Why a Booktrail?
1836-1854: Volume two in the Singapore Saga, a series that spans the first 100 years of Singapore
Chasing the Dragon
What you need to know before your trail
Duncan Simpson comes to manhood when he joins James Brooke, the White Rajah of Sarawak, on his expeditions against the piratical Borneo Dayaks; an Indian cattleman turns to tiger hunting when his herd is decimated by disease; a Malay magician conjures up magic spells to capture the love of a woman and destroy her husband; a Chinese mother is haunted by the ghostly cries of her abandoned child; a mesmerist performs a dangerous surgery; and Chinese secret society gangs murder Christian farmers in the interior of the island.
As the troop ships of the British Expeditionary Force assemble in Singapore in preparation for the First Opium War, Hong Xiuquan has a dream that will launch the Taiping Rebellion in China, taking the lives of twenty million and powerfully impacting the fortunes of the new citizens of Singapore.
Travel Guide
Travel to China, Singapore and Borneo BookTrail style with Chasing the Dragon
The main narrative takes place in Singapore, mostly in the town and along the riverfront, but also in Kranji and Bukit Timah in the northern interior of the island, and Telok Blangah to the Kampong Glam to the west and east.
Places that figure in the narrative are Boat Quay, the Thian Hock Keng Temple, the Armenian Church, St Andrews Church, the Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus, Kampong Glam and Telok Blangah, home of Temenngong Daing Ibrahim, all of which can still be visited by the modern traveler. Ronnie Simpson visits the Singapore Dispensary in Commercial Square (now Raffles Place), and is found to be suffering from what Dr. Little believes to be an inoperable scrotal tumor. They decide to try a new mesmeric (hypnotic) anesthetic technique pioneered by the Scottish physician James Esdaile in Calcutta, with alarming results.
Chinese secret society gangs murder Christian plantation owners on the island and riot in the town. Father Maudit is forced to move St Joseph’s Church from distant Kranji to the safety of Bukit Timah, where he meets and hosts Alfred Russell Wallace, the naturalist who shortly after publishes his theory of evolution by natural selection.
The narrative also extends outwards to Canton, Thistle Mountain (where the Taiping rebellion begins) and Nanking (which becomes the Taiping Capital) in China, to Hong Kong (ceded to the British after the First Opium War) and to Kutching and Brunei in Borneo.
Ronnie Simpson, the Scottish merchant adventurer whose company has an office and warehouse on Boat Quay, travels to Canton with his cargo of opium. Commissioner Lim seizes and destroys his cargo and the stocks of the other European and American merchants, an action that precipitates the First Opium War.
Trail Gallery
Booktrail Boarding Pass: Chasing the Dragon
Destination :Singapore, China, Borneo (Malaysia) Author/Guide: John D Greenwood Departure Time: 1836-1854.
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