Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 23.djvu/418

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398
TIM — TIM

yield good wheat and potatoes, while the woodlands, which nowhere form veritable forests, contain much excellent sandalwood. This and a noted breed of hardy ponies form the chief articles of export. Owing doubtless to the zone of deep water flowing between Timor and the Arafura Sea, the fauna of Timor presents, beyond a marsupial cuscus, scarcely any Australian types. The few mammals, such as a deer, a civet, a pig, a shrew, and monkeys, as well as the birds and insects, resemble ordinary Malayan forms as met with in Java and more especially in Celebes and the Moluccas. In its natural history, as well as its physical constitution and oceanic surroundings, Timor is thus entirely separated from Australia and should perhaps be grouped with Celebes, Buru, Ceram, and Jilolo as the surviving fragments of a Miocene continent intervening between Asia and Australia, but at no time connected with either.

The bulk of the population is certainly Papuan, but inter mingled in the most varied proportions with Malayan, Indonesian, and other elements; hence it presents an extraordinary diversity of physical types, as is clearly shown by the portraits figured in H. 0. Forbes's Naturalist's Wanderings in the Eastern Archipelago. The natives, still mainly independent of their nominal Dutch and Portuguese rulers, are divided into a large number of more or less hostile tribes, speaking as many as forty distinct Papuan and Malayan languages or dialects. Some are extremely rude and still addicted to head -hunting, at least during war, and to other barbarous practices. In their uma-luli, or sacred (tabooed) enclosures, rites are performed resembling those of the Pacific islanders.

Politically Timor is divided between Holland and Portugal, the Dutch claiming the western section of 4500 square miles and 200,000 inhabitants, the Portuguese the eastern of nearly 6500 square miles and 300,000 inhabitants; the respective capitals, centres of government, and outports are Kupang at the western extremity and Deli on the north-east coast. But there are a large number of practically independent petty states, as many as forty-seven in the Portuguese territory alone, where they take the name of "renos," or kingdoms, under absolute "leoreis" or kinglets. The Dutch section forms with Sumba, Savu, Rotti, and the surrounding islets a residency administered by a Dutch resident stationed at Kupang, which has a population of 8000.

TIMOR LAUT ("Seaward Timor"), called also Tenimber, an insular group in the East Indian Archipelago, forming the central and largest link in a double chain of islands which stretches from Timor through Kei and Aru to New Guinea. It lies nearly midway between Timor and Aru, and forms, not one continuous mass, as used to be supposed, but a group of three large islands, Yamdena in the centre, separated by Wallace Channel from Larat in the north and by Egeron Strait from Selaru in the south, besides a cluster or chain of islets on the west and north sides. From one of these the name Tenimber appears to have been extended to the whole group, which stretches for about 100 miles south-west and north-east, nearly parallel with Timor, from which, however, it differs altogether in its physical constitution. H. O. Forbes, who surveyed Wallace Channel and the northern districts in 1882, describes it as a low coralline group seldom rising above 100 feet, except at Egeron Strait, where the cliffs are 400 feet high, and at Laibobar, apparently a volcanic islet on the west side, which has an extinct crater 2000 feet high. There are no streams, and the poor soil, covered with a typically coral island flora, yields little beyond maize the staple food manioc, sweet potatoes, tobacco, some sugar-cane, cotton, and a little rice. The fauna includes buffaloes in a wild state, a marsupial cuscus, some bats, the beautiful scarlet lory, new or rare varieties of the ground-thrush, honey-eater, and oriole. The birds seem to have come mainly from New Guinea, the insects from Timor, and a few of both from Australia.

The aborigines are evidently Papuans, with a language like that of the Kei Islanders; but there is a large intermingling of Malayan and perhaps Indonesian elements. They are a fine race, often over 6 feet, and, like all Papuans, noted for their artistic sense, which is shown especially in their wood and ivory carvings. In other respects they are pagans in a low state of culture, mostly divided into hostile communities and addicted to piracy. The group belongs to the Dutch, who have a "post-holder" stationed at Ritabel on the west coast of Larat, a trading station of the Bughis from Celebes.

TIMOTHEUS, a distinguished Athenian general, was a son of Conon, who restored the walls of Athens. To the military qualities of his father he added a love of letters, which found scope in his friendship with Isocrates. The considerable fortune which he inherited from his father seems to have been exhausted by him in the public service. In 375 B.C. the Athenians, then at war with Sparta, sent Timotheus with a fleet to the Ionian Sea, where he gained over Cephalonia and secured the friendship of the Acarnanians and of Alcetas, king of the Molossians. He also made himself master of Corcyra, but used his victory with a moderation which won the goodwill of the conquered. At the same time he defeated a Spartan fleet at Alyzia on the Acarnanian coast. In 373 he was appointed to the command of a fleet destined for the relief of Corcyra, then beleaguered by the Spartans. But his ships were not fully manned, and to recruit their strength he first cruised in the Ægean. The delay excited the indignation of the Athenians, who brought him to trial; but, thanks to the exertions of his friends, Jason, tyrant of Pherae, and Alcetas, king of the Molossians, both of whom came to Athens personally to plead his cause, he was acquitted, but removed from the command, Iphicrates being appointed in his room. Being reduced to great poverty for he had pledged his private property in order to put the fleet in an efficient state he left Athens and took service with the king of Persia. We next hear of him in 367 or 366, when he was sent by the Athenians with an armament to support Ariobarzanes, satrap of Phrygia. But, finding that the satrap was in open revolt against Persia, Timotheus ab stained from helping him and turned his arms against Samos, which was occupied by a Persian garrison. He took it after a ten months siege (365 B.C.). Sailing north, he then captured Sestus, Crithote, Torone, Potidsea, Methone, Pydna, and many more cities. In 358 or 357, when Eubcea was in danger of falling into the hands of Thebes, the Athenians, in response to a spirited appeal of Timotheus, crossed over into the island and expelled the Thebans in three days. In the course of the Social War, which broke out shortly afterwards, Timotheus was despatched with Iphicrates, Menestheus, son of Iphicrates, and Chares to put down the revolt. The hostile fleets sighted each other in the Hellespont; but a gale was blow ing, and Iphicrates and Timotheus decided not to engage. Chares, disregarding their opposition, lost many ships, and in his despatches he incriminated his colleagues so bitterly that the Athenians recalled them and put them on their trial for having taken bribes from the enemy to betray the fleet. The accusers were Chares and Aristophon. The former was an officer of notoriously bad character; the latter had himself stood in the dock no less than seventy-five times. Iphicrates was not above browbeating the jury, who accordingly acquitted him and his son. Timotheus, who condescended to no such means of securing an acquittal, was condemned to pay a very heavy fine. Being unable to pay, he withdrew to Chalcis. The time and place of his death are not mentioned by ancient writers. The Athenians afterwards did what they could to repair the wrong they had done to Timotheus by remitting the greater part of the fine to his son Conon, by burying his remains in the Ceramicus, and by raising statues to his memory in the agora and the acropolis.

Our materials for the life of Timotheus are very imperfect, and the chronology is in some points uncertain. The chief authorities are Isocrates, Or., xv.; Xenophon, Hellenica, v. and vi.; Diodorus, xv. and xvi.; Cornelius Nepos, Vit. Tim.; and Polyseuus, Slrat., iii. 10. Other scraps are to be gleaned from the orators, Plutarch, &c. The speech Against Timotheus which has come down to us