13 Quotes by Giles Milton

Yet they are unmoved when told of the cruel blow that fortune has dealt them, happy to see out their days on this unknown and unspoiled atoll. They will tell you that the view from their windows is infinitely more magnificent than Manhattan’s glittering skyline.

Juet’s journal frequently records how only a tiny quantity of alcohol was needed to get the Indians drunk, ‘for they could not take it’; and tales of the drunkenness that greeted Hudsons’ arrival persisted among the native Indians until the last century. Indeed Heckewelder claims that the name Manhattan is derived from the drunkenness that took place there, since the Indian word ‘manahactanienk’ means ‘the island of general intoxication’.

Realising that Mauritius could be a valuable port of call for Dutch ships Heemskerck put a rooster and some hens ashore and planted orange and lemon seeds, invoking ‘the Almighty God’s blessing that He may lend His power to make them multiply and grow for the benefit of those who will visit the island after us’.

Difficulties existed only to be surmounted, and there was no setback that a little thought and determination could not overcome.