DUTCH AND PORTUGUESE. 375 



chief, or petty Rajah, ruins himself by gambling or 

 dissipation, he immediately collects a band of dis- 

 orderly people, always ready to follow him, and 

 issues forth in his praha to better his fortune. 

 Each Rajah, too, being practically, if not nominally, 

 independent, and under the control of no laws, 

 can at any time go to war with his neighbours, 

 or with strangers who come into his neighbourhood, 

 and it is considered a brave action, and one worthy 

 of the fame of his ancestors, to carry an European 

 or other large vessel. He has, therefore, often the 

 incitements of both honour and profit to induce 

 him to commit what we consider a felony. The 

 north coast of Timor, as of many of the neighbour- 

 ing islands, is inhabited partly by Malays, who have 

 dispossessed the aboriginal inhabitants, and driven 

 them into the interior. The sovereignty of the 

 island is claimed by the Dutch and Portuguese, the 

 former arrogating the S.W. half of the island, and 

 the latter the N.E. Their power is confined, how- 

 ever, almost entirely to the immediate neighbour- 

 hood of their two principal posts, of which Coupang 

 belongs to the Dutch, and Dielli to the Portuguese. 

 The force kept by the Dutch at Coupang consists 

 of fifty soldiers, of whom ten only were Europeans, 

 under one or two European officers. That at Dielli 

 is still more insignificant, there being not more than 

 one or two Europeans in the place, and scarcely any 

 troops at all. Neither nation keeps any naval force 

 in the island, so that the natives of the coast are 



