224 REPORT—1883. 
Third Report of the Committee, consisting of Mr. ScLATER, Mr. 
Howarp Saunpers, and Mr. THIsELTON-DyER (Secretary), ap~ 
pointed for the purpose of investigating the Natural History of 
Timor-laut. . 
Your Committee was disappointed in the result of its application at 
the Southampton meeting for a further grant of 100/. in aid of Mr. 
Forbes’s expedition. The sum of 50l. which was placed at its disposal 
was practically only a re-vote of the grant made at Swansea, which had 
lapsed. In the meantime Mr. Forbes had been obliged to draw bills 
upon his friends in London to meet the expenses he had incurred in 
preparing for the expedition, and the sum of 50/. was, therefore, drawn 
as soon as possible and paid to Mr. Alexander Comyns, who had a power 
of attorney to act on Mr. Forbes’s behalf in London. 
When your Committee last reported, it was only able to state that: 
Mr. Forbes had reached Amboina in May of 1582, and was on the point 
of starting for the Tenimber Islands on the first practicable opportunity. 
He effected his departure after some delay, and in October following a. 
letter was received from him, from which the following is an extract :— 
‘On board the s.s. “‘ Amboina,”’ at the Aru Islands: 
‘July 12, 1882. 
‘Dear Mr. Dyer,—I write you a note to state that to-morrow morning 
I hope to be deposited, bag and baggage, at Larat, the smail island facing 
the mainland of Timor-laut, on the E. side. 
‘The steamer was delayed three weeks on its voyage prior to its 
arrival in Amboina, otherwise I should have been three weeks ago on the 
island of my destination. 
‘From all accounts received on the coast of New Guinea and at Ke, 
as well as here, the natives are very well disposed, and I am very sanguine 
of a successful termination to my journeyings there. I hope to despatch 
some part of my collections about the middle of September. 
‘I am, yours very sincerely, 
(Signed) ‘H. O. Forsss.’ 
In December following your Committee were gratified at receiving 
the following further letter from Mr. Forbes, stating that he had succeeded 
in a great measure in accomplishing his mission, though not without 
much difficulty and even serious sacritice of health :— 
*Amboina: October 11, 1882. 
‘Dear Mr. Dyer,—I have only just time to write you a line to inform 
you of my return from Timor-laut a couple of days ago, having been 
compelled to leave on account of sickness and of the hostility of the 
natives of the neighbouring villages, from whom nightly an attack was 
threatened. We all suffered greatly from fever, and even now I am 
writing in the midst of a severe attack. 
‘Extended movements were impossible, so that my botanical collec- 
tions are not very extensive, but the ornithological and anthropological 
