The caption refers to the first flush of Malay nationalism and resistance to British imperialism. It marks both a triumph and a tragedy in the events leading to, and the aftermath of, the assassination of J.W.W. Birch (1826-1875), the 1st British Resident of Perak, which led to the Perak War and a proliferation of British rule in the peninsula. The Sultan (Abdullah) was banished to the Seychelles while Dato Mahajalela and his followers behind the assassination were executed by hanging. Dato Mahajalela is celebrated as a folk hero, though a memorial was built for Birch in Ipoh, while a road in Kuala Lumpur is renamed Jalan Mahajalela over the original Birch Road, although this ‘Birch’ was the son of the Birch speared while bathing in his boathouse of his boat, SS Dragon, moored on the Perak river bank in what is today’s Teluk Intan. He died two days short of his first anniversary as British Resident. The sultan was insulted by Birch’s interference with religion and custom, and usurped the privilege of collecting taxes, although opposing argument had him paid the price for trying to abolish the prevalent slavery. The Birch Incident was famously revisited in Kee Thuan Chye’s 1994 play, We Could **** You, Mr Birch.