Run (island)

Run (also known as Pulau Run, Pulo Run, Puloroon, or Rhun) is one of the smallest islands of the Banda Islands, which are a part of Indonesia. It is about 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) long and less than 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) wide. According to historian John Keay, Run is comparable in its significance in the history of the English overseas possessions as Runnymede is to British constitutional history.

In the 17th century, Run was of great economic importance because of the value of the spices nutmeg and mace which are obtained from the nutmeg tree (Myristica fragrans), once found exclusively in the Banda Islands of which Run is one. During the history of the spice trade, sailors of the English East India Company of the second expedition of James Lancaster, John Davis, Sir Henry Middleton and his brother John who stayed in Bantam on Java, first reached the island in 1603 and developed good contacts with the inhabitants.

On December 25, 1616, Captain Nathaniel Courthope reached Run to defend it against the claims of the Dutch East India Company. A contract with the inhabitants was signed, accepting James I of England as sovereign of the island. After four years of siege by the Dutch and the death of Nathaniel Courthope in an attack in 1620, the English and their local allies departed the island.

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