The eight-nation alliance sacked Beijing in vengeance for the Boxer Rebellion; the magnitude of the rape, pillaging, and burning indicated "a sense that the Chinese were less than human" to the Western militaries. About the sacking of the city, an Australian colonist said: "The future of the Chinese is a fearful problem. Look at the frightful sights one sees in the streets of Peking. . . . See the filthy, tattered rags they wrap around them. Smell them as they pass. Hear of their nameless immorality. Witness their shameless indecency, and picture them among your own people — Ugh! It makes you shudder!"