In 1629, the ship Batavia, pride of the Dutch East India Company, was wrecked on a coral archipelago off the west coast of Australia. Most people on board escaped from drowning, only to become victims of a visionary psychopath who organised a terrifying methodical massacre. Acclaimed sinologist and author Simon Leys travelled to the site, discovering that the natural environment could have provided decent living conditions for the survivors; the massacre therefore appearing all the more aberrant.