The Tiger Warrior (57 page)
Authors: David Gibbins
The quotes from the
Periplus of the Erythraean Sea
are my translations of the original Greek, based on the text in Frisk, H.,
Le Périple de la mer Érythrée (Göteborgs Högskolas Årsskrif
–, 33, 1927); these are extracts from Frisk, chapter 63-6 for the front quote, and chapters 41 and 63 in chapter 3. The second front quote is from
Records of the Grand Historian
by Sima Qian (Columbia University Press, 1993, trans. Burton Watson),
Shi ji 6;
this is also the source of the verse on the virtue of the emperor in chapter 4—a version of a stone inscription raised by
Shihuangdi
on Mount Langye—and the quote in chapter 15. In chapter 3, the quote from Cosmas on Sri Lanka is from J. W McCrindle,
The Christian Topography of Cosmas, an Egyptian Monk
(Hakluyt Society series 1, vol. 97, 1987), 365-8. In chapter 4, the extract from Lieutenant Howard’s fictional diary on the problems of survey is from Captain W A. Gale’s preface to volume XIV (1888) of the
Professional Papers of the Corps of Royal Engineers
, a comment undoubtedly influenced by his Rampa experience; the quote following that is from the report of the Hon. David F. Carmichael, who was deputed to tour the Rampa tract after the rebellion and make recommendations
(Madras Judicial Proceedings
, 14 December 1881, 1027-53).
One of the artifacts brought back by Colonel Gale from India was the brass
pata
gauntlet sword described in this novel. A similar brass
pata
is on display in the British Museum (OA 1878. 12-30, 818). The history of these rare weapons may date as far back as the Mongol invasions of India, or even earlier. One of few images of a
pata
in use is a battle scene of the seventeenth century showing the Maratha prince Shivaji wielding a great
pata
(from a miniature reproduced in
Monuments Anciens et Modernes de l’Hindoustan
, L. Langlès, 1821); the composition of the scene is reminiscent of the Alexander mosaic from Pompeii, the inspiration for the cave carving in this novel. My grandfather had been told that the
pata
came from a “rebellion,” but nothing more is known about it with certainty. Images of this artifact, as well as the camphor-wood officer’s chest, the telescope, the old books, the ancient coins and the weapons in this novel, can be seen at
www.davidgibbins.com
.
A
CKNOWLEDGMENTS
I AM GRATEFUL TO MY AGENT, LUIGI BONOMI OF LBA
, and my editors, Caitlin Alexander at Bantam Dell and Harriet Evans at Headline; to Gaia Banks, Alexandra Barlow, Alison Bonomi, Chen Huijin Cheryl, Raewyn Davies, Darragh Deering, Sam Edenborough, Mary Esdaile, Crystal Velasquez, Emily Furniss, George Gamble, Tessa Girvan, Janet Harron, Jenny Karat, Celine Kelly, Nicki Kennedy, Lea Beresford, Ann Ledden, Stacey Levitt, Kim McArthur, Tony McGrath, Taryn Manias, Peter Newsom, Amanda Preston, Jenny Rob-son, Barry Rudd, John Rush, Emma Rusher, Jane Seller, Molly Stirling, Adja Vucicevic, Katherine West and Leah Woodburn; to the entire teams at Headline and Bantam Dell, and to my many publishers in other languages. I owe a great deal to Ann Verrinder Gibbins, and to Angie and Molly, as well as to my brother Alan for help with my website
www.davidgibbins.com
.
For the field research associated with this novel I am especially grateful to the late Alan Hall, of the British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara; to the chair of the NATO Life Sciences Committee, for inviting me to Kyrgyzstan; and to the curator of the Cholpon-Ata open-air petroglyph museum beside Lake Issyk-Kul. My fascination with the
Periplus of the Erythraean Sea
dates from my time as a graduate student at Cambridge University; I owe much to the stimulus of the late Dr. James Kirkman, O.B.E., F.S.A., former curator of the Fort Jesus Museum, Mombasa, and to my grandfather Captain Lawrance Wilfrid Gibbins, who spent a lifetime sailing the same routes to India as the ancient mariners of the
Periplus
. Both of these men helped me to see the extraordinary sea trade of two thousand years ago.
I am grateful to Dr. Guodong Liu for his advice on Chinese names. For help in acquiring and shooting a Snider-Enfield rifle, I am grateful to John Denner and David Hurbuthnot. For my research on the 1879-81 Rampa Rebellion, I am grateful to the staff of the former Oriental and India Office Collections at the British Library, the Royal Engineers Museum and Library at Chatham, the UK National Archives and the South Asia Division of the University of Michigan Library; to Lieutenant Colonel Prabhat Kumar of the Madras Sappers Museum and Archives, Bangalore; to Lieutenant Colonel Edward De Santis, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (retired); and, for befriending me as a boy, to the late Lieutenant Colonel John Ancrum Cameron, Royal Engineers, Madras Sapper from 1927-48, who provided a vivid link back to the time of my great-great-grandfather, Colonel Walter Andrew Gale, Royal Engineers, Madras Sapper and Rampa veteran, whose
pata
gauntlet sword provided an inspiration for this story.
Finally, I owe a special debt to the late Mrs. Rosemary Hobbs, whose bequest allowed me to acquire first editions of John Campbell’s
A Personal Narrative
of Thirteen Years Service amongst the Wild Tribes of Khondistan
and John Wood’s
A Personal Narrative of a Journey to the Source of the River Oxus
, and for all of her support for my expeditions and adventures over the years.
The Tiger Warrior is
a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2009 by David Gibbins
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Bantam Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
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OOKS
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eISBN: 978-0-553-90668-4
v3.0