CHAPTER 1. 



eOJOUBN AT FATUNABA. 



Anivnl at DiUy — Drea<irttl effects of fever— Search for a Bite for a house— 

 towm of Ijilly an ethnographical stndiu—Fatauaha — Our resitlencc — 

 The euchanttog view thenc« — Intercstiog birtb and plants — ^Difficulty 

 with aervajiti» — PreparadoDs for departure into the interior— DUlec lit. 



SAHiiNQ on the iDth of Det^amber from Aml>oina, we 3i)ent a 

 couple of days in our favourite strolling-ground of Bandu, and 

 sighted Timor early on the 19thj anchoring at noon in the 

 harboiir of DiHy, where we were heartily welcomed by onr 

 old friends the Governor, Major da Franca, and his family. 

 We were above measure saddened to see their terribly 

 emaciated countenances, which proclaimed more forcibly than 

 wonls, the pestiferous nature of the climate. One of their 

 number — the youngest — already slept under the shade of the 

 Santa Cruz ; in all of them the notorious Dilly fever had 

 killed down the cheerful vivacity, buoyancy of spirit and 

 bright eye with which they had stepped ashore in the month 

 of May. With the utmost kindness commodious apartments 

 were offered us in the Palace, but it was perfectly evident 

 that if I wished to accomplish any successful work in Timor, 

 it could not be from Dilly as a centre, constantly exposed to 

 the pestilence that nightly rises from the marshes surrounding 

 the town. 



On proposing to make our residence somewhere on the hills, 

 the Governor suggested to me the neighbourhood of the 

 convent ^ of Lahani, situated a few mUes beliiiid the town in a 

 picturesque valley. Though more salubrious than any part of 

 the town itself, the locality was still too much within the 

 fever zone to tempt us to court a renewed attack of the 

 malaria, whose dire eftects we had suificieutly experienced in 

 Timor-laut. 



