Nathaniel's nutmeg (19 page)

As the
Red Dragon
approached these islands, Middleton
heard the crack of musket-shot split the air and saw two
galleys 'making all the speed possible toward us'. The
foremost vessel contained the King of Ternate while
behind him, and hot on his heels, were dozens of pirates
rowing furiously and firing with their guns. Realising that
the king would be an invaluable ally should his life be
saved, Middleton immediately ordered the
Red Dragons
sails to be hauled down and ropes to be thrown over the
side. In the nick of time the king was pulled aboard the
vessel, but not before his oarsmen had been captured by the
pirates and 'put to the sword, saving three men which saved
their lives by swimming'.

Middleton for once had the upper hand. Leading the
King down to his private quarters, he handed him one of
the letters of trade and friendship drafted by King James
and, without even having time to affix the King of
Ternate's name to the top, kindly requested him to sign it.
Although quaking with fear, the king hesitated for he had
only recently signed a secret agreement with the Dutch in
which he promised to reserve all his spices for their
merchants. But he soon realised that he was in no position
to bargain and scrawled his signature on Middleton's
treaty, even taking the trouble to write a personal missive
to King James explaining how 'we have been informed
that Englishmen were of bad disposition, and came not as
peaceable merchants, but as thieves and robbers to depose
us of our countries. But by the coming of Captain Henry
Middleton we have found to the contrary, and we greatlie
rejoice.'

Middleton's luck was not to last. Just a few hours after
his triumph a small Dutch fleet stormed the island of
Tidore, capturing its sturdy bastion from the Portuguese
and threatening to repeat the exercise on neighbouring
Ternate.They had been extremely fortunate in the ease of
their conquest for 'the Portugals manfully defended their
honour against the assailants, till an unfortunate fire (how
or whence uncertaine) lighting in their powder blew up a
great part of their castle with sixtie or seventie of their
men.'

Middleton watched these events unfold with a growing
sense of anger. 'If this frothy nation [the Dutch] may have
the trade of the Indies to themselves,' he wrote, 'their pride
and insolencie will be intolerable.' The victory of the
Dutch gave them control of both the northern and central
groups of the Spice Islands, leaving the Banda Islands as the
only group of 'spiceries' that still offered the possibility of
trade without competition.

It was to the Bandas that Captain Colthurst had steered
the
Ascension,
ordered by Middleton to 'seeke a lading of
nutmegs and mace'. Hoping to trade in peace, he watched
in disbelief as a flotilla of Dutch ships followed in his wake.
Unfortunately, there are few records of Colthurst's time
here — save for a brief account which gives depth readings
and soundings of various harbours in the archipelago — and
it is necessary to turn to later accounts for a description of
these verdant and grandiose islands.

Dominating them all was Gunung Api, a classically
shaped volcanic island with steep sides and a hole at the
top. At the beginning of the seventeenth century, it was
entering one of the more energetic periods in its history,
'yeelding nothing but cinders, fire and smoake' and
frequently erupting with such violence that 'it carried
stones of three or four tunnes weight from the one iland
into the other.' These boulders would rain down upon
neighbouring Neira Island which, although not the largest
in the group, had long been the centre for the nutmeg
trade. It was to Neira that Captain Garcia had steered his
Portuguese carrack in 1529 and, without consulting with
the native chieftains, had attempted to construct a castle.
Although Garcia was driven away by the local warriors,
Neira remained popular with captains and traders on
account of its fine natural harbour - once the volcano's
caldera — which provided a safe anchorage for far larger
vessels than the
Ascension.

Less than half a mile from Neira was the kidney-shaped island of Great Banda, 'strong and almost inaccessible, as [if]
it were a castle'. Great Banda s rocky backbone was covered
in a mantle of greenery — almost all nutmeg trees — and
there was 'scarce a tree on the iland but beareth fruit'. These
fruits were jealously guarded by the native inhabitants, an
aggressive and warlike people who had built an elaborate
system of defensive fortifications around the islands
shelving coast.

The other two islands, Ai and Rozengain, were less than
an hour's sailing from Great Banda. Rozengain had little
nutmeg and was therefore of no interest to Captain
Colthurst, whilst Ai had an extremely treacherous shoreline
which deterred all but the most foolhardy of mariners.
Nevertheless, it was 'the paradice of all the rest [for] there
is not a tree on that iland but the nutmeg, and other

delicate fruits of superfluitie; and withall, full of pleasant
walkes so that the whole countrey seemes a contrived
orchard with varieties'.

The only other island of note was Run, a tiny and
outlying atoll whose cliffs and mountain were so tangled
with nutmeg trees that they yielded a massive third of a
million pounds of the spice every year. But Run, more
than two hours from Neira, was the most dangerous of all
the Banda Islands for its small harbour was ringed by a
sunken reef which had claimed the timbers of many a
vessel attempting to put in to port. Such dangers appear to
have deterred Colthurst from landing on the island and he
returned to Neira where the Dutch commander
generously invited the English captain to dinner.
According to Dutch records, Colthurst arrived bearing a
freshly baked chicken pie, not out of courtesy but because
he disliked Dutch food.

He left the Bandas with a valuable cargo of spice, as well
as a friendly letter from a local headman offering King
James I a generous gift of nutmeg. It was several years
before this headman received a reply, but when he did he
was overjoyed. The King, courteous as ever, thanked him
for his kind present which, he said, 'we accepted with all
kindness.'

Middleton and Colthurst sailed together for England,
following in the wake of the
Hector
and the
Susan.
The
Susan
was destined never to make it home. Caught in a
ferocious storm off southern Africa, she sank with the loss
of all hands. The
Hector
almost shared a similar fate; stricken
by sickness she was spotted by the
Red Dragon
'in
lamentable distress' and drifting helplessly in the waters
around Table Bay. With just fourteen men left alive, the
captain was about to scupper her when Middleton arrived
on the scene. He oversaw her repair, waited until her
surviving crew had been nursed back to health, and
eventually accompanied her back to England, arriving in
the spring of 1606.

The joyous welcome that greeted Middleton and his
surviving men on their arrival home was to prove short­lived. For no sooner had his ships' cargo of nutmeg, cloves
and pepper been unloaded than a vessel

arrived in London
bearing news of appalling happenings in the harbour at
Bantam: ships had been ransacked, cargoes stolen and men
indiscriminately slaughtered. At first it was thought that
only the Dutch or Portuguese could wreak such terror, but
London's merchants were soon to learn otherwise. The
perpetrator of these outrages was none other than the
'gentelman' adventurer Sir Edward Michelborne.

Sir Edward had made good his promise to have his revenge.
Flattering King James with his patrician charm and bad-
mouthing the East India Company in the same breath, he
persuaded the King to grant him a royal licence for a
voyage of discovery to the Far East, a licence that was valid
'notwithstanding any grant or charter to the contrary'.