Giles Milton

Nathaniel...

Really, I think, inspired by patriotism.

I mean, in the letters that have survived, he talks about he's doing this for England, you know.

Extraordinary.

Very few people these days, I think, would lay down their lives for the flag of St George.

For Keir Starmer.

Exactly.

But that's precisely what he did.

Anyway, the men throw the towel.

And, you know, within a few days, the Dutch have taken over Run Island and they have got what they always wanted, which is the six bander islands under their firm control.

They have secured by doing this a monopoly over the global supply of nutmeg.

So we mentioned Jan Kern, the monstrous governor general of the Dutch East India Company.

He decides that there's to be no dealings with the head men of the Bander Islands.

There's to be no dealings with the local population.

They are simply to be exterminated.

And thus begins one of the most

brutal episodes in the history of the Bandar Islands where Jan Kern and his Dutch troops simply come ashore.

They arrest all of the key headmen of these islands and using Japanese mercenaries, very interestingly, they have a band of Japanese executioners who they use to do the dirtiest of their dirty work, who simply round up the headmen and have them all decapitated.

How have they come into the picture?

Where have they got their samurai from?