chap, xin.] BELLI. 295 



I arrived at Delli, the capital of the Portuguese pos- 

 sessions iu Timor, on January 12, 1861, and was kindly 

 received by Captain Hart, an Englishman and an old resi- 

 dent, who trades in the produce of the country and culti- 

 vates 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 endeavouring to discover 

 copper in sufficient quantity 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 enclosure ; and the 

 custom-house and church are built of the same mean 

 materials, with no attempt 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 pretensions to appearance, and that 

 is merely a low whitewashed cottage or bungalow. Yet 

 .there is one thing in which civilization exhibits itself. 

 Officials in black and white European costume, and officers 

 in gorgeous uniforms, abound in a degree quite dispro- 

 portionate 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 



