July 23.

The weather was hazy: the high land of Rottee was seen in the forenoon, the highest part of the island, a rather pointed hill, bearing North 60 degrees East. At 1 P.M. we saw Pulo Douw, which we endeavoured to weather, but the current prevented us. It is a remarkable island, with a gap in the centre and a clump of trees, that looks like a sail when first seen, on the north-west end, which terminates in a low sandy point. This is also the case with the south-east extreme, off which a reef extends for about half a mile; indeed, there appeared to be no ship passage between the sandy islets that lie to the east of Pulo Douw and Rottee. We rounded the north-west end of the former at the distance of a mile and a half, passing through some heavy ripplings, apparently an eddy setting to the north-east round the island. Pulo Douw appeared to be thickly inhabited, and was encircled by a reef, except at its North-North-West point, where there is a cliffy projection. Angles were taken for fixing the position of the islets between Pulo Douw and Rottee, which we found to be wrongly placed. The Scotch Bonnet, a remarkable rocky lump, seen over the south-west end of Rottee, and in line with the south side of Pulo Douw, bore South 60 degrees East. During the night we had a fresh wind from East-South-East and sailed through several ripplings, our first entering suddenly upon which caused some anxiety, though the lead gave no bottom with 60 and 70 fathoms. We passed some distance from the western end of Samow Island in the morning; but the high peaks of Timor were not seen till near noon. The eager eyes of the native whom we had brought with us from Swan River were the first to descry them; and he exclaimed in tones of rapturous astonishment, "Land! big fella! all the same cloud!" I shall not easily forget the amazement of this savage, accustomed as he was to behold the level plains of his native land, when he saw, towering in alpine grandeur to the sky, the pinnacled heights of Timor. He seemed scarcely able to conceive, even when assured by the evidence of his own senses, that it was possible for mountains to be so high and ranges so vast as those that now developed themselves before him.

REACH TIMOR.

In crossing the mouth of Coepang Bay towards Samow, in the evening, the appearance was truly grand. A vast heap of vapour was slowly moving across the mountains, disclosing at intervals their jagged summits towering towards the sky, and occasionally allowing the eye to penetrate for a moment into the depths of mysterious valleys that seemed to stretch for unknown distances into the recesses of the great Timoree Range. Some wild flying clouds that rapidly traversed the heavens imparted a curious alternation of light and shadow to the lowlands that presented themselves to our view--chequering the whole with gloomy patches and light spots, and revealing or hiding in rapid succession the extensive woods and the patches of cultivation that lay within the bosom of the Bay. The dazzling white sand beaches, too, strongly marked by the dark blue sea, heightened the beauty of the scene; which to us, who had for some months seen nothing but the monotonous north-west coast of Australia, appeared truly enchanting.

During the first watch we beat up the bay, and at midnight anchored; the barking of dogs, the crowing of cocks, and the tolling of bells assuring us that we were once again in the vicinity of civilization. In the morning we found ourselves off the town of Coepang, when we shifted our berth farther in; the flagstaff of Fort Concordia bearing south a quarter of a mile.

SWAN RIVER NATIVE.

Our Swan River native came up to me after we had anchored, dressed in his best, shoes polished, and buttoned up to the chin in an old uniform jacket. "Look," said he, pointing to some Malay lads alongside in a canoe, "trousers no got 'um." A toss of the head supplied what was wanting to the completeness of this speech, and said as plainly as words could have done, "poor wretches!" I tried in vain to point out their superiority, by saying, "Malay boy, work, have house; Swan River boy, no work, bush walk." I then drew his attention to the country, the delicious fruits and other good things to eat (knowing that the surest road to an Australian's heart is through his mouth) but all was in vain! my simple friend shook his head, saying, "No good, stone, rock big fella, too much, can't walk." Home, after all, is home all the world over, and the dull arid shores of Australia were more beautiful in the eyes of this savage than the romantic scenery of Timor, which excited in him wonder not delight. It was amusing to see how frightened he was on going ashore the first time. With difficulty could he be kept from treading on our heels, always, I suppose, being in the habit, in his own country, of finding strangers to be enemies. He was instantly recognised by the Malays, who had occasionally seen natives of Australia returning with the Macassar proas from the north coast, as a marega,* much to his annoyance.

(*Footnote. I have never been able to learn the meaning of this word. They told us at Coepang it signified man-eater; which explains the native's annoyance; and may serve as a clue to the discovery that the aborigines of the northern part of the continent occasionally eat human bodies as they do in the south.)

LAND AT COEPANG.

Being anxious to make the acquaintance of the Resident, who bore the reputation of being a most intelligent person, a party of us paid him a visit the second day after our arrival. The narrow streets, lined with Chinese shops and pedlars of every description, from the long-tailed Chinaman to the thick, crisp-haired, athletic Timoree, were soon passed. We then entered a rich green valley, with some fine houses on the left: the sight was strange and new to us in every way. What we most enjoyed was the vegetation--a feast for our eyes, after the dull arid shores of North-western Australia: and we gazed with intense pleasure on the rich green spreading leaf of the banana and other tropical fruit-trees, above which towered, the graceful coconut. Is it possible, thought I, that Timor and Australia, so different in the character of their scenery, can be such near neighbours, that these luxuriant valleys, nestling among the roots of these gigantic hills, are only separated by a narrow expanse of sea from those shores over which nature has strewed, with so niggard a hand, a soil capable of bearing the productions characteristic of the latitudes within which they lie?