Alexander in Amsterdam - Minerva

Chinese culture
On 18 September, an Anglo-French
party conducting negotiations under a
flag of truce was captured by Chinese
soldiers. The group of 39 men was led
by Harry Parkes, advisor and interpreter
on Elgin’s staff. He was accompanied
by Henry Loch, Elgin’s Private
Secretary, Thomas Bowlby, a journalist
with The Times, and a small escort
of British, French and Indian soldiers.
Separated from the rest of the party,
Parkes, Loch, and one of the Indian
soldiers were thrown into prison
‘loaded with chains… connected to
a ring in the roof so tightly, that they
could not sit down… In this state they
were kept badly fed for nine days…
The poor sowar [Indian cavalryman]
was kept chained in a separate dark
dungeon. For three days no one came
near him, and he had nothing to eat’
(Hope Grant, Incidents in the China
War of 1860, p. 132-33).
The other members of the party were
beaten and had their hands and feet
bound tightly with ropes, which then
had water poured on them to further
increase the tension of the cords. Their
suffering was noted in detail by one
of the Indian troopers who survived
imprisonment. He described how, after
being taken to the Summer Palace,
‘Lieut. Anderson became delirious, and
remained so, with a few lucid intervals,
until his death, which occurred
on the ninth day of his imprisonment.
Before his death his nails and fingers
burst from the tightness of the cords,
and mortification set in, and the bones
of his wrist were exposed, and whilst
he was alive, worms generated in his
wounds and ate into, and crawled over
his body. They [the Chinese] left the
body there three days, and then took it
away.’ (Henry Loch, Personal Narrative
of Occurrences During Lord Elgin’s
Second Embassy to China in 1860, p.
82).
Two other Indian cavalrymen,
Bughe I Sing and Khan Sing, provided
similar testimony of the ill treatment
suffered by the rest of the captives. Of
The Times special correspondent, they
noted: ‘Mr Bowlby died… of maggots
forming in his wrists… His body
remained there for nearly three days,
and the next day it was tied to a crossbeam
and thrown over the wall to
be eaten by dogs and pigs… The next
day the Frenchman died… Two days
after this Jawalla Sing died; his hands
burst from his rope wounds, maggots
got into them, and he died.’ (Henry
Loch, Personal Narrative, p. 83). The
list of Indian, British and French
captives who died in a similar manner
continues in testimony taken
from the survivors, and it makes grim
38
Fig 6. James Bruce,
8 th Earl of Elgin. He
headed the British
delegation during
the campaign of
1860. Courtesy of
The National Portrait
Galllery, London
Fig 7. A re-erected
guardian lion stands
amid the overgrown
ruins of the Summer
Palace.
Fig 8. The February
2009 Christie’s auction
of the bronze head
of a rat (pictured)
together with that
of a rabbit, originally
from the Summer
Palace. The sale
caused outrage in
China when it was
allowed to go ahead
in Paris.
8
reading even 150 years after the event.
Other captives were given a quicker
death. Captain Brabazon of the Royal
Artillery, together with Abbé du Luc,
were beheaded soon after being captured.
The Chinese claimed both men
had died of natural causes, but a grave
containing fragments of a British artillery
officer’s trousers and pieces of
French ecclesiastical dress was later
discovered, with both skeletons lacking
skulls.
Chinese authorities denied any ill
treatment of the prisoners, but the survivors’
ulcerated hands and wrists were
plainly visible. The bodies of the dead,
returned on 16 October, were almost
unidentifiable, as quicklime had been
added to the coffins to remove evidence
of the torture. Rev. McGee would
write: ‘They were indeed wretched
Photo: getty iMages.
6 7
remains, not to be recognized, but
by some part of their dress. Poor De
Norman’s leather coat, which we knew
so well, remained, and Bowlby’s socks
were marked with his name.’ (How We
Got to Pekin, 1862, p. 254).
Accounts of the fate of the prisoners
obviously led to deep anger within
the allied army and public outcry in
Britain and France. Sidney Herbert,
the British Secretary of State for War
and a close confidant of Florence
Nightingale, wrote to General Hope
Grant on Christmas Day, 1860, noting
how the ‘fate of the poor prisoners
has created a most powerful impression
here’.
On 17 October, while the funeral
of the dead British captives took place
in the Russian cemetery to the northeast
of Beijing, a proclamation printed
Minerva September/October 2010
Photo: bridget colia (storyville girl).
Photo: getty iMages.