Charles Le Gendre: The Treaty-Maker and the Traitor Were the Same Man

30-Second Overview: Charles W. Le Gendre (1830–1899), French-born American diplomat, Civil War veteran, lost his left eye at the Battle of the Wilderness in 1864. From 1866 to 1872 he served as U.S. Consul in Amoy, visiting Formosa eight times and signing the South Cape Agreement (南岬之盟) with the Paiwan chief Tauketok (卓杞篤). After leaving his consular post he defected to the Japanese government, using his knowledge of Taiwan to help Japan plan the 1874 Mudan Incident expedition. He left behind a 1,600-page manuscript and 200 images, but this "Taiwan Travelogue" was never published in his lifetime; only 137 years later did the National Museum of Taiwan History publish the fully annotated edition.

The Rover

On March 12, 1867, the American merchant ship Rover ran aground off the southern tip of the Hengchun Peninsula, in the waters of Langqiao (琅嶠), while sailing from Swatow to Niuzhuang.¹ Captain Joseph W. Hunt and his wife Mercy led the crew ashore, straying into the territory of the Kulaljuc community (龜仔甪社) of the Paiwan.

Fourteen people were killed. Only a Cantonese sailor escaped, carrying the news to Takao (打狗).

The news reached Amoy. Le Gendre, the U.S. Consul in Amoy, immediately went north to Fuzhou to press the Governor-General of Fujian and Zhejiang. The attitude of the Qing court (清廷) was unambiguous: that was the land of "raw barbarians" (生番), not under its jurisdiction.² The U.S. Navy also attempted military intervention: the USS Hartford sent 181 men ashore, who were repulsed by the Paiwan, and commander Alexander MacKenzie was killed by gunfire.³

The warships could not subdue them, and the government refused to act. Le Gendre decided to go himself.

The One-Eyed Diplomat

The man who decided to walk into the jungle himself had an unusual backstory. He was born in 1830 in Oullins, near Lyon, France. His father was a painter and sculptor. After graduating from the University of Paris, he emigrated to America and joined the Union Army when the Civil War broke out in 1861.⁴

On May 9, 1864, at the Battle of the Wilderness, a bullet pierced his nose and left eye. He lost the contour of half his face and was promoted to colonel. After the war ended, he needed a job far from the battlefield. In 1866 he was appointed U.S. Consul at Amoy.⁵

He could not know that this job would take him to an island, and that the island would define the rest of his life.

The South Cape Agreement

In September 1867, Le Gendre set out from Amoy with interpreter William A. Pickering (必麒麟) and James Horn (何恩), heading deep into the Paiwan territory of the Hengchun Peninsula.⁶ It was a march through trackless jungle, into the "savage land" (番地) beyond the reach of Qing control.

On October 10, he met Tauketok (卓杞篤), the paramount chief of the Paiwan confederation of eighteen communities.

What did the two men talk about? The formal memorandum of February 28, 1869 records three specific terms: foreign sailors who come ashore after a shipwreck must raise a red flag to identify themselves; landing is permitted only at designated locations; and no one may enter mountain tribal villages.⁷

📝 Curator's Note
What makes the South Cape Agreement (南岬之盟) special is not the terms themselves but the two sides that signed it: on one side, an American consul; on the other, the paramount chief of the Paiwan (排灣族) confederation of eighteen communities. The Qing government was entirely absent. This may be the first written memorandum in Taiwan's history concluded directly between a local indigenous leader and a foreign representative. It means that at the edge of the empire, indigenous people were not passive objects but subjects capable of negotiating.

From May 1867 to May 1872, Le Gendre visited Taiwan at least eight times.⁸ On every trip he took notes, drew maps, and gathered intelligence. He positioned himself as the "Taiwan expert" in Western diplomatic circles.

The Defection

In 1872, Le Gendre resigned his post as U.S. Consul and became a second-class foreign adviser to Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, at an annual salary of twelve thousand dollars — the first foreigner hired by the Meiji government.⁹

The background: in 1871, Ryukyuan fishermen were killed in southern Taiwan (the Bayao Bay incident (八瑤灣事件)). The Meiji government was looking for an opportunity to expand abroad, and Taiwan was its first target. It needed someone who knew Taiwan.

Le Gendre was the perfect choice. He had the experience of eight field expeditions, personal relationships with indigenous chiefs, and a body of detailed intelligence that the American government could not keep locked in a safe. He told the Japanese: the "savage land" (番地) of southern Taiwan was "unowned land" (terra nullius) under international law; the Qing court itself said it was not under their jurisdiction, so Japan had the right to "punish" the indigenous people there.¹⁰

✦ "The man who concluded the South Cape Agreement and the man who sold the intelligence to Japan were the same man. The same knowledge of Taiwan was used first to sign a peace agreement, and later to plan an invasion."

In 1874, Japan dispatched troops to Taiwan. 3,600 soldiers attacked the Paiwan communities of the Hengchun Peninsula. This was the Mudan Incident, Japan's first overseas military operation in the modern era. Behind the scenes, Le Gendre planned the diplomatic strategy, helped hire foreign soldiers, charter ships, and procure military supplies.¹¹

1,600 Pages, 137 Years

Around 1875, Le Gendre completed a monumental manuscript: Notes of Travel in Formosa (Taiwan Travelogue). 1,600 pages of text, plus nearly 200 maps, photographs, sketches, and paintings.¹²

The manuscript covers five areas: natural history centered on geology, the history of the Dutch colonial era, the foreign relations of the Qing dynasty with Western powers, the ethnology and linguistics of the Austronesian peoples, and economic and trade potential.¹³ Its motive for being written was very likely to provide the Japanese Meiji government with a "compilation of intelligence for annexing Taiwan."¹⁴ After it was completed, the manuscript was submitted to his superior, Okubo Toshimichi.

The manuscript was never published during his lifetime. The original is held in the U.S. Library of Congress; a copy is in the National Archives of Japan. The Le Gendre Papers at the Library of Congress comprise 1,760 items; the first five boxes have been digitized into 4,774 images, but the four volumes of core manuscript journals are still under restoration and have not yet been scanned.¹⁵

More than 130 years later, Douglas L. Fix (費德廉), a history professor at Reed College in the United States, discovered this manuscript at the Library of Congress in 1991–92. In 1999, he began formal collaboration with John Shufelt (蘇約翰), associate professor in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literature at Tunghai University; funded by the Chi Mei Foundation, they traveled to the United States, Japan, and Britain to cross-check the American and Japanese versions of the manuscript.¹⁶

Shufelt later said in an interview with The Reporter: "I cannot simply call him an imperialist or a humanitarian. He is far more complex than that."¹⁷

The annotation was finished in 2005. The English edition was published in 2012 and the Chinese edition in 2013, both by the National Museum of Taiwan History. From the completion of the manuscript to its formal publication: 137 years.

📝 Curator's Note
Le Gendre's manuscript is the most complete firsthand record of 19th-century Taiwan. But it is also an imperial intelligence document. The tension between its scholarly value and its political motive is precisely why Fix and Shufelt spent thirteen years on it: you cannot only read what it says; you must also read who it was written for.

SEQALU

On August 14, 2021, PTS (Taiwan's Public Television Service) premiered the epic drama SEQALU: Formosa 1867, produced with an investment of more than NT$155 million.¹⁸ Adapted from the novel Puppet Flower (《傀儡花》) (2016 Taiwan Literature Golden Classics Award) by physician-novelist Chen Yao-chang (陳耀昌), its story is set against the 1867 Rover Incident and the South Cape Agreement.

The drama's title originally followed the novel as "Puppet Flower," but it was later renamed because the word "puppet" carries discriminatory connotations toward indigenous people. The series runs 12 episodes and used more than 6,000 extras.¹⁹ It won the Golden Bell Awards in 2022. The Paiwan actor Camake Valaule (查馬克·法拉屋樂), who played Tauketok (卓杞篤), was diagnosed with lung adenocarcinoma after filming and passed away on December 19, 2021.²⁰

Director Tsao Jui-yuan (曹瑞原) said: "SEQALU is not a conclusion; it is a starting point. Taiwanese people should begin here, rediscovering the stories that happened on this land of theirs."²¹

In the drama, Le Gendre is one of the core characters. But more important is this: Tauketok (卓杞篤) finally moves from supporting role to protagonist. In Le Gendre's manuscript, Tauketok is "a chief who needs to be persuaded." In SEQALU, he is a leader who protects his people in the gap between empires. The same event — it depends on who is writing.

What Became of Him

Le Gendre left Japan in 1875. In 1890 he went to Korea, serving as diplomatic adviser to Emperor Gojong. On September 1, 1899, he died of a stroke in Seoul, at the age of 69.²²

His life spanned the diplomatic stages of three empires: the United States, Japan, and Korea. But his most important six years were on Formosa. He was a man of the same era as Robert Swinhoe (史溫侯); both left indelible records in Taiwan in the 1860s, but with completely different motives: one for science, one for power.

John Shufelt spent thirteen years sorting through that manuscript. He cannot give Le Gendre a clean verdict.

The man who concluded the South Cape Agreement, and the man who sold Taiwan's intelligence to Japan, were the same man. He left the most complete firsthand record of 19th-century Taiwan, but the purpose of accumulating that knowledge was to sell it to the empire that bid the highest. "Taiwan expert" — these words: did they serve Taiwan, or clear the way for colonizers? To this day, there is no answer.

Further Reading:

• The Rover Incident and Tauketok — The companion piece to this article: the same history seen from Tauketok's perspective — how the South Cape Agreement protected his people, and how it was betrayed by the other half of the agreement
• The History of Taiwan's Indigenous Peoples and the Rectification of Names Movement — The Paiwan in the South Cape Agreement: the long journey from "savage land" (番地) to the rectification of names
• Qing Dynasty Rule — The Qing governance structure when Le Gendre came to Taiwan; understand the institutional background of the "outside its jurisdiction" response
• Robert Swinhoe — Another foreigner of the same era who left a profound record in Taiwan, but driven by science rather than power
• The Sino-French War — Eight years after Le Gendre left Taiwan, France attacked Taiwan with similar imperial logic

References