DELLI, 1861.)
THE island of Timor is about three hundred miles long and sixty wide,
and seems to form the termination of the great range of volcanic
islands which begins with Sumatra more than two thousand miles to the
west. It differs however very remarkably from all the other islands of
the chain in not possessing any active volcanoes, with the one
exception of Timor Peak near the centre of the island, which was
formerly active, but was blown up during an eruption in 1638 and has
since been quiescent. In no other part of Timor do there appear to be
any recent igneous rocks, so that it can hardly be classed as a
volcanic island. Indeed its position is just outside of the great
volcanic belt, which extends from Flores through Ombay and Wetter to
Banda.
I first visited Timor in 1857, staying a day at Coupang, the chief
Dutch town at the west end of the island; and again in May 1859, when
I stayed a fortnight in the same neighbourhood. In the spring of 1861
I spent four months at Delli, the capital of the Portuguese
possessions in the eastern part of the island.
The whole neighbourhood of Coupang appears to have been elevated at a
recent epoch, consisting of a rugged surface of coral rock, which
rises in a vertical wall between the beach and the town, whose low,
white, red-tiled houses give it an appearance very similar to other
Dutch settlements in the East.
