An obscure Victorian explorer, Chauncey Millington was destined not even to be a footnote in history. Luckily, in March 2009, his memoirs were found in a steamer trunk buried beneath a pile of unclaimed freight at Shanghai harbor. They offer an unfettered view into a world just cracked open. The language is raw and the observations of this wide-eyed young man may shock modern readers, but these memoirs are an invaluable contribution to the travel literature of the time. Restoration of the manuscript is still underway, and an auction at Sotheby’s is expected. In the meantime, I will be posting the manuscript in bits and pieces, in an effort to share Chauncey’s story with the public, something he was not able to achieve during his lifetime.
A.J. Wells
