Incredibly, the early 1600's were a time of intense colonial rivalry in the Indonesian archipelago. The Dutch and British were aggressively vying for a larger portion of the lucrative spice trade, like nutmeg production on the small, far-flung Moluccas: islands which are still difficult to reach today. After the Dutch ransacked the tiny British island of Pulau Rhun, the British finally swapped this worthless possession in 1667 for an equally useless Dutch island in North America, called Manhhattan. Quite a good deal after all.
