SCOTT, John Lee.

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Narrative of a Recent Imprisonment in China After the Wreck of the Kite. First edition of this uncommon First Opium War narrative, popular enough to quickly warrant a second edition, published the following year. Among Scott's fellow prisoners was Anne Noble, one of the few Western women to see the interior of China before the opening of the treaty ports."Scott sailed to China in 1839 in the merchant ship Kite... carrying supplies to British warships stationed there. The ship foundered in the Yangtse river on the 15th of September 1840 and the surviving crew were captured by the Chinese. They were shackled and carried around for several days in small wooden cages, being taken from village to village and displayed to hostile crowds. After an imprisonment of several months the survivors were eventually released" (Löwendahl).

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