An Englishman at the Court of the Taiping Kingdom
H. Hookham introduces Augustus F. Lindley, a contemporary and opponent of General Gordon’s, who served the Taipings during their nineteenth century rebellion against the Manchu dynasty.
Like many other prophets without honour in their own country, Augustus F. Lindley deserved better. He shared with Charles G. Gordon the experience early in life of serving as a soldier of fortune in China. The two men fought during the same period, 1860-1864, in the same battles around Shanghai. But Lindley supported the Taiping insurgents, who promised social reform, favoured technical progress and commerce with Western powers, and were converts to Christianity. Gordon fought on behalf of the Manchu Ching dynasty, degenerate, obscurantist and pagan.
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