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The Road to Eldorado
Idyllic: Ai Island viewed from the shores of RunOne hot afternoon on the Indonesian island of Run in Central Maluku regency, a group of farmers gathered together in a yard where nutmeg seeds were spread out to dry in round wicker baskets
Idyllic: Ai Island viewed from the shores of Run
One hot afternoon on the Indonesian island of Run in Central Maluku regency, a group of farmers gathered together in a yard where nutmeg seeds were spread out to dry in round wicker baskets.
They know that their island was once involved in a war between maritime empires and that nutmeg trees were the source of the conflict.
They also know that their ancestors were enslaved by Dutch colonial plantation owners whose, struggle with English nutmeg traders led to a 1667 agreement in which the Dutch government ceded the island of Manhattan to the English in exchange for exclusive control of Run and its treasured spices.
Beyond those basic facts, the historic memory of Run's inhabitants is vague. Their pride, however, in the importance of their island's past is vivid.
'Run was the only spice island in the Dutch East Indies controlled by the English, so they traded it for New Amsterdam [Manhattan], which was an island the Dutch controlled in the English territories,' one farmer remembers.
'This was a trade to make peace between the English and the Dutch who had been fighting for a long time, so our island was responsible for creating peace in the world.'
In the farmers' version of the past, Holland was the enemy and Run got its name from the fact that English traders who were attacked by Dutch on the other spice islands sought refuge on a speck of land they named after the English word for a method of quick escape ' run.
The blood spilled over nutmeg in centuries past no longer stains the crystal clear waters of the Banda Islands that are home to Run, which is barely 3 square kilometers large.
Now people come from all over the world to see spectacular coral reefs and electric fish that glow in the dark.
Most have only a vague idea that Run was once involved in the seventeenth century struggle between maritime powers.
They might be reminded of the spice island's significance by one of Run's roads, Jl. Manhattan, but only the locals know its name. The street sign has been destroyed.
No one knows exactly when it disappeared from view along with the rest of the island's faded history.
One of the longest roads on the island of Run is called Jl. Eldorado. It is named after the mythical city of gold that 16th century European adventurers sailed the globe's oceans to discover.
Although there was no gold in Run, Europeans treasured the tiny island as the source of the world's nutmeg, a spice that at the time was literally worth its weight in gold.
The small houses on Jl. Eldorado have tin roofs and there is little evidence of the enormous wealth that left the island's shores in the 16th and 17th centuries.
The only physical traces of the past are a few stones from a fort used by Dutch and English soldiers in their ongoing wars for control of the island and the crumbling ruins of a building once used to store nutmeg and that housed the slaves that harvested it.
The former warehouse is known by the locals as rumah besi or the metal house. Its tin roof is full of holes and the dilapidated interior is riddled with deep pools of stagnant water.
The muddy liquid is a reminder that there is no source of fresh water on Run.
Some believe that there once was a clean water well near the rumah besi that was cursed by the original inhabitants of the island after they were forcibly removed from their homes to make room for slaves from other islands who farmed the nutmeg plantations.
According to one resident, 'The descendants of those original people are the only ones who know how to undo the curse and make fresh water flow, but they now live on other islands and have no reason to return.'
The most convincing proof of the island's history can be found in the nutmeg trees themselves. The small pale yellow nutmeg fruit still hangs from the boughs of the trees that surround the rumah besi.
Farmers can no longer depend on the income from nutmeg to support their families, so most have other jobs.
Some raise goats on the island's hillsides. Others build small boats or teach in the local school. In many of the front yards on Jl. Eldorado, nutmeg seeds and their crimson mace coverings can be seen drying in the sun.
The sweet smell of the spice still permeates the island's air. Cooking for neighborhood feasts is often done outdoors and open-air pots of fresh fish stew bubble with nutmeg-flavored sauces whenever a wedding is celebrated.
Once a harbor to the magnificent sailing ships of the Dutch East Indies Company, Run's port is now home to more modest vessels. Small motorboats are the principle means of transportation between Run and the other Banda Islands.
Even the largest island, Banda Neira, is accessed primarily by ship. Most visitors to Run embark on a large boat in Ambon that stops at Banda Neira on its way to Papua and Indonesia's other easternmost islands.
The vessel serves Indonesians bringing home supplies that cannot be found on their home islands. The decks teem with passengers staking out space to sleep on thin cardboard mats. They compete with traveling vendors who sell everything from fried rice to woven blankets.
Mothers bathe their children in buckets. Laundry hangs on makeshift clotheslines. Infants sleep in baskets suspended from grocery scales. The ship is a floating village.
Tourists can spend the night at Banda Neira's Maulana Hotel before taking a smaller boat to Run.
The large ship ties its anchor in the Maulana's back courtyard, so guests can enjoy a marvelous view of the seaside and a towering lava-scarred volcano across the harbor. Breakfast includes toast with delicious nutmeg jam.
'All that is left of the wealth created by the nutmeg harvests is the rumah besi,' another farmer remembers. 'That is where the nutmeg was stored before it was sold for huge fortunes to the rest of the world. None of those riches were ever returned to Run, and all we have to remember it is that old empty warehouse with a leaky roof.'
'All these things happened over a short period of history that is now little known. Children here don't know about their history. I only read about it once in a book. There should be a way to preserve those memories.'
' Photos by Ron Jenkins
