could be cheaply transported to the coast.
Under such a system the natives would soon perceive that European
government was advantageous to them. They would begin to save money, and
property being rendered secure they would rapidly acquire new wants and new
tastes, and become large consumers of European goods. This would be a far
surer source of profit to their rulers than imposts and extortion, and would be at
the same time more likely to produce peace and obedience than the mock-
military rule which has hitherto proved most ineffective. To inaugurate such a
system would however require an immediate outlay of capital, which neither
Dutch nor Portuguese seem inclined to make, and a number of honest and
energetic officials, which the latter nation at least seems unable to produce; so
that it is much to be feared that Timor will for many years to come remain in its
present state of chronic insurrection and misgovernment.
Morality at Delli is at as low an ebb as in the far interior of Brazil, and crimes
are connived at which would entail infamy and criminal prosecution in Europe.
While I was there it was generally asserted and believed in the place, that two
officers had poisoned the husbands of women with whom they were carrying on
intrigues, and with whom they immediately cohabited on the death of their
rivals. Yet no one ever thought for a moment of showing disapprobation of the
crime, or even of considering it a crime at all, the husbands in question being
low half-castes, who of course ought to make way for the pleasures of their
superiors.
Judging from what I saw myself and by the descriptions of Mr. Geach, the
indigenous vegetation of Timor is poor and monotonous. The lower ranges of
the hills are everywhere covered with scrubby Eucalypti, which only
occasionally grow into lofty forest trees. Mingled with these in smaller quantities
are acacias and the fragrant sandalwood, while the higher mountains, which rise
to about six or seven thousand feet, are either covered with coarse grass or are
altogether barren. In the lower grounds are a variety of weedy bushes, and open
waste places are covered everywhere with a nettle-like wild mint. Here is found
the beautiful crown lily, Gloriosa superba, winding among the bushes, and
displaying its magnificent blossoms in great profusion. A wild vine also occurs,
bearing great irregular bunches of hairy grapes of a coarse but very luscious
flavour. In some of the valleys where the vegetation is richer, thorny shrubs and
climbers are so abundant as to make the thickets quite impenetrable.
The soil seems very poor, consisting chiefly of decomposing clayey shales;
and the bare earth and rock is almost everywhere visible. The drought of the hot
season is so severe that most of the streams dry up in the plains before they reach