The Fever Trail

Title: The Fever Trail – In Search of the Cure for Malaria

Author: Mark Honigsbaum

Publisher: Pan Books, 2002 (First published 2001)

ISBN: 9780330481854

Pages: 333

Malaria is a scourge of mankind. Till a few centuries back, it afflicted all parts of the globe with equal severity, but is now confined mainly to the Third World. Millions of children die every year in sub-Saharan Africa due to this illness and the drain on the economy caused by the incapacitation of healthy individuals is considerable. It has killed 60 times more people than AIDS. The book presents a detailed historical narrative of the search for finding a cure for malaria. It tells the story of finding a natural cure in the bark of the cinchona tree in its natural habitat of South America and the epic struggle by a few spirited explorers to get its seeds out to the whole world for starting cultivations elsewhere. The book ends with a brief description of the state of the art in finding a vaccine for it. Mark Honigsbaum is a medical historian and journalist with a long standing interest in the history and science of infectious diseases. He is a regular contributor to British newspapers and has authored four books.

The cinchona plant is a miracle, in the sense that its bark contains the cure for malaria. The case of a single plant being the only effective remedy for a killer disease is rare. It is equally miraculous that man found out about the tree and its gift, as historians suggest that malaria was not endemic to South America. The disease came with the conquistadores from the Old World. The question of who discovered the febrifugal property of the plant may never be answered, but urban legend associates its widespread use with Dona Francisca Henriquez de Ribera, the fourth Countess of Chinchon in Spain, who was the vicereine of Peru. Legend has it that she became ill with malaria and the viceroy despaired of her life. When all else failed, a local Jesuit priest suggested the dried bark of a tree called ayac cara (bitter bark) or quinquina (bark of barks). The lady was cured after administering the bark and the story spread like wildfire. When Carl Linnaeus, the father of taxonomy was faced with the task of naming the species, he settled on cinchona, somehow omitting the first ‘h’ of the lady’s estate. The plant’s original habitat was South America. The finest cinchonas were very particular about the region in which they thrived. The best trees were found on the slopes of Cajanuma Mountain in the Loja province of Ecuador. Honigsbaum don’t keep the reader in suspense of how malaria came to the New World. He ascribes this with the slave trade, in which tens of thousands of Blacks were transported forcibly from the malaria-infected river banks of Africa. Some of the Africans have a natural genetic defence against the disease in the form of sickle-shaped cells in their blood stream, but they act as carriers of the sickness. It is notable that Africans were vulnerable to malaria for indeed a very long time that evolution has favoured a group of individuals with the trait of sickle cells, which of course produces other debilitating effects. The mosquitos which flourished in the half-cleared swamps of South America vectored the parasite Plasmodium falciparum among the natives as well as European settlers.

The book tells the story of transplantation of cinchona trees from South America to India and Java. By the 19^th century, quinine production had started on an industrial scale. Having the monopoly of the bark, the governments of Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador jealously guarded the trees, forbidding export of live plants and seeds. As the bark grew dearer in price, smuggling rose proportionately. Besides, excessive harvest of bark and indiscriminate felling of trees threatened the existence of the species itself. The British and Dutch governments watched the emerging scenario with growing alarm. The South American republics often fought amongst themselves and were breeding grounds for bloody revolutions and coups. Even though it amounted to looting of the biological asset of a sovereign state, it was in the interest of humanity to transplant the trees to save it from extinction and to produce quinine in large quantities for selling to the public at affordable prices. Several teams tried their luck on the slopes of Andes and its foot hills. Richard Spruce, Clements Markham and Charles Ledger were successful in getting the plants and seeds out of South America. However, while haggling over the price, some of it reached the hands of the Dutch. Soon, large gardens of cinchonas sprouted in Dutch Java and at Nilgiri and Darjeeling in India. The Javan plantations carefully grafted the trees to obtain fine specimens with huge quinine content, while the Indian trees got hybridized due to lack of scientific cultivation. Consequently, the cost of Javan quinine was lesser. The Dutch could sell it with greater profit too. By the 1880s, quinine price had reached rock bottom due to increased production in Asia. The South American bark industry collapsed as a result.

Even though the author gives an exhaustive description of the quest for cinchona trees – even by narrating the day to day incidents during the exploration – he glosses over the heroic search for the vector of the disease and Ronald Ross’ discovery that the mosquito was the medium of propagation of the disease. Common wisdom was that malaria was spread through foul air – miasma – found in the presence of swamps and marshes. This was overturned only in the 19^th century when researchers identified the mosquito to be the real culprit. Honigsbaum quotes Susruta, who was an ancient proponent of medical profession that five varieties of diseases are caused by mosquitos. But it is to be noted that Susruta does not identify malaria as such and definitely, this observation was far advanced than the medical line of thought in the middle ages.

The final few chapters of the book are devoted to the quest for finding a synthetic prophylaxis against the disease. Chloroquine is one of the most widely used remedy, but researchers are worried that the malaria parasite is growing resistance to the medicine. This is a terrifying prospect for global society considering the ease with which the malady spreads and it’s long lasting debilitating effects. The falciparum parasite was evolved a very long time ago, conferring on it many genetic traits for survival. A close ancestor of the parasite even has the ability to produce chlorophyll, showing its origin in the remotest antiquity when life itself made its first waddling steps. The book ends with a survey of the quest for finding a vaccine to malaria so that it can be prevented from affecting an individual, rather than as a cure. Researchers are working on the project worldwide, but big pharma’s budget is still not being allocated to it in sufficient measure. Among the researchers in the forefront of the study, the author gives pride of place to Manuel Elkin Patarroyo, a highly influential Colombian researcher. Even though his methodology appears to be a little dubious, his vaccine named SPf66 is still the most efficacious one, though it has much more miles to go before universal adoption. Honigsbaum ends the narrative describing the many initiatives which were projected to be on the verge of bearing fruit. This book was published in 2001, but even now, a vaccine for malaria is still elusive.

The book is very nicely structured with clear text accompanied by good photographic plates and maps. An informative section of foot-notes is given along with an exhaustive bibliography and a thoroughly comprehensive index. The narrative is very lucid and appeals to all classes of readers. The book includes flowery praise for the philanthropic contributions of the Wellcome Trust. However, when we realize that the author is currently working as a Wellcome Research Fellow at Queen Mary University in London, we begin to have doubts on the veracity of the assertion.

The book is highly recommended.

Rating: 3 Star

Merchants of Tamilakam

Title: Merchants of Tamilakam – Pioneers of International Trade

Author: Kanakalatha Mukund

Publisher: Allen Lane, 2012 (First)

ISBN: 9780670085217

Pages: 191

This book is one among a series on the ‘Story of Indian Business’ by various authors, with Gurcharan Das as the series editor. The author, Kanakalatha Mukund is not a historian in the conventional sense, having a PhD in economics. She was on the faculty of Economics and Social Studies of Bombay and Bhopal universities. An economist with a keen interest in history, she has authored many books and lives in Coonoor in the Nilgiris. This volume covers the history of trade in the millennium between the dawn of Sangam Age in the first century CE to the disintegration of Chola power in the thirteenth century CE. Powerful kingdoms arose in the region only around the middle of the period, but commerce thrived even under weak kings underlying the fact that absence of undue intervention in the affairs of the market is more conducive for economic activity than any kind of protection the king can confer on the merchants. Development of the local temple as a factor in the distribution of surplus wealth is also described in detail. The region’s maritime provenance is also examined in the light of the supposed territorial conquest of Sumatra, Malaya and Sri Lanka and consequent expansion of trade between the countries. In the historical context, Tamilakam refers to the region of peninsular south India that lies to the south of the Deccan plateau. On a modern map, this is roughly coterminous with the Indian States of Kerala and Tamil Nadu. However, the author somehow manages to examine the history with a strictly Tamil point of view.

The book incorporates an inspiring foreword by Gurcharan Das, former CEO of Procter & Gamble and now full time writer and a renowned author. Apart from commenting on the text to follow, he makes a good comparison of the societies and economies of India and China. Relative merits of the two societies can’t be compared in a few pages, but Das provides some clear arguments that is elegant due to its simplicity. He also suggests actions on what to do with the immense hoard of treasure found in the cellars of Shri Padmanabha Swamy Temple in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.

Major avenues of gainful occupation in ancient Tamilakam were agriculture and commerce. Spices, food grains and pearls were traded for bullion, salt, gemstones, and wine. A brisk trade was ongoing with the Roman Empire when the Sangam Age dawned in the first century CE. Literary and epigraphical evidence in the Tamil country is corroborated by geographical works by noted Roman authors like Ptolemy, Strabo and Pliny. Another great work is the ‘Periplus of the Erythrean Sea’, which is a travelogue of an unknown sailor who travelled to South India. Tamil country served as a hub for international trade. The Roman vessels didn’t venture past India in quest of produce from South East and Far East Asia. Likewise, the sailors from China, Malaya and Sumatra plied their trade only till South India. This made Tamilakam a trans-shipment terminal for the world’s most prominent sea lanes.

Mukund brings to light the real significance of the central position of the temple in Tamil society and commerce. Travellers to Tamil Nadu often wonder at the magnificence of these huge structures in its imposing vastness and the delicate stone carvings. But no clear answer was forthcoming to the straightforward question of what social function did they perform. Mukund details the economically central position of the temple. It received donations in the form of land, cash, jewelry and livestock. In the absence of a welfare state, the crucial task of redistribution of capital was carried out by the temple, which lent the livestock to shepherds for proper rearing and offering loans to the village and town assemblies for executing public works for the benefit of the residents and local economy. Similarly, donated land was given on rent to cultivators. Inscriptions and copper plates preserved in many temples attest to the steadily incoming flow of donations and the systematic redistribution of wealth. Endowment to the temple was sure to ensure religious merit and acceptance in the society to which one belonged.

Many references are seen in this book which are either historically inaccurate or wrong interpretations of ambivalent references in ancient works. It associates the ancient Chera capital of Vanji with Karoor in Tamil Nadu whereas the town was located near Kodungallur in coastal Kerala. Here, the author succumbs to the prevalent school of narrow-minded Tamil historians who want to confine important places of ancient Tamil history within the confines of the present State of Tamil Nadu. Another attempt along this route of Tamil nationalism is the author’s repeated assertions that the Chola kings subdued Sri Lanka in the 11^th century and made it a province of Tamilakam. It claims a strong Tamil presence in the island nation going back to Chola times. This point is reiterated almost half a dozen times, seemingly without any necessity. But on closer inspection, one may suspect that it is a clever device to confer respectability on the Sri Lankan Tamils’ demand for a separate homeland in view of the historical right. Incidentally, it may be pointed out that the emblem of the LTTE which drenched Sri Lanka in pools of blood – before being smashed out of existence by the Sri Lankan Army – was the tiger.They borrowed this symbol taking pride in the conquest of Sri Lanka by the Chola kings. Kanakalatha Mukund looks like lending a helping hand to the dreaded tigers with a cue from history, which is a shot in the arm for Tamil nationalism in Sri Lanka.

It is a first principle of historians that the political boundaries of the State to which one belongs should not be construed as the timeless borders over centuries of history. It doesn’t constitute an ‘intelligent field of study’ in the opinion of Arnold Toynbee. Mukund miserably fails to grasp this basic dictum and narrates the history of Tamilakam by forcing the events and places within Tamil Nadu’s present boundaries. The State of Kerala also belonged to Tamilakam and played a crucial role in the political sphere by the presence of Chera capital city there and Roman trade through its ports. In fact, the Romans knew mostly about only the ports on the west coast and it was only much later did they realize about ports on the Coromandel coast. The author is however tight-lipped about Kerala. This shows lack of research and credible resources on the part of the author. Even though she claims that the Chera capital was located at Karoor, she omits the Cheras also, without a single mention in the book! The text falls to the level of misdirected propaganda for Tamil nationalism with the unfounded assertion that the Pallavas and Cholas conquered Malaya, Sumatra and Java. There are tenuous references in the literary sources, but the author naively takes them at face value. If the conquest had indeed taken place, then why was it that we don’t see any relic of Tamil language in those countries, apart from very few artifacts naturally associated with trade? Another baseless premise is that a high level of literacy prevailed in Tamil society in the ancient period (p.41). The evidence suggested is a list of the poets of the era! However great may be their literary merit, it doesn’t reflect on the general state of literacy. This is as flawed an argument like stating that the late-19^th century Bengal was high in literacy by quoting the names of Tagore, Bankim Chandra Chatterjee and others.

The book is not recommended as the attempt has not been successful.

Rating: 2 Star

The Tears of the Rajas

Title: The Tears of the Rajas – Mutiny, Money and Marriage in India 1805 – 1905

Author: Ferdinand Mount

Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 2015 (First)

ISBN: 9781471129452

Pages: 773

An intensely objective historical narrative full of the romance and vibrancy of subjective fiction.

The British came to India as merchants on the heels of the Portuguese and the Dutch. At first, they were dazzled by the splendours of Indian royal courts. But gradually this changed in response to Europe’s growing affluence caused by the flow of newly discovered South American gold and the surplus derived from keeping Arab middlemen out of its Asiatic trade. They became bolder and began to deal on equal terms with native rulers. No time was lost before the foreign traders took it on their heads that combining possession of land on the subcontinent was very conducive to trade. This led to battles with royal houses that was easily won by the East India Company’s superior firepower. But even then, Britain lacked the economic as well as human resources to subdue a country which was many times her size in every parameter of national reckoning. The solution to this problem led the British to grab the country like a ripe cherry. The Company recruited Indians in their army and solved the manpower problem. Large sums of money were borrowed from Indian moneylenders at first, and then from local rajas for the Company’s campaigns, thereby resolving the financial question as well. This worked perfectly for the foreigners and in no time, large tracts of the country were annexed to the Company’s possessions. The book tells the story of 19^th century India when the British completed their quest for landgrabbing and how a shocking counter-offensive was offered from the Indian side in the form of the Great Mutiny. The story is told keeping the family of John Low, a Scottish military officer who served in India in the Company’s Army and also in administrative capacity as Resident of Lucknow, Hyderabad, Gwalior and Oudh, completing his tenure with a position in the Supreme Council of the Governor General. It narrates the lives of British officials in India at that time, full of the agony of making a living in a foreign land that was riddled with heat, sickness and social isolation. The families kept close to each other in the provinces and the newly established hill stations. The mortality rate was astounding in all age groups. Mount describes the historical events of the century interspersed with family stories of the prominent among them – the Lows, who were incidentally the distant relatives of the author as well as David Cameron, the serving British prime minister. Sir William Robert Ferdinand Mount, usually known as Ferdinand Mount, is a British writer and novelist, columnist and commentator on politics.

The book starts with an interesting and balanced narrative of the mutinies at Vellore in 1806 and at Masulipatam in 1809. The first was undertaken by native Indian sepoys and the latter by white officers themselves. In a country where almost everybody is still living by obeying the commandments of religion – mostly of the ceremonial and definitely very little of the moral type – it is understandable that the native soldiers would be disaffected at the slightest pretext of an affront to their caste and religion from British authority. The spark that lighted the conflagration was the decision to introduce a new uniform and turban among the sepoys. In a classic case of outright insensitivity to the religious feelings of Indians, the cockade of the turbans was made of pig-skin or cow leather, the objects abhorred by Muslims and Hindus in equal measure! The political and military leadership decided to ride roughshod over dissent in the name of discipline. The sons and daughters of Tipu Sultan, who was killed earlier, were lodged in Vellore Fort at that time. The sepoys erupted in mutiny under the princes’ moral authority. The mutiny lasted hardly a few hours, but it spilt European blood. A greater crime was unthinkable to the White administration. Hundreds of sepoys were mowed down in cold blood summarily, without any trial or court martial, and even without asserting whether all of them were indeed mutineers. Compared to this, the white mutiny was a damp affair, caused by the disparity between the Company’s white soldiers and the Crown’s white soldiers stationed side by side in Madras Presidency. Miffed by the paltry pay and perceived lack of opportunity for promotions as compared to the Crown’s soldiers, the company’s white officers rebelled. It was soon brought under control, but what is evident from the whole episode is the dissimilar punishment meted out to the rebels. While the sepoys who only obeyed the orders of the mutinous officers were summarily dismissed, the quantum of punishment was extremely light for the whites. Even after being sacked for the time being, some of them rose later to the level of even Generals.

The title of the book is justified by the absorbing description of how the British managed to oust the local kings from power and annex that state to the Raj. The petty rulers provided ample excuse for them to intervene as a result of internecine warfare. When one side asks the foreign power for support, they convince the ruler of the need to garrison a considerable number of the company’s troops in that state. The troops were called ‘Subsidiary’ in the sense that they are maintained on subsidy paid by the raja who had no other choice. They could pay this hefty sum either in cash, or more probably, lending a large tract of land to the Company whose revenue may be used for maintaining the sepoys. An officer called ‘Resident’ will be posted to the kingdom who oversaw all the administrative decisions of the king. Even though the king paid for the soldiers, the Resident had absolute control over them. Falling in arrears was a dreaded thing. They were also asked to lend huge sums as loans to the Company to meet its balance of payment crises or to send an expeditionary force to subjugate another state in the vicinity. It was a Win–Win situation for the British. A lion’s share of the Company’s army was native sepoys – ten to one against Europeans – recruited from North India. The pay and perks of a very large portion of them was met by the rajas themselves for the ‘privilege’ of stationing the troops in their country. For war expenses, the rajas could again be approached for loans, which was to be repaid at the Company’s sweet will. The colonizing British subdued Indian states one by one using Indian military manpower and Indian money. A more ingenious scheme is hard to find anywhere in the world. But another important thing should also be kept in mind. The local rulers were mostly cowardly, profligate and licentious. The sins of the British were considerable, but that in no way absolved the equally loathsome depredations of the native kings. The king of Lucknow, Nasir-ud-din Haidar, was so deranged by liquor and piety that he donned the attire of a pregnant woman when the celebration of the birth of the Imam was held in the Shia-dominated Lucknow court. He came out with a doll to symbolize the child birth he had undergone. Gangadhar Rao, the king of Jhansi and the husband of Rani Laxmi Bai was said to be in the habit of dressing up as a woman and abstaining from religious practices for four days in a month, as if menstruating! All royal houses constantly lived in the fear of usurpation. They lavished state funds on wine, women and magnificent buildings. The fabled art and culture of Lucknow court is a direct byproduct of this extravagant expenditure, but expressing the idea in such a brutally straightforward way makes one sound philistine, isn’t it?

As is usually seen in British books on the Mutiny of 1857 produced after India’s independence, this one too brings to light the injustices of the colonial administration’s expansionist policies. This achieved momentum during the reign of Lord Dalhousie, who forcibly annexed the principalities of Nagpur, Jhansi and Oudh and a large part of the fertile districts of Hyderabad renowned for its cotton production. English textile mills ended their shameful reliance on cotton produced by slave labour in the southern U.S. after its supply was thus ensured from India. The British failed to conceive popular antipathy generated on account of forcefully ousting hereditary sovereigns who had ruled the country for several generations and who possessed the adoration and awe of the people in spite of their moral and financial depredations. Many officials thought that the people would wholeheartedly support their rule, once the king was deposed along with his corrupt and extortionate courtiers. The Mutiny came as a rude shock to them, seeing the troops they recruited, trained and armed, turn against them. The atrocities on the white population were gruesome, but equally horrible was the retribution by the well educated gentlemen who composed the Queen’s and Company’s officer corps. At Lucknow, they set on fire the bodies of hundreds of rebel sepoys making a large heap of the corpses as well was seriously injured Indian troops. Eye witnesses state that the cries of the living ones from among the fire, imploring them to shoot instead was heartbreaking. The book presents in revealing detail the sieges of Delhi and Lucknow which the British soldiers retook from the mutineers.

Mount presents the events in crisp logical order and analyses the events with current practices in a witty and down to earth way. He brings out the inconsistencies of British foreign policy towards the native states by comparison with the stated objectives and actual practices. Some of the royal customs seem strange to modern society, but couched in a different language and setting, we see them repeating again and again to this day. Wajid Ali Shah, the deposed ruler of Oudh used to contract muta (temporary marriage sanctioned by religious law) with the women to whom he was attracted to. This royal prerogative may seem barbaric and immoral to us, but the author compares these women to the White House interns under the tenures of John F Kennedy and Bill Clinton, suggesting that eventually, the end result was the same! The book includes good photographic plates displaying the major characters in the narrative. It also provides a comprehensive set of notes for further reference and an excellent index for the inquisitive reader.

The book is highly recommended.

Rating: 4 Star

The Spice Route

Title: The Spice Route

Author: John Keay

Publisher: John Murray, 2006 (First published 2005)

ISBN: 9780719561993

Pages: 286

Spices were always an alluring object for Europeans of every hue. They wanted to add punch to their meals by liberally sprinkling those exotica, used them as medicine and aphrodisiacs and also for worship of gods by smoking them as incense. Human history was shaped in no mean measure by the ups and downs in the quest for spices and to locate them in their native environment in the remotest islands of Indonesia. John Keay tells the long tale of the pursuit of spices spanning across three millennia which moulded the world as it is today. The author is an English journalist and author specializing in popular histories of India and the Far East, often with particular focus on their colonization and exploration by Europeans. One of his earlier works, The Great Arc – The Dramatic Tale of How India was Mapped and Everest was Named’ was reviewed earlier in this blog. This book may also be read as a sequel to the book Spice – the History of a Temptation by Jack Turner, which was also reviewed earlier in this blog. While Turner specializes on the spices as such, Keay is more concerned with the history surrounding their discovery and worldwide diffusion.

Even before written history came into vogue, spices arrived at the tables of the Egyptians and Greeks. They came in a series of hauls across the land and the sea. Nutmeg, mace and cloves grew only in the Moluccas island chain of Indonesia, but they trotted half of the globe before ending up in Europe. Several kingdoms presided over the spice routes. The decline in fortune of a dynasty affected the trade and conversely, hiccups in trade told heavily on the fortunes of ruling houses as well. The age old route for the spices from the remote Indonesian islands was to transport it first through sea on to Malacca. The produce changed ships at this hub. It then sailed on the Bay of Bengal to reach Coromandel ports in India. An overland stretch now lay ahead. Ports on the Malabar Coast then took on the task of loading the transit spices on to Arabian vessels anchored in those ports. To the cargo is added pepper, which was a homegrown variety. Cinnamon from Sri Lanka was also sometimes added to the list. This fleet landed either at Aden on the Red Sea or in Hormuz in the Persian Gulf. The former was then carried along the Red Sea, then by land through the Nile, reaching Alexandria. The latter moved overland through much of Syria and Turkey, ending up in Constantinople. European merchants then completed the last leg. A change in this ancient shipping practice was effected with Vasco da Gama’s finding a new lane around the Cape of Good Hope. Spices could then be loaded into the same ship that carried it all the way to its European markets. The book describes these routes in some detail and includes a good narrative on the journey (periplus) of the Erythrean Sea that first identified the monsoon winds which could be used as a trade wind from Arabia that help ships to sail right across the Arabian Sea to reach Malabar ports.

We also read about an abortive naval conquest on more peaceful lines in the Indian Ocean by Chinese sailors. Admiral Cheng-ho made several voyages in the region and established contacts at Malaya, Malabar and the African coast. He came as the representative of the Celestial Empire and is thought to have created a maritime trading empire that encompassed the whole of South Asia. This was in the 14^th-15^th centuries. Had it flourished with a little more resolve from the Chinese side, the Portuguese would have nothing but their effort to show off for their perilous travel across half the planet. But surprisingly, after a few trips, the Chinese quit the game and left the field ripe and vacant for the Europeans to start a new leaf of conquest and colonization in world history.

The age of exploration began in the Iberian Peninsula in late-15^th century. Even before Columbus and Vasco da Gama, Portuguese sailors had thoroughly explored Africa’s west coast and rounded the Cape of Good Hope. Their avarice was exceeded only by their unscrupulousness, since all they could find exportable from Africa were slaves! Another dark chapter in the world’s social history thus began. Columbus sought to reach the spice islands of Moluccas through a western route. This was rational, as nobody had any idea that a very large continent interposed between Europe and Asia on the western hemisphere. Besides, the distances were derived from Ptolemy’s works that understated global dimensions. Columbus believed, or rather made himself believe that he had landed somewhere in Asia which is near to the source of spices. He collected a few samples in America that differed vastly with the much popular Asian ones. Quite unexpectedly, the Chilli captured the taste buds of Europe and Asia. Its cultivation soared so fast and wide that who would now believe that Indian curry was devoid of chilli till just four and half centuries ago?

The Portuguese could not hold on to the empire established through da Gama and Albuquerque’s travels. They came in search of ‘Christians and Spices’, but soon fell foul of the local kings and Muslim traders. Wanton acts of inhuman cruelty and zealotry earned them the antagonism of the natives. As long as their arms were powerful on the battlefield, their suzerainty withstood. The world was divided neatly into two by the pope, each of which is to be conquered by Portugal and Spain. As long as Catholicism held sway in other parts of Europe, this arrangement held good. But when the church split in two, with Protestants parting way under Martin Luther and Calvin, Pope’s bulls became questionable. England and Netherlands, the new protestant nations actively entered the fray and toppled Portuguese governors in the Spice Islands.

The book also tells the story of how spices lost their mystique and sheen. A part of the reason was the large volume of the commodity transported to Europe in Dutch and English vessels. Pepper soon fell to the dubious position as ballast for ships returning to Europe. But a dramatic twist in public conception occurred after the introduction of new stimulants like tea, coffee, sugar and tobacco. The British spread tea cultivation beyond the confines of China. Likewise, the Spanish introduced coffee to the New World, where it spread quickly. Sugar also found a congenial home in the Caribbean islands. Added to ideal climate for growth to sugarcane was the sweetener of slave labour to toil in the fields. The culinary habits of the world underwent a sea change in the 18^th century in response to the new entrants. Spices quietly took a back seat amid all this revolutionary change.

The text is presented in impeccably fine language. In fact, it is a little too refined as to risk losing the attention of more casual readers. Very few people can reach the end of the tome without referring the dictionary a few times to clarify a point. The author is concentrated solely on the spice routes and the navigators who plied them, rather than looking into the uses for which spices were put to. Keay assumes a decidedly Asian point of view in describing the history which feels like sticking to the politically correct attitude. No doubt the conquistadores were barbarous, but Keay portrays them always at a disadvantage in view of the morally depraved act of conquering other peoples. The book includes some photographic plates that lack any focus or consistency. It is more like being included to satisfy the requirement of it in a book of this sort, rather than as a result of the recognition of its real need. A very fine index elevates the book to one helpful for further reference.

The book is highly recommended.

Rating: 3 Star