184 



TIMOR, 



[COAP. XI I U 



Bent for ; and aometiinea fcfce sickness went away, and then 

 the sacred km was taken back again with great honour, 

 and the head men of tlie \'illage came to tell the Eajah 

 of it3 numculoiiij power, and to thank him. And some- 

 times the sickneaa would not go away; and then everybody 

 was convinced that there Imd been a mistake in the 

 number of needles sent from that vUlage, and therefore 

 the sacred ki'is had no effect, and had to be taken back 

 again by the head men with heavy hearts, but still with 

 all hononr, — for was not the fault their own ? 



CHAPTER XIII. 



TIMOa. 



(coirrAXo, 1S57— 1859. delli, 186L) 



THE island of Timor is about three hundred miles long 

 and sixty wide, and seems to form the termination 

 of the great range of volcanic islands which begiag with 

 Sumatra naore than two thousand miles to the west. It 

 differs however veiy renmrkal>ly fi'om all the other islatuls 

 of the chain in not possessing any active volcanoes, with 

 the one exception of Timor Peak near the centre of the 

 island, which was formerly active, but was blown up 

 during an emption in 1638 and has since been quiescent. 

 In no other part of Timor do there appear to be any recent 

 igneous rocks, so that it can hardly be classed as a volcanic 

 island. Indeed its position is just outside of tlie great 

 volcanic belt, which extends from Flores through Onibay 

 and Wetter to Banda. 



I first visited Timor in 1857, staying a day at Coupang, 

 the chief Putch town at the west end of the island ; and 

 again in May 1859, when I stayed a fortnight in the same 

 neighbourhood. In the spring of 1861 I "spent four 

 months at DeUi, the capital of the Portuguese possessions 

 in the eastern part of the isUmd, 



