When describing the English diplomacy with the natives, he used positive-sounding adjectives such as “apt” and “ingenious”, while when describing the Dutch and Portuguese’ attempts in dealing with the natives, he used negative-sounding adjectives such as “guileful” and “ruthless”.

There are lot of maps which are really useful but some sort of appendix on the various convoys and a Who's Who would also have been beneficial. He tells everything from an English point of view, because those were the sources he was using, but we can't always rely on these accounts to be an honest accounting of events.

A two-mile strip of land in the Banda sea, the island was rich with nutmeg and offered the English a chance to break the global Dutch monopoly.

If you are curious at all about the Spice Trade, or about the roots of the British and Dutch East India Companies, or how the competing interests to control the Spice Trade from the Spice Islands in Indonesia were fought, or even how it all affected the founding of Manhattan (and it did) and the ultimate control of it by Britain, this is the book for you. 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. That said, this is an interesting introduction to Western Europe's involvement in the global race to corner the spice market. And everyone wanted it - the Spanish, the Portuguese, the Dutch and the English, though the last two were the greatest foes. The book’s description of forgotten and obscure events during the colonization of the world was astonishing, I’d never read about any of this in my previous readings of History.Also, because there were some amusing factoids like this one about Banten: "It was infamous in the East for its loose women and lax morals and an air of profligacy". You know the man by report, I by experience; you by words, I by deeds; you by speech and company, but I by the daily trial of his life. I found the story of the Spice Trade to be quite interesting and that I suppose was a result of the hard work put in by the author. This book is more truly a history of colonialism in the Banda Islands, the destructive effects of Dutch and English attempts to take control of various islands (trade here was synonymous with substituting colonial governance for independent rule), the enslavement and murder of the indigenous population, and the many and repeated failures of the English to secure a toehold in the East Indies in the 17th century.