The Deep Coffin-
Like Boat Was Filled Up With My Baggage, And With Vegetables, Cocoa-
Nut And Other Fruit For
Coupang market, and when we had got some way
across into a rather rough sea, we found that a quantity
Of water was
coming in which we had no means of baling out. This caused us to sink
deeper in the water, and then we shipped seas over our sides, and the
rowers, who had before declared it was nothing, now became alarmed and
turned the boat round to get back to the coast of Semao, which was not
far off. By clearing away some of the baggage a little of the water
could be baled out, but hardly so fast as it came in, and when we
neared the coast we found nothing but vertical walls of rock against
which the sea was violently beating. We coasted along some distance
until we found a little cove, into which we ran the boat, hauled it on
shore, and emptying it found a large hole in the bottom, which had
been temporarily stopped up with a plug of cocoa-nut which had come
out. Had we been a quarter of a mile further off before we discovered
the leak, we should certainly have been obliged to throw most of our
baggage overboard, and might easily have lost our lives. After we had
put all straight and secure we again started, and when we were
halfway across got into such a strong current and high cross sea that
we were very nearly being swamped a second time, which made me vow
never to trust myself again in such small and miserable vessels.
The mail steamer did not arrive for a week, and I occupied myself
in getting as many of the birds as I could, and found some which were
very interesting. Among them were five species of pigeons of as many
distinct genera, and most of then peculiar to the island; two
parrots - the fine red-winged broad-tail (Platycercus vulneratus),
allied to an Australian species, and a green species of the genus
Geoffroyus. The Tropidorhynchus timorensis was as ubiquitous and as
noisy as I had found it at Lombock; and the Sphaecothera viridis, a
curious green oriole with bare red orbits, was a great acquisition.
There were several pretty finches, warblers, and flycatchers, and
among them I obtained the elegant blue and red Cyornis hyacinthina;
but I cannot recognise among my collections the species mentioned by
Dampier, who seems to have been much struck by the number of small
songbirds in Timor. He says: "One sort of these pretty little birds
my men called the ringing bird, because it had six notes, and always
repeated all his notes twice, one after the other, beginning high and
shrill and ending low. The bird was about the bigness of a lark,
having a small, sharp, black bill and blue wings; the head and breast
were of a pale red, and there was a blue streak about its neck." In
Semao, monkeys are abundant. They are the common bare-lipped monkey
(Macacus cynomolgus), which is found all over the western islands of
the Archipelago, and may have been introduced by natives, who often
carry it about captive. There are also some deer, but it is not quite
certain whether they are of the same species as are found in Java.
I arrived at Delli, the capital of the Portuguese possessions in
Timor, on January 12, 1861, and was kindly received by Captain Hart,
an Englishman and an old resident, who trades in the produce of the
country and cultivates coffee on an estate at the foot of the hills.
With him I was introduced to Mr. Geach, a mining-engineer who had been
for two years endeavouring to discover copper in sufficient quantity
to be worth working.
Delli is a most miserable place compared with even the poorest of the
Dutch towns. The houses are all of mud and thatch; the fort is only a
mud enclosure; and the custom-house and church are built of the same
mean materials, with no attempt at decoration or even neatness. The
whole aspect of the place is that of a poor native town, and there is
no sign of cultivation or civilization round about it. His Excellency
the Governor's house is the only one that makes any pretensions to
appearance, and that is merely a low whitewashed cottage or bungalow.
Yet there is one thing in which civilization exhibits itself -
officials in black and white European costume, and officers in gorgeous
uniforms abound in a degree quite disproportionate to the size or
appearance of the place.
The town being surrounded for some distance by swamps and mudflats is
very unhealthy, and a single night often gives a fever to newcomers
which not unfrequently proves fatal. To avoid this malaria, Captain
Hart always slept at his plantation, on a slight elevation about two
miles from the town, where Mr. Geach also had a small house, which he
kindly invited me to share. We rode there in the evening; and in the
course of two days my baggage was brought up, and I was able to look
about me and see if I could do any collecting.
For the first few weeks I was very unwell and could not go far from
the house. The country was covered with low spiny shrubs and acacias,
except in a little valley where a stream came down from the hills,
where some fine trees and bushes shaded the water and formed a very
pleasant place to ramble up. There were plenty of birds about, and of
a tolerable variety of species; but very few of them were gaily
coloured. Indeed, with one or two exceptions, the birds of this
tropical island were hardly so ornamental as those of Great Britain.
Beetles were so scarce that a collector might fairly say there were
none, as the few obscure or uninteresting species would not repay him
for the search.
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