Volume 2 — CHAPTER 2.5. (continued 2)

Dinner being over, we retired to pass as cold a night as we had felt for some time, having only a few coarse mats to cover us; so that long before daylight we were obliged to get up and walk about for the purpose of warming ourselves. The first of the morning we spent again pigeon-shooting; the birds were large and wild, yet we managed to get a few.

THE HILLS IN A MIST.

This excursion gave us an opportunity of beholding the mountains of Timor under a remarkable aspect. From various openings in the woody plain we could perceive their sides, clothed in grey mist, above which sometimes we caught a glimpse of a pinnacle rising through the clear air, and just touched by the rays of the morning sun. Here and there the slopes of the hills were dimly seen through the vapour, which in other places, however, rolled along in thick masses, completely hiding the uplands from view. Nearly every gorge and valley was filled with heavy volumes of fog, whilst in some, a slight steam only rising, allowed the trees to be faintly discovered. There is nothing more grand than the aspect of lofty peaks and crags and precipices imperfectly revealed through a morning mist. It seems as though the darkness of night, unwilling to depart, lingers still fondly around them. Their hollows and recesses are still wrapt in gloom, when all else around is beaming with light. Within the tropics the contrast thus afforded has a startling effect; but the influence of the sun is not long to be resisted; the mist soon begins to disperse; valley after valley opens its depths to the view; the outline of each rocky peak becomes more and more defined against the deep blue sky, and presently the whole scene appears before you clear and bright, with every line sharply drawn, every patch of colour properly discriminated, a splendid panorama of towering hills and waving forests.

Whilst I was gazing at this picture, the report of a fowling piece behind me drew my attention, and on turning I was surprised to see the old commandant out shooting likewise, and with him no less a person than Caleb Balderston, as we had christened his faithful domestic. In their company we returned to Pritie.

MUSTER OF THE PARTY.

Soon after breakfast our party began to muster, each man armed with a long-condemned Tower musket. On one of them I was surprised to recognize the name of a marine who had belonged to the Beagle in 1827. The powder they used was of the coarsest kind, carried in small pieces of bamboo, each containing a charge, and fitted in a case of skin, something like our cartouch boxes. As a substitute for balls they used BOLTS OF STONE, from two to three inches long. Besides a musket, each had a huge knife or chopper, stuck in his belt. I was much struck with the simple contrivance they had for shoes: a piece of the fan palm plaited together and tied under the foot. The number of uses to which this tree is applied is astonishing--for making water-buckets, for thatching houses, filling up the panel-work of doors, and a variety of others I could mention.

It was late before we could muster all our force; but we at length got away, commandant and all. I was much pleased with the respect everyone paid him, especially as he was one of those mild kind persons who require very little. Soon after leaving the village we halted in a shady spot, near a stream of water, some of our party being still missing. This gave me a good opportunity of comparing the features of the Malay and Timoree, for some of both were in attendance. The Malay has a much more open countenance than the Timoree, but is not so handsome, the latter having a more aquiline nose.

THE SHOOTING ARRANGEMENTS.

When they all arrived I counted fifty armed men. There were some whose grey hairs proclaimed their lengthened years; though there was a keenness in their eyes that revealed that the principle of vitality was strong within them yet; in others all the dash and vigour of youth was perceptible; many had a truly wild appearance, with their long bushy hair and ever restless eye. It was a picturesque sight to behold fifty such fine fellows scattered about in small groups in the deep shade of these solitudes.

All the necessary arrangements being made, we once more started. An hour's walk brought us to a rather large plain, where I and my companions were stationed, about a hundred yards asunder, whilst the rest of the party formed a circle, driving all the game in our direction. Unfortunately those on the left commenced hallooing before those on the right, in which latter direction the only three deer in the circle ran from the noise, instead of towards us. Two of them were shot, and by the stone bolts above mentioned. We now went to fresh ground, when, provoking to say, the same thing happened again, not without our suspicions being raised that this was purposely contrived; so that after all we were obliged to leave without a single shot. Each deer, the largest of which, a doe, must have weighed a hundred pounds, was shot STANDING, for the natives have a peculiar cry, which arrests the animal's progress for a moment, while they fire.

THE JAVANESE COMMANDANT.

The deer were all brought up to the commandant, who begged our acceptance of them. We thanked him, and took the two smallest. By the time we reached Pritie they were skinned and hung up, ready to be put into the boats. The persons who had shot them had received their stone bolts again very little injured; the hole they make is enormous. We rewarded these people; but to the commandant we were really at a loss how to express our obligations. At length we thought of giving him some powder and shot, which was a present he seemed right glad to receive. I afterwards learnt the history of this excellent old Javanese, and was surprised and grieved to hear that a person so universally esteemed had been banished from Java and his family for some trifling political offence. His property was sold to purchase his freedom, and the proceeds were entrusted to the captain of a ship, who ran off with the whole, thus at once ruining a most worthy family, and reducing my good friend the commandant to the necessity of remaining in exile. I was glad to hear, on my second visit to Timor, that he was still alive and well, though without any prospect of an alleviation to his condition.

Wishing him farewell, we left Pritie with some regret. By dark we had crossed Babao Bay, and reached the ship at half-past eight. It may be as well to mention that, looking from Coepang, the valley of Pritie is situated immediately under Timor Peak, the highest over the northern shore of Babao Bay. A small hut, on a projecting shingle point, close to the westward, marks the landing place, where several canoes are generally to be seen hauled up. At high tide a boat can get in; but, as we have already said, there is a long mud flat at low-water.

THE TIMOREES.

The Timorees do not bear the character of being very industrious; the small portion of land they cultivate is turned up in the following manner: a slight fence is placed round the part required for the purposes of agriculture and a drove of bullocks is driven furiously backwards and forwards over it; which very much resembles the mode adopted for thrashing corn in some parts of South America.

The Rajahs of the western portion of Timor receive their appointment from the Resident at Coepang; and their installation I am told is rather a grand affair. Nearly all the Timorees speak Malay, a soft pleasant-sounding tongue, apparently easy to be acquired; but there were few of the Coepang people that spoke the native language. Some of the Timor customs are singular: if a woman, for example, dies in childbirth, she is buried on the spot where she breathes her last.

DUTCH SETTLEMENT IN NEW GUINEA.

During our stay at Coepang I met the doctor of the Dutch settlement at Triton Bay, on the west coast of New Guinea. He gave me a very poor account of the inhabitants. The Dutch settlers, he says, can scarcely venture out of the fort; as the natives have bows and arrows, as well as muskets, with which they are excellent marksmen. Their firearms they obtain in exchange for birds of paradise, tortoise-shell and birds-nests, from vessels from the Arru, and other islands in the Eastern Archipelago. When a vessel arrives on the coast they flock down from the interior to trade, which cannot be done without an interpreter. It is even then attended with great risk, owing to the extreme treachery of the natives. Knives, stained blue, and cotton goods are in great request; but, although they of aware of the superiority of Europeans, they will not on any account allow them to live in their country. The inhabitants, however, are better disposed on the shores of Great Bay, a deep indentation on the north-east side of the island, where great quantities of nutmeg grow.

On the 5th the Mangles arrived from Sydney by the outer route through Torres Strait, having lost all her anchors, and been nearly wrecked in a south-east gale near Halfway Island. She was commanded by the same master, Mr. Carr, to whom I have before alluded as having given the first information concerning the survivors of the crew of the Charles Eaton.

ISLAND OF ROTTEE.

The next afternoon we weighed, and the following morning anchored, the water being deep, close in near Tykale Inlet, on the south-west side of Rottee, for observations,* and for the purpose of better determining the position of Pulo Douw, and the other islands in its neighbourhood.

(*Footnote. They placed the south point of the inlet in latitude 10 degrees 46 minutes 18 seconds South and longitude 0 degrees 43 minutes 50 seconds West of Coepang.)

An extensive coral flat fronts this part of Rottee, connecting it with the small islands lying off it.

We got from the natives some shells of a kind of small green mussel of a very peculiar shape. The old men from whom I got them was making a meal from some rare shell-fish. He did not understand the value of money; and, strange to say, not a word of the Malay language. The same was the case with all his companions. At the part of Samow I visited the people all understood it, which is very remarkable, as only a narrow strait separates the islands. In this state of ignorance they may perhaps be purposely kept.

I here recognised several Australian shrubs and palms. The rock of which this port of Rottee is formed appeared of a madreporic nature, scattered about in huge blocks. At a little distance from the water it formed low broken cliffs from twenty to thirty feet in length; these were everywhere undermined by the sea, from which the land here was evidently emerging. I noticed several deserted huts and broken walls or fences, which bore the appearance of having had much labour bestowed on them at some time or other. They added much to the lonely appearance of the place, for there is nothing that imparts so great an air of desolation to a scene as the signs that it has once been inhabited by man. Tracts which have never before been trodden by human foot may be gazed on with pleasurable emotions; but there are always melancholy associations connected with a spot which our fellow-creatures have once inhabited and abandoned.

The natives we saw belonged to the southern side of Tykale Inlet. They were occupied in looking after some weirs, from the size and number of which it would appear that they chiefly live on fish.

JEWELLERS OF PULO DOUW.

The inhabitants of Pulo Douw are a small wandering tribe from Savu, chiefly jewellers, as the Resident at Coepang informed me. It is a strange place for them to take up their abode in; perhaps they do not like the idea of living under a Rajah. They are, I believe, beautiful workmen; but with them all is not gold that glitters. There are plenty of coconuts in the island, but little water; the landing at all times is bad.

When at Coepang we saw some specimens of the gold, collected after heavy rains from the washings of the hills, and brought down for barter to the merchants in grains enclosed in small lengths of bamboo, containing each from six to eighteen drams. Thirty miles south-west of Diely, also, are some mines of virgin copper.