Discoveries in Australia, Volume 2: Discoveries in Australia; with an Account of the Coasts and Rivers; Explored and Surveyed During the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle, in The; Years 1837-38-39-40-41-42-43. By Command of the Lords Commissioners; Of the Admiralty. Also a Narrative of Captain Owen Stanley's Visits; To the Islands in the Arafura SeaStokes, John Lort
History
Discoveries in Australia, Volume 2: Discoveries in Australia; with an Account of the Coasts and Rivers; Explored and Surveyed During the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle, in The; Years 1837-38-39-40-41-42-43. By Command of the Lords Commissioners; Of the Admiralty. Also a Narrative of Captain Owen Stanley's Visits; To the Islands in the Arafura Sea
Stokes, John Lort
Australia -- Description and travel; Australia -- Discovery and exploration; Natural history -- Australia
the lower slopes. These by irrigation are turned into paddy plantations,
the winds blowing over which give rise to those insidious fevers,
intermittent, I am told, in their character, which are so prevalent at
Coepang, as well as dysentery, from which indeed the crew of the Beagle
afterwards suffered.
(*Footnote. Latitude 10 degrees 10 minutes 11 seconds South, and
longitude 9 degrees 50 minutes 00 seconds West of Swan River.)
(**Footnote. See the view annexed.)
DUTCH MILITARY FORCE.
The whole force the Dutch have at Coepang is sixty soldiers, half of
whom, too, are Javanese. Yet the subjection in which this small force
keeps the natives, is beyond belief. A sergeant is the commandant at
Rottee, and such power has he over the inhabitants, that he can at any
time raise a thousand armed men in the course of a few hours. Many of the
largest ponies used at Coepang, are brought from Rottee. Their origin no
one could give me any information about; all agree in saying they were
found with the island, and the natives have no traditions.
THE RESIDENT'S TALES.
My second visit to the Resident was for the purpose of accepting his
offer of a guide, and of making arrangements for a day's shooting. I
found him as usual, sitting smoking in a large cool room. We were soon in
the interior of Borneo, the scene of his former exploits. Some of these
were of so sanguinary a character, that they do him very little credit;
and many of his tales partook of the marvellous. Among the Dyaks, natives
of the interior, it is a custom, he said, that when a man wishes to
marry, he must produce a certain number of human heads. He related that
he had once seen a very handsome young woman, to whom a number of heads
had been delivered, swimming about in some water, and playing with them.
At another time he averred that he saw a woman mix human brains with
water and drink it! Mr. Gronovius also informed me that the land on the
western sides both of Timor and Borneo was gaining on the sea,
particularly at the latter place; and a report prevailed that on some of
the elevated parts of the former chama shells had been found. In answer
to my inquiries about earthquakes, I was told that, only the last month
the island of Ternate in 0 degrees 50 minutes North had been visited by
one, which had thrown down all the houses, and that in 1690, the town of
Coepang had also been destroyed. From the Resident also, I received
accounts of three ports in Rottee, one on the north-west side, another on
the south-east, and a third, on the north-east, opening into Rottee
Strait.
THE TIMOREES.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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