England's maiden expedition to the Spice Islands had come to grief in the ice-bound waters of the Arctic. An interesting book about something (major) happened in Indonesia but the author decided that the readers will be happy with many side stories that detract from the main topic.

However, the irony also works on both sides: the natives of Banda Islands are shown to be “profiting” from the trade by getting European knives and clothes (which worth almost nothing in Europe but worth a lot in East Indies) by trading their nutmegs (which worth almost nothing in East Indies but worth a lot in Europe). The most wonderful, improbable, intriguing stories are lurking in our history books, if we have the patience and wit to find them.I'm not sure how you were supposed to "take" the wine/saffron combo once you were no longer living, but presumably few people were wealthy enough to find out. These tiny specks on the map were vital for only one reason:the most exquisite spices grew there and only there. For five years Courthope and his band of thirty men were besieged by a force one hundred times greater - and his heroism set in motion the events that led to the founding of the greatest city on earth.

Five hundred years ago, that small cluster of volcanic islands was the only place in the world where one could find clover and nutmeg.Obviously, in real life NO pirates are good guys, but Milton, despite writing non-fiction, does exactly this same thing. The final, macabre twist in the tale was recorded by Giovanni Michiel, the Venetian ambassador to Moscow.