Front

True account of a sailor castaway on a desert island for "unnatural acts" and left to God's mercy

Back

        In 1725 a sailor aboard a Dutch East Indiaman was forcibly marooned on Ascension Island.  Accused of unnatural acts, the man, Jan Svilt, kept a journal of his fight for life on the dry deserted island in the South Atlantic.
        Set against a background of puritanical and avaricious Holland, exotic Batavia, Capetown--the Tavern of the Seven Seas and the harsh environment of Ascension.  This book tells the story of Jan Svilt and his fellow servants of the Dutch East India Company, the most powerful and ruthless multinational the world has ever known.  Svilt's officers felt that his affection for his ward Bandino would bring the wrath of God down on the Dutch fleet--as it had on Sodom.  Yet the Company offered slave prostitutes to its men in Capetown and Batavia, the lush capitol of their Spice Islands empire.
        Svilt's journal was found by a British captain who stopped at Ascension to turn turtles.  A mutilated copy (1748) is in the Rare Book Room of the New York Public Library.  THE QUEER DUTCHMAN is a unique, fascinating and moving reading experience.  It will appeal to a wide audience.