Run Island is the outermost of the Banda Islands in the far east of Indonesia, and Nailaka is a tiny coral cay linked to Run by a coral causeway. These two miniscule spots on the map are rich in both stunning scenery and world history.
Lying just south of the equator, they drift along in the dazzling Banda Sea, east of Sulawesi and west of New Guinea. Run was the very first English colony, settled from 1616; predating even Virginia and Barbados, and it was sought after because it yielded a great crop of nutmeg each year. The Dutch had already snapped up most of the nutmeg islands; the English had to move fast to grab Run Island.
Across all the globe, nutmeg grew only on the Banda Islands and was highly prized among the spices of the East. Getting a few pounds of nutmeg back to the hungry markets of Europe would make a man rich beyond dreams in the seventeenth century. It’s hard to imagine countries and empires clashing over these remote and striking islands, but they did. Long ago.
For more on the history of Run and Nailaka, have a look at Spice Islands Forts or Nathaniel’s Nutmeg.
But for now, lets take a day cruise to these two enchanting, beguiling islands.
