¹ The Panthay Embassy has not received a great deal of study. The only published account of it deals with it as an isolated event. See Chan, W.K.K., “The ‘Panthay Embassy’ to Britain, 1872”, in Hudson, G. F., ed., Far Eastern Affairs, Number Four, St. Antony's Papers, Number 20 (London: Oxford University Press, 1967), pp. 100–17. It is discussed in context inGoogle ScholarEvans, B.L., “The Attitudes and Policies of Great Britain and China toward French Expansion in Cochin China, Cambodia, Annam and Tongking, 1858-81” (Ph.D. diss., University of London, 1961). Standard accounts of the history of China do not mention the Embassy, e.g.,Google ScholarHsii, Immanuel, The Rise of Modern China (New York: Oxford University Press, 1975), nor doesGoogle ScholarCady, John F. in either The Roots of French Imperialism in Eastern Asia (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1954).orGoogle ScholarThe History ofModern Burma (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1958). Chinese accounts ignore it, although there are studies of the Muslim (Panthay) revolt.Google ScholarWright, Mary C., The Last Stand of Chinese Conservatism (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1957), pp. 113–17, discusses the rebellion and its suppression but does not mention the EmbassyGoogle Scholar.

² Sladen was part of a series of British moves toward the Southwestern China border. Captain Richard Sprye conceived of a route and made his ideas regularly known to every Foreign Secretary in turn. Dr. Clement Williams made the journey to the frontier in 1862 and was convinced of the viability of a route and relations with the rebels. See Pelcovitz, Nathan, Old China Hands and the Foreign Office (New Kings Crown Press, 1948), Chapter 4.Google ScholarDr, Thuang, “Panthay Interlude in Yunnan: a study in vicissitudes through the Burmese Kaleidoscope”, Burma Research Society: Fiftieth anniversary publications, (Rangoon, 1961): 473–83, gives a useful summary of these early contactsGoogle Scholar.

³ The bulk of the memos, letters, accounts, etc. concerning the Panthay Mission can be found in the India Office Library, Letters to India, Madras and Bombay, Vol. 4, 1872, and Vol. 6, 1874. Other memos and letters can be found in India Office, Secret Department Letters from India, Vols. 4,12, 37, 74, and Public Record Office, Foreign Office, China Papers, F. O. 17/496, 17/646, 17/672, and F. O. 228/520. For a summary of Chinese materials see, , Chan, “Panthay Embassy”, pp. 114–15, n. 1Google Scholar.

⁴ l. O. Secret Department, Letters from India, Vol. 12, despatch no. 85,26 Apr. 1872, see enclosures from Wheeler and Aitchison.

⁵ Ibid.

⁶ I. O. Letters to India, Madras and Bombay, Vol. 4, p. 194, telegram, Argyll to Kaye, 31 May 1872.

⁷ Ibid. Minute paper, 10-13 June 1872. His anxiety was increased because of an official mission from the ruler of Burma, which also arrived in June.

⁸ Ibid. Memo from Sir John Kaye to His Grace Duke of Argyll, 28 June 1872.

⁹ Wade reported from time to time on the progress of the Panthays and warned of the dangers of attributing too much to their apparent strength. See: Public Record Office, F.O. 17/496, despatch no. 28, 20 Feb. 1868; F. 0.17/547, despatches no. 6,19 Jan. 1870, and no. 32,18 Mar. 1870; F. 0.17/672, enclosure t o despatch no. 14, 23 June 1872; F. O. 17/631, despatch no. 139,17 Aug. 1872, and confidential despatch no. 153,6 Sept. 1872; F. O. 17/632, despatch no. 173, 7 Oct. 1872, etc.

¹⁰ I. O. Letters to India, Madras and Bombay, Vol. 4, Memo Kaye to Argyll, 28 June 1872. Item from the Pall Mall Gazette is included. The Gazette continued to follow the activities of the Panthay Mission concluded that Britain should not support it.

¹¹ Ibid., p. 201, copy of letter of Argyll to Viceroy of India, 9 July and 19 July 1872.

¹² F. O. 227/520, copy of letter Argyll to Hassan, 29 July 1872.

¹³ I. O. Letters to India, Madras and Bombay, Vol. 4, Memo from Kaye to Argyll, 22 July 1872.

¹⁴ Ibid. Confidential memo, Kaye to Argyll, 22 July 1872.

¹⁵ Ibid. Kaye to Hassan, 29 July 1872.

¹⁶ Ibid. Kaye to Hassan, copy attached to Confidential memo, Kaye to Argyll, 5 Aug. 1872.

¹⁷ Ibid. Memo by Kaye, 29 July 1872, “Visit to Panthay Mission”.

¹⁸ I propose to deal with the career of Thomas Thornville Cooper separately. His life to this point had been full of adventure and had taken him to Australia, India, Burma, China and back to England. He was killed at Bhamo, Burma, in 1878 at the age of 38. See I. O. Secret Department, Vol. 4, Kaye to Cooper, 20 Sept. 1872.

¹⁹ I. O., IMB, Vol. 4, memo Kaye to Argyll, 22 July 1872.

²⁰ I. O., SD, Vol. 4, Cooper-Kaye correspondence, 14,18,22 Aug. 1872.

²¹ Ibid. Kaye to Hassan, 9 Sept. 1872 and also undated letter of Sept. 1872.

²² Ibid. Kaye to Cooper, 20 Sept. 1872.

²³ Ibid. Telegrams, Cooper to Kaye, 23 Oct. 1872 and Kaye to Enfield, 30 Oct. 1872, etc.

²⁴ Ibid. Cooper to Kaye, 23 Oct. 1872fromConstantinople, 31 Oct. 1872 from Alexandria.

²⁶ I. O., IMB, Vol. 4, Cooper to Kaye, 19 Nov. 1872fromBombay.

²⁶ Ibid. Attached accounts, and SD, Vol. 4, p. 200.

²⁷ For a discussion of the end of the Panthay regime, see Evans, loc. cit.

²⁸ Ibid. Also see I. O. Secret Department, Vol. 72, and Political and Secret Vol. 73, F. 0.17/668. The draft of the statement was shown to Gladstone.

²⁹ I. O., Letters from India, Vol. 17, Bhamo Diaries, particularly for 28 Nov.–4 Dec. 1874.

³⁰ I. O., Letters from India, Vol. 74, Cooper to Kaye, 15 June 1873, 1MB, Vol. 6, Lord Salisbury to Governor-General, 17 Apr. 1874. F. O. 17/672, Wade despatch no. 15,10 Feb. 1874.

³¹ I O., 1MB, Vol. 6, Memo by Kaye, 13 Mar. 1874. In 1878 Prince Hassan married. The wedding cost the Government of India 8,000 Rupees. Cady, John F., A History of Modern Burma, p. 107, n. 130. Earlier, in his efforts to aid the impecunious Prince, Sir John Kaye had had an idea. “… I would wish to represent to the Secretary of State”, he wrote, “that the Panthays left in our keeping four heavy boxes,… I would now venture to advise that, as the sender of these boxes is dead, they should be opened, in the presence of Mr. Cooper, that an inventory should be taken of their contents, and that if they contain valuable property, they should be made over to Prince Hassan. It is possible that they may contain nothing but earth — as symbolical of the surrender of territory, but there may be gold and jewels in them, the produce of Yunnan.…” In July 1873 Cooper was summoned to inspect the boxes. He submitted the following report: “The articles shewn to me as the contents of the boxes brought by the Panthay Envoys are (I am informed by the authorities at the British Museum) slabs of green stone.” These slabs of green stone from Mount Dali, which were to seal the bond between the kingdoms of Victoria and Suleiman, later disappeared from the files of the India Office. See I. O., SD, Vol. 74, Memos 2,11 July 1873Google Scholar.

³² Wade, in Aug. 1872, indicated that the news of the Mission might possibly “rouse the Chinese” but that he had had no “official” word of the Mission's existence. F.O. 17/631, no. 139, 7 Aug. 1872. One historian of the Margary Affair interprets Wade's words to mean that the Chinese had been roused by the news. See Wang, S. T., The Margary Affair and the Chefoo Agreement (London: Oxford University Press, 1940), p. 32.Google Scholar, Chan, “Panthay Embassy”, p. 101, speculates that the Embassy was not known of in Peking at the time and points out that modern complications on the subject of the Southwest Muslims also appear ignorant of the Embassy. This seems unlikely though, particularly with Robert Hart resident in Peking at the Chinese Customs. In any case, in 1874, T. T. Cooper was confronted with the British record of relations with the Panthays by a Chinese emissary to Burma. I. O. from India, Vol. 17, Bhamo Diaries, 28 Nov. –4 Dec. 1874Google Scholar.

³³ Not only roads but railroads were being projected. There were in fact competing schemes, each with its own champions. See , Pelcovits, Old China Hands, pp. 112–30Google Scholar.

³⁴ The Manchester Chamber of Commerce support for Prince Hassan did not meet with favour at the India Office. See F. 0.17/646, and I. O., 1MB, Vol. 4, Kaye-Cooper correspondence, 17,18 Sept. 1872.

³⁵ Late in 1872 Wade sought the advice of the Foreign Office on such a ploy. The India Office replied that no encouragement had been given the Panthays. See F. 0.17/646.1.0. to F. O., 17 Dec. 1872. The Panthay collapse left Wade with little to “ploy” with, but the Margary affair provided an opportunity later; see below.

³⁶ see , Wang, The Margary Affair and also Immanuel C. Y. Hsu, China's Entrance into the Family of Nations (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1960). China's first minister to England did not arrive until early 1877. In the negotiations over the Margary incident the British pressed for the arrest and trial of Governor Cen. Wade was very displeased when Cen was cleared of charges. SeeGoogle ScholarFairbanks, J.K., et al, eds., The I. G. In Peking (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1975), 1:220–21Google Scholar.

³⁷ See , Wang, Margary Affair. The French had been arms suppliers and arms makers for the Qing troops in Yunnan. Cen's anti-foreignism was not selective, however, and the French were just as suspect as the British. The rivalry between the French and the British over Yunnan routes was to grow more intense as the century approached its final decade. There was, nonetheless, plenty of mutual suspicion in the 1870s. Chapdelaine, French Consul at Canton, accused Wade of actually recommending a favourable reception of the Panthay Mission in London. Quai d'Orsay, Ministère des affairs étrangères, Chine, Consuls 2, Chapdelaine to Foreign Ministry, despatch no. 5,18 Feb. 1873.Google Scholar

³⁸ See Israeli, R., Muslims in China (London & Malmo: Curzon Press, 1978), p. 28. The split within the Panthay movement was significant because one of the military leaders, Ma Rulong, went over to the Qing giving them much-needed skill and information. Splits also developed between the Muslims (Hui) and the Chinese (Han) partly because Du Wenxiu insisted on using Arabic for communications and on banning the eating of pork.Google Scholar

³⁹ See , Chan, “Panthay Embassy”, p. 115, n. 3, for discussion of approach taken byGoogle ScholarTien Rukang to Du Wenxiu's foreign relations in an article in Lishi Yanjiu, no. 4 (08. 1963): 141–50Google Scholar.

⁴⁰ , Israeli, Muslims, p. 28.Google Scholar

⁴¹ Shihfu, Ding, “The Uprising of Du Wenxiu”, Minzuwenhua, no. 2 (Summer 1981): 12-14. Foreign visitors included Col. Sladen from England and Francis Gamier from France.Google Scholar

⁴² , Chan, “Panthay Embassy”. The author perhaps expects too much both of the Panthays and the British.Google Scholar

⁴³ During a visit to Kunming in the summer of 19811 was offered an opportunity to view Du's robes for a fee of US$100, more if I wished to photograph them. Members of the museum staff discussed at length Du's “possible” involvement in the Panthay Mission.