maize thrives in all the lowlands, and is the common food of the natives
as it was when Dampier visited the island in 1699. The small quantity of
coffee now grown is of very superior quality, and it might be increased
to any extent. Sheep thrive, and would always be valuable as fresh food
for whalers and to supply the adjacent islands with mutton, if not for
their wool; although it is probable that on the mountains this product
might soon be obtained by judicious breeding. Horses thrive amazingly;
and enough wheat might be grown to supply the whole Archipelago if there
were sufficient inducements to the natives to extend its cultivation,
and good roads by which it could be cheaply transported to the coast.
Under such a system the natives would soon perceive that European
government was advantageous to them. They would begin to save money, and
property being rendered secure they would rapidly acquire new wants and
new tastes, and become large consumers of European goods. This would be
a far surer source of profit to their rulers than imposts and extortion,
and would be at the same time more likely to produce peace and obedience
than the mock-military rule which has hitherto proved most ineffective.
To inaugurate such a system would however require an immediate outlay of
capital, which neither Dutch nor Portuguese seem inclined to make, and
a number of honest and energetic officials, which the latter nation
at least seems unable to produce; so that it is much to be feared that
Timor will for many years to come remain in its present state of chronic
insurrection and misgovernment.
Morality at Delli is at as low an ebb as in the far interior of Brazil,
and crimes are connived at which would entail infamy and criminal
prosecution in Europe. While I was there it was generally asserted and
believed in the place, that two officers had poisoned the husbands of
women with whom they were carrying on intrigues, and with whom they
immediately cohabited on the death of their rivals. Yet no one ever
thought for a moment of showing disapprobation of the crime, or even
of considering it a crime at all, the husbands in question being low
half-castes, who of course ought to make way for the pleasures of their
superiors.
Judging from what I saw myself and by the descriptions of Mr. Geach, the
indigenous vegetation of Timor is poor and monotonous. The lower ranges
of the hills are everywhere covered with scrubby Eucalypti, which only
occasionally grow into lofty forest trees. Mingled with these in smaller
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