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Hamel's route in 17th century Korea
by Jan Boonstra, 
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by Jan Boonstra,
H
amel's task on board of the Dutch merchant vessel "Sperwer" before it shipwrecked on Jeju Island in 1653, included also keeping record of the ship's track. Apparently he had not forgotten this task when he and 35 other survivors were transported from Jeju to Seoul half a year later.
In Hamel's journal, a famous and fascinating description of Korea through a westerner's eye in the 17th century, he describes accurately in which places they stayed at night during their travel to Seoul in 1654. On the map, left, I tried to reconstruct their track.
They advanced at an average of 25 kilometres (15 miles) a day, on foot and horseback. Despite all the credit we can give Hamel for accuracy, he failed to give details for the section Gongju - Seoul. From other sources (referenced below) I found the common route in that time, as well as the towns and fortresses where they likely stopped for taking meals, rest and a place to sleep for the night. The place names that are shown in bold characters, like: 
are towns, reported by Hamel, where they stayed overnight. Other places, not mentioned by Hamel but possible locations where they stayed, are shown as: 
Hamel reports that they took the same way back in 1656, when they were exiled to Jeolla-do and lived in the village of Byeongyeong for the next seven years. They were not allowed to leave the country, but were also not kept imprisoned, so that they could witness the life and habits of the Koreans very well. Due to a severe famine, they were divided and sent to other towns. By that time, only 16 were still alive and eight of them, including Hamel, managed to escape to Japan. Seven others followed one year later, by mediation of Japanese authorities.
The one remaining was reported to have died, but it is believed that he did not want to leave Korea, because he had started a family (in Namwon, Jeolla-do) and had fully adopted life as a Korean. Also the others were largely adapted to the Korean lifestyle and spoke the language. It tickles one's imagination to know that there are probably still offspring of these Dutch castaways in Korea......
References
Thanks to professor Sungjong Paik for details of the ancient Seoul - Gongju route.
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