194 EVENING REPAST. 



which he proffered the goodly viands sent by the 

 commandant, amused us highly. An account of 

 our fare may be acceptable to the gastronomic 

 reader, who will thus be enabled to determine 

 whether he should envy or pity the voyager to 

 the distant shores of Timor. First came tea and 

 coffee ; then, in the course of an hour, followed 

 fowls, cooked in all sorts of ways, with a proportion 

 of rice. The good things were brought in by a 

 train of domestics some fifty yards long, headed by 

 a paunchy, elderly man, who greatly reminded us 

 of Caleb Balderston. If there was a word said 

 by any of the lookers on -for many came to have a 

 gaze at the lions — he was out in a moment, and 

 brought the offender to account. In short, by his 

 ofiicious attention he afforded us much amusement, 

 and greatly contributed to our proper enjoyment of 

 the dinner. Our candles were original ones — a 

 few threads of cotton drawn through a roll of 

 bees' wax. 



Dinner being over, we retired to pass as cold a 

 night as we had felt for some time, having only a 

 few coarse mats to cover us ; so that long before day- 

 light we were obliged to get up and walk about for 

 the purpose of warming ourselves. The first of the 

 morning we spent again pigeon-shooting ; the birds 

 were large and wild, yet we managed to get a few. 

 This excursion gave us an opportunity of beholding 

 the mountains of Timor under a remarkable aspect. 

 From various openings in the woody plain we could 



