FORT CONCORDIA.

The observations for latitude, longitude, etc. were made in Fort
Concordia,* near the flagstaff. I was surprised to find this fort so much
out of repair; the only guns fit to be fired out of were two brass
six-pounders, the carriages indeed of which were not trustworthy. On
these guns I noticed the same mark as on that we found at Houtman's
Abrolhos, namely, two sides of a triangle bisecting two small circles. I
never see an old fort without thinking of the anecdote of a party from
the Beagle visiting one at Valdivia on the west coast of South America.
The guns were very much out of repair, and when the remark was made to
the old Spaniard who showed the fort, that they would not bear to be
fired out of ONCE, with a shrug of his shoulders he replied that he
thought they would bear it TWICE! But to return to Fort Concordia: it
stands on a madreporic rocky eminence, about 60 feet in elevation,
commanding the straggling town of Coepang, which, certainly, from the
anchorage** does not impress the stranger with a favourable opinion of
the industry of its inhabitants, though it improves in proportion as you
retreat from the beach. The foot of the height on which the fort stands
is washed by a small rapid stream that skirts the south side of the town.
Its course from the eastward is marked by a deep gorge, on the sides of
which a stranger might feast his eyes on the riches of tropical scenery.
Here and there above the mass of humbler vegetation, a lofty tapering
coconut tree would rear its graceful form, bowing gently in the passing
breeze. On every hill was presented the contrast of redundant natural
verdure, clothing its sides and summit, and of cultivated fields along
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