There Must Be Something Very Unusual In The Climate Of Timor To Permit
Wheat Being Grown At So Moderate An Elevation.
The grain is of
excellent quality, the bread made from it being equal to any I have
ever tasted, and it is universally acknowledged to be unsurpassed by
any made from imported European or American flour.
The fact that the
natives have (quite of their own accord) taken to cultivating such
foreign articles as wheat and potatoes, which they bring in small
quantities on the backs of ponies by the most horrible mountain
tracks, and sell very cheaply at the seaside, sufficiently indicates
what might be done if good roads were made, and if the people were
taught, encouraged, and protected. Sheep also do well on the
mountains; and a breed of hardy ponies in much repute all over the
Archipelago, runs half-wild, so that it appears as if this island, so
barren-looking and devoid of the usual features of tropical
vegetation, were yet especially adapted to supply a variety of
products essential to Europeans, which the other islands will not
produce, and which they accordingly import from the other side of the
globe.
On the 24th of February my friend Mr. Geach left Timor, having finally
reported that no minerals worth working were to be found. The
Portuguese were very much annoyed, having made up their minds that
copper is abundant, and still believing it to be so. It appears that
from time immemorial pure native copper has been found at a place on
the coast about thirty miles east of Delli.
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