Volume 14 Australasia - dana ward's homepage

20GAUSTEiVIiASIA.Koniodo group, a few other islets, and the Mangkarai district in the west part ofFlores. Formerly the large island of Sumba also formed part of this state. Theport of Bima is one of the best in Indonesia. The inlet, which here penetrates overfifteen miles inland, is no less than sixty-five fathoms deep at its entrance, andopposite the capital, where it expands to a land-locked lake, it affords large vesselsperfect shelter in depths of from twelve to eighteen fathoms. The Europeanmerchants and the Dutch officials who keep the sultan under control, reside in aseparate quarter known as the Kumpoiig Wolanda, or "Dutch Village." In theneighbourhood are some Hindu tombs, dating probably from the epoch when thispart of Sumbawa was tributary to the Javanese Empire of Mojo-Pahit. Herealso have been discovered some undecipherable inscriptions, whose origin is unknown.Flores,Solor and Allor Archipelagoes.These members of the "Little Sundas " constitute so many links in the longchain of volcanic islands which stretches eastwards to Timor, and then curvesgently round north-eastwards to Nila. Flores and its eastern neighbours areentirely of igneous origin, lacking even the sedimentary limestones that are continuedfrom Java through Bali and Lombok as far as Sumbawa. The southernheadlands of Flores are all volcanic mountains with extinct or still active craters.Although abovtnding in natural products of all sorts, these lands have hithertobeen somewhat neglected by their European masters.The vast Indonesian Empireis too extensive to have yet been sj-stematically survej-ed and opened up throughoutits whole extent. Till 1809 the Dutch and Portuguese were still contendingfor the eastern part of Flores and the adjacent -archipelagoes, and although allwere then assigned by treaty to Ilolland, their exploration has since remainednearly at a standstill. No accurate returns have yet been made of the population,which is roughly estimated at about four himdred thousand for Flores and theSolor and Allor groups, which have a collective area of 9,000 square miles.Conspicuous amongst the chain of volcanoes stretching along the north side ofFlores are Rokka, or Ombuu Soi-o (6,900 feet), and farther east, in the Endehdistrict, a name sometimes applied to the whole island, Gunong Keo, or Roma,believed to be the culminating point (9,200 feet). South of the village of Endeh(Ambogaga) rises the Gunong Api, and the natives report to the north of thesame place the Gunong Kingo, which is said to have been the scene of severaleruptions during the historic period. At the south-east corner of Flores standsthe double-crested Lobetobi volcano, one of whose cones, the Laki-Laki, or the" Man " (7,160 feet), is always smoking, while the other, Perampuan, or the" Woman" (7,460 feet), is covered on the inner walls of its crater with incrustationsof sulphur.The extinct Kabalelo (7,o00 feet) commands one of the passages of LarantukaStrait, facing the island of Solor ; the strait itself takes its name from another volcano,called also Ilimandiri (5, 180 tVet), at the north-east extremity of Flores. This moun-