Nathaniel's NutmegPaperback: 388 pages A rollicking ride through the history of the Spice Islands, what are today part of Indonesia and Malaysia. This book deals with the competition between England and the Dutch colonial empire for possession of the spice-producing islands of Southeast Asia throughout the 17th century. Full of stories of heroism, ambition, ruthlessness, treachery, murder, torture, and madness, Nathaniel's Nutmeg offers a compelling story of European rivalry in the tropical Asian world , thousands of miles from home, and the mutual incomprehensibility which often comically characterized relations between the Europeans and the local inhabitants of the prized islands. At the center of the action lies Nathaniel Courthope, a trusty lieutenant of the East India Company, who took and held the tiny nutmeg-producing island of Run in the face of overwhelming Dutch opposition for more than five years, before being treacherously murdered in 1620. To avenge his death, and the loss of the island, the British took the Dutch North American colony at Manhattan. The story of how New York became British and what we know today.
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