TEMPESTUOUS WEATHER. 
267 
“ Do you think that I, who roam these hills at 
will, and never in my life was at the beck and 
call of any human being, will be bound to such 
degrading thraldom for a few paltry coins ! 
Give me what I have earned, and let me go." 
So we were quite alone for over a week. 
H. has been writing an account of the journey 
through Bourou, accomplished before we came 
to Timor. We relieved each other, writing and 
dictating from the sketch-sheets alternately, and 
the humbler duties of fire-making and cooking 
were no unwelcome change to tired eyes and 
cramped fingers. On one of the evenings the 
weather was very tempestuous, and the fire 
which we made to cook dinner blew everywhere, 
to the imminent risk of the tenement, and the 
lamps were extinguished as fast as we lighted 
them. By patient effort we managed to half- 
cook some food, and having improvised a shelter 
in one of the corners with some mats, shawls, 
&c., we went to eat it. But just then the rain 
commenced, and poured through the roof, trick- 
ling down our backs, dripping heavy drops into 
our plates, and, worst of all, putting out the 
lamp. 
The novel task soon lost its charm, and H. 
went down to try to get some assistance. He 
