There are also some deer, but it is not quite certain whether they are of the same species as are found in Java.
I arrived at Delli, the capital of the Portuguese possessions in Timor, on January 12, 1861, and was kindly received by Captain Hart, an Englishman and an old resident, who trades in the produce of the country and cultivates coffee on an estate at the foot of the hills.

With him I was introduced to Mr.Geach, a mining-engineer who had been for two years endeavouring to discover copper in sufficient quantity to be worth working.
Delli is a most miserable place compared with even the poorest of the Dutch towns.

The houses are all of mud and thatch; the fort is only a mud enclosure; and the custom-house and church are built of the same mean materials, with no attempt at decoration or even neatness.

The whole aspect of the place is that of a poor native town, and there is no sign of cultivation or civilization round about it.

His Excellency the Governor's house is the only one that makes any pretensions to appearance, and that is merely a low whitewashed cottage or bungalow.
Yet there is one thing in which civilization exhibits itself--officials in black and white European costume, and officers in gorgeous uniforms abound in a degree quite disproportionate to the size or appearance of the place.
The town being surrounded for some distance by swamps and mudflats is very unhealthy, and a single night often gives a fever to newcomers which not unfrequently proves fatal.