The Sydney Writers Festival was another great week of ideas and discussion.
Here are some famous writers with their thoughts on Food and Wine.
George Bernard Shaw
Virginia Wolfe
Scott Fitzgerald
Earnest Hemingway
Oscar Wilde
And my personal favorite
Francois Rabelais
On the Spice Islands Sailing Adventure in 2013 we landed on the island of Machian in the North Moluccas. Once the most prolific of the clove growing Spice Islands, early sailors claimed they could smell the sweet scent of its cloves from far out at sea.
The island is characterized by a central volcano which has been breached by a large cleft on its northeast side, and the archival photo below clearly shows the cleft.
Machian Island
The volcano erupted explosively in 1988 and 15,000 islanders were evacuated with some being permanently resettled on the main island of Halmahera.
The Ombak Putih landed our group and guides ashore at one village, and we walked along a coastal path for an hour or so until the next village. Walking through plantations of cassava, corn, cloves, nutmeg and coconuts, a particular flower attracted my attention. In my online search to identify the flower, I discovered an unusually named plant called Clitoria Ternatea. This generic name was given by the botanist Breyne in 1678 to describe an exotic plant found growing as a vine on the island of Ternate.
Owing to its similarity to a human body part, it was often used in traditional medicine to treat female sexual ailments and also as an aphrodisiac.The Portuguese, who were the first Europeans to reach Ternate, called it ‘fula criqua’ or the ‘flower of creation’.
Taken from the Northern Moluccas this exotic cultivar is now grown all over the tropical and sub-tropical world. Commonly called the blue-pea, the butterfly-pea or the cordovan-pea, it is often grown as an ornamental plant —– and you may have one in your own garden.
The Ombak Putih sails to the Spice Islands again in October 2014 and the details can be found at
http://www.seatrekbali.com/cruise/spice-routes-spice-wars/
Some more ‘East Indies’ book reviews have come in
Photo courtesy of Rianti
Ian Burnet journeys through the East Indies, from Calcutta and Goa to Timor and Malacca, as far as Nagasaki, Canton and Hong Kong. Europe’s desires for goods from the East —- spices such as cloves and nutmeg, textiles, tea, opium, porcelain, gunpowder and more —- led to a fiercely contested ongoing battle between the Portuguese, the Dutch and the English for supremacy in the region’s trade routes. ‘East Indies’ charts the course of history over two centuries with sections devoted to the three major players with short chapters focusing on individual cities or ports. The rest is a managable, accessable and engaging history of this vast topic. Peppered with accounts by past travellers as well as evocative descriptions from the authors own travels, each port city is brought to life with descriptions of the sights, sounds and smells of places like Malacca, the crossroads of the East. This scholarly, intensively researched and well illustrated book will satisfy the taste buds of the armchair traveller as well as the world history buff.
— Meg Quinlisk, Inside History
The author is so renowned as a historian of the era that he leads exclusive sailing tours all over the Moluccas Islands of eastern Indonesia in traditional wooden sailing schooners. Burnet’s intrepid groups climb over 16th century Portuguese forts and tramp through clove and nutmeg plantations … I applaud the author’s efforts in acquiring publication rights for 70 high-resolution digital images of unusual historic illustrations and maps synchronised perfectly with the text … six years in the making, drawing on extensive and meticulous research on the ground and in the Far East collections of some of the world’s most pre-eminant libraries, archives and institutions, East Indies is packed with historical detail supported by a very servicable index.
— Bill Dalton, The Bali Advertiser
Please go to the author website http://www.ianburnetbooks.com to see more details
The whitewashed residence of the former Dutch Governor on the island of Banda has some classical architectural features. From the golden lions mounted on the entrance gates, to the now defunct fountain on the lawn in the forecourt, to the elegant simplicity of the four columns on the terrace and the symmetry of its shuttered doors and windows. Inside the building it’s tiled floors and high ceilings tell of a by-gone splendor.
However, one of the front windows tells a tragic story.
The Dutch Governor’s Residence
Etched on a glass window pane using a diamond ring, are the last word of Charles Rumpley, believed to have been a minor colonial official. Words written on 1 September 1831, words which if they had been written on paper would have been forgotten in the intervening 180 years, but words which still resonate today in his desperate cry to be reunited with his family:
Quand viendra t’il le temps que formera mon bonheur?
Quand frappera la cloche qui va sonner l’heure,
Le moment que je reverai les bords de ma Patrie,
Le soin de ma famille que j’aime et que je benis?
When will come the time that will form my happiness?
When will the bell strike the hour,
The moment I will see again the shores of my country,
The bosom of my family that I love and bless?
Photo courtesy of Uta Domnitz
What his fateful words tell us is that, isolated in the middle of the vast Banda Sea, cut off from his family and with no prospect of any immediate return to Europe, what could seem like a tropical paradise to one person can be a personal hell to another.
For after writing these words, Charles Rumpley took his own life.
Fort Revenge. Just the name conjures up boyhood images of the sound and fury of battle, with cannons booming, muskets firing, military flags waving, the clash of swords, and the sound of battle cries. Fort Revenge still stands on the island of Ai (called Poule Way on this map), one of the remote Banda islands in Eastern Indonesia, but how did it get its name?
When the English East India Company vessel Expedition arrived in the Banda Islands in 1609, Captain David Middleton found Admiral Verhoef and his Dutch East India Company (VOC) war fleet had occupied the main islands and were busy building their garrison on Banda Neira. The only place he could trade for nutmeg were the outer islands of Ai and Run whose headmen had steadfastly refused to sign any agreement with the Dutch. These outer islands were claimed by the English in 1616 when the inhabitants of Run signed an agreement accepting James I of England as sovereign of the island.
The English and their local allies built a fort on Ai, which was the first line of defense against a possible Dutch attack from nearby Banda which is only 10 kilometres away. This came in 1615, when 900 Dutch soldiers and their mercenaries landed on the island and after a day of fighting captured the fort. However that night the English and their island allies’ counter attacked, killing 200 Dutch soldiers as they slept and forcing the others to flee the island as best they could.
The English placed gun batteries on the highest part of Ai in preparation for the Dutch counter-attack, which came a year later. The gun batteries had the range to damage the Dutch ships before they could force a landing, but when their ammunition ran out the fort was overun and the remaining Englishmen forced to retreat to their base on the adjacent island of Run. For obvious reasons the fort on Ai was renamed Fort Revenge and stands as a symbol of the Dutch conquest of these outer islands.
A long entrance tunnel allows you to walk through the broad walls of the fort and enter the interior courtyard, which is now used as a vegetable garden. The interior buildings of the fort have long since disappeared but evidence of the forts purpose and survival still exist, that is the dungeons, the gunpowder magazine and the water well. On the far wall is a Dutch plaque which must have some historic significance and I hope someone can identify the coat of arms.
Shaun Mackay has solved this mystery and he writes – I am an archaeologist with the Maritime Asia Heritage Survey based in Kyoto. We have a field team that was recently in the Banda archipelago recording sites, including Fort Revenge. I have been tracking down the identity of the Coat of Arms for a few weeks and encountered your wonderful page. My curiosity wouldn’t rest and I finally found the answer. As someone who would appreciate the solving of this mystery, I am pleased to be able to share it with you. The Coat of Arms belong to Willem van Outhoorn who served as Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies from 1691 until 1704 when he retired to his estate outside Batavia.
Stone steps lead up to one of the bastions, overlooking the Banda Sea and the adjacent village, where an ancient cannon no longer needed to defend the fort lies on the ground. From this bastion you can see the shape of the fort which is a five sided pentagon with a diamond shaped bastion at each corner.
Some more ‘East Indies’ book reviews have come in.
Photo courtesy of Rianti
Armed Enterprise – Competition and Monopoly in the East
Burnet tells of the struggle between the Portuguese Crown, the Dutch East India Company (VOC) and the English East India Company for trade supremacy in the Eastern Seas.
It’s with vivid historical anecdotes, that Australian author Ian Burnet navigates the long and complex history of European expansion into the Indian Ocean, South East Asia and the China Seas, lured by the wealth to be gained by wresting control of the world’s oldest and richest trades and sea lanes … Burnet’s challenge has been to turn this tumultuous history into a readable, short narrative for a wider, more general audience. To this end he structures the book into three sections from the perspective of the key European players, chronicling the activities of first the Portuguese , then the Dutch and then the English … two features of the book that make this popular history so enjoyable are the many quotes from the mouths of the story’s protagonists, and the well selected historic colour images that closely enhance the narrative.
— Jeffrey Mellefont, Signals, Australian National Maritime Museum
This comprehensive work is highly recommended to students, researchers, and general audiences … it is a worthwhile regional history in and of itself, while on a more scholarly level, it serves as a contribution to the literature on globalization and imperial expansion,
Overall, the book is well written and provides a solid narrative chronicling the embryonic European presence from India to Japan, and ultimately informs the reader of the region’s robust trade networks over a span of centuries, enriching an understanding of the dynamic geographic dimensions of globalization.
— Dr. Thomas J. Sigler, School of Geography – University of Queensland, The Globe
There are more details on the author website at http://www.ianburnetbooks.com
Time to have fun with some timeless classics. Join in with the audience —- clap your hands, stamp your feet, whistle, shout, and have fun with Keroncong Tugu Band
This is a story that never ceases to fascinate. Whenever I give a ‘Spice Islands’ book talk, I am always asked “Is it true that the island of Run was exchanged for Manhattan?”
Manhattan is often referred to as the ‘capital of the world’, this densely populated island on the Hudson River is home to the United Nations where the world’s political leaders decide the fate of nations and Wall Street is undoubtedly the financial capital of the world.
However, before Manhattan there was New Amsterdam.
And before New Amsterdam, there was the island of Run.
The island of Run?
The island of Run, only 3 km long and 1 km wide, is a speck on the map of Eastern Indonesia. It is part of the six Banda islands which surround a central volcano in the middle of the Banda Sea. To reach these tiny islands we sailed overnight from…
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This is a story that never ceases to fascinate. Whenever I give a ‘Spice Islands’ book talk, I am always asked “Is it true that the island of Run was exchanged for Manhattan?”
Manhattan is often referred to as the ‘capital of the world’, this densely populated island on the Hudson River is home to the United Nations where the world’s political leaders decide the fate of nations and Wall Street is undoubtedly the financial capital of the world.
However, before Manhattan there was New Amsterdam.
And before New Amsterdam, there was the island of Run.
The island of Run?
The island of Run, only 3 km long and 1 km wide, is a speck on the map of Eastern Indonesia. It is part of the six Banda islands which surround a central volcano in the middle of the Banda Sea. To reach these tiny islands we sailed overnight from Ambon on the Ombak Putih, a traditional Indonesian sailing schooner owned and operated by Sea Trek Sailing Adventures.
The outline of Run appeared in the first pink light of dawn. Its limestone cliffs rise directly out of the sea and as we are looking for a place to anchor I can see the green foliage of the nutmeg and kenari trees that cover the island. It is still a mystery to me but for some reason the nutmeg tree originally only grew on these remote islands in the middle of the vast Banda Sea. The mere existence of this magical tree on these isolated islands still seems incredibly unlikely, nutmegs when they reached Europe were said to be worth their weight in gold and the Portuguese, Dutch and English fought over access to this valuable commodity.
The Dutch East India Company (VOC) captured the the fort on the main Banda island from the Portuguese in 1605, which meant that when the English East India Company ships arrived, they could only trade for nutmegs on the outer islands of Run and Ai.
We anchor opposite the main village on Run in probably the same place where Nathaniel Courthope anchored the English East India Company vessels Swan and Defense in 1616 to claim the island for King James I of England. This was the very first English colony and King James was able to declare himself, ‘King of England, Scotland and Puloo Run’.
The thin, wizened headman receives us and arranges for a guide to take our group around the island. I ask him “Do you know that your island was exchanged for Manhattan”, he says yes and then asks for the historical details.
Walking along the village street that follows the shoreline we see fishermen repairing their nets, the food staples of fish, coconut and cassava drying in the sun, as well as nutmegs which are still the main export from the island. I even find the neat and freshly painted Manhattan Guest House (only US dollars accepted?).
On the other side of the world the Dutch started construction on Fort Amsterdam in 1625 after Dutch colonist had acquired rights to the island in exchange for sixty guilders of trade goods. It was after the Treaty of Breda in 1667 that the Dutch claim to the island of Manhattan was exchanged for the English claim to the nutmeg island of Run.
This was not just the real estate deal of the century but probably of the millenium. Who would have believed that Manhattan would become the ‘capital of the world’ and the valuable nutmeg island of Run would sink into obscurity?
Ian Burnet and Sea Trek Sailing Adventures sail to the Banda islands in October this year and details are available at http://www.seatrekbali.com
The Ombak Putih is sailing again to Ambon-Banda-Lease-Obliatu-Bacan-Makian-Tidore-Ternate from October 8-19, 2014. Nutmeg and clove plantations, historic forts, old VOC buildings, dive spots, remote villages, local markets, Sultan’s Palaces, and lazing on board, are all on the agenda.
Follow our adventures in this short film produced for Sea Trek Sailing Adventures (www.seatrekbali.com) and Ian Burnet (www.ianburnetbooks.com)
spiceislandsblog 