TIMOR 211 



fourteentli century, and soon made themselves masters, everywhere imposing 

 dynasties supposed to owe a certain vague allegiance to the Sultan of Ternate. 



The first European arrivals were the Portuguese, who appear to have secured a 

 footing at Lifau, towards the middle of the north coast, about the year 1520. 

 Soon after they raised a fort at Kupang, now the chief station of the Dutch, who 

 first made their appearance in 161-3. The desolating wars of the two rival powers 

 and their native allies were continued almost uninterruptedly down to the present 

 century, when they were replaced by diplomatic negotiations, the treaty of 1859 

 finally settling the question of the frontier line between the respective states. 



According to the partial explorations round the coast and in the interior, Timor 

 seems to present a backbone of mountains and plateaux, consisting mainly of schists, 

 sandstones and limestones ; but on both slopes these older formations underlie 

 chalks and argillaceous deposits of great thickness. The coral reefs fringing the 

 south-west coast have gradually been upheaved several hundred yards above the 

 present sea-level. In some places the rocks of the primitive system tower up 

 above the surrounding formations in the form of obelisks and citadels, one of which, 

 Mount Leeu, in the south-west, attains an elevation of 4,000 feet. Farther east 

 follow still more lofty peaks, although within the Dutch or western province none 

 of the summits reach an altitude of over 6,500 feet. 



In the Portuguese division the surface is of a more rugged aspect, and here 

 the Kabalaki peak, visited by H. O. Forbes, exceeds 10,000 feet, while Mount 

 Alias, close to the frontier and near the south coast, is said to rise 11,500 feet above 

 the Indian Ocean. The existence of true volcanoes has not yet been placed 

 beyond doubt, although mention is made of a Mount Ilun-bano in the west, which 

 was the scene of an eruption in 1856, while Bibiluto in the Portuguese territory is 

 said to have ejected ashes the following year. In several districts porphyries and 

 serpentines have cropped out above the sedimentary rocks, and the islet of 

 Kambing, between Samau and the south-west extremity, terminates in a sort of 

 crater, within which are several mud volcanoes, 10 to 30 feet high, resembling the 

 Sicilian maccaluhe. Mud volcanoes also occur in Landu, between Samau and 

 Eotti. 



In Timor the seasons are much more sharply defined than in the large islands 

 of Western Indonesia. During the south-east monsoon, prevailing from May to 

 October, the winds blowing from the neighbouring Australian continent bring no 

 moisture, the vegetation withers, and wherever the slopes are covered with grasses 

 or scrub, they assume red, yellow, or greyish tints. The brooks and even the 

 rivers run dry, and are not again flushed till the return of the western monsoon, 

 when vegetation revives and the land resumes its verdant aspect. The northern 

 slope of the island enjoys the most copious rainfall, and consequently here the 

 streams are most voluminous, the forests most extensive, and the population most 

 numerous and prosperous. But the southern slope is far from being so arid or 

 unproductive as it has been described by travellers who have visited it only during 

 the dry season. 



The same contrast between the two slopes is also presented by the respective 



