Belli. 197 



ways repeated all his notes twice, one after the other, begin- 

 ning 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 Seuiao monkeys are abun- 

 dant. They are the common hare-lipped monkey (Macacus 

 cynomolgus), Avhich 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 foimd 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 

 endeavoring to discover cojjper in sufficient quantities to be 

 worth working. 



Delli is a most miserable place, compared with even the 

 poorest of the Dutch towns. The houses are all of mud and 

 thatch, the fort is only a mud inclosure, and the custom-house 

 and church are built of the same mean materials, with no at- 

 tempt at decoration or even neatness. The whole aspect of 

 the place is that of a poor native town, and there is no sign 

 of cultivation or civilization round about it. His excellency 

 the governor's house is the only one that makes any pi'eten- 

 sions to appearance, and that is merely a low whitewashed 

 cottage or bungalow. Yet there is one thing in which civ- 

 ilization exhibits itself. Officials in black and white Euro- 

 pean costume, and officers in gorgeous uniforms, abound in a 

 degree quite disproportionate to the size or appearance of the 

 place. 



The town, being surrounded for some distance by swamps 

 and mud-flats, is very unhealthy, and a single night often gives 

 a fever to new-comers which not unfrequently proves fatal. 

 To avoid this malaria. Captain Hart always slept at his plan- 

 tation, on a slight elevation about two miles from the town, 

 where Mr. Geach also had a small house, which he kindly in- 

 vited me to share. We rode there in the evening ; and in the 



