Dragon

Before Raffles, before Rajah Brooke, there was Francis Light, the 18th-century trailblazer in the Malay Archipelago. The 18th-century Straits of Malacca is in crisis, beleaguered by the Dutch, the Bugis, and the clash between Siam and Burma. Enter Francis Light, devious manipulator of the status quo, joined by a cast of real historical figures from the courts of Siam and Kedah and from the East India Company, including Sultan Muhammed Jiwa, King Tak Sin, Warren Hastings and Martinha Rozells, a young Eurasian woman of noble birth. From humble origins in Suffolk, England, Light struggles against the social prejudices of his day. His subsequent adventures as a naval officer and country ship captain take him from India to Sumatra, the Straits of Malacca to Siam, through shipwreck, sea battles, pirate raids and tropical disease. But Light’s most difficult challenge is his ultimate dream: to establish a British port in the Indies on behalf of the East India Company. Dragon, the first volume of Penang Chronicles, charts Francis Light’s colourful adventures in the decades before the settlement of Penang island, the Honourable Company’s first possession on the Malay Peninsula.

British by birth, Rose Gan first arrived in Kuala Lumpur in 1978 and has been living and working between both UK and South East Asia ever since. Married to a Malaysian, and formerly a teacher of History and Latin in UK and Malaysia, Rose was also Vice Chair for Museums of the Indonesian Heritage Society, a guide and docent in Museum National Indonesia, Jakarta, and Muzium Negara and the Textile Museum in KL. In addition to lecturing to cultural associations, Rose has been actively involved with museum publications in Malaysia and Indonesia, both as a writer and editor.

Glossary IX Place names and Peoples of the Archipelago XII List of Characters XIV India and the Malay Peninsula (map) XVI Prologue 1 PART ONE The Boy from Suffolk (1740-1755) 1. Dog Days 19 2. Occam’s Razor 34 3. A Wider Horizon 52 4. The Orlop 68 5. All at Sea 86 6. The Little Admiral 102 7. Scylla and Charybdis 118 PART TWO The English Captain (1763-1769) 8. The Navy List 131 9. Self-Preservation 147 10. East Indiaman 162 11. Fort St George 178 12. The Foundling 198 13. Patola Cloth 216 14. The Pearl Tank 234 15. A Seat at the Table 254 PART THREE The Nyonya Lady (1770-72) 16. Burning One’s Boats 277 17. The Cynosure of the Indies 292 18. One More Bite of the Apple 305 19. The Delegation 324 20. Of Opium and Elephants 344 21. Retribution 366 22. Dewa Raja 380 Terima Kasih 392 Pearl (Penang Chronicles, Vol. 2) 393 Emporium (Penang Chronicles, Vol. 3) 394