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.
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