Nathaniel Courthope (born 1585;– died c. October 20, 1620) (sometimes written Courthopp) was an English East India Company officer[1] involved in the wars with the Dutch over the spice trade.
[4] With 39 men and the natives, with scarce food and water (springs of which the island is devoid of) supply, he proceeded to hold off a siege of the Dutch - who outnumbered them considerably - for over 1,540 days.
Even after the fleet of Sir Thomas Dale sent from England to Run had been defeated by the Dutch governor of the archipelago, Jan Pieterszoon Coen, the decision never changed.
He was shot by the Dutch, who awaited him at night having received their spy's message, while rowing towards a nearby island in a small boat with several of his men in order to support resistance of the natives and to prepare them for a rebellion.
[7] Giles Milton's book Nathaniel's Nutmeg: Or The True and Incredible Adventure of the Spice Trader Who Changed the Course of History, gives an account of the struggle for possession of the Banda Islands.