JN TIMOR-LAUT. 303 



reputation and without the possibility of communicating with 

 civilisation for at least three months to come. 



We found the Postholder a native of one of the Moluccas 

 Islands, left here by the Resident in the beginning of May, 

 fairly well housed ; but he told us he had suffered terribly 

 from fever. He was good enoiigh to let us a room, and to 

 allow us to store our baggage under the verandah of his house 

 till we should obtain one of our own. We then sauntered out 

 through the village, which is situated on the foreshore against 

 a cliff; the houses resembled those figured in Captain Owen 

 Stanley's narrative already referred to. They were arranged 

 more or less in irregular streets, with their gables as a rule to 

 the sea, to allow of their praus being, run up under them, 

 though in many cases separate sheds were erected for them. 

 All round the village we found a high strong palisade, with a 

 portion removable, however, on the shore side in the daytime. 

 In attempting to pass out by the landward gateway we were at 

 once restrained by several of the villagers following us, who 

 pointed to the ground in an excited manner, demonstrating to 

 us its surface everywhere set with sharpened bamboo spikes, 

 except along a narrow footpath. Their gestures instantly 

 opened our eyes, with an unpleasant shock, to the truth that 

 we were environed by enemies, and the village was standing 

 on its defence. 



Outside the gate we entered under a cocoa-nut forest, among 

 ferns (Asjolenium, Pteris, and Polypodium), Clorodendrons, low 

 Solanums and Malvaceous shrubs, which grew densely over 

 the coral foreshore of the island, in front of the abrupt cliffs, 

 along whose sunny bases I saw several butterflies unknown to 

 me and new to science; but — not possessing cuirassed limbs 

 which could despise the bayonet crop that overspread the 

 ground, from which in that climate even a slight wound pro- 

 duces often the most serious results — many of them defied our 

 deftest attempts to ensnare. The first specimen I netted was 

 a new Swallow-tail butterfly (Papilio dbcrrans), and the first 

 beetle a gorgeous golden Buprestid {Cyphogaslra splendens). 



Turning in another direction, breaking through gigantic 

 maises and walls of spiders' webs, we ascended the bluff of 

 which I have spoken, on which grew some Papilionaceous trees 

 of considerable height, along with Erythrinas and others I did 



