A Smuggler to the Taiping – A Cruise in Chinese Waters, Captain Augustus F Lindley (1880)

China – A Cruise of Chinese Waters: Being the Log of The Fortuna by Captain Augustus F Lindley was published in 1880. In 1859, Lindley was a young Royal Navy officer stationed in Hong Kong where he became betrothed to Marie, the daughter of the Portuguese consul at Macao. In 1860 he resigned his commission, taking a job as the executive officer of a trading steamer smuggling specie to the Taiping reform movement in Shanghai. He accepted a commission from Taiping general Li Xiucheng, and helped train their soldiers in British Army techniques, while Marie became a sniper! After her death, he returned to England. In 1866, he wrote and published Ti Ping Tien Kwoh: or the History of the Taiping Revolution and included a dedication: To Le-Siu-Cheng, the Chung-Wang, “Faithful Prince,” Commander-in-Chief of the Ti-Ping forces, this work is dedicated if he be living; and if not, to his memory.

Your can read Lindley on archive.org here…