The mode in which trade is carried on with the wild natives of Timor is extremely singular.  The goods intended for barter are left in parcels on the shore; the natives come down and place against them, generally, bees’ wax, and a kind of cotton cloth, to the amount which they conceive to be the value, when they also retire.  The trader returns, and if satisfied, takes the native’s goods, leaving his own; if not, he goes away without touching either.  The natives again come down and weigh the relative value of the heaps of merchandize, and either consent to the proffered bargain or take away their own property.  Neither party ever comes in sight of the other; and the strictest honour is preserved in the transaction.  Most of my readers will recollect that a similar method of trading is attributed to one of the nations of antiquity.

A tribe of Sumbawa,* who call themselves the Danga people, have a custom worth mentioning.  They are the only tribe on that island not Mahomedans, and worship the evil spirit, to appease whom they frequently leave a roasted pig, with rice, at a well near a tree, a species of wild mango; the priest, of course, reaps the benefit of this pious offering.  A similar custom prevails among the natives of Eastern Patagonia.

(Footnote.  I may here mention, that when the great eruption took place on this island, the report of it was heard at Macassar, nearly three hundred miles distant, and the motion was felt by the ships at anchor there.)

SAIL FROM COEPANG.

By the morning of September 24th the rough charts were completed, and tracings, with other despatches, being deposited with the Resident, to be forwarded to England, we sailed from Coepang.  On the 26th the first lieutenant, the surgeon, and the master, were seized with a violent attack of cholera, which lasted twenty-four hours—­another evidence of the unhealthiness of Timor.

The work that now lay before us was, perhaps, one of the most interesting features of the North-West coast—­a remarkable indentation, south of Roebuck Bay, many parts of which had never been seen.  Its peculiar configuration naturally suggested the idea that a river must exist there; and it was accordingly with great anxiety that we looked forward to the result.  I had intended to examine the eastern part of Scott’s Reef in the way; but westerly winds, which were, however, favourable for reaching our destination, prevented us.  The track we pursued was entirely new, and in order to see if any shoals existed, we sounded every twenty miles, without, however, getting bottom, at nearly 200 fathoms, until the 1st, when in latitude 14 degrees 24 minutes South, and longitude 123 degrees 23 minutes East we had 70 fathoms.*

(Footnote.  From the result of our soundings on the passage to the coast, it would appear that a ship in 60 or 70 fathoms would be about the same number of miles from the land between the latitude of 14 or 15 degrees South—­quality of bottom, a greyish sand, which becomes coarser as the depth increases.)