Our old guide, who had by this time recovered his serenity of mind, led us direct to the Commandant, a mild and very civil old Javanese, to whom orders had been sent by the Resident at Coepang to show us every attention.  His room was adorned by a magnificent pair of antlers which, we were rejoiced to hear, had been lately taken from a deer shot within a hundred yards of the house.  After a repast of young coconuts, and gula, a kind of honey; it was arranged that a party should be collected to go with us on the morrow to shoot deer and pigs.

Our host now took us to see the village, and then conducted us to the house we were to occupy during our sojourn at Pritie, which was a large homely-built edifice erected for the Resident’s use when he visits this neighbourhood.  We spent the dusk of the evening in pigeon-shooting, but did not meet with much success; for the birds perched for the most part on the summits of trees so lofty that they were quite out of shot-range.  Many of these giants of the forest must have attained the height of at least two hundred feet.  They formed a grand element in the landscape, especially when their huge trunks rose by the side of the limpid water of the stream that intersects the vale of Pritie.  Between their topmost boughs, to the north, the amphitheatre of hills which I have mentioned lifted up their indistinct forms, round which the shades of night were gathering, towards the heavens, that soon began to glisten with a multitude of faint stars.

EVENING REPAST.

By the time we got within doors, after our unsuccessful stroll, we were quite tired, and well prepared to enjoy our dinner.  The dignified air assumed by our guide, evidently for the purpose of showing off, and the ostentatious liberality with which he proffered the goodly viands sent by the commandant, amused us highly.  An account of our fare may be acceptable to the gastronomic reader, who will thus be enabled to determine whether he should envy or pity the voyager to the distant shores of Timor.  First came tea and coffee; then, in the course of an hour, followed fowls, cooked in all sorts of ways, with a proportion of rice.  The good things were brought in by a train of domestics some fifty yards long, headed by a paunchy, elderly man, who greatly reminded us of Caleb Balderston.  If there was a word said by any of the lookers-on—­for many came to have a gaze at the lions—­he was out in a moment, and brought the offender to account.  In short, by his officious attention he afforded us much amusement, and greatly contributed to our proper enjoyment of the dinner.  Our candles were original ones—­a few threads of cotton drawn through a roll of bees’ wax.

Dinner being over, we retired to pass as cold a night as we had felt for some time, having only a few coarse mats to cover us; so that long before daylight we were obliged to get up and walk about for the purpose of warming ourselves.  The first of the morning we spent again pigeon-shooting; the birds were large and wild, yet we managed to get a few.