wheat being grown at so moderate an elevation. The grain is of excellent quality,
the bread made from it being equal to any I have ever tasted, and it is universally
acknowledged to be unsurpassed by any made from imported European or
American flour. The fact that the natives have (quite of their own accord) taken
to cultivating such foreign articles as wheat and potatoes, which they bring in
small quantities on the backs of ponies by the most horrible mountain tracks, and
sell very cheaply at the seaside, sufficiently indicates what might be done if good
roads were made, and if the people were taught, encouraged, and protected.
Sheep also do well on the mountains; and a breed of hardy ponies in much
repute all over the Archipelago, runs half-wild, so that it appears as if this island,
so barren-looking and devoid of the usual features of tropical vegetation, were
yet especially adapted to supply a variety of products essential to Europeans,
which the other islands will not produce, and which they accordingly import
from the other side of the globe.
On the 24th of February my friend Mr. Geach left Timor, having finally
reported that no minerals worth working were to be found. The Portuguese were
very much annoyed, having made up their minds that copper is abundant, and
still believing it to be so. It appears that from time immemorial pure native
copper has been found at a place on the coast about thirty miles east of Delli.
The natives say they find it in the bed of a ravine, and many years ago a
captain of a vessel is said to have got some hundreds-weight of it. Now,
however, it is evidently very scarce, as during the two years Mr. Geach resided
in the country, none was found. I was shown one piece several pounds' weight,
having much the appearance of one of the larger Australian nuggets, but of pure
copper instead of gold. The natives and the Portuguese have very naturally
imagined that where these fragments come from there must be more; and they
have a report or tradition, that a mountain at the head of the ravine is almost pure
copper, and of course of immense value.
After much difficulty a company was at length formed to work the copper
mountain, a Portuguese merchant of Singapore supplying most of the capital. So
confident were they of the existence of the copper, that they thought it would be
waste of time and money to have any exploration made first; and accordingly,
sent to England for a mining engineer, who was to bring out all necessary tools,
machinery, laboratory, utensils, a number of mechanics, and stores of all kinds
for two years, in order to commence work on a copper-mine which he was told
was already discovered. On reaching Singapore a ship was freighted to take the
men and stores to Timor, where they at length arrived after much delay, a long
voyage, and very great expense.