K'ANG-WA, kang'w:(1, K'ANG-WHA, or K'ANG-HOA (Japanese. River-Flower). An island lying at the mouth of the Han River in Korea, and very important as guarding the water approach to the capital, Seoul. For ages it was the place of refuge for the Court during the many invasions of the country. Modern methods of warfare have made the island less valuable as a stronghold; hut the archives of the Govern ment, in duplicate, are still kept there in a fortified monastery by Buddhist monks, who are subsidized and act as a clerical militia. In October, 1866, the city of K'ang-wa was stormed and looted by the French wider Admiral Roze, in revenge for the execution some months pre viously of nine French .Jesuit missionaries in Seoul. The French marines attempting to storm the monastery were driven back with great loss. In 1871 Admiral John Rodgers. with a United States squadron. having had his survey boats fired upon, landed a force of 759 men under command of Winfield Scott Schley (q.v.), which
attacked and captured the five forts. On Sep tember 19. 1875. the Koreans fired upon some Japanese marines, mistaking them for French and Americans. The next day the Japanese stormed the fort, and soon after Kuroda (q.v.) with a squadron of war-ships arrived off the island, and with Inouye (q.v.) secured the treaty by which the two nations entered into relations of peace and commerce. The island is rich in ancient monuments and very interesting to the student. On the headland above the forts stormed by the Americans the Koreans have erected tablets to the memory of their com patriots. See Trollope in the Transactions of the Korean Asiatic Society (1901) ; and Griffis, Corea: The Hermit Nation (New York, 1889).