The term ‘British interregnum’, in relation to Indonesia, refers to two short periods in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries when the British took control of most of the Netherlands Indies from the Dutch, only to hand it back a few years later. The British did this as a result of their wars with France. The first occupation occurred in 1795-1797 after a pro-France regime had been established in Holland. After peace was declared in 1802, the occupied territories were returned to the Dutch. Hostilities soon resumed, however, and with the annexation of Holland by the French in 1810, the British once more moved into the Netherlands Indies. Following France’s defeat in Europe, the Dutch territories were restored once again in 1816. This paper deals with British rule in Timor, one of the far-flung outposts of the Netherlands Indies, and the central role played by a native of that island, Jacobus Arnoldus Hazaart, in helping the British administer the territory.