Witness Explorer Stanley shocked at what he saw

Henry Morton Stanley, the writer and explorer who would find Dr David Livingstone three years later, witnessed the looting.

After the fortress fell to the British, Stanley said, “picking and pocketing mania had taken possession of all heroes”. He described a thousand treasures “scattered in infinite bewilderment and confusion”.

He also described the British soldiers’ behaviour around the fallen emperor’s body as “a mob, indiscriminate of officers and men, rudely jostling each other in the endeavour to get possession of a small piece of blood-stained shirt. No guard was placed over the body until it was naked”.