The Pescadores campaign which took place in late March, 1885, was one of the last campaigns of the Sino-French War (August 1884–April 1885). It was fought to capture the Pescadores, a strategically important archipelago off the western coast of Formosa (Taiwan). Admiral Amédée Courbet, with part of the French Far East Squadron, bombarded the Chinese coastal defences around the principal town of Makung (馬公) on Penghu Island (澎湖島) and landed a battalion of marine infantry which routed the Chinese defenders and occupied Makung. The Pescadores were occupied by the French until July 1885 and Admiral Courbet, by then a national hero in France, died aboard his flagship Bayard in Makung harbour during the occupation. Background The Pescadores Islands, also known from their Chinese name as P'eng-hu (澎湖), were an important transit stop for reinforcements to the Chinese army under the command of Liu Ming-ch'uan (劉銘傳) confronting the French in northern Taiwan around Keelung (基隆), and their capture would prevent further reinforcements from reaching Taiwan. Courbet had wanted to mount an expedition to capture the Pescadores for several months, but the feasibility of the operation depended on the progress of the Keelung Campaign. Colonel Jacques Duchesne's defeat of Liu Ming-ch'uan's forces and capture of the key Chinese position of La Table on 7 March 1885 finally disengaged Keelung, allowing the French to detach troops from its garrison for a descent on the Pescadores. French and Chinese forces Courbet's flotilla consisted of the ironclads Bayard and Triomphante, the cruisers d'Estaing and Duchaffaut, the gunboat Vipère and the troopship Annamite. His landing force consisted of an understrength battalion of marine infantry (400 men as opposed to the usual complement of 600 men) under the command of chef de bataillon Lange and a marine artillery section of two mountain guns (Lieutenant Lubert). The Chinese garrison of the Pescadores, which had been substantially reinforced at the beginning of 1885, was commanded by the generals Chou Shan-ch'u (周善初) and Cheng Ying-chieh (鄭膺杰), and numbered around 2,400 men. A number of foreign officers served with the Chinese garrison, including an American officer named Nelson, responsible for the defence of one of the Makung forts, whose diary of events was later recovered by the French. Initially optimistic, by March 1885 Nelson had despaired of training up the Chinese gunners to the standard necessary to meet the French in battle. The fortifications of the Pescadores were designed primarily to