From the Inside Flap
The tiny island of Run is an insignificant speck in the
middle of the Indonesian archipelago. Just two miles long and
half a mile wide, it is remote, tranquil, and these days
largely ignored.
Yet, 370 years ago, Run's harvest of nutmeg (a pound of
which yielded a 3200% profit by the time it arrived in
England) turned it into the most lucrative of the Spice
Islands, precipitating a battle between the all-powerful
Dutch East India Company and the British crown. The outcome
of the fighting was one of the most spectacular deals in
history: Britain ceded Run to Holland but in return was given
Manhattan. This led not only to the birth of New York but to
the beginning of the British Empire.
Such a deal was due, in part, to the persistence of one
man. Nathaniel Courthope and his small band of adventurers
were sent to Run in October 1616 and for four years held off
the massive Dutch Navy. Nathaniel's Nutmeg centers on the
remarkable showdown between Courthope and the Dutch Governor
General, Jan Coen, and the brutal fate of the mariners racing
to Run--and the other corners of the globe--to reap the huge
profits of the spice trade.
A brilliant adventure story of unthinkable hardship,
savagery, the navigation of uncharted waters, and the
exploitation of new worlds, Nathaniel's Nutmeg is a
remarkable chapter in the history of the colonial powers by a
writer who has been hailed as "the new Bruce
Chatwin" (Mail on Sunday).
