A Few Good Roads Into The Elevated
Districts Of The Interior; A Conciliatory Policy And Strict Justice
Towards The Natives, And The Introduction Of A Good System Of
Cultivation As In Java And Northern Celebes, Might Yet Make Timor A
Productive And Valuable Island.
Rice grows well on the marshy flats,
which often fringe the coast, and maize thrives in all the lowlands,
and is the common food of the natives as it was when Dampier visited
the island in 1699.
The small quantity of coffee now grown is of very
superior quality, and it might be increased to any extent. Sheep
thrive, and would always be valuable as fresh food for whalers and to
supply the adjacent islands with mutton, if not for their wool;
although it is probable that on the mountains this product might soon
be obtained by judicious breeding. Horses thrive amazingly; and enough
wheat might be grown to supply the whole Archipelago if there were
sufficient inducements to the natives to extend its cultivation, and
good roads by which it could be cheaply transported to the coast.
Under such a system the natives would soon perceive that European
government was advantageous to them. They would begin to save money,
and property being rendered secure they would rapidly acquire new
wants and new tastes, and become large consumers of European goods.
This would be a far surer source of profit to their rulers than
imposts and extortion, and would be at the same time more likely to
produce peace and obedience than the mock-military rule which has
hitherto proved most ineffective. To inaugurate such a system would
however require an immediate outlay of capital, which neither Dutch
nor Portuguese seem inclined to make, and a number of honest and
energetic officials, which the latter nation at least seems unable to
produce; so that it is much to be feared that Timor will for many
years to come remain in its present state of chronic insurrection and
misgovernment.
Morality at Delli is at as low an ebb as in the far interior of
Brazil, and crimes are connived at which would entail infamy and
criminal prosecution in Europe. While I was there it was generally
asserted and believed in the place, that two officers had poisoned the
husbands of women with whom they were carrying on intrigues, and with
whom they immediately cohabited on the death of their rivals. Yet no
one ever thought for a moment of showing disapprobation of the crime,
or even of considering it a crime at all, the husbands in question
being low half-castes, who of course ought to make way for the
pleasures of their superiors.
Judging from what I saw myself and by the descriptions of Mr. Geach,
the indigenous vegetation of Timor is poor and monotonous. The lower
ranges of the hills are everywhere covered with scrubby Eucalypti,
which only occasionally grow into lofty forest trees. Mingled with
these in smaller quantities are acacias and the fragrant sandalwood,
while the higher mountains, which rise to about six or seven thousand
feet, are either covered with coarse grass or are altogether barren.
In the lower grounds are a variety of weedy bushes, and open waste
places are covered everywhere with a nettle-like wild mint.
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