Pelsaert's Nightmare: A novel

The year is 1630 and Dutch merchant, Francisco Pelsaert, lies dying in a mildewed room outside the walls of Batavia Castle. With only a servant-carer and the occasional visitor to relieve his solitude, he passes the hours in troubled reflection of events which have shaped his life. Just one year earlier - and as merchant commander of the ship 'Batavia' - Pelsaert had been returning to the Dutch East Indies to complete another step in his corporate ascendancy. Now all is in ruins, his health decayed, and the stigma of shipwreck and bloody mutiny foreclosing on his legacy. From the Netherlands and its colonial outposts to Mogul India and the coastal wildernesses of the Great South Land, Pelsaert's tale is one of many parts and places, of exotic encounter and shrouded pleasure to unnerving dreams and thwarted certainties. Ultimately, 'Pelsaert's Nightmare' is a journey in the quest for redemption.