GOLDEN DREAMS OF BORNEO

Dreams of Gold – Dreams of Power

These drove men and women to seek their fortune in Sarawak. They came from Britain – to carve a future on virgin soil – from China - to escape grinding poverty. They fought and traded, lived and died in the struggle to fulfil their dreams. Some lost their lives to bloodthirsty headhunters, or in the disease-ridden swamps and trackless jungles of the interior; some survived to make their fortune.

Chinese, British, Malays rubbed shoulders with fearsome Sea Dayaks, and nomads in the ‘hunter-gatherer’ stage of evolution. The Steam Age met the Stone Age in this exotic, untouched land. Cultures clashed in a multiracial society.

Charles Brooke, enigmatic White Rajah of Sarawak, was a man of vision, a man with a mission – to tame the natives first, then to protect them from exploitation. His dream was to take them gently towards modern civilisation, to bring them the rewards of self-development. He was paternalistic but loving, a truly benevolent despot.

Dreams of Adventure – Dreams of Romance

Stephen Young, a young graduate, arrives in Sarawak in 1898. Seduced by its virgin beauty – steaming jungle, majestic mountains and ‘noble savages’ – he stays. Erotic intrigue, passion, violence and warfare surround him. His goal is to survive these with his head and his heart intact.