SOURCES: FOREIGN. II. Accounts of persons who were in China and came into personal contact with the insurgents.
1. Fishbourne, Captain, commander of the Hermes on her late visit to Nanking. Impressions of China, and the Present Revolution: its Progress and its Prospects, London, MDCCCLV.
2. Meadows, Thomas Taylor. The Chinese and their Rebellion, London, 1856. Mr. Meadows was in the British consular service and accompanied Sir George Bonham as an interpreter. In this capacity he saw something of the Taipings, and chapters XV-XVII are good source material for this period of the war.
3. Mercier, R. P. Campagne du Cassini dans les mers de Chine, 1851-1854, d'après les rapports, lettres et notes du Commandant de Plas, etc., Paris, 1889.
4. Lane-Poole, Stanley. The Life of Sir Harry Parkes, sometime Her Majesty's Minister to China and Japan. London and New York, 1894. In two volumes: I. Consul to China, S. Lane-Poole; II. Minister Plenipotentiary, Japan, F. V. Dickens, China, S. Lane-Poole.
Sir Harry Parkes accompanied the minister to Hankow after the Treaty of 1860 and helped in the negotiations for opening ports of entry on the Yangtse River. He was also consul prior to that trip, and his letters to his wife are a valuable account of the period from the standpoint of a foreign observer.
5. Oliphant, Laurence. Narrative of the Earl of Elgin's Mission to China and Japan in the years 1858, 1859. New York, 1860.
6. Blakiston, T. W. Five Months on the Yang-tsze. With a narrative of the exploration of its upper waters, and notices of the present rebellions in China. London, 1862. Although the author went on the expedition up the Yangtse, the best parts of his description of life in the
