and freshness which made the overcoming of
difficulties a pleasure, and the country and people are now too familiar
to me to retain any of the charms of novelty which gild over so much
that is really monotonous and disagreeable. My health, too, gives way,
and I cannot now put up so well with fatigue and privations as at first.
All these causes will induce me to come home as soon as possible, and I
think I may promise, if no accident happens, to come back to dear and
beautiful England in the summer of next year. C. Allen will stay a year
longer and complete the work which I shall not be able to do.

I have been pretty comfortable here, having for two months had the
society of Mr. Geach, a Cornish mining engineer who has been looking for
copper here. He is a very intelligent and pleasant fellow, but has now
left. Another Englishman, Capt. Hart, is a resident here. He has a
little house on the foot of the hills two miles out of town; I have a
cottage (which was Mr. Geach's) a quarter of a mile farther. He is what
you may call a _speculative_ man: he reads a good deal, knows a little
and wants to know more, and is fond of speculating on the most abstruse
and unattainable points of science and philosophy. You would be
astonished at the number of men among the captains and traders of these
parts who have more than an average amount of literary and scientific
taste; whereas among the naval and military officers and various
Government officials very few have any such taste, but find their only
amusements in card-playing and dissipation. Some of the most
intelligent and best informed Dutchmen I have met with are trading
captains and merchants.

This country much resembles Australia in its physical features, and is
very barren compared with most of the other islands.... It is very
rugged and mountainous, having no true forests, but a scanty vegetation
of gum trees with a few thickets in moist places. It is consequently
very poor in insects, and in fact will hardly pay my expenses; but
having once come here I may as well give it a fair trial. Birds are
tolerably abundant, but with few exceptions very dull coloured. I really
believe the whole series of birds of the tropical island of Timor are
less beautiful and bright-coloured than those of Great Britain. In the
mountains potatoes, cabbages and wheat are grown in abundance, and so we
get excellent pure bread made by Chinamen in Delli. Fowls, sheep, pigs
and onions are also alway