Captain Basil Hall, who visited Corea in 1816, in the Lyra, in company with the Alceste, commanded by Captain Maxwell, relates the fruitless attempts made on various patts o{ the coast to conciliate the natives, who, whenever those officers landed, only manifested an anxiety to prevent the strangers from exploring their villages, and to get rid of thein as speedily as possible. The reason of this behaviour could not, from utter ignorance of the language, be ascertained ; the signs made by one of the chiefs s»emed to imply that his head would not be safe if he permitted the English to have intercourse with the shore. " The chief is described as a venerable, patriarchal figure, his breast covered with a white bushy heard, reaching below his middle ; his robe, a mantle —which was of blue silk and of immense size—flowed about him in a magnificent style. Mis sword was suspended from his waist by a small bell; but the insignia of his office appeated to be a small black rod tipped with silver, about a foot and a half long, with a small leathern thong at one end, and a piece of black crape tied at the other; this he held in his hand. His hat with a brim of extraordinary breadth, was not less than three feet across ; the crown, about nine inches high and scarcely large enough to admit the top of the head, was shaped like a sugar-loaf with the end cut off. The texture of thi3 strange kind of hat is of a fine open work, like the dragon-fly's wing; it appears to be made of horsehair varnished over, and is fastened under the chin by a band strung with large beads, mostly white and black, but occasionally red and yellow. " The persons forming the suite of the chief were dressed nearly in the same manner as himself, excepting that their robe 3 were white, and did not contain such a profusion of cloth. They wore the large hats, and wide trowsers tied above the ankle, with cotton shoes turned up a little at the toe. The immediate attendants, who seemed also soldiers, were differently clothed. Over a loose pink frock with wide sleeves, they have another, which fits closer and is without sleeves, the corners being tucked np like the skirts of some military uniforms. Their hat is a broad flat cone, made of thick grass, the under part being embossed with different coloured silks; and from a gilt ornament on the peak there bangs a tassel of peacock's feathers, and another of hair dyed red. Some are armed with bows and arrows, others with only a straight sword, having no guard for the hand. A coarse frock without sleeves, and trowsers, covering the thigh, are worn by the lower orders. —China in miniature.