Milton's cause-effect historical ironies, coming only in the final chapter, made sticking with this account unusually rewarding. Living in East Java now, this is something I can’t imagine at all, which makes details like this fascinating. one who could fledge out the history with greater depth, build a stronger thesis (Milton's thesis that a mid-level merchant altered history isn't that strong), and make the characters more human. There is a dearth of English language history on Indonesia (at least what is available outside the academic presses).

Milton spins a fascinating tale of swashbuckling adventure, courage and cruelty, as nations and entrepreneurs fought for a piece of the nutmeg action. Maybe one day people will laugh at the lenghts we go now to get access and control over the oil resources. I now have a better knowledge and understanding of the race for domination of the Spice Islands, the development of the East India Company and the subsequent British Empire. Ignorant of the existence of the narwhal - that strange member of the whale family that has a single tusk protruding from its head - the rough English mariners confidently declared that this odd piece of flotsam had once belonged to a unicorn, a highly significant find, for 'knowing that unicorns are bred in the lands of Cathay, China and other Oriental Regions, [the sailors:] fell into consideration that the same head was brought thither by the course of the sea, and that there must of necessity be a passage out of the said Oriental Ocean into our Septentrionall seas. When the Dutch finally gained control and brutally subjugated the native population of the islands, the English still persisted in their claim for spices.The British East India Company was originally established to promote trade and compete with Dutch in the East Indies (rather than the Indian subcontinent.

There are points that the brutality described, especially that of the Dutch during the final battles against the British for total control of the Spice Islands, make the bloodshed George RR Martin's 'Song of Ice and Fire' cycle look like an afternoon at a picnic in a park. While London's merchants anxiously awaited news of their historic first voyage to the Spice Islands, many people in the country were left wondering what all the fuss was about. Oddly enough, despite the piracy and bloodshed and heartache, it took until the 1810's before anyone thought to uproot a plant and transfer it elsewhere. Nathaniel's is a very minor character in the book and Milton's hypothesis that his actions changed the course of history is not properly explored or supported by the book.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. I had the wrong expectation when I bought this book since I was expecting an account of the colonization of Banda Islands and the struggle of the natives. And when he is forced to relate distasteful behavior on the part of the British (such as the men in Henry Hudson's expedition who made a sport of shooting American Indians with muskets from the deck of their ship) he seems extremely grieved by it, whereas similar behavior by the Dutch can pass without comment. The book describes the nearly incredible difficulty of just getting to the Spice Islands, much less surviving there amidst tropical diseases, hostile natives and the incessant fighting among the Europeans. With the support of the natives and a tiny military contingent, he held the island for a staggering 1,500 days, fending off a vastly greater Dutch force throughout that period.