cling to our ponies’ badks; 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 round 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 till 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 ms, 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 m 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 !