I Kayaked to a Forgotten Island Once Traded for Manhattan-and Found One of the Last True Frontiers in the World

"From the deck of a rugged steel yacht, I climbed into a kayak and pushed out into the Banda Sea, a pristine body of water in Indonesia that is one of the most biodiverse marine habitats on the planet. I sliced my paddle through the clear surface and headed toward the island of Run, a sliver of pink sand nearly obscured by jungle."

"I wandered over to the island's only village, a small settlement without cars or roads, dotted with homes and small mosques painted in bright colors. Islanders were repairing fishing lines and wooden boats and greeted me as I passed. I hiked through a nutmeg plantation shaded by giant kenari trees, alive with birdsong and the trilling of insects. It was so enchanting that, for a brief moment, I wondered if the British had gotten the short end of the deal."

"Explorers have long been drawn to this remote corner of the world. In the 19th century, the British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace devised his own theory of evolution, independent of Charles Darwin, while visiting the region to research his book, The Malay Archipelago. Closer to my heart is the expedition undertaken in 1937 by my great-uncle Dillon Ripley, an ornithologist who served as the head of the Smithsonian Institution for 20 years."

A traveler kayaked from a steel yacht into the Banda Sea toward Run, a tiny island of pink sand and dense jungle. Run's nutmeg abundance once made the spice worth more than gold and led to the British swapping it with the Dutch for Manhattan in 1667. The island's village has no cars or roads and features bright homes and small mosques; locals repair fishing lines and wooden boats. A nutmeg plantation under kenari trees was alive with birdsong and insects. The region attracted 19th-century naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace and later 1937 expeditions by ornithologist Dillon Ripley, who collected rare birds.

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