Mataram was once a powerful Sultanate based on the lands dominated by Central Java’s Mount Merapi and the cities of Yogyakarta and Surakarta before the Dutch took control.

Mataram is also a novel by a near octogenarian scholar who let his creativity roam free after a lifetime of formal study marked by footnotes. That cleared the path to introduce Tony Reid’s creation: a ginger-bearded seaman from Hampshire with a sinking marriage. His adventures help us understand the Java of four centuries ago.

Thomas Hodges had little to warrant his inclusion as master’s mate in an imagined English trading venture to the East Indies in 1608 – but for one skill. He was a natural linguist fluent in Portuguese, then the lingua franca of commerce; he had learned the language while shipping wine to Britain.

The Red Dragon makes landfall at Bantam (now Banten) in West Java after a long voyage, becalmed for a month and stricken by disease causing five deaths. Hodges is sent ashore into a “town with no friends and little law” to negotiate the bulk purchase of pepper, much wanted in Europe. 

While the crew quench their thirst and lust, “Hod” sets about learning Malay and the culture to better deal with sellers. He also needs to rapidly understand the complex cartels that control trade with the competing Dutch, Portuguese, Arabs, Indians and British. His venture was about “glory and riches – or death and dishonor”.

Chinese intermediaries help him build contacts – a role they still play today. The impatient Englishman was also given lessons in Java-style dealings with a trader called Bintara.