by Giles Milton
or How a man changed the course of history.
RUN is a tiny island , an insignificant speck in the middle of the Indonesian Archipelago but synonymous with fabulous riches : the NUTMEG.
Run’s harvest turned into the most lucrative of the Spice Islands, but precipitated a fierce and bloody battle between the whole powerful Dutch East Indies Company ( VOC) and a ragtagBritish adventurers led by Nathaniel Courthope .Courthope landed on Run in 1621, determined to keep the island for Britain, . He fought bitterly for its control and men lost their ships, fortune and lives to reach it.
The Dutch eventually killed Courthope and took over Run.
Nearly 50 years later, a peace treaty decreed that Run would remain under Dutch control but, in return, England could keep the island of Manhattan seized from the Netherlands in 1664 . New York was born ! Something worth knowing !
We generally regretted that we reached this issue only towards the end of the book, meaning that the greatest part of the story is about adventures, navigation in unchartered waters, life on board ( even performing Shakespeare’s play Hamlet to keep the men busy on board …), hardships, savagery and exploitation of new worlds .
With this book we reach the end of a theme we have pursued through several stories about discoveries and discoverers in the last three centuries.
Anne Van Calster, November 2025
No comments:
Post a Comment