We took our baggage and a supply of all necessaries on packhorses; and though the distance by the route we took was not more than six or seven miles, we were half a day getting there.
The roads were mere tracks, sometimes up steep rocky stairs, sometimes in narrow gullies worn by the horses' feet, and where it was necessary to tuck up our legs on our horses' necks to avoid having them crushed.
At some of these places the baggage had to be unloaded, at others it was knocked off.

Sometimes the ascent or descent was so steep that it was easier to walk than to cling to our ponies' backs; and thus we went up and down over bare hills whose surface was covered with small pebbles and scattered over with Eucalypti, reminding me of what I had read of parts of the interior of Australia rather than of the Malay Archipelago.
The village consisted of three houses only, with low walls raised a few feet on posts, and very high roofs thatched with grass hanging down to within two or three feet of the ground.

A house which was unfinished and partly open at the back was given for our use, and in it we rigged up a table, some benches, and a screen, while an inner enclosed portion served us for a sleeping apartment.

We had a splendid view down upon Delli and the sea beyond.

The country around was undulating and open, except in the hollows, where there were some patches of forest, which Mr.Geach, who had been all over the eastern part of Timor, assured me was the most luxuriant he had yet seen in the island.