Taiping tragedy

The Taiping rebellion: imperialism, opium, zealous military order, shocking cruelty, foreign intervention, and a hint of celestial intrigue. It is humanity's, most devastating civil war responsible for over twenty million lives lost, with some accounts suggesting casualties were much, much, higher. Destruction of cities and farms was so pervasive that cannibalism became routine. Human flesh was sold in markets at a drastically inflated price due to high demand and thriving cities along the Yangtse River became ghost towns. A conflict so abhorrent it caused a melancholic Lord Elgin, feeling somewhat ambivalent about Britain's role, to remark "Their treachery and cruelty comes out so strongly at times as to make almost anything justifiable".

One particularly grizzly episode of the saga was the merciless purge of rebel sympathisers in Canton. The Manchu government rounded up suspected partizans and all of their families, an estimated 75000 citizens. For those who weren't captured the government set up suicide booths, with placards instructing insurgents to do the honourable thing. From 1854 to 55 The prisoners were ruthlessly massacred in a Canton execution ground (former marketplace) in what the British council described as a series of executions among the most horrible in extent and manner of which the world has any authentic record. "Tens of thousands of accused taiping supporters were slaughtered in the canton execution ground [...] that stank with congealed blood. thousands were put to the sword, hundreds cast into the river, tied together in batches of a dozen." An eyewitness testified "I watched in horror as the accused were butchered, one executioner to grip the top knot of the bound kneeling prisoner and another to chop off his head with a sword. the witness counted 63 men decapitated in four minutes before he had to stop watching. I have seen the horrid sight he wrote and the limbless, headless corpse merely a mass of flayed flesh among headless trunks that lay in scores covering the whole execution ground. there were chests for sending the severed heads up to the governor-general as proof of effective punishment. But so many were executed that their heads wouldn't fit and the executioners packed only their ears, the right ears specifically which alone filled the boxes to overflowing."

If you say "I'm reading a book about the tapping rebellion" to the average uk citizen you'll most likely get a "what's that then?" in return, alas surprisingly it's not a widely prevalent chapter of history relative to its scale and timing.

I found the book "Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom" by Stephen Platt (audiobook available on Scribd) to be a good resource on the subject cited above as the source for the canton executions. Platt's in-depth account highlights the shocking brutality of the Civil War. Platt also questions the motives of British involvement in the conflict (where Chinese Gordon got his nickname). Floundering between neutral, siding with the rebels before finally siding with the Qing dynasty only prolonged the inevitable overhaul of the outdated imperial dynasty.

The photos included here are the work of Felice Beato. An Italian-British photographer who travelled with Lord Elgin's invasion force in China. Beato was one of the most prominent photographers who documented the Taiping Rebellion. 

Frederick Lugard's Arrow-dynamic leadership.

Artist's rendering of Lugards camp table

Baron Frederick Lugard was an able commander employed by Sir George Goldie to advance the Niger companies' control in West Africa. So successful was he that during the scramble for Africa Lugard was named high commissioner of northern Nigeria. The area of one million square miles in territory over which he ruled was mostly unexplored by the British and, according to "The British Empire" by Stephen Sears, there were territories within where even the wheel was unknown.

 One story during his travels through the hinterlands tells of an incident involving a poisoned arrow. The best source that describes the attack in detail is "The Passionate Imperialists: the true story of Sir Frederick Lugard, anti-slaver, adventurer and founder of Nigeria" by Rory O'Grady "Lugard took the lead and tried to straighten the line of his soldiers when suddenly he felt something strike him upon the back of the head. As gunfire was continuing wildly all around, he concluded it was a graze from a bullet fired from one of his own men. He tried to remove his pith helmet he had been struck by an arrow, which had gone right through the cork and pierced his skull. One of the Hausas tried to wrench the helmet off, unsuccessfully, and it was finally Lugard’s hunter, Mallum Yaki, an expert in jungle craft, who managed to cut off the helmet, but was still unable to remove the arrow from Lugard’s head. By now Lugard had sunk to the ground, with Mallum trying with increasing force to remove the arrow. At one point, Lugard was being dragged along the ground by Lum in a desperate attempt to remove it. Finally, Mallum put his foot against his master’s head and gave one mighty tug. This time he was successful, but to his horror he found a piece of skull also attached to the arrowhead. The only consolation for Lugard was that it was not barbed, but the iron tip had penetrated his skull by twenty millimetres; far worse it was poisoned, and they had no idea what the poison was. Mottram found one antidote he had been given which looked like sawdust and applied it to the wound. Mallum gave him another by chewing on a lump of something and stuffing it into the hole. Another hunter came up with a piece of root which Lugard chewed as the glutinous paste turned his saliva to jelly. All this time the fighting was still raging, and Lugard was shouting instructions to keep going forward. Wrapping a cloth around his head, he struggled to his feet and ordered his men to advance. Eventually the attackers were forced back into the village. He gave the order to cease fire and to keep the caravan moving. Out of this chaos, Bio, his trusty guide appeared, most agitated, and produced several more antidotes of equally repellent taste, which Lugard agreed to take. He halted Bio swiftly when he started chanting various long-winded, magical incantations! They had to retreat from this hostile area as quickly as possible, and marched another thirteen miles in stifling humidity before setting up camp, exhausted. Lugard collapsed onto his bed and immediately fell into a deep sleep. To everyone’s amazement, he awoke the next morning refreshed, with no ill effects from the wound and more astounding, none from the antidotes, one of which must have saved him. He had been completely outnumbered that day, but the enemy did not have rifles. When they saw him rise after being hit, they must have thought he had magical powers on his side." Lugard living on beyond this incident was alone miraculous the fact he lived t the age of 87 was positively supernatural, especially since poison arrows at that time in Nigeria were ubiquitous.

Trephinated: Frederick Lugard

Jury Booty, Captain Kidd's pirate trial.

Captain Kidd Commission 1695.

Somewhere out there, maybe buried in some secluded spot or perhaps underwater in an old mottled shipwreck,  is a chest full of invaluable but reputedly cursed treasure. A mixture of ill-gotten gold and gems obtained by looting ships in the West Indies. They are the remnant mystery left by the age of buccaneers (literally people who use a boucan to cook) and, if the legend is true, were hidden there by Captain William Kidd.

Kidd was a privateer whose notoriety stems from an unusual double commission obtained from William III. Firstly to defend trade routes off the coast of North America from pirates and secondly, to seize any enemy ships that he might encounter. This came with the understanding of course that he would leave any allied ships unmolested. It's alleged that Kidd did not operate within the confines of his commission and was himself, decided in parliament, to have turned pirate. Worse still a royal proclamation had been released offering to acquit the crimes of other pirates up to a certain date if Kidd could be brought to justice.

One indication of William Kidd's potential guilt was that the ship he had been sailing was in fact a stolen allied ship but William maintained that any vessels seized were those of his enemies. He also offered perhaps what he thought was a cast iron defence- that any occasion the law was broken happened because the crew were acting without his consent. He even stated that the crew were mutinous and threatened to shoot him in his cabin. The poor captain's excuse was rendered somewhat futile, in part because some of his "mutinous" crew were at the trial to testify, albeit expecting to be exonerated by the aforementioned pardon. They attested to Kidd murdering one of the crew himself (whether intentionally or not) by hitting him on the head with a bucket, fracturing the man's skull and dispelling the captain's meek self-portrayal. Kidd's defence was that he had committed the act in an attempt the quash a rising mutiny and hadn't meant to kill the sailor. In addition to this were the various artefacts of gold, silver and valuable trinkets that Mrs Kidd had bought with her to London whilst her husband was on trial (whilst valuable these did not equate to a large haul hence rumours that Kidd stashed the booty). Kidd declared that those items were obtained legitimately in line with his commission but this was almost irrelevant; for the crown sought to use this opportunity to make a scapegoat of Kidd and had already determined his guilt before the trial began and possibly (conspiracy alert) before he'd even set sail for the west indies. Realising the impotence of further argument "It is hard that the life of one of the King’s subjects should be taken away upon the perjured oaths of such villains as these. Because I would not yield to their wishes, and turn pirate, they now endeavour to prove that I was one.” said he, the solicitor then asked if Kidd had any more questions to put to the witnesses he despairingly replied: “No! no. Bradingham is saving his life by taking away mine. I will not trouble the court any more, for it is a folly. So long as these men swear as they do, no oaths of mine will be of any avail.”From "Captain William Kidd and Others of the Buccaneers" by John S. C. Abbott.

Was Captain Kidd guilty?

William Kidd had always insisted on his innocence, as people facing the gallows often do. The fact of acquiring the spoils is not in doubt Kidd even wrote a letter which alluded to a hidden £100000. So the debate lies in Kidd's defence- Was he forced into freebooting by a mutinous crew? 

In any account that describes how Kidd took a ship his MO suggests he was intentionally pushing the limits of his commissions remit in anticipation that his actions could eventually be bought to trial. If a ship's captain informed him that they were not French he would say they were lying and thus ratifying the privateer's actions if only to serve as a comfort with which to delude himself. One can see how the temptation for Kidd to turn pirate may have worked in his mind: the letters of commission could be seen as carte blanch to do as he pleased and make himself very rich then later exonerate himself by blaming it on the crew. If Kidd was indeed innocent he would surely have known how suspicious his circumstances were. Ultimately Kidd's guilt was possible but not proven and the trial was biased. This is reflected in the pardon of all of the other characters, not just pirates, implicit in the profit of plunder. Kidd provided a patsy, to bring an expedient end to the scandal.

Kidd was sentenced to hang from the neck until dead. Contrary to popular culture references Kidd did not offer to give out information about buried treasure in his final words I suspect that is alluded to based on these lines from a popular lullaby: Come all ye young and old, see me die; Come all ye young and old, you’re welcome to my gold, For by it I’ve lost my soul, and must die. He was hanged at Execution Dock in Wapping and then displayed in the gibbet for three years as a foreboding warning to other pirates.

An illustration depicting Captain Kidd's

Body held in the gibbet cage.