Giles Milton

And essentially, this is what he tried to do with the Banda Islands.

And we'll come on to the massacre because this is not a pleasant story.

No.

But compare it to the English.

I don't know if I'm getting ahead of myself here, but when the English come to Run Island, what they do, they sign a treaty with the islanders and they bring Run Island under the...

under the control of the English.

And the treaty document still exists.

And I'll just read you.

It says, "'And whereas King James, by the grace of God, "'is King of England, Scotland, France and Ireland, "'he is now, by the mercy of God, King of Run.'"

And as one of the sea dogs quipped, I really shouldn't say this, Willie, while you're here, but as one sea dog quipped, Run Island was going to prove far more profitable than Scotland ever had done.

But probably true.

So Nathaniel Courtaubes, who's to play an absolutely sort of central role to the whole story of what happened in the Bandar Islands, he was an employee of the East India Company.

Not much is known about him, his early life, although subsequent to writing the book, I found that his house still exists in Cranbrook in Kent, a beautiful half-timbered Elizabethan mansion.

Anyway, he set sail on one of the East India Company voyages, which was

An extraordinary adventure.

They took, you know, several years to get to the Spice Islands.

Worth reminding listeners of the hazards they faced, storms, the doldrums in the Atlantic where the winds calmed and the ships couldn't move at all.

This is the original word that gives us doldrums.

Exactly.

Yes.