42 PICTURES AND PEN-PICTURES

As an important station lying on the railroad that
runs from Bombay* to Baroda, Ahmadabad, and Delhi,
Surat is fortunate in its situation; its neighbouring
regions are fertile,-and there is no dearth of commercial
activity, for many Parsees and. G'ujaratis inhabit the
town—both communities that can claim keen and astute
business acumen.

The past is a permanent asset to Surat. The
bastion walls along the Tapti river are relics of times
when raids from ruling hordes were not uncommon.
The sites of the early European comptoirs and of the
first English Company in India tell of the years when
English, French, Dutch, and Portuguese vied with one
another for trade supremacy in this country» Of the
past, of the dead, of significant and. fateful events, the
few monuments of Surat remain^ as it were, in
inemoriam.

The river itself carrier the mind back to times
when river boats laden with wares sailed, to its estuary
and Surat merchants boarded ships from foreign lands
to buy or barter with traders from beyond, the seas. Up
the Tapti with cargo for Surat, or downstream with
precious cargo for export, upstream and downstream
went the traffic, not unlike the traffic streams in the
congested streets or crowded bazaars of the Surat of
our century,

Present-day Surat teems with life, the streets are
full of people, tongas, buses, and luxurious cars. Only
the busy- river scenes are missing; neither the ship-
wrights who built out of Indian timber their durable
boats and ships, nor the river-craft plying to and fro
can any more be seen 5 they belong to the history of