[Sca-cooks] Spice Islands

[Stefan li Rous]

Johnnae mentioned recently:
  <<< The book to read that they don't mention is Giles Milton's
Nathaniel's Nutmeg which came out in 1999. It's all about the
17th century battle over Run. >>>

Thank you for posting this, Johnnae. Although you, and Amazon, are  
hard on my wallet.

I went to check out this book on Amazon in part because I couldn't  
understand Johnnae's comment about "battle over Run". I've heard of  
cost overruns, but this was the first I'd heard of battle overruns.  
Or maybe she meant Rum, but I didn't see a connection between Rum and  
nutmeg, either.

After buying the book, I looked at some of their other suggested  
books and decided they looked good also. Then, wanting to save some  
money with the free shipping, I kept looking at my 'wish list' and  
elsewhere. By the time I decided I better stop (note I didn't say by  
the time I ran out of interesting books...) I had run up a large  
order. Which is why Johnnae is not good for my wallet. But then the  
same thing can be said about Devra, as well. :-)

Anyway, for those wanting to know more about what this "Run" is, it  
is an island in the Spice Islands region. Here is part of one of the  
reviews of the "Nutmeg" book on the Amazon site:

<<< The book deals with the competition between England and Holland  
for possession of the spice-producing islands of Southeast Asia  
throughout the 17th century. Packed with stories of heroism,  
ambition, ruthlessness, treachery, murder, torture, and madness,  
Nathaniel's Nutmeg offers a compelling story of European rivalry in  
the tropics, 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. (As  
Milton wittily remarks, although Courthope's death "robbed England of  
her nutmeg, it gave her the biggest of apples"). >>>

Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas           
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****