Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)Put on your windbreaker and get a firm grasp on both arms of your easychair and get ready for a great adventure! This book is that good. It flies along at breakneck speed with never a dull moment. Mr. Milton has a wonderful style and he has obviously done a tremendous amount of research in putting this book together. There are a lot of quotes from the primary sources, which makes for very interesting reading as you get a"you are there" feel. Actually, Nathaniel Courthope, from the title of the book is only a relatively small, though integral, part of the story. Mr. Milton gives brief but vivid character sketches of many of the Dutch and English sailors, merchants and explorers who were involved in this long and bloody trade war. Also, the book is not confined to just talking about the East Indies. It moves around from England, Holland, India, etc. to the Arctic and the search for a Northeast Passage and to Manhattan and the Hudson River and the search for a Northwest Passage. One note for the squeamish: the participants in the fight for control of the nutmeg trade did not obey the Marquis of Queensbury's rules for fighting fair. The book is full of beheadings; people being keelhauled and drawn and quartered and there is a horrific chapter on English sailors being tortured by their Dutch captors that is worthy of the worst things done during the Spanish Inquisition. If your picture of the Dutch East India Company is one of fat and jolly pipe smoking burghers, think again!
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