Lespès was left in command of the blockade of Formosa. In late March 1885, in the Pescadores Campaign, Courbet took personal command of the naval expedition. Again, Lespès was left behind to direct the blockades of Formosa and the Yangzi River. Command of the Far East Squadron After Courbet's death on 11 June 1885, Lespès briefly assumed command of the Far East Squadron. He delivered a moving tribute to his predecessor at a memorial service for Courbet at Makung on 13 June attended by the sailors of the Far East Squadron and the marine infantry of the Formosa expeditionary corps that had fought the Pescadores Campaign. His command lasted just over a month. On 25 July 1885 the French government reconstituted the traditional Far East naval division at close to its 1883 strength, and Lespès resumed command of his old division, with Admiral Adrien-Barthélémy-Louis Rieunier as his second-in-command. The postwar Far East naval division consisted of the ironclads La Galissonnière (Lespès' flagship), Turenne (Rieunier's flagship) and Triomphante, the cruisers Lapérousse, Primauguet, Champlain and Roland, and the gunboats Vipère and Sagittaire. Personality and views Lespès tended to make a good impression on those who made his acquaintance. On 9 August 1884, four days after the French bombardment of the Keelung forts, the Canadian missionary George MacKay was invited aboard La Galissonnière in Keelung harbour and met Lespès. MacKay, who was accompanied by a Taiwanese student, was struck by the French admiral's humanity:Four days after the bombardment, in company with an Englishman, I went around the coast in a steamship, and was allowed to go on shore to examine the smoking fortifications. Soldiers were lying on their faces, with bodies shattered. Evidently they had been fleeing when exploded shells ended their lives. These shells were sent with such terrific force as to cut off branches of a tree that were half a foot in diameter. A magazine that had exploded hurled masses of concrete to an incredible distance. The Englishman and myself, with one of my students, were invited on board the flagship La Galissonair and taken through every part of the vessel. When we went down below our attention was directed to three holes, nearly a foot in diameter, just above the surface of the water, made by shells from the Chinese fort. The vice-admiral spoke in the highest terms of the gunners who aimed so truly. Though he was a