easier to walk than to cling to our ponies' backs; and thus we went up and down
over bare hills whose surface was covered with small pebbles and scattered over
with Eucalypti, reminding me of what I had read of parts of the interior of
Australia rather than of the Malay Archipelago.
The village consisted of three houses only, with low walls raised a few feet on
posts, and very high roofs thatched with grass hanging down to within two or
three feet of the ground. A house which was unfinished and partly open at the
back was given for our use, and in it we rigged up a table, some benches, and a
screen, while an inner enclosed portion served us for a sleeping apartment. We
had a splendid view down upon Delli and the sea beyond. The country around
was undulating and open, except in the hollows, where there were some patches
of forest, which Mr. Geach, who had been all over the eastern part of Timor,
assured me was the most luxuriant he had yet seen in the island. I was in hopes
of finding some insects here, but was much disappointed, owing perhaps to the
dampness of the climate; for it was not until the sun was pretty high that the
mists cleared away, and by noon we were generally clouded up again, so that
there was seldom more than an hour or two of fitful sunshine. We searched in
every direction for birds and other game, but they were very scarce. On our way
I had shot the fine white-headed pigeon, Ptilonopus cinctus, and the pretty little
lorikeet, Trichoglossus euteles. I got a few more of these at the blossoms of the
Eucalypti, and also the allied species Trichoglossus iris, and a few other small
but interesting birds. The common jungle-cock of India (Gallus bankiva) was
found here, and furnished us with some excellent meals; but we could get no
deer. Potatoes are grown higher up the mountains in abundance, and are very
good. We had a sheep killed every other day, and ate our mutton with much
appetite in the cool climate, which rendered a fire always agreeable.
Although one-half the European residents in Delli are continually ill from
fever, and the Portuguese have occupied the place for three centuries, no one has
yet built a house on these fine hills, which, if a tolerable road were made, would
be only an hour's ride from the town; and almost equally good situations might
be found on a lower level at half an hour's distance. The fact that potatoes and
wheat of excellent quality are grown in abundance at from 3,000 to 3,500 feet
elevation, shows what the climate and soil are capable of if properly cultivated.
From one to two thousand feet high, coffee would thrive; and there are hundreds
of square miles of country over which all the varied products which require
climates between those of coffee and wheat would flourish; but no attempt has
yet been made to form a single mile of road, or a single acre of plantation!
There must be something very unusual in the climate of Timor to permit