The charm of Bombay: an anthology of writings in praise of the first city of India

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THE

CHARM OF BOMBAY.

The

Charm of Bombay

An Anthology

of Writings in praise of
the First City in India

Edited, with Notes,
by

R. P. Karkaria

With a- ^brev'/ofd, ; *

. • '. :> by ■•' '' '• ■' •

H. E. Lord Willingdon,

Q.C.I.E.,

Governor of Bombay.

Bo mbay

D. B. Taraporevala, Sons 6c Co.

103, Medows Street, Fort.

RY M

ORSE STEPHOIS

Foreword.

The climate and character of the city of
Bombay are so frequently condemned by the
many visitors whose experience of it is limit-
ed to the shortest possible period when arriv-
ing at or departing from its shores that I
cordially commend to the public a study of
this volume, a collection of extracts from the
writings of well-known people of many
nationalities who have given themselves time
to appreciate its many claims and attractions.

In publishing this work Mr. Karkaria gives
us in encyclopaedic form many impressions
of the vivid and varied daily life of its cos-
mopolitan community, the beauty, colour and
grandeur of its scenery at different seasons
of the year, the chief histQrical events that
have occurred, and the many distinguished
people who have been associated with its life
or visited its shores.

To have condensed so much information
into so small a volume has been a work of
much labour and research, and I trust that
its presentation to the public may ensure a
more just appreciation of a city which, to
those of us who have lived in it and love
it, is in all its aspects one of the fairest
jewels of the Empire's crown.

Government Hoiisey WiLLINGDON.

2-9-15.

Digitized by the Internet Archive

in 2007 with funding from

IVIicrosoft Corporation

http://www.archive.org/details/charmofbombayantOOkarkrich

Pref a ce

The idea of an anthology of Bombay has
steadily grown during these twenty-five years
spent in reading off and on about our city and in
collecting materials for, as youthful ambition
once fondly hoped, a ' big book ' about its past
history and present proud position. But as years
rolled on avocations increased whilst materials
multiplied, and the book remained still un-
written. The materials may yet, under Providence,
be utilised one day for the purposes for which
they were collected. But I thought that mean-
while a good purpose would be served by
utilising a part of them in the shape of an
anthology of writings about our beautiful city,
and I set about the present book which has
outgrown its original limits and has been ham-
pered by other work ; but now that it is done,
I hope it will be thought to have been worth
doing.

Nobody can be better aware than myself of
its defects and drawbacks, of its sins of commis-
sion and still more of omission. But I hope its
critics will kindly remember that it is the first
and therefore necessarily a tentative edition of
the first book of its kind. In the next edition
and still more in the succeeding ones, should
the book be so fortunate as to go through them,
these defects could be easily remedied, especially

viii PREFACE.

if other lovers of Bombay will co-operate ,by
their suggestions and criticisms in making it
worthier of our great city, emphatically the first
in India.

We have unfortunately no Historical Society
such as have grown up of late in some other
cities of India, for the furtherance of the study
of the history and antiquities of our city. If
such a Society had existed in our midst — and
there was always plenty of work for it — a book
like the present and also a much better one,,
would have appeared long ago under its auspices.
A book that casts its nets wide into the volumin-
ous literature of its subject can be better done
through the co-operation of such a Society than
by a solitary worker however well equipped he
may be for the task.

As the book was progressing, the idea struck
me, as it will strike many who will read it, that
it affords the best justification of the proud motto
very happily chosen by James Maclean, as
enthusiastic a lover as this city ever had. In its
pages will be found arrayed a cloud of witnesses,,
men, and women too, of all sorts and conditions^
testifying to its manifold charms, its great gifts
of nature enhanced by art. I do not think any
other city in India can adduce equally high
estimony from so many people whose testimony
is really worth having.

They are very fond of late in Calcutta of
usurping our motto, and of calling their city

PREFACE. ix

the first in India on the strength of the last
Census, as if our claim rested on that basis,
alone. A few thousand inhabitants more or less
does not matter in the least, and we know well
that by the proverbial jugglery of figures any-
thing can be proved. Our claims are manifold^
and to him who enquires what these are we can
only recommend this book and say circumspice^
We can well afford to smile unconcernedly
at the vain efforts of Calcutta to dethrone
our city from its rightful place, especially as we
know we must make allowances for the mood it
is in ever since it was dethroned in reality as the
capital of India.

They had for some years a Historical
Society there — one of the few points of su-
periority over us that they really possess-
ed; but I do not think it could have collected
testimony as good as ours. It was all along a
matter of surprise to me that in the course of
its rather brief existence it never set its hands,
to prepare a book like the present about their
city, a really great city with charms and attrac-
tions of its own. I should not be surprised if an
anthology of Calcutta were to be published now»
nay we should be glad, for then we would
have the proper means of comparison. But
comparisons are odious, and in this case they
are certainly not of our seeking and have rather
been thrust upon us.

But apart from this, the present book wilt
surely gladden the hearts of all true lovers of

X PREFACE.

Bombay and justify the faith that is in them. We
feel as we read on that we are citizens of no mean
city. The eulogists include persons of all shades
of opinion, who most probably are at one on this
point alone. Great statesmen and famous
travellers, visitors and permanent residents, all
unite in praising our splendid natural situation
and magnificent scenery, the vast achievements
of our citizens in the past and the glorious
possibilities of the future. We know well, for
instance, and have enjoyed often the grand
panorama from the Hanging Gardens on
Malabar Hill; but we shall enjoy it with greater
zest now when we read that a traveller and
explorer of world-wide reputation, the late Sir
Samuel Baker, rates it so highly that he could
find ' no scene throughout the world more
beautiful or more impressive than this landscape
and sea-view' ( p. lOl ). The same traveller's
aphoristic remark that the general aspect of
Bombay is a test of British administration ought
also to make us feel proud.

It is exactly two hundred and fifty years
since Bombay was delivered by the Portuguese
to the British in 1665, not ungrudgingly, but
with a heavy heart and after raising many
diificulties about carrying out the clause in the
famous treaty of 1661 relating to the cession of
the Island, for the Viceroy of Goa and his
advisers well knew that they were parting with
a possession which though wilfully neglected by
themselves, had great possibilities in the hands

PREFACE. xi

■of their rivals. During these two centuries and

a half of British possession these possibilities

became actualities beyond |heir wildest dreams

4ind Bombay has prospered exceedingly. That

prosperity it owes more than any other city in

India, entirely to the English. I am glad this

book appears in the present year in which falls

Ihe two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of that

auspicious event. But for the War we would

have celebrated it with all the honour due to the

.great significance of such an historic occasion.

It was really the second birth of Bombay when

Humphrey Cooke received the keys from its

Portuguese Mayor Almeida on that glorious

February morning of 1665.

Of the book and its arrangement little need
be said. The principle that has generally
guided me in the selection of the extracts in all
the sections except that of accounts, has been,
^ good thought well expressed ; and I have been
somewhat particular in admitting only such
passages as are marked by striking language in
iiny form. I have been rather surprised that
really fine passages have been so numerous.
Our noble city seems to have among its other
3?ifts that of inspiring some very fine writing
indeed. This anthology of Bombay will be seen
to be marked not only by the distinction of its
contributors but also by the generally high level
of the contributions. 1 regret much the absence
of two authors of great distinction, Mr. Rudyard
Kipling and Pierre Loti ; but I could find little in

xii PREFACE.

their prose writings which I could ask their per-
mission to include. This is particularly to be
regretted in the case of Mr. Kipling, who is a
distinguished son of Bombay. Calcutta is
deservedly proud of being the birthplace of
Thackeray and the house in which he was born
has lately been marked by a memorial tablet.
We ought to have done the same to the house
on the Esplanade 'between the palms and the sea'*
where Mr. Kipling was born ; but unfortunately
the thatched bungalow in the compound of the
School of Arts has been long ago pulled down.

It has been thought advisable to group the
passages under certain heads, so that there may
be some sort of unity in the great variety of the
selections. Hence the arrangement in sections-
Within the sections themselves it was at first
intended to give the passages in chronological
or alphabetical order, but that would have been
rather meaningless in a work of this nature. An
anthology is not meant for continuous reading or
study. Those who want to have passages on
kindred subjects brought together may do so by
means of the contents.

In one section alone chronological order has
been followed for obvious reasons. In the histo-
rical accounts of Bombay, given in the last
section, it was thought necessary to give them
according to the dates when they were written,

* These words are from Mr. Kipling's dedicatory poem
in the Seven Seas, from whicli some lines are quoted on p. 538a.

PREFACE. xiii

chiefly to show the progress of our city at differ-
ent periods as evinced in them. Some would
doubt the wisdom of including such an historical
section in a book like the present meant more
for enjoyment than study or use. But utile diilci ;
while the enjoyment of the other sections need
not be disturbed by the solid usefulness of this
which may moreover be skipped with ease
if so preferred. I know there will be some to
whom this section will appeal the most. I my-
self first thought of publishing it with some
additions and modifications separately ; and this
may yet be done, for a collection of such
historical accounts is a long-felt want.

Some of the sections, like * Life and Society'
and 'Notable Events' might be enlarged, and
some new sections might be added in future
editions. I particularly regret that it has not
been found possible to add a section on notable
persons who flit across the pages of our island
story, like Aungier, and Elphinstone and
Wilson. The Abbe RaynaTs eulogy of Sterne's
Eliza is a representative of this class, which has
been given out of its place, as it is a locus
classicwi of our literature which many would like
to have in a book like the present. In a future
edition it may find its proper place with other
passages in the section on ' Notable Persons.'

I ©O'er my grateful thanks to the living
authors and their publishers for passages from
their books quoted in this work. I must not omit
to expres-; my cordial obligations to Mr. S. T.

xiv PREFACE.

Sheppard, of Trinity College, Oxford, Assistant
Editor of the Times of India, for suggesting
several books and passages. I specially
owe to him the extract from the Description
of the Port and Island of Bombay, published
in 1724, an exceedingly rare book, not to be-
found anywhere else in Bombay, which he
kindly lent me from his rich collection of olcf
Bombaya/ia. He may be said to continue the
literary traditions of Buist and Maclean, past
Bombay journalists who have done so much for
the literature of our city, and great things are
to be expected from him in the future.

Finally, I cannot close without expressing
my sense of the great courtesy shown by H. E.
Lord Willingdon in writing the Foreword to this
book. I take it as his contribution to the antho-
logy and my readers also, I am sure, will be glad
to have in addition to the commendations of some
of his illustrious predecessors contained in the
present volume, His Excellency's appreciatior^
of our city which he very happily calls ' one of
the fairest jewels of the Empire's crown.'

R. P. KARKARIA.

CONTENTS,

Scenery and Views,

Ambrosial Ocean Isle.
Panorama of Bombay

from Bhandarwada

Hill.
View from the Ridge...

PAGES.

Sir John Rees ... i
Sir James M.
Campbell ... 4

The Imperial Ga-
zetteer... ... 10

View from the Ridge,

James Maclean ...

12

Malabar Hill.

The World Cannot Pro-

Balearres Ramsay.

15

duce a Finer View.

Malabar Point

Mrs. Postans

15

Queen of AsiaticCities.

SirRichardTemple.

16

Bombay from the Tow-

Baron von Hiibner.

17

ers of Silence.

View from the Fort ...

Viscount Valentia.

18

The Isle of Palms ...

Mrs. Postans

19

Bombay and Naples ...

Capt. Robert Grind-

lay

21

By Land and Sea

Capt. John Seely...

22

Bombay : Site and

Philip Anderson...

25

Scenery.

The Harbour

Dr. Buist

27

Bombay and its Sur-

Sir William Hun-

roundings.

ter

29

XVI

View from the Hang-
ing Gardens.

Our Poetic Environ-
ment.

PAGES.

L. R. W. Forrest... 32

The Bombay
zette . . .

Ga-

33

Burst of the flonsoon

Burst of the Monsoon...
Storms Heralding the

Monsoon.
The Setting in of the

Monsoon.
The Opening Monsoon.
A Grand Phenomenon.
The Monsoon.
Beneficial Effects* of

the Monsoon.

Henry Moses ... 41
Sir George Bird-
wood ... ... 45

Sir Erskine Perry. 48

Sir Joseph Crowe, 50

Elizabeth Grant ... 51

Sleepy Sketches ... 53

Henry Moses ... 55

After the Rains

David Price

59

The Monsoon, the True

E. H. Aitken

60

Indian Spring.

Approach and Arrival.

Smell Bombay from

Flora A. Steel

62

Afar.

Imposing Entrance. ...

Silk Buckingham...

63

Approaching Bombay.

Prince Karageor-

gewitch

64

A Vision of Gorgeous

Bayard Taylor ...

66

Ind.

XVll

Stately Approach.

The City from the Sea.

Islands in the Harbour.

Beautiful Indeed It Is !

A Handsome City Seat-
ed on Two Bays.

A Unique City — a Di-
luvies Gen Hum.

All India in Miniature.

A City of Vast Con-
trasts.

Til eFasci nation of Bom-
bay for a German.

The Fascination of
Bombay a Century
Ago.

The Panorama which
Greets the Eye.

Ascending the Pier
Head, 1782.

The Sea at Bombay ...

A Magnificent Scene...

Not One That can
Touch Bombay.

In the Land of the
Arabian Nights.

No Scene Throughout
the World More
Beautiful.

Sir Frederick Tre-
ves ... ... 68

Walter Del Mar ... 71

Norman Macleod... 72

Life in Bombay ... y^

Sir Edwin Arnold. 75

Sidney Low

79

G. W. Steevens ... 81

G. W. Steevens ... 85

Count von Koenigs-

marck ... ... 86

Basil Hall ... 88

Adventures of Tho-
mas Bro^ivn ... 95
David Price ... 96

Meadows Taylor... 97

James Tod ... 97

Lord Harris ... 98

Leopold von Or-

lich ... ... 99

Sir Samuel Baker lOO

xvni

First Impressions.

PAGE8.

If this be exile, it is Elizabeth Grant ... 104

splendid exile.

A Viceroy on his Land- The Marquis of

ing. Dufferin ... 109

A Viceroy's First Im- TheEarl of Lytton 112

pressions.

An Orientalist's Im- Sir M. Monier-

pressions. Williams ... 113

A Lady's Impressions Emma Roberts ... 115

Seventy Four Years

Ago.

A Russian Lady's Im- Madame Blavatsky. 118

pressions.

An American's First Bayard Taylor ... 127

Impressions.

An Under-Secretary's Sir M. E. Grant

Impressions. Duff ... ... 130

Jumble of Nations ... Sir James Mackin-
tosh ... ... 136

A Picturesque City ... Sir Henry Craik ... 137

Czar Nicholas II's Im- Prince Ookh-

pressions. tomsky ... 141

Importance.

H. M. King George V. on Bombay ... 147

The Address of Bombay Citizens to Their
Majesties ... ... ... ... 149

Edward VII, as Prince of Wales, on Bombay... 150

XIX

Wellington on Bombay.
Marquess of Wellesley 's

Praise of Bombay.
Queen Among Cities ...
First to Receive the

King.
The Gateway between

the East and the

West.
Bombay Essential to

the Empire.
Mingling of Peoples ...
The Eye of India
Cosmopolitan Yet

Homogenous.
The Modern Alexan-
dria,
Bombay an Asylum for

All.
Variety of Races and

Religions.
Bombay and Calcutta.
Bombay and Paris. ...
Another Carthage.
Bombay and European

and AmericanCities.
A Peerless Harbour. ...
Advantage over Every

Port in India.
The Brightest Jewel of

our Dependencies.

PAGRS.

DukeofWellington 151
Marquis of Wel-
lesley... ... 153

G. W. Steevensy ... 156
Dr. Stanley Reed 156

SirRaymond West. 158

Philip Anderson ... 166

The Times ... 167

W. S. Caine ... 170

The Times ... 171

Sir M. E. Grant-
Duff ... ... i;3

Francis Warden ... 173

Murra Mitchelly ... 175

Emma Roberts ... 177

Gerson da Cunha. 179

James Douglas ... 182

William Curtis ... 186

Dr. George Smith. 188

Maria Graham ... 1 89

Mrs. Postans ... 191

XK

I'AfiKS.

Commercial Import- General John Tay-

ance. lor ... ... 194

Finest Site for Com- Lord Mayo ... 196

merce in the World.
An Extensive Empo-. Hobart Caunter ... 197

rium.
Great Cotton Mart ... Sir W. W. Hunter 199
Cotton Green ... W. S. Caine ... 202

Centre of Gravita of Sir George Bird-

the Empire in the wood ... ... 202

Future.
Development of Bom- Lord Sydenham ... 205

bay.
Gateway to a Land of Lord Curzon ... 206
.' Enchantment.

Patriotism of Citizens. Lord Curzon ... 208
Commercial Capital of James Routledge... 208

the East.
Great Work of the Sir Bartle Frere ... 210

Municipality.
Importance and Growth Lord Sydenham ... 211

of Bombay.
The Most Impressive The Times ... 213

City in the Orient.

Scenes In Bombay.

The Yacht Club at J. A. Spender ... 219

Evening.

Sunset. ... ... Sleepy Sketches ... 220

XXI.

A Street by Moonlight.

The City at Dawn.

After the Rains.

In a Bombay Garden.

Nature in Bombay.

The Plague. ...

The Mango Trick.

Palm-Tree. ...

Fish at Bombay.

The Banian Tree.

Native Schools.

The Mohurrum in Bom-
bay.

Mohurrum. ...

Collins, the Armenian
Loafer.

An Afternoon Scene in
the Town.

PAQBfl,

Sir Fred. Treves ... 222
Lord Lamington... 225
Robert Brown ... 22/
Lady Falkland ... 229
Madame Blavatsky 232
Lovat Fraser ... 234
Norman Macleod... 236

Norman Macleod..

. 238

James Forbes

. 239

E. H. Aitken

. 240

Mrs. Postans

. 241

S. M. Edwardes ..

243

M. T. Hainsselin ..

244

Arthur Crawford..

. 246

Prince Kara-
georgevitch ... 247

Life and Society,

Society in Bombay. ...

Sleepy Sketches ...

251

Life in Bombay.

Lady Burton

253

BycullaClub.

Sir Bartle Frere ...

255

A Judge's House Esta-

Elizabeth Grant ...

258

blishment.

A Governor's Life a

Mountstuart El-

Century Ago.

phinstone

262

Life in Bombay in the

Sixties.

J. M. Maclean

263

XX 11

PAGES.

Indian Life. ...

Basil Hall

... 267

Native Life. ...

J. A. Spender

... 275

Bombay Beats the

Sleepy Sketches

... 277

Whole World As a

Place to Go Away

From.

Bazaars and Streets.

Pen Pictures of Native

Town.
A Night Scene.

A Mart of Nations. ...

Mixture of Types in
the Bazaar.

The Bombay Bazaar,
Unique.

Animated Life of the
Bazaars.

The Horse Bazaar.

A Gay Street.

Scenes in the Bazaars.

The Crawford Market.

Flower and Fruit Mar-
ket.

The Bazaars during the
Feast of Lamps.

Streets During the
Diwali.

Karageorgevitch ... 281

Count von Koenigs-

marck ... 283

Mrs. Postans ... 285
Louis Rousselet ... 289

J. H. Stocqueler ... 292

Lady Falkland ... 294

Balcarres Ramsay. 299
Louis Rousselet ... 302
Balcarres Ramsay. 303
Walter Crane ... 3?4
Mrs. Guthrie ... 304

Sidney Low ... 307

Mrs. John Wilson... 310

XX 111

The Streets during the
King's Visit, 191 1.

Legions of Dark-hued
Faces.

Modern Town and Na-
tive Town.

The Bazaar to the
Artistic Eye.

The Native Town

A City of Strange Con-
trasts.

Drive Through the
Town.

Bhendy Bazaar

-Stroll Through the
Streets.

A Drive Through the
Native Bazaar.

Variety in the Native
Town.

The Jubilee Illumina-
tions, 1887.

A Gay Street of a
Century Ago.

A Sea of Turbans

Sonapur: The City of
the Dead.

Hindu Burning-Ground.

Walkeswar Village ...

Malabar Point

Hon. John For-

tescue ... 311

Sir Henry Craik ... 312

Mrs. Guthrie ... 3M

Val. Prinsep ... 316

Emma Rober ... 317
S. M. Edwardes ... 320

Mrs. Elwood ... 321

William Shepherd. 325
Sidney Low ... 327

Walter Crane ... 329

Baron von Hiibner. 332

The late Lady
Brassey ... 335

Aihentures of Qui
Hi 336

Madame Blavatsky 338

Louis Rousselet ... 340

Lady Burton ... 342
Lady Falkland ... 343
Edward Moof ... 34^

XXIV

Tombs near Love Maria Graham ... 348

Grove, Mahaluxmi.
Bombay Buildings. ... Sir Richard Tem-
ple 349

Notable Events,

The Royal Visit, IQH-

Reception of the
Prince and Princess
of Wales, 1905.

Golden Jubilee Celebra-
tions in Bombay, 1887.

Landing of King
Edward VII. 1875.

Bombay's Reception
of King Edv^rard VII.

Welcome to the Duke
of Edinburgh, 1870.

The Bombay Riots of
1874: a Remarkable
Episode,

Silver Times in Bom-
bay.

The Share Mania.

The Share Mania.

How the Mutiny was
Nipped in the Bud.

A Page from Early
Bombay History.

Dr. Stanley Reed. 355
Dr. Stanley Reed. 358

The late Lady
Brassey ... 365

Sir William How-
ard Russell ... 365,

Sir W. Howard
Russell ... 367

Dr. John Wilson ... 370

James Maclean ... 371

Arthur Crawford... 380

Dr. George Smith 381
Bosworth Smith ... 384
Charles Forjett ... 386

Kin loch Forbes ... 390

XXV

The Cyclone of 1854 •••
The Great Fire of 1803.
Royal Visit, 191 1

Royal Progress through

the City, 191 1.
RaynaTs Panegyric on

Sterne's "Eliza".

^•A(:KS.

Charles R. Low ... 392
Bombay Gazetteer... 305
Historical Record
of the Imperial
Visit ... ... 397

399

Abbe Raynal

400

Round About Bombay,

Bobbery Hunt in the

The Adventures of

Suburbs.

Qui Hi by Quiz...

407

Environs of Bombay ...

Sir Edwin Arnold

409

Picturesque Hills in the

Capt. R. Grindlay

411

Neighbourhood.

In the Harbour

John Seely

412

Sail in the Harbour ...

Louis Rousselet ...

414

Raskin's Salsette and

John Ruskin

416

Elephanta.

Thana Creek

John Seely

419

An Excursion to Sal-

Mrs. Heber

420

sette.

View from the Kanhari

Hobart Caunter ...

423

Caves.

Cave Temples near

Garcia Da Orta ...

426

Bombay.

Kanhari and Bassein...

Lady West

428

xxvi

]

pager;

Elephanta ...

Bayard Taylor ...

432

Elephanta

Basil Hall

434

Elephanta

Seely

437

On the way to Maha-

Mrs. Guthrie

438

bleshwar.

Charm of Mahable-

Robert Brown

440

shwar.

Sunsets at Mahable-

Mr. Guthrie

442^

shwar.

A Journey to Mahable-

Elizabeth Grant ...

44S-

shwar, 1829.

A French Artist on

Louis Rousselet ...

446

Matheran.

View from Panorama

The Times of India

451

Point, Matheran.

The Ghauts ...

Imperial Gazetteer

459

Scenery of the Ghauts.

FitzClarence, Earl

of Munster ... 461

Accounts of Bombay.

Streynsham Master, 1672 ...

... 465

Fryer, 1675

... 471

Philip Anderson ...

... 48a

Ovington, 1689 •••

... 484

Richard Cobbe, 1715

... 490

Alexandar Hamilton, 1723

... 492

Description of the Port and Island

of

Bombay, 1724 ...

... 496

Ives, 1754

.. 498

Carsten Niebuhr, 1764

... 506.

XXVll

John Henry Grose, 1758 ...
Abraham Parsons, 1775 ...
Philip Stanhope ( Asiaticiis ), 1778
Samuel Pechel, 1781
James Forbes, 1783
Abbe Raynal, 1788
Viscount Valentia, 1804 ...
Bishop Heber, 1825
Walter Hamilton, 1820 ...

511
51S
516
518

519
520

521

523
527

Supplement.

A Noble Introduction

Sir Richard Tem-

to India.

ple

537

A Glowing Sunset

Walter Crane

538

OfNoMeanCityAml!.

Rudyard Kipling.

538A

City So Full of Fate ...

Mrs.^ Walter Tib-

bits ...

538B

Malabar Hill by Moon-

William Shepherd

539

light.

Harbour Scenery

Edward Nolan ..

539

Harbour of Bombay ...

Iltudus Prichard ..

541

Sunset in the Har-

Mrs. Guthrie

542

bour.

Scenery of Maha-

Meadows Taylor..

543

bleshwar.

Great Fire of 1 803 ...

Admiral Garden ..

546

Farewell to Bombay ...

Prince Karageorge

-

witch...

550

NOTES ON THE AUTHORS QUOTED ... 55

SCENERY & VIEWS.

SCENERY & VIEWS.

" Ambrosial Ocean Isle."

Sir John Rees.

It is impossible to imagine any greater
contrast than is afforded by the scenery of
Bombay and its unrivalled harbour, to that
which we have left behind in Sind. Here
everything speaks of an abundant rainfall, hills
rise upon hills from the sea-coast to the top of
the Ghauts, and every hill is clothed with grass
and covered with forest. When all the landscape
glowed in the crimson hues of the setting sun, it
seemed as if the isle of Bombay itself was the
place the Laureate had in his mind which
charmed the wanderer out in ocean:

" Where some refulgent sunset of India
Streams over a rich ambrosial ocean isle.
And crimson-hued the stately palmwoods
Whisper in odorous heights of even."

Tours in India of Lord Ccnnemara, l8g2, page 247,

4 BOMBAY :

Panorama of Bombay from
Bhandarwada Hill.

Sir James M. Campbell.

The high flat ledge to the east of the reser-
voir plateau on Bhandarwada hill commands one
of the completest and most central views of
Bombay and its surroundings. To the north a
sprinkling of trees and patches of green garden
and orchard freshen the foreground of brown
roofs and yellow house fronts. Across the
muddy Tank Bandar foreshore and the coal
heaps of Frere Bandar stand the quarried face
of Brae hill, and the Jubilee, Indo-Chinese, and
National Mills clustered at the foot of the woody
slopes of Golangi or Flagstaff hill. To the right
the bare sides of Rowli and Antop rise beyond
the fishing village and rock-fort of Sewri. In
the distance behind Sewri hill, looms the dim
table-land of Tungar. Closer at hand stretching
east are the woody slopes and waving outline
of Salsette its central hills gathered in three
main points above Vehar, Tulsi, and Yeur-
Further east, across the north bay and mud
flat of the harbour, behind the green swamps
and the gray salt lands of Mahul or north-west
Trombay, rise the knolls of the Parshik hills,
and over them, thirty miles inland, seen only in
the clearest air, the lofty deep-cleft crest of
Mahuli the guardian of Tansa Lake. At the
east foot of Bhandarwada hill the half-mile

AN ANTHOLOGY. S

belt that stretches eastwards to the harbour,
with a fair scattering of plantains, cocoa
palms, tamarinds, mangoes, and pipals is
thick with brown-roofed yellow-faced dwellings,
from which stand out the picturesque pale-gray
west fronts of two Portuguese churches, Notre
Senhora De Rozario at the hill-foot and De Gloria
a few hundred yards to the south-east. Fringing
the foreshore are the Peninsular and Oriental
dockyard, the Mazagon landing-pier, and the
British India dockyard.

Further south, close to the hill-foot, are the
network of sidings and the long lines of low
gray sheds that form the Wadi Bandar terminus.
On the left, out from acres of shed roofs, rises
the Port Trust Clock Tower and between the
tower and the harbour are the rectangular
pit of the Merewether dry dock and the
broad basins of the Prince's and Victoria wet
docks a thicket of lofty masts. South, over
the Wadi Bandar sheds and sidings for more
than two miles, stretch in strange close-packed
confusion piles of many-storeyed dwellings,
their white and yellow ends and fronts
crowned with peaked gables and brown tiled
hummocky roofs topped here and there by a flat
view-terrace. Beyond these miles of thick-packed
dwellings, on the left, at the harbour side,
stand the tower of the Port Trust Moody Bay
offices and the Castle Flag-Staff. To the right,
from the rough sea of roofs, rises Venice-like, a
notable cluster of public buildings, the light

6 BOMBAY :

pinnacles of the Cathedral, the lofty crocket-
ribbed dome of the Victoria Terminus, the peak-
roofed finials of the Elphinstone College and
the Secretariat, the rounded summit and tiny side
minarets of the huge Municipal buildings, the
tall square shaft statued-drum and plumed
pinnacle of the Rajabai Clock-tower over-
topping a confusion of lofty roofs, the steep
railtipped roof of the short High Court tower
and the turrets of the Public Works Secre-
tariat, of the Post, and the Telegraph Offices.
To the right of the Rajabai tower, out of the
distant low green line of Colaba, rise the spire
of the Memorial Church and the column of the
Prongs Light-house In the middle distance,
to the right of the High Court, the high pitched
roof of the Police Court, the clock tower of the
Crawford Market, the finial of the Gokaldas
Hospital, and the lantern of St. Xavier's College
show like islands in the sea of roofs and tree-tops.

To the west, close at hand, are the re-
servoir filter-beds and gardens of the lower
western top of Bhandarwada hill. Beyond
Bhandarwada hill to the south-west, behind
the line of the Great Indian Peninsula
Railway, stretches the scarped cliif of Nowroji
hill, its top and western slopes thick with
houses. Further west from the broken mass
of roofs that stretch to the palms of Girgaum
stand out the wide enclosure and the lofty
turrets and pinnacles of the Jamsetji and
Motlibai Hospitals. Still mare to the right,

AN ANTHOLOGY. 7

among the brown roofs that spread to the
factories of Tardeo and the foot of Cumbala hill,
rise the cupola of the Synagogue, the obelisk of
Byculla Church, and the smooth slender twin
spires of St. Mary's College. To the north-west,
between the Bhandarwada reservoir and the gray
of the Flats, the crowd of brown roofs is hidden
and broken by the gardens and mango orchards
of Mazagon, and adorned by the golden-spiked
gleaming white dome and minarets of the
Aga Khan's Tomb, and the peak-roofed tower
of the Technical Institute. Further to the right,
across the middle distance, as far as the
green belt of the Mahim palm groves, stretch the
Flats bristling with forty lofty chimney stalks
and laden with the mighty masses of the Leopold,
David, Petit, Imperial, Sun, Jacob, New Sassoon,
and other huge factories. Round this great
city, to the north-east east and south, stretch the
broad waters of the harbour, according to the
hour and the season, blue golden tawny or steel
gray, with its flocks of small white-winged har-
bour craft, and, at their moorings, lines and
clusters of lading and discharging steamers,
fleets of peak-prowed lofty-pooped sea-faring
baglas dhingis and kotias, and a sprinkling of
stately square-rigged ships. Among the shipping,
opposite the Carnac Bandar, lies the bare rocky
mound of Cross Island, and about two miles
south off the Apollo Bandar, the small flat circle
of the Middle Ground Shoal.

Across t)ie harbour the north-east is filled by

8 BOMBAY:

the long brown back of Trombay sloping south
to the point of Pir Pav. In the east lies the low
greenery of Hog Island. In miclwater is the flat
rocky line of Butcher's Island, and, behind it, the-
woody hills of Elephanta and to the south-east the
separate sharp-cut crests of Little and of Great
Karanja. Inland, beyond the low broken line of
the Parshik hills, the shivered cliffs and the flat-
topped bluffs of the Tavli-Matheran range fill
the whole eastern view. In this range from north-
to south are the bastions of Tavli, the Cathedral
Rocks of Bhav Malang the smaller buttresses
of Mhas-Mala, the pillar of Navra-Navri, the
castle crest of Chanderi, the low fortified head of
Peb, the long walls of Matheran and PrabhaU.
the broken pillars of Isalgadh the False
Funnel and of Karnala the True Funnel,,
and the comb of Manikgad. In the extreme
east, through breaks in the Matheran range^
looms the dim wall of the Sahyadris. Behind
the comb of Manikgad to the left are the gap-
of the Bor Ghat and the heights round Khandala
and, in the clearest air, the more distant forts;
of Visapur and Lohogad To the right the
knuckle tip of Nagphani or the Duke's Nose
stands in front of the long plateau of Sakarpathar
and the saw-teeth of Jambulni, with, in clear air^
more distant peaks, perhaps Tung and Tikona
in Bhor. South of Jambulni the line of the
Sahyadris rises in a group of noble hills of
which Devgad, Morva, Visakar, Koarigad,.
Masagaum, and part of Saltar in south Poona

AN ANTHOLOGY. 9

are visible, and the rest of Saltar and Tel Baili
also in south Poona and Bhorap in Bhor are hid
by the slope of north Karanja. In the gap-
between the two Karanjas stands the wooded
western top of Mira Dongar the Pen hill.

Further south, between the west point
of Great Karanja and the Bluff in nort-east
Alibag, the long hill-flanked valley of the Amba
river or Nagotha creek winds twenty-six miles,
south into the heart of the Bhor hills. About
ten miles south of the Alibag Bluff, from a
sharp cliff overhanging the Amba creek, the main
range of the Alibag hills stretches west till,,
near the fortified top of Sagargadh, it is hid
by the beacon-bearing slope of the Alibag
Bluff. To the right the crest of the Bluff sweeps
south and west rising to the sacred wooded
headof Kankeshwar, which falls westward to the
sea and the faint outlying circle of Kenery island.
Behind the western spurs of Kankeshwar stands,
the bare block of the western Sagargadh range
centering in the point of Parhur. Fifteen miles.
south over the low lines of the Alibag palms,,
the land ends in the dim level crest of the Roha
and Janjira hills. From the palm groves of Ali-
bag, past the low line of Henery (Underi) and the
rocky knoll of Kenery (Khanderi), the sea spreads
round the points and reefs of Colaba across the
palm-fringed curve of Back Bay, till it is hid by
the woody bluff of Malabar Point which rises,
gently northwards to the house-and palmyra-
rcowned crest of the Malabar and Cumbala

10 BOMBAY :

ridges. North-west, across the palm-dotted curve
of the Great Vellard, is a second stretch of
open sail-brightened sea, hid for a time by the
woody hillock of Love Grove and again opening
on either side of the rock of Martand, till it is
once more lost behind the woody crest of Varli
which, in a broken line, leads north, till the
circle is completed in the plam groves of Mahim
and the leafy gardens and rice lands of Parel and
Matunga overtopped by the casuarinas of Bandra
hill, and the long ridge of Pali.

Admmistratiofi Report, Bombay, 1891-2, pp. 43-44.

View From The Ridge

The Imperial Gazetteer.

The views obtainable from the ridge of Malabar
Hill and the summit of the Altamont Road,
which winds up Cumballa Hill, are magnificent.
Standing by night upon the ridge, one looks
down upon the palm-groves of Chaupati, and
across the sweep of Back Bay to the Rajabai
tower, the Secretariat, and the Light-house at
Colaba point, the whole curve of land being
jewelled with an unbroken chain of lights,
which have earned the appropriate title of "The
Queen's Necklace." From Cumballa Hill the
view to the east includes the whole native city,
the hill of Mazagaon, upon which, in early days,
a white-washed house stood as a guide for

AN ANTHOLOGY. 1 1

vessels entering the harbour, and beyond them
the harbour, islands, and mainland of the north
Konkan. To the left lies the industrial area,
with its high chimney-stacks and mill roofs, and
the coast section of Sewri, in which may still be
seen relics of the old fortress built upon a pro-
jecting spit of land. Sewri in these days contains
the European cemetery, which was originally
the garden of the Horticultural Society of Bombay.
On the west side Cuniballa Hill slopes down to
the shore, where, close to the Hornby Vellard,
the Mahalakshmi temples command attention.
The present shrines are comparatively modern ;
but they are stated to stand upon the site of
three very old temples which were destroyed
during the period of Mohamadan domination.
The temples form the northern limit of another
suburb, known as Breach Candy, where the
houses are built close down upon the seashore
within the refreshing sound of the waves. The
ruined fortress of Warli can be visited from this
point ; while a good road leads through the great
cocoa-nut woods of Mahim to the Lady Jamsetji
Causeway and the neighbouring Island of
Salsette.

Third edition, 1908 Vol. VIII pages 401-402.

12 BOMBAY:

View from The Ridge, flalabar HilL

James Maclean.

From the Ridge we get a magnificent view
of the island and harbour of Bombay. Perhaps
the best point of view is the Cliff, the late
Dr. Wilson's residence, or the Ladies' Gym-
khana, a favourite evening rendezvous now for
families living on Malabar Hill, and the best time-
is just before sunset. A poet might well say
that " earth hath not anything to show more fair '*"
than the glorious panorama of water, wood, hill,,
shipping and the stately edifices of a great city
which here strikes and fascinates the eye.
*' This dings Dumbarton " is said to have been^
the remark of a Scotchman on first seeing
Gibraltar ; and perhaps even Scott, had he seen-
Bombay from the Ridge, would have confessed
that this is a lovelier scene than that which he
describes in such glowing verse, when his hero
Marmion looks down upon Edinburgh from the
brow of Braid Hill. A double bay lies below^
intersected by the island city, which buried at
its base in plantations of palm trees, emerges-
midway into a succession of noble buildings^
whose faults of detail are lost in the distance^
while the harmonious grandeur of the whole mass
is enhanced by the parting rays of the sun shin-
ing full upon them. From this culminating point
of splendour, the city tapers away towards
Colaba in a gently curving promontory just
broad enough to mark and complete the perfect

AN ANTHOLOGY. 13

outline of Back Bay. Beyond stretches the broad
harbour with its islands, and the mountains of
the Koncan, with their battlemented summits
form the background of the picture. Perhaps,
although Bombay does not, like England, appeal
to the imagination by the charm of great and
holy memories, it might not be esteemed sacri-
legious to apply to her, thus seen at sunset, or,
still better, in the tropical radiance of the
moonlight, the words of the poet — " A precious
stone set in the silver sea."

Guide to Bombay, cd. for 1899, Pages 305-6.

*'The World Cannot Produce a Finer
View"

Balcarres Ramsay.

Ride along Back Bay, ascend Malabar Hill :
the world cannot produce a finer view. You
stand on a lovely wooded hill ; beneath you are
the rich and fertile islands of Bombay and
Salsette, the deep blue sea, the noble shipping
in the harbour, and afar the fantastically shaped
and picturesque Deccan hills, all forming a won-
drously attractive picture. Turn from this lovely
scene, ascend one of the narrow paths up the
hill, and you will find yourself close to the Parsee
burial-ground. On extreme point of this hill is
one of the Governor's residences, called Malabar

14 BOMBAY:

Point, occupied [ 1845 ] by the Commander-in-
Chief, Sir Thomas M'Mahon, and his family. As
}'OU descend the hill on the other side, the sea
alone greets your eye. The road winds along
the foot of this hill, and affords a charming
drive : this is still a favourite resort of the
Bombay people during the evening. Not far
from this, and round the Point, is a large portion
of waste land called the Flats, about two miles
in extent. This, in former years, during the
monsoon, was regularly flooded, but a handsome
breakwater had been made by Governor Jonathan
Duncan. Across these Flats my brother aide-de
camp. Captain D'Arcy, made capital bridlepaths.

Ride across these Flats and you come upon
the highroad to Thana, and close to Government
House, Parell. The grounds at Parell are laid
out quite in the English style. The house
itself is a fine building, — formerly, under the
Portuguese rule, a Jesuit convent, and after-
wards the residence of Sir James Mackintosh
during the time he was Recorder of Bombay :
it has since been much enlarged and beautified.
You drive up under a handsome portico, and
are received by a host of servants ( chobdars ).
On the ground-floor there is a magnificent room,
capable of dining a hundred people ; beyond,
a billiard-room ; off these are several bedrooms
opening on to spacious verandahs. Up-stairs
there is a magnificent drawing-room and re~
ception-room ; at one end a fine portrait of the
Marquis of Wellesley. A ball or a reception

AN ANTHOLOGY. IS

here is always a pretty sight. In the first place^
the ladies are almost always well dressed
and the officers in full uniform : and a tulip-bed
cannot show more variety than the various uni-
forms of the British and Indian services. Noble
rooms delightfully cool and airy, picturesque
costumes, and plenty of room to show them off,
are the distinguishing features of an Indian
reception.

Rough Recollections, 1882, Vol. I, pages 82-84.

rialabar Point

Mrs. Postans.

It is difficult to select and particularise, where
so many beautiful views, so many fresh com-
binations of scenery, attract the eye as from the
curving and numerous roads winding about this
lovely island ; amongst the most charming spots,
however, is the bold promontory, known as
Malabar Point, and crowned with a mansion,
originally the residence of Sir John Malcolm,
now [1838] set apart for the accommodation of the
Governor, when the heat becomes oppressive at
Parell. This agreeable resort, pitched upon
the tall and rocky headland, like an eiry above
the waves, commands a varied and extensive
view, lovely at all times, but more peculiarly so
when the sun's broad golden disc is half obscured
below the azure waters, and the feathery tips of

I6 BOMBAY :

the cocoa-nut woods retain their amber-tinted
hues. Then appear the undulating and varied
Xoads, studded with groups of animated figures ;
the bright bay, bearing numerous pleasure boats,
whose oars lie on the glassy medium which re-
flects the tasselled palms fringing its immediate
shores ; inland, the wooded knolls look richer as
the foliage takes a deeper hue, the bamboos lose
^their paly green, and the jutting rocks borrow
partial shades from the gathering twilight ; while
below, along the shores, fires brightly burning,
mark the funeral pyres of the Hindoo dead ; and
far from these, solitary figures, in white and
flowing raiment, bend their foreheads to the
earth, or slowly pace the strand, to catch the
gorgeous sun's last ray upon the wave, and " Hail
their Creator's dwelling-place among the living
lights of heaven."

Western India, 1739, Vol. I pages 36-38.

" Queen of Asiatic Cities."

Sir Richard Temple.

For a few days at my beautiful capital, in
the finest season of the year, (1880) I had a halcyon
time, and a restful feeling which had been
long unknown to me. I imprinted on the tablets
of my memory the features of this city, doubt-
less the Queen of Asiatic cities — the highlands
and islands, the bays and creeks, the forest of

AN ANTHOLOGY. 17

masts in the wide spreading harbour, the horizon
on one side bounded by the Western Ghat
mountains and on the other side extended far
out to the Indian Ocean. As a foreground to
thisscenery of sea and land was the ornate and
palatial line of Government edifices.

Stof'v of my life, l8g5y Vol. II, pages 49-50.

Bombay from the Towers of Silence.

Baron Von Hubner.

Bombay is at our feet, — the city, the bay and
the sea ! To the south-west a forest of masts,^the
tops of which only are discernible, indicates
the harbour. Beyond it, on the horizon, are rocks
and islets of fantastic outline, some bare, some
carpeted with fern, and all of them gilded by
the sun. Right beneath us is one of the native
quarters, buried in a sea of cocoa-nut palms, and
above their waving tufts, through the open
fanlike tracery of their leaves, and behind the
transparent mists of the distance, the imposing
buildings on the Esplanade and Colaba, Farther
eastward stands a confused mass of houses,
broken here and there by a spire — the actual city
of Bombay. At your right, bathing the foot of
the heights on which you stand, is the Arabian
Sea. The panorama is one of the loveliest, and,
from the variety of its constituent parts, one of
the richest that can be seen ; it might ev.^n be

1 8 BOMBAY:

called unique. But the contrast offered by thej-
Towers of Silence prevents you from thoroughly
enjoying it. Perhaps, without noticing it, you-
feel upset, and you leave the spot with mingled
feelings of pleasure and regret.
Through the British Empire, 1 886, Vol.11, pages 18-19,

View From the Fort

Viscount Valentia.

The view from the fort is extremely beautiful
towards the bay, whose smooth expanse is here
and there broken by the islands that are, many
of them, covered with wood, while the lofty and
whimsically shaped hills of the table land, form-
a striking back-ground to the landscape- The sea
is on three sides of it, and on the fourth an
esplanade, at the extremity of which is the black
town, embosomed in a grove of cocoa-nut trees.

Voyages and Travels, 1811, Vol. 11, page l68.

AN ANTHOLOGY. 19

"The Isle of Palms"

Mrs. Postans.

The Harbour scenery of Bombay is justly
considered the most lovely in the world, the
fairest of all

* the Isles that gem

Old Ocean's purple diadem '

To detail the particular features which compose
its beauty, were impossible. The deep smooth
waters, the bright blue cloudless sky, the cluster-
ing islands, gleaming in still dreamy indistinct-
ness, fringed with the dark feathers of the palm
trees, which seem so jealously to conceal the line
where the fair elements unite.- the pale purple
Ghauts, towering, higher and higher, in piles of
varied form, their lolty summits dim in the misty
distance, blending with the soft haze of a tropic
sky, form a picture, which fascinates the eye, and
b pell-binds the imagination, as completely as it
baffles the power of language to pourtray.

To afford to those who may not look upon
this glorious scene, a bird's-eye glimpse of its
general coiipd'ceil, is all that can be attempted,
and the elegant pen of Bishop Heber has well per-
formed that task ; objections have been made to
his descriptions, as too Italianized and florid, but
critics of taste, whom opportunity may have
enabled to study the various combinations
of pictorial effect among these lovely scenes,
must acknowledge, that neither poetry, nor

6o BOMBAY:

painting, can possibly do justice to the peculliar
and exquisite beauty of the " Isle of Palms."

Where the inducements which the fair, face
of nature presents, are so great, it is not remark-
able that yachting should be, as it is, a very
favourite recreation ; or that the gay streamers of
the " Lovely Lucy," and the " Lalla Rookh,"
should be seen so frequently floating in bright
relief against the dark masses of rich foliage
which clothe, to the water's edge, the time-
hallowed island of Elephanta, and the beautifully
wooded scenery of Salsette.

The modern town of Bombay, however (for
to such a distinction the march of progress en-
titles it) deserves description; and however
charming may be the bright and sparkling bay,
the palm-tasselled islets, the varied craft, and
the pretty latteen sails which swell in the fresh
breeze, a stranger yet desires to step firmly upon
land, and mix in the bustling interests of his
fellow-men.

The general appearance of Bombay from the
harbour, is certainly not attractive. Little can
be seen*of it but the walls of the fort, flanking
the water's edge, the tents of the esplanade rising
in white and gleaming clusters, and the island of
Colaba, stretching out towards the west, covered
with palm trees, and crowned at its extreme end
by the Bombay Light-house.

The bundars, or landing-places,are commonly
'Surrounded by singular-looking boats, whose

AN ANTHOLOGY. 2t

crews ply among the shipping with passengers or
cargo. Mcored in a busy knot, may be observed
the crazy little canoe, laden with cocoanuts and
plantains ; the miniature barge, covered with the
gay purdah (awning), to screen the fat Parsee,
who sits cross-legged in her stern ; and the more
important bundah boat, with its comfortable cabin
lined with soft cushions, and surrounded with
smart green Venetians, awaiting an engagement
to convey a party to the spot selected for a picnic,
or to stretch down the coast to the various
beautiful and sea-girt stations of the southern
Koncan.

Western India, 1839, Vol I, pages 4-7 -

Bombay and Naples

Capt. Robert Grindlay.

The derivation of the name of Bombay is
generally considered to be frcm Buon Bahia, a
name given to it by the Portuguese, the first
European settlers, and indicating its peculiar
excellence as a harbour, in which it is equalled
by few others in the world, whether for security
to shipping or the picturesque beauty of its
scenery.

The far-famed Bay of Naples can scarcely,
be placed in crmparison with Pcmbay, frcm
the very different description of beauty which

22 BOMBAY:

characterizes each. If the former can boast
of its Vesuvius, its castellated heights of St.
Elmo, and semicircular sweep of shore, fringed
with imposing groups of buildings, the latter
possesses beauties of a grander description and
of more rare combination. While the back-ground
is composed of that stupendous range of moun-
tains, the Ghauts, raising their rugged summits
in every possible variety of shape, assuming
frequently the appearance of vast fortresses, the
harbour is studded with numerous groups of
islands, of various size and form, and some of
them richly wooded to the water's edge.

Scenery in Western India, 1830, page 39,

By Land and Sea.

Capt. John Seely.

Nothing can be more delightful than the
rides and drives in this island : they extend
twenty-one miles, and communicate to the
neighbouring island of Salsette by means of a
causeway. The prospect is as grand and as
beautiful as can be imagined : the mighty range
of the Ghats towering in the clouds and extend-
ing as far as the eye can reach ; the bold views
on the continent ; the diversified objects on the
island; old ruinous convents and monasteries
erected by its former conquerors, the Portugueze ;
the noble country-houses of the Europeans ;

AN ANTHOLOGY. 23

Hindoo pagodas, Mahometan mosques ; the
remains of Mahratta forts and buildings : these,
with the rural appearance of Hindoo villages,
where every patch of ground is richly cultivated
or ornamented, and interspersed with groves of
date and cocoa-nut trees, afford a prospect of
luxuriance and beauty to be met with nowhere
but in the Koncan. As we tumour eyes towards
the sea, we are presented with a fine hard beach
running on the high and romantic spot called
Malabar Point, which promontory is studded with
neat villas; while the city and fort are seen in
the back-ground, with the ships securely at
anchor in the harbour. Nor must we forget the
isthmus called Colaba (probably Calab, or black
water), running for about two miles in a straight
line from Bombay, from which it is separated
at high water. On this small island, which
scarcely exceeds a quarter of mile in breadth,
are several good houses and a range of barracks.
At its farthest or western end stands a noble
signal and light-house, from the top of which is a
very fine view of the Island and adjacent country.

Nor is it on land alone that Bombay possess-
es the advantages of situation. Its harbour,
from its great size, smoothness of the water, and,
for the greater part of the day, having a fine sea-
breeze blowing, affords almost constant oppor-
tunity for aquatic excursions ; so open, indeed,
and, at the same time, so secure is the bay, that
for miles, in various directions, the smallest boats

24 BOMBAY I

may proceed with safety and by means of the
tide, return at almost a fixed hour. These
excursions may be extended seaward, inward, or
over to the Mahratta continent, for several miles,,
embracing in the journey a variety of beautiful,,
picturesque, and grand scenery. How widely
different from the boasted river-parties on the
Ganges about Calcutta ; where you have a muddy
and often a very dangerous, stream to sail on^
with light and hot sultry air, impregnated with
all the poisonous effects of miasma, the wind
hardly sufficiently strong to impel the boat ; or
else tracking, by means of a dozen poor wretches
slowly struggling through the low, marshy, and
swampy banks of the Ganges, where the eye is un-
relieved by the smallest change of scenery, and
not a hill is to be seen in any direction: in short
where an uninterrupted view of jungle, flat land^
water, and mud presents itself. At Madras the
scene on the water is widely different from what
we see either at Calcutta or Bombay ; and a
journey on it, whether for amusement or business,
is any thing but agreeable, for you are often in
danger of your life, and always in dread, in
passing to and fro through the tremendously
high and long surfs that incessantly roll oa
the Coromandal shores, and which commence
about a mile inside the roadstead, where the
ships lie at anchor.

The climate of Bombay is preferable to most
parts of India, having a refreshing sea-breeze^,

AN ANTHOLOGY. 2$

commonly called, from its healthful effects, the
Doctor. There is now very little wood on the
island, no marshes, and but few large pools of
stagnant water. To these causes much of the
sickness that prevails in other parts of India
must be attributed ; and the salubrity of Bombay
causes it to be resorted to by invalids from the
other Presidencies and the interior.
Wonders of Elora, 1824, pages 4-6.

Bombay: Site and Scenery.

Philip Anderson.
Where is there a site more calculated not
only to strike the eye of a casual observer, but
to grow in the estimation of a well-informed and
scientific resident, than Bombay .? Two centuries.
ago its distinguishing features must have been
the same as they are at present ; for they could
only be altered by the disturbances and revolu-
tion of a geological era. The deep capacious
harbour, with its channel so narrow, yet safe for
careful and well-trained pilots ; false harbour of
Back Bay, offering to inexperienced mariners or
threatenin ginvaders a tempting and dangercus.
lure ; the Eastern hills which rise in rugged and
fantastical shapes one behind another, until at
noonday they are lost in misty heat ; their feet
fringed with palm trees, their summits crowned
with primeval forests, or here and there with the

26 BOMBAY :

ruins of ancient fortresses — all form a scene which
promises strength and security to the inhabitants;
and if it had but the exquisite associations of
classic antiquity, or the decorations of Italian
taste, might be thought by a lover of the pictures-
que to rival even the place where Virgil sleeps
and the Siren sang — beautiful Parthenope.

But although the outlines of the distant
scenery are bold, the appearance of the island
when approched from the sea is somewhat
insignificant. Flat plains, in some places below
the level of high-water mark, are slightly relieved
by low ridges of trappean rock, the highest
point of which is called Malabar Hill, and that
does not exceed a hundred and eighty feet. The
whole area of the island is about sixteen square
miles. Its shape approaches a trapezoid, with
its shorter side, six miles in length, towards the
sea, and its longer side extending eleven miles
parallel to the mainland. Between the two
hilly ridges, which form these sides, there is
a level plain, about two miles in width, now
called the Flats. The greatest breadth of the
Island is little more than three miles. Malabar
Point is the name of that extremity which, to the
south, faces the open sea, and at the northern
extremity are the Hill and Fort of Warli. The
line which is parallel to the harbour and mainland
has for its southern extremity the Light House
and Burial-ground of Colaba, and for its northern
the tower called Riva Fort.

AN ANTHOLOGY. 2/

Colaba was a separate Island, until joined a
few years ago by a causeway to Bombay.
Between it and Malabar Hill is the Back Bay, to
which we have already alluded. On the Colaba
side the Bay is shallow and filled with dangerous
rocks ; but under the opposite cliff is a channel,
sufficiently deep for ships of considerable tonnage.
To the north of Bombay is another Bay, with a
beach called Mahim Sands, and on that side the
island is separated from the mountainous island of
Salsette by a small arm of the sea, which at one
part is only a hundred and twenty five yards wide,
Salsette itself being separated from the mainland
by another channel. To the south and east is
the harbour, which contains several lofty, inter-
esting islands, and is in one place six miles
broad. It extends a considerable distance inland,
and, as it narrows, the shores on either side pre-
sent various scenes of extraordinary beauty.

English in Western India, 1854, pages 51-52.

The Harbour.

Dr. Bui ST.

As the great bulk of visitors reach us by sea
-and from Europe, in approaching Bombay will
be noticed the beautiful little islands of Henery
and Kenery at the mouth of the harbour, fortified
in the time of the Mahrathas ; long favourite
places of resort, for rovers watching to make

28 BOMBAY :

prizes of merchant ships, when this was known
as the pirate coast. The shore all along is here
thickly dotted with ruined strongholds, and the
remains of the fortifications are still tolerably
entire on the two islands just named. Advanc-
ing up the harbour the vessels thread their way
through the fishing stakes, often to be found"
thirty and forty miles out at sea, — wh erever
indeed, a bank within half a day's sail of land
presents itself; the fishermen are quite enter-
prizing enough to extend their operations to any
distance, but there is no use in their going further
off than they can return with their fish to the
market, fresh.

Proceeding up the harbour by and by he
passes the Outer Light Ship, a vessel perma-
nently anchored on one of the extremities of the
reef called the Prongs. Shortly after this he
comes opposite the Light House and the Obser-
vatory. He is now opposite the island of Colaba,.
and Old Woman's island.

The high grounds to the east or right hand'
as he approaches the harbour form the hill and
Angrtas Colaba, which are divided from those
of Caranja and the other islands by the estuary
or creek opening into the Nagotna river.
Before him he has now one of the finest open road-
steads in the world, where from fifty to a hun-
dred square-rigged ships are generally to be
found at anchor — native vessels of the most
picturesque and singular forms are to be seen in
thousands all round, carrying betwixt thenii

AN ANTHOLOGY. 29

annually from eight to ten millions worth of
commodities. Straight onward will be seen the
picturesque hills of Salsette and the far famed
island of Elephanta. The vessel has hardly-
dropped her anchor when she is surrounded on all
sides by bunder boats, a clumsy and grotesque
species of craft, but safe and withal commodious.

Guide to Bombay, 1856, pages 247-24^.

Bombay and Its Surroundings.

Sir William Hunter.

In the beauty of its scenery, as well as in the
commercial advantages of its position, Bombay
is unsurpassed by any of the cities of the East.
Bombay Island is connected with the mainland
on the north by two railway embankments and
as many causeways. The entrance into the
harbour from the sea discloses a magnificent
panorama. The background is shut in by the
barrier range of the Western Ghats. In front
opens the wide harbour, studded with islands,
dotted with the white sails of innumerable native
crafts, and affording a secure shelter to fleets of
steam-propelled merchantmen. The city itself
consists of well-built houses and broad streets
ennobled by public buildings. The seashore is
formed by docks, warehouses, and a long line of
artificial embankments extending continuously for
nearly five miles. On approaching Bombay from
the west, there is little to strike the eye: the

30 BOMBAY :

coast is low, the highest point, Malabar Hill
being only about l8o feet above the sea. But on
entering the harbour a stranger is impressed
with the picturesqueness of the scene. To the
west the shore is crowded with buildings, some
of them, as Colaba Church and the Rajabai
Clock-tower of the University, very lofty and
well-proportioned. To the north and east are
numerous islands, and pre-eminent amongst the
hills, the remarkable one of Bava Malang, other-
wise called Malanggarh, on the top of which is.
an enormous mass of perpendicular rock, crowned
with a ruined fort.

The harbour is an animated and picturesque
scene. There are usually a troopship and a man-
of-war of H. M's East India Squadron, together
with numerous large passenger or merchant
steamers, among which may be mentioned those
of the Peninsular and Oriental Company, the
Italian Rubattino, the British India Steam Naviga-
tion Company, the Messageries Maritimes, the
Austrian Lloyd, the * Clan,' * Anchor,' and ' Hall "
lines. Many other steamers, and an occasional
sailing vessel, are to be seen riding at anchor,
swinging with the swiftly-flowing tide, and dis-
charging or receiving cargo. All kinds of boats,
ship's dingies, steam-launches, native baghlas and
padaos, incessantly ply in the harbour. At the
southernmost point of the " Prongs," a dangerous
reef jutting from Colaba point, stands the light-
house, built in 1874, ^nd containing a first class
dioptric light, which is visible for eighteen milesi

AN ANTHOLOGY. 31

The island consists of a low-lying plain
about llJ4 miles long by 3 to 4 broad, flanked
by two parallel ridges of low hills. Point Colaba,,
the headland formed by the longer of these
ridges, protects the harbour lying on its eastern
side from the force of the open sea ; the other
ridge terminates in Malabar Hill ; and between
the two lies the shallow expanse of Back Bay.
The island is in shape a trapezoid. It is popu-
larly likened to a hand laid palm upwards,
with the fingers stretching southwards into
the sea and the thumb representing Malabar
Hill, with Back Bay between the thumb and
forefinger: others see in it a resemblance to a
withered leg, with a very high heel and pointed
toe, the heel being Malabar Hill and the toe
Colaba. On a slightly raised strip of land
between the head of Back Bay and the harbour is
situated the Fort, the original nucleus round which
the town grew up, but now chiefly occupied by
stately public br.ildings and commercial offices.
From this point the land slopes westward to the
central plain, which, before the construction of
the embankment known as the Hornby Vellard,
was liable to be submerged at high tide- To
the north and east recent schemes of recla-
mation have similarly shut out the sea, and
partly redeemed the foreshore for the use of
{ ommerce. In the extreme north of the island a
large tract of salt marsh still remains unreclaimed..
Imperial Gazcttcr (revised from Hunter's 1885 ed.)
1908, Vol. VIII, pages 39^-399-

32 BOMBAY:

View from the Hanging Gardens.

L. R. W. FORREST.

Take an October morning and from the hang-
ing gardens of Malabar Hill look over the city.
The sun is lighting up the harbour, fleecy
clouds still hang about the nearer hill sides, while
over them range after range of mountains appear,
and fill up the background of the picture. The
air is so clear that everything looks quite close,
and the trees on Karanja can be distinctly seen,
though seven or eight miles away. It is a
wonderful panorama of great beauty. In the
evening, the lights round the graceful curve of
Back Bay, seen from the same place, make a
fairy scene, and Mrs. Kipling, mother of the
well-known author, well called it " Bombay's
golden necklace."

In the afternoon on driving down from
Malabar Hill, one sees, especially on one of the
numerous festivals, crowds of people on the
sands, circle of women standing in the water
around some Brahmin, offering flowers to the sea;
the Kennedy sea face thronged with natives taking
the air, carriages without number rolling along the
Queen's Road, now fringed with trees, and further
on fine buildings on the Esplanade with Gilbert
Scott's graceful Rajabai Tower rising above
them all.

Paper on Bombay, before the Society of Arts,
(Journal of the Society, 1 901, page 584 ) .

AN ANTHOLOGY. 33

Our Poetic Environment.

The BOMBAY Gazette.

The view from Bombay harbour of the hills
and mountains on the opposite mainland of the
Konkan is always very fine on a clear morning
and evening; but it is never so grand and pictu-
resque as during one of the Elephant storms in
October. Sometimes these storms are very weird
to witness especially from a coign of vantage
like the high hill tops of Matheran or Bava
Malang in the Konkan or the Duke's Nose on the
Ghauts. Ruskin alone could do justice to these
wonderful phenomena of nature in Western India
and describe those storms worthily as they roll
from hill to hill, and fill the valleys and ravines
with fleecy mists accompanied by vivid flashes
of lightning that fitfully illumine the sombre
scene, and peals of thunder that seem almost
to dissolve the foundations of the hills and
mountains.

Our prosaic city is set amidst very poetic
surroundings; and this sea-girt isle has for its
back-ground a very picturesque panorama of
hills of various shapes standing out against a blue
sky. The top of Malabar or Bhandarwada hills
commands an excellent view of the whole city and
its poetical surroundings,~the giant horse-shoe of
Back Bay studded with noble buildings rising al-
most from its margin, the extensive grove of palms
underneath which the mighty heart of the city
seems to lie still, the vast Arabian Sea stretching

34 BOMBAY:

away to the west and shining a copper hue under
the rays of the afternoon sun, and to the east the
serrated line of the Sahyadries, the jagged
fantastic peaks of the Cathedral Range and other
hills of Thana and Kolaba. The late Sir Samuel
Baker who was, to use Homer's favourite epithet
for Ulysses, a much-travelled man, declared that
he had never seen anything during his world-
wide tours to match such a scene from Malabar
Hill. How many of us pass by almost daily this
glorious opportunity of feasting their eyes with
such a scene of Nature's beauty and of God's
glory which lies around them, without so much
as being even aware of it.

The whole panorama of Bombay and its
poetic environment of sea and mountain is of
course best seen from a height. But the beautiful
background of the hills of the mainland is best
observed from the harbour especially in a boat
moving eastward towards them. Immediately
after the rains our atmosphere becomes beauti-
fully clear and translucent and the views are very
soft and refreshing. But just before the burst of
such storms at the end of the monsoon, the view
becomes for a brief while wonderfully clearer
still, letting the eye penetrate to a great distance
and revealing in a marvellous manner, in bold
clear cut outline, all the elements of the scene.

The distant hills appear clothed in deep dark
blue, the nearer ones in the harbour itself assume
a light gold tint, while the sky wears a some-
what lowering aspect with thick clouds that

AN ANTHOLOGY. 35

throw a lurid effect on the whole scene. While
the east was in this state, in the opposite quarter
of the heavens the sun shone amid an almost
clear azure sky with only fleecy specks of clouds
swimming across the surface. The effect of light
and shade v/as hence very impressive. Often the
rays of the sun striking the hills opposite poured
suddenly a flood of light upon the green slopes,,
and their dark blue momentarily gave way to
a bright greenish gold. The fleecy clouds floating^
across the sun cast weird moving shadows on
the hills and heightened the chiaroscuro. As
we advance in the boat there appears a vast
extended amphitheatre of hills, a long line in
the front curving on either hand. The most
prominent feature of the scene opposite are the
triple hills rising wave-like one behind the
other, the low Panwell hills nearest, the long line
of the Cathedral Range extending from Karjat
to Kallian in the middle, and behind these in the
dim distance the top of the Sahyadris the famous
Ghauts, which bear aloft on their shoulders
the vast plateau of the Deccan.

Matheran is never so strikingly and clearly
seen from Bombay as at the close of the rains.
F^rom Chowk Point south, to Panorama Point
north, the whole flat top is visible, whilst through
glasses its thick woods can be easily seen even
to the famous '* One-tree" knoll at Chowk Point.
Usually the neighbouring hill of Prabal hides
from us the central part of Matheran ; but in
October it stands out distinct and bold, while the

36 BOMBAY:

gap between formed by the Varosha Valley, is
rendered visible by the effects of light and shade
which gave different tints to these hill sides. On
the left of Matheran to the north, are visible the
other peaks of the Cathedral Range in a long line,-
the steep point of Peb or Vikatghad, the rounded
Nakhinda, the massive blade of Chanderi, the
finger-like pinnacles of Mhas-Mahra and Navara-
Navari, and the hog-backed Tavli. The most
famous of this range from whence it derives its
name, the lofty top of Bava Malang, which indeed
stands quite like a Cathedral in the wilderness
with tower and belfrey sharp chiselled as if
by human hands — does not Ruskin call all
mountains cathedrals of nature ? — is partly
hid from view behind Tavli and only the
line of its summit is visible against the
eastern sky. In apparent continuation of these,
are visible the Persik hills in Thana, through
one of which the G. I. P. Railway has carved
a way for itself; while the Tullenje hills of
Panwell, which appear between the sea and
the Cathedral hills, also extend to the left. In
the north-east, quite in the left hand corner, rise
the hills of Salsette running from Thana almost
to Bassein creek, and containing the famous mona-
stary of Kanheri and the Vehar and Tulsi lakes,
fit emblems side by side of ancient and modern
civilization.

To the south of Matheran on our right appear
the low broken pillar of Ishalghad, and in a line
with it the singular top of Karnala with its noted

AN ANTHOLOGY, 37

funnel-like rock, which is the well-known land
mark of Bombay harbour to all sailors entering
it. Some of the Kolaba hills, especially the pyra-
midal dome of Manikghad, are hidden from our
view by the twin islands in the harbour, great
and little Karanja. But from behind the gap
between the two and over the causeway con-
necting them, we have a fine glimpse of the Sahya-
dris of which we see the famous peaks of the
double-topped Rajmachi, the 'royal terrace' of
the Mahrathas, and the Cobra's Hood better
known to us as Duke's Nose at Khandala. Fur-
ther away to the right appear the hills that skirt
Dharamtar creek, those behind Mandwa, among
which the flat wooded top of the sacred Kankesh-
war is prominent, though owing to clouds not so
clear as the hills to our left. As we proceed, the
hills running from Mandwa to Alibagrise in view
to the south of Kankeshwar, and we see in the
distance the famous Sagarghad from the top of
which fort the Angriah Chief used to throw his
victims.

The islands in the harbour also appear to
great advantage : to the left the high triangular
Trombay with the village of Mahval and Pirpao at
its foot ; near them, one behind the other, lie Hog
Island and the famous Elephanta, and in front
the twin Karanjas which may well be called the
Adelphi hills. The effect of light and shade on
them is very pretty in their colours, which change
every now and then from bright green to sombre
dark and blue. Such is our poetic environment

38 BOMBAY :

in the midst of which we live and move and
have our being, if we only have eyes to see and
enjoy it on occasions when it reveals itself in
its full glory.

December 1906.

BURST OF THE MONSOON.

BURST OF THE MONSOON.

Burst Of The Monsoon

Henry Moses

The day at length arrives when the windows
of heaven are to be opened, and man's anxious
doubts and fears are to be dispelled by this
gracious provision for his wants. Dark clouds>
towards noon, gather in the south-west, and
gradually steal over the azure firmament, casting
a gloomy shadow upon the earth, and obscuring
the intensity of the sun's rays as they flit over his
surface in their onward progress. A current of
cool, strange air now denotes some remarkable
atmospheric change. The ocean is unusually
agitated; the waves are lifted up — hurried" onwards.
as the breeze increases — the angry waters come
foaming and roaring towards the shore, and are
broken with violence upon the rock ; receding
but to break again with redoubled force. — Distant
peals of thunder echo among the lofty Ghauts far
down the coast, and vivid streams of forked
lightning illumine their peaked summits. The dry
leaves of the lofty palms rattle overhead, and the
forests are agitated and shaken as the hurricane
roars through their solemn vistas, and breaks:
in upon their profound stillness. The soaring
kite flaps his outstretched wings, as he rises

42 BOMBAY:

alarmed from his lone perch, and is hurried
away upon the storm. The cattle on the plains
congregate together, as if driven by some
irresistible impulse to seek the shelter and protec-
tion of each other, and lie down with their heads
close to the earth, as if conscious of approach-
ing danger; and the poor Hindoo wraps his
muslin kummerband tighter around him, as the
cool air expands its many folds, and exposes his
delicately formed limbs to the chilly blast. The
skies become darkened, and sheets of blazing
lightning, followed up by the roar of deafening
thunder, succeed each other with fearful rapidity;
and, though in broad day, the eye can scarcely
bear to look upon the flaming heavens, so in-
tense is their brightness.

The elements are indeed at war. Large drops
of rain begin to fall ; and falling, raise up, in
consequence of their weight, a cloud of dust ; and
then, within a brief space, the mighty floods
descend upon the thirsty land. The tempest is
terrific to behold, and man trembles beneath the
storm. He seeks in haste the shelter of his mud-
built cabin, and mutters a hurried prayer to the
stone idol which he has set up. The high houses
in the Fort of Bombay vibrate with every clap of
thunder ; doors and windows, and walls and
floors are shaken by the loud artillery of heaven.
Torrents of water pour down from every roof,
and bound over, in broken streams, the sounding
verandahs below them, sweeping the various;

AN Anthology. 43

streets as the flood rushes onward, laden with
mud and rubbish, towards the sea.

To those persons who have but just arrived in
the country, and who, having never experienced
the setting in of this remarkable season, have
formed from description but an imperfect idea of
that change, the scene is pregnant with horror of
every kind. The newly-arrived Englishwoman
in particular suffers exceedingly at this period,
being scarcely able to divest herself of the
impression, that everything around her is about to
be destroyed or washed away; yet it is very seldom
that accidents occur or that property is seriously
injured. Occasionally we hear of exposed houses
being struck by lightning on the Island, of old
palm trees blown down, and of leaf roofs being
dispersed to the four winds of heaven ; for woe
be unto him who lives in a bungalow with a bad
roof, or in one whose spouts are out of order;
but with these exceptions, Europeans on shore
have but little to be alarmed about for their
personal safety.

Myriads of mosquitoes, now driven in by
the rains, fill your apartments ; and your lamps
at night, if not properly covered over with a
glass shade, are liable to be suddenly extinguished
by the large green beetles that have sought
shelter from the storm without. Flying bugs
almost poison you with their fetid effluvia, and
contaminate every article of food upon which they
may chance to alight. The musk weasels dart in

44 BOMBAY :

under your China matting, and find their way
into your wine-cellars, and every cork they touchy
every bottle they spoil. That nimble and really
useful reptile, the house lizard, climbs your walls
in all directions, and comes out so regularly from
under your table after dinner, to feed upon the
flies attracted thither, that you quite look for the
active little creature as a matter of course, ta
amuse you during dessert time ; and if he fail
to appear, express regret, as I have heard an old
gentleman do, at its non-arrival. The loathsome
centipede gets into your cooking-houses, and
hideous spiders, with hairy bodies and long legs,,
take up their quarters in every available corner and
door-way. They are not content with staying^
at home quietly like our own respectable, though
small species, and of taking their chance of what
may be sent them ; but they must make daily tours
all over the establishment, as if it were expected,,
that they should pay visits to one another, now
that the season had brought them into town.
In fact, all the entomological tormentors of India
appear to have a design upon your house and
happiness. A continual buzzing is kept up a-
round you day and night. Ants creep up your
legs, while fleas irritate your body; and farewell
to sleep, if your gauze curtains display any rents
at bed-time. The punkahs or swinging fans
suspended in your rooms, now have rest from
their labours, for the atmosphere is sufficiently
cool without any artificial currents of air. The
sweet-scented cuscus mats, or tatties, hung outside

AN ANTHOLOGY. 45

between the pillars that support your verandah,
and kept wet, in order to lower the temperature
of the heated breeze before it enters your house,
-are now taken down and laid aside ; and quite a
■change takes place in all your little plans within
doors.

Sketches of India, 1850, pages 84-88.

Storms Heralding the Monsoon.

Sir George-Birdwood.

In the afternoon sullen thunder began in the
North-west, where clouds had all day been gather-
ing in towering piles. As they thundered the
clouds moved slowly down across the North Kon-
kan, and about four o'clock gathered against
the jagged crest of Bava Malang. To the
North, and all along the Bava Malang range the
sky and land were filled with lurid clouds, thunder
lightning, and rain, the Kalyan river flowing
back as ink through a scene of the most striking
desolation and gloom. South of this abrupt line
of storm, the country from Bombay to Khandala
was full of pure calm light. Every village, every
hut, every road and forest-track, even the bridge
over the river at Chauk, came clearly into view.
The trees and groves looked magically green;
and the light picked out the most hidden streams
and burnished them into threads of molten silver.
The Panvel and Nagothna rivers shone like
mirrors, and the sea was scored with bars of

46 BOMBAY :

vivid sunshine. vSiiddenly at about five, the-
storm-rack poured over Bava Malang like a
tumultuous sea, and swept into the deep valley
between Matheran and Prabal with furious blasts
and torrents, awful thunder, and flashes of forked
lightning. When the clouds had filled the valley,
the rain and wind ceased and the storm stood
still, and, in dead stillness, the thunder and ligh-
tning raged without ceasing for an hour. The
thunder mostly rolled from end to end of the
valley, but it sometimes burst with a crash fit
to loosen the bonds of the hills. At six
o'clock the storm again moved and passed
slowly south over Prabal towards Nagothna.
Another enchanting scene opened in the South.
Every hut, tree and stream grew strangely clear,,
the rain-filled rice fields and rivers flashed
like steel, while fleecy clouds lay on every
hillock and slowly crept up every ravine. As
the sun set behind Bombay the air was filled
with soft golden light. Westwards towards
Thana the hill-tops were bright with every hue
from golden light to deep purple shadow, while,
among them, the winding Ulhas shone like links
of burnished gold. Then, the moon rose,
brightened the mists which had gathered out
of the ravines and off the hills, and cleared a
way across the calm heavens, while far in the
south the black embattled storm-rack belched
flame and thander the whole night long.

The next day (Tuesday) passed without a
storm. On Wednesday, the 8th, eastwards^

AN ANTHOLOGY. 47^

towards Khandala vast electric cloud banks
began to gather. At two in the afternoon, with
mutterings of thunder, the sky grew suddenly-
black and lurid. At half-past two the storm
passed west moving straight on Matheran. A
mist went before the storm, thickening as it
came, first into trailing clouds and then into
dripping rain, with muttering thunder all the
while. At three the valley between Matheran
and Prabal was filled with storm. Thunder
rolled in long echoing peals, and flashes ligh-
tened the dense fog with extraordinary splendour.
The fog lasted with heavy rain till 3-45, when
a light wind swept it west towards Bombay,,
where about four the monsoon burst.

These appalling electric outbursts end ser-
enely. The storm clouds retreat like a drove of
bellowing bulls and their last echoes die beyond
the distant hills. The sun shines again in
majesty, in every dell the delicious sound of
running water wakens life, and the Avoods are
vocal with the glad song of birds.

London Times,

Tan. 1880
Apud Bombay Gazetteer Vol. XIV pp. 247-249^

48 BOMBAY:

The Setting in of the flonsoon.

Sir Erskine Perry.

The setting in of the monsoon, as it is
called, or the commencement of the annual rains,
is a grand meteorological phenomenon in West-
ern India. In Bombay towards the end of May,
when the sun is nearly vertical, the sea-breeze
from the west, which up to that time had blown
strongly throughout the day, ceases, and either a
languid air from the south, or more frequently a
complete lull, prevails. The earth unrefreshed
by a single shower for eight long months is bare
of all vegetation, and even the palms which hug
the sea-shore in dense profusion, present an adust
drooping appearance affording no relief to the
brown amber tint of the landscape. Towards
sunset masses of clouds of gigantic and most
varied forms are seen rolling up from the south
in an upper current of the air, and settling them-
selves on the crest of the mountains. Some of
them fleecy, sparkling, diaphanous, speak
of deepest summer; others highly charged
v^ith electricity, present the lurid hues so
often precursors of a hurricane ; while mixed with
these, gradually overwhelming and enveloping
them all is the storm-cloud, black, heavy, and
portentous. Vivid flashes of lightning, legible as
the writing on the wall, play from one mountain
summit to another ; and an inexperienced observer
thinks that the long-looked for storm is imminent.
But an hour or two clears the whole heavens, and

AN ANTHOLOGY. 49

one of those beautiful tropical nights succeeds,
which, whether with the moon cuhiiinating
straight over head, or with the brilliant constel-
lations visible near the equator, offer visions of
loveliness that I never see equalled in more
northern latitudes. Evenings such as these occur
for days and days together, affording at every
sunset views of the mountain range, and of the
neighbouring sea and land-locked harbour,
unequalled at any other period of the year, and
which, with their highest qualities of glowing
tint and sharpness of outline, do not last more
than ten minutes at a time in all the intensity
of their beauty. At length the atmosphere be-
comes so completely charged with vapour that
the catastrophe can no longer be delayed, and
the burst commences. Sometimes, perhaps gene-
rally, with a violent thunder-storm ; sometimes,
for I have observed many varieties of the
commencement of the monsoon, with a gentle
shower, which gradually increases until it as-
sumes the character of a steady continuous down
pour, such as may be seen occasionally in southern
Europe, but of which we have no experience in
England. In a few days the whole face of nature
assumes a different hue; the brown parched
appearance so characteristic of the East during
a great portion of the year, yields to tints of the
tenderest green, and vegetation shoots forth in
every form, and in most unexpected localities.
Bird's Eye View of India, 1855, pages 19-20.

50 . BOMBAY :

The Opening flonsoon

Sir Joseph Crowe.

We had been visited on the nth of June by
the opening monsoon. No one who has once-
witnessed this phenomenon can forget the gran-
deur of the scene presented by the heavens on
that occasion. Clouds suddenly gathered in the
south-west and rapidly filled the sky, darkening
the atmosphere portentously. Out of the black
masses there came volleys of fire-works, peal after
peal of thunder rent the air, and the rain poured
down in such torrents as one only witnesses in
countries as warm as India. The monsoon at
Bombay is expected with pleasure by all classes
of inhabitants. It fills the tanks and furnishes,
water for all purposes; without it life would have
been impossible for half a million of people as
late as 1858, when a gigantic system of storage
brought water for the first time artificially from
the hills. The monsoon also cools the air and
makes the hot months of June, July, and August
tolerable. But it has other curious effects. On
the eve of its coming the glacis at Bombay was
bare of all vegetation; twenty-four hours later it
was covered with an inch or two of tender grasses.
Weeds begin to grow on the double-tiled roofs of
the bungalows ; damp invades the houses, and
fungus spreads over everything. Gloves, leather
shoes, woollen clothes are soon covered with
mushroom growths, and charcoal fires are required
to keep everything dry. The force of the wind

AN ANTHOLOGY. 51

which drives the rain is amazing, and I recollect
going out to dinner in a shigram, or native
carriage, of which the windows received the rain
and wind pressure at right angles, and the waters
welled over in a few second, and flooded the
bottom of the carriage to the height of three or
four inches.

Reminiscences. 1895, Pages 249 to 250.

A Grand Phenomenon.

Elizabeth Grant.

The opening of the monsoon is one of the
grandest phenomena of nature. About a week
or two before the outbreak clouds began to gather
over a sky that had been hitherto without relief ;
each day the gloom thickened ; at last the storm
broke. We were sitting down to luncheon when
a feeling of suffocation, a distant rumbling, a
sudden darkness, made us all sensible of some
unusual change. The servants rushed to the
Venetians and closed one side of the hall, the
side next the storm. The wind suddenly rising
burst with a violence which overwhelmed every
opposing object, and while the gust lasted we
could hear nothing else, not a step, nor a voice,
nor a sound of any kind. It brought with it a
shower, a tempest rather, of sand, so fine, so
impalpable, that it entered through every crevice,

52 BOMBAY :

covered the floor, the seats, the tables with a red
dust that nearly chocked us. This was succeeded
by a lull almost awful in its intensity. Then the
thunder growled ; at a vast distance it seemed to
rumble, then strengthening, it broke suddenly
right over the house with a power that was over-
whelming; then flash after flash of lighting;
then rain such as is known only in the tropics,
poured down in flakes with the din of a cataract.
On came the thunder ; again and again it shook
the house, rolling round in its fearful might as if
the annihilation of the world were its dreadful aim.

My mother and I were as pale as two
spectres ; in my life, neither before nor after,
did I feel so thoroughly appalled. It lasted about
two hours, after which a heavy rain set in,
falling dully and equally hour upon hour until
about tiffin time the following day, when we had
a second thunderstorm, less terrific, however, than
the first. After this the heavy rain continued
unceasingly for forty-eight hours, making a
deafening noise and creating darkness and a
chill damp equally oppressive. The roads were
soon like streams, the plain a lake, the tanks
overflowing.

Lady Strachey^s " Memoirs of a Highland Lady,*
( 1828, pub. 1897) pages 427-428.

AN ANTHOLOGY. 53

The Monsoon

" Sleepy Sketches."

May brings thirty-one days of close, oppres-
sive heat, and thirty-one nights of close, oppres-
sive heat; the thermometer lazily ebbing and
flowing from 88° to 92° or even 95°.

As the days grow old, and the heat more
and more unbearable, we are all seized with in-
tense anxiety as to the monsoon. Has it burst
at Ceylon ? Has it reached Goa .? Will it break
to-morrow or a week hence in Bombay ? And
each day the newspapers tell us of like anxiety
in other far-off towns. Correspondents give mi-
nute accounts of the heat of the places from
whence they write, and record gravely the weak-
est rumours and most ill-based statements, as to
whether the advent of the monsoon will be early
or late.

At last, when all possibility of sound sleep
is gone, and we wake each hour or minute wet
with perspiration ; when even the crows have lost
every power but that of crowing, — a power, con-
found them, that they never lose, — and stand de-
solate, with their hot wings held comically apart
from their hot bodies; then, at last, over the moun-
tains landward of Bombay rise up, in thick black
masses, vast clouds, gloomy and terrible against
the blue sky ; clinging round and blotting out the
strange forms and flat tops of the Ghaut Moun-
tains ; full of great thunders and lightnings that

54 BOMBAY:

roll up and flash from the distance into our glad
ears and eyes. But still in Bombay we go to bed
with the thermometer at 89°.

At last comes a day when the black clouds
rise up still higher and blot out the hot blue sky
even to the zenith ; and, gathering darker each
moment, crowd out the light and stifle the air,
till darkness is on us, our skins run with perspira-
tion and our lungs labour for breath. And then,
beaten about with a mighty wind, down come
the clouds in a deluge of rain, and instantly^and
this, reader, is the moral — down comes the ther-
mometer to 84°, 83°, 82°, 81°, even 80° ! Oh ! how
intense is the relief ! Though the rain beats into
our rooms so madly and persistetitly, and soaks
through the walls so irresistibly that our boots,
books, glasses, and tables are each morning cover-
ed with mildew, and no clothes can. be worn
till thoroughly dried ; though it brings creeping
and crawling and flying and croaking things
innumerable, of diverse shape and form, as many
and horrible as the devilish things that tempted
St. Anthony, and a mighty wind that tosses our
buggies in the roads as though at sea ; — notwith
standing all this, we look on the monsoon as a
friend — it brings down the thermometer : Quality
as great as Charity.

And for four months the deluge of rain and
wind keeps on. And nearly all that time the
walls are clammy with dampness, and the paper
we write on greasy with dampness, and our

AN ANTHOLOGY. 55

•shirts limp with dampness ; but the thermometer
is below 82° from dampness, — morning, noon, and
night seldom or never falling below 80° : morning,
noon, and night seldom or never rising above 82^.
Seldom or never I write, for sometimes the rain
stops for a week, and the blue sky comes back,
and all the face of the land looks bright and cool
in Its green freshness, but the thermometer jumps
up to 88^ or even 90^

And at last, about the end of September, the
rain and the wind moderate, and in October
cease altogether, ending their reign as they
began, — with masses of vast clouds full of light-
nings and thunders piled up over the Ghauts.
And then the sky is again clear, and the earth
quickly dries up ; the greenness of nature passes
away, and the grass is brown and scorched till
the monsoon of the next year comes.

1877, pages 18-22.

Beneficial Effects of the Honsoon.

Henry Moses.
We will now steal out from our bungalow,
caring little for the pelting storm, for we shall
keep under the magnificent plantain leaves that
hang over the foot-path, and take a peep at the
face of nature — at the fields and woods ; and see
the wondrous change which a few days' rain has
produced in the vegetable world.

56 BOMBAY :

The dry and burnt up plain that crackled
under our feet like the stubble of harvest, is now
covered with fine grass a foot deep, and of that
rich emerald green, which is so refreshing to the
eye, and so novel in its appearance, that you feel
transplanted, as it were, to some strange land, or
to the waving meadows of England's Spring.
The united influence of heat and moisture is at
work. Every tree and shrub has sent forth some
new leaves or tender shoots, and the gums which
so long protected them are now dissolved, and
diffuse a delicious perfume around you. The
cool rains and mild temperature at this season^
produce a luxuriance of vegetation unknown^
perhaps, in any other country on the face of the
earth. The extraordinary and rapid growth of
all seeds now planted, appears more like the
work of enchantment, than the usual slow pro-
gress of nature familiar to us in our northern
latitudes. The gourd, melon and cucumber^
have now gained the roof of the peasant's hut,
and promise by their shining blossoms a plenti-
ful supply of their cooling fruits when the hot
season shall arrive. Trees and plants, that dur-
ing the dry months, had shut up all their pores
so as not to be robbed of their juices by evapora-
tion ; and roots, that lay buried in the deep sands
or strong clay districts, now spring suddenly into
life and beauty, in places that were before barren
to the eye.

Creeping plants, that run along the ground,.
now embrace the trunks of trees, and ascend

AN ANTHOLOGY. S7

them with astonishing rapidity, running out
upon their branches, and so travelling from one
to another, till the forests in the neighbourhood
of Bombay appear to be bound together, and
canopied over, by the thousand lovely climbers
that cast an almost night-like gloom on all things
below them. From some of these branches may
be seen the charming blossoms of the convol-
vulus, and other flowering parasitical plants,,
floating between heaven and earth in graceful
festoons, uninjured by the floods of rain, and
affording support to all those delicate birds and
insects that would perish without this beautiful
provision of the great Author of Nature. The
woods are now alive with the feathered tribes,,
and the soft cooing of the turtle-dove, a bird held
sacred in India, is repeated for miles around you.
The golden oriole, and the azure jay, descending
from the lofty trees, now feast upon the luscious
fruits ; and our own English barn-door bird, the
stately jungle cock, makes the coverts ring again
with his loud and familiar note, as he sweeps
through the sounding woods, and is lost in
their deep shadows.

We must now turn aside from these pleasing^
pictures of the Indian forest, at which we but
glanced hurriedly. Memory fails me in recall-
ing the many beauties that surround us here on
all sides, and the abundant supply of food
that the fields promise to man. The sea>
formerly so transparent and serene, is now
discoloured by the large rivers, that carry down

38 BOMBAY :

enormous quantities of earth in their swift
and destructive progress. All coasting traffic
ceiGes; and the cocoa-nut sewn Pattemars, and
iishing dingis have sought the shelter of some
friedly creek or landlocked bay, for three months
at least. The Company's steamers change the
time of their going to Aden, and the Persian
Gulf with the overland mails ; and whereas a very
brii^f delay would, at any other time, cause
alarm, a week's detention now beyond their time,
is scarcely spoken of with surprise, as every one
is aware that the monsoons are the cause. In-
ternal communication is now almost laid aside
and no person, who can possibly avoid it,
travels either by land or water. The mail bags,
usually forwarded by runners, each a stage of
three coss, or six miles, are often detained for
weeks, before an opportunity occufs to ford or
swim over the swollen rivers and nullahs ! a work
often of much difficulty and danger. Weekly
reports of heart-rending shipwrecks fill the
native papers, and a catalogue of flooded dis-
tricts, and other disaterss from the country, too
often give a painful interest to the rainy season.
Yet we must not lose sight of the goodness of
the Almighty, in sending these blessed showers
at stated periods ; for were they but once with-
held, the most dreadful consequences must ensue,
^nd thousands upon thousands of human
creatures would perish for want of water.

Sketches of India, 1850, pages 90-93.

AN ANTHOLOGY. 59

After the Rains.

David Price.

Of the verdant and beautiful months which
immediately succeed to the rainy season, parti-
cularly in this, our favourite island, the remem-
brance will readily occur to any one, whom the
chances of life may have ever brought to reside
upon it. For although the morbid exhalation
from the steaming rice grounds, may sometimes
be productive of bilious complaints, the healthful
air, and picturesque, and varied scenery, of Mala-
bar hill, and its celebrated Point, if they do not
amply compensate for this temporary evil, certa-
inly do form a most agreeable contrast, of many
a convivial party to the Point, and the secluded
shades and pagodas round the noble tank on the
northern slope of the hill, I still bear in mind the
most pleasing impressions, blended with tints of
melancholy, when I reflect that most of those
associates who shared with me in those delightful
recreations are long since become denizens of
another and better world.

At Seu, or Sion, on the opposite or eastern
extremity of the island, and at the distance of
nine or ten miles, we posssessed another resort
for recreation ; as the miniature downs, and park-
like scenery through which we passed to ths
eastward of the Governor's country residence,
Parell, brought to mind, in a lively degree, the
woodland beauties of *' the land in the ocean."

Memoirs of A Field Offieer. 1839, pp. 176 to 177.

60 BOMBAY:

The Monsoon, the

True Indian Spring.

E. H. A. ,

[E. A. Atkins.]

Of our three seasons, my favourite is, and
always has been, the monsoon. It is time of
refreshing, and all nature rejoices in it, and I
rejoice with nature. What the spring is to nor-
thern latitudes, the monsoon is to us. I do not
mean that spring has no place in Indian calendar..
That mysterious influence which comes with the
returning sun, and, undiscerned by eye or ear^
awakens the earth, visits us too. Then

" The wanton lapwing gets himself

another crest,"
and if a fuller crimson does not come upon the
robin's breast, it is because in this country that
is not the region in which his crimson is situated ;
but he and the other birds" break out into ancf
begin to build their nests, the trees bud, and
many gay butterflies awaken to life. So I say
our true spring, the begining of our year, the
birthday of our nature, is not in March, but in
June. Let it be ushered in with salvoes of
artillery and a carnival of the elements, or let it
sneak in silently during the night and greet us in
the morning, the effect is the same. The leaves
of the trees are washed, the dust on the roads is.
laid, and the spirits of man and beast participate
in the baptism.

AN ANTHOLOGY. 6l

This is par excellence the season for rambl-
ing abroad. At every turn there is something
new to see. Out of earth and rock and leafless
bough the magic • touch of the monsoon has
brought life and greenness. You can almost see
the broad-leaved vines grow and the twining
creepers work their snaky way, linking tree to
tree and binding branch to branch.

There is another feature of the monsoon
which has a wonderful charm for me, I mean
the clouds. Many Englishmen never throw off
the bondage of their old English feelings, and a
cloudy day depresses them to the last. Such
conservatism is not in me. After the monotony
of a fierce sun and a blue sky and dusky land-
scape quivering in the dim distance, I cry wel-
come to the days of mild light and green earth
and purple hills coming near in the clear and
transparent air. And later on, when the monsoon
begins to break up and the hills are dappled
with light and shade, and dark islands move
across the bright green sea, the effect on my
spirits is strangely exhilarating. Why is it that
so few of our Indian painters have given us
monsoon scenes ?

A Naturalist on the Prowl, l8g2, pages 70-77.

K^

APPROACH & ARRIVAL.

APPROACH & ARRIVAL.

Smell Bombay from Afar

Flora A. Steeu

Soy as we sit, this last evening on board
ship, on the forward anchor, catching the breeze
of our own making, the question rises, " How far
out in the Indian Ocean may we count India ?"

I knew a man once, returning reluctantly to
a jungle station after a really fancy furlough,
who said that he could smell the Bombay bazzar
in longitude 68 ; which is absurd, since, pungent
as a bazzar is, even assafoetida cannot travel
three hundred miles.

And yet the real edge of India does lie some-
where about there if not in the charts, still in the
map of the mind. For, look down into the water
through which the black keel is slipping so oily
that the little nautilus boats take no harm, but
ride away on the long smooth ripple which parts
the sea, leaving place for our huge vessel. Look
down, I say, and through the milky, almost
opalescent depths, what are those snake-like
restless brown forms seen, half seen, twining,
intertwining ? To the practical scientific botanical
eye, it is the zone of sea-weed which, so I am
told, drifts within certain limits all round India.
But to the old navigators-and to the eye of faith
nowadays — it is the zone of sea-serpents, the zone
of sea-guardians between the outside world and
enchanted India.

This is the true line dividing those who can
see behind the veil, from those to whom a spade

AN ANTHOLOGY. 63:

must ever be a spade, and not the unit of man's,
civilisation, the means by which he first forced
Mother Earth to yield him — not what was to be-
found ready to his sight and hand — but those
things that his heart desired.

India by Mortimer Menpes. Pages, j to 3.

Imposing Entrance

Silk Buckingham.

The entrance to Bombay is very imposing.
On the right or south side of the passage, is the
continent of India ; and in the background,,
trending away to the north-east, rise the noble
hills called the Ghauts, which form the buttresses
or bulwarks of the higher land beyond them.
On the left is the small low island of Colabah,
with its light-house, closely connected with the
nearly level island of Bombay, and this again>
joined by a causeway to the larger and more
hilly island of Salsette. The ample expanse of
water between these islands on the left, and the
Mahratta coast on the right, presents a harbour
capacious enough to shelter the whole navy of
England, while the several smaller islands
dotting its surface, including that of Elephanta
with its celebrated Cave Temple, form objects
of picturesque beauty, and afford good shelter
as breakwaters against the strongest gales. The
soundings are of convenient depths, the holding.

64 BOMBAY :

ground good ; and the strong ebb and flood tides,
rising eighteen and twenty feet perpendicular,
facilitate the entrance and exit of ships in all
winds and all weathers. No harbour in the
world, perhaps, is better entitled than this to the
original name given it by its first European
possessors, the Portuguese, of " Bon Baia, " or
Good Bay, from whence the present name of
Bombay is formed.

Autobiography, Vol. II, 1855, Pages 337-338.

Approaching Bombay.

Prince Karagecorgewitch.

The air is heavy with indefinable perfume.
We are already coasting the Indian shore, but
it remains invisible, and gives no sign but by
these gusts of warmer air laden with that inscru-
table aroma of musk and pepper. A lighthouse
to port, which we have for some time taken for
a star, vanishes in the light mist that hangs over
the coast, and then again there is nothing but
the immensity of waters under the clear night,
blue with moonlight.

All the day long a quantity of medusae have
surrounded the ship; white, as large as an ostrich's
egg, with a pink or lilac heart, like a flower;
others of enormous size, of a paler blue than the
sea, fringed with intense and luminous green — a

AN ANTHOLOGY. 65

splash of light on the dusk of the deep. Others,
again, white, blossoming with every shade of
rose and violet. Then, towards evening, myriads
of very small ones, thickening the water, give it
a yellowish tinge, clinging to the ship's side
rolling in the furrow of its wake, a compact
swarm, for hours constantly renewed ; but they
have at last disappeared, leaving the sea clear,
transparent, twinkling with large flecks of
phosphorescence that rise slowly from the depths,
flash on the surface, and die out at once under
the light of the sky.

BTefore day break, in the doubtful light of
waning night, dim masses are visible — grey
and purple mountains — mountains shaped like
temples, of which two indeed seem to be crowned
with low squat towers as if unfinished.

The morning mist shrouds everything ; the
scene insensibly passes through a series of pale
tints, to reappear ere long in the clear rosy light,
which sheds a powdering of glowing gold on the
broad roadstead of Bombay.

But the enchantment of this rose-tinted land,
vibrating in the sunshine, is evanescent. The
city comes into view in huge white masses — docks,
and factories with tall chimneys; and coco-palms
in long lines of monotonous growth, overshadow
square houses devoid of style.

As we go nearer, gothic towers are distingui-
shable among the buildings— faint reminiscences

66 BOMBAY :

of Chester, clumsily revived under the burning-
light of white Asia.

In the spacious harbour, where a whole fleet
of steamships lies at anchor, a swarm of decked
boats are moving about, sober in colour, with the
bows raised very high in a long peak, and
immense narrow sails crossed like a pair of
scissors, and resembling a seagull's wings.

Enchanted India, 1 898, pages 1-3.

A Vision of Gorgeous Ind.

Bayard Taylor.

On the morning of the 27th of December — •
precisely a month after I embarked at Gibral-
ter — the cessation of the monsoon, the'sultriness
of the air, the appearance of the clouds, and
the arrival of a dove on board, denoted the
proximity of land. I have rarely approached
any country with a keener interest. Scarce Vasco
de Gama himself, after weathering the Cape of
Storms, could have watched for the shores of
India with more excited anticipation. That
vision of gorgeous Ind, the Empress far away
in the, empurpled East, throned on the best
grandeurs of History and canopied by sublime
tradition, was about to be confirmed, or displaced
for ever. Near at hand, close behind the blue
sea-horizon, lay that which would either heighten

AN ANTHOLOGY. 67

the fascination of her name, or make it thence-
forth but an empty sound to the ear of Fancy.

Therefore, in spite of the breathless heat, I
keep watch from one of the paddle-boxes. At
noon there is a cry of " Land !" from the foremast,
and in a short time the tops of mountains are
faintly discernible on the horizon. These are
the Western Ghauts which extend along the
Malabar Coast, from Cape Comorin to Surat.
The island of Salsette, north of Bombay, next
rises, and ere long we distinguish the light-house
at the entrance of the harbour. A considerable
extent of coast, north and south, is visible — the
mountains picturesque and beautiful in their
forms, and exhibiting, in their drapery of forests,
a marked contrast to the desert hills of Arabia,
which we have last seen. We are now near
enough to distinguish the city, the dwellings of
the residents on Malabar Hill, and the groves of
cocoa-nut and date trees which cover the island.
The sea swarms with fishing-boats, and our native
pilot is already on board.

The Bay opens magnificently as we advance.
It lies between the islands of Bombay and Sal-
sette and the mainland, and must be fifteen or
twenty miles in length. Both shores are moun-
tainous and thickly covered with the palmy
growths of the tropics. All is confusion on board
and I also must prepare to set foot on the land of
Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva,

Visit to India and China, 1856, pages 32-33.

68 BOMBAY :

Stately Approach.

Sir Frederick Treves.

It was a fine sunny morning-as all had been^
but ahead was a haze along the horizon which
hid the land. There were sea birds in the air,
and on the water a boat with a white lateen sail.
The life seemed to have gone out of the sea, for
the waves had become dull and of a sluggish
green. Every eye was turned in the direction of
the ship's bow, and soon there emerged from the
mist a low hill, alone like an island, grey and
indistinct. This was India.

As the ship drew near, other high ground
came into view, rising above a ghostly coast.
In due course a lighthouse, gaudy in stripes of
red, white and black, appeared. Behind the
light-house were a narrow spit of land with soft
rounded trees on it and the tower of a disused
pharos. Here, too, were white houses with red
roofs, dotting the green, and below them a sandy
beach by a fortified wall.

Beyond this narrow spur of land— called, as
I came to know, Colaba — was the city of Bombay,
shrouded by the mist. Through the haze it was
possible to make out the steeples and towers, the
domes and pinnacles of a great city.

The approach is stately, for the harbour is
magnificent, but there is no particular character
about the scene. One is conscious of entering a
wide sound and of a city on a bright inlet ; but

AN ANTHOLOGY. 69

the sound might be in Italy and the city in
England. This is not the India one has dreamed
about. There is no suggestion of " India's coral
strand, " no hot beach peopled by turbaned hea-
then, no line of cocoanut palms by the water's
edge. One looks in vain for buildings that follow
in some way the architecture of the '^ willow
pattern plate," and, above all, one looks for
elephants with howdahs on their backs.

There is, in place of the palms, a line of
factory chimneys : while a quite common row of
quays meets the sea in place of the coral strand.
There are no heathen recognisable as such, and
certainly none in the act of bowing down to stocks
and stones. There are people in turbans, but
they are evidently mere loungers about harbour
sides, and the buildings appear, at the distance,
to differ but little from those at Limehouse. Of
elephants there are none.

The Other Side of the Latitcrn. T905, pages 29-30.

2.

The charm of Bombay to those who land for
the first time upon its ''spacious quays" is bound
up in the fact that it is one of the cities of India,
that the soil and the people are Indian, and
that it is part of that continent which has entered
with so much romance into the history of the
world.

70 BOMBAY :

There is interest in everything that one
sees, in the railway trains, the shops, the boats
on the beach, the policemen, the street sweepers,
the unfamiliar trees and shrubs, and the frag-
mentary demonstrations of how the people live.
Kites and crows, vultures and squirrels are all
elements new to city life; while the first time
that a parrakeet is sighted, perched on a house
top, there arises the conviction that it must
have escaped from a cage.

Beyond all this it may be claimed that the
chief things, which in tourist language will
"well repay a visit" in Bombay, are the native
quarter and Malabar Hill.

The Malabar Hill is a modest mound behind
the city, brave with gardens and bright villas,
from whose summit is to be obtained a view of
the sea and of the gleaming harbour. It is a
matter of interest that all large bays, viewed from
a height, are supposed to resemble the Bay of
Naples. The harbour of Bombay comes into
this classification of bays, and is therefore
regarded as a local Bay of Naples ; but the
very stones of Malabar Hill must turn when
each inspired tourist after another discovers
and reveals this stale resemblance, for the
sweeping Sound of Bombay shows scarcely a
feature which has any parallel in the great
Italian inlet.

The Other Side of the Lantern, 1905, pages 31-32.

AN ANTHOLOGY. 7\

The City from the Sea.

Walter Del Mar.

Bombay from the sea is fair to look upon,
and is always a welcome sight after the monoto-
nous voyage of l66o miles from Aden. The
■sea front of the Back Bay extends, in a graceful,
palm-fringed crescent, from Malabar Point to
Kolaba Point. On the latter is the old Kolaba
lighthouse, and south of it the Prong lighthouse,
which the steamer passes to enter the commo-
dious harbour, where it casts anchor opposite
the eastern front of " the Fort, " corresponding
to " the City "in London or "down-town" in
New York. From the anchorage the view of the
domes and pinnacles of Bombay is dominated by
Tata's Taj Mahal Hotel, one of the most impos-
ing modern buildings in India. In the opposite
direction the cliffs of Bawa Malang ( or Mallan-
gadh ) stand out from the terraced trap peaks of
the Western Ghats. To the north-east, in the
middle distance, is Butcher's Island and
Elephanta, while close at hand are the fortified
islands in the beautiful harbour, which is alive
with ocean steamers, yachts, and Cv)untry boats.
You barely have time to take in the scene before
the launch comes alongside, and in a few minutes
you are landed on Ballard's Pier.

Bombay makes a favourable first impression
with its broad, well-kept streets, sprinkled with
oil to lay the dust, and its handsome buildings,
•some of which are due to private munificence*

72 BOMBAY :

but most of them to the public spirit which aims
to make Bombay " the first city in India."

hidia of To-day, 1905, pages 12-13.

Islands in the Harbour.

Norman Macleod.

With very peculiar emotions did I ascend
the deck to look for the first time on that great
country, associated with so much to stir the
imagination of every British subject, and most
of all of every Christian minister. The scene
which meets the eye when entering the harbour
is most striking and lovely. Every other thought
is for the moment lost in a sense of its beauty.
The forests of palm-trees which, in the hot and
motionless air, repose on the lower hills, along
the margin of the shore, at once attract attention
as being thoroughly characteristic of Eastern
climes. The islands as they unfold themselves,,
with their masses of verdure, and the bays, and
vanishing^ of the sea into distant river-like
reaches, lost in a soft bright haze, above which
singular hills— rounded, obelisk terraced — lift
themselves, all combine to form a complete pic-
ture, framed by the gleaming blue sea below,
and by the cloudless sky above, full of intense
heat and light of burnished brightness. Look-
ing nearer, one notices the ships from every
clime, and of every size and kind, fixed in a sunny

AN ANTHOLOGY. 73

mist on a molten sea — ships at anchor — ships
crowding their masts near the wharves, and
boats without number, with, their large matting
sails and covered poop, dipping their oars in
silver light, all going on their several errands,
and a goodly number making for our steamer^
Beyond the ships and masts, white houses
among trees, and here and there a steeple, indi-
cating the long land line of the Colaba Point,,
tell us where the famous city of Bombay lies,
with its worshippers of fire and of fine gold.

Far East. 186S, Page II,

*' Beautiful Indeed It Is I "

" Life In Bombay. "

Beautiful indeed it is! studded with nume-
rous small islands and comprising in a single
"coup if 'ceil " every variety of landscape
scenery, from the fertile Elephanta covered
with the rich vegetation of the tropics, and
sparkling like an emerald on the bosom of the
waters, to the barren shores of Caranjah, with
its rocky headlands projecting boldly, as if in
defiance of the softer beauties which surround
it. Smaller isles rise, like specks upon a
surface, scattered around ; whilst in the midst,
clearly indicated by its encircling belt of ships
and countless buildings, stands the far-famed
Island of Bombay. Small as are its dimensions^

74 BOMBAY :

and although for so long a period after its
cession to the English in the year l66l considered
as so utterly unimportant, or rather troublesome
an appendage to our territories, perhaps at this
moment there is not one spot throughout our
wide-spread colonial possessions, to which so
great an interest is attached.

In a commercial point of view, the advanta-
ges afforded by the situation, and almost
unequalled harbour of Bombay, are too manifest,
and too generally known to require repetition.
Easy of access at every season of the year,
and affording a safe anchoring ground for the
largest of ships, the haven is at all times
thronged by an almost indescribable variety
of vessels, descending through every gradation
from the statety London-built East-India man,
with its well-appointed crew, and costly cargo,
to the primitive native canoe, formed from the
bark of a single tree, and contributing, with its
modest freight of fruits and vegetables, to supply
the markets and bazaars of Bombay.

Upon first landing, the immediate impression
which strikes every mind, is not only the immense
population of the island, but the unceasing variety
of costumes and complexions, betokening the
natives of the Asiatic, and of several European
nations. Parsees, Mussulmans, Hindoos of every
caste, Persians, Armenians, Portuguese, and Indo-
Britons, literally swarm under the horses' feet as
you drive through the bazaars ; and it requires

AN ANTHOLOGY. 75

no small portion of nerve, as well as dexterity,
to steer one's course in safety through streets
and roads absolutely alive with human beings,
to say nothing of the numerous vehicles, horses,
buffaloes, and bullocks which impede one's
progress on all sides; invariably bewildering a
stranger with the apparently interminable diffi-
-culties and dangers to be encountered.

1852: pages J-6.

A Handsome City Seated on
Two Bays.

Sir Edwin Arnold.

The transformation effected in this great
and populous capital of Western India during
the past twenty years does not very plainly
manifest itself until the traveller has landed.
From the new lighthouse at Colaba Point,
Bombay looks what it always was, a handsome
city seated on two bays, of which one is
richly diversified by islands, rising, green and
picturesque, from the quiet water, and the other
has for its background the crescent of the
Esplanade and the bungalow-dotted heights
of Malabar Hill. He who has been long absent
from India and returns here to visit her, sees
strange and beautiful buildings towering above
the well-remembered yellow and white houses,

76 BOMBAY :

but misses the old line of ramparts, and the
wide expanse of the Maidan behind Back Bay
which we used to call ''Aceldama, the place
to bury strangers in." And the first drive
which he takes from the Apollo Bunder — now
styled the Wellington Pier — reveals a series of
really splendid edifices, which have completely
altered the previous aspect of Bombay.

Close to the landing-place the pretty facade
of the Yacht Club — one of the latest additions
to the city- is the first to attract attention,
designed in a pleasing mixture of Swiss
and Hindu styles. In the cool corridors and
chambers of that waterside resort we found a
kindly welcome to the Indian shores, and after-
wards, on our way to a temporary home, passed,
with admiring eyes, the Secretariat, the Univer-
sity, the Courts of Justice, the magnificent new
Railway station, the Town Hall, and the General
Post Office, all very remarkable structures,
conceived for the most part with a happy inspi-
ration, which blends the Gothic and the Indian
schools of architecture. It is impossible here to
describe the features of these very splendid
edifices in detail, or the extraordinary changes
which have rendered the Bombay of to-day
hardly recognisable to one who knew the place
in the time of the Mutiny and in those years
which followed it. Augustus said of Rcme, " I
found it mud ; I leave it marble," and the visitor
to India who traverses th? For^ and the
Esplanade-road after so long an absence as.

AN ANTHOLOGY. yj

mine might justly exclaim, " I left Bombay a
town of warehouses and offices ; I find her a
■city of parks and palaces."

Even the main native streets of business
and traffic are considerably developed and im-
proved, with almost more colour and animation
than of old. A tide of seething Asiatic huma-
nity ebbs and flows up and down the Bhendi
bazaar, and through the chief mercantile
thoroughfares. Nowhere could be seen a play
of livelier hues, a busier and brighter city life !
Besides the endless crowds of Hindu, Gujarati,
-and Mahratta people coming and going — some
in gay dresses, but most with next to none at
all — between the rows of grotesquely painted
houses and temples, there are to be studied here
specimens of every race and nation of the East.
Arabs from Muscat, Persians from the Gulf,
Afghans from the Northern frontier, black
shaggy Biluchis, negroes of Zanzibar, islanders
from the Maldives and Laccadives, Malagashes,
Malays, and Chinese throng and jostle with
Parsees in their sloping hats, with Jews, Lascars,
fishermen, Rajpoots, Fakirs, Europeans, Sepoys,
and Sahibs. Innumerable carts, drawn by
patient, sleepy-eyed oxen, thread their creaking
way amid tram-cars, buggies, victorias, palan-
<iuins, and handsome English carriages. Familiar
to me, but absolutely bewildering to my two
•companions, under the fierce, scorching, blinding
sunlight of midday, is this play of keen colours,
and this tide of ceaseless clamorous existence.

78 BOMBAY :

But the background of Hindu fashions and-
manners remains unchanged and unchangeable.
Still, as ever, the motley population lives its.
accustomed life in the public gaze, doing a
thousand things in the roadway, in the gutter,
or in the little open shop, which the European
performs inside his closed abode. The unclad
merchant posts up his account of pice and annas
with a reed upon long rolls of paper under
the eyes of all the world. The barber shaves
his customer, and sets right his ears, nostrils,
and fingers, on the side-walk. The shampooer
cracks the joints and grinds the muscles of his
clients wherever they happen to meet together.
The Guru drones out his Sanskrit shlokes to the
little class of brown-eyed Brahman boys; the
bansula-player pipes ; the sitar-singer twangs-
his wires ; worshippers stand with clasped palms,
before the images of Rama and Parvati, or deck
the Lingam with votive flowers ; the beggars
squat in the sun, rocking themselves to and fro
to the monotonous cry of " Dhurrum ; " the
bheesties go about with water-skins sprinkling
the dust; the bangy-coolies trot with balanced
bamboos ; the slim, bare-limbed Indian girls
glide along with baskets full of chupatties or
"bratties" of cow-dung on their heads, and
with small naked babies astride upon their hips..

Everywhere, behind and amid the vast
commercial bustle of modern Bombay, abides
ancient, placid, conservative India., with her
immutable customs and deeply-rooted popular

AN ANTHOLOGY. 79

habits derived unbroken from immemorial days.
And overhead, in every open space, or vista of
quaint roof-tops, and avenues of red, blue, or
saffron-hued houses, the feathered crowns of
the date"' trees wave, the sacred fig swings its
aerial roots and shelters the squirrel and the
parrot, while the air is peopled with hordes
of ubiquitous, clamorous grey-necked crows^
and full of the "Kites of Govinda," wheeling
and screaming under a cloudless canopy of
sunlight. The abundance of animal life even
in the suburbs of this great capital appears
once more wonderful, albeit so well known and
remembered of old. You cannot drop a morsel
of bread or fruit but forty keen-beaked, sleek,.
desperately audacious crows crowd to snatch
at the spoil ; and in the tamarind tree which
overhangs our verandah may at this moment
be counted more than a hundred red-throated
parrokeets, chattering and darting, like live
fruit, among the dark-green branches. India,
does not change!

India Revisited^ 1886, pages 54-58.

A Unique City — a Diluvies Gentium.

Sidney Low.

His first few days in the city, if the visitor
has never set foot on the soil of India before,
are likely to be a period of delighted amaze-
ment and most enjoyable confusion. He

8o BOMBAY :

wanders about, drinking in the fulness of the
new experience, perplexed and absorbed by-
all he sees, trying to wind his way through
the jumble of novel human types and yjafamiliar
customs and costumes borne before him.
Bombay is different from any other town
outside India; the tourist will presently discover
that India itself has nowhere anything quite
like it. The Island City is unique — a diluvies
gentium, a well into which the races of Asia
have poured themselves, or, perhaps one should
say, a reservoir out of which they pass as fast
as they flow in. It is full of the wealth of the
East and the wealth of the West, and of the
poverty and vice of both. It has its palaces
fit for a prince, and its hum^an kennels unfit
for a dog. The hand of Vishnu the Preserver,
and of Siva the Destroyer, are felt in their might
daily. A splendid industrial and commercial
activity makes Bombay rich and great, and
a canker is working at its vitals. Every
tenth person you meet is doomed to swift and
painful death by a disease for which science
has no remedy. It is the city of the Parsi
millionaire. It is the city of the Plague.

When you have begun to disentangle your
first impressions, you can appreciate the force
of the contrasts which Bombay presents. The
East and the West, the Old and the New, are
here in curious and piquant juxta-position.
A great deal of that part of Bombay which
is called the Fort, and is the centre of the

AN ANTHOLOGY. 8 1

European business life, is very modern indeed.
There are enormous ranges of huge public
buildings, designed with a fine official disregard
for all loca4 associations, great blocks of flats,
and flourishing shops, some of which might
have been transported from Bond Street and
others brought from the Edgware Road; and
a life, essentially English and only touching
the East at the fringes, is in being here. But
a few hundred yards away are the bazaars
and the native streets, and you are in the heart
of Asia. This is true, more or less, of many
Indian towns; but it is specially felt to be the
case in Bombay, because there the Europeans
are not shepherded apart in cantonments, or in
any separate quarter of their own, but are
physically, at least, in pretty close contact
with the natives. The lines touch at many
points, but they do not merge.

A Vision of India IQOd, pages Q-IO.

All India in fliniature

G. W. Steevens.

In the drive from the Apollo Bunder to

Malabar Point, all India is unfolded in one

panorama. First the business houses and the

great buildings — those the richest, these the

stateliest in India, and challenging comparison

82 ' BOMBAY

with almost any city in the woricl. Every varia-
tion of design is theirs, but they find a link of
uniformity in the red-brown colours common to
most, and in the oriental profusion of ornament.
First comes the Venetian Secretariat, then the
Gothic University Library, and the French
University Hall; between them the great Clock
Tower, which peals forth hymn-tunes on Sunday
and on week-days " God Save the Queen ! " and
" Home, Sweet Home. " The white pinnacled
Law Courts follow in Early English, then the
Post and Telegraph Offices in Miscellaneous
Gothic. But the jewel of Bombay is the Victoria
Railway Station, a vast domed mass of stone
fretted with point and column and statuary.
Between them all you catch vistas of green mead
and shrubbery, purple-belled creepers, scarlet-
starred shrubs. The whole has its feet in bowers
of succulent green and its elbows on shining-
leaved banyan-trees. A proud and comely
city, you say ; the Briton feels himself a greater
man for his first sight of Bombay.

Then suddenly the magician turns his ring
and new has become old, plain is coloured, solid
is tumbled down, the West has been swallowed
up utterly by the East. Cross but one street
and you are plunged in the native town. In
your nostrils is the smell of the East, dear and
never to be forgotten ; rapturously you snuff that
blending of incense and spices and garlic,
and sugar and goats and dung. The jutting
houses close in over you. The decoration of

AN ANTHOLOGY. 83

Bombay henceforth is its people. The windows
are frames for woman, the streets become wedges
of men. Under the quaint wooden sun-hoods
that push out over the serried windows of the
lodging-houses, along the rickety paintless
balconies and verandahs, all over the tottering
roofs — only the shabbiness of the dust and dirty
plaster relieves the gorgeousness of one of the
most astounding collections of human animals in
the world. Forty languages, it is said, are
habitually spoken in its bazaars. That, to him
who understands no word of any of them, is more
curious than interesting. But then every race
has its own costume; so that the streets of Bombay
are a tulip-garden of vermilion turbans and
crimson, orange and flame colour, of men in blue
and brown and emerald waistcoats, women in
cherry-coloured satin-drawers, or mantles, drawn
from the head, across the bosom to the hip, of
blazing purple or green that shines like a grass-
hopper. You must go to India to see such
dyes. They are the very children of the sun^
and seem to. shine with an unreflected radiance
of their own. If you check your eye and ask
your mind for the master-colour in the crowd, it
is white — white bordered with brown or fawn
or amber legs. But when you forget that and
let the eye go again, the scarlets and yellows
and shining greens — each hue alive and quivering
passionately like the tropical sun at midday — fill
and dazzle it anew; in the gilding light the
very arms and legs show like bronze or amber

|4 . BOMBAY:

or the bloom on ripe damsons. You are walking
in a flaring sunset, and come out of it blinking.

Look under the turbans. At first all natives
look alike, but soon you begin to mark distinc-
tions of dress and even of type. The first you
will pick out is the Arab horse-dealer. His long
robe and hood, bound round with cords and
tufts of camel's hair, mark him off from the
wisp-clothed native of India. The Arab gives
you the others in focus. He is not much account-
ed by those who know him ; yet, compared with
the Indian, his mien is high, his movements free
and dignified, his features strongly cut and
resolute. The Bagdad Jew is hardly a type of
lofty manhood, but under his figured turban and
fuU-tasselled fez his face looks gravely wise.
The blue-bloused Afghan is a savage frankly,
but a strong man also. By the side of any one
of them the down-country native of Bombay
is poor and weak and insignificant. He looks as
if you could break him across ycur knee. His
formless features express nothing ; his eyes have
the shining meekness, but not the benevolence,
of the cow's ; he moves slowly and without snap,
like a sick man. He seldom speaks, and when
he does his voice is small. Sometimes he smiles
faintly — laughs never.

In India, 1899, pages 17-20.

AN ANTHOLOGY. 8$

A City of Vast Contrasts.

G. W. Steevens.

When things begin to come sorted and
sifted, Bombay reveals itself as a city of
monstrous contrasts. Along the sea-front one
splendid public building follows another-
variegated stone facades with arch and
colonnade, cupola and pinnacle and statuary.
At their feet huddle flimsy huts of matting,
thatched with leaves, which a day's rain would
reduce to mud and pulp. You sit in a marble-
paved club, vast and airy as a Roman atrium,
and look out over gardens of heavy red and
violet flowers towards choking alleys where
half-naked idolaters herd by families together in
open-fronted rooms, and filth runs down gullies
to fester in the sunken street. In this quarter you
may see the weaver twirling his green and amber
wool on a hand-loom — a skeleton so simple and
fragile that a kick would make sticks of it; go
to the street corner, and you see black smoke
belch from a hundred roaring mills, whose
competition cuts the throat of all the world.

Yet, for all its incongruities, Bombay
never will have you forget that it is a great
city. If it had no mills it would be renowned
for its port; if it had neither it would be
famous for its beauty.

In India, page l6.

86 BOMBAY:

The Fascination of Bombay
For A German.

Count Von Koenigsmarck.

Even the reek of Bombay makes me feel at
home — a blend of musk, of spices, and of the
smouldering sandal-wood they burn at prayer
and festivals. As then, the fantastic traffic of this
city, half Indian, half European, fascinated me
to-day with the garish ebb and flow of its popu-
lation, perhaps the most variegated in hue of
the world. The human skin reveals itself here
in every shade and tint, and the variety of its
garb beggars every colour of the palette.

The fascination of Bombay lies in its
diversity — the diversity of its landscape, of its
street scenes, of its population. One would like
to have a hundred eyes to be able to take in
its exotic, kaleiodoscopic va-et-vient. Talk of
scenes from the Thousand and One Nights !
The Orient, in entire fairy-like splendour, and
alongside of it sober business-like Europe ; the
drab commonplaceness of the West rubbing
shoulders with these teeming crowds drunk with
colour and adventure. Bombay is at one and the
same time pan-Asiatic and cosmopolitan — a
melting pot of races and religions.

You can tell at the outset that this metropolis
is a daughter of Old England. The features of
Bombay bewray her history— a history that is
part and parcel of those title-deeds to fame

AN ANTHOLOGY. 87

ivhich Britain's constructive work claims on
Indian soil. Bombay is no mushroom growth of
yesterday; her growth comprises more than two
centuries — a gauge of the expansion of Anglo-
Indian world empire.

In Bombay the wealth and luxury of the
East flourish side by side with that of the West,
nor have the misery and the vices of either
hemisphere spared this commercial metropolis.
On every hand the power of Vishnu, the preserver,
and of Siva, the destroyer, struggle for mastery.
If brilliant industrial enterprise and keen busi-
ness development promote the prosperity of
Bombay, abuses of the most divergent kinds
jeopardise the very conditions of its continuity.
About every tenth native is condemned to death
by plague, against which medical science hitherto
fights in vain ; Bombay, the city of Parsee
millionaires, is at the same time the city of
the plague.

The face of Bombay changes with its
distance from the roadstead. First seaport, then
-commercial city, then the hub of politicals and
officialdom. Further out the city becomes a
garden. At our feet the glassy bay of the Ara-
bian Sea. Along the beach in ( so it seems )
endless vistas, stretch green lawns, shady
gardens, playgrounds for recreation and pastimes.
An avenue of glorious palm trees intersects the
idyllic landscape and further on climbs the
Malabar hill on the further shore of the gulf.
On the topmost summit here flies the standard

88 BOMBAY:

cf the King ; on Malabar Point his representative^
the Governor of Bombay, is in residence.

At the foot of the palace lies a town of
villas, Malabar Hill. Pretty houses, large and
small, simple and splendid, half hidden under
the wealth of foliage of the prodigal Nature cf
the tropics, earmark the quarter of exalted
officialdom. The judges and consuls, the com-
mercial magnates of the Presidency of Bombay
have established their household gods here.
Everyone who is any one lives on Malabar HilU

How radiant is the earth here, steeped with
the inexhaustible sap of supernormal propa-
gative forces! You can enjoy God's glorious
world in full draughts here — if indeed not without
a sense of gentle melancholy.

How shall we be able to endure our autumn
with the fall of the leaf after the springtide
rcses of Bombay ?

A German Staff Officer in India, 1910, pages 45-48,

The Fascination of Bombay
a Century Ago.

Basil Hall.

I was thrown into a high fever of wonder
and enjoyment; and assuredly, as long as I
have a trace of memory left, must retain the
recollection of that happy period carved brightly
and distinctly on my mind.

AN ANTHOLOGY, 8g

When the day broke, and the sun rose upon
us over the flat — topped Ghauts or mountains of
the Mahratta country, I remember feeling almost
at a loss whether I had been sleeping and
dreaming during the night, or whether the gay
reality, with its boundless vista of promises^
was still before my eyes. But the actual sight
tDf the coast gave reality to pictures which^
for many a long year" before, I had busied my
fancy with painting, in colours drawn partly
from the Arabian Nights and Persian Tales,,
and partly, if not chiefly, from those brilliant
clusters of oriental images which crowd and
adorn the pages of Scripture.
I

Of all places in the noble range of coun-
tries so happily called the Eastern world,,
from the pitch of the Cape to the islands of
Japan, from Bengal to Batavia, nearly every
hole and corner of which I have visited in
the course of my peregrinations, there are few
which can compare with Bombay. If, indeed,.
1 were consulted by any one who wished as
expeditiously and economically as possible to
see all that was essentially characteristic of
the Oriental world, I would say, without hesita-
tion, "Take a run to Bombay; remain there a
week or two; and having also visited the
scenes in the ^immediate neighbourhood^
Elephanta, Carli, and Poonah, you will have
examined good specimens of most things that
are curious or interesting in the East."

90 BOMBAY :

For this remarkable distinction, quite peculiar,
-as far as I know, to that one spot on the earth's
surface, this Presidency is indebted to a variety
of interesting circumstances. Bombay, as per-
haps many people may never have heard before,
is an island, and by no means a large one, being
only between six and sevea^ miles long by one
or two broad. It is not, however, by geographi-
cal dimensions that the wealth of towns, any
more than the power and wealth of nations, is
determined. The harbour unites every posible
"desideratum of a great sea-port ; it is easy of
-access and egress; affords excellent anchoring
ground ; is capacious beyond the utmost probable
demands of commerce ; and, owing to the great
rise and fall of the tides, is admirably adapted
for docks of every description. The climate is
healthy ; and the country, being diversified by
numerous small ridges and hills, furnishes an
endless choice of situations for forts, towns,
bazaars, and villages, not to say bungalows or
villas, and all sorts of country-houses, and some
very splendid retreats from the bustle of business.
The roads which intersect this charming island
were beautifully Macadamised, as I well remem-
ber, long before that grand improvement was
heard of in England ; and as the soil of the island
is made up of that rich kind of mould resulting
from decomposed basalt or lava, the whole
surface affords a good sample of the perennial
verdure of tropical scenery, which dazzles and
surprises the new-comer, while its interest

AN ANTHOLOGY. 91

seldom, if ever, fails to rise still higher upon a
more prolonged and intimate acquaintance.

Such are among the eminent physical
advantages enjoyed by Bombay ; but even these,
had they been many times greater, would have
been light in the balance compared to those of
a moral, or rather of a political nature, which
conspired in l8l2 to render it one of the most
imporant spots in that quarter of the globe. At
the time I speak of, it was almost the only
possession exclusively British within several
hundred miles in any direction. The enormous
territory of the Mahrattas lay close to Bombay
on the east : and I mention this one district
because the name is more or less familiar to
English ears, chiefly, perhaps, from its having
been the scene of the Duke of Wellington's
earliest campaign in command of an army.
The brilliant course of that service was wound
up by the well-known battle of Assye, not the
least hard fought of his hundred fields. Assaye
is about twice as far from Bombay as Waterloo
from London. To any person familiar with
modern Indian history, the name of Bassein,
where one of the most celebrated treaties that
ever statesmen agreed upon was signed, will
be well remembered. Then who is there that has
not heard of the caves of Elephanta, those
singular temples of the old Hindoos excavated
On the side of a hill on an island in the very
harbour, and within one hour's row from the fort ?

92 BOMBAY:

These, and many other circumstances, some
military, some historical, give a very peculiar
degree of liveliness to the interest we feel in-
that spot ; and I certainly have as yet seen very
few places on the globe which fasten themselves;,
with more tenacity on the memory. I allude
chiefly to matters of taste, association, and other
refinements, with which the natives of the
countries surrounding Bombay have no concern^
To them it possesses, or did then possess,,
exclusively, an interest of a different and far
more important character. At that time it was.
almost the only spot in that range of country
where persons and property were perfectly secure,
and in which all men might safely display and
enjoy their wealth to the utmost limits of their
taste for ostentatious parade, or hoard it as
parsimoniously as they pleased, without the
slightest chance of arbitrary interference. In
addition to this, every form of religious worship-
was not merely tolerated, but allowed to exercise
itself with the most ample and equal freedom^
Every native of Asia, or of any other country in
the world, so long as he infringed none of the
established laws of the Presidency, was allowed"
equal privileges; and as the advantages of security^
and freedom, in the most genuine senses of these
words, were enjoyed under none of the native
governments adjacent, but, on the contrary, were
almost entirely unknown in them all, Bombay
became the natural place of resort for the
wealthy from all parts of India lying on that

AN, ANTHOLOGY. 93

S^ide of the Peninsula, and indeed from many
other regions much more remote.

The population of Bombay is about two
hundred thousand ; and I think it may be said
with truth, that we can see nothing in China, or
Java, or the Philippine. Islands, or along the
Malay Peninsula^ or even in the interior parts
<){ India, any single caste, or dress, or custom,
or form of superstition, or anything else, belong-
ing pepuliarly to Eastern manners, which we
may not witness at Bombay in as genuine and
<ipparently unsophisticated a condition as on
the spot to which it properly belongs. In twenty
minutes' walk through the bazaar of Bombay,
my ear has been struck by the sounds of every
language that I have heard in any other part of
the world, uttered not in corners and by chance,
as it were, but in a tone and manner which
implied that the speakers felt quite at home.
In the same short space of time I have countecl
several dozens of ternples, pagodas, JQss-houses,
and churches; and have beheld the Parsees,
the lineal religious descendants of Zoroaster,
■worshipping fire; the Hindoos, with equal earnest-
ness, bowing their heads to Baal in the shape
of a well-oiled black stone, covered with chap-
lets of flowers and patches of rice; while in
the next street the Mahomedan ceremonies of
the grand Moharam were in full display; and
in the midst of all a Portuguese procession
bearing an immense cross, and other Roman
Catholic emblems, as large as life.

^94 BOMBAY :

I have no language competent to give ex-
pression to the feelings produced by the first
contemplation of so strange a spectacle. I
was startled, amused, deeply interested, and
sometimes not a little shocked. The novelty of
the scene was scarcely diminished by a further
inspection; which may appear a contradiction
in terms, but is not so in reality. The multitude
of ideas caused by the first view of su^h an
astonishing crowd of new and curious objects,
obscures and confuses the observation, in a cer-
tain sense, and prevents us from distinguishing^
one part from another. So I found it in India,
especially at that most curious of places, Bombay,
where the more I saw of the natives, the mcr3
there seemed still to discover that was new. It
would be absurd to pretend that all this pedan-
tic kind of reasoning process took place at the
moment, for in truth, I was too much enchanted
to speculate deeply on the causes of the
enjoyment.

Fragments of Voyages, II series, 1^32, pp. I08-I0Q^

AN ANTHOLOGY. 9s

The Panorama which Qreet-^
the Eye.

" Adventures of Thomas Brown."
The splendour of the rising sun was crim-
soning the edges of the sea, as the good ship
slowly steamed into the magnificent harbour of
Bombay. The panorama which greets the eye
of the outward-bound on entering the finest
harbour in the world, defies all the power of
language. It is the lot of most of us to see that
gorgeous display many and many a time before
we turn our backs for the last time on the golden
East and set our faces towards the little sea-girt
island ; but who can say that he is competent
to paint in words the varied beauties of the
sunrise over those purple hills and richly-
freighted waves ?

Yet few, perhaps, have welcomed Bombay
apparelled in more perfect harmonies of Nature's
robing than on that morning when I drank in
the beauties of the swelling hills, the palm tops
waving featherly in the liquid blue of the
morning sky, and the rich red shoots of the sun's
gold splendour across the rippling waves as
they lapped, rainbow-hued, the dark sides of
many a war ship, many a merchant argosy lying
stately in the majesty of dangers overcome and
the haven reached.

l8gi. pp. 80 to 81.

96 BOMBAY:

Ascending the Pier Head, 1782.
David Price.

On the 22nd of April, 1/82, in company with
rny Bengal friends, I first ascended the steps of
that projecting part of the extensive fortifications
of Bombay, near the dockyard, called the Pier
Head. Any one who had recently taken leave
of the slim and fragile figures on the beach at
Madras, would scarcely fail to perceive the
striking contrast presented by the robust and
athletic forms of the Parsee, Marwary, and
Bhandary, population of the town and island of
Bombay. Of the sea line of works, there are
few but will acknowledge that the aspect
is truly formidable; and well, and honourably
defended-, might bid defiance to any attack
that could be brought to bear upon it: particu-
larly when provided with furnaces for hot shot.

We were glad to escape from the amalgama
of savoury smells, arising from the vast variety
of rancid, oily commodities, heaped together on
cur way to the Bunder: the then residence of the
junior civil servants; and tq find ourselves at
last securely housed in the Bombay hotel , at
this period kept by Mr. Macfarlane.

Memoirs of A Field Officer. 1839. Page 59-

AN ANTHOLOGY. 97

The Sea at Bombay.

MEADOWS Taylor.

I saw the sea! Day after day I went to its
edge, and gazed on its magnificence. I used to
lie on the grass of the plain before the fort, and
pass hours of a sort of dreamy ecstasy, looking
on its varying aspect, — like that of a beautiful
-woman, now all smiles, again agitated by the
passion of love, — or listening to its monotonous
and sullen roar, as wave after wave bowed its
crest, and broke into sparkling foam on the
white sand.

Confessions of a Thug.
1839. CIup 39, p. 334-

A Magnificent Scene.

James Tod.

We pursued our course with a moderate
breeze and an unclouded sky, making good pro-
gress until the shades of darkness began to
close around us, when the wind rather lulled.
The night was serene and beautiful : " Orion
■with all his bands" rode triumphant over our
heads, and the deep silence was undisturbed,
save by the gentle ripple of my bark as she
glided slowly through the water. It was a
night for meditation, and I gave myself up to
the sweet influences of the past and the future.

98 BOMBAY:

Sleep had sealed the eyes of all about us, save
Ibrahim, the Nakhoda, and another of the crew,,
having a like patriarchal appellation, Ayoub,.
or Job.

Nothing occured in our smooth navigation
during the five days of lovely weather, as we
approached that magnificent scene, the entrance
to Bombay, possessing in every diversity and
the grandest forms, all the accessories, moun-
tain, wood, islands and water.

Travels in Western India, ISjg, pp. 495-8*.

Not One That Can Touch Bombay.

LORD Harris.

Imagine a great city, of over 800,000 souls,,
lying on the shores of a beautiful sea, sparkling
in the sunshine, glorious in the monsoon, backed
by grand mountains, with many a castellated
peak nestling in palm groves, hundreds of sea-
going vessels anchored in its harbour; broad
thoroughfares and grand buildings, with a most
active and intelligent community ; lawns crowd-
ed day and night with pleasure seekers, and its
brightness added to by the most brilliantly dress-
ed ladies in the world, I mean, the Parsees.
Imagine it if you can ! I have seen many great
cities of the East, but I have not seen one that
can touch Bombay.

Journal of the Society of Arts, 1 90 1, page 57 1.

AN ANTHOLOGY. 99

**In the Land of the Arabian Nights"

Leopold von Orlich.

We described in the hazy distance the coast
of Bombay ; from this time we met many fishing-
boats, which often go out as far as twenty miles
to sea. In joyful expectation, we all stood on
deck with our eyes riveted on the rocks and
light-house of Bombay; but before we could
clearly discern them, total darkness set in. The
captain sent up blue lights from time to time,
which were answered from the pilot-boats, and
'by which such a magic brightness was spread
around, that the ocean was illumined to a great
distance, and our vessel seemed to swim in a
sea of light. Towards 8 o'clock, we approach-
ed the harbour which was full of vessels, salut-
ing them as we entered with the thunder of our
guns, and ere long the loud clank of the ponder-
ous anchor chain, announced the happy termina-
tion of our voyage.

You may imagine that I was all impatience
to set my foot on shore. Lieutenant Bowen and
myself accordingly engaged the first boat; our
luggage was speedily stowed in it, and in less
than an hour, I trod the soil of India. But how
shall I describe the impression which almost
overpowered me at this moment ! To find my-
self in the land which was the cradle of the
human race, the land of poetry, and of the
Arabian Nights !. I could scarcely conceive that
the dreams of my youth were realised. Though

100 BOMBAY:

it was dark, the naked forms that flitted before
me, the style of the architecture of the houses,
and the foreign character of the scenery, told
me that I was indeed in a new world.

Travels in India. 1845 Vol. I. pp. 29-30.

'•No Scene Throughout the World
More Beautiful."

Sir Samuel Baker.

Upon a first arrival in Bombay the stranger
is amazed at the architectural importance of a
city which his imagination had pictured simply
as the great commercial port of India. He is
surprised at the extent of the native bazars and
streets, and bewildered by the crowds which
stream like the sluggish current of a river slowly
but unceasingly through every artery of the city's
frame. All these crowds are peaceable ; there is
no jostling, no angry clamour among the masses,
wfiicfi include every shade of caste and creed;
^the police well accoutred and organised are.
"always at their posts, but their presence appears
unnecessary in the orderly streets of Bombay.
The public buildings are superbly arranged, and
exhibit the great advantage of a preconceived
plan which has: enabled the various architects
to select designs that harmonise with those of
their predecessors. Thus we see at one coup
{foeil a grand area of magnificent buildings

AN ANTHOLOGY. loi

extending along the race-course and sea-front
with Back Bay and the palm-covered heights of
Malabar Hill terminating the view at a distance
of four miles.

There is no scene throughout the world
more beautiful or more impressive to an English-
man, than the landscape and sea-view from the
new public gardens opposite the reservoir, upon
the basalt heights which command the entire
circuit of Bombay, including the vast harbour,
the numerous islands and the blue sea, backed
by the lofty mountains in the distance. The
beauty of the scene is full of contrast, and from
this one point I have counted forty-eight tall
chimneys denoting the manufacturing industry
of the people, who, secure under a British adminis-
tration, have embarked their capital in factories
instead of hoarding it in secret places, and are
now competing with the mills of Lancashire
in producing cotton goods. The general aspect
of Bombay is a test of British administration.

When standing upon the heights of Malabar
Hill we look down upon the panorama of
Bombay, we feel that although this grand
picture is due to England, we English are yet
a mere handful among those countless natives
who are subjects of our Queen.

"Reflections in India." Fortnightly Review,
August iS88, pp. 210-21 1.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS.

** If this be exile, it is
splendid exile !"

Elizabeth Grant.

We landed on the 8th of February 1828 in
Bombay. We entered that magnificent harbour
at sunset, a circular basin of enormous size, filled
with islands, high, rocky, wooded, surrounded by
a range of mountains beautifully irregular; and
to the north on the low shore spread the city,,
protected by the fort, screened by half the ship-
ping of the world. We were standing on the
deck. "If this be exile," said my father musingly,.
*'it is splendid exile." "Who are those bowing
men ? " said my mother, touching his arm and
pointing to a group of natives with coloured
high-crowned caps on some heads, and small red
turbans on others, all in white dresses, and all
with shoeless feet, who had approached us with
extraordinary deference. One of the high caps,
held out a letter. It was from uncle Edward,,
who had turned the corner round Sir Griffin
Wilson's wall so many years ago with his hat
pulled down over such tearful eyes, and these
were his servants come to conduct us to his
country house. All was confusion around us^

AN ANTHOLOGY. 105

friends arriving, departing, luggage shifting^
( each passenger being allowed to carry a bag^
on shore with necessaries), and it grew dark in
a moment, increasing our perplexity.

At last we were ready,- descended the side
of our poor old ship, entered the bunder-boat,.
moved, swung round to the steps of the ghaut,,
mounted them, found carriages waiting, and
away we drove some three miles through part of
the town, and then through a wooded plain, till
we stopped at a shabby gate which opened an
a narrow road and led us to the wide steps of a
portico, reached by a good long flight, edged
with two lines of turbaned servants glittering
with gold adornments, reflected by the torch each
third man held. A blaze of light flashed from
the long building beyond, in front of the entrance
to which stood a tall figure all in white, queen-
like as a stage heroine, who gave a sign, and
ffom her sides moved four persons in scarlet
robes trimmed with gold and bearing in their
hands gold sticks the height of themselves ;
they opened our carriage doors and out we
stepped ; and thus we were received by my
uncle's wife.

They had come down from Surat, partly to
meet us, and partly for my uncle's health, whicb
repeated attacks of gout had much weakened.
He was at this moment on the couch, incapable
of leaving it, and still in pain, yet he had made
every possible arrangement for our comfort. The

106 BOMBAY :

large house of Camballa, which he had hired to
receive us in, was of the usual Indian construc-
tion, the long, large centre hall with broad
verandahs round it ; but such a hall, eighty feet
long, eighty feet wide, verandahs twenty feet
wide. It stood on a platform in the middle of
the descent of a rocky hill, round which swept the
^ea, with a plain of rice fields, and a tank, a
handsome tank, between the foot of it and the
beach. From the hill end of the hall rose a wide
staircase in stages ; each stage led off on
either hand to a terrace, each terrace on the
one hand was a flower-garden, on the other a
covered gallery leading to offices. At top of all,
-and very high it was, the terraces were covered
in as bedrooms, catching all the air that blew
and commanding from their latticed balconies
such a view as was alone worth almost the
voyage from Europe.

Dinner was served in one of the verandahs
to the great hall with such a display of plate,
so brilliant a light, and such an array of
attendants as were startling after our cuddy
reminiscences. I thought of the Arabian Nights.
There was light, vastness, beauty, pomp, and
true affection. All was not gold, however ; a
better acquaintance with our palace disturbed
much of our admiration. Our bedrooms were
really merely barns, no ceilings, the bare rafters,
bare walls, no fastenings to the doors, the
bathrooms very like sculleries, the flowery
terraces suspected of concealing snakes, and

AN ANTHOLOGY. 107

most certainly harbouring myriads of insects
.most supremely troublesome, and the tank a
nuisance ; beautiful as it seemed, with its
graduated sides descending to the water, inter-
esting from the groups of natives resorting
there at all times with those pyramids of
Etruscan-shaped pots upon their heads, and
their draperied clothing, swinging on with such
a graceful step, the tank at night became horrible
from the multitude of frogs — the large bull-frog
with such a dreadful croak as deafened us.
Still those were minor evils. It was all a stage-
play life, and we were enchanted with it.

Lady Strachey's " Memoirs of a Highland
Lady ", 1898, pages 415-416.

2.

I wish I had preserved a more minute re-
collection of my first Bombay impressions ; they
were very vivid at the time, and I remember
being struck with surprise that all accounts of
India that had fallen in my way were so meagre,
when materials new and strange were in such
abundance.

The youth of women, and the beauty of the
majority, was one distinguishing feature of the
society ; the cheerful spirits of all, ladies and
gentlemen, was remarkable, to be accounted for,
probably, by the easy circumstances of almost
all, and the occupation of their time. There are

108 BOMBAY :

no idlers in India, every man has his employ-
ment; he may do it well or ill, but he has it
there to do, a business hour recurring with every
day, releasing him every afternoon, and well and
regularly paid the first. bf every month. The
women must attend to their households and
their nurseries with watchful care, or they will
riie it, and though some may neglect their
duties more or less, none can avoid them. Then
it is th^ most sociable country in the World, truly
hospitable ^ everybody is acquainted, every door
is. open, literally as well as figuratively, there is-
an ease, a welcome, a sort of family feeling
among these colonists in a strange land that knits
them together pleasantly. There are gradations
in the scale of course, and very rigidly observed
too, the ladies in particular preserving carefully
their proper position. The Governor does for
king, his suite for court, the Commander-in-Chief,,
almost as grand ; then the three members of
council and their three wives very grand indeed ;;
an admiral, or rather head of the Navy ; all the
civilians according to seniority, all the militar]^'
according to their rank; the Judges of the
Supreme Court, officials pertaining thereto^,
barristers, merchants — rather below par, with one
or two exceptions ; attorneys thought little of ;.
Indian Navy ditto ; Royal Navy in great repute
when a stray vessel came in. A few French and
Americans admitted, and several of the natives
quite in fashion; rich Parsees, and one or two
Hindus, All these elements shook up together

AN ANTHOLOGY. 109

cordially, and there was an under-grouping of
lower caste, native and foreign, all in their
peculiar costun^es, which, with the singular
vehicles, the strange scenery, the ocean, and the
•cloudless sky, made a succession of bright
pictures.

Lady Strachey's ''Memoirs of a Highland
Lady," pages 417-418.

A Viceroy on his Landing.

The Marquis of Dufferin.

Our landing in Bombay ( December 1884)
was really a beautiful sight. We were asked to
remain on board the ship until half-past four in
order that the troops and the spectators might not
be inconvenienced by the sun. The fleet has
been collected to add dignity to our 'Avatar/ and
filled the bay with smoke and thunder. The town
is situated on an island, or rather on a peninsula,
with some picturesque heights and hills standing
up round it. The temperature was exquisite,
the atmosphere full of li'ght, while balmy breezes
prevented it being too hot. You can easily
imagine the scene upon the quay, bright with
guards of honour, cavalry escorts, and military
and civil dignitaries in uniform; but what it
would be impossible for you to conceive was
the extraordinary strangeness and beauty of the
streets. We had to drive six miles from the
landing-stage to Government House, and the

no BOMBAY:

road on either side was lined by crowds of
men in every sort of costume, interspersed with
others with scarcely any clothes at all. Indeed,
there were a good many ladies who were by
no means profusely clad. But what was-
unimaginable was the colouring of the whole.
A bed of flowers gives you no conception of
its brilliancy. Nor indeed was brillincy its
chief characteristic, but rather the most delicious
harmony — subdued reds and blues and yellows-
intermingled with a confused mass of dusky
limbs and faces, and eyes that sparkled like
jewels. They cheered vociferously, with almost
as full an intonation as an English crowd. At
the same time they clapped their hands or
bowed low, touching their foreheads or putting
their palms together. As we passed from the
richer quarters of the town into the streets
where the mechanics dwelt, the spectacle was.
still more startling, as not only the streets but
the windows of the houses were lined with a
mass of human beings with scarcely a stitch on
their bodies. In fact, there is nothing strikes the
new-comer so much as the summery appearance
of everybody.

Nothing surprised me more than to find
the European portion of Bombay having so
much the appearance of a university town. It
is crammed with handsome buildings in blue
and white stone in the collegiate Gothic style.
Many of these have been erected at the cost,
of rich Parsees One school was filled with

AN ANTHOLOGY. in

Parsee ladies and girls, dressed in every kind
of lovely silk and satin.

I opened an Institution for sick cattle.
Having pulled the doors of a cowshed asunder
amidst the cheers of the people, a gentleman«
advanced, bearing in his hand a tray filled
with fruits and vegetables; cocoa-nuts and egg?,,
and bottles of variously coloured unguents-
The eggs he dashed upon the ground, to the
great detriment of the ladies' dresses. He
broke the cocoa-nuts and sprinkled the milk.
around. He then smeared the lintels of the
door-post with his red and yellow coloured
ointments, and finally strewed the rest of the
contents of his basket on the ground. It was
like seeing a chapter of Leviticus in action.

This house is an enormous building, like a
body with four legs sprawling out from it. The
body consists of a single hall floored with
marble, and with a double row of marble columns
running from one end of it to the other. The
legs constitute four wings, in one of which my
wife and I have pitched our tent, two of the
remaining wings being devoted to guests.

I liked Bombay much better than Calcutta,.
the air being far pleasanter. In Calcutta it is
damp and muggy and more or less depressing,,
though not so much so, at all events at present,.
as the Bosphorus.

Letter to Lady Dartrey in Life by Lyall, Vol. II,
1905. pages 73-75'

J 12 BOMBAY:

A Viceroys First Impressions.

The Earl of Lytton.

Our reception (April 1876) by the population
of Bombay appeared to me very enthusiastic.
The streets were densely crowded, and we were
loudly cheered, nearly the whole way to Govern-
ment House. I think I never in my life saw a town
so picturesque as Bombay — I do not even except
Venice; and its very mixed population is clad in
an almost infinite variety of costumes except
fhose who are not clad at all. The Parsee ladies
seem to wear no petticoats; but the Parsee
gentlemen make up for the deficiency by wear-
ing a great many petticoats. These Parsees are,
I think, among the very best of your Majesty's
Indian subjects; and I wish that your Majesty
had more of them. They are a wonderfully
thriving community wherever you find them.
I'hey have a genius for business, and rarely fail
in it. I have not yet seen a thin Parsee, and I
doubt if I have seen a poor one. They seem to be
all fat, rich, and happy. A population engaged in
successful industry, and making money rapidly, is
always conservative and loyal to the power which
protects its purse. We stayed only one day in
Bombay ; but during our short sojourn there I was
able to visit the principal institutions and one of
the cotton-mills, besides receiving many of the
local notables.

Letter to Queen Victoria, in Personal and
Literary Letters. 1906, Vol. II, pp. 6-7.

AN ANTHOLOGY. 113

An Orientalist's Impressions.

Sir M. Monier-Williams.

We need not quote a Western poet in
support of the trite truism that impressions
on 'the mind, to be deep, must be made by
scenes actually witnessed.

There is an Eastern saying that the distance
between the ear and the eye is very small,
but the difference between hearing and seeing
is very great.

Much information can be gained about
India from books and newspapers, and much>
by asking questions of old Indians who have
spent their lives in the country, but, after all,
India must be seen to be understood.

The instant I set foot on the landing-place
at Bombay, I became absorbed in the interest of
every object that met my sight — the magnificent
harbour with its beautiful islands, secluded creeks,
and grand background of hills ; the picturesque
native boats gliding hither and thither; the
array of ships from every quarter of the globe
riding at anchor — every feature in the surrounding
landscape, every rock and stone under my feet,
every animal and plant around me on the shore,
every man, woman, and child in the motley
throng passing and repassing on the quay,
from the Bhisti, or water-carrier, who laid the
dust by means of a skin slung on his back,
o the boy who importuned me for bakhshish

114 BOMBAY:

to exhibit a fight between a snake held in his
hand and a mongoose concealed in a basket.

Though I was born in India, and had
lived as a child in India, and had been educated
for India, and had read, thought, spoken, and
dreamt about India all my life, I had entered
a new world.

On the esplanade, in front of the chief
public buildings of Bombay, an extraordinary
spectacle presented itself. An immense concourse
of people was collected, waiting for the Prince
of Wales, who was expected at the Secretariat
to hold his first levee — no dingy crowd of
Londoners hustling each other in a foggy, smoky
atmosphere, but at least a hundred thousand
turbaned Asiatics, in bright coloured dresses
of every hue, moving sedately about in orderly
groups under a glittering sky. The whole
plain seemed to glow and flash with kalei-
doscopic combinations of dazzling variegated
colours. Rows of well-appointed carriages
belonging to rich Bombay merchants, some
containing Parsi ladies and children in gorgeous,
costumes, with coachmen in brilliant liveries,
line the esplanade. Gem-bespangled Rajas,
Maharajas, and Nawabs dashed by in four-horsed
equipages, with troops of outriders before
and behind.

Modern India and the Indians, 1878, pp. 27-28^

AN ANTHOLOGY. 115

A Lady's Impressions Seventy Four
Years Ago

Emma Roberts.

The bunder, or pier, where passengers dis-
embark upon their arrival in Bombay, though
well-built and convenient, off ers a strong . ontrast
to the splendours of Chandpaul Ghaut in Calcutta;
neither are the bunder-boats at all equal in
elegance to the budgerows, bohlias, and other
small craft, which we find upon the Hooghley.
There is nothing to indicate the wealth or the im-
portance of the Presidency to be seen at a glance;
the Scottish church, a white-washed building of no
pretensions, being the most striking object fromi
the sea. Landward, a range of handsome houses
flank so dense a mass of buildings, occupying
the interior of the Fort, as to make the whole
appear more like a fortified town than a place of
arms, as the name would denote. The tower of
the Cathedral, rising in the centre, is the only
feature in the scene which boasts any architectural
charm; and the Esplanade, a wide plain, stretch-
ing from the ramparts to the sea, is totally des-
titute of picturesque beauty.

The first feelings, therefore, are those of
disappointment, and it is not until the eye has
been accustomed to the view, that it becomes
pleased with many of the details ; the interest
increasing with the development of other and
more agreeable features, either not seen at all, or

Il6 BOMBAY:

seen through an unfavourable medium. The
aspect of the place improved, as, after crossing
the Esplanade or plain, the carriage drove along
roads cut through palm-tree woods, and at length,
when I reached my place of destination, I thought
that I had never seen any thing half so beautiful.

The apartments which, through the kindness
of hospitable friends, I called my own, command-
ed an infinite variety of the most magnificent
scenery imaginable. To the left, through a wide
vista between two hills, which seemed cleft for
the purpose of admitting the view, lay the placid
waters of the ocean, land-locked, as it were, by
the bold bluff of distant islands, and dotted by a
fairy fleet of fishing-boats, with their white sails
glittering in the sun. In front, over a beautifully-
planted fore-ground, I looked down upon a per-
fect sea of palms, the tall palmyras lifting their
proud heads above the rest, and all so interming-
led with other foliage, as to produce the richest
variety of hues. This fine wood, a spur of what
may be termed a forest further to the right, skirt-
ed a broad plain which stretched out to the
beach, the bright waters beyond expanding and
melting into the horizon, while to the right it was
bounded by a hilly ridge feathered with palm-
trees, the whole bathed in sunshine, and forming
altogether a perfect Paradise.

Every period of the day, and every variation
in the state of the atmosphere, serve to bring
out new beauties in this enchanting scene ; and

AN ANTHOLOGY. H;

the freshness and delicious balm of the morning,
the gorgeous splendour of mid-day, the crimson
and amber pomps of evening, and the pale
moonlight, tipping every palm-tree top with
silver, produce an endless succession of magical
effects. In walking about the garden
and grounds of this delightful residence, we
are continually finding some new point from
which the view appears to be more beautiful
than before. Upon arriving at tha verge of the
cleft between the two hills, we look down from
a considerable elevation over rocky precipitous
ground, with a village (Mazagong ) skirting the
beach, while the prospect, widening, shows the
whole of the harbour, with the high Ghauts
forming the back-ground.

Turning to the other side, behind the hill
which shuts out the sea, the landscape is of
the richest description — roads winding through
thick plantations, houses peeping from
embowering, trees, and an umbrageous forest
beyond. The whole of Bombay abounds
with landscapes which, if not equal to that
from Chinchpooglee Hill, which I have, vainly
I fear, attempted to describe, boast beauties
peculiarly their own, the distinguishing feature
being the palm-tree. It is impossible to
imagine the luxuriance and elegance of this
truly regal family as it grows in Bombay, each
separate stage, from the first appearance of the
different species, tufting the earth with those

Ii8 BOMBAY:

stately crowns which afterwards shoot up so
grandly, being marked with beauty. The variety
of the foliage of the cocoa-nut, the brab, and
others, the manner of their growth, differing
according to the different directions taken, and
the exquisite grouping Avhich continually occurs,
prevent the monotony which their profusion
might otherwise create, the general effect being,
under all circumstances, absolutely perfect.
Though the principal, the palm is far from being
the only tree, and while frequently forming
whole groves, it is as frequently blended with two
species of cypress, the peepul, mango, wild
cinnamon, and several others.

Overland Journey to Bombay. 1841, pp. 213-217.

A Russian Lady's Impressions

Madame Blavatsky.

Late in the evening of the sixteenth of
February, 1879, after a rough voyage which
lasted thirty-two days, joyful exclamations were
heard everywhere on deck. '"' Have you seen the
lighthouse.?" "There it is at last, the Bombay
lighthouse."

Cards, books, music, everything was forgot-
ten. Everyone rushed on deck. The moon had
not risen as yet, and, in spite of the starry tropical
sky, it was quite dark. The stars were so bright
that, at first, it seemed hardly possible to dis-

AN ANTHOLOGY. 119

tinguish, far away amongst them, a small fiery-
point lit by earthly hands. The stars winked at
us like so many huge eyes in the black sky, on
one side of which shone the Southern Cross. At
last we distinguished the lighthouse on the dis-
tant horizon. It was nothing but a tiny fiery
point diving in the phosphorescent waves. The
tired travellers greeted it warmly. The rejoicing
was general.

What a glorious daybreak followed this dark
night ! The sea no longer tossed our ship. Under
the skilled guidance of the pilot, who had just
arrived, and whose bronze form was so sharply
defined against the pale sky, our steamer, breath-
ing heavily with its broken machinery, slipped
over the quiet, transparent waters of the Indian
Ocean straight to the harbour. We were only
four miles from Bombay, and, to us, who had
trembled with cold only a few weeks ago in the
Bay of Biscay, which has been so glorified by
many poets and so heartily cursed by all sailors,
■our surroundings simply seemed a magical dream.

After the tropical nights of the Red Sea
and the scorching hot days that had tortured us
since Aden, we, people of the distant North,
now experienced something strange and un-
wonted, as if the very fresh soft air had cast
its spell over us. There was not a cloud in the
sky, thickly strewn with dying stars. Even the
moonlight, which till then had covered the sky
with its silvery garb, was gradually vanishing ;

120 BOMBAY :

and the brighter grew the rosiness of dawn
over the small island that lay before us in the
East, the paler in the West grew the scattered
rays of the moon that sprinkled with bright
flakes of light the dark wake our ship left be-
hind her, as if the glory of the West was bid-
ding good-bye to us, while the light of the East
welcomed the new-comers from far-off lands.
Brighter and bluer grew the sky, swiftly absorb-^
ing the remaining pale stars one after the other,
and we felt something touching in the sweet
dignity with which the Queen of Night resigned
her rights to the powerful usurper. At last,,
descending lower and lower, she disappeared
completely.

And suddenly, almost without interval
between darkness and light, the red-hot globe,
emerging on the opposite side from under the
cape, leant his golden chin on the lower rocks of
the Island and seemed to stop for a while, as
if examining us. Then, with one powerful
effort, the torch of day rose high over the
sea and gloriously proceeded on its path, in-
cluding in one mighty fiery embrace the blue
waters of the bay, the shore and the islands
with their rocks and cocoanut forests. His
golden rays fell upon a crowd of Parsees, his
rightful worshippers, who stood on shore raising
their arms towards the mighty " Eye of Ormuzd."
The sight was so impressive that everyone on
deck became silent fcr a moment, even a red-
nosed old sailor, who was busy quite close ta

AN ANTHOLOGY. 121

us over the cable, stopped working, and clearing:
his throat, nodded at the sun.

Moving slowly and cautiously along the
charming but treacherous bay, we had plenty of
time to admire the picture around us. On the
right was a group of islands with Gharipuri or
Elephanta, with its ancient temple, at their
head. Gharipuri translated means " the town of
caves " according to the Orientalists, and " the
town of purification" according to the native
Sanskrit scholars. This temple, cut by an
unknown hand in the very heart of a rock
resembling porphyry, is a true apple of discord
amongst the archoeologists, of whom none can
as yet fix, even approximately, its antiquity.
Elephanta raises high its rockly brow, all
overgrown with secular cactus, and right under
it, at the foot of the rock, are hollowed cut
the chief temple and the two lateral ones.
Like the serpent of our Russian fairy tales, it
seems to be opening its fierce black mouth ta
swallow the daring mortal who comes to take
possession of the secret mystery of Titan, ks
two remaining teeth, dark with time, are formed
by two huge pillars at the entrance, sustaining
the palate of the monster.

How many generations of Hindus, how
many laces, have knelt in the dust before the
Trimurti, your three-fold deity, O Elephanta ?
How many centuries were spent by weak man in
digging out in your stone bosom this town of
temples and carving your gigantic idols ? Who

122 BOMBAY :

•can say ? Many years have elapsed since I saw
you last, ancient, mysterious temple, and still
the same restless thoughts, the same recurrent
questions vex me now as they did then, and
■still remain unanswered. In a few days we
-shall see each other again. Once more I shall
^aze upon your stern image, upon your three
liuge granite faces, and shall feel as hopeless as
-ever of piercing the mystery of your being.

On the left side of the bay, exctly opposite
Elephanta, and as if in contrast with all its
antiquity and greatness, spreads Malabar *HilI,
the residence of the modern Europeans and
rich natives. Their brightly painted bungalows
are bathed in the greenery of banyan, Indian
fig, and various other trees, and the tall and
straight trunks of cocoanut palms cover with the
fringe of their leaves the whole ridge of the hilly
headland. There, on the south-western end of
the rock, you see the almost transparent, lace-like
Government House surrounded on three sides
by the ocean. This is the coolest and the most
comfortable part of Bombay, fanned by three
-different sea breezes.

Bombay is part of a considerable group of
Islands, the most remarkable of which are Sal-
"sette, joined to Bombay by a mole, Elephanta,
so named by the Portuguese because of a huge
rock cut in the shape of an elephant thirteen
feet long, and Trombay, whose lovely rock rises
nine hundred feet above the surface of the sea.

AN ANTHOLOGY. 123

Bombay looks, on the maps, like an enormous
cray-fish, and is at the head of the rest of the
islands. Spreading far out into the sea its two
claws, Bombay island stands like a sleepless
guardian watching over his younger brothers.
Between it and the Continent there is a narrow
arm of a river, which gets gradually broader and
then again narrower, deeply indenting the sides
of both shores, and so forming a haven that has
no equal in the world. It was not without reason
that the Portuguese, expelled in the course of
time by the English, used to call it " Buona
Bahia."

In a fit of tourist exaltation some travellers
have compared it to the Bay of Naples; but, as
a matter of fact, the one is as much like the other
as a lazzaroni is like a Kuli. The whole resemb-
lance between the two consists in the fact
that there is water in both. In Bombay, as well
as in its harbour, eveiything is original and
■does not in the least remind one of Southern
Europe. Look at those coasting vessels and
native boats; both are built in the likeness of the
sea bird "sat", a kind of kingfisher. When in
motion these boats are the personification of
grace, with their long prows and rounded poops.
They look as if they were gliding backwards,
and one might mistake for wings the strangely
shaped, long lateen sails, their narrow angles
fastened upwards to a yard. Filling these two
wings with the wind, and careening, so as almost
to touch the surface of the water, these boats will

124 BOMBAY:

fly along with astonishing swiftness. Unlike our
European boats they do not cut the waves, but
glide over them like a sea-gull.

The surroundings of the bay transported us
to some fairy land of the Arabian Nights. The
ridge of the Western Ghauts, cut through here and
there by some separate hills almost as high as
themselves, stretched all along the Easte](;n shore.
From the base to their fantastic rocky tops, they
are all overgrown with impenetrable forests and
jungles inhabited by wild animals. Every rock
has been enriched by the popular imagination
with an independent legend. All over the slope
of the mountain are scattered pagodas, mos-
ques, and temples of numberless sects. Here and
their the hot rays of the sun strike upon an old
fortress, once dreadful and inaccessible, now half
ruined and covered with prickly cactus. At every
step some memorial of sancitity. Here a deep
vihara, a cave cell of a Buddhist bhikshu saint,
there a rock protected by the symbol of Shiva,
further on a Jaina temple, or a holy tank, all
covered with sedge and filled with water^
once blessed by a Brahman and able to purify
every sin, an indispensable attribute of all pago-
das. All the surroundings are covered with
symbols of gods and goddesses. Each of the
three hundred and thirty millions of deities of
the Hindu Pantheon has its representative ia
something consecrated to it, a stone, a flower, a
tree, or a bird. On the West side of Malabar

AN ANTHOLOGY. 125

Hill peeps through the trees Valukeshvar,
the temple of the " Lord of Sand." A long
stream of Hindus moves towards this celebrated
temple; men and women, shining with rings on
their fingers and toes, with bracelets from their
wrists up to their elbows, clad in bright turbans
and snow white muslins, with foreheads freshly
painted with red, yellow, and white, holy
sectarian signs.

India is the land of legends and of mysterious
nooks and corners. There is not a ruin, not a
monument, not a thicket, but has a story
attached to it. Yet, however they may be en-
tangled in the cobweb of popular imagination,
which becomes thicker with every generation, it
is difficult to point out a single one that is not
founded on fact. With patience and, still more,
with the help of the learned Brahmans you can
always get at the truth, when once you have
secured their trust and friendship.

The same road leads to the temple of the
Parsee fire-worshippers. At its altar burns an
unquenchable fire, which daily consumes hundred
weights of sandal wood and aromatic herbs.
Lit three hundred years ago, the sacred fire has
never been extinguished, notwithstanding many
disorders, sectarian discords, and even wars.
The Parsees are very proud of this temple of
Zaratushtra, as they call Zoroaster. Compared
with it the Hindu pagodas look like brightly
painted Easter eggs. Generally they are conse-

126 BOMBAY:

crated to Hanuman, the monkey-god and the
faithful ally of Rama, or to the elephant-headed
Ganesha, the god of the occult wisdom, or to
one of the Devis. You meet with these temples,
in every street. Before each there is a row of
pipals ( Ficus religiosa ) centuries old, which no
temple can dispense with, because these trees are
the abode of the elementals and the sinful souls.

All this is entangled, mixed, and scattered^
appearing to one's eyes like a picture in a dream.
Thirty centuries have left their traces here. The
innate laziness and the strong conservative ten-
dencies of the Hindus, even before the European
invasion, preserved all kinds of monuments from
the ruinous vengeance of the fanatics, whether
those memorials were Buddhist, or belonged to
some other unpopular sect. The Hindus are not
naturally given to senseless vandalism, and a
phrenologist would vainly look for a bump of
destructiveness on their skulls. If you meet witli
antiquities that, having been spared by time, are,
nowadays, either destroyed or disfigured, it is not
they who are to blame, but either Mussulmans, or
the Portuguese under the guidance of the Jesuits.

As last We were anchored and, in a moment,,
were besieged, ourselves as well as our luggage>,
by numbers of naked skeleton-like Hindus,.
Parsees, Moguls, and various other tribes. All
this crowd emerged, as if from the bottom of the
sea, and began to shout, to chatter, and to yell,
as only the tribes of Asia can. To get rid of this.

AN ANTHOLOGY. 12^

Babel confusion of tongues as soon as possible^
we took refuge in the first bunder boat and made
for the shore.

From the Caves and Jungles of Hindostan^
1892, pp. 3-II-

An American's First Impressions.

Bayard Taylor.

We came to a stone pier, with a long flight
of steps leading down to the water. The top of
it was thronged with natives in white dresses-
and red turbans. Among them were the runners
of the hotels, and I soon found the one I wanted.
At a small customs office on the pier, my baggage
was passed unexamined, on my declaring that I
had but two pounds of Turkish tobacco. A line
of cabs, buggies and palanquins with their bearers
was drawn up on the pier, and in order to be as
Indian as possible, I took one of the latter.

It was not a pleasant sensation to lie at full
length in a cushioned box, and impose one's
whole weight (and I am by no means a feather)'
upon the shoulders of four men. It is a con-
veyance invented by Despotism, when men's.
necks were foot-stools, and men's heads play-
things. I have never yet been able to get into it
without a feeling of reluctance, as if I were in-
flicting an injury on my bearers- Why should
they groan and stagger under my weight, when I

128 BOMBAY:

have legs of my own ? — and yet, I warrant you,
nothing would please them less than for me to
use those legs. These wear pads on the shoulders
on which rests the pole to which the palanquin is
suspended, and go forward at a slow, sliding trot,
scarcely bending their knees or lifting their feet
from the ground. The motion is agreeable, yet as
you are obliged to lie on your back, you have a very
imperfect view of the objects you pass. You
can travel from one end of India to another in this
style, but it is an expensive and unsatisfactory
conveyance, and I made as little use of it as poss-
ible, in my subsequent journeys.

As I was borne along, I saw, through thecor-
ners of my eyes, that we passed over a moat and
through a heavy stone gateway. I then saw the
bottoms of a row of fluted Grecian pillars — a
church, as I afterwards found — then shops, very
much in the European style, except that
turbaned Hindoos and mitred Parsees stood
in the doors, and finally my bearers came
to a halt in a wooden verandah, were I was
received by Mr. Pallanjee, the host of the British
Hotel. I was ushered up lofty flights of wooden
steps to the third story, and installed in a small
room, overlooking a wide prospect of tiled roofs,
graced here and there with a cocoa-nut or brab
palm. The partitions to the rooms did not reach
the ceiling; there were no glass windows, but
merely blinds, and every breeze that came, swept
through the whole house. The servants were

AN ^ANTHOLOGY. I2gi

mostly Portuguese, from Goa, but as India is
especially the country of servant and master,
every person is expected to have one for his own
use. I chose a tall Hindoo, with one red streak
and two white ones (the signs of caste) on his
forehead, who for half a rupee daily, performed
the duties of guide, interpreter, messenger and
valet de chamhre. Nothing can exceed the
respect shown to Europeans by the native ser-
vants. They go far beyond the Arab and Turkish
domestics of the East, or even the slaves in
Pgypt. No Russian serf could have a greater
reverence for his lord. As a natural consequence
of this, they are noted for their fidelity; the
ayahs, or nurses, are said to be the best in the
world.

Bombay, as a city, presents few points of
interest to a traveller. It is wholly of modern
growth, and more than half European in its
appearance. It is divided into two parts — the
Fort, as it is called, being enclosed within the old
Portuguese fortifications and surrounded by a
moat. It is about a mile in length, extending
along the shore of the bay. Outside of the moat
is a broad esplanade, beyond which, on the north-
ern side, a new city has grown up. The
fortifications are useless as a means of defence,
the water of the moat breeds mosquitos and
fevers, and I do not understand why the walls
should not have been levelled long since. The
city within the Fort is crowded to excess. Many
of the streets are narrow, dark and dirty, and

130 BOMBAY :

as the houses are frequently of wood, the place is
exposed to danger from fire. The population
and trade of Bombay have increased so much
within the last few years, that this keeping up
of old defences is a great inconvenience. So
far are the old practices preserved, that at one
particular gate, where there was a powder
magazine twenty years ago, no person is permit-
ted to smoke. Southward of the Fort is a tongue
of land— formerly the island of Colaba, but now
connected by a causeway — on which stands the
light-house. To the north-west, beyond the city,
rises Malabar Hill, a long, low height, looking
upon the open ocean, and completly covered with
the gardens and country-houses of the native
and European merchants.

Visit to India and China, 1856, pp. 35-38.

An Under=Secretary's Impressions.

Sir M. E. Grant Duff.

A little before three this morning ( 28 Nov.
1874) I was awoke by the vessel stopping ; and as
I looked out of my window, a bright flash met my
eyes. It came from the lighthouse on the Prongs,
and we. were at length in Indian waters. Before
dawn, most people were on deck, and were
rewarded by a sunrise of great beauty— long lines
of violet lying above the flat-topped hills of the
Maharatta country, and the numerous islands

AN ANTHOLOGY. 131

formed like these of trap, which stud the great
inlet of the sea known as Bombay harbour.

Some hours passed in the usual preparations,
and about eight o'clock five of us got into a
steam-launch, which the Governor had sent out,
and proceeded to the landing-place of Mazagon,
whence we drove to his country house at Parell.
The trajet would, I have no doubt, have looked
common-place enough to many eyes accustomed
to India ; but to mine it was full of novelty and
interest. First came the boats, with their grace-
ful sails, formed, most of them, out of
many pieces of cloth sewn together ; theft
the strange sandals of the men on the
landing-stairs. Next A. pointed out to me the
Cocoa-nut and the Toddy palm, the Mango, the
Casuarina and the gold Mohur tree. Then I heard
" the inevitable Indian crows," while every group
had something to arrest the eye, either from
strangeness of attitude or brilliancy of colour.

After the heat of the day was over, Sir
Philip Wodehouse took us for a long drive.
Passing some of the cotton Mills, which are
already beginning to attract the attention of
Manchester, we turned to the right, across a hid-
eous flat, on which rice is grown in the rains, and
reached the sea-shore just as the sun was setting.
A.called my attention to the curious way in which,
in this land of sudden darkness, the foreground
becomes quite pale and dead, where, in England,
it would still be blazing with colour; to the

132 • BOMBAY:

exquisitely graceful growth of the Cocoa-nut
palms, in a grove through which we passed; to the
Elephant Creeper (Argyreia speciosa) ; to the
pretty lamps suspended in the shops of the native
town, and to much else. It was indeed no small
privilege to have my first peep of India under the
guidance of an eye and mind to which everything
was at once familiar and fresh.

Skirting Back Bay, a name rather too famous
in the modern history of the Western Presidency,
we arrived at the great range of public buildings
which has recently arisen under the initiative of
Sir Bartle Frere, and which would do honour to
any capital. Then we turned and passed home-
wards, through the crowded streets of Bombay
proper, said to be about the best native city in
India, but which, even with all the advantage of
darkness, and of its many twinkling lights, did
not strike me nearly so much as Cairo.

Notes of an hidian Journey , 1876 pp. 21-23.
2.

We went this morning with the Secretary to
Government over part of the Secretariat, which
commands, I suppose, one of the finest sea views
to be had from any Government office in the
world, and in which the arrangements of the
council-room, &c., had of course a certain interest.

Later, we drove round a large part of the
•town with Dr. Wilson — a great pleasure — to be
■put in the same class, as going over Canterbury

AN ANTHOLOGY. I33r

Cathedral with the author of the Memorials, the
Greyfriars churchyard with Robert Chambers,
or Holyrood with poor Joseph Robertson. Dr.
Wilson has been here nearly fifty years, and
has seen generation after generation of officials
rise, culminate, and disappear.

It would take too long to enumerate all the
things we saw, but I note especially a Shiah
mosque, the first I ever looked upon ; the street
which supplies all Asia with Mahometan bookst
more being reproduced here (by lithography
chiefly) than in Constantinople or any other
city ; a small mosque, which forms the centre of
whatever is fanatical and dangerous in the
Mussulman population of Bombay ; a tiny temple
of the monkey god Hanuman ; and opposite it
a much larger one, dedicated to Siva. We walk-
ed through the second of these, amidst a ghastly
but amicable crowd of worshippers, chiefly men
from Guzerat. You remember thinking El Azbar
one of the most extraordinary places you ever
entered. Well, this temple is as much more
unfamiliar than El. Azhar, as that is than St.
Sophia. The centre is formed by a tank, in
which people were bathing, and round which
there were, I think, four different shrines. Sacred
cattle encumbered the pathway, while hideous
and filthy devotees squatted about everywhere —
one, who was smeared with ashes from head to
foot, being pre-eminently unpleasant.

Notes of an Indian Journey, pages 41-42.

134 BOMBAY :

The train from Poona came in sight, and,
picking . us up by the courteous arrangement
of the authorities, carried us down through the
magnificent pass known as the Bhore Ghaut, ta
the lowlands near Bombay. The line is a noble
piece of engineering, and the scenery is even
more striking than that along the Nervion,
between Miranda and Bilbao, which it frequently
recalls.

The breeze blew fresh from the sea as we
crossed Salsette, and ere long we were once
more at the starting-place of our three month's
wanderings, under the hospitable roof of Sir
Philip Wodehouse.

Parell, March /th 1875. — It is very hot— the
thermometer about 90° in the shade, but there is
a delicious breeze. The only really bad time here
is the month of May, when the breeze fails.

The garden is looking lovely — two huge
white triumphal arches of the imperial Beaumontia
being its chief feature.

The Parell mangoes, the best in India, are
in full flower.

In the evening I went to the cathedral, and
saw the admirable recumbent statue of J-'s excel-
lent friend, Bishop^ Carr, which I had missed
last December, though I sat close to it. On the
way back I observed, for the first time, the
zodiacal light, which I have looked for in vain so
often.

AN ANTHOLOGY. 135

March 8th. — I rose early, and wandered down
to the sea across the Mahim palm groves. The
-cocoa-nut is the prevailing tree, though I saw
some of the Borassus, and a few of the Areca.
The coast of Ceylon, they tell me, is bordered by
just such woods as these for hundreds of miles.
"The whole scene was thoroughly tropical, a
single leaf sometimes stretching over a road
where two carriages could pass each other, and
the little huts looking like vignettes to Paul et
Virginie. At length I reached the shore. The
tide was far out, but there were few shells, and
none at all attractive— a great contrast this to the
last beaches we explored together near Suez, and
at Ramleh.

Notes of an Indian Journey, pp. 237-g.

136 . BOMBAY:

Jumble of Nations

Sir James Mackintosh.

I am carried in my palanquin by bearers-
from Hyderabad. I have seen monkeys and
their tricks exhibited by a man from Ougein.
I condemn a native of Ahmedabad to the pillory.
I have given judgment on a bill for brandy
supplied by a man who kept a dram-shop at
Poonah. I have decided the controversies of
parties who live in Cutch; and granted commission
to examine witnesses at Cambay, I have, in the
same morning, received a visit from a Roman
Catholic Bishop, of the name of Ramazzini, from
Modena, a descendant of the celebrated physician^
Ramazzini, a relation of Muratori, who wondered
that an Englishman should be learned enough
to quote Virgil ; of an Armenian Archbishop
from Mount Ararat ; of a Shroif ( money dealer )
from Benares, who came hither by the way of
Jyenagur, and who can draw bills on his
correspondents at Cabul ; and of the Dustoor,
or Chief-Priest, of the Parsees at Surat, who is
copying out for me the genuine works of Zoroa-
ster. All this jumble of nations, and usages,
and opinions, looks, at a distance, as if it would
be very amusing, and for a moment it does,
entertain.

The island of Bombay is beautiful and
picturesque ; it is of very various surface, well
wooded, with bold rocks and fine bays, studded
with smaller islands. There is scarcely any

AN. ANTHOLOGY. t^T

part of the coast of England where the sea has-
better neighbours of every kind. But what
avails all this, in a cursed country where you
cannot ramble amidst these scenes ; where, for
the far greater part of the day, you are confined
to the house, and where, during your short
evening walk you must be constantly on your
guard against cobra capells and cobra matiills.
The pleasure of scenery is here but little ; and
so seems to have thought a young artist, whonr
a strange succession of accidents threw upon our
shores, W..., a -brother of the Academician, and
a young man who seems not destitute of talents.
Memoirs. 1836, Vol I. Pages 212 to 214.

A Picturesque City

Sir Henry Craik

Of the general appearence of Bombay I an>
conscious that it requires some temerity for a
new-comer to speak. One thing adds infinitely
to its picturesqueness, as compared with a South
African town : there is no banning from the
streets of native costume, or even lack of cos-
tume, and this, as it seems to me, is all to the
good. The ugliest sight one can see in Durban
or Johannesburg is the native clad in European
dress; the most attractive sight in the thorough-
fares of Bombay is the native in his many
coloured garb, and with that lissomeness of limb*
which its freedom gives. All along the Queen's.

138 BOMBAY:

Road, the promenade which runs along the sea
to Malabar Hill, crowded as it is with carriages,
motors, and bullock-carts, we come across natives
peacefully sleeping on the side paths, or quietly-
cooking their meals in the airiest of garments.
We pass the fishing village, and then climb the
road to Malabar Hill, and on between picturesque
gardens and the many-coloured villas of the
wealthier natives, with their bright tiles glittering
in the sun. It is a picture which we could see
nowhere else, and even the stifling heat is re-
lieved by the breeze which comes from the wide
expanse of sea on each side of us.

Of Bombay as a city, what can one say?
Its sea-front looks bright and magnificent from
the harbour — what large piles of sumptuous build-
ings could look otherwise in such a sunlight .'*
The great mass of the Taj Hotel dominates
them all. It shows itself frankly for what it is
■ — a large advertisement, brave in its rather
exaggerated caricature of an Indian palace-
The great ranges of flats and mansions have a
sumptuousness of their own, and would find them-
selves quite at home along the sea-front of
Brighton, which they would fitly embellish.
The Yacht Club is more quiet and dignified, and
tells of comfort without gaudiness in its trim
lawns and white balustrade. The principal
commercial street would be a splendid thorough-
fare in any European capital, and its ware-
houses, its banks, its insurance offices, need not
fear comparison with the best of their kind at

AN ANTHOLOGY, 139

"home. It is a thoroughfare of generous width
bordered with rows of trees, and broken here
and there by public gardens rich with flowers.
Bombay there displays its wealth, but for real
interest we must go to the narrow and crowded
streets of the native town, down the passage of
the Bazaar where natives of every tribe are chat-
tering and gesticulating, while at every second
or third stall the vendor is peacefully sleeping
after his morning's work, and crowds of infants
grin at us merrily from the corners and the
recesses at the back. Occasionally a specially
active stall-holder offers us his wares; for the
most part they only turn on us a vacant and
preccupied glance, and sink back into their own
inscrutable indifference.

It is brilliant city, brimful of interest in its
native quarter, lavish in its display of wealth in
the business streets, picturesque in its residential
suburbs, with their wealth of colour and of
foliage. It may be a heresy, but to my mind
there is one, and only one, British building of
real architectural beauty in Bombay. It is the
old Town Hall, built, I suppose, in the
eighteenth century, when the Adam influence
was strong, and when our great-grandfathers
struck what one is tempted to think was the
true note — that of making their buildings dis-
tinctive of our national character, and attempting
no flimsy imitations in the Indo-Saracenic style.
Those who, no doubt, know better will condemn
my bad taste; but, frankly, I must confess that

140 BOMBAY:

this fashion of aping the beauties of alien style
does not attract me. The University does not
carry this too far, and has an architectural
beauty of its own. The Secretariat might have
been even more imposing with advantage, as.
the outward embodiment of our rule. But the
railway stations, with their inharmonious
imitation of the Eastern style, strike one only
as inept and misplaced.

In some respects Calcutta is in sharp con-
trast with Bombay. At Bombay one is chiefly
struck by the variety of the motley throng, by
the picturesque and brilliant colouring, by the
entirely Oriental aspect" of the place and by
the rare occurrence of a white face amidst all the
passing crowd. Here in Calcutta it is quite
different. A Calcutta crowd does not show the
same brightness of colour and the same teeming-
variety as Bombay. Nor can Calcutta boast
the splendid sea front which gives to Bombay its-
claim to rank amongst the fairest cities of the
world. But besides its busy, energetic, vigorous
life, and its aspect of solid prosperity, Calcutta
has one invaluable possession — the finest expanse
of open ground in its great Maidan of which
any city can - boast. But although it cannot
rival the beauty of the sea view of Bombay, and
does not equal it in brilliancy of colour, Calcutta
has a massiveness and an impression of energy
which are all its own.

Impressions of India, igo8 pp.^13-16, 209-212,

AN ANTHOLOGY. 141

Czar Nicholas Il's Impressions

Prince Ookhtomsky.

Having driven in state through the streets
of Bombay, it is now time to form a clearer idea
of what surrounds us, and of the interest attach-
ing to that part of India whither the journey of
their Highness has led us. From the roomy
verandah of Government House on Malabar Hill,
we have a really magnificent view of the ocean
we have just crossed, of the chaos of European
and native buildings, with stately towers, long
open galleries and soft outlines which seem to
melt into the radiant distance. Between the city
and the Government House, at present the abode
of the Cesarewitch, lie the waters of the broad
and shallow Back Bay running up into that part
of the land which is chiefly occupied by the
newer quarters of Bombay. The calm surface of
these waters forms a marked contrast to the
harbour by the absence of any large vessels, and
of the forest of masts, funnels, and sails which
lines the dark-blue, foam-flecked sea lying
beyond the chief European quarter. We are
indeed in India, but in an India widely different
from that dreamt of on the way hither when the
fancy, oblivious of the sameness and want
of beauty which is to some extent peculiar to all
.seaport towns with a wide commercial develop-
ment, painted the Malabar coast? without due
warrant, as an all but virgin forest, inhabitod
by a strange people and full of mysterious

142 BOMBAY:

temples overpowering in their majesty and
unequalled beauty. Instead of this, the first
impressions received in the interval between our
entrance into the harbour and the drive through
the streets of the European quarter to the resid-
ence of Lord Harris were in reality somewhat
calculated to rouse disappointment. What met
the eye on the way here did not, either in colours
or in form, surpass or efface our recollections of
Egypt still fresh and clear in the memory. On the
contrary excepting the typical faces of the
natives, who from afar off greeted, or rather gazed
with curiosity and wonder at the brilliant proces-
sion on its way from the landing-place to
Malabar Hill, nothing seemed specially indivi-
dual, particularly picturesque or distinguished by
that charm which met us at every step in the yet
unforgotten land of thePharaohs.

Now having collected oneself after receivings
a mass of new impressions, all that has been seen
gradually becomes clearer, the spiritual eye
penetrates, as it were, into the reality of the
things around us, and gradually leads the feeling
that the imagination already reflects a whole
new world, distinguished by this remarkable
peculiarity that it does not at first produce too
deep an impression yet gradually draws the
European deeper and more irresistibly into itself.
He who has once set foot on the shores of India,
who has even for a short time experienc^ed its
charms will never forget this beautiful land,.

AN ANTHOLOGY. 143:

with its peoples at first sight, unattractive and
with its beautiful scenery.

The house in which we now are guests is
undoubtedly one of the most important centres of
Government on the face of the earth. From this
spot the Governor of Bombay rules over an
immense region, with a population of twenty-five
millions : his sway extends over the native
Principalities adjoining the Presidency or forming
part of its territory ; Beloochistan in the north
is the boundary of the power of the administra-
tion to whom the English nation Entrusts on
the western coast of India politically the most
necessary districts of the Indian Empire.

The greater part of the trade of Europe
with the former empire of the Great Moguls is
carried on through Bombay. The coast which
some two or three centuries ago was regarded
as comparatively insignificant from a commercial
point of view, desolate, unhealthy, and
dangerous, on account of the neighbourhood
of pirates, is at present very densely populated,.
has good sanitary arrangements, is covered
with habitations, and may in a [sense, be said
to be fortified. In any case the time lies far
behind us, when not only Europeans, but even
the half-savage natives were here the rivals
and foes of the English by sea. Strictly speaking
it is but a little while ago that the latter gained
a firm footing on the Bombay coast. About
a hundred years ago they did not even hold the

144 : BOMBAY: •

islands that lay nearest the town. Had not
fortune shown such extraordinary favour to th€
countrymen of Clive and Warren Hastings in
India during the last century, it is a very
•doubtful question who would now be ruling
•over that vast country which the Cesarewitch
is about to survey.

Travels in the East of Nicholas 11, Emperor of
Russia, English Ed. igoo. Vol I pp. 178-9.

IMPORTANCE.

IMPORTANCE.

H. M. King George V
on Bombay.

You have rightly said that lam no stranger
among you, and I can heartily respond that I
feel myself no stranger in your beautiful city.
Six years ago I arrived indeed as a new comer ;
but the recollection of your cordial and sympa-
thetic greeting is still fresh in my memory. The
wondrous aspect disclosed by the approach to
your shores, the first glimpse of the palms, rising
as it were from the bosom of the sea, have not
been forgotten, and have lost none of their fascina-
tion for me. From Bombay I set forth in 1905,
encouraged by your affectionate welcome, to
traverse at any rate a part of this vast country,
and to strive to gain some knowledge of its
people. Such knowledge as I acquired could
not but deepen my sympathy with all races and
creeds, and when through the lamented death of
my beloved father I was called to the Throne of
my ancestors, one of my first and most earnest
desires was to revisit my good subjects in India.

It is with feelings of no common emotion that
I find myself here again to-day with the Queen-
Empress at my side and that desire fulfilled.

148 BOMBAY :

And I come with a heart full of gratitude that the
anxiety due to a threatened scarcity in certain
areas of the Presidency has, thanks to favourable
and opportune rains, been happily dispelled, and
that there is every prospect of your land being
blessed with a good spring harvest.

Your eloquent Address has recalled to me that
Bombay was once the dowry of a British Queen.
As such Humphrey Cook took it over two
hundred and fifty years ago, a mere fishing
village. You, gentlemen, and your forerunners,
have rnade it a jewel of the British Crown. I see
again with joy the rich setting of its beautiful and
stately buildings ; I note also the less conspicuous
but also more profitable improvements lately
effected ; but, above all, I recognise with pride
your efforts to heighten what must always be the
supreme lustre of such a jewel as this, the peace,
happiness, and prosperity of all classes of the
citizens. From my heart I thank you for the
generous reception accorded to the Queen
Empress and myself to-day.

We earnestly pray that God's blessing may
rest upon our Indian Empire and that peace and
prosperity may be ever vouchsafed to its people.

Answer to the Bofnbay Address in Dr. Reed's
" King and Queen in India'' igi2 pages 41-42.

AN ANTHOLOGY. 149

The Address of Bombay Citizens
To Their Hajesties.

" The dower of a Royal Alliance, Bombay-
represents no chance settlement acquired by
purchase from petty chiefs, or selected by
merchants fugitive from other centres. Its
importance and future greatness were foreseen
by the sogacity of statesmen, and its acquisition
by a Treaty of State constitutes the first
intervention by the Royal Government of England
in the administration of the land of India.
We proudly claim that the high hopes entertained
by the statesmen who acquired the Island and
by the Governors who faunded and administered
the City have met with rich fulfilment, and that
this city constitutes the strongest link between
the civilization of the East and of the West,
which it has ever been the aim of the British
Government to weld into one harmonious
system.

" We rejoice to think that Bombay is broad
based upon the firmest of foundations in being
united within itself and that the diverse races
and classes whom we represent are actuated
by a strong sense of common citizenship.

" In the gracious presence of Your Imperial
Majesty the Queen Empress, the people of India,
regarding Your Imperial Majesty as the lofty
embodiment of the highest ideals of womanhood,

150 BOMBAY:

will recognise with renewed feelings of gratitude
and affection Your interest in them, as evinced
by this second visit to their shores."

Dr. S. Reed's ' King and Queen in India, ' pp. 38-41,

Edward VII as Prince of Wales
on Bombay.

" It is a great pleasure to me to begin my
travels in India at a place so long associated
with the Royal Family of England, and to find
that during so many generations of British rule
this great port has steadily prospered. Your
natural advantages would have insured a large
amount of commerce under any strong Govern-
ment, but in your various and industrious popu-
lation I gladly recognise the traces of a rule
which gives shelter to all who obey the laws,
which recognises no invidious distinctions of
race, which affords to all perfect liberty in
matters of religious opinion and belief, and
freedom in the permit of trade and of all lawful
callings. I note with satisfaction the assuranes
I derive from your address, that under British
rule men of varied creeds and nations live in
harmony among themselves, and develop to the
utmost those energies which they inherit from
widely separate families of mankind, whilst all
join in loyal attachment to the British Crown, and

AN ANTHOLOGY. 151

take their share, as in my native country, in the
management of their own local affairs. I shall
gladly communicate to Her Majesty what you so
loyally and kindly say regarding the pleasure
which the people of India derive from Her
Majesty's 'gracious permission to me to visit this
part of Her Majesty's Empire. I assure you that
the Princess of Wales has never ceased to share
my regret that she was unable to accompany me.
She has from her very earliest years taken the
most lively interest in this great country, and the
cordiality of your greeting this day will make her
yet more regret the impossibility of her sharing
in person the pleasure your welcome afforded me."

The Prince of Wales' Tour, 1875-6, bv Sir
W. Howard Russell, pp. I19-120.

Wellington on Bombay

Duke of Wellington.

Reply to the address from the British Inhabi-
tants of Bombay. Bombay, 13th March 1804.

'The approbation of this Settlement is a
<iistinction which will afford a permanent source
of gratification to my mind ; and I receive, with a
high sense of respect, the honor conveyed me
by your Address.

The events which preceded the war are of a
nature to demonstrate the justice of our cause ;

152 BOMBAY:

while the forbearance with which the British
Government refrained from the contest is calculat-
ed to manifest that the efficient state of our military
equipment was directed to, the preservation of
peace, and consistant with the principles of our
defensive policy. The comprehensive plan of
operations for the conduct of the war was equalled
by the extent of our resources, and supported by
the concentrated power of the empire. The con-
flict in which the British armies were in conse-
quence engaged presented a theatre capable of
displaying at once the most splendid objects of
military glory, and substantial proofs of the-
pervading wisdom of the British councils. To-
be engaged in such a scene was an object worthy
of the highest ambition ; and the contingencies,
which placed a division of the army under
my command enabled me to appreciate the
permanent causes of our success and power, in
the established discipline of our troops, in the
general union of zeal for the public interests, in
the uniform effects of our consolidated strength,,
and in the commanding influence of our national
reputation in India.

In reviewing the consequences of our success,.
it is with unfeigned satisfaction that I perceive
the increasing channels of wealth which have
been opened to this opulent settlement ; and it is
peculiarly gratifying to my feelings, that I
should have been instrumental in renewing
the benefits of peace to a settlement, from the
resources and public spirit of which, the

AN ANTHOLOGY. ISS

detachments under my command have derived
the most essential aids during the prosecuton
of the war.

The occasion which it has pleased you to
choose of uniting my name with that of the
Governor General has excited the warmest
affections of my heart, together with the highest
sentiments of public respect ; at the same time^
therefore, that I receive with peculiar gratitude,,
this mark of your kindness, I cannot, discharge
the obligations you have imposed on me, in
a manner more conformable to my sense of
the honour and welfare of this settlement, or
of the reputation and interests of the empire,
than by expressing my confidence of ycur
cherishing those principles of loyalty, subordi-
nation, and government, which have raised
and finally established the British empire ift
India on the extensive foundations of its^
present security, prosperity, dignity and renown.*'

Duke of Wellington s Despatches — selected by
Gurwood, pages 156-157,

Marquess of Wellesley's
Praise of Bombay.

Reply to the address from the British Inhabi-
tants of Bombay presented on 22nd March 1804.

The congratulations which you are pleased
to offer to me on the happy termination of the
late war, manifest the most honourable, zealous^

154 BOMBAY:

and just spirit of attachment to the public
welfare, and to the national fame and glory.

I accept the animated expressions of your
confidence and favourable opinion with a due
estimation of the liberal sentiments which
dictated your address, and with a high sense of
the honour conveyed to me by this public
testimony of your approbation.

Your vicinity to the theatre of the war in the
Deccan has enabled you to appreciate with
accuracy and justice, the magnitude of the
dangers which have been surmounted, and the
extent of the substantial advantages which have
been obtained by this signal triumph of the
British arms. In the commencement and progress
of the war in the western quarter of India, the
efficiency of various important branches of our
military operations was secured by the active
aid of the government, of the civil and military
service, and of the British inhabitants of Bombay,
and the useful and cordial assistance which you
contributed in your several capacities to promote
the common cause in the hour of peril, entitles
you to participate in the honour which has
attended our glorious success.

The exertions of Bombay during the late
contest have recalled to my recollection the
distinguished services of that settlement in a
crisis of equal importance; and I have viewed
with confidence and satisfaction the revival of
the same energy and zeal which facilitated the
success of our arms in Mysore.

AN ANTHOLOGY. 155

It is grateful to my mind, that the conclu-
-sion of peace should have established national
advantages, from which, peculiar benefit will be
derived to the settlement of Bombay, by the
-security and extension of its commerce, military
resources, territorial revenues, and political in-
fluence and power. The magnitude and impor-
tance of these advantages afford a due reward
to the loyalty, public zeal and courage uniformly
displayed by the settlement of Bombay during
my administration. Having borne a consider-
able share in the burthen and hazard of war,
you have received a just proportion of the
benefits of peace.

You may rely on the continuance of my
earnest endeavours to promote the improvement
of those benefits, in your opulent and public
-spirited settlement; and to maintain the interests
honour, and welfare of Bombay, by a just
application of the same principles of public
policy which have contributed to secure the
general prosperity of the British Empire in Asia.

Marquis of Wellesley's Despatches^ Vol. Illy
pages 595-596.

156 BOMBAY:

Queen Among Cities

G. W. Steevens.

Bombay is indeed a queen amon^ cities-
Drive down from the Ridge by the white
flooding moonlight, beneath fleshy green leaves
as huge, and flowers as languorously gorgeous^
as in any fairy tale, — beneath hundred-fingered
fronds of palm and wax-foliaged banyans that
feel for earth with roots hanging from their
branches ; past tall broad-shouldered architecture
rising above these. Western in its design, Eastern
in the profusion of its embellishment ; looking,
always out to the blue-veiled bay with the goldea
lights on its horns. Then Ihink of the factory
smoke, the numberless bales of cotton, the hives
of coolies, the panting steamers in the harbour^
the grim-eyed batteries, and the white warships^
Bombay is a beautiful queen in silver armour and.
a girdle of gold.

In India, 1899, page 23.

First to Receive the King

Dr. Stanley Reed.

In all India none made preparation to greet
the King and Queen more joyously than Bombay.
Delhi could rightly claim to be the scene of the
Imperial Durbar. Calcutta, as the seat of the
Government of India, absorbed a large share of

AN ANTHOLOGY. 157

the Emperor's limited time. But none could
challenge the title of Bombay to be the first to
receive the Emperor of United India. Standing
in the midst of a western seaboard which possesses
no other great natural harbour and in close touch
with the most productive districts of the country,
the fortunes of the city are broad based on
unshakeable geographical advantages. They
are buttressed by a population composed of the
most acute trading races of the East. Parsis,
Banias, Khojas and Bhattias, inspired by the
example of Englishmen, have here united to
make this one of the great cities of the world,
justifying in remarkable degree the prescience
of the Viceroy of Goa who declared that India
will be lost on the day when the English nation
is settled in Bombay — then a collection of mean
islets separated by swamps. Here too the
significance of the Royal visit was recognised
from the day when it was announced ; it was
seen that the event was one of profound Imperial
significance a demonstration to the peoples of
the land, and to the wider Empire of which it
forms a great and splendid part, made in the
most conspicuous manner possible, that not
only is India indissolubly one with the far flung
Dominions of the Crown, but has a great
and special place in the responsibilities of the
Royal House. The citizens of Bombay can also
claim, with better right than any other part of
India, to be a united people. Not that there are
no differences, racial, communal, religious, and

158 BOMBAY:

sectarian amongst its million inhabitants, but
because when occasion arises they are brushed
aside like an impalpable cobweb and all act as
one enterprising homogeneous body. Commerce
has proved a wonderful solvent, and the influence-
of the Parsis, free from caste restrictions and
religious bigotry, standing between Englishmait
and Indian, has welded all far more closeljr
than has been practicable elsewhere in Asia.

King and Queen in India, 1912, pages 28-2g..

The Gateway Between the East and
the West

Sir Raymond West.

There was a city in ancient days founded by
a great conqueror,-! am speaking of Alexandria,-
and when that great conqueror founded that city
he established it as a gateway of communication
and as a means of connection between the East
and the West. That great city of commerce was.
the seat of a long line of kings. It had wealth
beyond most cities of the ancient world, and it
was the favoured resort of many of the great ones
of the earth. It has occupied a great place in
history, but the greatest place it has taken has
been on account of its library, on account of its-
learned men, and on account of the philosophy
and learning which grew up there, and which

AN ANTHOLOGY. 159

have left its name, whatever its future fate may-
be, imperishable in the intellectual history of
mankind. Now in our day and our age Bombay
occupies quite an analogous position to that of
Alexandria in the ancient world. Bombay is
for us the gateway between the East and the
West. There meet the men of various nations,,
and there they exchange their merchandise.

There also then, I say, should be that
interchange of thoughts and ideas by which
Bombay, like Alexandria, may rise to a fame
quite independent of the wealth of its citizens,
and of any fate which may befall it. Here in
Bombay, where converging races from the East
and West meet, should rise a school of scholar-
ship and philosophy, which should make this
city a worthy successor to the great city founded
by Alexander the Great. Surely to forward such
a work as this is an ambition worthy of the
greatest and most distinguished of our citizens.
I hope they will now and in all future time rise
to the occasion, and it will be a part of their
ambition — certainly it will be the noblest and
purest part of their ambition — to endow the learn-
ed institutions, and especially the University in
this city, with such gifts, make them so rich, and
furnish such encouragements to learning, re-
search, and study, as shall make Bombay intelle-
ctually the first city in Asia and second to none
in the world. Let me remind these citizens that
at the period of the Renaissance in Europe, which

160 BOMBAY :

corresponds in many ways to the awakening
of thought and intellectual light which is now
making its way in India, the citizens -of the great
-cities were lavish in their gifts and in their
■expenditure for the encouragement of learning.
The great merchants of Florence, as some of
their day-books, their " mels^^ preserved down
to our own time show, not only had their
correspondents in all parts of the world for
gathering up rich merchandise, but also to seek
out learned men and to send home valuable
manuscripts. There is an example for our citi-
zens to follow. Again, I find at the same stage
in the world's progress that a city like Bologna
spent half of its municipal funds in the support
of its University. Padua, another great city,
supported at one time thirty Professors in its
University — Professors of Law and Medicine and
General Literature.

But at the same time that the municipalities
of Italy at the period of the Renaissance were so
liberal in their gifts in aid of learning, there was
still a field left for the princes and nobles and
chiefs of that country, and there is still a field left
for the princes and nobles and chiefs of India to
do a great deal for the University of Bombay. It
will be familiar to those of you who have read
the history of that great period of the re-
awakening of European life and knowledge that
the new learning was but somewhat coldly receiv-
ed by the Universities themselves, which by that
time after a period of three or four centuries

AN ANTHOLOGY. i6i

of activity had already sunk pretty deep into
the ruts of routine. It was in the courts of
Popes and of the princes and nobles of Italy
that the great scholars found means for carrying
on their studies and the Universities, which
were somewhat chary of receiving them, found
to their cost afterwards that the wave of learning
had in the long run passed them by and left
them standing. Here is an example for the
chiefs in India, especially chiefs who have any
relation to the Presidency of Bombay. Here is
an institution which would be in no wise jealous
of anything they can do for learning. It invites
them to come into its arms and to go hand in hand
along with them in the work of assisting and
promoting learning, literature, and science. I
suppose there are few chiefs of higher rank who
would not give a lakh or even two or five lakhs
for an addition of one gun to their salutes.
I do not ask these gentlemen in any way to
despise the salute, which shows the respect felt
for them by the Paramount Power in India.
Far from it ; but I ask them to win a still
greater and nobler salute by giving a lakh or
two or five to an institution of this kind, and
then on every occasion of their entering this
building, and showing their face among the
community to which they belong, they will
receive the noblest salute of a people's applause.
I would fain see on every one of the panels
of this hall, in which we are assembled, a
tablet containing the names of chief after

1(52 BOMBAY :

chief, hereditary donors of bounties to this
University, hereditary benefactors who would
within its sacred walls find a nobler Walhallah
than anything that northern mythical imagination
can conceive, where instead of drinking mead
out of the skulls of their slain foes, they would
move about in ideal society, one with the other^
an idolized body of benefactors worthy of the
recollection and almost of the worship of those
who in future generations will flock into this-
hall, as they have done to-day, to take their
degrees and to receive the recognition of those
who come to witness the proceedings.

University Convocation Address, 1887, pages 184-186^

In this very city we have seen the mill
industry grow up, which makes Bombay one of
the great manufacturing cities of the world, and
here, especially, the want: of technological
instruction has been a growing want, which has
made itself keenly felt and has been loudly
expressed. Now comes an institution which, I
trust, will supply that great want : nor let it be
supposed for a moment that an institution of that
kind need be deficient in the higher elements of
intellectual cultivation. It is certainly true that
technical instruction, when it is pursued on a
scientific basis, affords exercise to the very

AN ANTHOLOGY. 163

highest powers of the intellect. If we follow
out the development of any one of the great
branches of physics or chemistry or any of the
great inventions by which the world has been
enriched in its material sphere, from the early
gropings of its first devotees down to its develop-
ment in our days, we find in that task a noble
and worthy exercise of the highest capacity. If
we attempt to appreciate the influence of such
an invention or discovery on the world as it
exists now, we are involved in a very compre-
hensive view of the existing conditions of human
existence. If we attempt to anticipate what
these inventions are to produce in the future,
we are engaged on a problem which is worthy
of the very highest speculative ability. It
should fiever be said then that technological
instruction, when properly pursued on a scientific
basis, is in any way opposed to the high
cultivation of the mind or to the objects of a
University. It takes its part beside, and in no
way under, it.

Convocation Address, 1888, pages 199-200.

We live at the time of a momentous con-
fluence and conflict of ideas, principles, and
Interests. You will probably have to take your
part in a profound moral strife; but if that part
is a noble one, you may rest assuredof abundant

t64 BOMBAY :

sympathy. The establishment of the Victoria
Jubilee Technical Institute, which will make a
new departure in the educational system of
Bombay and of India, will stand also, like this
University, as a striking and permanent sign of
our readiness to admit and welcome every duly
accredited addition to the means of advancing
the moral and material welfare of the com-
munity. It is a wedding by which we bring a
new sister into the family, -without abating one
jot of our love and reverence for the members
who were there before. The literature in which
we delighted aforetime is still dear to us; the
rigorous laws of mathematical science still com-
mand our reverence and admiration. But we
think that while we keep room for our possible
Newtons, Wordsworths, and iMacaulays, we
may find a place also for our Faradays and
Darwins. We may hold out hands of fellowship
to an Indian Watt or Arkwright, a Stephenson.
or Bessemer, and strive by mastering the
principles which their genius anticipated to
make the path smoother for new conquests
of nature. When I see my beloved country
seated majestically in her centre of empire,
yet thus diffusing the highest blessings she
herself enjoys to all who will accept them in
this great dependency, I feel myself filled, I
confess, with a patriotic pride, which no tales of
mere victory could inspire. To her, and her
alone, I feel those fine lines of Claudian are
applicable: —

AN ANTHOLOGY. 165

Haec est in gremio victos quae sola recepit

Humanumque genus communi nomine fovit

Matris non dominae ritu ; civesque vocavit
Quos domuit.

All of you are invited to come in and realize
these blessings of a peaceful and beneficent
dominion, and share the pride of a common
citizenship with the great men whose writings
have formed the nurture of your adolescence.
But more, you are called on to go forth from
this institution as apostles and interpreters to
your countrymen in this generation and the
next, of the vivifying influence by which in our
own day Europe has been renovated. The
historical glory of a great civilization glows
behind you; the rising splendour of an enlarged
nationality, and of a new intellectual world is
before you. You may well be stirred with noble
emotion at the sight of where you are and what
you have to do. Accept this as a command from
Heaven, as a divine impulse to work and wait
for the complete regeneration of your people,
and resolve to act worthily of so high and sacred
a behest.

Convocation Address, 1888, pp. 205-206,

I66 BOMBAY :

Bombay Essential
to the Empire

Philip Anderson.

Amongst the foreign dependencies of the
British Crown none is of greater and more
increasing importance than Bombay. The growth
of the Australian Colonies has been indeed far
more rapid, and their sudden acquisition of
wealth more astonishing, than any progress which
has been made in India. But the possession of
Australia and other colonies is not essential to
the maintenance of England's power and glory ;
if their independence was to be at once pro-
claimed, no serious consequences need be appre-
hended on her account. It is, however, essential
to her prosperity that she should preserve her
Indian Empire, and every year strengthens the
conviction of thinking men, that whether that
Empire be regarded from a political or commer-
cial point of view, its most important possession
is the island of Bombay.

For many years the English had been
anxious to lay their hands upon this treasure ;
yet strange to say, when they had obtained it,
its value remained for a while hidden from the
penetration of their statesmen, the practised
eyes of their naval and military commanders,
and the keen avidity of their enterprizing
merchants. Its retention was considered scarcely
worth a struggle, and the question whether it

AN ANTHOLOGY. 167

should be rasigned was actually debated. Even
the Dutch historian ( Baldacus ) of the age, a
shrewd and accurate man, considered that this
possession was worthless.

English in Western India, l8j4, pp. 50-1.

riingling of Peoples

"The Times."

But transcending even these natural advan-
tages is the asset Bombay possesses in the
character of its people. In all other parts of
India society is divided into water-tight compart-
ments. In Calcutta industry and commerce are
entirely in the hands of English and Scotch
manufacturers and merchants, whilst the retail
trade is monopolised by the keen Marwaris.
The Bengali loathes the office and the desk,
expending all his energies in the law and
journalism, and when he has money to invest he
puts it in the safest four per cents. In Madras
the division between business and the professions
in no less sharp. But Bombay is a cosmopolitan
city, its trade and industry are shared by every
■section of the population to a degree unparallel-
ed in any other part of the Indian Empire.
When the St. George's Cross was raised over
Bombay Castle, the proselytizing methods of
the Jesuits and Franciscans had made European

1 68 BOMBAY:

domination a hated thing. The British at once
established a reign of complete religious tolera-
tion, and the keenest brains and boldest charac-
ters from all Western India flocked to an island
where a security which the native rulers could
not guarantee might be had with complete
freedom of conscience and religious observance^
The Parsis, driven from Persia by the Maho-
medan conquerors, centuries before, who had been
allowed to settle as hewers of wood and drawers,
of water in Gujarat, were amongst the first
arrivals. They brought freedom from* caste
prejudice and restriction, and the quickness and
clannishness bred of oppression, which made
them the natural channel of communication
between the English and the children of the
soil, and gave them a large share in the seaborne
trade shunned by Hindus because of the pollution
involved in voyaging across "The Black Water.''
The Khojas, forced converts from Hinduism, came
from Cutch, the Banias from Gujarat, the Bhattias
form Cutch and Gujarat, the Konkani Mahome-
dans from the south, and a sprinkling of Jews
from Baghdad. These are amongst the keenest
trading races in the world; their natural vogue is
commerce ; and if they have a fault, it is that
they are too speculative rather than ultra-con-
servative— the besetting sin of most of India. It
is on this secure human foundation that the
commercial fortunes of Bombay are firmly based.
A full appreciation of the position of the
various Indian communities in the city is essen_

AN ANTHOLOGY. i6^

tial to an understanding of the place of Bombay
in India and the Empire. In most parts of India
the line of demarcation between the Englishman
and the Indian is sharply drawn ; in some parts it
is possible for a man to pass a lifetime in the
country and never come into intimate contact
with an Indian gentleman. In Bombay the line
is so faint that it must soon be extinguished.
Englishman and Indian, Parsi and Mahomedan,
Jew and Hindu, meet in daily and intimate
commercial dealing. They sit side by side in the
Hall of the Municipality and the Senate of the
University, they foregather nightly at the Orient
Club, and interdine frequently. Touch any
commercial house and you find that its ramifica-
tions are so intertwined with Englishman and
Indian that acute racial feeling is impossible ;
at any public gathering, every race and creed in
the cosmopolitan city will be represented. Whilst
communal life in Bombay is strong, it is rarely
bigoted; commerce, and the amenities commerce
has brought in its train, has been a mighty solvent
of particularism and intolerance. In all these
respects Bombay is nearly a generation ahead of
any other part of India. It has acquired a unique
reputation for common sense and sobriety
of opinion. The Bengali is generally more
cultured, he is almost always a finer orator and
ihetorician ; Madras has carried its educational
machinery to a higher pitch and produced more
accomplished Brahmin administrators; but
Bombay leads India in the sobriety of thought

lyo BOMBAY :

-and breadth of view which comes from travel and
commerce and the magic influence of property.
If it cannot be said that what Bombay thinks
to-day India thinks to-morrow, it may be said
without exaggeration that at all times of political
-excitement India looks to Bombay for an informed
opinion, and for the brake which will arrest
runaway political thought. It is to Bombay that
the Government look for the reflection of the best
Indian opinion on the politics of the day, and for
a lead in currency and finance.

India and the Durbar 1911, pp. 270-272.

" The Eye of India "

W. S. Caine.

Bombay has been called "The Eye of India".
It is the largest, most populous, and enterprising
city in the Empire. More than half the imports
and exports of all India pass through its custom
house. Nine-tenths of the persons entering or
leaving the country do so at Bombay; it is with-
out exception the finest modern city in Asia, and
the noblest monument of British enterprise in
the world. The traveller, eager for the wonders
of Agra, Delhi, or Benares, is too often satisfied
with a couple of days spent in driving through
its spacious streets, neglectful of the wonderful
life of this great city and seaport, seeing nothing
of its institutions, its arts and manufactures, or

AN ANTHOLOGY. 171

the interesting peoples who make up its popula-
tion of 800,000 souls. A month may be spent in
Bombay, and at the end many things will still be
unseen that ought to have been seen.

As the steamer rounds Colaba point, and
proceeds slowly to her moorings, the panorama
of Bombay city, with the noble buildings tower-
ing above the masts in her docks, the low coast
line beyond sweeping round the vast bay dotted
with palm-clad islands, backed by the lofty blue
mountains of Matheran and Mahableshwar, fully
justify the name given by the old Portuguese
navigators in the 16th century — Bom Bahia, the
beautiful bay.

Picturesque India, l8gi, pages I -2.

Cosmopolitan yet Homogenous

" The Times."

It is well-nigh impossible for the untravelled
"Englishman to realize the giant strides that are
being made by the commercial cities of India
that have sprung into existence under the in-
fluence of the Pax Britannica. He needs to sail
into Bombay Harbour, to survey its miles of
deep water anchorage, and drive round the
wharves and quays that accommodate a sea-
borne trade of four million tons a year. He
must drive through the main streets of the city,
where he will find roads and public buildings
that would not be unworthy of Munich. Most

172 BOMBAY :

significant of all, he should stand on some
eminence looking north, and mark the scores of
tall chimneys belching forth smoke, then descend
into the industrial quarter, and listen to the roar
of machinery that is bound some day to drive
Lancashire textiles out of India. All these indust-
rial potentialities are established in a setting of
unsurpassed beauty. Alone amongst the modern
cities of India, Bombay can claim to be called
beautiful, and the glories of its deep bays and
noble harbour, of its wooded slopes and saph-
ire sea command the unstinted admiration of
the visitor and cannot pall on the oldest inhabi-
tant. And these conditions are found in a climate
which, whilst enervating, is never really hot, and
in the worst months of the year is tempered by a
sea-sweetened breeze. Broad-based as its for-
tunes are on geographical position, harbour, and
industry, the future of Bombay is yet more secu-
rely founded on its people. Cosmopolitan to an
almost unparralled degree, yet it owns a homo-
geneity unknown elsewhere in India, and a civic
patriotism based on the consciousness that all
are citizens of no mean city. No city could be
more conscious of its future as the second city
in the British Empire, or more willing to spend
prodigally in order to be worthy of that destiny;
so that Bombay may truly fulfil the ideal of
Gerald Aungier, one of the first and greatest of
her Governors, as the city that by God's grace
is destined to be built.

India and the Biirbar, 191 1, pages 281-282.

AN ANTHOLOGY. 173

The Modern Alexandria

Sir M. E. Grant-Duff.

I leave Bombay with a much stronger
impression than I had of its great Asiatic as dis-
tinguished from merely Indian importance. It is,.
and will be, more and more to all this part of
the world what Ephesus or Alexandria were to
the eastern basin of the Mediterranean in the
days of the Roman Empire.

I wish I could give it a fortnight, and be
allowed to pick Dr. Wilson's brains all the time ;
but the " limitations of existence" say *no' to that.

Notes of an bidian Journey, 1876, page 44.

Bombay an Asylum for All

Francis Warden.

If in addition to these local improvements,
we estimate the importance of Bombay in a
national point of view, in reference to the resources
which it has afforded towards the extension and
consolidation of the British Empire in India;
to the means of promoting the vend of the
manufactures of the mother country for upwards
of a century and a half in every quarter of
India, throughout Persia and Arabia ; to the
aid which it has afforded in upholding her
military reputation and in contributing to her
naval power and resources, we cannot too highly

174 BOMBAY :

e^tol the liberal policy, which has acquired ancf
cherished those advantages ; and in viewing the-
commanding situation of this possession, either
in a commercial or in a plitical light, on the
security of which the permanency of our Eastern
Empire mainly depends, we cannot be too cautious
in preserving unimpaired the resources of the
island, by encouraging and conciliating not only
its own subjects, but those of the surrounding-
country ; to convert the floating population into
permanent residents ; that Bombay, and ultimately
the adjacent island of Salsette, " may continue-
what it has hitherto proved, an asylum to those
who seek for refuge and protection from the
oppression of their own arbitrary governments.

The Court of Directors have, from the
earliest period, entertained an opinion that the
island of Bombay might be rendered an advanta-
geous settlement, and have, therefore, repeatedly-
enjoined the exercise of a mild and good Govern-
ment, to encourage people from all other parts
to come and reside under their protection ; the
impartial administration of justice has been
anxiously urged, and that every facility might
be aftorded to the new inhabitants to build
themselves habitations.

Land Tenures, 1814, pages 75-76.

AN ANTHOLOGY. 175

Variety of Races and Religions

.'Murray Mitchell.

Even in 1838 the importance of Bombay as
the great western gate of India was clearly
recognished, and one heard of many new mer-
cantile houses springing up. The arrival of the
monthly steamer from Suez was working a vast
revolution.

Then, as now, the population of Bombay
was remarkably mixed. Equal to the variety of
races was the variety of religions. Hinduism
( to use the term in all its vast and vague com-
prehensiveness) ; Mohammadanism in several
forms; Jainism ; Zoroastrianism ; Judaism; and
Christianity — the last, especially in its Roman
Catholic form. Even in ancient Alexandria the
races and the systems of belief could not have
been more diversified.

There could not have been a more stimula-
ting field of labour. All of these systems had to
be studied, and, if possible (no easy task )^
understood. It was not difficult to refute, it was
tempting to denounce, them ; but that did little
good. The question was, what gave these
systems their terrible power over human hearts ?

The Marathas— the inhabitants of Maha-
rashtra, * the great country' — had long been the
leading race in Western India. They had begun
to act a conspicuous part more than two hundred
and fifty years before. Their first leader, Shivaji,

176 BOMBAY :

was a man of remarkable skill and energy ; and
under him the stifTdy Maratha was a match for
the trained Moslem warrior. The Maratha horse-
men soon swept victoriously over the land from
Agra to Tanjore. Maratha dynasties were set
up far beyond the limits of Maharashtra. But
the Marathas were, at best, what Sir Thomas
Munro called them, a horde of Imperial robbers.
Their work was plunder and devastation.
Doubtless the Mohammadan yoke pressed sore
on the vanquished Hindus, It did so especially
in the time of Shivaji, under the bigoted
Aurangzib. And Shivaji waged what may be
called mainly a religious war. He had conse-
crated his sword to the destroying goddess
Bhawani and called it by her name. He
unfurled a sacred banner and summoned his
countrymen to rally round it * for the Protection
of Brahmans and cows.' Yes; and the wily
chieftain knew his men; they flocked enthusi-
astically round him, at the call. Ere long the
Peshwas, who were Brahmans, did with the
descendants of Shivaji as the Mayors of the
Palace had done with the early kings of
France. And now everything was modelled
according to the Shastras. The Brahman and
his fellow-sufferer the cow were reinstated in
divine honour.

So through the eighteenth century the
Marathas fought on with varying success, but
plunging India into greater and greater misery.
Still worse were the Pindharis,-lawless freeboot-

AN ANTHOLOGY, * 177

«rs, who were generally their allies. In their
rapid movements they spread desolation on
-every side.

The strength of the Marathas had been
broken at the great battle of Asai ( Assaye) in
1803 ; and in 1818 the Peshwa was overthrown
near Poona and stripped of his dominions. The
■shock was tremendous. But the fierce Maratha
spirit was only curbed, not crushed ; and it
fretted with ill-concealed impatience under the
British rein.

God grant, for the sake of India even more
than that of Britain, that the Pax Britannica may
long endure ; Let Britain be just and fear not ; yet
also, to the justice let her add a large measure
of sympathy. She seldoms fails in the former;
she often fails in the latter.

In Western India, 1899, pages 23-25,

Bombay and Calcutta.

Emma Roberts.

Comparisons are so frequently both unfair
and invidious, that I had determined, upon my
arrival at Bombay, to abstain from making them,
and to judge of it according to its own merits,
without reference to those of the rival presidency.
It was impossible, however, to adhere to this
resolution, and being called upon continually to

178 BOMBAY :

give an opinion concerning its claims to superi-
ority over Calcutta, I was reluctantly compelled
to consider it in a less favourable point of view
than Ishould have done had the City of Palaces
been left out of the question.

That Bombay is the rising presidency
there can be no doubt, and there seems to be
every probability of its becoming the seat of
the Supreme Government; nothing short of a
rail-road between the two presidencies can avert
this catastrophe; the number of days which
elapse before important news reaching Bombay
can be known and acted upon by the authori-
ties of Calcutta rendering the measure almost
imperative. Bengal, too proudly triumphing in
her greatness, has now to bear the mortifica-
tions to which she delighted to subject Bombay,,
a place contemptuously designated as " a
fishing village", while its inhabitants, in con-
sequence of their isolated situation, were called
*' the Benighted. "

Steam-communication brought the news to
Bombay of the accession of Queen Victoria to
the throne of England, and this event was cele-
brated at the same time that the Bengallees
were toasting the health of William the Fourth at
a dinner given in honour of his birth-day. "Who
are the Benighted now ?* was the universal cry;
and the story is told wit|i great glee to all
new arrivals.

Overland Journey to Bombay, 1841, pp. 244-246^

AN ANTHOLOGY. 179

Bombay and Paris

Gerson da Cunha.

The great events that have materially
contributed to the making of modern Bombay
are the Treaty of Bassein, which, destroyed
the Maratha Confederacy, the annexation of
the Dekkan, and the opening of the Suez
Canal, which helped considerably to raise this
city to the proud position of the gateway of
India. On the ruins of the Peishwa's dominion
was thus rising the edifice of a snug little island
on the Konkan coast, destined to rule over a
great part of a vast Continent. Since then it
has passed through various critical phases of
growth and development, through years of joy
and of sorrow, periods of unnatural inflation
alternating with those of apparently hopeless
depression ; but, in spite of all this, Bombay,
like Paris, fuctitat nee mergitur and, like Paris,
Bombay has grown, due allowance being made
for the boldness of the comparison, slowly at
first, but rapidly during the last quarter of this
century. From Charlamagne to Napoleon, Paris
took nearly ten centuries to become a populous
city, and Bombay, from Humphrey Cooke to
Jonathan Duncan, has spent about one hundred
and fifty years to develop frcm a mere hamlet
into a fair town.

Thus Bombay resembles Paris, as some
other cities, in the rapidity of its expansion
within the last quarter of a century. In 1814 the

J8o BOMBAY:

population of Bombay was about 200,000, and
the tenements 20,000. Now the population has
quadrupled, and the number of buildings has
nearly doubled. There is more concentration
and pressure of the populace in Bombay than
in Calcutta. Like the Adriatic tribes who took
refuge in the city of the Lagoons, all tribes in
Western India flock to Bombay, and from
traditional beliefs, social instincts and tribal
affinities are drawn to certain areas in the town
where their tendency is to agglomerate rather
than to disperse. Within the memory of many
of us fields, which once were open and cultivated,
have now been built over with houses of all
shapes and sizes.

Another feature common to both Paris
and Bombay is prestige and influence, which
each of them exercises over all the country, far
beyond the limits of their own administrative
spheres. Bombay draws, as the metropolis,
the best talent from provinces and districts
around, and dictates laws and fashions to India
as Paris does to France.

It is said that Bombay is the Alexandria of
India. Its geographical position and commercial
relations bear evidently some resemblance to the
great easXern entrepot of the Mediterranean. As
the swampy Rhakotis, a mere fishing village,
which Alexander the Great transformed into the
splendid city of Alexandria, the desolate islet of
the Bombay Koli fishermen was changed into the

AN ANTHOLOGY. i«t

present capital of Western India. Like Alexan-
dria, it is, moreover, on the highway to other
cities. As the visitor hurries from steamer to
rail on the way to the Pyramids and to Luxor, the
Indian tourist rushes from the Ballard Pier to the
Victoria Station on the way to the Taj Mahal,
Delhi, and Benares. But in all other respects
Bombay is the Paris of India. It is true it does
not possess the beautiful, and, according to
Lebrun, the honest smiling river —

La Seine aux bords riants, nymphe tran-
quille et pure,

Porte son doux crista!, ennemi du parjtire^

A V immense Thetis;

but it has instead one of the most splendid
-harbours in the world, about which the old
Portuguese Viceroy, Antonio de Mello e Castro,
wrote to the King of Portugal, D. Affonso VI
in 1662: ** Moreover, I see the best port your
Majesty possesses in India, with which that of
Lisbon is not to be compared, treated as of little
value by the Portuguese themselves."

The history of the two cities has hitherto
proved that they are both endowed with powers
of recuperation to meet the effects of disaster.
But while Paris possesses the vitality of a virile
constitution, seasoned and braced up by the
lapse of some centuries, to guarantee its future,
Bombay is yet too young to justify any dogmatic
prognostications of continued prosperity.

182 BOMBAY:

History, like drama, delights in contrasts and
coincidences. But if the historical parallels of
the past were logical arguments in relation to
the changed conditions of to-day, the tragic fate
of nearly all the cities in Western India, whose
existence could hardly be counted by the cycle of
three centuries, would lead us, indeed, to very
gloomy forebodings.

I will not claim to possess the prophetic
instinct to foresee what is in store for Bombay.
But as it has adopted the happy motto of Urbs
prima in Indis, it may be hoped that this will
prove of good augury, and that among other
privileges Bombay will own that of priority
among the Indian cities for longevity in
undecaying prosperity.

Origins of Bombay, 1900, pp. 3-6.

Another Carthage

James Douglas.

It was in 1675 that Dr. Fryer, a member of
the Royal Society, suggested that out of all
this scum there might arise another Carthage.
He was a far-seeing man, for among the long
bead-roll of illustrious names on the page of
Bombay history, or books of travels, not one
among them all ventures to forecast the great-
ness of the city or even hazard a conjecture
thereon. Xavier, Heber, Wilson }

AN ANTHOLOGY. 183

I do not ask to see
The distant scene, one step enough for me.

And it was ever thus. Not Aungier, not
Wellesley, not Elphinstone, nor the eagle eye of
Mackintosh which scans the destiny of nations,
vouchsafes a single glance to revive the flagging
-courage of the plodding servant of Government,
or animate the hopes of the merchant or the
missionary, who had cast his lot on the dreary
shores of old Bombaim. To him Bombay is
■" the most obscure corner of India."

But from first to last it was all the same; we
■sowed the seed and awaited patiently the harvest.
In spite of the blundering and villainy of Cooke,
the rebellion of Keigwin, and a climate that
mowed us down before the reaper's sickle, we
held our ground by sending out fresh men to
repair disaster. In the dullest and most discour-
aging of times there was always some advance.
Sometimes floundering but never despairing, our
powers of endurance and administrative ability
were tested to the very utmost. The work,
however, killed seven Governors in one genera-
tion— we mean in thirty years. We may also tack
on to this, one ambassador and one admiral.
These were the days of darkness, when men's
hearts failed them for fear, and when the tumults
■of the people were like the noise of the sea and
the waves roaring. It was then we saw the sun
set behind the Dutch fleet, which blocked up the
view seawards and hung like a black thunder-

1 84 BOMBAY:

cloud at the mouth of Back Bay. It was therr
that the Great Moghul, or the Seedee for him, was
battering at the gates of Bombay Castle. Though
the Dutch and the Moghul are now of little
account, they were then about the strongest powers
respectively in Europe and in Asia. The Dutch
in the generation we speak of were the terror of
the seas, had burned Sheerness and entered the
Medway and the Thames : and Aurungzebe had
insulted the majesty of England by tying the
hands of our envoys behind their backs and send-
ing the Governor of Bombay about his business.

But we survived it all. There was a provi-
dence that watched over the infancy of Bombay^
and well did she stand her baptism of fire. By
and bye the great Augean stable was partially
cleaned out and the Bombay climate became
tolerable. Either good or bad, strong or weak as
the party is that useth it; like the sword of
Scanderbeg. She chased the pirates from the
sea and the Pindaris from the land. By opening
up roads Bombay unlocked the granaries of
Western India for her starving children, and by
clearing the sea of desperadoes the Indian Ocean
became the property of all the nations of the world.
She did not wait for the trumpet blast of the
Anti-Corn Law League, but quietly on her own
account inaugurated Free Trade in l8i2 during,
the Baroda Famine.

In terms of her first proclamation she became
an asylum for all; many men came fiom the west
with the seeds of religion and civilisation, the

AN ANTHOLOGY. 185

blessings of which are now apparent. They were
welcome. Not one of them was injured. During
the long period we have held this island — and it
is a blessed fact to be able to record — no man has.
suffered death for his religion. So perfect was
the security of life and property that many of
the settlers slept with open doors and windows.
At length walls were found to be no longer
necessary. They were a hundred years in
building, and were demolished not by the
hands of an enemy, for no enemy was ever
seen within her gates. The same men ( or their
descendants ) who erected them levelled them to
the earth, and let him that rebuildeth them
beware of the curse of Hiel the Bethelite. Little
by little as from the slime and miasma of some
geologic era, an island-city rose slowly from the
bosom of the sea, fair to look upon, green with-
the verdure of an eternal summer, beautiful as
Tyre and more populous than either ancient
Carthage or Alexandria — crowned not only with
the monuments of human industry, but with
buildings to teach men the art of being indus-
trious; with a Government India had never known
before, that protects the weak from the oppression
of the strong, and measures out equal law to
every one irrespective of his colour or his creed-
Clear innocence her shield; her breastplate
prayers,

Armour of trustier proof than aught the
warrior wears.

Book of Bombay, 1883, pp. 15-20.

1^6' BOMBAY:

Bombay and European and
American Cities

William Curtis.

There are two cities in Bombay, the native
-city and the foreign city. The foreign city spreads
out over a large area, and, although the popula-
tion is only a small per cent of that of the native
city, it occupies a much larger space, which is
devoted to groves, gardens, lawns, and other
breathing places and pleasure grounds, while, as
is the custom in the Orient, the natives are
packed away several hundreds to the acre in tall
houses, which, with over-hanging balconies and
tile roofs, line the crooked and narrow streets on
both sides. Behind some of these tall and
narrow fronts, however, are dwellings that
cover a good deal of ground, being much larger
than the houses we are accustomed to, because
the Hindus have larger families and they all live
together. When a young man marries he
brings his bride home to his father's house, unless
his mother-in-law happens to be a widow, when
they often take up their abode with her. But it
is not common for young couples to have their
own homes; hence the dwellings in the native
■quarters are packed with several generations of
the same family, and that makes the occupants
easy prey to plague, famine and other agents of
human destruction.

The Parsees love air and light, and many
rich Hindus have followed the foreign colony

AN ANTHOLOGY. 187

-<)ut into the suburbs, where you find a succes-
sion of handsome villas or bungalows, as they
are called, half-hidden by high walls that
inclose charming gardens. Some of these bun-
galows are very attractive, some are even sump-
tuous in their appointments — veritable places,
filled with costly furniture and ornaments — but
the climate forbids the use of many of the
creature comforts which American and European
taste demands. The floors must be of tiles or
cement and the curtains of bamboo, because
hangings, carpets, rugs and upholstery furnish
shelter for destructive and disagreeable insects,
and the aim of everybody is to secure as much
air as possible without admitting the heat.

Bombay is justly proud of her public build-
ings. Few cities have such a splendid array.
None that I have ever visited except Vienna can
show an assemblage so imposing, with such
harmony and artistic uniformity combined with
convenience of location, taste of arrangement
and general architectural effect. There is
nothing, of course, in Bombay that will compare
with our Capitol or Library at Washington, and
its state and Municipal buildings, cannot com-
pete individually with the Parliament House in
London, the Hotel de Ville de Paris or the Palace
■of Justice in Brussels, or many others I might
name. But neither Washington nor London nor
Paris nor any other European or American city
possesses such a broad, shaded boulevard as
Bombay, with the Indian Ocean upon one side

m BOMBAY:

and on the other, stretching for a mile or more,
a succession of stately edifices. Vienna has the
boulevard and the buildings, but lacks the water
effect. It is as if all the buildings of the Univer-
sity of Chicago were scattered along the lake
front in Chicago from the river to Twelfth street.

Modern India, pages, 27 to 28^

A Peerless Harbour

Dr. George Smith.

Bombay, with the marvellous progress of
which, as city and province, Wilson was to be
identified during the next forty-seven years, has.
a history that finds its true parallels in the
Mediterranean emporia of Tyre and Alexandria.
Like the Phoenician " Rock " of Baal, which
Hiram enlarged and adorned, the island of the
goddess Mumbaior Mahima, " the Great Mother,"'
was originally one of a series of rocks which the
British Government has connected into a long:
peninsula, with an area of 18 square miles. Like
the greater port which Alexander created to take
the place of Tyre, and called by his own name,.
Bombay carries in its ships the commerce of the
Mediterranean, opened to it by the Suez CanaU
but it bears that also of the vaster Indian Ocean
and Persian Gulf. Although it can boast of no-
river like the Nile, by which alone Alexandria
now exists, Bombay possesses a natural harbour

AN ANTHOLOGY. 189

peerless alike in West and East, such as all the
capital and the engineering of modern science
can never create for the land of Egypt. Instead'
of the " low " sands which gave Canaan its
name, and the muddy flats of the Nile delta,
Bombay presents ridge after ridge intersecting
noble bays, and hill upon hill, rising up into the
guardian range of the Western Ghauts. From
their giant defiles and green terraces fed by the
periodic rains, the whole tableland of the Indian
Peninsula gently slopes eastward to the Bay of
Bengal, seamed by mighty rivers, and covered
by countless forts and villages, the homes of a
toiling population of millions. On one-fourth,
and that the most fertile fourth, of the two
centuries of Bombay's history, John Wilson,
more than any other single influence, has left his
mark for ever.

Life of Dr. Wilson of Bombay, 1878, pp. 37-38,

Advantage Over Every Port
in India

Maria Graham.

Bombay possesses more natural advantages
than any other European settlement in India,
but it is, unaccountably, that which has been
most neglected ; however, it is only a few years
since the Mahrattas have been so far subdued
as to render the surrounding districts safe. It

190 BOMBAY:

is nine miles in length and three in breadth ; fulf
of towns and villages, and every foot of the
land in cultivation. It is connected by a.
causeway, with the large and fruitful, thoughx
neglected, island of Salsette, and forms with it,-
Caranja, and Elephanta, a most commodious
harbour. It has the advantage over every port-
in India in the rise of the tides, which is seventeen^
feet, whereas the highest springs in Prince of
Wales's Island, and the wonderful harbour of
Trincomale only rise to ten feet. It is conse-
quently well adapted for building and dockings
large ships, the timber for which is furnished*
by the Malabar coast; and its situation opposite
to the Persian and Arabian shores makes it
peculiarly fit for commerce. I know no place
so well situated. Its excellent well-defended'
harbour, the fertility of the adjointing districts-
the agreeableness of the climate, and the ex-
treme beauty of the scenery, all contribute to make
it one of the most charming spots in the world ^.
as far as the gifts of nature are concerned, and
with the state of its society I have at present noth-
ing to do, although I feel it difficult to restrain
myself from talking of a place which is rendered
interesting to me by a thousand agreeable
recollections.

Letters on India, 1814, pp. 165 to 166^

AN ANTHOLOGY. 191

" The Brightest Jewel of our
Dependencies "

Mrs. Postans.

The " brightest jewel " of our British depen-
dencies is now brought within the observation of
the intelligent and " thinking people of England;"
and policy seems at last to urge the necessity of
attention to the best interests of India.

A full development of its sources of natural
wealth must increase the value of that magnificent
country, the richest and most productive of all
our colonies. To effect this, the commerce of the
Presidencies must be encouraged ; and to the
Provinces must be held out a sufficient stimulus,,
to arouse the industry of their agricultural and
manufacturing classes. The great marts of the
ancient world, Tyre, Sidon, and Ophir, with the
fair cities of the plain, exist but in the history of
the past ; the btusite of their desolate grandeur
will teach Britain the instability of possessions^
which have already cost a heavy price in blood
and treasure. The progress of opinion, no less
than the force of present circumstances, renders
it more than ever desirable, that the natives of
Western India most particularly, should, as an
intelligent and commercial people, value our
allegiance as friends, rather than regard us as
the grinding oppressors of their fatherland, whom
they require only Mnion and opportunity, to expel
from their shores.

192 BOMBAY:

That the material exists for restoring freedom
and wealth to the people of India, there can
remain no doubt. We see the bazaars of the
native town of the most interesting Presidency,
rich and populous, teeming with an enterprising
and mercantile people, and abounding with
productions of natural wealth, rich gems, and
precious metals. The neighbouring bay is ani-
mated with rude and foreign crafts, laden with
curious manufactures, or the exuberant produce
of the most fertile soils. The dock-yards, justly
considered the finest in the world, send forth
their teak-built vessels, to enrich with their cargo
the isles of the far distant West; and the raw and
unpolished material is exported from a
land, which possessed a knowledge of
those arts calculated to improve the conditon
of a people, and whose fine linens, brilliant
dyes, costly wools, and glittering jewels, awak-
ened the admiration of the civilized nations of
the West, while yet the inhabitants of our
remote and sea-girt isle roamed wild and unclad,
among the fastnesses of their mountain homes.
We look on the East, and her desert lands
seem to whisper a reproach that they are not
now teeming and fruitful as of old; we see
that in the crowded and busy ways of the
Burrah bazaars, is accumulated ihe rich produce
of such localities as are calculated to afford
increased revenue to our several civil and
financial departments, but the art of the weaver
and the lapidary is forgotten. We, the consum-

AN ANTHOLOGY. 193

mately civilized, have brought ignorance in the
wake of our conquests; and this to a people,
*' old in arts and literature, before the primeval
forests of Britain had started from their ancient
silence at the voice of man. "

The sinews of war are again strained for
territorial protection and acquirement; but the
influence of public opinion will, it is to be
trusted, change the object of the struggle. The
splendid scheme of navigating the noble Indus,
will probably become the means of introducing
industry and manufacture among isolated
thousands; and of bringing justice and wisdom
to the courts of their barbarian princes.

In exchange for these benefits, monuments
more durable than the altars of the triumphant
Greek, will record the dominion of British power;
and where the great invader of eastern freedom
first felt the strength of an arm determined
to support its rights, the rude descendants of
the princely Porus may again esteem the arts
and elegancies of civilized existence.

The commercial interests of the world
would gain much by a liberal line of policy;
the stimulus of interest might awaken the
slumbering knowledge of olden times; hungry
barbarism give place to commercial opulence,
and fabrics of costly and inimitable manufac-
ture again attract the wealthy trader; while
thus the shores of Western India, with the
Stores of her great bazaars, might be as eagerly

194 BOxMBAY :

sought in the maritime enterprise of foreign
lands, as were the crowning cities of the
East, when the princely merchants of Venice
displayed their red, gold, and costly stuffs^
upon the busy pass^ of the Rialto.

Western India, 1839. Vol. I, pages 98-102..

Commercial Importance

General John Taylor.

It may not be improper to offer a few obser-
vations on the political and military advantages
derived from the settlement of Bombay. It will
be allowed that the expenses attending distant
colonies or dependencies should be proportionate-
to their revenues or income. In some cases,,
either great political reasons, or the prospect
of future advantage, counter-balance any extra-
ordinary expense that may be incurred in retain-
ing a distant garrison, or particular colony
beyond its internal resources. When this-
happens, the advantages to be derived, whether
present or future, should much more than prepon-
derate in the scale of the expenditure, and this,
too, should be very clearly ascertained.

That the Island of Bombay is favourably
situated for trade, its docks necessary for the
repairs of shipping and the construction of
durable vessels, that it is an ancient settlement of
the Company's, I will readily admit; but whert

AN ANTHOLOGY. 195

put in competition with these benefits, the
immense sum of nearly half a million, which is
the annual sacrifice for retaining this settlement,
independent of its own resources, we may well
wonder that its political value has not been
more strictly enquired into. It is far from my
intention to depreciate the advantages of Bombay;
on the contrary, that island is essential to
our interest.

1st. As the centre of our trade from the
northward, from the Mahratta country, and the
Gulf of Persia.

2ndly. Asa dock-yard for our ships of war
and Indiamen.

3rdly. As a harbour for water and refresh-
ment for the use of the ships that protect our trade
in the Indian Seas.

4thly. As a place of respectability and
strength on the coast of Malabar.

Bombay, in a political point of view, is
certainly of very little consequence to our affairs
in India; as a place of commercial resort it is no
doubt deserving of attention.

Travels from England to India in 1789.

1799, pages 167-I68.

196 BOMBAY:

Finest Site for Commerce in the
World

Lord Mayo.

Saturday, 26th December, 1868 — Drove in the
morning to see the works of the Elphinstone
Land Company, which astonished me by their
magnitude. Nearly the whole frontage to the
harbour of the commercial port of Bombay is
now occupied by the property belonging to the
P. and O. Company, the Elphinstone Land
Company, and the Government. It is, perhaps,
the finest site for commerce in the world. Steam-
ed round the harbour, and saw a portion of the
various defences which are proposed. The con-
struction of the batteries has been stopped, pend-
ing the decision with regard to the Moncrieff gun-
carriage. We then steamed over to the island of
Elephanta, saw the caves, and walked round the
island. A beautiful view. Mr. W. was very
much disgusted on finding the cave occupied by
some drunken British soldiers and an American
party, one of whom was playing on a banjo.
This day enabled me to form an estimate of the
works, military and naval, in the harbour of
Bombay.

Sir W. W. Hunter's Life of Mayo, 1875, Vol I,

page 168.

AN ANTHOLOGY. 197

An Extensive Emporium

HOBART Gaunter.

This island owes its original importance to
the Portuguese, to whom it was ceded in 1530.
They retained possession for upwards of a cen-
tury, when Gharles the Second got it as a part of
his queen's portion, During the Portuguese
government it was a comparative desert ; but
almost from the moment it fell under British
domination it became a flourishing settlement.
It was finally transferred from the crown to the
East India Gompany, the 27th of March 1668,
upon payment of an annual rent of ten pounds
in gold on the 30th of September of every succes-
sive year. In 1691 this island was visited by
plague, which, when its ravages ceased, left only
three civil servants alive. In 1702 it was again
devastated by this dreadful scourge, and the
garrison reduced to seventy-six men.

From its position, Bombay commands an
extensive traffic with those countries which lie
upon the shores of the Persian and Arabian gulfs
with both the western and eastern coasts of
India as well as with Ghina, where it exports
vast quantities of cotton-wool. The other chief
exports are sandal-wood, pearls, gums, and
drugs, from Arabia, Abyssinia, and Persia;
pepper from the Malabar coast; birds' nests
and other produce from the Maldives, Lackadives
and eastern islands, and elephants' teeth from

198 BOMBAY:

Cambay. The China ships generally arrive at
Canton towards the end of June or beginning
of July, and lie there idle, except delivering
and receiving their return cargoes, until the
month of December or January.

In 1808 the quantity of cotton brought to
Bombay for exportation was eighty-five thousand
bales of seven hundred and thirty-five pounds,
making a total of sixty-two million four hun-
dred and seventy-five thousand pounds' weight.

This settlement likewise carries on a con-
siderable commerce with Europe and with
diffej-ent parts of America, though their most
extensive trade is to China. The imports from
Europe are principally articles of the finer
manufacture, such as cottons and other piece-
goods, wine, beer, and articles for domestic
consumption.

Here are excellent rope-walks, equal to any
in Great Britain, except in the King's yard
at Portsmouth. The dockyard is very capacious,
and admirably contrived, being well supplied
with naval stores of all kinds, and fitted up
with every convenience for shipbuilding and
repairs of vessels; for which purposes a large
stock of timber is kept up. The new dock
constructed by Major Cooper is a noble work,
scarcely inferior to the finest docks in Europe.

Oriental Annual, 1836, pages 2IJ to 219.

AN ANTHOLOGY. 199

Great Cotton Mart

Sir W. W. Hunter.

After the downfall of the Peshwa in 1818,
Bombay became the capital of a large territory,
^nd from that year may be dated her pre-
eminence in Western India. She was especially
fortunate in her early governors. From 1819 to
1830, she was ruled successively by the Hon.
Mountstuart Elphinstone and Sir John Malcolm.
The first founded the present system of admini-
stration ; the second, by opening the road through
the Bhor-Ghat, broke down the natural barrier
that separated the sea-coast from the table-land
of the Deccan. The next stage in the course of
onward prosperity was reached when Bombay
was brought into direct communication with
Europe through the energy and exertion of
Lieutenant Waghorn, the pioneer of the Over-
land Route. In the early years of the present
century, express couriers or adventurous travel-
lers used sometimes to make their way to or from
India across the isthmus of Suez, or occasion-
ally even through Persia. A monthly mail
tservice was commenced by way of Egypt in 1838
and the contract was first taken up by the Penin-
sular and Oriental Company in 1855. Bombay
is now recognised as the one port of arrival and
departure for all the English mails, and also for
the troopships of the Indian army. But the city
could not have attained this position, if the
means of communication on the landward side

200 BOMBAY:

had not received a corresponding development.
In 1850, the first sod was turned of the Great
Indian Peninsula Railway, and three years after-
wards the line was opened as far as Thana, the
first railway in the country. By 1863, the railway
had been led up the formidable Bhor-Ghat to
Poona, by a triumph of engineering skill. In
l870,through communication was established with
Calcutta, in 1871 with Madras. The city has a
successful tramway system. There is now a pros-
pect of more direct railway communication being
established, via Nagpurin the Central Provinces,,
with Calcutta.

But it is not only as the capital of a
Presidency, or as the central point of arrival
and departure for Indian travellers, that Bombay
has achieved its highest reputation. It is best
known as the great cotton market of Western
and Central India, to which the manufacturers
of Lancashire turned when the American war
cut off their supplies. Even in the last century
the East India Company was accustomed to export
raw cotton as part of its investment, both to the
United Kingdom and to China. This trade con-
tinued during the early years of the present
century, but it was marked by extreme vicissi-
tudes in quantity and price, the demand being
entirely determined by the out-turn of the Ameri-
can crop. The war between the Northern and
Southern States was declared in 1861, and the
merchants and shippers of Bombay promptly
took advantage of their opportunity. The exports.

AN ANTHOLOGY. 20r

of cotton rapidly augmented under the stimulus,
of high prices, until in 1864-65, the last year of
the war, they reached a total value of 30 mil-
lions sterling, or nearly ten-fold the average of
ten years before. Large fortunes were acquired
by successful ventures, and the wild spirit of
speculation thus engendered spread through all
classes of the community. The scenes of the
South Sea Bubble were revived. No joint-stock
project seemed too absurd to find subscribers.^
Banks, financial associations, and land companies
each with millions of nominal capital, were start-
ed every month, and their shares were immediate-
ly run up to fabulous premiums. The crash
came in the spring of 1865, when the news was
received of the termination of the American war.
A panic ensued which baffles description, and
the entire edifice of stock exchange speculation
came toppling down like a house of cards. Mer-
chants and private individuals were ruined by
hundreds, and the quasi-official Bank of Bombay
collapsed along with the rest. But despite this
sudden flood of disaster, honest trade soon reviv-
ed on a stable basis; and the city of Bombay
at the present day, in its buildings, its docks,,
and its land reclamations, stands as a monu-
ment of the grand schemes of public usefulness
which were started during these four years of
unhealthy excitement.

Imperial Gazetteer. 2nd Ed. 1887, Vol. III.,

PP' 75-77^

202 BOMBAY :

Cotton Green

W. S. Caine.

Bombay, after New Orleans, is the greatest
-cotton port in the world, and a visit should be
paid to the Cotton Green about noon, at which
time " high change " sets in at a yard opposite
to the Colaba terminus of the tramway. Any
open market in India is sure to be a striking
picture of native life, brightened with an endless
variety of costume and kaleidoscopic colour.
The cotton market of Bombay is no exception.
Four million cwts. are exported from Bombay in
the year, and over two millions more are consum-
ed in the 82 mills in the Bombay Presidency,
the bulk of which are in the city ; the value of all
this cotton is about twelve million sterling.

Picturesque India, i8qi, pages II-I2.

Centre of Gravity of The Empire
in the Future

Sir George Birdwood.

But the past of Bombay is of the deepest and
universal interest, not only with reference to its
prophetic significance, but in itself ; for as the
modern representative of mediaeval Tannah, and
ancient Kalyan, it has an immemorial history of
commercial command, political authority, and
religious supremacy. The whole Deccan, with
all Hindustan, exclusive of the valley of the

AN ANTHOLOGY. 205

Indus, may be regarded as physically and
commercially, and, in the last result, politically,
as but the " hinterland " of the Town and Island
•of Bombay. They are still half mythical regions,
■** the world's green end," " the abodes of the
±)lameless ^Ethiops/' and " the dancing places of
Aurora, the mother of the Dawn, and of the
risings of the sun ; " very picturesque indeed, and
very poetical, but they nowhere provide the
-offensive and defensive strongholds of a widely
•extended and mighty transmarine commercial
Empire. Bombay can never be silted up as
Tannah and Kalyan higher up the same river,
successively were ; and as Karachi is continu-
ally being silted up in spite of every effort
to keep the port way clear; and, therefore,
Bombay will always remain the accessible,
•commodious, and safe harbour it has ever been,
and predominant over all others throughout the
Indian Ocean. If only the opportunity of so
vast and impregnable a harbour, and so attrac-
.tive an emporium of the commerce of East
Africa, and Southern Asia, had occurred at, or
nearer to the site of Karachi, India, under a
powerful Government, would be as absolutely
sealed against any menace of invasion from
•Central Asia, as it is, under our rule, from the sea.
But its actual position detracts very little
from the immense strategic value of Bombay;
and great as its history has been in the past, it
inust be greater still in the future. With the con-
centration of the United Kingdom, the Dominion

204 BOMBAY:

of Canada, the Commonwealth of Australia, and
the coming Confederation of South Africa, into-
a homogeneous British Empire, with which^
moreover, the United States of America are be-
coming, for all commercial and moral and re-
ligious purposes, more and more indissolubly one^
the inevitable tendency must be to shift the
mercantile and naval and military centre of
gravity of the Empire eastward, to Alexandria
or Bombay. Alexander founded Alexandria before-
its time, for he did not anticipate the invasion of
Europe by the Goths and Huns and Vandals, or
of Anterior Asia and Africa by the Saracens
and Turks. But Alexandria will find its fulness,
of time within the 20th century. Bombay will^
however, press it closely; and being absolutely
defensible, and commanding all the exhaustless.
resources of its whole Indian " hinterland," it
may yet snatch the crown of mercantile and
maritime supremacy from Alexandria. In a word,
it is the boundless and incalculable destiny of the
sea-throned city of Bombay under British rule,,
which gives absorbing interest to the story of
its auspicious beginnings under the Pprtuguese
and the English which Mr. Forrest will now
unfold to you.

Remarks introductory to Mr. L. R. W. Forrest's
Papcrou Bombay before the Society of Arts— Journal
of Society of Arts, I901, p. 570.

AN ANTHOLOGY. 205

Development of Bombay.

Lord Sydenham.

The rise of Bombay from an unknown
village to a great commercial and industrial
city occupies a very short space in the long
vista of the history of India, but it is the most
remarkable development, which is exercising
a powerful influence extending over a large
portion of the Presidency. Only two hundred
years ago, Kunaji Angria had just occupied
the Keneri Island, and for many years no ship
-could enter or leave this great harbour without
the risk of being captured. Less than a hundred
years ago a lady wrote of the country within
twenty miles of Bombay that *' in the shops
every artisan has his sword and spear beside
and the cultivators plough with arms in their
hands. " Peace and security are essential
conditions of the prosperity of commerce and
industry which have raised Bombay to its
present proud position among the great cities
of the East. Nature has been bountiful in
providing a magnificent area of shelter water.
The same has brought the markets of the
world within easy and certain reach of these
waters, and perhaps the most important of all,
the great railway systems of India have
enabled the produce to be brought to the sea
for export and to be distributed far inland
rapidly at small cost. All the circumstances
were,, therefore, . favourable to the development

206 BOMBAY :

of Bombay as the great western gate of India
with the populace contained in its hinter-
land. But more was needed. The rapid growth
of sea-borne oommerce created many pressing^
requirements which can be met only by the:
science of the engineer -applied through the
agency of a wise and businesslike administration..

Speeches of Lord Sydenham, 19 13, ed. Dongre

Sec. IV pp. 7-8^

Gateway to a Land of
Enchantment

LORD CURZON.

This is the fifth time that I have gazed from
the sea upon the majestic panorama of your city
of palaces and palms; and if my previous visits,
have been those of a private traveller only»
they have yet given me an interest, which official
experience can but enhance, in your city — itself
so worthy a gateway to a land of enchantment
and in its occupations, so typical of the busy
industry to which the peoples of India have
turned under the security assured to them by
British rule.

In .your address you call my attention to-
the fact that, during the past few 3'^ears, India
has been subject to the triple scourge of war,
pestilence and famine, and that your own Presi-

AN ANTHOLOGY. 2or

dency has suffered sorely from the ravages of
the two latter in particular. In England our
hearts have ^ne out to you in your trouble —
our pursestrings have, as you know, been
unloosened on your behalf. The unceasing
and devoted efforts of your rulers — of the
present illustrious Viceroy (The Earl of Elgin >
and in this place, of your Governor ( Lord Sand-
hurst ) whose application to the onerous work
imposed upon him by the plague has excited
widespread gratitude and admiration — have»
I believe, enabled India to cope with these trials,
in a manner more successful than on any previ-
ous occasions. In this great city the patience
of your people, the voluntary co-operation of
your leading citizens, and the natural vitality of
your resources have greatly assisted in the work
of recuperation ; and I would fain believe that
the corner has now been turned and that an era
of reviving prosperity is already beginning ta
dawn. To that movement it will be my agree-
able duty to lend whatever impulse I can ; and
it is with feelings of sympathy that I regard, and
shall take an early apportunity of inquiring into^
the great undertaking (City Improvement) ta
which , with so marked a combination of courage
and wisdom, you are about to address your-
selves in Bombay.

Reply to the Bombay Municipal Address, Dec. 1898,

Speeches, Ed. Raleigh, Vol. /., p. 32^

208 BOMBAY :

Patriotism of Citizens

LORD CURZON.
I have seen it in prosperity and I have
seen it in sulYering; and I have always been
greatly struck by the spirit and patriotism of
its citizens. There seems to me to be here
an excellent feeling between the very different
races and creeds. Bombay possesses an ex-
ceptional number of public-spirited citizens,
and the sense of civic duty is as highly
developed as in any great city that I know.
If there is a big movement afoot, you lend
yourselves so it with a powerful and concentrated
will, and a united Bombay is not a force to be
gainsaid. Let me give as an illustration the
magnificent success of your reception and
entertainment of Their Royal Highnesses the
Prince and Princess of Wales. Moreover, you
have the advantage of one of the best conduct-
ed and ablest newspapers in Asia ( The Times
of India).

Lord Ciirzon's Farewell to India, ed.

R. P. Karkaria, iQOy, p. I.

Commercial Capital of the East

James Routledge.

The first impression received of Bombay
after the voyage from England is not easy to
represent on paper. The splendid bay, covered
with shipping, may perhaps be entered a second

AN ANTHOLOGY, 209

time without emotion, but hardly so the first
time by an Englishman. After travelling over
6000 miles through the lands and along the
shores of strangers, here is English life, strong,
intellectual, and self-reliant; a Government-house,
a fort, military lines, law courts, a custom house,
colleges, markets of uncommon excellence,
European residences skirting carriage-drives
open to the sea, jetties and wharves, churches
and chapels, reading rooms and libraries, clubs,
cotton and other mills — everything, in fact, of all
that Englishmen have accustomed themselves to
term necessaries of civilised (meaning English)
life. With an inland trade ever increasing as
the Railway system is extended, and a direct
communication with England by the Canal,
Bombay has put forward substantial claims to
become the capital of India, Calcutta being dis-
missed as too far away from England and as
unfit for European residence all the year through,
and the old capitals of the Moguls as only suited
to a purely military people, possessing no basis
on the sea. Nothing of all this, it is true, shakes
the imperial position of the great city on the
Hoogly, while Allahabad is fast becoming, if it
has not already become, the military capital of
India. Yet there is something in Bombay that is
all its own, and which at least gives it an indis-
putable right to be called the commercial capital
of the East.
English Rule and Native Opinion in India, 1878, p. 21,

210 BOMBAY:

Great Work of the flunicipality

Sir Bartle Frere.

We have been lately reminded that Her
Majesty the Queen, in all her vast dominions, has
but one city which is more populous than Bombay,
and few which are the seats of such important
commercial interests. It numbers twice the po-
pulation of Glasgow, and there are hardly two
of your great English cities which in this respect
would, if united, out-number the population with
which you have to deal. Then consider the
magnitude of the task which the Bench has
undertaken to discharge— to make good the
omissions and neglect of former ages, and to
provide all the vast multitude of people with
good air, good water, good roads and everything
else which should distinguish the second city of
of the British Empire. I think, Sir, that to take
a part in the great work the Municipality has in
hand, is an object in no way unworthy of any
Englishman who desires to serve his country in
this distant land. But though the task is great
and difficult, I have every confidence it will be
well performed. Much has been already effected
in a very short time, and I look forward with
the utmost confidence to the time when we shall
hear that Bombay has taken her place among
cities, owing as much to art as she does to nature
and position.

Reply to Address of the Bench of Justices, 1 867,
Speeches of Bartle Frere. ed. Pit ale, 1870, p. 433.

AN ANTHOLOGY. * 2il

Importance and
Growth of Bombay

LORD Sydenham.

Bombay was not one of the many rich gifts
of the sea to England, although it must have
passed from her hands if naval supremacy had
not been asserted at the periods of great national
crises. The finest harbour in the East became
a possession of the Crown on the marriage of
Charles II. to Catherine of Braganza, and was
leased to the East India Company in 1669 for
the modest rental of £ 10 per annum. Why this
important possession was selected by the
Portuguese as part of the dowry of their Princess
is not clear; but in 1662 the Viceroy of Goa
wrote to his King: "I see the best port your
Majesty possesses in India, with which that of
Lisbon is not to be compared, treated as of little
value by the Portuguese themselves." If the
great importance of Bombay was not realised by
its first European owners, no clearer perception
was vouchsafed to their British successors for
many years. As ships increased in tonnage and
as the trade of India developed, Bombay in-
evitably grew into a great maritime port, and
the opening of the Suez Canal made it at once
the main gate of communication between India
and the Western world. Bombay now has about
one million inhabitants, and is the centre oi a
great volume of valuable trade and of a most
important mill industry. It is one of the best

212 BOMBAY:

governed and certainly the healthiest city in
the East.

A noble city has arisen on the barren island
ceded by the Portuguese, and while there is still
ample scope for progress the British people may
well feel proud of what has been accomplished.
The maintenance of peace and order throughout
India has led to the creation of a vast trade of
infinite value to the people. The enrichment of
Indians through the operation of that trade is
nowhere so conspicuous as in Bombay, where the
Parsis were the pioneers of Indian enterprises
which are now rivalled by those of Hindus and
Mahomedans successfully following in their
footsteps. While the wealth of Bombay tenas
more and more to flow to Indians of many classes,
British administration has left an indelible im-
press upon the great city, although the guiding
hand is now lightly felt.

Man had laid a heavy hand upon the natural
beauties which many visitors have recorded. A
thick pall of smoke, the wasteful outpouring of
numberless chimneys overhangs the island
and obscures the splendid background of the
Western Ghats. Yet when the sunset paints
the waters of the harbour andtinges the sails of
the old world craft that still ply their trade
unchanged since the time of the Angrias, or
when at night the necklace of lights embraces
the noble sweep of Back Bay under the stars,
none can deny the fascinati®ns of the great

AN ANTHOLOGY. 213

Eastern gate of India, of the city which, in
Gerald Aungier's words, was to be built " by.
God's assistance. "

Introduction to Bombay in the Making, 1910,

pp. 10-14*

The Most Impressive
City in the Orient

"The Times."

The continuous growth of Bombay is one of
the brightest and most hopeful episodes in the
modern history of India. Seventeen years ago
the city was sorely stricken. The appearance
of plague in the midst of its teeming population
seemed like a disaster of the first magnitude.
The inhabitants fled by the hundred thousand.
The deaths reached an appalling total. vSuccessive
epidemics produced temporary despair. There
were moments when the possibility was seriously
discussed that Bombay might share the fate of
those great cities of Asia which have been desert-
ed and forgotten. But the public spirit of its
citizens remained undefeated. Lord Sandhurst
set on foot a scheme for the reconstruction of the
slums which has since had far-reaching results.
Trade revived, the city took heart of grace, and
to-day it enjoys a prosperity such as it has never
before known.

214 ' BOMBAY:

The story of Bombay in recent years is almost
a romance. Its own inhabitants are hardly con-
scious of all they have achieved. Though the
world has heard little about it, their indomitable
f:onfidence and preseverance have wrought a
change greater than that effected in the stricken
city of San Francisco. So many new and palatial
buildings have been erected in the business and
the new European residential quarters that to
those who quitted it twenty years ago, Bombay
would now be almost unrecognizable. Long ago
LordCurzon christened it "the city of palaces and
palms," and ever since it has striven to deserve
the description more worthily. If Lord Syden-
ham's scheme for great reclamations on the
shores of Back Bay is ever carried out, as we
trust it may be, Bombay will become the most
impressive city in the Orient. We are not sure
that in some respects it is not so to-day. No
city in Asia, not even Canton seen from its
Pagoda, nor Hong-Kong from its Peak, impresses
the stranger as does the wide-spread and beauti-
ful panorama of Bombay seen towards sunset
from the crest of Malabar Hill. It impresses not
only by its hugeness and its beauty, its glorious
bay and golden sands and innumerable palms,
and its frame of dim blue mountains.

Far more moving is the thought it brings
that, to a degree which cannot be said of any
other city in India, Bombay though founded by
the British, has been the joint creation of English-
men and Indians working together in friendly

AN ANTHOLOGY, 215

unison for a common object. It contains and
typifies, could both races see it, the secret upon
which the future welfare of the Indian Empire
must depend, Bombay was seven islands once.
Now it has been made one by the infinite toil of
man, and within its narrow confines there has
^rown a noble city which owes much to both
the East and to the West. So, out of divided
provinces and myriads of people divided by race
and by religion, must an enduring Empire be
wrought if India is to find salvation.

The Times ( Loudon ). 21 March 1 91 4 p. g

SCENES IN BOBAY.

SCENES IN BOMBAY.

The Yacht Club at Evening

J. A. Spender.

At the Yacht Club towards sunset you will
find the English colony assembled on a green
lawn fronting the sea, with the club-house
behind. The view seawards embraces the great
circle of the bay, and the distant promontories
are deep purple against a flaming orange sunset
which is topped by masses of crimson and warm
grey clouds. Tone it all down and in the dim
light the view might be that from Plymouth Hoe.
The twilight passes quickly, festoons of electric
light make a dazzle on a hundred tea-tables,
and an excellent military band strikes up a
selection from " Samson and Delilah. " While
you are here, you forget the great, seething,
miasmic city behind you, and wonder at the
cheerfulness, smartness, good looks, and good
manners of the Bombay English and their
womenkind. Civilians or Soldiers, they are
<:learly a strong, self-reliant, well-favoured race,
with an indefinable air of being in authority.
It is an authority, however, which is not flaunt-
ed. You see the native policeman everywhere, but
the soldier hardly at all. All the military men
are in mufti, and there is no outward sign to

220 BOMBAY :

distinguish the civilian administrator from an-
Englishman on business. You hear no big talk ;.
it is indeed, the most difficult thing in the
world to induce any of them to talk at all
about themselves or their duties. They seemr
to take for granted that they should be there-
and doing what they are doing. The first
dominant impression you bear away is that
they have a great interest in governing and
none at all in possessing. Hence, in spite of
the alien rule, Bombay strikes you as eminently
belonging to itself, as being in fact a real.
Indian town, and as remote as possible from a
British colony. This, perhaps, is the greatest
tribute that can be paid to the English who
made it, or at least made it possible.

The Indian Scene, 1912, pages 26 to 28^

Sunset

"Sleepy Sketches."

When night comes on, and Providence send&
a few clouds to make the sunset glorious, then-
the scene of Bombay harbour is wonderful. Out
at sea, at the harbour's mouth, great streaks ancJ
blotches and broken points of gold crowd the
western sky, bright and dazzling on the back-
ground of crimson that runs far along the horizon
and rises upwards till it pales and is lost in the
pure blue above ; the broken water of the

AN ANTHOLOGY. 221

harbour burns gold and red and yellow in reflec-
tion ; the masts and yards, sails and hulls, of
the anchored vessels are gold ; the ugliest collier
has become meet to carry Cleopatra ; the houses
of Bombay are translated, and the town is a town
of gorgeous palaces ; the mountains in the dis-
tance catch the bright lights and, mindful that
true greatness is humble, deck themeselves in
soft, faint colours ; and over all is the blue sky
pure and clear. Then, slowly, the light fades,
^nd darkness approaches and settles down. But
sometimes there is a change, and darkness is
driven back. Then, all through the air and light,
there is a strange, tremulous motion. The ships,
the sea and the land, the mountains in the dis-
tance, quiver fantastically and seem no longer
substantial. It is a battle between the full
moon, the sun, and darkness. Darkness is beat-
en, the sun sets, and the moon begins to rule.
The gold, the red and yellow, have all gone ;
only a steady white light marks the shadows of
the ships and the ripples of the water, and
charily touches an edge here and there with a
brighter emphasis of silver.

The sudden change — a change in a few
minutes — from sunset-light to moonlight, is as-
tounding ! It is the creation of a new world, of
new thoughts. The brightest of bright moon-
light nights in England gives no idea of an
Indian moonlight night. Ghosts, pixies, trolls,
gnomes are not in India; there is no sentiment for
them to feed on ; and Jinns, Afreets, and Shaitan

222 BOMBAY :

make but a poor substitute. The moonlight
here suggests nothing of the spiritual, nothing
of the sentimental. All scenery in daylight
is wanting in shadow and depth of colour;
each landscape under the sun looks like a
faintly-tinted photograph, sharp in outline, but
faded till almost invisible in parts. But by
moonlight this is changed; deep, heavy sha-
dows sit on the mountains and hills where
before were only their neutral tints ; and though
all bright colour be gone, nature has a sturdy,
earnest appearance that is invigorating, after
its wan, transparent look of the day. It is this
robust look that the landscape gains which is
so striking. Life under the moon seems more
vigorous. It gives no desire for sentiment, but
rather for physical exercise. To sail out in
the harbour on a moonlight night is delightful.
But it is delightful because it makes one feel
brighter and more active, and gives a good
appetite for dinner; not because the scene and
light set one dreaming of home or love.

Sleepy Sketches, 1877, pp. 2S-31.

A Street by Moonlight

Sir Fred. Treves.

It is at night and under the moon that the
streets of an Indian town become filled with the
most unearthly spirit of romance. I recall one
such night in Bombay when the moon was high
in the heavens.

AN ANTHOLOGY. 22$

The street was narrow, for the houses on
either side of it leaned towards one another.
They were lofty and fantastic in shape, so
that the gap of light that marked the road
made it look like a narrow way through a gorge
of rocks. The white glory of the moon, falling
from broken housetops, turned into marble the
wood-carved mullions of an overhanging window^
poured slanting-wise, into a verandah and made
beautiful its poor roof, its arches, and its bulg-
ing rail, and then dripping through rents and
holes in ragged awnings, filled little pools of
cool light in the hot, untidy road.

The shops were closed and were lost in
the blackest shadows, although, here and there,
a splash of moonlight would strike the stone
platform which staod in front of them, and
reveal a bench, a barred door, or a heavy
chest. A few steps of a rambling stair would
climb up through the glamour and then vanish
in the dusk. The pillars of a stone balcony
would stand out like alabaster in the moon,
appearing poised in the air, as if the corner
of a palace projected into the street. A denser
mass of shadow would mask an arched entry
whose flagstones led through utter darkness to a
courtyard flooded with light.

On the pale stones of one such courtyard
was the recumbent figure of a man wrapped
from head to foot in a purple cloak, like a
corpse laid out for burial. Under the veran-
dahs and in caverns of darkness many other

224 BOMBAY :

figures were stretched out on mats, on low-
tables, or on bare stones, all wrapped up so
that no face could be seen, all motionless, all
lean like the dead. These mummy-like bundles
(that were sleeping men) might all have been
lifeless bodies put out of doors to wait for some
tumbril to come by.

On certain lintels was the mark in red paint
which showed that the plague had visited the
house, and so quiet was the place and so still
the wrapped up men that one could fancy that
the lane was in a city of death. The figures
looked so thin and lay so flat as to show,
under the meagre covering, the feet, the points
of the knees, and the outline of the head. One
figure drew up a bony leg as I passed, and it
seemed as if a man left for dead was still alive.

Some were wrapped in red garments, some
in yellow, and a few in white. In every one
the wrapping entirely enveloped the head, for
the native of India when he sleeps — whether in
a room or in the open — will always cover up
his face.

Possibly a few of those who slept were
servants lying outside their masters' houses^
but the greater number of them were the home-
less men of the city. .Some were asleep in the
very roadway, so that the passer-by would need
to step over them.

The quiet in the place was terrible. The
only sound came from the shuffling feet of two

AN ANTHOLOGY. 225

prowling dogs who rooted among the garbage in
the gutter. It was just such a street as Dore
was wont to paint and such an one as figures
in many a rapier-and-cloaked-figure romance. It
was a street that breathed murder, and to which
would be fitting the stab in the back, the sudden
shriek, the struggling body dragged into a dark
doorway by knuckles clutching at the livid neck.
It was the street of the Arabian Nights, and there
was in it the hush that comes before a tragedy.

In one place in the street a bar of red light
from an open door fell ^across the road and
across a muffled figure asleep upon the stones. In
another place a motionless woman bent over the
rail of a verandah, her head outlined against the
^lare of a lamp in the room behind her. For what
she watched, Heaven knows !

Beyond these two streaks of light, which
burnt into the arctic pallor of the moon, there
was nothing to suggest that the dwellers in the
street did more than mimic death.

The Other Side of th? Lantern, 1905 pp. 55-56.

The City at Dawn

LORD LAMINGTON.
No one who has filled the post of Governor
of Bombay could have anything but a natural
pride in having had the privilege of being asso-
ciated with that province, possessed of so many
and varied interests, and having for its capital

226 BOMBAY :

one of the most magnificent cities of the worlds
It will ever be a memory to gladden my spirit to
recall the view from Malabar Hill. More parti-
cularly on one occasion, just before dawn, do I
remember the effect produced by the rays of
sunlight behind the Ghats, throwing the latter
into relief, lighting up the harbour and reddening-
the roofs and pinnacles of the stately buildings
in the Fort, whilst nearer at hand below slum-
bered Back Bay and its palm-covered shores ;
and to the North-East streaks of smoke from the
tall chimneys showed that the industrial world
was awakening, and for once this evidence of
human activity really lent a picturesque touch to
the scene. At times the disfigurement due to the
grimy out-pourings of the factories is deplorable.
In private and in public I have discoursed on this
theme. Prosecutions did take place but it was
very difficult to secure a conviction against in-
dividual offenders. I gather from the latest
reports that smoke consumption appliances are.
being adopted. Let us hope that the use of these,
combined with the introduction of electricity
produced by water power, and with regulations
more stringently enforced in the future, will
ensure that cne of the most glorious of lands-
capes will cease to be besmirched by a careless
and wasteful expenditure of coal.
Paper en BorNbay before the Society of Arts, JO Ap.
igo8. Journal of the Society, igo8.

AN ANTHOLOGY. 227

After the Rains

Robert Brown.

The rains are now nearly over, having lasted
about three months, though not without intermis-
sion, for a deluge continues about a fortnight,
then there is fine weather for a week. There are
snatches of sunsjiine too during the deluges,
and it is interesting to see people watch-
ing a shower coming over the sea, and calculat-
ing the time they can stay out with impunity.
It is good fun to see some unfortunate wight,
who has made rather too fine a calculation,
Caught in the shower; in about three seconds he
is wet to the skin, and a drookit rat is a dry
animal and a nice-looking beast compared with
him. I speak feelingly on this point, having been
lately caught once or twice myself, and I was
certainly conscious that . I looked a fool ! The
grins depicted on the faces of the natives I
passed left no doubt on the subject. Fortunately
one never catches cold after a ducking, if you
keep the blood in circulation by a smart gallop,
and change whenever you get home. We have had
some beautiful evenings lately, which reminded
ni3of summer in England, for the air was pure,
and very little warmer than you have it, at least
I fancied so, and the moonlight nights that
followed were lovely in the extreme. It gets dark
just now about seven, but people scarcely ever
go out here after dinner; a siesta is generally
preferred. The other night I dined alone, the

228 BOMBAY:

first time since I arrived here, and I felt very-
curious, do you know ? — something in the old
lodging style at Liverpool; but I suppose I must
consider myself a more important man now.
After reading some reminiscences of Thomas
Campbell, I betook myself to the sleeping bun-
galow, and seated in the verandah there, while
.solitude and silence reigned abound, interrupted
occasionally by the squeak of the lizard, or
that hum of innumerable insects which are called
into being, as it were, by the night air, while
the moon shed its silver light on the Temple of
Maha Luxumee, and the billows rolled in on the
rocks, their crests beautifully white, — while
this was going on, I seated myself in an
arm-chair, and breathed out in the most exqui-
site tones, * Ye banks and braes.' You may
recollect that Orpheus had the power of charm-
ing beasts, and even trees, by his music; at the
last note of my Scotch air, two goats that were
standing on the edge of the verandah fell on
their backs, and kicked convulsively for seven
minutes ! writhing in the most intense agony,
which their medical man opines has caused a
constitutional nervousness for life. This is a
curious contrast to mesmerism.

Memorials, 1867, pp. 34-3^-

AN ANTHOLOGY. 229

In a Bombay Garden

Lady Falkland.

I had not been long in Bombay, before it be-
came my habit to sit at early morning, in a
verandah, overlooking the beautiful garden at-
tached to our house, wondering at everything.

There was nothing in the scene to remind me
of Europe, except perhaps, at very rare inter-
vals, an English servant, determined to wear a
black beaver hat, and doing all he could to have
a sun stroke. Despite the early hour, it was
always overpoweringly hot. There were nd
clouds rising in the deep blue sky, and the sun
would pour down its heat on the burnt-up grass,
and trees, and drooping shrubs. Nature herself
as well as human beings, apparently sighing for
the rains.

The flower garden, though not large, was
tastefully laid out ; and a terrace at the end of
it, having mango trees on one side, and a large
piece of water on the other, rendered it a pleasant
walk in the evening.

Along the sides of all the walks of this
garden are stone channels, into which, the water
runs from the wells, and thence into the beds of
plants and flowers, which for a time stand in a
refreshing pool.

The trees were all new to me, especially a
teak, (Tectona Grandis,) with its last year's
foliage, the large leaves being very much. 'the*
worse for wear/

230 BOMBAY:

At the end of the garden were superb mango
trees so famous for their delicious fruit, that
comes into season in April, but unfortunately
only last till June. I have met with some persons
who do not like the mango, but they are ' few
and far between.' It is perfection — you do not
wish it larger, nor smaller, nor is it too sweet or
too sour. When you have eaten one, it is enough,
but a second is by no means too much. The
flavour combines that of the melon, apricot, and
strawberry. The blossom is beautiful, the rind
has tints of green, red, and orange. It must have
been the fruit which tempted Eve, and that
weak man Adam, who afterwards threw all the
blame on his poor wife.

Near me was the Asoka, which in spring
bears beautiful red blossoms, many casuarinas
with their light and graceful foliage being inter-
mixed and contrasted with the broad leaves of
various kinds of palms, among them the lofty
Caryota Urens, and the traveller's palm, from
which a watery juice is extracted, and the broad
leaves of which grow in a complete fan-like
form ; the beauty of the whole scene being en-
hanced and enlivened by the brilliant-coloured
turbans worn by -the native servants belonging
to the establishment of the * burra sahib,' of
which there are so many that it is not easy at
first to know their different offices.

First, a very tall, portly Parsee, who is the
maitre d'hotel, would walk forth to begin his

AN ANTHOLOGY. 231

day's occupations, and then appeared sundry
Parsee and Mussulman-servants carrying tea or
coffee to their different masters' rooms. These
would be followed by the durjeys or tailors go-
ing to their work. Everybody has a private
tailor in India ; the governor has a tailor ;
captains, councilors, and cadets, ladies, lords,
and secretaries, all have one a piece. A separate
tailor seems to be considered essential to Anglo-
Indian happiness. Then the dobie (washerman)
passed by with a red turban, and a long white
dress, carrying a basket full of linen, which he
meant to wash by beating and slapping it on a
stone in the tank, at tho back of the garden.
Then at a quick pace cams the gardeners (mali),
having on their heads red cloth skullcaps, and
very little other apparel, carrying on their
shoulders a long bamboo-stick, at each end of
which hangs a large copper chattie, full of water,
with which they were going to refresh the droop-
ing plants. Such was the scene from my
verandah, looking outwards.

If I turned round, in a room immediately
adjacent was an individual (wearing moustaches,
like all the natives) clothed in white drapery
( twisted round his body and descending to the
knees), a white jacket, and a blue and white
turban-his black shining legs and feet being
uncovered ; over his shoulder hung his badge of
oflfice-a duster-with which he occasionally rub-
bed a chair or table; he represents the housemaid;

232 BOMBAY:

and, as I have before said, is called a hamaL
Near him was another Hindoo in a similar dress^
except that he wore a blue turban, and held a
tray of small glasses full of cocoa-nut oil to place
in the lamps suspended round the room ; he is-
called a mussal ; and the lamps and lights are
his especial department.

Chow-Chcw, Vol. I, pages 31-35^

Nature in Bombay

Madame Blavatsky.

We occupied three small bungalows, lost, like
nests, in the garden, their roofs literally smoth-
ered in roses blossoming on bushes twenty
feet high, and their windows covered only with
muslin, instead of the usual panes of glass. The
bungalows were situated in the native part of
the town, so that we were transported, all at once
into the real India. We were living in India,
unlike English people, who are only surrounded
by India at a certain distance. We were enabled
to study her character and customs, her religion^
superstitions and rites, to learn her legends in
fact, to live among Hindus.

Everything in India, this land of the elephant
and the poisonous cobra, of the tiger and the
unsuccessful English missionary, is original and
strange. Everything seems unusual, unexpected^
and striking, even to one who has travelled in

AN ANTHOLOGY. 233

Turkey, Egypt, Damascus, and Palestine. In
these tropical regions the conditions of nature
are so various that all the forms of the animal
and vegetable kingdoms must radically differ
from what we are used to in Europe. Look, for
instance, at those women on their way to a well
through a garden, which is private and at the
same time open to anyone, because somebody's
cows are grazing in it- To whom does it not
happen to meet with women, to see cows, and
admire a garden } Doubtless these are among the
commonest of all things. But a single attentive
glance will suffice to show you the difference
that exists between the same objects in Europe
and in India. Nowhere more than in India does
a human being feel his weakness and insigni-
ficance. The majesty of the tropical growth is
such that our highest trees would look dwarfed
compared with banyans and especially with
palms. A European cow, mistaking, at first
sight, her Indian sister for a calf, would deny
the existence of any kinship between them, as
neither the mouse-coloured wool, nor the straight
goat-like horns, nor the humped back of the
latter would permit her to make such an error
As to the women, each of them whould make
any artist feel enthusiastic about the gracefulness
of the movements and drapery, but still, no pink
and white, stout Anna Ivanovna would condes-
cend to greet her.

From the Caves and Jungles of Hindostan,

J892, pp. 13-14.

234 BOMBAY :

The Plague

LOVAT FRASER.

Outwardly " a city of palaces and palms,"
with a magnificent harbour and life-giving sea-
breezes which never fail, it was nevertheless the
home of an immense population living under the
most unwholesome conditions. At the northern
end of the island the native city had been cram-
med within restricted limits, notby official man-
date, but by the greed of property-owners. Huge
insanitary tenement houses had been erected,
which almost rivalled the "sky-scrapers" of New
York in her less aspiring days. Eighty per cent
of the million inhabitants were living in tene-
ments of a single room ; and the average number
of occupants of each room was four. Many of
these rooms had neither light nor ventilation ;
into them the sunlight could never penetrate;
large numbers of the houses were deliberately
built back to back ; and in these noisome dens,
with damp mud floors, rats and humanity swarm-
ed. Bombay owed its plight to a rapid influx of
populations, to a great rise in land-values, and
to defective building regulations inadequately
administered by a Corporation which had in-
herited a situation with which it was unable to
cope. When plague came there was a panic. I
witnessed the scenes of that first mad exodus at
the end of 1896, when the railway stations were
<rammed with people who fought for places in

AN ANTHOLOGY. 235

the trains, and when the roads of Salsette were
thronged with fugitives fleeing from the pestilence
they knew not whither.

Itidia under Curzofi, IQH, PP- 2rj0 to 27 1.

Experienced officers have sometimes told me
that in their opinion plague leaves surprisingly
little impression upon India. Their argument is
that in such a teeming population pestilence has
no very abiding result. I am bound to say that
my own experience leads to very much the same
•conclusion. I lived for a considerable number of
years in a city from which plague was never
absent. I have seen the clerk seized at his desk,
the servant stretched dead at my gate, the dis-
appearance of one familiar face after another. 1
have even, when playing golf, seen a woman
tstagger and fall upon the green as I approached
it, and die of plague before she could be moved.
Yet after the first mad terror was over the city
waxed busy, and grew, and all the thronging fune-
rals never seemed to give more than a momentary
<:heck to its feverish prosperity. I sometimes
wonder whether we Englishmen judge the situa-
tion correctly, and whether plague has not had a
<leeper effect upon some parts of India than we
are able to discern. If you live long in the
presence of a great infliction, it becomes common-

236 BOMBAY:

place, and ceases to impress. I know now why-
men who have endured a protracted siege dislike
to talk about it, why the historians of past centu^
ries say so little about plague, although they
dwelt in its midst. There came a time when we-
were wearied of the very name of plague, and
looked with dull indifference on the flames of
death aglow.

India under Curzon, igil, page 278^

The Mango Trick

Norman Macleod.

Through one of my friends, I asked for the
wellknown Mango trick. I am told that many
intelligent young men profess to know how it is.
done. When inquiry is made on this point, how^
ever, I have hitherto found to my regret, that at
the moment of expectancy they always forget it.

While the tom-tom was beating and the pipe
playing, the juggler, singing all the time in low
accents, smoothed a place in the gravel three or
four yards before us- Having thus prepared a
bed for the plant to grow in, he took a basket
and placed it over the prepared place, coverings
it with a thin blanket. The man himself did not
wear a thread of clothing, except a strip round
the loins. The time seemed now to have come
for the detective's eye ! So, just as he was
becoming more earnest in his song, and while the
tom-tom beat and the pipe shrilled more loudly^
I stepped forward with becoming dignity, and

AN ANTHOLOGY. 237

begged him to bring the basket and its cover to
me. He cheerfully complied and I examined the
basket, which was made of open wicker-work. I
then examined the cloth covering, which was thin,
almost transparent, and certainly concealed
nothing. I then examined the cloth covering,
which was thin, almost trans-parent, and certainly
<:oncealed nothing. I then fixed my eyes on his
strip of clothing with such intentness that it was
not possible it could have been touched without
discovery, and badehim go on, feeling sure that the
trick could not succeed. Sitting down, he stretch-
ed his naked arms under the basket, singing and
smiling as he did so ; then he lifted the basket
off the ground-and behold a green plant, about
a foot high ! Satisfied with our applause, he
went on with his incantations. After having sat
a little longer, to give his plant time to grow, he
again lifted the basket, and the plant was now
two feet high. He asked us to wait, that we
might taste the fruit ! But on being assured, by
those who had seen the trick performed before,
that this result would be obtained, I confessed
myself * done ' without the slightest notion of the
how. I examined the ground, and found it was
smooth and unturned. Apparently delighted
with my surprise, the juggler stood up laughing,
when one of his companions chucked a pebble
to him, which he put tnto his mouth. Immediately
the same companion, walking backwards, drew
forth a cord of silk, twenty yards or so in length**
after which the juggler, with his hands behind

238 BOMBAY :

his back; threw forth from his mouth two decan-
ter stoppers, two shells, a spinning-top, a stone,
and several other things, followed by a long jet
of fire ! If the wise reader regrets so much spacer
being occupied by such a story, let him pass itr
on to the children, as foolish as myself, who wilE
be glad to read it.

Far East, ed. 1893, pages 17 to 18^

Palm=Tree

Norman Macleod.

Turning away from man and looking at
nature, there is a feature of Bombay which never
ceases to please: this is the glorious palm trees t
Palms are so associated with the East in our
thoughts that we have heard of an artist intro-
ducing them into a picture of a scene up-country^
where no palm tree evef grows, on the ground
that " the British public would expect them in
an Indian landscape." I never felt weary look-
ing at them. Their tall stems and picturesque
heads cluster in the still air of the sunny sky^
and they are always beautiful, whatever their
species may be. They are characteristic of
Bombay as of no other city visited by me on the
continent of India ; and they so hide portions of
the scattered town as to appear almost an un-
broken forest.

AN ANTHOLOGY. 239^

Observing wild-looking huts, with out-of-
the-way people among the trees, I was told that
they are inhabited by a class who extract
" toddy " from palms, and thus make their
living.

Far East, page 13^

Fish at Bombay

James Forbes

The surrounding ocean supplies Bombay
with a variety of excellent fish; some of them are
similar to those in Europe, others are peculiar to
India. The pomfret is not unlike a srr>all turbot„
but of a more delicate flavour; and epicures esteem
the black pomfret a great dainty: the sable, or
salmon-fish, a little resembles the European fish
from whence it is named: the robal, the seir-fish,
the grey mullet, and some others, are very good;
but the bumbalo, a small fish, extremely nutritive,
and caught in immense numbers, is the favourite
-with those natives who are allowed by their
religion to eat fish: they are dried for home com-
sumption, and furnish a principal article of food
for the Lascars, or Indian sailors, on board their
vessels; they are also a considerable article of
commerce in their dried state. Turtle are some-
times caught at Bombay and the adjacent islands;
as are sea cray-fish, oysters, limpets, and other
shell fish.

Oriental Memoirs, Vol. pages 36 to 37.

MO BOMBAY :

The Banian Tree

E. H. A.
(E. H. AlTKEN. )

The leaves of the Banian come before the
heat, and its shade is a shade indeed. And to
sit in contemplation under the majesty of a
noble Banian would make a man a Rishi if he
were not so before.

What a world it is in itself> populous with
beasts and birds and myriads of little things,
which though we call them insignificant, are
sharers with us in the mystery of life and happi-
ness. And how bountifully the tree feeds
them all. It is literally a land flowing with
milk and honey.

If you wish to form a just idea of the place
which the Banian tree fills in the world you
must visit it when every twig is fringed with
scarlet figs. If this should be, as it generally
is, in the cold season, when food is scarce,
then there is indeed a bazaar. Early in the
morning the birds begin to gather, the riotous
Rosy Pastor and the self-possessed Myna, the
graceful Brahminy Myna, with its silky black
crest and buffy-red waistcoat, and the yet more
elegant Hoary Headed Myna, and the cheery
Bulbuls and the Coppersmiths, quiet and silent
just now, except when they quarrel and rail
hoarsely at each other, and the Golden Orioles,

AN ANTHOLOGY. 241

and here and there a great blackguard Crow,
devoid alike of shame and fear. They are all
in high spirits, and plenty makes fastidious.
Watch that Myna as he hops about, judging
the fruit with one eye, till he finds a fine,
mellow fig, not too raw and not too ripe, but
just right. Then he digs a hole in it with
his sharp beak. Of parrots there are not many,
for the parrot is a sybarite and the fig is plain,
wholesome fare. Another fruit-eater also is
absent-the Green Pigeon : its mellow whistle
is seldom heard in the Banian tree. The reason
is that the Green Pigeon cannot dig holes in
fruits : it swallows them whole. Now the Banian
fig is tough and so firmly joint to the twig that
the Green Pigeon has not strength to pull if off.

A Naturalist on the Prowl 1892, p. 50-53,

Native Schools

Mrs. Postans.

The Native Education Society's Schools are
situated near the great bazaars, at the extreme
end of the Esplanade. Committees and examina-
tions are held in the library, a splendid apart-
ment fitted with a good collection of useful works
with globes, maps, and papers, and adorned at
either end with full length portraits of the great
benefactors of the institution, Sir John Malcolm,

242 BOMBAY :

and the Hon. Mountstuart Elphinstone. The
last is the work of Sir Thomas Lawrence, and one
of those startling and wonderful likenesses, which
gained for the magic pencil of the elegant, yet
truthtelling artist, its immortality of fame.
There is, moreover, an exquisite touch of oriental
landscape in the background, to which the eye is
agreeably referred, after a full contemplation of
the principal subject of the painting; beautifully
coloured, the tall minarets seem brightly reflected
in the placid waters stealing round the sacred
fanes which the artist has chosen for his subject;
while the figure of Mr. Elphinstone, seated in a
library chair, is animated by a countenance beam-
ing with intelligent benevolence. To a fanci-
ful spectator, this fine portrait might suggest
numerous reflections on the history of the great
and nobleminded man, who, amidst the pomp and
circumstance of eastern greatness, devoted his
best energies to the promotion of the happiness
of those he governed ; valuing power as it afford-
ed means for the exercise of his enlightened
philanthropy.

Western India, 183Q, Vol I, pp. 48-50.

1

AN ANTHOLOGY. 243

The riohurrum in Bombay

S. M. Edwardes.

Although the regular Mohurrum ceremonies
do not commence until the fifth day of the
Mohurrum moon, the Mahomedan quarters of
the city are astir on the first of the month. From
morn till eve the streets are filled with bands of
boys, and sometimes girls, blowing raucous
blasts on hollow bamboos, which are adorned
with a tin ' panja ' — the sacred open hand emble-
matical of the Prophet, his daughter Fatima, her
husband Ali and their two martyred sons. The
sacred five, in the form of the outstretched hand,
adorn nearly all Mohurrum symbols, from the
toy trumpet and the top of the banner-pole to
the horse-shoe rod of the devotee and the *tazia*
or domed bier. Youths, preceded by drummers
and clarionet-players, wander through the
streets laying all the shop-keepers under contri-
bution for subscriptions; the well-to-do house-
holder sets to building a ' sabil ' or charity-foun-
tain in one corner of his verandah or on a site
somewhat removed from the fairway of traffic;
while a continuous stream of people afflicted by
the evil-eye flows into the courtyard of the Bara
Imam Chilla near the Nal Bazaar to receive abso-
lution from the peacock-feather brush and sword
there preserved. Meanwhile in almost every street
where a * tabut ' is being prepared, elegiac dis-
courses ( 'waaz' ) are nightly delivered up to the
tenth of the month by a maulvi, who draws from

244 BOMBAY :

Rs. JO to Rs. 100 for his five nights' description
of the martyrdom of Hasain; while but a little
distance away boys painted to resemble tigers
Jleap to the rhythm of a drum, and the Arab
mummer with the split bamboo shatters the
nerves of the passer-by by suddenly cracking
it behind his back. The fact that this Arab
usually takes up a strong position near a 'tazia
suggests the idea that he must originally have
represented a guardian or scapegoat, designed
to break by means of his abuse, buffoonery and
laughter the spell of the spirits who long for
quarters within the rich mimic tomb; and the fact
that the crowds who come to gaze in admiration
on the ' tazia' never retort or round upon him, for
the sudden fright or anger that he evokes gives
one the impression that the crack of the bamboo
is in their belief a potent scarer of unhoused and
malignant spirits.

By-ways of Bombay, 1912, 2nd ed. pp. 46-4J.

riohurrum

M. T. Hainsselin.

On the final aay the streets were crowded
beyond imagination all along the route. Sitting
n a balcony at any point you could have watch-
ed for hour after hour while the thousands of
natives thronged past at a run, till you wondered
where they could possibly come from in such

AN ANTHOLOGY. 245

incalculable numbers. Now a tall tomb of gilded
wicker-work, elaborately ornamented with flags
and paper streamers, would be borne along on a
wagon drawn by two patient oxen; around it a
crowd of excited natives, brandishing ten-foot
bamboo poles, kept up a perpetual shouting in
which the names of Hassan and Hussein were
continually repeated. Some halt-a-dozen of the
crowd would ever and anon separate themselves
from the seething human mass and act like
qhorus-leaders to the rest, turning round to face
them and dancing backwards with wild gesticu-
lations, and conducting the shouting till it be-
came, from a mere confused noise, a regularly-
timed concert of staccato cries, like the splash of
oars in a racing boat. So the tomb and its atten-
dant mob would pass along, and then perhaps
for a few minutes a quiet interval when the people
dribbled past scantily; then another crowd,
thicker than ever, and taking longer to go by, all
running and shouting, though they had neither
tomb nor anything else to shout at; and every
man's white clothes were thickly bespattered
with great splashes of coloured dyes, red and
purple, to represent the blood of the martyred
saints. Here for a moment or two the crowd
would thicken at a corner, swaying and surging
till it looked as if there was going to be a very
ugly crush; but at the critical moment a mounted
white policeman, who had all the time been
viewing the proceedings with blase contempt,
would quietly back his horse into the thickest

246 BOMBAY :

part of the crowd, and the natives would scatter
and fly. Next, perhaps would come a little band
of three or four men, naked, except for the
dhooti around their loins, and painted from head
to foot in stripes, yellow and white, to represent
tigers ; these kept up a weird sort of animal
dance, with some symbolism attached to it relat-
ing to the events in celebration. After them,
another tomb, taller still and more elaborate
than the former, and then another and still
another. And so on, for hours, all wending
their way along a winding route all through the
city, till they finally reached the bridge, where
the tombs were cast over to float away with the
tide.

Markhani of Mohistan. Pages 1 80 to 1 81.

Collins the Armenian Loafer

Arthur Crawford.
No acount of Bombay loafers would be
complete without a reference to the harmless
old fellow whose death, I think, I read of two or
three years ago. For a quarter of a century
or more, Collins, I believe he was named,
was to be found somewhere or other squatted
in some favourite nook in the Fort, his pref-
erence being for some lane opposite Watson's
Grand Hotel. Many of us thought that he was
an Armenian, and his features favoured this sup-

AN ANTHOLOGY. 247

position. He never solicited alms — in fact, he
never spoke, but there was a mute appeal in his
sad, worn-looking eyes, a dignity in his grand
face, with its long gray beard flowing to his
waist, which attracted the passer-by, and made
him forget the squalid appearance of this curious
old fellow. Many a coin was silently passed
into his hands by European and Native, and as
silently received, to be immediately put away in
some place of concealment in the bundle of in-
describable rags which made up his clothes. He
was popularly supposed to have lost his wits in
his youth, after some great domestic affliction,
but there was nothing in his eye that betokened
a weak intellect — at any rate, he was quite
harmless, and was officially tolerated by the
Police. To what lair he retreated at night is
best known to them. When he died, if I remem-
ber aright, a respectable sum of money was
found about his person.

Reminiscences of an Anglo-Indian Police Officer,

1894, pp. 247—249,

An Afternoon Scene in the Town

Prince Karageorgevitch.

Afternoon in the bazaar, in the warm glow
of the sinking sun, wonderfully quiet. No sound
but that of some workmen's tools ; no passers-by,
no shouting of voices, no bargaining. A few
poor people stand by the stalls and examine the

248 BOMBAY:

goods, but the seller does not seem to care.
Invisible guzals vibrate in the air, and the piping
invitation of a moollah falls from the top of a
minaret.

Then suddenly there was a clatter of tom-
toms, and rattling of castanets, a Hindu funeral
passing by. The dead lay stretched on a bier,
his face painted and horrible, a livid grin
between the dreadful scarlet cheeks, covered
with wreaths of jasmine and roses. A man
walking before the corpse carried a jar of burn-
ing charcoal to light the funeral pile. Friends
followed the bier, each bringing a log of wood,
to add to the pyre as a last homage to the dead.

A Mohomedan funeral now. The body was
in a coffin, covered with red stuff, sparkling
with gold thread. The bearers and mourners
chanted an almost cheerful measure, as they
marched very slowly to the burial-ground by
the seaside, where the dead rest under spreading
banyans and flowering jasmine.

Enchanted India, i8g8, p. 23,

LIFE AND SOCIETY

M;

LIFE AND SOCIETY

Society in Bombay

"Sleepy Sketches."

There are features, however, in Bombay soci-
-^ty which, I think, distinguish it most favourably
from society at home. In the first place, it is far
more natural; there is far less of assumption or pre-
tence than in England. I have said there is little
musical or scientific society in Bombay. Now,
in England, it is true there is not this want ; but
in England, while even real lovers of music or
science are few, there are immense numbers of
people who, without any refined love of or inter-
est in art or science, assume refined love and
interest, to gain credit in the fashionable world,
to increase the apparent difference between their
own being and that of the lower classes. But
this is not so in Bombay. There, in truth, we
may have no refined taste in music, but we make
no pretence that our taste is refined. We do not,
hating classical music, suffer long performances
of Beethoven or Bach, because to like their music
shows refined taste ; we don't care for Beethoven
or Bach or classical writers, and we do care for
light music; and, without pretending that our lik-
ing is other than what it is, we play and sing and
listen to, light music only. And so in literature.
Darwin, Spencer, Lyell may write books, and we

252 BOMBAY:

may have no interest in them, preferring instead
the romances of Dumas. But we do not pretend
to have any such interest. I think I am justified
in saying that there is an almost entire absence
of humbug amongst us, which makes up almost
for our absence of refined interest in art and
science. And as a result of this absence of hum-
bug, every one in society is bound to act without
assumption ; side or swagger cannot be long
maintained by any one. The young civilian^
army man, merchant, or barrister who, from
association with his inferiors, the flattery of rela-
tives, or inordinate vanity, comes out with arr
arrogant manner, must soon get rid of it or be-,
cut. And all men who come out to India come
out to work, and so any position they may gain
is owing, in some measure at least, to their new
efforts, and, I fancy, no man who is conscious;
that his place in the world is the result of his.
own endeavours is guilty of side. Again, we^
show in Bombay far more general hospitality and
kindness one to another, and this from disinter-
ested motives, than is the case in England.

Of course, as all the world over, there are
some who form their friendships solely with a
view to self-advantage, who consistently cut
poor and shabby men, and consistently invite ta
dinner those who have influence. But it is at
the same time a fact, and a very strange fact,.,
that many, very many — I believe myself, the
great majority of'thosewho have the means — ask
others not in so happy a position, to dine with:

AN ANTHOLOGY. 253

them, to stay at their houses or go away with
them for vacation ; not because there is any
return advantage to be gained, or because there
is any obligation from friendships in England,
but out of pure kindness and sympathy with the
men asked for in their less free position. I believe
there are many people in Bombay who, when
going away for vacation, look round among
their friends, and ask themselves, who is ill and
would be better for a change ? or who wants to
get away and cannot, unless some chance turn
up that he may do so at little expense ? I myself
-can say I have benefitted from this ; and not once,
but often, have I heard other men say the same.

Sleepy Sketches, 1877, pp. 10-13.

Life in Bombay

Lady Burton.

Turning now to society at Bombay, and
indeed Indian society generally, I must say that
it is not to be outdone for hospitality. There is
a certain amount of formality about precedence
in all English stations, and if one could only
dispense with it, society would be twice as
charming and attractive. I do not mean of
course the formality of etiquette and good-
breeding, but of all those silly little conventions
and rules which arise for the most part from un-
important people trying to make themselves of
importance. Of course they make a gre^t point

254 BOMBAY :

about what is called " official rank" in India, and
the women squabble terribly over their warrants
of precedence : the gradations thereof would
puzzle even the chamberlain of some petty
German court. The Anglo-Indian ladies of
Bombay struck me for the most part as spiritless.
They had a faded, washed-out look; and I do
not wonder at it, considering the life they lead.
They get up about nine, breakfast and pay or
receive visits, then tififen, siesta, a drive to the
Apollo Bunder, to hear the band, or to meet their
husbands at the Fort, dine and bed— that is the
programme of the day. The men are better
because they have cricket and polo. I found
nobody stiff individually, but society very much
so in the mass. The order of precedence seemed
to be uppermost in every mind, and as an out-
sider I thought how tedious *' ye manners and
customs of ye Anglo-Indians " would be all the
year round.

I found the native populace much more in-
teresting. The great mass consists of Konkani
Moslems, with dark features and scraggy beards.
They were clad in chintz turbans, resembling the
Parsee headgear, and in long cotton coats, with
shoes turned up at the toes, and short drawers
or pyjamas. There were also Persians, with a
totally different type of face, and clothed in
quite a different way, mainly in white with
white turbans. There were Arabs from the
Persian Gulf, sitting and lolling in the coffee-hou-
ses. There wereathlelic Afghans, and many other

AN ANTHOLOGY. 255

strange tribes. There were conjurers and snake-
charmers, vendors of pipes and mangoes, and
Hindu women in colours that pale those of
Egypt and Syria. There were two sorts of
Parsees, one white-turbaned, and the other
whose headgear was black, spotted with red.
I was much struck with the imrnense variety of
turban on the men, and the cfwli and headgear
on the women. Some of the turbans were cf
the size of a moderate round tea-table. Others
fit the head tight. Some are worn straight, and
some are cocked sideways. Some are red and
horned. The choli is a bodice which is put on
the female child, who never knows what stays
are. It always supports the bosom, and she is
never without it day or night, unless after
marriage, and whilst she is growing, it is of
course changed to her size from time to time.
They are of all colours and shapes, according
to the race. No English-woman could wear one,
unless it were made on purpose for her ; but I
cannot explain why,

77?^ Romance of Isabel Lady Burton,

by W. H. Wilkins, 1897, pp. 589-591.

Byculla Club

Sir Bartle Frere.

It has always struck me that in England we
are in the habit of doing very scant justice to
institutions like this. We have got into the

256 BOMBAY :

habit of regarding them as mere excrescences in
our social organisation, but I have often thought
that they take a very important place in the
political organization of England, and are a
valuable means of preparing Englishmen for
that political life which is more or less the part
of every one of us. In the first place we acquire
in those clubs a complete deference to the verdict
of the majority— which is of itself a great thing.
We are trained also to a habitual deference to
the government of the best and wisest among
us, whom we have selected to rule over us. But
above all, gentlemen, we are trained to a tolerant
regard for the minority ; and I cannot help
thinking that it is to a great extent to this
feeling — which plays so important a part in our
club organisation and club habits — that we
owe that toleration to which your chairman
( Sir A. Scoble ) has alluded in speaking of the
way in which we treat the Natives of this
country. In all party contests, political or
otherwise, there is a great disposition on the part
of the majority or those who get the victory, to
treat with scant consideration those over whom
they have triumphed ; but it is very different, as
you know, in clubs, for when a question is once
settled, there is great toleration always shown to
the minority, and the object of the committee of
a good club is always to make up differences
which have been caused by a club quarrel.

Now, Gentlemen, I »do not think this is an
unimportant [matter when so many of our

AN ANTHOLOGY. 257

countrymen come out to rule over a nation, or as I
may say an assemblage of nations, in India. But,
Gentlemen, whatever may be the claims of a Club
in England on the gratitude of the community, I
think there are very few who will not recognise
far greater claims here in Bombay, where this
institution has been to so many of our younger
brethren a home and a very happy home. We
know that in England there is often a choice bet-
ween a home and a Club ; but here, where many
of us have no home of our own, we owe a double
debt of gratitude to the Club. And, Gentlemen, I
have always thought that this institution afford-
ed to us so many of the advantages of club life
at home, in establishing a standard of judgment
upon all social questions, and passing a free and
unbiassed verdict upon all those questions,- and
in affording a home to our younger brethren and
keeping them generally in very good order —
that it deserved the gratitude of all who look to
the character of Englishmen in this country as
of paramount importance to the character of
English Government. And I have viewed with
satisfaction the growth of such institutions
—especially of the infant one at Poona where I
had lately the pleasure of being entertained — as
a good sign of the advancement of society in
Bombay.

Speech at the Byculla Club, 1867. Speeches,
ed, Pitale, pp. 472-473-

258 BOMBAY :

A Judge's House
Establishment, 1828

Elizabeth Grant.

Our establishment consisted of a head ser-
vant, a Parsee, who managed all, hired the rest,
marketed, ordered, took charge of everything,
doing it all admirably, and yet a rogue ; an
under-steward or butler, a Mohammedan, who
waited on me ; four chobdars, officers of the Sup-
reme Court who attended my father there, waited
at meals on him and my mother, and always
went behind the carriage ; they were dressed in
long scarlet gowns edged with gold lace, white
turbans, gold belts, and they bore long gilt staves
in their hands. The Parsee wore a short cotton
tunic with a shawl round the waist, very wide
silk trousers, and the high brown silk cap peculiar
to the Parsees. My Mohammedan had a white
turban, white tunic, red shawl, and red trousers
tight to the leg. My father's valet was a Portu-
guese Christian in a white jacket and trousers^
European style. Besides these there were four
sepoys for going messages, who wore green and
red and gold fancifully about their turbans and
tunics — the family livery; two hammauls to clean
the house, two bheesties to fetch the water, two
men to light the lamps, one water-cooler and
butter-maker (this last piece of business being
done in a bottle on his knee), a gardener, a cook
with an assistant, two dhobies or washermen,

AN ANTHOLOGY. 259

and a slop-emptier, all these being Hindus of
various castes, except the cook, who was
a Portuguese.

The stable establishment was on a similar
scale : two pairs of carriage horses, my father's
riding-horse and mine, a coachman, a groom to
each horse who always ran beside him whether
we drove or rode, and a grass-cutter for every
pair. Wages had need to be small in a country
where such a retinue was requisite for three
people ; no one doing more than one particular
kind of work rendered this mob of idlers
necessary. My mother had her maid and I had
mine, whose daughter also lived with us and
was very useful. We hired a tailor when we
wanted one, a mender, or a mantua-maker or
a milliner as required.

Our life was monotonous. My father and I
rose before the sun, an hour or more, groped our
way downstairs, mounted our horses, and rode
till heat and light, coming together, warned
us to return. I then bathed and breakfasted
and lay upon the sofa reading till Fatima
came to dress me. I always appeared at the
family breakfast, though but for form. My
father, who had been hard at work fasting,
made a good meal, and my mother, just up, did
the same. We had frequently visitors at this
hour; after they went my mother walked
about with the hamfuauls after her, dusting her
china— of which she soon collected a good stock^-^

260 BOMBAY:

calling out to them suhbr when she wanted
them to goon, and ^^5/^ when they had omitted
a cup or vase, for she never could manage
their easy language. I wrote or worked or play-
ed or sang while the weather remained tole-
rably cool; in the hot months I was not able
to do anything. My mother and I were often
amused by receiving presents from the natives,
and by the arrival of boras to tempt us with the
newest fashions just procured from "a ship come
in last night," shown first to us as ' 'such
great ladies." My father took no presents
himself, and permitted us to accept none
but fruits and flowers ; very valuable ones
were at first ofl'ered, but being invariably
only touched and returned, they soon ceased.
The flowers generally came tied up with silver
thread in the hands of the gardener, but
the fruits, fresh or dried, were always in silver
bowls, covered with silver gauze, and brought
in on the head of the messenger. Some ladies,
it was said, used to keep the bowls, but we
better instructed, returned the dull-looking pre-
cious part of the offering with its dirty bit of
covering, quite content with our simpler share.

The bora entered more ostentatiously with
a long string of native porters, each bearing on
his head a box. All were set down and opened,
and the goods displayed upon the floor, very
pretty and very good, and only about double
as dear as at home, a rupee for a shilling,

AN ANTHOLOGY. 261

about. The native manufactures were cheap
enough, except the shawls ; and, by the bye, Mr.
Gardiner gave me one, which cost a hundred
pounds. Jt is a good thing to be the last married
of a sisterhood, when one meets such generous
brothers-in-law ! At two o'clock or rather sooner
we had our tiffin, after which we were never
disturbed, every one retiring during those hot
hours, undressing and sleeping.

The drives were beautiful whichever way we
went, on the beach, on the Breach Candy road,
or the Esplanade, and twice a week across the
rice-fields to Matoonga to listen to the artillery
band, all the Presidency collecting there. We
drove up and down, stopped alongside another
carriage, sometimes on a cool evening got out
and walked to speak to our friends. We were all
very sociable, and the band was delightful. The
equipages were extraordinary, all the horses fine
but the carriages very shabby. The smartest soon
fades in such a climate; what with the heat of one
season, the wet of another, the red dust, the in-
sects, the constant use and not much care, the
London-built carriage makes but a poor figure
the second year, and as the renewal of them is
not always convenient, and a daily carriage
drive is essential, they are used in bad enough
condition sometimes.

On the sun going down, which he does like
a shot — there is no twilight — the crowd separates,
the ladies glad enough of a warm shawl on their

262 BOMBAY:

back return home, for it was often very cold
driving back. Then, if we were to pass a quiet
evening, a very few minutes prepared us for
dinner; but if, as was often the case, we were to
be in company at home or abroad, there was
great commotion among the ayahs to have their
preparations made in time. My Arab, Fatima,
was always ready; she was so quick and so
quiet. There are many drawbacks to an Indian
life, but the servants in Bombay at that time
were a luxury.

Lady Strachey's '' Memoirs of a Highland Lady, "

1898, pp. 421-423-

A Governor's Life a Century Ago

MOUNTSTUART ELPHINSTONE.

*My dear Adam,—

' Now to answer your questions. How I like
Bombay } Very well ; and the first month, which
you thought would be so disagreeable, better
than I expect to like any future month. There
were no troublesome forms and ceremonies, and
much novelty and variety. The new and un-
known details you allude to give me little trouble,
as I have always Warden to tell me w^hat is
usual; and as to the new business not of detail,
I like learning it. Besides, I am not nearly so
hard worked as in the Deccan ; and much of

AN ANTHOLOGY. 263

my work ( that is, much of what takes up my
time ) is half play, such as talking to people who
come to me on business instead of puzzling over
records or pumping natives, going to Council,
going to church. What I dread, detest, and abhor,
to a degree which 1 fancy never was equalled, is
making speeches, and ceremonies of that nature.
I avoid them as much as I can by avowing my
horror of the practice; but sometimes they occur.
All the other people of Bombay harangue to such
-a degree that if I were Charles Fox I should hold
my tongue on purpose to put down the fashion.
No party of thirty meets without thirty regular
speeches. This, though sometimes amusing, is
the great reproach of Bombay ; otherwise the
society is pleasant and easy, at least as much so
as Calcutta. People either always dance or have
a good deal of music and singing when there is
a party, and no stift private circle. The Governor
too, by the custom of Bombay, constantly drives
out, and is quite a private gentleman, which
suits well with my habits and tastes ( 3, Dec. 1819 ).

Life by Sir E. Colebrooke, 1 884, Vol. Ii, page lOS.

Life in Bombay in the Sixties

J. M. Maclean.

Many a pleasant evening we spent in ihose
<lays at the Byculla Club in symposia which were
not unworthy to be classed with the " Noctes
Ambrosianae " of Christopher North; and here

264 BOMBAY:

let me pay a passing tribute to the delightful
society which flourished in India forty or fifty
years ago. The Anglo-Indians of Bombay then
formed a community of a democratic kind such as.
could not be found elsewhere. It comprised no>
old men or children, and comparatively few-
women. There were no millionaires or paupers.
All menial offices v/here discharged by the native
population. Every Englishman was comfortably
off, had been well educated, and belonged either
to the civil or military service of the crown, or
to the mercantile or professional classes.

Everybody, therefore, lived on a footing of
perfect equality ; intercourse was easy and
pleasant, and there was none of the appalling
snobbishness towards good society and people-
in high places which is the curse of London life,
and which has been stimulated to a height never
dreamt of even by Thackeray by the eager
competition of American and Colonial capitalists
anxious to make their way to the front. I sup-
pose that for a parallel to such a community as
then existed in Bombay, it wouldbe necessary to go
back to the old Greek Republics. Conversation
was very frank and outspoken, and criticism
very prolific and enlightenend, for the Gevern-
ment had not then thought it necessary, as they
now have, to close the safety valve by formally
prohibiting public servants, on pain of dismissal,
from making any observations on the conduct of
their superiors in office.

AN ANTHOLOGY. 265

There were great merchants in those days
who lived for many years in Bombay, kept great
houses on Malabar Hill, and entertained in good
style. Their place has now been taken by clerks
who are mere agents for firms at home or for the
German or Greek houses which everywhere do so
much business under the British flag. Nothing
surprised me so much, I went back to India on a
visit three years ago,. (1899), than to find that the
Europeans in Bombay had taken a back seat. All
the best houses in the island were occupied by
wealthy natives, and Englishmen seemed to
possess nothing except the fringe of ground
adjoining the harbour on which the Yacht Club
is built. In my time the Englishman walked
about Bombay as if he realised Goldsmith's
description: —

** Pride in their port, defiance in their eye,.
I see the lords of humankind pass by "

The natives then occupied a distinctly in-
ferior position, and they did not seem to resent
it. Most of them had made money through
English agency, and they looked up to the heads
of the great firms, like Michael Scott, John
Fleming, and Donald Graham, with pride and
affection. They loved to give great entertain-
ments in honour of their English friends, and
never forgot them when the Englishmen came
home. The feelings of good will between English-
men and natives were much stronger and more
lasting then than they are now, when there is

266 BOMBAY :

much less of the feeling of fellowship between
the two races.

My personal relations with leading natives
were always of a pleasant character, and I made
many friends among them, who, when I went to
India in I899, after nearly twenty years' absence,
crowded round me, and gave me a cordial wel-
come. But I always opposed the political views
of the ambitious young natives who dreamed of
self-government for India, and so aroused the
lasting resentment of the Maratha Brahmins
of Poona. The Parsees of Bombay, however,
have cherished a warm feeling of gratitude
towards me since I took up their cause against a
mob that had wrecked their fire temples in 1874.

A good many of the Europeans lived in
liouses of their own, but many of them stayed at
the Clubs, which were always a main source of
attraction in the evening in a city which, as a
rule, was destitute of theatrical performances.
When we became more wealthy, we tried the
experiment of importing on opera company from
Italy, but it did not succeed. When I first went out,
soon after the Mutiny, the military element was
much stronger than it afterwards became. There
were twenty or more commissioned officers to
•every regiment, and their mess tents were the
-scene of much hospitality. They had the pleasant
custom of inviting residents in Bombay to become
honorary members of the mess, and on guest
nights it was not unusual for forty or fifty men to

AN ANTHOLOGY. 267

-sit down to dinner. I thus extended my acquain-
tance very largely, and became known to many
of the men who afterwards made their mark.

Recollections of Westminister & India, 190S,

pp. 23-27.

Indian Life

Basil Hall.

I have no language competent to give
expression to the feelings produced by the first
contemplation of so strange a spectacle. I was
startled, amused, deeply interested, and some-
times not a little shocked. The novelty of the
■scene was scarcely diminished by a further
inspection ; which may appear a contradiction
in terms, but is not so in reality. The multitude
of ideas caused by the first view of such an
astonishing crowd of new and curious objects^
obscures and confuses the observation, in a certain
sense, and prevents us from distinguishing one
part from another. In like manner, I remember
being almost stupefied with astonishment, when
Sir John Herschel first showed me one of the
great nebulae or clusters of stars in his telescope
at Slough. When, however, the philosopher
unfolded the results of his own observations, and
ventured to separate and distinguish the different
orders of nebulae and double stars, or pointed
the instrument to the planet which his illustrious

268 BOMBAY :

father discovered, and made me understand, or
tried to make me understand, the revolutions of
its satellites, I felt the confusion by which at
first I was distracted gradually subsiding, while
the fresh interest of the spectacle, strictly speak-
ing, was greatly increased. And so I found it
in India, especially at the most curious of places^
Bombay, where the more I saw of the natives,,
the more there seemed still to discover that was
new. It would be absurd to pretend that all
this pedantic kind of reasoning process took
place at the moment, for, in truth, I was toc^
much enchanted to speculate deeply on the-
causes of the enjoyment. I shall never forget,
however, the pleasure with which I heard a
native, with a bowl in his hand, apply to a
dealer in corn for some of the grain called
Sesame. The word, in strictness, is not the
Indian name for this seed, though it is used
generally in Hindustan. Til is the native term
for the plant from which the oil of sesamum is ex-
pressed ; Semsem being the original Arabic word.
I need not say how immediate the sound recalled
the 'Open Sesame !' of the Arabian Nights ; and
the whole of the surrounding scene, being in
strict character with that of the tale, I felt as if I
had been touched with some magic wand, and
transported into the highest heaven of Eastern
invention. As I gazed at all things round me irr
wonder and delight, I could fix my eye on nothing"
I had ever seen before. The dresses, in endless
variety of flowing robes and twisted turbans,.

AN ANTHOLOGY. 269

flitted like a vision before me. The Hindoos, of
innumerable castes, were there each distinguish-
ed from the other by marks drawn with brilliant
colours on his brow. There stood Persian mer-
chants with shawls and other goods from
Cashmere, mingled with numerous Arab horse-
dealers careering about; Malays from the Straits
of Malacca, chatting familiarly with those good-
natured, merry fellows, the long-tailed Chinese,
-whose most ungraceful Tartar dress and tuft
contrast curiously in such a crowd with the taste-
fully arranged drapery and gorgeous turbans of
the Mahometans and Hindoos,

Some of these groups were fully as much
distinguished by their sandals and slippers as
by their head-gear; others arrested the atten-
tion by the sound of their voices, and many by
the [>eculiarity of their features and complexion.
It really signified little which way the eye was
turned, for it could rest on nothing, animate or
inanimate, which was not strange and full of in-
terest. Most of the trees which shaded us, and
especially a tall variety of the palm tribe,
commonly called the Brab, I had never seen
before. It is named by botanists Barassus flab-
elliformis, or Tara Palm ; Tara or Tari being
the native word for the toddy which is yielded by
these trees. It grows, in respect to its stem,
like the coca-nut, with a glorious set of project-
ing arms at the top. But these branches, differ-
ent from those of the cocoa-nut, do not send
forth along their whole length lateral leaves

270 BOMBAY :

resembling the ostrich feather, to which the
cocoa-nut leaf is very similar in form. They are-
smooth and naked to the end, on which is opened
out, rather fantastically, a huge circular leaf^.
marked with divisions like those of a fan, radiat-
ing from a centre, each ray or division being^^^
sharp-pointed.

But the chief object of attraction, and I may
well say of admiration, in this gay scene, was.
the appearance of the women, who are not only
not concealed, but go about freely, and, gene-
rally speaking, occupy themselves out of doors-
in works not requiring any considerable strength^
but a good deal of dexterity. Of course, this,
does not include the highest classes, who are
kept quite secluded. The females appear to be
the great water-carriers ; and the pots or chatties^,
as they are called, which are invariably borne
on the head, are of the most elegant forms
imaginable. Indeed, when standing by the side
of a Hindoo tank, or reservoir, as I have often
done for hours together, I have been reminded
of those beautiful Etruscan vases, the discovery
of which has given so new a character to modern
forms. This practice of carrying all loads on
the head is necessarily accompanied by an
erect carriage of body, and accordingly the most
graceful of dancers, even the matchless Bigottini
hereself, might have " snatched a grace beyond
the reach of art, " from observing the most
ordinary Hindoo girl on her return from the

AN ANTHOLOGY, lyt

tank, with her hand sometimes just touching^
the vessel poised on her head, and sometimes,
not, so true is the balance, and so certain the
bearer's step. The dress of these women consists,
chiefly of one strip of cloth, many yards in
length. This narrow web is wound round the
body and limbs with so much propriety, that
while the most scrupulous delicacy could find
nothing to censure on the score of deficiency
in covering, it is arranged with such innate
and judicious taste, that even the eye of a
sculptor could hardly wish many of its folds
removed. The figure of the Hindoos, both male
and female, is small and delicate; and, although
their features are not always handsome, there is
something about their expression which strikes
every stranger as singularly pleasing, perhaps
from its being indicative of that patience, doci-
lity, and contentment, which are certainly their
chief characteristics. We see at least, in every
part of our Eastern empire, that, with a little
care, coupled with a full understanding cf
their habits and wishes, and backed by a
thorough disinterestedness, and genuine public
spirit on the part of their rulers, the above-
mentioned qualities of the Hindoos may be
turned to the highest account in all the arts
of war, and many of the arts of peace.

Perhaps not the least curious sight in the
bazaar of Bombay are the ornaments worn by the
women and children, by which, with the most

272 BOMBAY :

lavish profusion, and the most ill-directed taste,
they succeed in disfiguring themselves as much
as possible. And this might lead us almost to
suspect that their taste in the other parts of their
dress, like the gracefulness of their carriage, is
the result, not of choice and study, but of happy
accident. The custom of carrying their water-
vessels on the head requires an erectness of gait
during the performance of that duty, which may
become the easiest and most natural at other
times. And probably some circumstances inci-
dent to the climate may, in like manner, direct
the fashion in adjusting their drapery.

Most of the women wear nose-rings, of great
dimensions. I have seen many which hung below
the chin; and certainly to us this seems a strange
ornament. I forget whether or not the Hindoo
women cover their fingers with rings, as our
ladies do, but their principal fashion seems to
consist in loading the wrists and ankles with
armlets and bangles, as they are called, of
gold and silver. The virgin gold generally used
for this purpose is almost always rich, and grate-
ful to the eye. But, I imagine no art can make a
silver ornament look any thing but vulgar. Just
as we sometimes see persons in Europe crowd
ring upon ring on their fingers, till all beauty is
lost in the heap, and all taste sacrificed for the
mere sake of ostentatious display, so, in India,
I have observed women, whose legs were covered
with huge circles of gold and silver from the

AN ANTHOLOGY. • 273

instep nearly to the knee, and their arms similarly
hooped round almost to the elbow. The jingle made
by these ornaments striking against one another
gives ample warning of a woman's approach ;
a circumstance which has probably led to the
Tiotion that this custom of attaching, as it
were, a set of bells to the heels of the ladies,
may have been an institution of jealousy devised
by the husbands of those warm latitudes, to aid
their search after their gadding spouses. I
cannot say how this theory squares with history ;
but I have never heard any hypothesis equally
good to account for the still more ridiculous, not
to say cruel custom, of covering the legs and
arms of their poor little children with these rings.
I have seen a girl three years old so loaded with
them, that she could not walk or hold out her
arms ; and I once counted no fewer than twenty
heavy gold chains on a child's neck, besides
such numbers of rings on its arms and legs, that
the little thing looked more like an armadillo
of the picture-books than a human being. Such
is the passion of some Hindoo parents for this
practice, that I have been assured they often
■convert their whole worldly substance into this
most useless form of the precious metals, and
thus transform their progeny into a sort of
money-chest. Small happiness is it for these
innocent wretches, however, who, as the head
police-magistrate informed me, are not infre-
■quently murdered for the sake of the property
they carry about with them !

274 BOMBAY :

I have before remarked, that when a travel-
ler is first thrown into such a scene as I have
here alluded to, although his enjoyment cer-
tainly is very great, there often comes across
him a feeling of hopelessness, when he admits
to himself his total inability to record one
hundredth, one millionth part, I may say, of the
splendid original. Everything is totally new
to him; even the commonest implements of hus-
bandry, the pots and pans, the baskets and
barrels, the carts and carriages, all are strange
to his eyes, and far beyond the reach of his
pen ; while things which stand higher in the
scale come still less within its range. Then what
is he to do with the sounds he hears, or the
motion he perceives } And strange it is to admit,
but true, that the interest is at times actually
increased by circumstances which are in
themselves very annoying. I well remember
submitting even to the intense heat and glare
with great patience, and almost relish, in
consideration of their being strictly in character
with a scene I had so long ardently desired to
witness. The formidable smell of assafoetida,
which reigns in every Indian market, I nearly
learned to bear without a qualm, for the same
reason. Other annoyances I cared very little
about; and had it not been for the well-cursed
mosquitoes, I should not hesitate to declare, that,
as far as travelling human nature is capable of
happiness, I was perfectly happy when cruising
about the bazaars of Bombay.

AN ANTHOLOGY. 27S

Full well am I aware, that much of all this
will appear to many excellent persons who have
been in the East, or who may visit it after me, as
sufficiently fanciful and exaggerated; and there
are many who will pass through the very scenes
which excited in me so much rapture, and will
have no more anxious wish than to get safely out
of it before they are splashed with mud from the
feet of the wild-looking, blue-skinned buffaloes,
or have their toes trodden upon by bullocks with
great humps between their shoulders. It is impos-
sible to expect general sympathy for such things;
and accordingly, my English friends at Bombay
used often to laugh heartily when t returned from
these Arabian Night sort of excursions, with my
head brimful of turbaned Turks, Hindoo pagodas,
and ail kinds of Oriental associations about the
Indus and the Ganges, or Brahma and Vishnu,
or with speculations on the custorrfs, languages,
afid manners, of the extraordinary collection of
people I had been rambling amongst.

Fragments of Voyages, 2nd series, 1832,

pp. 108-111,

Native Life.

J. A. Spender.

I never imagined such variety as Bombay
displays in its circuit of twenty miles, I have
driven in a taxi-cab for two hours through the
native town and out into the villages beyond

276 BOMBAY :

and am trying in vain to scrt my impressions.
Every street swarms with people, and no
half-dozen seem alike. There are white men,
brown men, yellow men, chocolate men, and
very nearly black men. Their costume varies
from the frock coat to the loin-cloth, through a
brilliant scale of orange, vermilion, green, blue,
and brown. There are troops of children,
apparently free of school, and some of these,
again, are stark naked, while others are elabo-
rately decked out, as for some fantastic childrens'
carnival The women are as various as the men
and children, and the darker skins affect the
brightest colours. Scores of opulent native
gentlemen thread their way in and out among the
crowds in the newest motor-cars ; and other hand-
some carriages shuttered or curtained, suggest the
presence of the piirdaJi women. ' There is an
incessant hubbub ; the slightest transaction
iappears to require the unloosing simultaneously
of all tongues in a wide circle of disinterested
spectators, as well as among those immediately
concerned.

The houses are as various as the people.
The European part of Bombay might be Vienna
slightly orientalized. The native is a grand
jumble of all styles, but it gives you the queer
impression of an immense hive, very intricate
and deeply recessed, with layer of people
living in a condition of vertical overcrowding
which must give the plague its richest opportuni-
ties. The absence of glass enables you to look

AN ANTHOLOGY. 277

right into the heart of the houses, and the back
rooms are little dark caverns. The main impres-
sion is that they swarm with people. Every
veranda is crowded; there is a head or two
heads at every window. I have some acquain-
tance with the East End of London and its
crowded tenements, but nowhere in London or
in any European city that I know, except possibly
in one quarter of Naples, have I ever seen any-
thing like this swarming, vivid, various humanity.
You might suppose them to be an amiable, to-
lerant people, jostling each other with a good-
natured friendliness which took no account of
the differences of creed or race. And so in a
superficial way they must be. No multitude
could live thus close-packed without establishing
some rough rule of mutual forbearance. Yet
those who know them tell you that this immense
jumble of humanity sorts itself into hundreds of
intensely separate little heaps., each of which is
guarded from the others by an unimaginable code
of pride or prejudice.

The Indian Scene, 1912, pp. 17 to 20.

Bombay Beats the Whole World
As a Place to Go Away From

"Sleepy Sketches."
The buoyancy of the life felt in England is
never experienced here. Brain-work is irksome,
and muscles are unstrung. But we live in big

2/8 BOMBAY :

houses and big rooms; there are no windows to
shut out the air; the sky is blue, and every morning
a cool breeze blows over us from the land, and
every evening a cool, soft breeze fans us from the
sea. And, if the air, steaming and bubbling with
heat, grow unbearable, are there not pegs and
icebergs of cold, glistening ice.

And the sun dries up our livers till they
are infinitesimal, or swells them till they are
monstrous; and the wise have no beer and worpen
no complexions, and we go home.

But Bombay is not a bad place to live in, and
beats the whole world as a place to go away from^
No one can appreciate the delights of a temperate
climate who has not been here. After steaming in
Bombay for month after month, the pleasure of
getting away to a hill station is indescribable. To
sleep under one or even two blankets, to be
forced by cold to huddle over a fire, to shiver in
the morning bath, and absolutely be obliged to
walk about in the sun to get warm, give an
indescribable feeling of self-satisfaction that is
the result entirely of previous life in a
vapour bath.

If we poor devils out here are to be pitied
for the discomforts we have to put up with in
tropical residence, we are, too, to be envied for
the exceptional pleasures we at times enjoy.

Sleepy Sketches, 1877, pp. 22-23.

BAZAARS AND STREETS

BAZAARS AND STREETS

Pen Pictures of Native Town

Karageorgevitch.

Outside Bombay, at the end of an avenue of
tamarind trees between hedges starred with lilac
and pink, we came to Pinjerapol, the hospital
for animals. Here, in a sanded garden dotted
with shrubs and flowers, stand sheds in which
sick cows, horses and buffaloes are treated and
cared for. In another part, in a little building^
divided into compartments by wire bars, poor
crippled dogs whined to me as I passed to take
them away. Hens wandered about on wooden
4egs; arkd an ancient parrot, in the greatest exci-
tement, yelled with all his might; he was under-
going treatment to make his lost feathers grow
again, his hideous little black body being quite
naked, with its large head and beak. In an open
box, overhung with flowering jasmine, an Arab
horse was suspended to the beams of the roof;
two keepers by his side waved long white
horsehair fans to keep away the flies. A perfect
crowd of servants is employed in the care of the
animals, and the litter is sweet and clean.

Enchanted India, l8g8, pp. 25-26^

282 BOMBAY :

In the evening, as I again went past the
Towers of Silence the palm trees were once
more crowded with sleeping birds gorged with
all the food sent them by the plague. On the
other side of Back Bay, above the field of Burning,
a thick column of smoke rose up, red in the last
beams of the crimson sun.

In the silence of a moonless night nine o'clock
struck from the great tower of the University
— a pretty set of chimes reminding me of Bruges
or Antwerp; and when the peal had died away
a bugle in the sepoys' quarters took up the strain
of the chimes, only infinitely softer, saddened to
a minor key and to a slower measure; while
in the distance an English trumpet, loud and
clear, sounded the recall in counterpart.

Enchanted India, pp. 31-32-

3.

Here, one by one, in came the nautch-girls,
dancers. Robed in stiff sarees, their legs
encumbered with very full trousers, they stood
-extravagantly upright, their arms away from
their sides and their hands hanging loosely.
At the first sound of the tambourines, beaten
by men who squatted close to the wall, they
began to dance; jumping forward on both feet,
then backward, striking their ankles together

AN ANTHOLOGY. 283

to make their fianporas ring, very heavy
anklets weighing on their feet, bare with silver
toe-rings. One of them spun on and on for a
long time, while the others held a high, shrill
note — higher, shriller still; then suddenly every-
thing stopped, the music first, then the dancing —
in the air, as it were — and the nautch-girls hud-
dled together like sheep in a corner of the room,
tried to move us with the only three English
words they knew, the old woman repeating
them; and as finally we positively would not
understand, the jumping and idiotic spinning
and shouts began again in the heated air of
the room.

"Nautch-girls for tourists, like Europeans, "
said my Indian servant Abibulla. " Can-can
dancing-girls, " he added, with an air of triumph
at. having shown me a wonder!

Enchanted India, pp. 28-29.

A Night Scene

Count Von Koenigsmarck.

At eleven o'clock the party breaks up. But
it is still too hot to sleep. I whistle for a cab
and shout "Grant Road" to the driver. We
pass Munlader's Tank, drive down Abdul
Rahman Street, through the Bhendi Bazaar,
and at length reach Grant Road, the pleas-
ure-haunt par excellence for the native town-

284 BOMBAY :

Here the typical life of the Arabian Nights;
obtains. The narrow, dimly lighted, dirty,
unsavoury, dusty street swarms with folk.
Howling, shouting, groaning, the gaily coloured
tangle of humanity rolls past me unchecked..
Wave upon wave flows past, a hurrying flood-tide
of human passions. The coachman has to drive-
at walking pace, and at length pulls up. You
alight and mingle with the throng^ — the rustling^,
living mass which ebbs and flows, incessantly^
without aim or object, all through the livelong:
night. A strange sight, like a masquerade or a
carnival.

But, in spite of this seeming inextricable-
confusion, law and order prevails. Guardians of
the peace rarely show themselves; only a single
white policeman stands at the corner of Bhendi
Bazaar, a slim young Englishman in khaki kit
and helmet. In silent sympathetic interest he
watches the flood of humanity speeding past-
Bobby is conscious of his white superiority, but
he does not rub it in. His presence is enough I

All the houses open on to the street ; their
inhabitants squat in the doorways, gossip ing,.
eating, drinking, laughing and making merry.
It is only late at night that the Indians seem to-
wake up. You only rarely see women, and yet
they are playing the principal part here.

So these are the enchantments of the Arabian
Nights ! " Once, and never again," the stranger

AN ANTHOLOGY. 285

•says to himself, and is glad to find his cab once
more, to be borne away with all despatch out of
the chaotic symposium of voices of this human
ant-hill.

A German Staff Officer in India, 1910, pp. 58-59-

A Hart of Nations

Mrs. Postans.

The early riser, desiring to pursue his ride
into the lovely scenes which skirt the town, will
find the roads clear, clean, and void of all
■offence. The porters and artisans then lie shroud-
•ed in their cuwlics', the market people have a
wide path, as they bring in the fresh fruits of the
neighbouring country ; the toddy-drawer appears,
crowned with an earthen vessel, overflowing with
the delicious juice of the graceful palm tree ; and
Hindoo girls seated behind baskets of bright
blossoms, string fragrant wreaths, to adorn the
altars of their gods. Thus fresh and tranquil
Tennain the elements of the scene, until the hurry
and the toil of life fill it with that suffocating
heat and deafening clamour, attendant upon the
interests of eager traffic.

Offensive to every sense, as the dust and
noise of these crowded ways must be, steaming
under the noontide influence of a tropic sun, 'tis
worth the cost, to stop a moment at the entrance
of a great bazaar, and looking along the wide

286 BOMBAY :

and busy way, watch the full tide of human^
beings, jostling and vociferating against each
other, as the throng presses onwards, each in-
dividual animated with the object of labour or of
profit. More strange and interesting is it still,
to move among the groups, and passing, mark
the varied characters which form the living;
mass.

To a stranger's eye, the chintz bazaar will
afford the most curious scene ; the road skirts
that particular portion of the bay occupied by-
native shipping, and is wholly devoted to the
purposes of commerce. Here indeed is a *' mart
of nations," where the genius of traffic reigns-
triumphant, and -the merchandize and produce
of all the nations of the east seem garnered in
one common store, awaiting an escort to the
lands where the arts and manufactures of civiliz-
ed life will increase the value of nature's gifts.
Piles of rich gums and aromatic spices, carboys
of oil and rose water, pure ivory from the forests
of Ceylon, rhinoceros hides from the burning:
coast of Zanzibar, the richest produce of Africa
India, Persia, and Arabia, is here cast in large-
heaps, mingling with coir cables, huge blocks^,
and ponderous anchors, the requisite material
of island exportation.

On the highway, porters bending beneath
square bales of tightly compressed cotton,,
stagger to and fro, as if overpowered with their
loads ; Arabs with ponderous turbans of finely-

AN ANTHOLOGY. 287

checked cloth, and kabas loosely flowing, lounge
lazily along ; Persians in silken vests, with black
lamb-skin caps, the softest produce of Bokhara,
tower above the crowd ; Banians, dirty and bustl-
ing, wearing red turbans bristling with pens and
memoranda, jostle roughly to the right and left ;
Bangies with suspended bales, or well-filled
water vessels ; Fakirs from every part of India ;
Jains in their snowy vests, with staff and brush,
like palmers of the olden time ; Padres with
round black hats and sable cloaks ; Jews of the
tribe of Beni Israel, all mingle in the throng;
while ever and again, a bullock hackery strug-
gles against the mass, or a Parsee, dashing on-
wards in his gaily painted buggy, forces an
avenue for an instant, when the eager crowd,
rapidly closing in its rear, sweeps on a resistless
torrent as before.

The Arab stables, which occupy a consider-
able space in the great bazaar, form a powerful
attraction to the gentlemen of the Presidency.
Military men, of whatever rank, in India, con-
sider it necessary to possess at least a couple of
horses. Colts being usually preferred for a new
purchase, the stables are eagerly resorted to
whenever a fresh importation arrives from the
Gulf. The appearance of the poor steeds, on
their debarkation, is wretched indeed ; the want
of pure air and exercise, the filth and close
stowage of the Arab boats, " forcing their bones
to stick out like the corners of a real," reduce

288 BOMBAY :

them to the proportions of that horse so good,
which appertained to the chivalrous state of Lii
Mancha's knight. In this sad plight good judges
secure the best for the turf ; and the rest remain in
the stables, where they fetch prices, either com-
mensurate with the merits they may possess, or
the lack of knowledge in the purchaser.

The horse merchants of the Presidency are
not more conscientious than the Tattersalls of
the west; and the " griffin logue" are conse-
quently victimised by most grievous impositions.
Tempted beyond the power of resistance, the
representations of the dealer meet with easy
credence from the uninitiated, and his offers of
credit are readily accepted.

A good hack, or roadster, may be purchased
for about fifty pounds; but a hundred and fifty
is considered a fair price for an Arab colt of
promise, calculated either for the duties of a
charger, or, if possessing "the speed of thought"
in all his limbs, for the exciting interests of
the turf.

On a visitor to the stables desiring to see the
action of a valuable colt, one

" Wild as the wild deer, and untaught,
With spur and bridle undefiled,"

an Arab rider grasps its flowing mane, flings
himself suddenly on its back, strikes his bare
heels into its glossy sides, and with hair and
garments wildly flying, urges the noble creature

AN ANTHOLOGY. 28^

to a furious gallop; then, with a skilful check in
mid career, he brings it, with expanded eye and
reeking flank, back to the appointed stall.

With the exception of horses intended for the
cavalry, it is not customary to subject Arabs to
the exercise of the manege; the natural disposi-
tion of the "desert born" being itself so noble, so
full of nervous energy, yet so tractable and gentle
withal, that good treatment is alone required to
ensure his ready obedience to the rider's will.

Western Itidia, 1839, Vol. /, pp. Y^St.

nixture of Types In the Bazaar

LOUIS ROUSSELET.

On entering its huge bazaars for the first
time, one is immediately deafened by the din
that prevails, and half suffocated by the smells
that impregnate the atmosphere. A heavy per-
fume of " ghee " and grease, which is exhaled
from numerous shops belonging to the poorer
class of confectioners, turns the stomachs of al?
who, for the first time, experience it. In spite
of this source of discomfort, the visitor cannot
help admiring these famous bazaars. A world
of peoples and races, of perfectly distinct types
and costumes, are crowded together in the streets
of this capital, which distributes the products of
Europe to two-thirds of India. It is the port of
arrival for all who come from Persia/ froia

299 BOMBAY:

Arabia, from Afghanistan, and the coast of
Africa ; and from it the pilgrims from Hindostan
bound to Mecca, Karbala, or Nujiff, take their
departure. Beside the indigenous races which
still present such varieties, we see the Persian,
with his high cap of Astrakan ; the Arab, in his
Biblical costume ; the Somali negro, with fine
intelligent features ; the Chinese, the Burmese,
and the Malay. This diversity gives to the
crowd a peculiar stamp, which no other town in
the world can present. The corpulent Buniahs
of Cutch or Gujerat, with their pyramids of
muslin on their heads, raise their voices in rivalry
with the natives of Cabul or Scinde; the Hindoo
fakir, naked and hideously painted, elbows the
Portuguese priest in his sable robe. The Tower
of Babel could not have assembled at its founda-
tion a more complete collection of the human
race. Palanquins, native carriages, surmounted
by domes of red cloth, beneath which dusky
beauties conceal themselves, pass by, drawn by
beautiful oxen from Surat, as well as handsome
open carriages from Paris or London. The
street is bordered by small booths, the flooring
of which, raised several feet above the roadway,
serves for counter and stall ; the most diverse
branches of industry are there displayed side by
side : but those which call for particular notice
are the stores of manufactures ' in sandal-wood,
ebony, furniture, and works of art in copper.

The houses which skirt the bazaars are gene-
rally laid out in several storeys, and constructed

AN ANTHOLOGY, 291

of wood and bricks. Their fronts, adorned with
verandahs, the pillars of which are delicately
carved and painted in lively colours, afford a
peculiarity of appearance altogether unknown in
exclusively Mussulman countries. All the streets
that traverse this immense town are very large ;
the Bhendi Bazaar, amongst others, is one of the
finest. Here are the famous Arab stables, from
which come all the magnificent and costly horses
used in the island, and which, for the sportsman,
forni one of the most interesting places of resort.
Here are to be found the finest kinds of horses
in the East. Most of them come from the
provinces bordering on the Persian Gulf, from
Kattywar and from Cabul ; but the most
excellent are those of Djowfet and Nedjed, of the
purest Arab race. • Unfortunately their value is
considerable, the prices ranging from £ 120 to
£240 or £250 for those of the best class, and from
£40 downwards for the inferior sort.

These stables attract the attention of all the
horse-riding people of this part of the world, and
the coffee-houses facing them present, therefore,
a very singular appearance. All day long we
may see there Arabs, Negroes, Bedouins, squat-
ting on couches of rope drawn up alongside the
shops, and quaffing aromatic drinks, or smoking
the long hubble-tubble ; the Persians, in their long
caps, assemble in the shops devoted to meethceee,
where they consume enormous balls, composed of
flour, sugar, and milk ; and at the corners of
streets the natives of Cabul, in their long and

292 BOMBAY :

disgustingly dirty linen smocks and blue turbans^
regale themselves frugally on dried dates. Con-
tinuing our excursion across the Black Town, we
reach the China Bazaar, which is always encum-
bered by a dense crowd. It extends along that
part of the port reserved for native vessels. The
quays are covered with all the rich products of
Asia — buffalo-horns, tortoise-shells, elephant-
tusks, bags of spices, coffee, pepper, &c. Coolies
of great strength pass through the crowd, bearing
on each end of long bamboos bales of merchan-
dise; and Parsees take note of the arrivals, or
discuss prices. Everything, in fact, presents
this mixture of types, which is universal at
Bombay, and always surprising to strangers.

India and its Native Princes, 1 882, pp. 7-9.

The Bombay Bazaar, Unique

J. H. Stocqueler.

Few things can afford more interesting or
picturesque effects than the great bazaar, begin-
ning with the gay, open Esplanade, its pretty
bungalows and animated groups, with the Fort
and Bay in advance, and ending with the dark
cocoa-nut woods in Girgaum and Mazagon,
speckled with the handsome villas of the Euro-
pean gentry.

The beautiful Parsee w^omen, with their gay
green and orange-coloured sarees, chatting at
the wells to the graceful, handsome sepoys,

AN ANTHOLOGY. 293

whose high caste compels them to draw water
for themselves ; the crowded ways, peopled
with professors of almost every known creed, and
natives of almost every land ; the open shops,
filled with goods to suit all tastes, " corn, and
wine, and oil," in their literal sense, with women's
bracelets ( a trade in itself), culinary utensils,
and fair ivory work ; the quaint, though bar-
barous, paintings that deck many of the ex-
teriors of the houses ; the streets devoted to the
cunning work of gold and silver; the richly-
carved decorations ; the variety of costumes that
meet the eye, and the languages that fall upon
the ear ; the native procession that stops the way;
the devotee, performing his unnatural penance ;
the harmonies of light and colour; the rich
•dresses ; the contrasts of life and character — such
as the stately yet half-nude Brahmin, the English
-sailor, the dancing-girl, and the devotee, with
the intermediate shades — each and all, to the re-
flecting mind, are full of interest ; and although,
towards twilight, the bazaar is deeply shadowed,
and the fresh breeze reaches it not, — although
the dust rises in clouds, the air is stagnant, and
the native drivers care nothing for the right of
road, pressing to either side as suits them best,
causing irritation, suspense, and danger to all
whom they encounter ; still, the Bombay bazaar
outbalances, in interest, all its worst annoyances
and is, in its peculiarities, unique.

Hami-book of India, [844, pp. 323-325.

294 BOMBAY :

Animated Life of the Bazaars

Lady Falkland.

The same evening we drove through the
native town and bazaar of Bombay. Here I was
quite bewildered with the novelty of the scene
around me — too much so, indeed — as we passed
rather quickly though the streets, to note separa-
tely the endless variety of groups and pictures
that presented themselves, in all directions; still
I saw a great deal. A bridal-party first drew my
attention. The young bride rode a califourchon
on a miserable pony; and behind her, on the
same animal, sat the bridegroom. They both
wore gilt-paper crowns ; and down their faces
hung many strips of tinsel, and coloured beads,
completely concealing their features ; relations
and friends on foot, and men beating the 'tom-
tom' (native drum) and playing on musical in-
struments, both followed and preceded the
happy couple.

The street from that part of the bazaar which
is called the ' Bhendy Bazaar,' to the Esplanade,
is crowded from sunrise to nine o'clock at night ;
and, as the people walk generally in the middle of
the streets, the coachmen and gorah-wallahs
(running footmen), who attend the carriages of
Europeans and wealthy natives, are constantly
calling out to the pedestrians to get out of the way-

The most interesting part of the native town
"begins at the horse-bazaar; where, in the cool of
the evening, the picturesquely-clothed Persian

AN ANTHOLOGY. 295

and Arab horse-dealers sit in the open air, sip-
ping coffee and smoking with their friends. All
is much 'Europeanized' in Bombay, to use an
Anglo-Indian expression; and these men, instead
of squatting on the ground, sit on old chairs
and stools.

Proceeding onwards, the scene becomes more
animated; and one is constantly looking to the
right and left, fearing to miss some new and
curious sight. Many of the houses are lofty, and
the ornaments outside carved in wood.
Presently, we pass ,what I am told is a Jain
temple, and I strain my eyes to look inside, but
only see the pillars and external ornaments,
painted red and green, and I wonder who the
Jains can be. Some are pointed out, wearing very
high turbans, passing in and out of the building.
I learn they are a sect of Buddhists, and long to
know all about them; but there is no time for
hearing more just now. A Brahmin priest passes,
he is turbanless, his hair floating in the breeze,
his white robes falling in ample folds around him;
in one hand he holds a copper drinking vessel;
in the other, a few sacred flowers — an offering to
some god in a temple close by. To the right is a
Musjid, or Mussulman temple, into which the
followers of the prophet are crowding for their
evening devotions. Near us is a Fakir, or religious
(Mussulman) fanatic, with a long beard, calling
out to passers-by for alms; close to him stands a
Hindoo saint who has devoted himself by a vow
to a life of begging, meditation, and idleness;

296 BOMBAY :

his face and matted hair are besmeared with
ashes, as also is his body, on which he has as little
covering as may be. I have scarcely time to look at
this unpleasant specimen of humanity, when I
S3e a group of women, with their heavy anklets,
* making a tinkling with their feet,' their sarees
folded over their heads and persons, and carrying
little chubby children on their shoulders, or
astride on their hips ; and now these are lost to
sight, a fresh group appears, consisting of Hindoo
women of various castes, clothed in jackets and
sarees of divers colours, and wearing ' the chains
and the bracelets,' ' the ear-ring,' ' the rings and
the nose-rings,' ( Isaiah III, l6 ). I must not forget
the toe-rings, which are thick and heavy, and must
cause, I should think, some pain and inconvenience
to the wearers. On their heads they bear large
copper water-pots, and they walk with a stately
and measured step, though the crowd presses on
them, some not even holding the vessels with one
hand. Next comes a hackery, or peasant's cart,
drawn by two pretty little Indian bullocks, with
rings through their noses, through which a cord is
drawn, which serves the purpose of a bridle. In
the vehicle are several native women, returning
from a fete, with flowers in their black hair; then
a European carriage, painted light blue, and
elaborately mounted in silver, in which a fat
native gentleman is sitting, rushes furiously past
driven by a Parsee coachman.

On all sides, jostling and passing each other,
are seen Persian dyers ; Bannian shop-keepers ;

AN ANTHOLOGY. 297

•Chinese with long tails; Arab horse-dealers;
Abyssinian youths, servants of the latter ; Bohras
(pedlars) ;toddy-drawers, carrying large vessels
on their heads ; Armenian priests, with flowing
robes and beards ; Jews in long tunics and mant-
les, their dress, half Persian, half Moorish;
Portuguese, small under-sized men, clad in
scanty short trousers, white jackets and frequent-
ly wearing white linen caps. Then we meet
the Parsee priest, all in white from top to toe,
except his dark face and black beard ; Hindoo,
Mussulman, and Portuguese nurses or atten-
dants on European children and ladies, mingle in
the crowd, and everywhere I see something new
to look at every moment. What bits to sketch !
what effects here ! what colouring there !

At times the crowd is broken into by the
^orah-wallahs belonging to the carriage of a
* burrah bibi ' ( great lady), wife of a European
sahib, ' high up' in the military or civil service
of the Honourable Company.

I have as yet said nothing of the shops,
where the sellers sit squatting and waiting for
purchasers. In the East, it is usual for all the
members of a trade to live in the same vicinity*
and thus we find a row of many shops here, all
tenanted by coppersmiths, there, by cutters of
stones, by vendors of gold and silver ornaments,
of wearing apparel for the natives, each having
their proper locale — a custom we read of among
IhTC ancient Jews; for ' Zedekiah the king

298 BOMBAY:

commanded that they should commit Jeremiah
into the court of the prison,' and that 'they
should give him daily a piece of bread out of
the bakers' street: ( Jeremiah, XXXVII, 21.) Amidst
such a variety of novel sights it is impossible
to note all. There are sellers of flowers for
weddings — of flowers for offerings at temples ;
shops where rice, split peas, salt, oil, vinegar,,
ghee or clarified butter, made from the milk
of the buffalo, betel-nuts, pawn-leaves, and fruits
are retailed ; beside confectioners, dealers in snuff"
and tobacco, or copper vessels for household use
among the natives, and lamps, some of which are-
very curious, and indeed classical in form. Here
and there the foliage of palms, and other trees,,
particularly that of the pipul, mingles with the
houses. From the branches of the last-named tree
hang clusters of flying foxes, head downwards^
apparently by one leg : these animals are in a
dormant state from sunrise to sunset, at which
time they show signs of life, and commence
their nocturnal wanderings. They have the
wings, body, and legs of the bat, and the head
of a fox most exquisitely and delicately formed,,
resembling that of the quadruped alike in
colour, shape, and fur. The body is generally
about a foot long, and the wings, when extended,,
from three to four feet between the extremities^
By day, when seen suspended from the pipuU
they look like very large cotelettes a la mainterioft
attached to the frailest boughs; but while flying,.,
in the dusk of the evening, they have the

AN ANTHOLOGY. 299

appearance of crows of a large size. Their
flight is heavy, and apparently slow, as if they
were never quite awake.

The variety of colour exhibited in the turbans,
and costumes of the natives, astonishes a Euro-
pean. The dresses of the men ( at least of those
who do wear clothes ) are frequently white, but
the turbans are of all colours, and the forms
various, — the reds are particularly fine; indeed,,
all the dyes are beautiful.

Such were my impressions on my first drive
through the native town of Bombay, and, after
all, I saw very little compared with what there
was to see.

Chmv-CJiow, 1857, Vol. I, pp. 4—11^

The Horse Bazaar

Balcarres Ramsay.

As you roam through the bazaars you will
often come upon an Arab horse-dealer's stable ;:
most of them are commission stables — that is to
say, an Arab merchant will bring a batch of
some twenty or thirty to sell, and will sit all day
smoking with oriental indifference, not even
rising to receive you. In the hottest weather
these Arabs were wrapped in thick woollen
garments. The Persian dealers wear an open

300 BOMBAY :

tunic over a light vest and wide sleeves, v^ith a
high conical fur cap. The horses of high caste
wrere kept apart from the others, and only-
brought out when likely purchasers appeared.
Amongst the rest, all that average fourteen
hands were bought for the cavalry and artillery ;
so that at the dealer's you can only buy horses
of great value or mere ponies. These dealers
were apparently very indifferent as to selling
their horses. The probability was, if a stranger
went in, he would with difficulty induce them to
bring out their valuable horses; and then they
asked ten times their value, and if remonstrated
with, coolly ordered the horses to be taken back,
taking no further notice of the intending purcha-
ser. This was not flattering to the vanity of the
stranger, accustomed to the civility and blandish-
ments of an English horse-dealer; but the fact is,
these men were aware that every horse of value
that is landed was known to all the gentlemen
whose patronage they were anxious to secure, and
to some of whom they would be sure to sell the
horse. And they would rather sell a likely horse
for the turf to a well-known man, who would
bring him out on the race-course, at a lower
figure, than to a stranger at a high price ; for they
have a very laudable ambition, and crowds of
them may be seen every morning at the race-
course. They generally gave a cup to be run for,
and were therefore glad to see their best horses
pass into the hands of such men as Elliot, Blood,
Howard, Coghlan, &c.

AN ANTHOLOGY. 301

A person newly arrived in the country
should be very careful as to trusting to his own
judgment in buying a horse, as however
good a judge he may be at home, it is impossible
that he can at once understand all the points of
the Arab, especially in the miserable condition
they are landed from the Gulf, apparently only
fitted for the knacker's yard — frequently cruelly
mangled by the ropes which confined them, and
hardly able to stand. I was recommended by
Captain Thornhill, the remount agent, to give
1 200 rupees for a miserable-looking animal, to
my idea only fit for the knacker's yard. He could
not stand, had a frightful gash on his flank, and
two hind legs the size of mill-posts. However,
acting on the best advice, I bought him, and he
turned out one of the handsomest horses in the
Presidency. My advice to the new-comer is,
distrust your own judgment. There are always
men long resident who know every Arab by heart,
and will help you to choose.

I was never tired of rambling in the bazaars
when I had a chance. Captain Basil Hall, the
celebrated traveller, experienced the same delight,
and was often laughed at by his Bombay friends
for his love of wandering about them.

Rough Recollections y 1882, Vol /, pp. 79-81.

302 BOMBAY :

A Gay Street

Louis Rousselet.

Girgaum, the Breda Street of Bombay, is a
vast wood of cocoa-nut trees, which extends from
the bazaars to Chowpatti, at the head of Back Bay.
In the midst of this picturesque forest are
innumerable huts, half concealed by a rich tropical
vegetation, in which reside bayaderes of every
nation, and of all colours, — the demi-monde of
this immense capital. As the night draws on, the
depths of the wood become lighted up ; on all sides
resound the tom-tom, the guitar, and the voice of
song ; and the illumined windows are filled with
women in dazzling costumes. One would say that
a great fete was in preparation. The uninitiated
stranger stops, hesitates, asks himself whether it
is for him that these garlands of flowers have
been suspended, these coloured lamps hung out.
But soon it would seem as if all the nations in the
world had arranged a meeting in this wood of
Cythera. The refreshment-rooms in the taverns
are thronged by Europeans, Malays, Arabs, and
Chinese. Far into the night will the songs
resound, and the lamps shed their light; then,
when the morning is come, all will return to
gloom, and the worthy English merchant, driving
past in his shigram, or office carriage, may
wonder who can be the inhabitants of this
sombre grove.

bidia and its Native Princes, 1882, pp II-I2,

AN ANTHOLOGY. 303

Scenes in the Bazaars

Balcarres Ramsay.

It was a constant source of pleasure to me to
pass through the bazaars. A year's residence
did not wear off the novelty. The only feeling
that generally possesses the resident with regard
to them is how to reach his destination without
passing through them, but to me they were
replete with interest: Hindoo temples, Mussulman
mosques, Portuguese Christian churches, with
quaint and curiously carved doors, and eve/y
sort of architectural curiosity, present them-
selves to you at every turn. People of every
nation are 'sauntering about in rich and varied
costume. The stately Parsee or fire-worshipper,
the grave Mussulman, Hindoos of every caste —
the distinguishing mark of which is a daub of
paint (white, red or yellow) on his forehead — the
Persian horse-dealer, the Sindee, the Greek, the
Chinaman, the Bokhara and Cabul merchants ;
the Africans - conspicuous for their want of
costume — most of them employed on board our
steamers as firemen. Now you come upon a
grand Mohammedan festival, then a Catholic
procession of the Host ; while at a corner of the
street you see the Hindoo prostrate before a stone
daubed with red paint and covered with
flowers, his god.

RcujB;h Recollections, T882, Vol. I, pp. 77-78.

304 BOMBAY :

The Crawford Market

Walter Crane.

The Crawford Market is one of the sights of"
Bombay. Outside, with its steep roofs, belfry,
and projecting eaves, it has a rather English
Gothic look, but inside the scene is entirely
oriental, crowded with natives in all sorts of
colours, moving among fish, fruit, grain, and
provisions of all kinds, buying and selling
amid a clamour of tongues — a busy scene of
colour and variety, in a symphony of smells,,
dominated by that of the smoke of joss-sticks
kept burning at some of the stalls as well as a
suspicion of opium, which pervades all*the native
([uarters in Indian cities. There is a sort of court
or garden enclosed by the buildings, and here the
live stock is kept, all sorts of birds and animals.

India Impressiojis, igoj, p. 26.

Flower and Fruit flarket

Mrs. Guthrie.

G. kindly took me to see the markets before
the heat had tarnished the early beauty of the
flowers and fruit. We found the [ Crawford }
Markets exquisitely clean and admirably arrang-
ed. The flower, fruit, and vegetable market is a
circular building, lighted from above, which
encloses a beautiful public garden.

AN ANTHOLOGY. 305

Never had I seen such a luxurious profusion
of beautiful flowers and fruits as was set forth
upon the white marble slabs, which sloped up on
each side of the broad promenade, which was
thronged, not crowded, by endless streams of
people, in strange costumes and gay apparel, ever
passing into strange combinations, like the bits
of coloured glass in a kaleidoscope. There were
pyramids of flowers, not set forth in the Euro-
pean fashion, but picked with little stem and no
leaves, and heaped up carelessly. There were
lovely pale pink roses, and an endless variety of
double jessamine flowers, pink and white, pro-
bably destined to be threaded together for the
adornment of temples. The tuberoses were al-
most too sweet. There were gorgeous hillocks of
the double yellow marigold, to be woven into
coronets for women, their intense colour being
well calculated to set off the dark skins and shiny
black hair which they were meant to adorn. Some
of the smaller flowers and fragrant leaves, made
into tiny sprigs, were intended to be thrown into
the finger-glasses which figure at every Anglo-
Indian's meal, the lemon-scented verbena being
often employed for this purpose.

Glowing fruits peeped forth from beds of
cool green leaves. The more delicate sorts were
placed in wicker baskets, artistically lined with
pieces of the plantain leaf cut into shape. We
bought one of these little boats, with its cargo of
dull-hued lilac figs, luscious and small, with just
one tear of liquid sugar upon each— the true

306 BOMBAY:

goutte d'or. Among the fruits with which I was-
familiar, were many species which I had never
seen before ; but to enumerate them would be
tedious. The vegetables were of infinite variety,
including gourds of the most grotesque forms,,
which nature must have imagined in a mirthful
hour. Some of them were intended for eating,,
but others would be carefully cleaned out, and
the hard rinds converted into vessels for water,,
and other liquids. The capsicums and chillies
were curious and pretty, some being large, shiny,,
and intensely green, while others were small and
red and pointed, and made one hot to look at
them. There were many varieties of the egg-
plant, some of them white and smooth like ivory^
others resembling balls of gold; and the long
purple aubergines were very handsome. I could
have spent hours with satisfaction in these
markets, which were the finest I had ever seen ;
but time pressed and we passed into the interior
garden, a charming, cool, and verdant spot, in
which there were numerous varieties of the palm
tribe, all sorts of velvety, long-leaved plants and
trembling ferns of exquisite beauty. It was
strange to see caneless clumps of the caladium
of tender green, spotted with white and red,
along with other plants, only at home to
be seen in a hot-house, where one lingers
for a moment, in mortal dread of catching-
one's death of cold on again breathing the raw
air outside. I should have liked to have explored
the fish market, which no doubt contained many

AN ANTHOLOGY. 307

curious and strange varieties ; but the sun was
up, and as we hesitated at the door of the market,
we perceived that its atmosphere was not as
odoriferous as that of the floral Paradise which
we had quitted.

My Year t?i an Indian Fort, 1877, Vol, I, pp. 54-57.

The Bazaars during the Feast
of Lamps

Sidney Low.

Get into your gharry and tell the driver to
take you by the Grant Road past the Mumbadevi
Tank, along Abdul Rahman Street, by the Bhendi
Bazaar, and about the native quarter generally.
You will not lack entertainment : especially if
you strike Bombay, as I did, on the eve of a
Royal visit, and at the new moon of the month
Kartik, which is the Hindu Feast of Lanterns.

The night, indeed, like Prospero's isle, is
* full of noises' : the Indian night always is, even
in the quieter suburbs of the towns, for there
are the noises of beast and bird, as well as the
sounds made by human hands and throats. The
field crickets and grasshoppers are chirping
with a loud metallic clank ; the grey-backed
crows, which you have noticed all day feeding
on dead rats and other carrion, retire to their

308 BOMBAY:

nests with raucous cawings ; weird squeals and
chatterings are heard from a thicket, and you
know — that is, you know when your driver tells
you — that they are emitted by the monkeys who
are swinging in the boughs.

When you reach the native bazaar, your
coachman must drive at a foot's-pace, with many
stoppages. The narrow twisting streets are
swarming with people, spreading all over the
roadway in close groups and solid columns. You
will make better progress by leaving your
carriage and walking; besides, this will give you
an opportunity of observing the people in their
various types and tribes.

The bazaar is always crowded from early
morning until late night; it is always full of
people walking, sitting, lying on the ground, jos-
tling against one another like ants. But perhaps
the throng is a little more than normal on this
Feast of Lamps, the Diwali, which is one of the
-great festivals of the Hindu year. The Diwali
is held in honour of Lakhshmi, the Venus of the
Indian Pantheon, the wife of Vishnu the Preser-
ver. Lakhshmi, like her Hellenic antitype, arose
out of the foam of the sea waves, and she is the
Goddess of Beauty; but she is also the Goddess
of Wealth and Prosperity, and is therefore held
in special honour by shopkeepers and tradesmen.

On the Feast of Lamps the gains of the
year are dedicated to the goddess, and every
house is lighted for her. The larger Europeanised

AN ANTHOLOGY. 309

stores in the bazaar, the 'cheap jacks,' where
they sell all sorts of things, from bicycles to
safety-pins, the motor garage where the wealthy-
native buys his up-to-date car, are hung with
tiers of electric lights and glow-lamps; but each
little square booth has its own small illumination.
All the shops are open, and the owners are seen
sitting beside the implements and objects of
their trade. The goldsmith has rows of candles
to set off his golden bowls, his cups and chains
and jewellery work; the shroff, the small money-
lender or usurer, piles up his account-books in a
heap, with a kerosene lamp on top. A white
Hindu temple is all festooned with ropes and
wreaths of flowers; a yellow Jain chapel sparkles
with coloured lights, and looks rather like a
Paris cafe, with its open rooms and balconies
and lounging groups. Only the Mohammedan
mosque stands grimly shut and dark and silent;
for Diwali is a Hindu festival, and the children
of the Faith have no part in it. There were
times when the celebration was a fruitful source
of faction-fighting and serious riot. But the
vigilant Bombay constables, little sturdy men in
blue, are scattered freely among the crowds, and
in the very centre of the whole turmoil, where
the chief Mohammedan street crosses the Hindu
bazaar, there is a small square brick building,
which is the police post. Here a couple of sepoys
are talking to a khaki-clad sowar of the mounted
force standing beside his horse, ready to ride to
the barracks for assistance, if need be; and

310 . BOMBAY:

against the door-post leans a tall young English-
man, in white uniform and helmet, surveying the
passing stream of humanity with good-humoured,
but not inattentive, indifference — a symbol of that
impartial tolerance, combined with the vigorous
assertion of public authority in the maintenance
of order, which is the attitude of the British raj
towards the creeds and sects of India.

A Vision of India, 1906, pp. 12-16.

Streets During The Diwali

Mrs. John Wilson.

On returning from chapel at 9 o'clock this
evening, the whole native town was illuminated
in honour of the Diwali. A torrent of light
seemed to issue from every house ; lamps were
suspended in gardens, and in the streets ; and
the air reverberated with incessant and deafen-
ing clamour of the counties^; throngs who walked
to and fro in the bazaars. The heat was oppres-
sive, and the atmosphere heavily charged with
electricity. Above our heads, the sky was clear
and beautiful ; an innumerable multitude of
stars walked their midnight rounds ; and you can
scarcely imagine the relief gained in looking
upwards to their pure light, for it was impossible
to shut our eyes upon the rude but splendid
exhibitions in the streets. The lightning issuing
from a distant cloud had a magnificent and awful

AN ANTHOLOGY. 31 1

appearance, and reminded me of the accounts
given in Scripture of the advent of the Son of
Man, and of His terrible majesty, when He shall
come in the clouds of heaven with power and
great glory.

Dr. Wilson's Memoir of Mrs. John ivilson, 1838 ^

page 42Q.

The Streets During The King's
Visit, 1911

Teh Hon. John Fortescue.

The crowd was immense, and the variety
of shades indescribable-here a group of men in
rich dark-red turbans, with perhaps one of vivid
grass green flaming among them ; there a group
of children, wide-eyed and open-mouthed, with
one or two little maids in blazing crimson silk
huddled into their midst; there again a body of
Parsi ladies in simple gowns of the palest pink,
blue or dove-colour, draped on one side with
light transparent muslin in graceful folds, which
made the delicate hues more dainty still. There
was no rest for the eye in the ever-changing
, feast of colour.

The most striking of all was the scene in the
quaint irregular buildings and narrow streets of
the native town. There is no appearance of
wealth in the houses, the stucco being often decay

312 BOMBAY :

ed and fortunately rarely repainted; but there
are quaint wooden stairways, balconies and
loggias, which the wealthy owners had beautified
with the best and simplest of all street-decora-
tions by simply throwing over them rugs and
carpets, or occasionally a great sheet of rich dark
silk shot with gold. The houses were crammed
with spectators. The housetops and the highest
stories were occupied chiefly by peeping women^
nearly all of whom displayed at least a scrap of
costly red material ; the lower windows were
simply packed with tier upon tier of heads — I
counted over thirty in one of no extraordinary
size — and even the steep narrow scraps of veran-
dah over the native shops were swarming with
men and boys.

Royal Visit to India, 1912, pp. IIO-III.

Legions of Dark=hued Faces

Sir Henry Craik.

As we pass through the streets, what are our
impressions 1 The countless legions of dark-hued
faces, the strange rarity of the white complexion-
It is not that we are outnumbered. To all intents-
and purposes, so far as numbers go, we simply da
not count. And next, amongst these countless
dark visages, the endless variety of physiognomy,,
with only one common attribute, that of absolute

AN ANTHOLOGY. 31 3

inscrutability. They are solemn and self-impor-
tant, oT careless and self-forgetful; they are
dreamy and ferocious, melancholy and merry; but
all alike are to us simply masks. They look at
us as if they were divided from us by centuries,,
and as if they were gazing at sticks and stones.
Their lives lie hidden away from us by an
impenetrable veil. In London we hear glib-
talk of the need of greater sympathy with the
native. What easy words to utter !

Next the quietness, the coolness, the patience,,
the reserve of authority, of the few white faces
that we meet. No wonder that with men like
these, who know their work, its hard conditions
and its dangers, and have learned to face it,,
the recklessness of loose tongues is met by a mo-
mentary anger, perhaps, but, after the first mo-
ment, with the apathy of contempt. There is
something of strain, and no great measure of
light-heartedness, in the faces of that ruling-
class; but no fretfulness and nervousness, and na
assumption of bullying or domineering. They
are there to do their duty ; and almost the only
comment, if we refer to the wild mouthings of
self-advertising frivolity, is, "why heed him ?'*"

Impressions of India, 1908, pp. 1 1-13^

314 BOMBAY:

riodern Town and Native Town

Mrs. Guthrie.

We passed through the modern 'town, which
is full of fine buildings, public offices, and
private houses. Handsome equipages rolled
along, but the tall dark men, with peculiar
liveries and naked feet, who stood behind each
well-appointed carriage, had a strange appear-
ance. The reclining ladies were such as may
be seen any fine afternoon in Hyde Park or the
Bois. Far more interesting were the numbers of
Parsi women who were walking about in short
satin skirts of the most brilliant hues — an exqui-
site pale cherry and an emerald green appeared
to be the favourite colours — flowers were in
their glossy black hair, and they wore quantities
of gold lace and handsome ornaments.

When we reached the native town how
changed was the scene. Europe was left behind,
and the East was realized — the narrow, winding
streets, the open shops, small, but highly charac-
teristic, where the owner, Hindoo, Mahomedan,
or Jew, squatted amidst his wares. Those of
the same trade congregated together, the workers
in brass and copper, with bright vessels of
curious shape, such as the lota with its narrow
neck and bulging sides, the lamp of many beaks,
the little bells with images at the top, used in
the temples. Then there are the leather workers,
from whom one may select embroidered slippers,
turned up at the point, saddle bags, and trap-

AN ANTHOLOGY. 315

pings for horses, covered with gold and silver,
and cowrie shells. There were rows of wood-
carvers, who work upon the blackwood furniture
peculiar to the Bombay Presidency, and fine
specimens of their art were placed about to
attract attention. The general merchant had
his small store, heaped from floor to ceiling with
bales of cloth, gaudy shawls, and cottons, with
various patterns printed upon them, vaseS, and
griffins, and pagodas, for furniture, and dark but
deep-hued checks and stripes for garments.
There were little niches where betel-leaves and
pungent seeds were sold, and, most picturesque
of all, were the shops of the Indian druggists,
where one was sure to see a venerable old man
with a flowing white beard ; probably a learned
man, and one who possibly dabbled in magic,
his drugs ranged about in jars of china, which
would have made the fortune of a European
bric-a-brac shop. By a Christian these jars were
not, alas ! to be bought for love or money.

No two houses were alike, some were tall and
pink, others were squat and yellow, and both
perhaps were neighboured by dwellings of a
superior order, which stood back, not hidden, but
sheltered by plantain-trees, and tall cocoa-nut
palms, spreading their elegant fan-shaped leaves
against a crimson background, for the fervid sun
was setting. These houses had in general two
tiers of wooden verandahs, with shutters. The
ground-floor was partly open ; and supported by
pillars of wood, richly carved, and on the project-

3l6 BOMBAY :

ing beams and latticed frames there was many a.
quaint device. I was charmed with these irre-
gular old dwellings. A dead wall, with the
pyramidal summit of a Jain temple appearing;
above it, would vary the scene, or a mosque, with,
broad dome and airy pinnacles, and sometimes,
we came upon a Hindoo temple, adorned with
highly-coloured mythological subjects, with lights.
in its Interior, which cast a glow upon some hide-
ous copper idol, or figure of stone, daubed with
red paint, and greasy with libations of melted
butter. Every step was a surprise.

My Year in an Indian Fort, 1877, Vol. I. pp. 44-48^

The Bazaar to the Artistic Eye

Val. Prinsep.

What a sight the bazaars of Bombay pre-
sent to the artistic eye ! All sorts of Indian forms>
from black to white ; all sorts of dresses, from
nothing at all to tinsel and kincauh ; colours of
the most entrancing originality, and forms of the
wildest beauty. Every day since my arrival
have I been wandering through these streets, and
yet I feel quite dazed and have done absolutely
nothing. The infinite variety and " rummyness'*^
of the whole thing quite unhinges one.

Imperial India, 1879, pp. 13-14"

AN ANTHOLOGY. 317

The Native Town

Emma Roberts.

The native town extends considerably on
either side of the principal avenue, one road
leading through the cocoa-nut gardens, presenting
a great variety of very interesting features;
that to the left is more densely crowded, there
being a large and well-frequented cloth bazaar,
besides a vast number of shops and native
houses, apparently of considerable importance.
Here the indications shown of wealth and
industry are exceedingly gratifying to an eye
delighting in the sight of a happy and flourish-
ing population. There are considerable spaces
of ground between these leading thoroughfares,
which by occasional peeps down intersecting
lanes, seem to be covered with a huddled
confusion of buildings, and, until the improve-
ments which have recently taken place, the
whole of the town seems to have been' nearly
in the same state.

The processes of widening, draining, pull-
ing down, and rebuilding, appear to have
been carried on very extensively ; and though
much, perhaps, remains to be done in the back
settlement, where buffaloes may be seen wading
through the stagnant pools, the eye is seldom
offended, or the other senses disagreeably
assailed, in passing through this populous dis-
trict. The season is, however, so favourable,
the heat being tempered by cool airs, which

3l8 BOMBAY:

•
render the sunshine endurable, that Bombay^
under it^ present aspect, may be very different
from the Bombay of the rains or of the very
hot weather. The continual palm-trees, which,.,
shooting up in all directions, add grace and
beauty to every scene, must form, terrible
receptacles for malaria ; the fog and mist are
said to cling to their branches and hang round
them like a cloud, when dispersed by sun or
wind elsewhere ; the very idea suggesting,
fever and ague.

Though, as I have before remarked, the-
contrast between the muslined millions of Bengal
and the less tastefully clad populace of Bombay
is unfavourable, still the crowds that fill the
streets here are animated and picturesque.
There is a great display of the liveliest colours,,
the turbans being frequently of the brightest of
yellows, crimsons, or greens.

The number of vehicles employed is quite
extraordinary, those of the merely respectable-
classes being chiefly bullock-carts; these are of
various descriptions, the greater number being of
an oblong square, and furnished with seats across
( after the fashion of our taxed carts ), in which
twelve persons, including women and children,
are frequently accommodated. It is most amusing
to see the quantity of heads squeezed close toge-
ther in a vehicle of this kind, and the various,
contrivances resorted to in order to accommodate
a more than sufficient number of personages in.

AN ANTHOLOGY. 319

other conveyances, not so well calculated to hold
them. Four in a buggy is a common complement,.
and six or nine persons will cram themselves
into so small a space, that you wonder how the
vehicle can possibly contain the bodies of all
the heads seen looking out of it. The carts are
chiefly open, but there are a few covered rluitSy
the conveyances probably of rich Hindu or
Mohamedan ladies, who do not content them-
selves, like the Parsees, with merely covering
their heads with the veil.

Young Parsee women of the better class are
frequently to be seen in carriages with their
male relations, nor do they object to appear
publicly in the streets following wedding
processions. They are the only well-dressed
or nice-looking women who drive or walk about
the streets or roads. The lower classes of females
in Bombay are the most unprepossessing people
I ever saw. In Bengal, the saree, though rather
too scanty, is a graceful costume, and at a little
distance appears to be a modest covering. Here
it is worn very differently, and without the
slighest attempt at delicacy or grace, the drapery
being in itself insufficient, and rendered more
offensive by the method of its arrangement.

Overland Journey to Bombay, 1841, pp. 225-228.

320 BOMBAY :

A City of Strange Contrasts

S. M. Edwardes.

Hark, through the hum of the crowd, above
the rumble of wheels and the jangle of bullock-
bells, rises the plaintive chant of the Arab
hymn-singers, leading the corpse of a brother to
the last "mukam" or resting-place; while but
a short distance away, — only a narrow street's
length, — the drum and flageolets escort the stal-
wart young Memon bridegroom unto the house
of the bride. Thus it is ever in this city of
strange contrasts, — Life and Death in closest
juxtaposition, the hymn inhonourof the Prophet's
birth blending with the elegy to the dead. Bag-
pipes are not unknown in the Mussalman
quarters of Bombay; and not infrequently you
may watch a crescent' of ten or twelve wild
Arab sailors in flowing brown gowns and
parti-coloured head-scarves, treading a measure
to the rhythm of the bagpipes blown by
a younger member of their crew. The words
of the tune are the old words "La illaha illahlah,"
set to an air endeared from centuries past to
the desert-roving Bedawin, and long after dis-
tance has dulled the tread of the dancing feet,
the plaintive notes of the refrain reach you upon
the night breeze. About midnight the silent
streets are filled with the long-drawn cry of
the shampooer or barber, who, by kneading and
patting the muscles, induces sleep for the modest
sum of four annas ; and barely has his voice died

AN ANTHOLOGY. 321

away than the Muezzin's call to prayer falls
on the ear of the sleeper, arouses in his heart
thoughts of the past glory of his Faith, and
forces him from his couch to wash and bend in
prayer before Him "Who fainteth not, Whom
neither sleep nor fatigue overtaketh."

By- Ways of Bombay, 1913 2nd. ed. pp. 17-18.

Drive Through the Town

Mrs. Elwood.

It being Sunday, which is with the natives
as much a holiday, perhaps I should rather say,
idle day, as with the English, they were likewise
taking their evening drives and promenades. It
has been said, that Bombay is more populous,
and contains a greater variety of inhabitants
than is to be found so small a space in any other
part of the world; and certainly the scene which
presented itself, and which I subsequently
found was of no unfrequent occurrence, was
one of the most amusing and singular I ever
beheld. The difference of costumes, and
equipages, reminded me of the two or three last
days of the Carnival at Florence. There was
the grave and respectable looking Parsee, who
is the decendant of the ancient Persians, looking
as consequential and as happy as possible,
in his clean white vest, and ugly, stiff, purple
cotton turban, with a shawl thrown over his

322 BOMBAY :

shoulders like a lady, driving an English bugg3r
in the English fashion. Then followed a hackery,,
or common cart of the country, creaking slowly
along, drawn by oxen, and appearing as if about
to tumble down, with a Hindoo family; the men
half naked, but invariably with turbans on their
head; the women, clothed in the saree or long
piece of cloth or silk, which is twisted round their
persons so as to fall gracefully in folds to the
feet, like the drapery of an antique statue, and,
after forming a petticoat, is brought over the
right shoulder, across the bosom, and falls over
the head like a veil. This, with a small bodice
fastening before or behind, according to fancy,,
constitutes the whole of their attire, and it is-
infinitely prettier, and far more elegant than
the Frank female costume.

The saree so complete^ covers the whole of
the person, and so effectually conceals the figure
of the wearer, that it is likewise infinitely more-
modest and delicate than our style of dress, and'
it also possesses the advantage of being more
quickly put on ; one minute will suffice a Hindoo
belle to arrange her attire, but they make up for
the simplicity of this part of their toilet by a
profusion of ear and nose rings, and ornaments
of every sort and description, which are frequently
composed of precious stones and valuable pearls.
Necklaces of gold mohurs, or Venetian sequins^,
bangles of gold and silver on their arms and
ankles, and costly rings on their toes, frequently
decorate the persons of the females of the-

AN ANTHOLOGY. 323

humblest and meanest classes, for, as there are no
such things as savings-banks in India, they con-
vert their money into these trinkets, as the most
portable method of carrying their riches about
with them though sometimes, in times of war
this has given rise to most dreadful personal
cruelties.

After the hackery, would dash by an
English Officer in full regimentals, or a civilian
in the light Anglo-Indian costume, on spirited
Arabs, followed perhaps by native grooms in
turbans and white cotton vests. Then would
appear a couple of Persians, carefully guiding a
pair of horses in an English curricle, attired in
long flowing robes, and graceful and becoming
turbans, with peculiarly fine features, handsome
and intelligent countenances, and dark beards
sweeping their breasts. In heavy coaches, lighter
landaulet, or singular looking shigrampoes,
might be seen, bevies of British fair, in Leghorn
hats, silk bonnets, blond caps, and Brussels lace
veils. Feathers waving, flowers blooming,
and ribands streaming, in all the freaks and
fancies of every French and English fashion,
which may have prevailed in Europe, during
the last half dozen years. In India the
veriest adoratcur des modes must- be content
always to be one year behind the belles
of London and of Paris and, in the out
stations, at least two or three — but, however,
there is no deficiency of finery, whatever there
Tc\2iy ht oi ton, in the appearance and attire of

324 BOMBAY :

the ladies of Bombay. These would be driven by
a coachman, and attended by footmen in Parsee,
Mahometan, or Hindoo attire, whilst a Ghorawalla
or horse keeper, would run by the side of the
carriage on foot, and keep up with it, though
driven at a tremendous rate, carrying a painted
chowree in his hand, with which he would keep
the flies from annoying the horses.

In addition to these, might be seen numerous
Portuguese, whose very dark complexions
and short, curly, coal-black hair, looked more
singular and more foreign in their white
cotton Frank costume than even the Asiatics
in their loosely flowing robes. There were also
Roman Catholic priests in their robes, respect-
able-looking Armenians with their families,
numerous half-castes in neat English dresses,
and a few Chinese, looking exactly as if some
of the figures on a China jar had stepped forth to
take an evening walk. These were most efl^emi-
nate in appearance, with a long silky plaid of
dark hair, twisted neatly round their heads ; yet
their sleepy countenances, and flat and singular
features, had an air of stupid benevolence, such
as may be seen in the figures of Bhood, or Bhud-
da. The wild looking Arab, and the majestic
Turk in his magnificent and superb attire, were
of rare occurrence. The Cutchee " Burra Sahib "
in a fine gilt palanquin, with a turban a yard
high, richly adorned with gold, was also to be
seen, and there was an endless variety of Mussul-
mans, and Hindoos of different castes ; the Holy

AN ANTHOLOGY. 325

Brahmin, with the sacred Zennar [ janoi ] or cord,
suspended from his shoulder; the Purbhoo or
writer-caste, with their very neat turbans ; the
Bunyans in their deep-red, and the Bengalese with
their flat ones ; the Maharattas, the Malabarese,
the Malays, and the Boras, who are said to be
Mahometanized Jews, and who are the pedlars of
the country. In short, every religion, every caste,
and every profession, of almost every nation, from
the shores of China to the banks of the Thames.
Even in a fancy ball in London, or during the
Carnival in Italy where every one strives to be
in a particular and original costume, it would be
impossible to meet with a greater variety, than
presented itself in this short drive, which indeed
was only what may be seen every day in the
Island of Bombay.

Narrative of a Journey Overland, 1830,

Vol IT. pp. 374-378.

Bhendy Bazaar

William Shepherd.
We enter the Bhendi Bazaar, very different
from our English idea formed upon the model
of that in Oxford street, or Soho Square. This
is one of the principal thoroughfares of the native
town, quite separate from the English portion,
where stand the British Hotel, Town-hall, pay
offices, Cathedral, banking-houses, post-offices,

326 BOMBAY :

and shops of Parsees and English. This is a
long, tolerably wide, irregular street, with high
irregular houses on either side, containing many
windows, built principally of wood, some of the
projecting part's rudely, yet rather richly carved,
some painted, all full of dirt and darkness, and
crowded with inhabitants. The lower story is
usually devoted to the goods to be sold, where
the vendor sits, cross-legged, on the same shelf
as his bread, cakes, flour, grains, oil, stuffs,
calicos, earthenware, wine, or whatever other
article he has for sale, lazily smoking his
"hubble-bubble;" or, half dozing. If he be a
Persian or Mahomedan, leaning upon dirty
cushions, and sublimely indifferent to purchasers.

Slowly we drove through the crowded
bazaar, crowded with vehicles of all kinds, rough
carts, buggies conveying drunken sailors to and
from places, where they are easily deprived of
their money and their senses, carriages of rich
Hindoos and Parsees, miserable shake-down
shandrydans of all sorts; men, women, children,
dogs, horses and bullocks in gharries and other-
wise, all straggling about, with no concern for
their own safety, or the convenience of others.

We drive on towards the large Tank, situated
in an open space, where four cross roads meet in
this bazaar ; frequented at certain hours by pictur-
esque groups of natives, in gay garments, and
almost no garments, with water vessels on their
heads or pendant, ( held by ropes from a bending

AN ANTHOLOGY. 327

i)amboo yoke,) red, yellow, black rudely formed
of clay. " Bhistees," with their humped bullocks,
bearing water-skins, " Paniwallas," stooping
under theirs ; women, with long flowing robes,
silver bracelets and anklets, a brass water
"" chatti," filled, and carried gracefully on the
head, reminding one of the fair Rebecca; bullocks
^rawing carts) brought there for refreshment,
and also for washing the beasts, and perchance,
thpir drivers, who habituated to an extremely
minute portion of clothing, have little of that
-article to remove, and not any scruples, in per-
forming their ablutions in public ; — these various
groups, approaching, retiring, and surrounding
the well, present a most Eastern and interesting
-appearance.

From Bombay to Bnshire, 1857, pp. 15-21.

Stroll Through the Streets

Sidney Low.

The thing to see in Bombay Is Bombay
itself. It has no sight to show, no spectacle to
offer, at all equal to that presented by its own
'Streets, seething with miscellaneous humanity,
especially if one can examine them at leisure
and on foot, mingling with the populace and
peering into the open houses. In the East people
•do not live in sealed compartments, and the
front door, the shield of our own cherished

328 BOMBAY :

domesticity, can hardly be said to exist. The
climate and the local habits are opposed to it.
Before the sun has risen, or after his settings
everybody seeks space and air and coolness out
of doors; nor is there any jealous shrinking from
observation, even in the day time. People do all
sorts of things in public which to our thinking-
should be transacted in privacy, such as dressing,
shaving, washing, and sleeping, and, in spite of
the caste rules and religious restrictions, even a
good deal of eating.

Going into one of the large sheds in the
quarter of Bombay where the hand-loom weavers-
carry on their work, I saw two men crouching in
the dust by the outside wall. They proved to be
a barber and his client. The latter was naked to
the waist; the barber, a respectable o\d gentle-
man in robe and turban, was sitting on the
ground beside his victim, on whom he was operat-
ing in a very complete fashion, passing his
razor not merely over the chin, but over the head^
arms, and shoulders, and performing the whole
toilet in full view of passers-by and of various
other persons engaged in minor manufacturing or
domestic avocations at intervals of a few yards
along the wall of the shed. So it is everywhere.
As you pass along the streets of the bazaar you
can look right into half the houses. The shops
are simply boxes, set on end, with the lids off.
You can, if you please, stand and watch the baker
rolling his flat loaves, the tailor stitching and
cutting, the coppersmith hammering at his bowls.

AN ANTHOLOGY. - 329

and dishes, the jeweller drawing out gold and
silver wire over his little brazier. The Indian
townsman does not mind being looked at. He
is accustomed to it. He passes his life in the
midst of a crowd.

A Visio?i of India, 1906, pp. 2I-24.

A Drive Through the
Native Bazaar

W^ ALTER Crane.

A drive through the native bazaar of Bombay-
is a revelation. The carriage works its way with
difficulty through the narrow, irregular street,,
crowded with natives in every variety of costume
forming a wonderful moving pattern of brilliant
colour, punctuated by swarthy faces, gleaming
eyes, and white teeth. Shops of every kind line
each side of the way, and these are rather dark
and cavernous openings, shaded by awnings
and divided by posts or carved pillars, on the
lowest story, raised from the level of the streets
by low platforms, which serve the purposes of
counter and working bench to the native mer-
chant or craftsman, who squats upon it, and often
unites the two functions in his own person. He
generally carries on his work in the presence of
his whole family, apparently. All ages and
sexes crowd in and about the shops, carrying on
a perpetual conversazione, and the bazaar literally

330 BOMBAY :

swarms with dusky, turtmned faces, varied by
the deep red sari of the Hindu women, with their
glittering armlets and anklets, or the veiled
Mohammedan in her — well, pyjamas!

The older house fronts above the shops were
often rich with carving and colour, the upper
storeys being generally supported over the open
shop by four columns. It reminded one of the
arrangement of a mediaeval street, as also in its
general aspect, the shops being mostly work-
shops; and, as in the old days in Europe, could
be seen different crafts in full operation, while
the finished products of each were displayed for
sale. There were tailors stitching away at
garments, coppersmiths hammering their metal
into shape, leather workers, jewellers, cook-shops,
and many more, the little dark shops in most
c*ases being crowded with other figures besides
those of the workers — each like a miniature stage
of life with an abundance of drama going on in
all. The whole bazaar, too, was gay with colour —
white, green, red, orange, yellow, and purple, of
all sorts of shades and tones, in turban or robe — ■
a perfect feast for the eye.

In the course of our drive through the bazaar
we met no less than three wedding processions,
though rather broken and interrupted by the
traffic. In one, the bridegroom ( who, with the
Hindus and Mohammedans, is considered the
most important personage in the ceremony as
well as the spectacle) was in a carriage, on
his way to fetch the bride, in gorgeous raiment

AN ANTHOLOGY. 331

and with a crown upon his head. He was
followed by people bearing floral trophies, per-
haps intended for decoration afterwards. These
-consisted of gilt vases with artificial flowers in
them, arranged in rows close together, and car-
ried in convenient lengths on a plank or shelf by
young men bearers.

Another of the bridegrooms was mounted
on* a horse, crowned and robed like a Byzantine
emperor with glittering caparisons and housings,
a tiny little dusky girl sitting behind him and
-holding on, who was said to be his little sister.

The third bridegroom we saw was veiled,
in addition to the bravery of his glittering attire.
Flowers were strewn by boys accompanying
him, and a little bunch fell into our carriage as
we waited for the procession to go by, in which,
of course, the musicians went before. We after-
wards passed the house where the wedding was
being celebrated, the guests assembling in great
numbers to the feast, a tremendous noise going
on, drums beating and trumpets blowing. In
one of the processions very antique-looking trum-
pets or horns were carried of a large size, much
resembling the military horns of ancient Roman
times. These were all Hindu weddings.

We had also a glimpse of a Parsee wedding.
This was in the open court of a large house
arcaded from the street, brilliantly illuminated
where sat a great crowd of guests all attired in
ivhite.

India Impressions, 1907, pp. 26-28.

3'32 BOMBAY :

Variety in the Native Town

Baron von Hubner.

One of the most attractive features of Bombay-
is its variety — variety in the sites, in the appear-
ance of the streets, and in that of the population.
Starting from Colaba lighthouse, we proceed
northward between two sheets of water, inlets of
the ocean, and reach the Apollo Bander. Thence,,
after an excellent and well-served luncheon at
the Yacht Club, we penetrate into the town pro-
per. First comes the Esplanade with its impose
ing buildings, the vSecretariat, containing the
various public offices, the University, and the
Sailors' Home; farther on, the Anglican Cathedral
built in 1718, the Town Hall, and a host of other
buildings suggestive of modern English taste.

We next turn our steps towards the quarters
of the Parsees and Hindoos, where we are con-
stantly stopped, either by passers-by or by some
thing curious, pretty, or hideous, but at any rate
novel, which rivets our attention. A few paces-
more and we might imagine ourselves in Europe,,
judging by the broad thoroughfares I'eading-
towards Byculla, the northern suburb which gives
its name to a club far famed in the Anglo-Indian
world. Here the town ends, and noise and bustle
cease abruptly. To return to Parell I had to
cross an immense and somewhat lonely fiat, and
that at night. But no matter ; in India, from
Cape Comorin to the banks of the Indus and the
foot of the Himalayas the European — I do not say^

AN ANTHOLOGY. 333

the native-can travel by day or night in perfect
safety, under the talismanic protection of his
white skin.

But let us go back to the native town. With
the exception of the Parsees' quarter, which, like
its inhabitants, has a character of its own, this
part of Bombay differs little from any other town
of India. But the people are different. In the
first place there are numbers of women, whereas
elsewhere they are extremely scarce. Here you
meet them everywhere. Look at that group; they
are Parsee women. You know them by their
brilliant-coloured robes and the artistic drapery
of their shawls, their slim, lissom, and graceful
figures; their clear complexions, their eyes
fringed with long eyelashes, and the oval outline
of their cheeks which, like their bare necks and
arms, recall the masterpieces of Greek statuary.
Great animation prevails amongst them. They
are talking, gesticulating, and laughing. To see
an Indian smile is a rarity, but laughter is a
thing unheard of. I have indeed seen Hindoo
servants draw their lips together, out of deference
to their master; but it was always a grimace,
and not a frank smile. Here, in good society,
no one thinks of laughing, any more than we do
of yawning.

In the background, beyond this bright and
sunny group, under the shade of the houses,
appear some Hindoo girls, each clothed in white
and carrying on her head a vase of classic shape —

334 BOMBAY:

real goddesses descended from Olympus, dis~
guised as simple mortals. The dervish, that
scourge of native society, with his ill-favoured"
countenance, spiteful look, and shaggy 'hair and^
clad with nothing but a few rags to hide his
nakedness, is gliding among the busy 'crowd of
men of every race and every creed. This multi-
tude, now blocked by bullock-carts, now hustled
back by the smart carriages of European mer-
chants, surges to and fro between two rows of
houses built of painted or carved wood-work, and
in front of temples great and small, with their
grotesque idols displayed on their facades^
These sanctuaries are not shut in by walls, but
stand with their doors opening on to the street,
and devotees can go freely in and out. Verily,,
the old gods still reign supreme! The spirit of
Christianity has not yet prevailed over this form
of civilisation, which, though less perfect, is more
ancient than our own. They are like two streams
that meet, cross and dash against each other^
but never mingle.

Through the British Empire, 1 886, Vol. II.

pp,9-I2,

AN ANTHOLOGY. 335,

The Jubilee Illuminations, 1887

The late Lady Brassey.

In a pleasant, informal way, we wepe-^told
off to carriages from which to seeiThe illumi-
nations, an escort of cavalry and of the body-
guard being provided to prevent, as far as
possible, our small procession being broken up by
the crowd. In the suburbs the illuminations were
general but simple in design. There was a more
pretentious display in front of the Veterihary
Hospital, consisting of transparent pictures of
horses and cows. This hospital was established
by Sir Dinshaw Manockjee Petit, one of the lar-
gest mill-owners of Bombay, who has received
the honour of knighthood as a Jubilee gift.

Presently the crowd became more numerous,
and began to run alongside the carriages, shout-
ing, and carrying blue lights', a compliment with
which we could well have dispensed; for the
smoke, the clouds of powder which they occasion-
ally threw into the air, the dust raised as they
rushed along, and the general heat and want of
air in the narrow streets, had a stifling effect.
The illuminations were not only artistically
beautiful, but afforded a proof that members of
every religion and class had united to do honour to
their Sbvereign. Among the most striking build-
ings were a Mahomedan Mosque, the lines of
which were clearly defined against the starlit
sky by rows of pure white lanterns ; a Hindoo
temple, where court within court was lighted in a

336 BOMBAY:

simple and effective manner by butties filled with
cocoa-nut oil ; and several Jain temples brightly-
illuminated with coloured lights. In the native
quarter the houses were lighted up in the peculiar
Indian fashion by chandeliers suspended from
the windows or across the streets — perhaps the
most wonderful part of the scene.

After driving through the crowded streets we
proceeded to the Apollo Bunder — now officially
called the Wellington Pier — to witness the illumi-
nation of the harbour and the grand display of
fireworks. The harbour, with its thousands and
thousands of twinkling lights, was a sight to be
remembered. Even the little ' Sunbeam,' though
somewhat over-shadowed by the huge ' Bac-
chante', displayed with good effect a row of
coloured lights from stem to stern.

As we drove home we much admired the illu-
mination of the public gardens on Malabar Hill.
The name 'Victoria' was written in lines of fire
on its steep slopes, and was reflected with beauti-
ful effect in the still waters of the bay below.

Last Voyage of the Sunbeam, 1889, pp. 62-64.

Gay Street of a Century Ago

'* Adventures of Qui Hi .? "

After a little drink and talk,
They ask our youth to have a walk ;
" They're only going for a spree,
" An hour or two to Dungaree "

AN ANTHOLOGY. 337

They told Qui Hi that they were sure,
He could not solitude endure ;
Begg'd him to go along with them,
And they would shew him famous game.
Then said — " my boy ! come let's be off ;
" At all events, we'll have a laugh."

The moon majestically rose.

And did all Dungaree disclose

To Qui Hi's view, who thought the

change
Of prospect was as new as strange ;
For now our youth conceiv'd he'd got
Transported to some magic spot.
Where midst a wood of toddy trees.
Fairies and sprites, and fiends he sees.
Now here and there a female imp —
A police peon — perhaps a — , —
Chasing the dingy queens of beauty.
In execution of their duty :
And now a tar, hard in the wind,
For fighting, or for love inclin'd,
Come in the rear, and, with a blow,
Lays one of Goodwin's Sepoys low;
Then follows up the victory,
And all the vanquish'd sepoys fly.
Now from a darken'd corner ran,
A grave, religious, married man.
Who fancied in the woods to range,
And left his turtle for a change.
Here serious characters resort,
And quit domestic broils, for sport.

338 BOMBAY:

Qui Hi determin'd to retreat,

Nor for his new found friends would"

wait ;
But to his tent he slyly creeps,
Gets into bed, and soundly sleeps.

Adventures of Qui Hi? by Quiz, i8i6, pp. 214-216.

A Sea of Turbans

Madame Blavatsky.

The hall was full of natives. We four alone
were representatives of Europe. Like a huge
flower bed, the women displayed the bright
colours of their garments. Here and there^
among handsome, bronze-like heads, were the
pretty, dull white faces of Parsee women, whose
beauty reminded me of the Georgians. The
front rows were occupied by women only. In
India it is quite easy to learn a person's religion,
sect, and caste, and even whether a women is
married -or single, from the marks painted in
bright colours on everyone's forehead.

The Parsee women could only be distinguish-
ed from their Hindu sisters by very slight
differences. The almost white faces of the for-
mer were separated by a strip of smooth black
hair from a sort of white cap, and the whole was
covered with a bright veil. The latter wore no
covering on their rich, shining hair, twisted into
a kind of Greek chignon. Their foreheads were
brightly painted, and their nostrils adorned with

AN ANTHOLOGY. 339

golden rings. Both are fond of bright, but uni-
form, colours, both cover their arms up to the
elbow with bangles, and both wear saris.

Behind the women a whole sea of most won-
derful turbans was waving in the pit. There
were long-haired Rajputs with regular Grecian
features and long beards parted in the middle,
their heads covered with " pagris" consisting of,
at least twenty yards of finest white muslin, and
their persons adorned with earrings and neck-
laces ; there were Mahratha Brahmans, who shave
their heads, leaving only one long central lock,
and wear turbans of blinding red, decorated in
front with a sort of golden horn of plenty ; Ban-
gas, wearing three-cornered helmets with a kind
of cockscomb on the top ; Kachhis, with Roman
helmets ; Bhills, from the borders of Rajastan,
whose chins are wrapped three times in the ends
of their pvramidal turbans, so that the innocent
tourist never fails to think that they constantly
suffer from toothache; Bengalis and Calcutta
Babus, bareheaded all the year round, their hair
cut after an Athenian fashion, and their bodies,
clothed in the proud folds of a white togo-virilis
in no way different from those once w^orn by Ro-
man senators ; Parsees, in their black, oil-cloth
mitres ; Sikhs, the followers of Nanak, strictly
monotheistic and mystic, whose turbans are very
like the Bhills', but who wear longhair down to
their waists ; and hundreds of other tribes.
From the Caves and Jungles of Hindustan, 1892,

pp. 3S-40.

340 BOMBAY:

Sonapur: The City of the Dead

Louis Rousselet.

But behind this screen of palms what a
change of scene may be witnessed ! It is there, on
the damp seashore, that past generations are
reposing — the Mussulman, under his stone behind
the poor European, who, blighted in his hopes,
has never been permitted again to see his
native land.

Numerous are the tombs of our countrymen
who sleep beneath the shade of these palm-trees,
their names effaced by the parasitic plants, just
as is all remembrance of them in the land to
which they have been conveyed. Death comes
so quickly in India that every one thinks only of
himself, and forgets those who are no more.
The crosses are thrown down, the stones broken ;
such is the aspect of these scenes of desolation,
over which the rich and charitable nature of the
tropics has been kind enough to throw a mantle
of flowers. Nothing can be more beautiful than
this immense and silent City of the Dead ; the
foaming waves contest with them their tombs,
and every year gives up some of them to be
engulfed in the deep.

During the searches I made to discover the
tomb of poor Jacquemont, I used to contemplate
this sheet of water and its extensive westward
horizon — that quarter to which every European in
this country turns when he thinks of home. Assur-
edly, if the dead rise from their graves, as

AN ANTHOLOGY. 341

legends aver, they have a spectacle as sublime
and as melancholy as they can desire. The spot
where our brave fellow-countryman Jacquemont
reposes is marked by a simple stone, on which
may with some difficulty be read his name. The
martyr of science, he has come to the end of his
travels on the shores of this ocean, which
separated him from the land of his birth.

Not far from the Mussulman cemetery is situ-
ated the field where the bodies of the Hindoos
are burnt to ashes. From a considerable
distance the processions, bearing corpses
placed on open litters, and directing their course
to this point, sufficiently indicate the route you
should follow to reach it. Death has no terrors
for the Hindoo, since for him it is only a change
of existence. The enclosure in which the
funeral piles are erected is situated on the summit
of a lofty terrace of granite, of which the base
is accessible only at low water. The fires form
several ranks in line; on one side are placed the
corpses which are waiting their turn ; on the
other an honest dealer in wood is selling the
necessary combustibles. Do not expect, how-
ever, to find there the slightest symptoms of
meditation. Some are cutting the wood or
arranging the pile; others, sitting on the summit
of the walls, play on their instruments a dismal
strain. The pile being prepared, the relatives
place the corpse upon it, and cover it with small
pieces of wood till it is entirely concealed.
The eldest son, or the nearest relation of the

342 BOMBAY :

deceased, approaches, beating his breast, and
raising lamentable cries. Seizing a torch, he
sets fire to the four corners of the pile ; the flame
rises rapidly, and the attendants augment it by
throwing on oil. Soon the body appears a burn-
ing mass. When all is reduced to ashes, they
water the place, and throw some of the calcined
remains into the sea.

But for the presence of the corpse which
crowns this mortuary trophy, the ceremony itself
presents nothing repulsive, provided always that
one keeps out of reach of the noisome smoke.

India and its Native Princes, 1882, pp. 12-I3.

Hindu Burning-Ground

Lady Burton.

I must albo describe our visit to the Hindu
Samsan or burning ground, in the Sonapur
quarter, where we saw a funeral, or rather a
cremation. The corpse was covered with flowers,
the forehead reddened with sandalwood, and
the mouth blackened. The bier was carried by
several men, and one bore sacred fire in an
earthenware pot. The body was then laid upon
the pyre ; every one walked up and put a little
water in the mouth of the corpse, just as we
throw dust on the coffin; they then piled more
layers of wood on the body, leaving it in the
middle of the pile. Then the relatives, beginning

AN ANTHOLOGY. 343

with the nearest, took burning brands to apply-
to the wood, and the corpse was burned. The
ashes and bones are thrown into the sea. It was
unpleasant, but not nearly so revolting to me as
.the vultures in the Parsee burying-ground. All
the mourners were Hindus except ourselves, and
they stayed and watched the corpse burning.
Shortly the clothes caught fire, and then the feet.
After that we saw no more except a great blaze,
and smelt a smell of roasted flesh, which mingles
with the sandalwood perfume of Bombay. The
Samsan, or burning-ground, is dotted with these
burning-places.

Wilkins' ''The Romance of Isabel Lady Burton"

1897 y page 588.

Walkeswar Village

Lady Falkland.

Near Malabar Point, on the right hand as you
drive towards the compound in which the Gover-
nor's bungalows are situated, is to be seen a
wall and an entrance in it, from which a long
flight of steps leads down apparently to the sea.
The further you proceed the more is your curiosity
excited. Half way down this flight there is a
handsome temple to the right, where I stopped to
sketch a small curiously carved window, and be-
yond are more and more temples, with red-flags,
waving on their roofs. Continuing to descend, I

344 BOMBAY :

found myself in the midst of a small village, full
of life and animation — it was like a dream. The
little town or village, is called Walkeshwur. In
the middle of a large square is a tank, round
which are built temples, houses, and tall white
obelisk-shaped pillars, called deepmals, painted
in parts red and green, on which lamps are
suspended on great festivals, and numbers of
little altars containing the Tulsi plant. Temples
of all sizes and forms are here : there is the lofty
one shaped like a sugar-loaf; here one with a
domed roof, on it a pinnacle and turret, with
similar ones at each corner, and a third elabora-
tely carved, in which are small images of gods in
niches placed in the numerous turrets on the
roof. Then there are flat-roofed temples, and
little square ones, standing about four feet high,
with pointed roofs, and built under trees.

It is a village of temples, full of busy Brah-
mins, and lazy fakirs, who sit on the ground,
under a dirty bit of canvas stretched on four
poles, with a hubble-bubble (a pipe, the smoke of
which is made to pass through a cocoa-nut filled
with water; being an humble imitation of a
hooka) with their long hair twisted round their
heads, and covered with asljes and dirt.

A wall surrounds this little corner of the
island of Bombay on three sides ; towards the
west it is open to the sea. The narrow passages
(for streets they cannot be called) were dark
and gloomy ; on each side were temples, houses>
and dingy walls, with the foliage of tall trees

AN ANTHOLOGY. 345

overshadowing the way, and nearly obscuring
the day-light; and on all sides there were
numbers of mysterious corners, little barred
windows in walls : small, dark inlets here, and
outlets there, so that I almost expected Hunoo-
man ( the monkey-god ) would creep out from
one of them, and Gunputty (the elephant-god )
with his trunk, grin at me, through an open,
carved window in a temple. Every now and then
a Brahmin, in white drapery, flitted by like
a ghost, and religious mendicants slunk along
the wall, looking like spirits from the nether
world.

After passing through this singular town, I
came to a staircase, and when half way up the
numerous steps, I was startled by a cow, driven
by a man — it came ungracefully bustling down;
scared, as all Hindoo cows are, at a European,
it endeavoured to turn back and retrace its steps ;
my servant drove it up, and the owner drove it
down, while I stood oh the low parapet of a wall,
till it was decided which way the animal was to
take, and at last I found myself on the top of
the staircase, and in the world again.

ChoW'Chow, 1857, Vol /, pp. 87-89^

346 BOMBAY :

rialabar Point

Edward Moor.

At the very extremity of a promontory on the
island of Bombay, called Malabar Point, is a
cleft rock, a fancied resemblance of the Yoni, to
which numerous pilgrims and other persons resort
for the purpose of regeneration by the efficacy of
a passage through this sacred type. This Yoni, or
hole, is of considerable elevation, situated among
rocks, of no easy access, and, in the stormy sea-
son, incessantly buffeted by the surf of the ocean.
Near it are the ruins of a temple, that present
appearances warrant us to conclude was formerly
of rather an elegant description. It is said, with
probability, to have been blown up by gunpow-
der, by the pious zeal of the idol-hating Portu-
guese, while Bombay was under their flag. Frag-
ments of well-hewn stone are now seen scatter-
ed over and around its site, having a variety of
images sculptured on their surface : many of
those most useful in building have been carried
away by the Hindus to help their erections in the
neighbouring beautiful Brahman village, its fine
tank, and temples. With the view, neith'^r pious
nor sacrilegious, of discovering to whom this
temple was dedicated. I have particularly
examined its remains ; and, with the help of my
servants, I succeeded in removing the stones and
rubbish from the surface of the ground, and dis-
covering what was buried beneath.

AN ANTHOLOGY. 347

Returning to the cleft, or Yoni, at Malabar
Point, I repeat, that it is a type much resorted to.
When Ragoba(as he is colloquially called, but
more properly Ragonaut Rao; classically spelled
Rhagu-Natha-Raya), the father of the present
Peshwa, Baajy Rao, while exiled from Poona,
was living in Bombay, he fixed his residence on
Malabar hill, where he built a lofty habitable
tower, since removed. He was in the habit
occasionally of passing through the cleft in ques-
tion ;and being a Brahman of considerable piety,
was doubtless much benefited by such regenera-
tion. It is related of Sivaji, the daring founder
of the Mahratha state, that he has been known to
venture secretly on the island of Bombay, at a
time when discovery was ruin, to avail himself
of the benefit of this efficacious transit : this re-
lation is, I believe, in Orme's Fragments, and other
works, but I have them not at hand. Sivaji was a
Mahratha, proving that high and low sects
have faith in this sin-expelling process. Women
also, as well as men, go through this operation ;
and I have witnessed some ridiculous, and indeed,
some embarrassing and distressing scenes in
the unsuccessful efforts of individuals, loaded
either with sin or flesh, or both.

It is necessary to descend some steps on
rugged rocks, and then, by first protruding the
hands, you ascend head first up the hole. After
the feet be lifted from their last support, the
ascent is very difficult, and sometimes impractic-
able: in which case the essayist remains with

34B BOMBAY :

his head and hands exposed to the laughing or
commiserating spectators above ; and it is^
necessary that some one should go below to aid
the disappointed aspirant in his or her descent..
I have several times attempted this regeneration,,
but could never effect it ; although I have often
seen my superiors in bulk, and, I conclude, irt'
skill, as well as faith and good works, performs
it with apparent ease,

Hindu Pantheon, 1 8 10, pp. 307-309.

Tombs Near Love Grove,
Mahaluxmi

Maria Graham.

The Mussulmans have contributed greatly to*-
adorn the cities of India with tombs, whose
magnificence has never been surpassed, and'
though all superstitious reverence for the dead
be strictly forbidden by the Koran, they have-
borrowed from their Hindu subjects much of that
kind of devotion ; and a Pir's hihber, or tomb of
a Mussulman saint, might pass for the shrine of
St. Frideswide or St. Agnes. These buildings,,
in the parts of India I saw, are of very various-
sizes and degrees of beauty ; they have all domes,
under which is the tomb, generally unadorned,,
however rich the superstructure may be. Two of
them at Bombay, one on the point of Love-grove,,
and the other on the rocks close to the sea-shore^

AN ANTHOLOGY, 349

liave an interesting story attached to them. Two
lovers were together in a pleasure-boat, enjoying
the cool breezes of the ocean, when their little
bark struck on a concealed rock and sank ; the
' youth easily got on shore, but finding that his
beloved was still struggling in the waves, he
xeturned to save her, but in vain : the bodies of
both were afterwards drifted to the land, where
they were buried on the different spots on which
they were found. Peculiar reverence is paid to
these kubbers both by Mussulmans and Hindus ;
and I believe that the priest in whose guardian-
ship they are, makes no small profit of the offer-
flngs made to the manes of the unfortunate lovers.

Letters on India, 1814, pp. 321 to 322.

Bombay Buildings

Sir Richard Temple.

The objects of beauty in Indian art, and
especially of architecture, are equal to those in
nature, like gems set in gold, where the jewels
are worthy of their setting.

For a long time the British Government con-
tributed little or nothing to the category of
national architecture. Indeed, the style of many
British structures was so erroneous or defective
-as to exercise a debasing influence on the minds
of those Natives, who might be induced to admire

350 BOMBAY :

or imitate it as being the production of a domi-
nant, and presumably a more civilized race.
Most of the early buildings erected under British
rule were, and many of the recent buildings still
are, of a plain and uncouth fashion architectur-
ally, however useful or commodious they may be
practically. Of late years the Government has
moved in an aesthetic direction, and at Calcutta^,
Madras and Bombay, fine edifices have sprung^
up in which the Gothic, Italian and Saracenic
styles have been adapted with much taste and
skill to the necessities of the East. A department
of architecture has been established, from
which the Native princes are beginning ta
obtain artistic designs for their palaces, col-
leges and civil structures.

At Bombay, along the shore of the bay^
there is a long line of stately piles befitting a
capital city in any country of the world, some
of which were designed by Sir Gilbert Scott.
The view of them as seen from Malabar HilU
with the blue sea before them, the city on
their flank, the harbour behind them, the several
ranges of Koncan hills in the distance, and the
Western Ghat mountains bounding the horizon,
has often been compared with the scenery of the
Bay of Naples. It probably would rival the
Neapolitan scenery, if only there were the
transparent atmosphere and azure sky of the
Mediterranean.

Many of the largest public works under
British rule, though not designed for artistic

AN ANTHOLOGY. 351

effect, do yet incidentally present a very hand^
some appearance and have surroundings fraught
with interest. For example, the Bhor Ghat
incline, between Bombay and Poona, where the
railway ascends the Ghat range to a height of
nearly 2000 feet, has very fine scenery in the
rainy season, when the thunderclouds are blown
away by the wind and display the precipitous
and wooded mountain-sides, streaked in all
directions with rain-swollen torrents, which
leap in many series of cascades from the crests
to the bases of the precipices. This spectacle,
when seen to full advantage, is admitted by all
railway travellers to be one of the most remark-
able in the Empire.

India in 1880, pp. 23-24.

NOTABLE EVENTS

NOTABLE EVENTS

The Royal Visit, 1911:
An Interesting Episode

Dr. Stanley Reed.
There is a favourite expression of Mr. Pepys
that is the only fit description to apply to the
great concourse of children that was massed on
the Maidan : it was " as pretty a sight as ever
I saw." Twenty-six thousand children in their
best clothes, and all happy ! It was a sight
that one would go far to see, and that one will
long remember. They began to assemble before
the violet grey mists of dawn had disappeared
and they continued to arrive in little companies
up till about 8-30, and as they came each
company was directed to its allotted position —
some in the Stadium where the seats formed
a semi-circular background to the picture,
others on each side of the avenue left clear for
the King's carriage to drive from the Gymkhana
into the Exhibition. It was a fine piece of orga-
nisation. Mr. Cadell and his Committee seem
to have acquired the Pied Piper's facility for
leading children where they will, but with what
patience and labour they acquired that knack
they only know : however, their weeks of drud-
gery were fruitful of a splendid result. As the

356 BOMBAY :

assembled host waited, there was no lack of
entertainment for them. A military band played
to them, and four Pipers of the Cameron High-
landers delighted them with their magnificence
and their music. Occasionally as the day grew
older there was a false report that the King was
coming, and the arrival of H. E. the Governor
and Lady Clarke was the signal for a cheer
which started near the gateway, gradually spread
over the whole mass, and finally developed into a
paroxysm of cheering that lasted for seve-
ral minutes.

As the Royal Procession drove on to the
ground by the Gymkhana gateway, the cheers of
the children again broke out with renewed force
and were maintained for so long that the singing
of " God Save the King," in English, was almost
inaudible until near the close. This unrehearsed
effect was probably unavoidable, as the problem
of enforcing silence on so large a gathering of
excited children was too difficult to face. But
during the singing of the Gujarati Anthem, the
cheers, except in the Stadium, had subsided
though occasionally they were heard again.

While this singing was going on the children
in the background in addition to cheering waved
the flags with which most of them had been pro-
vided. The flags in most cases were blue en-
signs, on which were portraits of the King and
Queen, and the appearance of these thousands of
uplifted flags was very remarkable. The child-

AN ANTHOLOGY. 357

ren in their dense masses and groups of colour
were like what gardeners call " carpet bedding,"
but when their flags appeared the floral nature of
the scene was more clearly defined than ever. It
was like a sheet of bluebells as one sees them on a
late spring morning in an English copse ruffled
with the wind. Here and there a white ensign
gleamed a speck of white, like a wood anemone
half strangled in its growth by the stouter wild
hyacinth. And all this mass of gorgeous colour
was constantly in motion swaying backwards and
forwards, rippling and flowing before the eyes of
the dazzled onlooker.

After the National Anthem had thus been
sung in many tongues came the singing and
dancing of the Garbi. The form of the dance
defies description. It is first of all a song to
which the dancing and gestures are subsidiary.
And the song is a song of triumph, of welcome,
and of blessing. For the singing an immense
amount of energy is required. The circles wheel
and turn, hands are uplifted and gracefully waved
in benediction, one gesticulation succeeds another.
Now the dance seems modelled on the Lancers
or on Plaiting the Maypole, as the girls go in and
out of the chain ; and now it seems to be deriv-
ed from what one supposes to have been the
evolutions of a Greek chorus circling with
stately tread round the altar of Dionysus, It is a
swirling mass of colour as the girls turn and
bend clapping their hands in rhythmic beat.

358 BOMBAY :

Some of them carry bright, shining lotas which
glitter in the sun. The dance ended, the dam-
sels withdrew, and the symbols round which
they had danced were removed. In the Sta-
dium a display of daylight fire-works, more
noisy than spectacular, was begun and Their
Majesties and suite drove through the crowds
of children into the Exhibition.

The King and Queen in India, 79/2, pp. 51-56.

Reception of The Prince and Princess
of Wales, 1905

Dr. Stanley Reed.

The drive from the Apollo Bunder to Govern-
ment House carried the Prince and Princess
through the most characteristic scenes in the
civic life of Bombay. First through the modern
town that has grown up beyond the line of the
old ramparts and upon land filched from the sea —
a quarter distinguished by its broad boulevards
and splendid architecture; then through the
densely populated native town ; and finally,
touching the hem of the mill district, to the shady
slopes of Malabar Hill, where the wealthy of all
communities love to dwell. As the Royal. cortege
moved off at a walk from the Bunder, as far as
the eye could range stretched a splendid array
of nodding plumes and flashing swords and
dancing pennons, helmet and turban, horse and

AN ANTHOLOGY. 359

artillery. Each balcony and window was bright
with keen eyes and animated faces, with gay
frocks, and brilliant saris. Behind the stolid
ranks of the Infantry was wedged a mass of
humanity, clad in the variegated, yet always
graceful colours of the East. As the shrill notes
of the bugle gave the signal to advance, every
verandah and vantage-point broke into a flutter-
ing kaleidoscope of handkerchiefs and flags,
and from ten thousand throats rose a joyous cry
•of welcome an earnest outpouring of the deep
spring of loyalty which exists in every true
heart, and welled over at the advent of the heir
to the British throne.

Through scenes such as these Their Royal
Highnesses passed the handsome Home which
Khande Rao of Baroda built to shelter the
-seamen of the port, in commemoration of the
visit of the Duke of Edinburgh, the fountain
which preserves Bombay's connection with the
Duke of Wellington, to the floral trophy erected
to the name of the greatest of her Governors, Sir
Bartle Frere. Here, in the heart of the modern
city, the Koli fishermen had bridged the road
with a scroll, fringed with emblems of the Sacred
Fish, and bearing this inscription : "The Koli
•early settlers greet the Prince and Princess of
Wales under the Sacred Fish Banner"--a reminder
of th3 day when the Island of Bombaim was
peopled only by hardy flsher folk whose rude
huts clustered under the palm trees. Nor could
the trading in-itincts of the enterprising peoples

360 BOMBAY:

permit them to miss the opening for a little cheap
advertisement. One small shopkeeper improved
the occasion by allowing his loyal message "God
bless the Prince and Princess of Wales, Long^
live our Noble King" artfully to lead to this
announcement, " Further reductions at the popular
sale expressly for the Royal visit." Another in-
dividual wished his *' Royal patrons " long life
at an expenditure of much red paint and white
calico, and delicately reminded them that his
wares were "of English make, as supplied ta
Queen Alexandra." But though the expression
was occasionally quaint, the sentiment was
unmistakeable. A continuous roar of welcome
greeted the Royal carriage as soon as it was
discerned, the school-children, massed on giant
stands, joining their shrill trebles — a reception
the more remarkable because the Oriental is not
commonly given to vocal expression and express-
es his greeting by reverential salaams.

Alone among the modern cities of India
Bombay reproduces the character and charm of
the older centres of population. The native town
is no mere desert of dull, unattractive, squalid
barracks. The houses ascend four, five and . six
storeys, their facades are broken with airy
balconies enriched with graceful carving and
painted all colours of the rainbow. Indeed, the
most populous streets bear a far closer resem-
blance to those of Amritsar and Lahore than to
anything in the other towns that have grown up
under British rule, and they are always crowded

AN ANTHOLOGY. 361

with representatives of every race in Asia. Here^
in the decorations, the oriental love of colour
ran riot. Emerald and orange, crimson and
azure, everywhere met the eye, and were flashed
back from the crowds who thronged the streets
and studded even the house-tops in their gayest
attire. At every stage one was reminded of the
wide variety of races who coalesce into the
population of this many-tongued city. The Par-
sis welcomed Their Royal Highnesses as they
passed the fire-temple with these words : " Parsis
pray that the consecrated fire of the heart of
the British Empire may burn bright and flourish
for ever." The emancipated women-folk of this
community broke the garishness of the street
decorations with a vision of silks of the most
delicate hues. The Jains exhibited the temple
insignia usually exposed only on festival days.
The Marwaris ofi^ered prayers at the Mumbadevi
temple for the safe-keeping of the Prince and
Princess, and here the temple girls were massed,
robed in accordion-pleated skirts like those of
an Empire ballerina and loaded with jewels.

In the Bhendy Bazaar, which ranks with
the Chandni Chowk of Delhi and the Burra
Bazaar of Calcutta as one of the famous high-
ways of the Orient, the clash of races was in-
describable. The giant Afridi, who sniped the
Sirkar's troops in '97 and has just settled an
old blood feud, jostled the mild Hindu. The
Arab in his brown hunwus e\bo'wed the fair Parsi*
Mahomedan and Chinaman, Sindis in their

362 BOMBAY:

inverted "toppers," and jet black negroes rubbed
shoulders in their desire to greet the Emperor's
son, whilst the storeyed houses rippled with the
chatter and the gay saris of the women of a dozen
nationalities. Passing from the Bhendy Bazaar,
the Moslems welcomed the Royal visitors with
this graceful reference to Queen Alexandra: —

" Son of a Sea King's daughter over the sea
We Moslems welcome thee ! "

On the fringe of the mill district the operatives
were massed in tens of thousands. A sharp turn
brought the procession from this, the least attrac-
tive part of Bombay, to the snores of the bay
which is the natural glor}^ of the city. Here
school-children cheered in piping treble and
waved their little flags. Breasting the slope of
Malabar Hill the horses soon passed into the
leafy shade of the avenue to Government House,
where Lord Lamingtonand Lady Ampthill — who
acted as hostess in the absence from India of
Lady Lamington — received the Prince and
Princess.

Royal Tour in India, 1906, pages ig~2i.

AN ANTHOLOGY. 363

Golden Jubilee Celebrations
in Bombay, 1887

The late Lady Brassey.

Four o'clock of the morning of February l6th
i^ound me in the verandah outside our bungalow
listening to the roaring of the cannon, which
ushered in the day on which was to be celebrated
in India the Jubilee of Victoria, its Queen and
Empress. The hours are early here, and at a
-quarter to eight Lady Reay, Captain Gordon,
Tom [Lord Brassey] and I started to ' assist' at
the grand ceremony at the Town Hall, followed
later by the Governor and his aides-de-camp. As
we neared the city the crowd became greater,
•everyone being dressed in holiday attire, and all
-apparently in a great state of enthusiasm and
excitement. It looked like a many-tinted bed of
flowers; for the Parsee ladies, unlike their
Mahomedan and Hindoo sisters, have no dislike
to display their toilettes in public, and are always
clad in the gayest colours, arranged with perfect
taste. The only specially distinctive mark in
their costume is a rather unbecoming white band
<lrawn tightly over the brow. In many cases,
however, this had been judiciously pushed back
^o far as nearly to disappear under the bright-
-coloured silk sari which only partly concealed
their jet-black and glossy tresses.

Near the Town Hall the scene became still
'more animated, and the applause of the multi-
tude, though much more subdued in tone than the

364 BOMBAY :

roar of an Ehglish crowd, was quite as enthusias-
tic. The men from H. M. S. Bacchante lined
the approaches to the building, and the Bombay
Volunteers acted as a giiard-of-honour. We were
ushered into the gallery, where chairs were plac-
ed for Lady Reay and myself close to the Gover-
nor's throne. The sight from this 'coign of van-
tage' was indeed imposing. Immediately in
front stretched a fine flight of steps, covered with
red cloth, and crowded with European and native
officials in every variety of costume. The ap-
proach to the steps was through a pretty garden,,
where the wealth of tropical vegetation was set
off by flags and gaily coloured banners. A dense
crowd of natives ringed this enclosure round,
whilst lofty houses, their gaily draped balconies
and windows filled with bright and happy faces,,
made a brilliant background. Presently the
Governor was seen approaching, escorted by his
own body-guard and a company of mounted
Volunteers (now called the Bombay Light Horse)^
who looked very picturesque and soldierlike as
they dashed through the crowd. All dismounted
at the west entrance to the garden, where a pro-
cession was formed, at the head of which the
Governor advanced and, amid a flourish of trum-
pets, took his stand in front of the throne to
receive the addresses and telegrams presented
by, or on behalf of, various classes of the com-
munity in the Bombay Presidency.

The Governor's replies to the addresses were
most happy, and evidently touched the feelings.

AN ANTHOLOGY. 365

of his hearers. As he uttered his final words
two young middies, perched on a dangerous-
looking corner Of the parapet, scrambled on to
the roof, and, at a given signal, smartly unfurled
an immense Royal- Standard, amid the thunder
of an imperial salute of lOl guns. The effect of
the whole scene was deeply impressive, as well
as suggestive. I have seen many ceremonies
both at home and abroad, but never one more
picturesque or of more thrilling interest.

From the Town Hall we went, still in proces-
sion, to the Cathedral, which stands close to the
Elphinstone Garden, where a musical service
was held. 'God save the Queen' was magnificent-
ly rendered, and the two specially written
verses which were added to the National An-
them were most effective.

Last Voyage of the Sunbeam, 1889, pp. 58-61.

Landing of King Edward VII
as Prince of Wales, in Bombay, 1875

Sir William Howard Russell.

The cannon spoke, the crews aloft cheered,
bands played, marines and guards of honour on
deck presented arms, officers saluted as the
Royal Standard passed each man of war, and
from all the shipping uprose a mighty shout.

366 BOMBAY:

The Prince's barge was preceded by boats bear-
ing the members of the suite, who had to land
before him. Looking back from one of these^,
a noble pageant, lighted up by the declining sun,
met the eye— the hulls of the fleet, bright streamers-
and banners, long rows of flags from yard to
yard and mast to mast, white boats, a flotilla or
steam-launches, gigs, pinnaces, and a crowd of
onlookers hastening fast as oar could send thenrr
in wake of the Royal barge to the Dockyard.

The flotilla sped on shorewards. A vast
triumphal arch, spanning the waterway between^
two piers, but gay with banners, branches and*
leaves, and with decorations of palm and cocoa-
nut, appeared in front of us. It could not be-
imagined that this dockyard stair in its norma!
state was one of the most commonplace and ugly
of landings. But it had now not only been
decked out with all the resources of art, which in
this land are various and fantastic, but there was
assembled beneath its great span perhaps the most
strange and picturesque assemblage ever seen or
late days in any part of the world. On each side
of the way, under the vaulted roof, were long-
lines of benches rising in tiers, draped with scar-
let cloth. This material was also laid down on
the avenue to the gate, a hundred yards away,
where the carriages were waiting. In the front
rows sat or stood, in eager expectance. Chiefs,
Sirdars, and native gentlemen of the Presidency,
multitudes of Parsees, rows of Hindoos, Mahrat-
tas, and Mahomedans dressed in their best —

AN ANTHOLOGY: ^ 367

which was oftenest their simplest, — a crowd glit-
tering with gems and presenting, as they swayed
to and fro to catch sight of the Prince, the
appearance of bright enamel, or of a bed of gay
flowers agitated by a gentle breeze — the officers,
of the Government, the Corporation with its
address, the Municipal body of Bombay, and the
naval and military officers who could be spared,
representatives of the faculties, corporate bodies,,
dignitaries, and all the ladies who could be
found within the radius of some hundreds of
miles, and who had hastened to greet the Prince
with their best smiles and bonnets. An abun-
dance of sweet-smelling flowers, many of rarity„
was displayed in pots along the avenue, and
others commingled with shrubs of new forms
were arranged in masses near the entrance, —
banners hung from the roof, — words of "Wel-
come," in various characters were inscribed in
gold over the entrance.

The Prince of Wales ' Tour 1875-6,

pp. 115-116. (1877}^

Bombay's Reception of
King Edward VII

Sir W. Howard Russell.

The impression produced by the aspect of the
streets can scarcely be conveyed in any form of
words; certainly if one were to try to set the
sights down on paper, he might well be puzzled.

368 BOMBAY :

He would have to ^ive an account of every yard
of the many miles through which the Prince
passed, each presenting extraordinary types of
dress and effects of colour. There was something
almost supernatural in those long vistas winding
down banks of variegated light, crowded with
gigantic creatures tossing their arms aloft, and
indialging in extravagant gesture, which the eye —
baffled by rivers of fire, blinded with the glare
of lamps, blazing magnesium wire, and pots of
burning matter — sought in vain to penetrate. For
the most part the streets indulge in gentle curves,
and as the carriages proceeded slowly, new
effects continually opened up, and fresh surprises
came upon one, from point to point, till it was a
relief to close the eyes out of sheer satiety, and
to refuse to be surprised any more. After seve-
ral miles of these melodramatic effects, no won-
der there was an inclination to look for one wel-
come little patch of darkness to receive us in its
grateful recesses ere ths night was over. Certain-
ly it was a spectacle worth going far to see — the
like of it will never probably be seen again. This
is generally said of any spectacle of any unusual
magnificence, or of extraordinary grandeur; but
taking it all in all, I believe that very few who
witnessed the sight would care to miss it, or to
go through it all once more. To the spectators,
no doubt, the passage of the cortege of the
Prince, who was the central point on which all
eyes turned, presented an absorbing attraction.
But it was a pleasure which lasted but for a

AN ANTHOLOGY. 369

Tnomsnt, for the carriage was soon out of sight ;
and then silence gave way to the noisy inter-
change of ideas as to what had been seen, for
there was no certainty among the mass of
natives respecting the Prince's place in the
procession. To those who were passing
between these animated banks of human
beings, there came at last an ennui, and
a sense of sameness, although, as I have
said, every single yard of the way was
marked by many distinctive types. Who could
take them all in ? Windows filled with Parsee
women — matrons, girls, and children — the bright
hues of whose dresses, and the brilliancy
of whose jewels, emulated the coloured fires
burning along the pavement — scarcely attracted
one's notice before it was challenged by
the next house filled with a crowd of devout
Mahommedans, or by a Hindoo temple
opposite, with its Brahmins and its votaries
on steps and roof ; flanked appropriately
by a Jew Bazaar, or by an Armenian store,
or by the incongruity of a European warehouse ;
or was solicited by the grotesque monitors on a
Jain Temple. For if the changes in the chess-
board are so numerous as to furnish matter for
■profoundest calculations, the extraordinary varie-
ties of race and population in Bombay present
endless subjects for study, to which only one
thing was now wanting — adequate time. Night
had long fallen ; at last the whisper came from
the front and ran down the line — "We are nearly

370 BOMBAY:

at home," and Parell received the Prince with all
due honour, the most illustrious of the many
guests who have been sheltered under the roof of
the old Jesuit convent.

The Prince of Wales' Tour 1875-6, pages 122-124..

Welcome to The Duke of
Edinburgh, 1870

Dr. John Wilson.

We all deeply sympathise with the object of
his [The Governor's] absence, that of welcoming,
along with our distinguished Viceroy, the Earl of
Mayo, and the other magnates of this great
country, the second son of our most Gracious and
Illustrious Queen Victoria to the shores of India..
We ourselves ( I venture to speak not only for
this large assembly, but for the whole of the
West of India ) most cordially join in that wel-
come. We, the dwellers on "Cambay's strand,""
unite our most cordial felicitations with those of
our fellow-subjects sojourning near " Ganges'"
golden wave " on the arrival, in this distant
land, of our Sailor Prince, who is gracefully
carrying the expression of the imperial and per-
sonal interest of her Majesty in all her subjects
to the remotest places of the globe. We go-
further than this, and humbly beg His Royal
Highness to spare as much time as he con-
veniently can for this most populous and rapidl3r

AN ANTHOLOGY. 371

growing city, with its numerous and diversified
tribes and tongues congregated together, with
its capacious and beautiful harbour, with a
commerce the most valuable of the " Greater
Britain," needing the protection of the Royal
Navy, with most curious and instructive antiqui-
ties within easy reach, seme of which extend
back beyond the Christian era, and with the most
picturesque and sublime scenery in its neighbour-
ing isles, hills, and mountains.

Convocation Address, 1870, page 47.

The Bombay Riots of 1874 :
A Remarkable Episode

James Maclean.

On Monday, the l6th February, the sun again
rose upon an excited city. As some of the See-
dees and Mahomedans who died on Sunday were
expected to be taken from the Jamsetjee Hospi-
tal and buried by their friends, the Parsees looked
forward to another riot, and indeed the most
exciting circumstance that occurred on this day
was the burial of an old Mussulman named Hajee
Ahmed. We take the following account of this
remarkable affair from the Bombay Gazette.
While it is interesting in the details given of
what actually took place, it is also highly expres-
sive of the state into which Bombay had
been plunged: —

372 BOMBAY :

Shortly after our visit to the Jamsetjee Jejee-
bhoy Hospital on Sunday, Hajee Ahmed and
two of the mangled unknown Seedees died. Hajee
Ahmed is the old man who was found lying in-
sensible on the road near Sonapore with his
fractured jaw hanging down upon his chest. We
thought when we saw him gasping, that the
world would hear no more of Hajee Ahmed than
that he was one of the victims of the Sonapore
Riot, but he has been fated to have a wider fame
after death than during life. The " unknown "
Seedees died unknown, and having no friends in
Bombay were quietly bestowed in the usual way
of unknown corpses that make their exit from
the Jejeebhoy Hospital; but to Hajee Ahmed
was reserved the notoriety of having the most
extraordinary funeral ever seen in Bombay. The
poor little old Mussulman, whose age and feeble-
ness make it probable that he met his death-
wound not when he was an active rioter but
when he was a real mourner who had been
hustled into the midst of the melee, has had a
greater procession at his funeral than the most
famous that ever died in this city. Hajee Ahmed
when alive was nobody ; dead, his name will
become a household word in the Mussalman
community. He was followed to his grave by
hundreds of his community; by a Commissioner
of Police and many Superintendents and In-
spectors belonging to that body ; by police on foot
and on horseback ; by a regiment of native
soldiery. And after he was laid in the earth, the

AN ANTHOLOGY. 373

fact was marked by the presence in the principal
streets of a Brigadier-General, several compa-
nies of European infantry, and a diminutive
detachment of native cavalry. " Like Hajee
Ahmed's funeral" may well become a synonym
with Bombay Mussulmans for something
very grand.

The men, whom Mr. Souter employs to feel the
native pulse, reported to him on Monday morning
that the Mussulman community — at» least the
Soonee portion of it — were very excited about
Hajee's death, and proposed to follow his body
to Sonapore grave-yard in large numbers. They
also said it was t)\eir belief that the excitement
at the funeral would be so great that an attack
upon the Parsees in revenge for the old man's
murder was as likely an event as not. Mr. Souter
at once asked the Brigadier-General for the
assistance of the military and before two o'clock
the precautionary measures were taken.

The relatives of Hajee Ahmed had gathered
in the vicinity of the Jamsetjee Hospital at an
early hour and began to clamour for his body.
But permission to remove it was denied until the
result of Mr. Souter's negotiations for a military
force were known. The multitude swayed about
impatiently and at half past one the nearest
relative of the Hajee went W Mazagon Police
Office and asked Mr. Edginton to grant his per-
mission to remove the body. The Soonee, however,
had just to wait until the news arrived that the

374 BOMBAY :

military precautions were complete, which it did,
as we have said, about two o'clock. The body
was soon taken out of the ward, and mounted on
a bier borne by a number of willing shoulders.
At sight of this the assemblage raised a mourn-
ful sound, and the bier with its simple covering
of a white spotted red piece of cotton became an
object of the most reverend attention. At a
signal the funeral procession fell in, but very
quietly there moved along with it a number of .
persons who were not exactly mourners. In front
marched a number of sepoys and one or two
Police Superintendents while closing in the rear
came a small body of police and then a small
body of the 2lst Regiment; and at a short dist-
ance further off came a couple of companies of
the 2lst Regiment, under Lieutenant-Colonel
Macleod and Captain Becke. The mourners
round the bier leaped and cried and beat their
heads; the police marched quietly on; the
military's fixed bayonets glittered as they moved ;
a Police Superintendent on horseback darted
suddenly to this side or to that, at each rush
making a crowd of loungers fly; and so the pro-
cession moved up Bhendy Bazar. It turned down
towards Null Bazar, where the number of mourn-
ers, or pretended mourners became considerably
larger, and as this place is the notorious haunt
of Bombay ruffian3om, the character of the pro-
cession as to respectability was increased by the
addition. The Police Superintendents galloped
here and there, but their enthusiasm could not

AN ANTHOLOGY. 375

-alter the fact of thousands of people clustering
on the foot-path or craning their necks over the
windows of the houses. A short halt was made
near the Null Bazar, during which the military
split into lines and guarded the road.

When the procession moved on again, it
turned down a narrow lane called AH Oomer
Street, the quaint architecture of the wooden and
^reen, blue, yellow, and even red houses in which
shared attention with the motley character of
its residents. In this street Hajee Ahmed's
house was situated and collected near it there
must have been five hundred people. The cries
of the mourners echoed through the street and
continued till the bier disappeared beneath the
deceased's doorway, in front of which a rough
mat was hung. The bier reappeared covered
with the same old piece of cotton and everybody
who had been squatting on the road rose to his
feet, and soon the procession was formed again.
It would be difficult to describe the appearance
of the funeral party and their military accompani-
ments as they moved down between the narrow
defiles of streets, gazed upon by thousands of
people from roofs, verandahs, and windows.
The combined murmur of the huge surging crowd,
the shouts of the mourners, the yells of the
sowars as they wheeled about and drove back
with their batons too curious half-dressed people
who were crowding in upon the bier; the steady
tramp of the military, all made up on effect
beyond description. At Bapu Khote Street a

376 BOMBAY :

crowd was waiting which must have numbered
many thousands, but it was prevented from join-
ing the mourners by the European Superinten-
dents, riding in among the people and driving
them back. In Bhoiwada street, where the
narrowness of the road extenuated the procession
considerably, the windows in the high houses
were filled with Hindoo men and women specta-
tors. Frequent halts had to be made, during
which the Commissioner of Police rode among
the mourners and warned them against breaking
the peace.

At the end of this road, where Bhuleshwar
Temple, half hidden by cocoanut trees rises on
an eminence, which was on this occasion crowd-
ed by Hindoos even down to the verge of the
shimmering tank, the procession became slightly
unsteady, and a halt had to be made for a short
time ; but in a few minutes the mourners had
again room to leap about and scream and beat
their heads and breasts, and the procession
moved onwards past the Roman Catholic chapel
and then into the Agiary Lane — the abode of
Parsees, and therefore looked upon with some
anxiety by the authorities. The procession moved
on through the dreaded Agiary Lane. In
front of the Dady Sett Fire Temple, round
which a good deal of Sunday's rioting
raged, a small company of soldiers and police
was stationed, but the Mussulmans showed
no disposition whatever to offer violence
to the edifice and went on with their noisy chant

AN ANTHOLOGY. 377

of grief round Hajee's body. At the entrance to
the Sonapore gully, which was the scene of
another of Sunday's free fights, a number of
police and military were drawn up. A temporary
halt was made, during which the Commissioner
of Police and Superintendent Mills rode down
the narrow stinking place to see whether the
Parsee residents had closed their houses. Not
a single window was found open, and the usually
teeming lane was as quiet as the grave. The
procession turned down the lane, some of the
mourners showing their excitement by extra
furious dancing and singing.

The graveyard has a small gateway, situated
in a dilapidated alley, and for five minutes the
members of the procession streamed through it.
Near the gate a little mosque stands and strikes
the stranger as being more useful than ornamen-
tal, its masonry being alternated with indiffer-
ent specimens of thatching. Here some priests
received the body, and a glimpse of the red bier
could be caught sight of as it appeared across
some archways on its way to the inner recesses
of the edifice. The graveyard round the mosque
surged with excited people, but speedily the
murmur of the crowd was silenced, giving place
to a prayer chanted over the body by the Maho-
medan priests. While further ceremonies were
being performed inside the mosque, the majority
of the crowd dispersed across the graveyard, and
formed parts of groups which stared through the
gateway at the military, whose red coats and

3/8 BOMBAY :

bayonets ornamented the sides of the lane as
far as the eye reached : or squatted on the earth,
and lit their bidees, and joked and laughed as
though the occasion was rather a jolly one than
otherwise. This latter fact indicated, in our
opinion, that a huge proportion of the so-called
mourners had honoured the procession with their
presence simply because some fun was to be
expected.

The burying ground had been reached about
four o'clock, and the body had been within the
mosque for half an hour or so, when it reappear-
ed in the archways, and a signal from a priest
set the people down upon their knees, where
they genuflected for a short time in the direction
of the declining sun after which the bier was
picked up and taken to the place of burial, follow-
ed by a lamenting crowd. While the members
of the procession were absent, a commotion
occurred in one of the lanes adjoining the grave-
yard, but this was from no more alarming cause
than the arrival of two companies of the 2nd
Queen's, who had been conveyed to Churney
Road Station by train from Colaba. The men
were *' as fresh as larks " and their appearance
must have had a considerable moral effect upon
the Mussulmans within the churchyard, who
came to stare at them. They were accompanied
by Brigadier-General Gell and Major Sexton,
while Major Gibbs was the officer in charge of
the detachment. These European troops were
marched through the Parsee quarters and down

AN ANTHOLOGY. 379

to the Bhendy Bazar Road. They had scarcely
<lisappeared round the Sonapore Lane, when the
trampling of horses was heard, and twenty-five
jTien of the 1st Cavalry (His Excellency the
Commander-in-Chief's escort ) rode on to the
ground. Captain Karslake following. They
4)roceeded at once through the parts of the town
where the peace was m-enaced, and their moral
■effect must have been almost as great as that of
ihe European troops.

Soon after this the Mussulmans issued from
the graveyard. They were addressed by a little
man with a turban and a yellow handkerchief
round his waist, after which the procession
moved on towards the town again. They were
perfectly peaceful. True, not a Parsee was to be
-seen on their whole line of march ; but that they
were not very much disposed for rough play was
•sufficiently shown by their quiet demeanour.
They quickly reached the Bhendy Bazar, and
thence dispersed, every man to his own way.
When the crowd had passed through the Agiary
Lane and Sonapore Lane, the hidden Parsees
threw open their doors and windows and the
whole place soon looked as lively as though Hajee
Ahmed's much dreaded funeral had never taken
place. The Parsee community are to be compli-
JTiented for their forbearance on this occasion and
the Mussulmans for their discretion in not risk-
ing a collision with Her Majesty's troops.

The Bombay Riots, 1874, pp. 23-27.

380 BOMBAY :

" Silver Times " in Bombay

Arthur Crawford.

It was about the beginning of the great spe-
culation mania that set in in Bombay in 1862-63 —
a mania beside which, I believe, if facts and
figures were compared, the South Sea Scheme-
would sink into insignificance — that the loafer
came to the front. How many are alive still to
remember those silver times.? When Reclamation^
schemes turned every body's brain-^when ''Back
Bays" fluctuated between twenty and forty-five-
thousand rupe es premium— when "Mazagons" and
"Colabas" followed suit — when there was a new
Bank or a new " Financial " almost every day —
when it was a common thing, in strolling fron>
your office to the dear old Indian Navy Club, to
stop a moment in the seething Share Market
and ask your broker, " well, Mr. B. or Bomanji I
what's doing!" "Oh, Sir! So-and-so Financials
are rising— they say Premchand is buying." ''Ah !
well, just buy me fifty or a hundred shares" (as
your inclination prompted you). You went to
your "tiffin," or luncheon, at that memorable long^
table; you ordered a pint of champagne — no one
ever drank any thing but champagne in those
days — you tried to get as near as possible to
Doctor D. or poor T., the presiding geniuses
of the meal, to obtain an "allotment" of a cer-
tain toast, which T. was justly celebrated for^
Getting this you were filled with exultation, for it
was, and with reason, regarded as the precursor

AN ANTHOLOGY. 381

•of other and more lucrative "allotments."
Four o'clock saw you on your way back to office,
and you stopped to ask your broker how your
"*' Financials " stood. "Rising slowly, sir!"
would be the answer; with a calm conscience
you said, " Then please sell mine," and the
morrow brought you a cheque for fifty, a hundred
or two hundred rupees, as the case might be.

Why does not some abler pen than mine give
■an historical account of this great mania ? When
fortunes were made and lost in a few days ; when
the fatal telegram came announcing the peace
between the North and South American States,
and all our houses of cards came tumbling about
our ears, — when Back Bays ( of which I was the
happy possessor of one ) rose to half a lakh
premium, — when *' allotments " were sent to you
*' willy nilly," mostly worth some money, — when
poor Doctor D. and Mr. T. were millionaires on
paper! Many a pathetic story could be related
of those times, and of the awful crisis afterwards.

Reminiscences of an Anglo-Indian Police Official,

1894, PP- 242-244.

The Share flania

Dr. George Smith.

Visiting Bombay, as an outsider, at the
height of the mania in 1864-65, and one of the
earliest to make the journey by mail-cart across
the province and Central India to the railway at

382 BOMBAY :

Agra, we witnessed a state of things, ecpnoniic-
and social, which no report could gauge. In the
five years during which the cotton market of the
world was transferred from New Orleans to--
Bombay, Western India received eighty millions-
sterling over and above the normal price of her
produce before and since. So far as this reached
the cultivators it was well. That it largely-
reached them, in spite of their ancestral usurers-
backed by the civil court procedure, has of late-
been unhappily proved by the quantities of silver
ornament sent down to the local Mint, in years,
of enhanced land tax and repeated scarcity and
famine. So far as the sudden profit could be
utilised for the public good it was also welL
Against the fatal mismanagement of the semi-
Government Bank of Bombay must be set Sir
Bartle Frere's sale of the land on which the walls
of the old Fort stood, to form a fund for the
creation of New Bombay.

But the bulk of the profit was literally-
thrown into the sea, and with it the reputation
and the happiness of not a few of the leading
European, Parsee, and Hindoo merchants and
bankers of the province. The catastrophe cul-
minated in 1867, in the fall of the old Bank of
Bombay, which led even members of the Gov-
ernment of India to recommend the prosecution
of the guilty parties in the criminal courts ;.
in -the collapse of the fund for building New
Bombay, which necessitated an addition to the
ever-increasing debt of India; in the flight of

AN MYTHOLOGY. 383

speculators like him who, after buying the
Government-House at Dapoorie with paper, left
an umbrella as his assets ; and in the exposure
of countless scandals under the insolvent juris-
diction of the High Court by Mr. Chisholm
Anstey, who as an acting Judge was no less
pitiless to the gambling traders than he had
proved to be to the obscene high priests of
Krishna. But England cannot throw a stone
at Bombay, for it was in the year before 1867
that Overend, Gurney and Company had led the
panic race.

The millions which might have enriched and
beautified Bombay and its various communities,,
were early and almost altogether directed to the
mania of reclaiming the foreshore of an Island
which already covered eighteen square miles.
The harbour, beautiful and spacious by nature,
was destitute of wharf and jetty accommodation
for the necessary commerce. Before the mania»
there had been undertaken the legitimate and
praiseworthy enterprise of removing the reproach
by establishing the Elphinstone Company. The
prospects and success of this really sound pro-
ject fired the possessors of the surplus capital of
the cotton trade with a dream of the profits to be
obtained from reclaiming land. The foreshore
of the shallow and useless Back Bay, fit only for
fisher craft, became the object of the maddest
of the Companies. Just above that, forming
the eastern side which shelters it from the great
Indian Ocean, rises Malabar Hill, and looking

384 BOMBAY:

down on the generally peaceful water is
*' The Cliff." One morning when we happened
to be breakfasting with Dr. Wilson,- he handed
to us a letter received by urgent messenger.
" That," he said, '* will show you to what we
have come in Bombay ; but I do not give the
mania more than a year to collapse." It was an
offer from a substantially rich native speculator
to purchase the cottage and garden for a sum
twenty times their original value. He of course
put it from him at once ; for, all other reasons
apart, he was one of the few sane men of Bombay
at that time. Officials, chaplains, bankers — none
escaped the infection, it was said, save three, of
whom he was the chief. • His entreaties, his
counsels, his warnings, especially to his native
friends, were in vain.

Life of Dr. Wilson of Bombay, 1^78, pp 573-575-

The Share Mania

BoswoRTH Smith.

For some years past, a spirit of wild and
reckless speculation had, more or less, infected
all classes in India, and now it was followed by
the inevitable reaction. Colossal fortunes made
by gambling are generally followed by colossal
failures, which, unfortunately, do not always
fall upon the gamblers themselves in exact
proportion to their folly or their guilt. Calcutta

AN ANTHOLOGY. 385

itself had not been altogether free from the
epidemic. But it was in Bombay that the mania
reached its height. Owing to the American war,
vast quantities of cotton had been exported to
England during the last two years from its
spacious and expansive harbour; and by their
own admission, the Bombay authorities were
-completely carried away by the torrent. Bubble
■companies were started by the hundred, the
shares in which went up to fabulous amounts.
But, like bubbles, one after another, they burst,
bringing upon all connected with them, not only
ruin but, often, also shame and disgrace. The
heir of the famous Parsee baronet, Sir Jamsetjee
Jeejeebhoy, the Rothschild of Bombay, failed for
half a million of money. The hardly less famous
Hindu millionaire, Premchund Roychund, failed
for over two millions. And, unfortunately, the
Bank of Bombay, which might have done much
to check the mischief, and which had, among
its Directors, nominees of the Bombay Govern-
ment, did its best, in spite of earnest and reiterat-
ed warnings from Calcutta, by reckless gambling
to foster and to spread it. And now, throughout
India and England, disaster followed upon
disaster. The failures of the "Commercial
Bank " of Bombay, of the famous House of
Overend and Gurney, and, worst of all perhaps
for India, of the Agra Bank- the bank in which
the little-all of so many widows and orphans
of Anglo-Indians were deposited - followed one
another, in melancholy and startling succes-

386 BOMBAY:

sion. But the worst offender of all, the Bombay
Bank, still held its own — though with a loss of
half its capital — still plunging itself and others,,
in spite of all that remonstrances from the
Governor-General, and urgent requests both
by telegram and letter for information could do^
more deeply into the mire; till at last it fell,,
deep alike in ruin and in guilt, the full dimen-
sions of which were only to be revealed by the
Commission of Inquiry which an outraged
people demanded and, at length, succeeded in
obtaining.

Life of Lord Lawrence, 1883, Vol. IL, pp. 354-55^

How the Mutiny Was Nipped
In the Bud

Charles Forjett.

The Mohorrum is a festival causing great
excitement and religious enthusiasm among^
Mahomedans: so much so, that the presence in^
the native town, as stated by General Bates, of
strong detachments of troops, both European and
native, were always, previous to my time, found
necessary for the preservation of the peace ; but
having a police force equal in my estimation to-
any emergency on the part of the population, the
idea of being dependent on military aid
proved distasteful, and with-the assistance of the
Chief Secretary to Government — now Sir Henry

AN ANTHOLOGY. 387

Anderson — I discontinued the practice, and it
was attended with the happiest results.

As the Mohorrum of 1857 was approaching,
suspicion seemed to be directed towards the
Mahomedans of the town, and the excitement
was becoming very great. A similar excitement,
just previously, had led to a panic, and it was
followed by the wildest hurrying off on board
ships in the harbour. I deemed it necessary, there-
fore, to call a meeting of all the leading members
of the Mahomedan community. I was accompa-
nied to it by Colonel, now Lieutenant-General,
Birdwood, and his son, Doctor George Birdwood.
The gathering was unusually large, and my
atidress to the assembled native gentlemen was
delivered in the native language.

After I hadfinished,ColonelBirdwood address-
ed some excellent remarks to the large assembly.
He dwelt principally on the check which every
species of improvement in India would receive
in consequence of the revolt in the North-West ;
and concluded with the words of a well-known
Mahomedan ditty, that our just Government was
by scoundrels hated and by the good beloved.
After Colonel Birdwood had spoken, a leading
member of the Mahomedan community assured
me that the Mahomedans were most peaceably
disposed, and that there was no fear of a distur-
bance taking place.

The Governor, the Judges of the Supreme
Court, and other high functionaries being present

388 BOMBAY :

at the time in Bombay, I was not quite sure, when
on the following morning I saw my address
published, that I had committed no breach of
official propriety in declaring to the Mahomedan
gentlemen that those whose fidelity there was
reason to suspect would be speedily dealt with,
undeterred by the ''trammels" of the law, and
that " every guilty man would be strung up be-
fore his own door." And this doubt was by no
means allayed when a trooper brought me a note
from the Private Secretary, telling me that it
was the Governor's wish to see me. I was
received by his Lordship with his usual kindness,
and resting his hand on my shoulder, he said,
** You had a meeting yesterday of Mahomedan
gentlemen; in addressing them you made use
of very strong language; but I am glad you did
so.'* I was of course thankful.

I then touched upon the protest I had placed
in the hands of the Private Secretary for his
Lordship's information, against the military and
police arrangements ordered by Government
for the preservation of the peace during the
Mohorrum. His Lordship said he was sorry he
did not know my views before those suggestions
were made; but having made them, and the Bri-
gadier— the chief responsible military authority —
having adopted them with the concurrence of the
chief magistrate, he did not see his way to
countermanding them ; but he hoped everything
would pass off quietly. I then respectfully in-

AN ANTHOLOGY. 389

timated that I should be obliged to disobey th^
orders of Government in respect to the police
arrangements, for, I added, '* I must keep my
Europeans together and have them in hand in
case of a sepoy outbreak." His Lordship kindly
remarked, "It is a very risky thing to do to
disobey orders ; but I am sure you will do nothing
rash." And I may now add, that it was happy
for Bombay, happy for Western India, and happy
probably for India itself, that one so noble and
clear-headed as Lord Elphinstone was Governor
of Bombay during the period of the Mutiny ; but
for which it is impossible to state what the
results would have been.

Our Real Danger in India, 1878, pp. 122-128.

Happily this intended mutiny was nipped
in the bud by the very opportune assistance
rendered by Colonel Barrow. And it will, I think,
be admitted that I had exercised a wise discre-
tion in evincing the determination I did at the
sepoy lines, when the sepoys, many with arms
in their hand that were found loaded, were
abusing me, and their officers, keeping them
back sword in hand, were crying out to me, for
God's sake, to go away, and that my presence
was exciting the men. It will be admitted too,
I think, that I exercised an eciually wise discre-
tion, when, believing sepoy loyalty not to be

390 BOMBAY:

depended upon, I formed the resolution of dis-
obeying the orders of Government, and keeping
my Europeans together, and so posting them as
to have led to the postponement of the outbreak
that had been arranged to take place on the
last night of the Mohorrum.

If the mutiny in Bombay had been success-
ful, Lord Elphinstone was of opinion, and this
is indisputable, that nothing could have saved
Hydrabad and Poona and the rest of the Presi-
dency, and after that, he said, ** Madras was
sure to go too."

Our Real Danger in India, pp. 143-144.

A Page from Early Bombay History.

KiNLOCH FORBES.

A contest now ensued with the Bahmuny
sovereign of the Deccan, in which his usual
success attended the arms of Ahmad Shah. An
interesting fact is here disclosed — the possession
by the sovereigns of Guzerat of Salsette and of
the islands of Mahim and Moomba Devee, which,
in their united form, constitute the present island
of Bombay. Mahim was then held by a tributary
Hindoo prince with the title of Rai, who after-
wards gave a daughter to the harem of the son
of Shah Ahmad. There is no record of the
separate conquest of this territory by the Moha-
medans, nor does it appear that either the

AN ANTHOLOGY. 391

ATiceroys or the Sultans of Guzerat were ever
sufficiently unemployed up to this time, or
possessed of sufficient resources, to have enabled
them to undertake an extension of their domi-
nions into this detached and distant quarter. We
have seen, however, that the sovereigns of
Anhilwara pushed their armies deep into the
Dekkan ; that they not only held possession of
the northern part of Khandeish, in which Kurun
Waghela long maintained himself after Guzerat
had been overrun, but that they also occupied
the Konkan, and threatened the kingdom of
Kolapur. We may therefore conclude that
the northern Konkan fell into the possession
of the Mohamedans on the extinction of the
Waghela dynasty, as part of the recognised
territories of the lords of Anhilwara, — a fact
which, taken in connection with the glimpses
we possess of their naval supremacy, is calculat-
jed to add no little interest to the illustrious line
of Sidh Raj.

Kootb Khan, the governor of Mahim on the
part of Ahmed Shah, dying, the Bahmuny Sultan
seizing the favourable opportunity, occupied
that island without loss, and also took possession
-of Thana in Salsette. Ahmad Shah immedia-
tely assembled a fleet of seventeen sail at
with Diu, Gogo, and Cambay, which, in co-
operation an army advancing along the northern
Konkan, attacked and recovered Thana. The
Bahmuny general retreated to Mahim, and on the

392 BOMBAY:

face of that island, which was exposed, construct-
ed a very strong wattled breast-work. This
stockade was carried, not without considerable
loss, by the troops of Ahmed Shah, who now
found themselves opposed to the whole of the
Dekkan line. A bloody and indecisive action
ensued, which was terminated at nightfall ; but
while darkness lasted, the Dekkan general aban-
doned his position, and retreated to the contigu-
ous island of Moomba Devee. The Guzerat fleet
blockaded the island, and effected a landing upon
it for the troops, and the general of the Bahmuny
Shah was compelled to fly to the continent. After
another action, fought under the walls of Thana
the Dekkany troops were ultimately defeated and
dispersed, and the fleet of Guzerat returned
home, carrying with it ''some beautiful gold and
silver embroidered muslins," taken on the island
of Mahim.

Ras Mala, 1856, pp. 269-270^

The Cylone of 1854

Charles Low.

Bombay will not soon forget the memorable
cyclone which burst over it at midnight of the
first of November, 1854, desolating the city and
strewing the harbour with wrecks. The wind
veered round the compass, and at three a.m. of
the 2nd November, the pressure of the wind

AN ANTHOLOGY. 395

actually registered 35 lbs., to the square foot. On
the following morning Bombay harbour presented
a scene of desolation : five square-rigged ships
and three steamers were on shore, most of them
dismasted, and one hundred and forty-two
smaller crafts, mostly native, were wrecked. The
'Assaye' drifted towards the Castle walls and
carried away her bowsprit, but was fortunately
saved from total shipwreck by the exertions of
her officers and men. The * Hastings' receiving
ship, drove from her moorings, sprung a leak^
and, while being towed by the ' Queen' fouled the
ship ' Mystery'; and, ultimately, after battering
against the fort walls, which she damaged to a
considerable extent, was brought to Mazagon in
the last stage of decrepitude ; and, though she
was patched up sufficiently to do duty a little-
longer as receiving ship, the old frigate was soon
consigned to the limbo of the ship-breaker's yard.
The surveying brig, * Palinurus/ was dismasted^
and got aground off the dock-yard break-water,
where her situation was one of extreme peril,
until she floated off with the tide. The Governor's
and Sir Henry Leake's barges, and nearly all the
pleasure yachts and bunder-boats usually moored
off the Apollo Bunder, were lost, and the cutters
* Margaret,' * Nurbudda' and ' Maldiva' were seri-
ously damaged. The 'Elphinstone' had a narrow
escape, as she grounded off the Custom House
basin, and was only got afloat by the discipline
and smartness of the crew and skill of the officers;
backing astern, she set a stay-sail and threaded

394 BOMBAY :

her way through the crowded harbour to the

anchorage outside the shipping.

History of the Indian Navy, 1877, Vol. I pp. 296-297.

The Great Fire of 1803

On the 17th February a most alarming fire
broke out in the very extensive and populous
Bazar situated within this garrison. It is not
exactly known whence the fire originated.
Notwithstanding surmises and suggestions to
the contrary, in our opinion there is no sufficient
reason to consider it arose from any other cause
than accident. The fire broke out early in the
day and the wind continuing unusually high the
flame increased with astonishing rapidity. So
great and violent was the conflagration, that at
sunset the destruction of every house in the Fort
was apprehended. The flames directed their
course in a south-easterly direction from that
part of the Bazar opposite to the Cumberland
Ravelin quite down to the King's barracks.
During the whole of the day every effort was
used to oppose its progress, but the fierceness of
the fire driven rapidly on by the wind baffled all
attempts; nor did it visibly abate till nearly a
third part of the town within the walls had been
consumed.

The apprehensions excited by this calami-
tous event were considerably increased by the
■direction of the wind impelling the flames to-

AN ANTHOLOGY. 395

wards the arsenal. For whatever security the
magazines might be supposed to afford against
access to the fire, still the smallest crevice was
sufficient to admit a spark to the great mass
of gunpowder within the Castle. It was im-
possible to view otherwise than in a state of
awful suspense the destruction to the whole
garrison which was thus within the bounds of
possibility. Before midnight the wind changed
more to the northward whence it veered round
gradually to the eastward, abating at the same
time in its force. From this rather than from
any human effort, the conflagration visibly
decreased and the danger which threatened
gradually diminished. While using every practi-
•cal exertion to check the progress of the flames,
we derived particular and most useful assistance
from the presence of Vice Admiral Rainier, who
repaired to the spot with all the officers and a
<lue proportion of the men of His Majesty's
■squadron. From their active interference and
uncommon exertions was derived the greater part
of any opposition that could be made to the
-extention of the conflagration. This help proved
more eminently advantageous in the two or three
-days that followed the first extensive destruction
by pulling down the crumbling ruins and thereby
smothering the remaining fire and smouldering
embers. Otherwise we might have had to lament
far greater devastation than has occurred.

The loss of lives has been small though there
has not yet been time to take any exact account.

396 BOMBAY:

But the fire having raged chiefly throughout the
day, afforded opportunity to the inhabitants to
save not only their Hves, but many of them a
considerable share of their portable property.
The damage sustained on this occasion by the
Honourable Company has been proportionably
inconsiderable. At the same time the occurrence
of the calamity has rendered manifest to all wha
witnessed it, the danger to which the garrison
would have been exposed in the event of the
appearance of an enemy before Bombay. The
number of houses in the Bazar, the very excep-
tionable mode of their construction, and the
combustible materials of which the greater part
of them are composed and with which many of
them were also filled in the commercial pursuits
of their owners, would have exposed us to nearly
equal hazard from the enemy's throwing irr
only a few shells. Whilst from the confined
situation joined to the distress that must at all
times have been incident to such a conflagration,,
the means of effectual defence must soon have
been rendered impossible without any considera-
tion to the number of the garrison or to the
strength of the works.

Bombay Government to the Court of Directors, 22

Feb. 1803. apud Bombay Gazetteer, Vol. XXVI^

Part, J. pp. 431—435-

AN ANTHOLOCxY. 397

Royal Visit, 1911.

Bombay, the port selected for the honour
of Their Majesties' arrival, has in more senses
than one earned the title of the Gateway of
India. It was the first possession of the British
Crown in India two hundred and fifty years ago,
-and it has seen the landing of two successive
heirs to the Crown within the last half-century.
It is now also the terminus for the great steam-
ship lines that link up East and West, and as
a modern city, with manufactures of its own, it
' has a special character of eastern West and
western East that makes it obviously the portal
of transition. Nowhere in the East has contact
with the West produced more remarkable results.
For a long period, notwithstanding its extra-
ordinarily favourable position as regards the
rest of India and the fact that in the first decade
of the eighteenth century it became the head-
<iuarters of the East India Company, it remained
a settlement of very ordinary dimensions,
with trade in dried fish and cocoanuts. But in
the middle of the nineteenth century, with the
development of communications, it commenced
the rapid and wonderful growth which has now
made it, with nearly a million inhabitants, second
only to Calcutta in population, and in some
ways, perhaps the most splendid city in India,
with its world-wide trading interests, its magni-
ficent public buildings, and its unrivalled scenery
and harbours. The Bombay of to-day is scarcely

398 BOMBAY :

recognizable even as the same which King:
Edward saw not forty years before; but it still
preserves the wondrous atmosphere and colour
of the East.

Busy and swarming with life as the
city always is, it had never displayed such
intensity of interest, wonder and deep feeling,..
as on the morning of the 2nd. December
1911. The arrival of the Sovereign was an
event that made an extraordinary appeal to
the imagination of all classes of the people^
The day before had been Queen Alexandra's,
birthday, the ceremonies in honour of which
added not a little to the expectations and
excitement of the multitude. The open spaces
round Bombay were occupied by the troops'
who had come for duty in the pageants^
and for marry days thousands of people,,
men, women and children, had been pouring:
in by rail and road from all parts of the
Presidency and beyond. The streets were
already packed already long before sunrise-
with a gay, good-natured throng, which
presented almost inexhaustible variet}^ of
human types and brilliant costumes, flowing
along in a seething tide towards the harbour.
The life and movement in the streets were
indescribable. Whole families could be seerr
hastening to secure places which would ensure
a view of the procession, fathers carrying sons,
on their shoulders, and mothers with the last

AN ANTHOLOGY. 399

born on the hip and a bundle of food on the
head, all dressed in their best and excitedly
hailing their friends.

Historical Record of the Imperial Visit to India,

1911-1912. (published by the Government of

India, IQI4). pp. 35-36,

Royal Progress through
the City, 1911.

The formal decorations were a mere frame-
work, but it was the teeming mass of humanity,
with colours and contrasts unimaginable in the
West, that gave the scene its character. Bombay
had never made public holiday in the quite the
same wholehearted way before, or given so real
a welcome. Every balcony, roof, and window
was bright with joyous faces brilliant-coloured
clothing. Stands had been erected on the open
spaces and all along the route where the
road was not too narrow, and these were
crowded with men of every Indian race, while in
the first part of the route there was a fair sprinkl-
ing of Europeans. At every side street a densely
packed throng pressed forward to the line of
march, and the populace of many cities seemed
to have poured out into the streets. The people
had come for the event of a life-time, and in
spite of excessive heat and the weary hours

400 BOMBAY :•

of waiting, a better-tempered and a more easily
managed crowd could scarcely have been
possible. A wonderful effect of overwhelming
numbers that rendered the setting barely visible
was the result, and it was by this more than
-anything else that the welcome was distinguish-
ed. It was the kind of greeting that Their
Majesties most desired, and it was particularly
noticeable where, as at many parts of the route,
the school children of all castes and creed were
assembled in their thousands and, as the
Imperial carriage passed, started to their feet,
waving small flags and filling the air with treble
cheers and shouts. Even where, as at many
points in the native city, the crowd remained
passive, there was something unmistakable about
the attitude maintained. The interest, though
constantly changing throughout the course, never
for one instant flagged, and Their Majesties were
evidently much moved by the demonstrations
and manifestations of loyalty which had marked
their whole progress.

Historical Record of the Imperial Visit, p. 45

Raynal's Panegyric on Sterne's Eliza

Abbe Raynal.

Territory of Anjengo ! thou art nothing ; but
thou hast given birth to Eliza. A day will come
when these staples of commerce founded by the

AN ANTHOLOGY. 401

Europeans on the coasts of Asia, will exist no
more. Before a few centuries are elapsed, the
grass will cover them, or the Indians avenged
will have built upon their ruins. But if my works
be destined to have any duration, the name of
Anjengo will not be obliterated from the
memory of man. Those who shall read my
works, or those whom the winds shall drive
towards these shores will say : there it is that
Eliza Draper was born ; — and if there be a Briton
among them he will immediately add with the
spirit of conscious pride, — and there it was that
she was born of English parents.

Let me be permitted to indulge my grief
and to give a free course to my tears, Eliza was
my friend. Reader, whoso'er thou art, forgive
me this voluntary emotion. Let my mind dwell
upon Eliza. If I have sometimes moved thee to
compassionate the calamities of the human race,
let me now prevail upon thee to commiserate
my own misfortune. I was thy friend without
knowing thee; be for a moment mine. Thy
gentle pity shall be my reward.

Eliza ended her days in the land of her fore-
fathers, at the age of three and thirty. A celestial
soul was separated from a heavenly body. Ye
who visit the spot on which her sacred ashes rest
write upon the marble that covers them : in such
a month, in such a year, on such a day, at such
an hour, God withdrew his spirit and Eliza died.

402 BOMBAY :

And thou, original writer, her admirer and
her friend, it was Eliza who inspired thy works,
dictated to thee the most affecting pages of them.
Fortunate Sterne, thou art no more and I am left
behind. I wept over thee with Eliza; thou
would'st weep over her with me; had it been
the will of Heaven, that you had both survived
me, your tears would have fallen together upon
my grave.

The men were used to say that no woman had
so many graces as Eliza : the women said so too.
They all praised her candour; they all extolled
her sensibility ; they were all ambitious of the
honour of her acquaintance. The stings of envy
were never poured against unconscious merit.

Anjengo, it is to the influence of thy happy
climate that she certainly was indebted for that
almost incompatible harmony of voluptuousness
and clemency which diffused itself over all her
person and accompanied all her motions. A
statuary who would have wished to represent
voluptuousness, would have taken her for his
model ; and she would equally have served him
who might have had a figure of modesty to
display. Even the gloomy and clouded sky of
England had not been able to obscure the
brightness of that aerial kind of soul, unknown
in our climate. In everything that Eliza did,
an irresistible charm was diffused around her.
Desire, but of a timid and bashful cast, followed
her steps in silence. Any man of courteousness

AN ANTHOLOGY. 403

alone must have loved her, but would not have
dared to own his passion.

I search for Eliza everywhere: I discover,
I discern some of her features, some of her
charms, scattered among those women whose
figure is most interesting. But what is be-
come of her who united them all ? Nature who
hast exhausted thy gifts to form an Eliza, didst
thou create her only for one moment ? Didst
thou make her to be admired for one instant and
then to be forever regretted ?

All who have seen Eliza regret her. As for
myself my tears will never cease to flow for her
all the time I have to live. But is this sufficient ?
Those who have known her tenderness for me,
the confidence she had bestowed upon me, will
they not say to me, she is no more, and yet
thou livest.

Philosophical and Political History of the Indies

(1770) Vol II pp. 86-88.

ROUND ABOUT BOMBAY.

ROUND ABOUT BOMBAY.

Bobbery Hunt in the Suburbs

"Quiz."

Next morning's sun had just arisen,
And drove the dusky clouds from heaven,
Ere Qui Hi, on his Arab horse,
Sets off to find Byculla course;
Where 'twas determin'd, ev'ry man
Should meet before the hunt began.
Their breakfast now the sportsmen take.
Merely a ''plug of malt," and steak;
The bugle's sign:al now, of course,
Summon'd the bobbery to horse :
They get the word, and off they move,
In all directions to Love-Grove.
A jackass, buff' lo, or tattoo,
The sportsmen anxiously pursue.
Old women join the beasts in running:
"The junglewallas now are coming !"
So off they travel, helter-skelter.
In holes or corners to take shelter.
A loud " view — hollo " now is given :
"A dog! a Paria, by heaven!
"Surround him — there he goes — a head:
** Put all your horses to their speed."
He's lost — the knave has taken cover!
Old L n now perceives another.

408 BOMBAY :

'' Hark ! forward, sportsmen — 'tis the same

*' The rascal he shews famous game.

*' See now the fellow scours along,

" In a direction to Girgaon :

*' Dash after him ; he turns again ;

"We'll find him on BycuHa plain.

*' Oh luckless ! we have lost all hope —

*' He's taken cover in a tope."

Thus, spoke the huntsman, and he swore

He'd find him, or he'd hunt no more.

The horsemen fearlessly push in,

Contending who the ear should win ;

For, gentle reader! know, that here

A brush is nothing to an ear.

But Qui Hi, disregarding care.

Fell headlong on a prickly pear:

Making, incautiously, a bound.

Both horse and rider bit the ground;

But luckily, except some dirt,

They both escap'd without a hurt.

The Paria in the tope they caught;

His ear extravagantly bought.

The cur had run them such a heat.

As put the hunters in a sweat;

Thiey vow'd that on a future day.

They'd take his other ear away ;

Now jumping-powder, wine and beer.

The riders and the horses cheer.

The huntsman new informed them all.

They were to tiff at Bobb'ry Hall.

Mounted again, the party starts.

Upsets the hackeries and carts;

AN ANTHOLOGY. 409

Hammalls, and palanquins, and doolies,

Dobies and burrawa's, and coolies.

Malabar hill at last they gain'd ;

Our hero at its foot remained ;

His horse he could not think to ride.

Like others, up its rugged side,

So wisely took another path, *

That led directly to the bath,

Where soon he found the party met

Were all for tiffin sharply set.

T}ie Adventures of Qui Hi f by Quiz.

I8i6,pp. 228-230.

Environs of Bombay.

Sir Edwin Arnold.

That section of the Great Indian Peninsula
Railway which runs from Bombay to the capital
of theMahratta country may compare in interest
with any hundred miles of iron road in the world.
Leaving Byculla Station the traveller threads the
thoroughly " Hindu " suburbs of Parel, Dadur,
and Chinchpoogly, his train flying through
groves of date and cocoa palms, amid temples,
mosques, synagogues, and churches; dyeing-
grounds spread with acres of new-dipped brilliant
silks and calicoes ; by burning-ghauts and bury-
ing-places; by mills, stone-yards, and fish-drying
sheds, through herds of wandering brown sheep
and grey goats, droves of buffaloes and kine and

410 BOMBAY :

great throngs of busy people; all these combining
into a continuous picture. Crossing an inlet of
the sea at Sion Causeway, the line next coasts
the island of Salsette amidst the most characte-
ristic Oriental scenery, and arrives, by many a
low-roofed village and tangled patch of jungle,
at'Thana. Here the outlying spurs of the Syhadri
Mountains — steep eminences, coloured red and
black, and capped with extraordinary square
rocks, like walled fortresses, or domes and
pinnacles constantly resembling temples — shut in
the sea-flat upon which the town stands ; and we
are advanced to a spot where, with natural
beauty on all sides, the thickets on the hills
shelter tigers and panthers, and the water
swaims with alligators. Of late years these wild
creatures have been largely evicted by sea and
land, and even the pretty striped palm squirrel-
whose back is marked with Parvati*s fingers-and
the green parroquets with rosy neckrings, are
becoming rare in places which once abounded
with them.

India Revisited, 1886, pp. 69-70.

AN ANTHOLOGY. 411

Picturesque Hills in the
Neighbourhood.

Capt. Robert Grindlay.

It is generally admitted that the earlier por-
tion of the day is most favourable to the contem-
plation of the grandeur of mountain scenery;
and this remark applies with peculiar force to
the "scenery of the Ghauts in India, when the
daylight bursts suddenly upon a wondrous scene
of gigantic pinnacles, apparently floating in an
ocean of white mist, which rising in successive
rolling masses and dissipating under the increas-
ing influence of the sun, 'gradually developes
the connecting range of mountains and the wide-
spread plain below, studded with forests and
cocoa-nut groves. In the neighbourhood of rivers
and marshes the mist is more dense, and often
lingers till noonday in picturesque wreaths along
the mountain-side, or envelopes its fantastic
peaks, investing the scene with a poetical and
picturesque eff'ect, which the excessive bright-
ness of the atmosphere might otherwise destroy.

In the annexed plate it is attempted to convey
an idea of the appearance of two mountains,
called Bava Malang and Parbul, from Kallian,
about thirty miles N. E. of Bombay.

The singular form of these mountains and
their almost insulated position give them th^
appearance, when first discovered at daybreak,
of gigantic Gothic cathedrals ; and some of their

412 BOMBAY :

pinnacles are surmounted with those forts, in the
impregnability of which the natives of India had,
through so many ages, placed reliance, until
British intrepidity has shewn them their error.

The river represented ( the Ulhas ) falls into
the northern part of Bombay harbour, and is
navigable for the small craft which convey agri-
cultural produce, cocoa-nuts, &c. to that port.

Scenery in Western India, 1830 pp. 41-42

In the Harbour.

John Seely.

Nothing in the shape of an aquatic excursion
in India can be more delightful than a sail on a
secure and large bay, with a fine refreshing sea
breeze wafting you to your destination, with the
scenery, as far as the eye can reach, grand,
beautiful, and picturesque in the extreme. An
excursion of this kind, with agreeable compa-
nions, after a few months grilling in the interior,
makes the mind joyful, and the soul glad. On
one side, as you proceed up the harbour, you
have the mighty range of mountains stretching
away their cloud-capt tops in every fantastic and
romantic shape; peaks, cliffs, and hollows in-
dented here, and thickly wooded there; the busy
and noisy suburbs of Bombay lying on your left,
where handsome English mansions, rural-looking

AN ANTHOLOGY. 413

native huts, monastic buildings of the Portuguese,
with large Mahratta houses, inhabited by wealthy-
natives, denote opulence and splendour; while
the whole scene is embellished with that variety
of cultivation and foliage peculiar to tropical
climates. As you pass on is an extensive and
handsome range of barracks for the king's
troops; a little further on brings you to the town
of Mazagaum, chiefly inhabited by Portuguese
and natives. Many pretty views present them-
selves on the shore in passing up the harbour,
while the city and the shipping are gradually
receding to the sight. In front is a large old-
fashioned house built by Governor Hornby;
beyond that is a large, handsome, white tomb,
conspicuously placed on a promontory, contain-
ing the mortal remains of a distinguished
Mussulman. The curious-looking hill called the
Funnel, from its similarity of shape, rises
abruptly in front, while on the right a Mahratta
fort, called Shoon Ghur (probably Arzoon Ghur),
raises its romantic turrets in solitary grandeur
in the heart of the mountains. Surrounded by
jungle, in all the wildness of nature, on the left
the view is bounded by the hills of Salsette,
which afford an agreeable back-ground to the
whole of this magnificent scenery. Various
inlets and salt-water streams may be seen run-
ning in different directions inland, which
diversify the prospect, whilst a variety of boats
are seen swiftly cutting the briny flood, hurrying
on to their pursuits and destinations.

414 BOMBAY :

Considerably to our right, and almost in
mid-bay, is Butcher's Island, where is a large
range of buildings used as hospital barracks for
the seamen of his majesty's navy in time of war.

After sailing three or four miles further, the
bay begins to contract: it is still a noble expanse
of water; and, from the great variety of luxuriant
scenery and its size, would bear a comparison
with the celebrated bay of Naples. I am trans-
cribing my original book from the neighbourhood
of Weymouth. This is said to be one of the
finest bays in England, but it is not a twentieth
part of the size of Bombay.

Wonders of Elora, 1824, pp. 1 6-2 2.

Sail in the Harbour.

LOUIS ROUSSELET.

On a fine morning in September I arrived
at the Apollo Pier, where the bunder-boats con-
gregate, amongst which I found my own, which
was soon stored with the provisions, guns, ham-
mocks, &c., which I took with me on this my
first expedition. The sun had not yet risen, and
the spectacle presented by the harbour was most
beautiful. Close by, a fleet of vessels, black and
silent, lay beneath the sea walls of the fort, and
seemed to occupy only an insignificant space in
this majestic bay, whose unbroken surface is

AN ANTHOLOGY. 415

lost in the distance of ten miles in the mists of
the islands. The horizon was bounded by the
Ghats, whose imposing line of terraces and
fantastic peaks were beginning to glow in the
early brightness of the dawn, I hurried the
boatman, and we were soon sailing over this
superb lake. The bunder-boats, which are
employed in the harbour, are graceful barques of
about thirty tons, carrying broad latteen sails,
and having large and comfortable cabins astern,
surrounded with blinds and furnished with ben-
ches. The crew consists of six or seven sturdy
lascars. As we proceed, the beauty of the pano-
ramic view increases. The tops of the mountains
blaze; and the tallest peak, and the one mos
remarkable for its bizarre form, — Funnel Hill,-as-
sumes the shape of an obelisk, dark below and
of purple hue above. The islands and the wooded
shores, lately hidden from us by the mist, sudden-
ly appear; a light and cool breeze sweeps over
the water, and the dull noise of awakened Bombay
reaches us. How charming is this hour in the
tropics! All around is gay and beautiful. The
foliage of the trees, refreshed by the dews of
night, the songs of birds, the soft light of day-
break, and the splendour of the rising sun, com-
bine to form a whole that speaks to the heart
and fills it with the most agreeable emotions.
But the sun mounts above the roseate peaks of the
Ghats; the scene rapidly changes, and the vivid
light peculiar to these regions spreads every-
where. Karanjah, the island towards which we

4l6 BOMBAY:

are directing our course, is still far distant. The
faint outline of its mountains, in the form of a
camel's back, rises in the midst of a dense mass
of vegetation, which covers all the level por-
tions of the island to the very centre, and extends
down to the coast. The straits which separate it
from the neighbouring continent are sprinkled
over with innumerable fishing-boats ; and these
myriads of white points set off the deep blue of
the sea.

India and Its Native Princes, 1882, pp. 38-39.

Ruskin's Salsette and Elephanta.

John Ruskin.

How awful now, when night and silence brood
O'er Earth's repose, and Ocean's solitude,
To trace the dim and devious paths, that guide.
Along Canarah's steep and craggy side,
Where — girt with gloom — inhabited by fear,
The mountain homes of India's gods appear.
Range above range they rise, each hollow cave
Darkling as death, and voiceless as the grave,
Save that the waving weeds in each recess
With rustling music mock its loneliness.
And beasts of blood disturb with stealthy tread
The chambers of the breathless and the dead.
All else of life, of worship, past away.
The ghastly idols fall not, nor decay.

AN ANTHOLOGY. 4W

Retain the lip of scorn, the rugged frown,

And <irasp the blunted sword and useless crown,

Their altars desecrate, their names untold,

The hands that formed, the hearts that feared —

how cold !
Thou too —dark Isle, whose shadow on the sea
Lie like the ^loom that mocks our memory
When one brij^ht instant of our former lot
Were grief, remembered, but were guilt, forgot.
Rock of the lonely crest, how oft renewed
Have beamed the summers of thy solitude,
Since first the myriad steps that shook thy shore
Grew frail and few — then paused for evermore.
Answer-ye long-lulled echoes ! Where are they
Who clove your mountains with the shafts of day,
Bade the swift life along their marble fly.
And struck their darkness into Deity,
Nor claimed from thee —pale temple of the wave —
Record or rest, a glory or a grave }
Now all are cold — the Votary as his God.
And by the shrine he feared, the courts he trod.
The livid snake extends his glancing trail
And lifeless murmurs mingle on the gale.
Yet glorious still, though void, though desolate,
Proud Gharapori, gleams thy mountain gate,
What time, emergent from the eastern wave.
The keen moon's crescent lights thy sacred cave
And moving beams confuse with shadowy

change,
Thy column's massive might and endless range.
Far, far, beneath where sable waters sleep.
Those radiant pillars pierce the crystal deep.

41 8 BOMBAY:

And mockin.i^ waves reflect with quivering smile
Their lon^ recession of refulgent aisle :
Yet knew not here the chisel's touch to trace
The finer lineaments of form and face,
No studious art of delicate design
Conceived the shape, or lingered on the line.
The sculptor learned, on Indus' plains afar,
The various pomp of worship and of war,
Impetuous ardour in his bosom woke,
And smote the animation from the rock.
In close battalions kingly forms advance.
Wave the broad shield, and shake the soundless.

lance,
With dreadful crest adorned, and orient gem,
Lightens the helm, and gleams the diadem ;
Loose o'er their shoulders falls their flowing hair,.
With wanton wave, and mocks th' unmoving air,
Broad o'er their breasts extend the guardian

zones
Broidered with flowers, and bright with mystic

stones.
Poised in aetherial march they seem to swim,
Majestic motion marked in every limb ;
In changeful guise they pass — a lordly train,
Mighty in passion, unsubdued in pain.
Revered as monarchs, or as gods adored,
Alternately they rear the sceptre and the sword.
And mightier ones are there — apart— divine,
Presiding genii of the mountain shrine,
Behold, the giant group, the united three.
Faint symbol of an unknown Deity !
Here, frozen into everlasting trance

AN ANTHOLOGY. 419

Stern Siva's (luivering lip and hooded glance;
There, in eternal majesty serene
ProudBrahnia's painless brow, and constant mine;
There glows the light ofVeeshnu's guardian smile,
But on the crags that shade yon inmost aisle
Shine not, ye stars. Annihilation's Lord
There waves, with many an arm, th' unsated sword.
Relentless holds the cup of mortal pain,
And shakes the spectral links that wreathe his
ghastly chain.

Oxford Pn'oe Poffns, I839, pp. 359-364.

Thana Creek.

JOHN SEELY.

Nothing can be more delightful than a sail
by the salt-\yater channel that divides Salsette
from the continent, passing by the town of
Thana. Inland, the views on either shore are
beautifully wooded, the lands picturesque and
romantic, with many rude and venerable relics
of Mahratha forts and Portuguese churches. You
may proceed as far as Bassein, circumnavigating
the interesting island of Salsette and part of
Bombay for upwards of 60 miles, and enter the
ocean again a little beyond Bassein; and all this
agreeable journey may be performed in the
greatest safety, and with perfect ease, sailing or
rowing amid mountains, hills, and dales, with
the shore close at hand on either side, and that
shore richly ornamented with the most luxuriant

420 BOMBAY:

and varied foliage; while an idle hour may be
whiled away in fishinij: or shootinj^, or in viewing
many old ruins that occasionally show their hoary
points in the deepest solitudes of the forest.

IVoudcrs of Elora, p. 2J.

An Excursion to Salsette.

Mrs. Heber.

An excursion to Salsette to see the cave
temple of Kanhari. together with some interest-
ing places on the island, had for some time
been in contemplation, and we set out to join
Mr. Elphinstone and a large jiarty at Tool-
sey. On leaving Matoonga, an artillery canton-
ment about the centre of the island, the country
became interesting as well from its novelty as
from its increased i3eauty. The road lay prin-
cipally through a valley formed by hills of a
moderate height, covered, wherever the rocks
allowed of its growth, with underwood to their
sunuuits, while the valleys were planted with
groves of mangoes and pahus, with some fine
timber trees. A very shallow arm of the sea
divides Boniljay from Salsette, and on an
eiiiinence commanding it, is a foit, apparently of
some strength, built originally as a defence
against the Mahrathas, and still inhabited by an
European officer with a small guard ; the islands
are now conne(rted by a causeway. The moun-
tains in Salsette are considerably hijiher than

AN ANTHOLOGY. 421

those of Bombay, but covered with thicker
jungle, while the valleys are more shut in, and
conse(|ueiUly less healthy. We saw but few
traces of inhabitants during a drive of eight
miles, passing but one small village consisting
of a most miserable collection of huts.

At Vehar we left our carriages, and proceed-
ed on horseback and in palanciuins through the
jungle to Toolsey, the place of our encamp-
ment. This lovely spot is surrounded by moun-
tains of considerable height, forming a small
wooded amphitheatre, in the centre of wiiich
grows a fine banyan-tree. Here our tents were
pitched, and I never saw a more beautiful
scene than it afforded. The brilliant colours
and varieties of dress on innumerable servants,
the horses bivouacked under the trees with
each its attendant sayces, the bullocks, carts,
hackeries, and natives of all descriptions in
crowds, the fires prepared for cooking, the
white tents pitched in the jungle, together with
the groups formed by the different parties on
their arrival, altogether formed a coup iViril
which I can never forget, and which can be
only seen in a tropical climate.

Our tent was pitched close to a tiger-trap
then unset; there are a good many tigers in the
sland, and one was killed a short time previous
to our arrival. This was the first night I had
ever slept under canvass, and but for the heat,
which was intense, 1 could not have wished for
more comfortable cpiarters; but Toolsey, from its

422 BOMBAY:

peculiar situation, is reckoned one of the hottest
places in India.

Early the next morning- the Bishop and I
mounted our horses, and took an exploring ride
among tlie rocks and woods ; some rain had
fallen in the night, which Iiad cooled and re-
freshed the air. The morning was delightful, a
number of singing-birds, among whose notes I
could distinguish those of the nightingale and
tlirush, were performing a beautiful concert,
while the jungle-fowl were crowing merrily all
around, and monkeys, the first which I had seen
in their natural state, were sporting with their
young ones among the trees ; I enjoyed the ride
exceedingly, and left the rocks with regret, though,
from the sun being clouded over, we had been
already enabled to stay out till eight o'clock.

At four o'clock in the evening we set out,
some on horse-back, and some in palanquins, to
the caves, with which the hill is literally per-
forated It was late before we re-
turned. Our path wound along the sides of the
rocks, and was hardly wide enough in places
for a palanquin to pass. The effect of so large
a party proceeding in single file, with torches,
occasionally appearing and disappearing among
the rocks and woods, with a bright Indian moon
shining over-head, was pictures(|ue and beautiful
in the highest degree. I happened to be the last,
and had a full view of the procession, which
extended for nearlv half a mile. In northern

AN ANTHOLOGY. 423

latitudes one can fonn no idea of the brilliancy
of the moon, nor of the beauty of a ni^ht such
<is this rendered more enjoyable from the respite
which it affords from the heat of the day.

We left our tents early the next morn-
ing, Mrs. Macdonald and I, witli most of
the gentlemen of the party, on horseback to
proceed to Thana, a town with a fort, on the
-eastern coast of the island. From thence to
Salsette we went in a bunder boat, and there
<?mbarkeil on board the Governor's Yacht, where
we found breakfast prepared, and sailed for
about seven miles throu«fh scenery of a very re-
markable character. The islands between which
we passed lie so close to each other, that I could
scarcely believe myself on the sea. On one side
the prospect is bounded by the magnificent
Ghats, with their fantastic basaltic sunmiits,
and the islands are occasionally adorned with
ruins of Portuguese Churches and convents. In
one of these, Ghodbunder, situated on sateep emi-
nence, and guarded by a fort, we dined and slept.

Mrs. Heber's Journal, 1825, in Bishop Heber's
Journey, Vol III ff- ^4-^6.

View from the Kanhari Caves.

HOBART Gaunter.

From the portico of one of the caverns the
prospect is singularly striking. A long ledge,
of several feet in width, supported at either end

424 BOMBAY:

by the solid rock from which it is cut, protects
the spectator from the influence of the sun, and
allows him to enjoy without inconvenience the
beauties of a scene remarkable for its peculiarity
and grandeur. The portit»o is terminated to-
wards the body of the building by a row of tall
massive columns, gracefully proportioned and
with no ornanient, except on the bases antl capi-
tals. With the superincumbent ledge, which they
support, they form a vestibule of great elegance.
Under its grateful shade I stood for some minutes^
contemplating the splendour of the view around
me, beholding everywhere a mighty record of
God's omnipotence. It is hardly possible to
imagine how frequently this conviction is forced
upon the mind while travelling in this magnifi-
cent country — for here the prodigies of Art bear a
sort of collateral testimony to the wonders of
Nature ; but yet, how does the vast and stately
grandeur of the mountain, crowned with everlast-
ing snow, rising in solemn dignity from the
plain, with all its accompaniments of animal^
vegetable, and mineral production, and project-
ing, its lofty crest into the clouds, as if to hold
communion with beings of a higher world, — how
does it bring down to the lowest extreme of com-
parative insignificance the mightiest productions
of human labour! It is clear that Nature has
everywhere furnished the elements of Art ; the
one is an accessory to the other; and consequent-
ly, wherever Art prevails in its greater dignity
and success, the glories of Nature are heightened

AN ANTHOLOGY. 425

to the contemplations of the philosopher, and
even to the commonest admirer of the Creators
works. •

In no country upon earth, not even exceptini?
Upper Egypt, have the prodigious powers of the
human mind been displayed to a greater extent
than in India; and I confess I never entertained
so exalted an idea of human capability as it
deserves until I had witnessed those stupendous
productions of man's ingenuity, so frequently
presented to the traveller's eye-on the peninsula
of Hindustan.

vStruck by the scene before me, I sat myself
down upon a stone under the rocky perch of the
cavern. Before me gushed a narrow but deep
stream, which tumbled down the mountain in
a broken line, appearing at the distance like a
narrow strip of silver lace up(3n a green velvet
mantle, but, upon a nearer approach, bountiing
and hissing over opposing rocks with the force
and energy of " a thing of life." Just before it
reached the place where I had seated myself, its
waters gurgled and fried over a bed of rocks,
which formed a considerable slope in the hilU
and produced a cascade that sung one of Nature's
lullabies with a far more sublime, if with a less
harmonious cadence than babbling brooks.

Oriental AnnunL 1S36, pp. 284-286.

426 BOMBAY :

Cave Temples near Bombay.

Garcia Da orta.

•

Bacaim [ Bassein ] is a very great city, and
under its jurisdiction there are many lands and
cities. It gives a rent to the king of more than
160,000 cruzados with its land and fortresses,
afterwards granted to Francisco Barreto. The
said lands are called Manora. They include, in
one part, an island called Salsette where there are
two pagodas or houses of idolatry under ground.
One is under a very lofty hill built of stones in
greater quantity than in the fortress of Diu, and
which may be compared, in Portugal, with a
town of four bundled houses. This hill has a
grand ascent, and on arriving at the hill it is
found to be a great pagoda worked and cut
within the rock, where the Friars of San Francis-
co afterwards built a church called San Miguel.
There are many pagodas of stone on the ascent,
and near the summit there are other stone houses
with their chambers, and still higher are bouses
cut in the rock, and in them there is a tank or
cistern of water, with pipes to lead down the
train water. Altogether there must be three
hundred houses, and all contain idols sculptured
in stone. But they are very heavy and dark^ as
things made for worshipping the devil.

They have another pagoda in a part of the
island called Maljaz, [ Mandapeshwar, or Mon-
pensir] which is a very grand thing, also cut
out of the rock. Within there are many other

AN ANTHOLOGY. 427

pagodas very dark and dismal. All who enter
"these houses say that it makes their flesh creep,
it is so dreadful. Another pagoda, the best of
-all, is on an island called Pori, which we call the
isle of the Elephant [ Elephanta ]. On it there is
a hill and in the upper part of it is a subterranean
iiouse worked out of the living rock, and the
Jiouse is as large as a monastery. Within there
are courts and cisterns of good water. On the
walls, all round, there are sculptured images
•of elephants, lions, and many human images,
■some like Amazons, and in many other shapes
well sculptured. Certainl}^ it is a sight well
'worth seeing, and it would appear that the devil
had used all his powers and knowledge to deceive
4he gentiles into his worship. Some say that it
4S the work of the Chinese when they navigated
to this land. It might well be true, seeing that
it is so well worked and that the Chinese are
«irtists. It is true that, at the present day, this
pagoda is much defiled by cattle getting inside,
but in the year 1534, when I came from Portugal
it was a very fine sight. I saw it at the time
when Bacaim was at war with us. Soon after-
wards the King of Combaya [Cambiiy ] ceded it
to Nunoda Cunha.

Colloquies ( 7563 ), tr. C. Mark ham I9I3> M^^'
^443 to 445'

428 BOMBAY :

Kanhari and Bassein.

Lady West.

To-day we' left Bombay in a hired ba-
rouche with our own horses to Parell, where
Horniasjee Bomanjee lent us a pair of horses
which took us to Coorla six miles. We had to
pass over a very narrow road, two miles long,
which joins the island of Salsette to Bombay.
I am grown so tired, I had a Palankeen wait-
ing to take me over. Mrs. Heber and I tra-
velled in company, and the Bishop and Edward
rode to Toolsey, where we found Mr. Elphin-
stone waiting to receive us and all our tents
pitched in the most picturesque spot in a
valley, with fine mountains nearly all rounds
and fine banyan trees which hung over us to
shade us.

Edward got up early and took a ride. At
three we started in our Palankeens to see the
Kanhari Caves, — picturesque scenery, but the
path sadly steep, rugged, and bad for horses.
The caves are certainly very curious, one very
much in the same style as the Karlee Caves,
but not so large or in so perfect a state.

We were up this morning at a quarter to
four. At five Edward got on his horse and Batt
and I in our Palankeens to go six miles to
Thana. But at the top of the Vehar Hill I
found the Governor's carriage, which he had
sent for me. I could not do otherwise thani

AN ANTHOLOGY. 429

\ise it, and was much deliglited with the driver
to Thana. The descent of the hill is exceed-
inscly steep, and the scenery very wild and
beautiful. Thana seems a pretty place and
they are now finishing a fine church there.

At two we had again to get into Bundar
Boats to row to Ghodbunder, as the yacht got
aground. The views all day were' very beauti-
ful, and employed the Bishop and Sir Charles
Chambers in taking some pretty sketches.

We arrived at Ghodbunder at ihree^ — a Portu-
jjuese church, beautifully situated at the top
of a high mountain, to which you ascend by
an immensely long flight of stone steps. The
encampment was at the foot of the hill, and
Avas voted too hot, and all the ladies were
lodged in the church, where we had a fine
large room for eating, which was not forgotten
■anywhere. It would make an excellent dwelling
house, and the views from it (juite magnificent,
on one side overhanging the water, which had
the appearance of a fine lake.

In the evening Col. Rienzi harmonised us
by singing to an ill-strung fiddle. He has a
?i()od voice, and some execution.

We breakfasted early this morning to go
umi see the old ruined city f>f Bassein eight miles
off, and were to go in the yacht and sent
our Palankeens on to await our arrival. But we
had so little wind and had to tack about so much,
it was thought advisable to get into the Bundar

430 BOMBAY :

Boats and row to Bassein. When we arrived
there the Palankeens were not arrived. We all
^ot out to walk under the umbrellas, and I be-
lieve I may say that no one ever felt greater heat
or more scorching sun at 12 o'clock under a high
wall, with the black sand half over one's shoes»
which literally blistered our feet : — it was so hot.
After half an hour's walk apparently three sides,
round a large castle, we saw a bullock cart with
a little tilt; we (Mrs, Heber, Lady Chambers,
and myself ) were gladly lifted into and squeezed
into this machine, and really no chaise and four
would have been more welcome to us at that
moment. We were driven very dexterously
through ruined gateways and walls to a churchy,
a fine and complete ruin, and saw some tomb-
stones, of 1606, of Portuguese families. Soon
after this the Palankeens arrived and we went to
see a Hindu building not at all decayed, and a
most perfect fine carved stone cow which they
worshipped. We went to another church where
there were remains of fine stone carving, and the
entrance very fine. The arches and Corinthian
pillars and some of the iron of the gate very
finely embossed with iron nails. There are the
remains of innumerable fine houses and streets.

It really fills one with melancholy when
one reflects that this once magnificent place is
now a perfect desert with not one single inhabit-
ant, and it is not accounted for except that it is
.thought that the Mahrathas drove the Portuguese
out, of it. We were much pleased with it, and

AN ANTHOLOGY. 431

only regretted that we could not stay longer, but
we were too tired and hot to prolong our resear-
ches, and as we had two Palankeens 1 took Lady
Chambers into mine, and Sir Charles, took
Mrs. Heber, and in half an hour we got back
to the yacht, where we found an excellent dinner
waiting for us, and to that, and claret and
water, we did ample justice. We sailed back so
soon that we found ourselves at Ghodbunder by
the time dinner was over, and by the time our
adventures had been related <he carriages
and horses were ready, and at 5 o'clock our
agreeable and cheerful party dispersed. I
think I may say that every one enjoyed it extre-
mely ; nothing could exceed Mr. Elphinstone's
attention, civility, and wish of obliging; he was
my devoted Cavaliere Servente the whole time.
He certainly shines in these parties, and I am
sure we all regretted that it was Saturday and
that we must return home. Hormasjee's horses
took us the first twelve miles to Ambolee ; the
hired horses took us to Bandora where we had to
ferry over to Mahim, and by driving very fast we
were soon home, as we found our horses the other
side of the water, and drove the ten miles in an
hour and twenty minutes.-

The ferrying over is a curious process ; there
is a large cage put upon two boats, the horses
are taken off, and one is pushed up the inclined
plane into this cage in one's carriage. The
horses stand by the side, and in a quarter of an
hour one is rowed over. We saw the chief part

432 BOMBAY

of the island of vSalsette. The whole of the drive
to-day was very rich, almost like a gentleman's
park with lar^^e man^ro trees where I suppose
there have been houses, and now and then ruins
of them and also churches with a Cross in front;
it is indeed sad to think that all this fine country
seems nearly depopulated ; the Governor has
tried to do what he can, but it does not seem to
answer, in fact I suppose it is hot and un-
healthy. In some degree Bassein reminded one
of Goa, though there the Churches were kept
in repair, and inhabited by the monks. The
view of Bassein was very prett}^ from the water,
walled all round. I regretted then, as I always
do, that I cannot sketch.

Lady West's Journal. 182^^ in Drewitt's

Bombay in tlic days of d'oroc IV. iQOy,

pp. 178-181.

Elephanta.

Bayard Taylor.

I visited to the Cave-temples of Elephanta.
These celebrated remains are upon the Island of
Elephanta, in the bay, and about seven miles
distant from B<imbay. I was accompanied by
the captain of an American bark. We engaged
a bunder-l)oat, a craft with a small cabin, some-
thing like the kangia of the Nile, embarked at
the Apollo pier, and went up the bay with the

AN ANTHOLOGY. 433

flood tide. We passed the fort and floated along
the shore as far as Mazagaum, wliere the wind
favoured us for a run out to the island. The
<;cenery of the l)ay is ])eautiful, tlie different
islands rising from the water in bold hills cover-
ed with vegetation, while the peaks of the
Malabar Ghauts cut their sharp outlines against
the sky, on the opposite side. Butcher's Island,
which lies between Bombay and Elephanta, is
comparatively low an<i flat, and has a barren
appearance, but it contains a number of European
bungalows, and seems to be a favourite place of
residence. Elephanta, on the contrary, which
is about a mile in length, is lofty and covered
with palm and tamarind trees. Its form is very
beautiful, the suiumit being divided into two
peaks of unequal height.

The water is shallow on the western side,
and as we approached several natives appeared
on the beach, who waded out two by two,
and carried us ashore on their shoulders. A
well-worn foot-path pointed out the way up
the hill, and in a few minutes we stood on
the little terrace between the two peaks and
in front of the temple. The house of the
sergeant, who keeps guard over it, still inter-
vened between us and the entrance and before
passing it, I stood for some time looking
across to Bombay and Salsette, enchanted with
the beauty of the prospect before me. More
than half the charm, I found, lay in the rich,
tropical foliage of the foreground.

434 BOMBAY :

Turning, I passed around the screen of some
banana trees and under the boughs of a large
tamarind. The original entrance to the temple is
destroyed, so that it is impossible to tell whether
there was a solid front and doorway, as in the
Egyptian rock-temples, or whether the whole
interior stood open as now. The front view of
Elephanta is very picturesque. The rock is-
draped with luxuriant foliage and wild vines,
brilliant with many-coloured blossoms, heighten-
ing the mysterious gloom of the pillared half
below, at the farthest extremity of which the eye
dimly discerns the colossal outlines of the tri-
formed god of the temple. The chambers on-
each side of the grand hall are open to the day^
so that all its sculptures can be examined with-
out the aid of torches. The rows of rock-hewrr
pillars which support the roof, are surmounted by
heavy architraves, from which hang the capitals
and shattered fragments of some whose bases,
have been entirely broken away.

Vist't to India and China, 1856, pp. 46-48^

Elephanta.

Basil Hall.

It must be owned, that, of all the lions of
India, there are few to compare with the cave
temples of Elephanta, which, from lying within
less than one hour's sail of the town of Bombay,.

AN ANTHOLOGY. 435

form the scene of many a pleasure party ; a
circumstance which ought to add considerably to
the recommendation I have already given, that
any person wishing to behold at a glance all the*
wonders of the East should select Bombay, rather
than any other place. The island of Elephanta
lies only a few miles further up the harbour than
the spot where the ships anchor off the fort; and
as large and commodious boats, covered with
awnings, are to be had at a minute's warning,
nothing is so easy as to transport one's self from
the midst of the European society of the presi-
<lency, or from the bustle of the crowded native
bazaar into the most complete solitude. As the
island is not inhabited, the traveller finds himself
at once undisturbed amidst some of the oldest
and most curious, or, at all events, most striking,
remains of the ancient grandeur of the Hindoos,
which are anywhere to be met with. The effect,
I have no doubt, is considerably augmented by
the unusual abruptness of the change from a
scene of such particular bustle to another of
entire stillness. There are many points of intrin-
sic local interest about Elephanta which rank it
very high in the scale of curiosity ; yet it is one
of those wonders which, although it may far
exceed in interest what we expect, necessarily
baffles anticipation. No drawing can represent
it. Even a panorama, which, in the case of
Niagara, has already conveyed to European
senses most of the wonders of the great American
cataratt, couki make ppthing of Elephanta. The

436 BOMBAY :

only device that could ^ive a just conception
of the form, size, colour, and so on, of these
caves, would be a model of the full dimensions,
similar to what Belzoni exhibited of an Egyptian
mummy pit.

Fragments of Voyages, 2nd scries, t8j2, page T2g.

The caves of Elephanta are not, by any
means, of the same stamp ; but they possess their
own share of deep interest, which will not let
them slip ofif the recollection, I was not more
anxious to ^et sight of Niagara than to have a
look at Elephanta : nor can I pretend to say which
of the two gratified me most at first. Compari-
sons, after all, between such incongruous things
are not only useless, but absurd. It is like com-
paring the pleasure of viewing the Elgin marbles
with the surprise caused by hearing a concert
played on one string. The former is pure, sub-
lime, and enduring ; the latter is strange, inexpli-
cable, and transient. One we recollect merely
for its singularity, the other for its instruction in
genuine taste and refined fancy. Elephanta,
therefore, considered as a w^ork of art, may be
compared to one of Paganini's extravaganzas in
music. Niagara, on the other hand, in grandeur
and severe simplicity, is about as difficult to
match amongst the natural wonders of the earth

AN ANTHOLOGY. 437

as the Parthenon of Athens amongst the works
of ni:in. Rivals, no doubt, may be found; but
I suspect they will both remain for ever at the
top of their lespective classes.

Fragments of Voyages, 2nd series, 1832, pp. 129. 131.

Elephanta.

Seely.

On quitting Butchers Island, called by the
natives Deva Devi, or Island of the Gods,
not far up the bay stands the celebrated
Elephanta Island. It is of considerable ele-
vation, and famous for its caves hewn out
of the solid rock from the face of the moun-
tain ; they are considerably injured by time, —
" Whom stone and brass obey.
Who giv'st Xo every flying hour
^ To work some new decay."

These caves are very much injured by
the action of the sea-breeze, and from not
having drains cut on the top of the moun-
tain to carry off the rain water ; nor has any
care been taken to have trenches ma<le at the
foundation; so that in the periodical rains
they are often inundated, and abound with
reptiles particularly snakes. From their vici-
nity to Bombay they are fre(|uently visited
by parties of pleasure; and to preserve them
from wilful injury by casual visitors, a wall

438 BOMBAY :

with a gate has been lately erected in front,
and left in charge of an invalid sergeant, with
a few invalid sepoys, to protect them. The
old man has a good hou^e adjoining, and has
a comfortable sinecure of it, as most visitors
do not forget his long stories and the accom-
modation for refreshment which his house
affords. The view from the caves is very fine,
as they are situated about 350 feet above the
level of the sea. Here is the famous colossal
figure of the Trimurti,— Brahma, Vishnu, and
Shiva, the creating, preserving, and destroying
powers of the Hindoo mythology. The cave
is large, but by no means equal to the large
temples of Karli, or the far-famed ones at
Elora.

Wonders of Ellora, 1S24, />/>. 20-2/.

On the way to Mahableshwar.

Mrs. Guthrie.

In the soft twilight we picked our way
over the rocks by the water, and when the
moon shone out we crossed a stretch of ground
where innumerable specks of crystal shone
like diamond dust. On the viaduct we paused
and looked down upon the temples grouped
up and down the river. The broad deserted
ghats were silent now. The sacred Krishna,
bound on her long career, flowed by them a

AN ANrHOLOGY. 439

stream of silver. So lovely, so tranquil was
the scene that it seemed all unreal — a vision
in a dream. We moved away at last, and,
bending our steps towards the distant lights,
•we found ourselves in the central square of
the town. Alone as we were, we had no fear;
even of an uncivil word. As the population
of the place was Hindoo, musicians were beat-
ing their drums and twanging the 'vina' in
front of an old palace, ornamented with colour
and carving -a relic of other days, Afzul
Khan probably lived in it when he was gover-
nor of the Wai district. His gallant train
would have found ample accommodation in its
vast courts and galleries.

In the one long street of the bazaar, throngs
of men were walking up and down ; while
women and children, grouped under the ve-
randahs, made the air resound with their shrill
cries. People were making purchases at the
open stalls. A knot of girls, gaudily attired,
were buying strings of jessamine, and crowns
of yellow flowers, destined to set off the great
knot of glossy black hair raised upon their
•shapely heads. Handsome creatures they look-
ed as they stood in the red glare of a cresset,
flaming with cotton-seed steeped in oil. Num-
bers of white-robed votaries were wending
their way to prayer. We peeped into no less
than five temples, catching sight of long
aisles of pillars, lit at the top by small
Jamps. At the end of these vistas were bril-

440 BOMBAY :

liantly-illuminated shrines, before which men
in the attitude of prayer were performing
* piija. ' Most of these halls had been mosques^
but it was now the turn of the Hindoo.

Life in Western Imiia. t88i. Vol. I, />/>. 25-26.

Charm of riahableshwar.

Robert Brown.

I thought it better to defer writing until
I could tell you of my arrival and proceed-
ings at this far-famed and universally atl-
mired sanatorium. I have stood on the
pyramids of Egypt, I have gazed with rapture
on the mountain scenery of Ceylon, I have
contemplated the beauties of my own heather
hills, but not yet have I seen a landscape so
extensive, so diversified, as that by which I
am now surrounded ; and whilst in the full
enjoyment of such scenery, you will easily
imagine that I am somewhat averse to the use
of the pen.

The chief attraction of the place is its
magnificent scenery and fine bracing English
climate, the temperature ranging from 65 to 70
degrees, while in Bombay it is at least twenty
degrees above that just now. It is a sort of
sanatorium, founded by Sir John Malcolm,
from whom the village takes its name of
Malcompeth. It has a fine dry atmosphere*.

AN ANTHOLOGY. 441

with a cooling breeze that braces every nerve
and sinew of one's body, and enables one to
undergo fatigue witli quite a feeling of plea-
sure. We are here elevated son^e 4,000 or 5,000
feet ; and at such an altitude you will easily
imagine that we command a most extensive
view of the surrounding countr3^ On every
si<le, far as the eye can reach, mountain upon
mountain raises its lofty summit, contrasting
beautifully with the rich luxuriance of the
fertile valleys; and while the mind loses itself
in the silent contemplation of such a scene,
and naturally recurs to the recollection of
other scenes in other climes, the ear is suddenly
awakened by the roar of the mountain torrent,,
which, swollen by the last night's thunder-
plump, now rolls down the precipitous raving
with an impetuosity which no object in nature
can check, plunging into the abyss beneath,
and dasliing the spray like smoke along the
mountain-side; until, as if tireti of exulting in
its mad career, it gradually subsides into a
peaceful stream, meandering through the rich
green fields of plain beneath, and forming
altogether a beautiful and striking object in
the surrounding landscape. Gaze on it while
you may ; for see, the mist is rolling in dense
clouds along the mountains, and the curtain
of night will soon obscure the landscape from
your vision. Look again ! and that mountain-
peak is shrouded in darkness, when hark I
a peal of deafening thunder rends the heavens

442 BOMBAY:

and the lightning's flash penetrates the awful
obscurity of the scene, and blinds the senses
with its lurid brilliancy. A death-like silence
succeeds, and while with long-drawn breath I
await the next peal, a shriek from my favourite
spaniel pierces my ear; I rush to his rescue,
but only in time, alas, to see the footprint of
the tiger's destroying paw!

Memorials. 1867. pp. 60-62.

Sunsets at Mahableshwar.

Mr. Guthrie.

My first visit to this spot ( Bombay Point )
was made just as the sun in crimson glory drop-
ped down into the sea. The hazy tints of golden
amethyst that lingered about the mountain
depths were indescribably beautiful.

During the dull months when the cold, dry
winds blustered, the sunsets were the redeeming
charm of the place, a foretaste of " the better
land." No spot commanded a finer view of the
departing day than our own verandah. Some-
times the orb set in peaceful beauty against a
clear background of tender green and violet.
Sometimes its beams would suddenly rend the
leaden masses of cloud that concealed the sea
horizon, and shoot up flaming like some great
volcano. Early in the morning the sea that lay

AN ANTHOLOGY. 443

more than thirty miles away, was misty and blue ;
but in the evening it was critnson, like the sky.
Witli the naked eye ships could be distinguished
tjo its bosom. On one occasion, just as the great,
solar disc touched the water, a black object, no
bigger than a mnn's hantl, passed across it — a
:ship voyaging to gather pearls and spices on far
•shores. In India there is a bewitching beauty
in *' the parting hour," but finest of all was it to
see a great lone planet all aflame in the deep
orange of the after-glow.

Life in Wester n [ndiiu pp. 5T-52.

A Journey to Mahableshwar, 1829.

Elizabeth Grant.

At last we were ofif, and as the sun de-
irlineil and the air cooled, and the ascending
path brought the mountain air to us, I was
able to look up and out, and enjoy the singular
scene presented by our party.

A burni sahib needed a large retinue when
travelling in the East years ago. First went
Nasserwanjee on a tattoo (a little pony) leading
\is all, sword in hand, for the scabbard only
hung by his side^ the naked blade flourished at
•every turn ab^ve his hea<l ; next were some
sepoys or peons, then my mother's palanquin
•Am\ her spare bearers, then mine and more peons,
Chen my father's, then the two avails': next, the

444 BOMBAY :

upper servants on ponies, l)ut without swords-
then under servants on foot or on bullocks; the
luggage, tents, canteens, trunks, all on bullocks^
peons and coolies running beside them to the
nuiuber altogether of fifty or sixty. It was a
long train winding round among the hills, always,
ascending and turning corners, and when night
caiue on, and the torches were lit— one in about
every fourth man's hand — the effect was beautiful^,
the flames waving as the arms moved, leaves^
branches, rocks, gleaming in turn among the
dusky train that wound along up the steep foot--
way. Daylight might not have been so pictures-
que, but it would have been far more suitable to
the kind of journey, and the distance being
considerable, many a weary step was taken
before we reached our resting-place.

It was near midnight when we came to three
tents sent by General Robertson for our accom-
modation. All we wanted was soon ready,,
for a fire was there, burning in a furnace made
of stones, the usual travelling fireplace. Our
curry was heated, I had nearly a whole bottle of
beer, and my bed being ready by the time this
supper was over, I was soon fast asleep in a
region as wild as Glen Ennich.

My mother became quite reconciled next
morning to our journey, for a lyessenger arrived
very early with two notes for my father, one
from General — then Colonel Robertson — and one
from Colonel Smith ; they were notes of welcome
with directions, which, warned by the sufferings

AN ANTHOLOGY. 445

\)f the (lay before, we obeyed; very kind tliey
were — everybodx' is kind in India — but it was
not the kindness that pleased my mother, it was
the messenger! He was one of the irrej^nlar
horse, a native, light made, handsomely dressed,
in coloured trousers, fl(iwing robe, and yellow
cap (I think). He rode well and caracoled his
little spirited horse before us for just as long
<is we pleased to look at him. She took it into
"her head that he was one of Colonel Smith's
regiment —which regiment was Heaven knows
where— in Gujarat, I believe— so she asked
Nasserwanjee for a rupee to give him, and
•^litl the civil with the air of a princess.

After breakfast we started again, a long
ascent, and then, just at dark, a stietch of level
road, brouglit us to the end of our journey, a
large double-poled tent of Colonel Smith's, which
was to be lent to us during our stay on the hills.
We had a very good dinner very well served,
^nd retired to our sleeping-tents in great good-
humour. The night was piercing cold, and the
ihill of the water next morning was really
painful ; but a canter warmed me and gave me
:;dso a good view of the curious place we were
^iettled on, a wide plain on the top of a long
rid^e of mountains. The Governor's small
bungalow, and the Resident's a little way off,
were the only houses at the station ; everybody
•else lived in tents, scfit^ereid al>out anywhere in
groups of from five to si^,^c(7(^rdin^, to the
size, of the eslablishme^ijt,,,^ >frj^, ^.j, , .

446 BOMBAY :

The mountain air was enchanting, the sur>
hot in the middle of the day, yet quite bearable^
the mornings and evenings delightful, the
nights rather cold. The society was on the
pleasantest footing; the way of life most agree-
able as soon as we got into it. The first few
days we kept our Bombay hours, late dinners,,
and so on, therefore an exchange of calls with
our neighbours was the extent of oUr intercourse,,
but as soon as we showed ourselves well-bred
enough to conform to the habits of the place
we got on merrily: dined at the Robertsons*
often, lunched here and there, gave little
dinners and little luncheons, and went with
■parties to the only two lions that there were,
the sources of some river and a hill fort.

Lady Strachey's Memoirs of a Highland Lady\

T898, pp. 436-438.

A French Artist on Matharan.

LOUIS ROUSSELET.

1 mounted a pony and commenced my ascents
Night was drawing on, and the mountain-top-
was purple with the last rays of the setting sun ;
but as the moon was then at her full, I did not
hesitate to enter the gorges that open behind
Narel, trusting to the mild light of the satellite to
guide me on my way. To the height of nearly
1,500 feet the rock forms a perpendicular wall.

AN ANTHOLOGY. 447

wliifh seems inaccessible, and rests on elevated
basements, radiating in every direction over the
plain. The mountain is entirely isolated fron^
the remainder of the chain of the Ghauts, and
looks like a vast island of between nine antl ten
miles long, by one and a half or two miles broad.
Its summit, which forms a long horizontal table-
land, is nowhere more than 2,000 feet in height.
A very good road rises zigzag up its northern
face, but it is too steep to allow of carriages
being used in the ascent.

I soon found myself in the midst of a fine
forest of teak, which covered the whole outline
of the mountain basements. Most of the trees
had already lost their foliage, or retained only a
few withered leaves. Lofty plane-trees, with
their whitish trunks and curveil boughs, were
massed together at the brink of the precipice;
and here and there a silk-tree spread out its
arms, dry and spinous, bearing long white flakes.

The forest was intersected with glades,
which allowed me to see, from time to time, the
tangled array of ravines and hills which I was
going to traverse. My rapid course in the midst
of this solitude savoured of the fantastic. The
wind was blowing among the trees; a thousand
rumbling noises resounded on the mountains;
and the vivid light of the tropical moon brought
out in strong relief all the details of the sur-
rounding landscape. At the foot of the steps
which, stairCase-like, climb the perpendicular
Aank of the principal mass, 1 pulled up my pony ;

448 BOMBAY :

and, dismounting, I walked on, leading him by
the bridle. The road, narrow and cut out of the
rock, was continually turning this way or that,
bringing me sometimes in view of the plain,
wdiich beneath the light of the moon resembled a
vast lake, sometimes among the gloomy recesses
of the precipices. In some places extensive
landslips had formed a steep declivity, covered
with a thick growth of forest-trees, rising from
the bottom of the ravines to the summit ; and
here and there rills of spring-water followed the
road for a moment and then bounded into space.
The higher I climbed, the sharper and more
agreeable became the cold. At last I reached
the upper tableland, and rested for an instant at
a chowkey- — a small police-station. Here the
transition is abrupt. You feel that you have
entered a region entirely different from that you
have left ; for whilst the vegetation on the sides
of the mountain is still purely tropical, that
which covers the summit is of a wholly European
aspect. One might believe oneself in a well-kept
park ; the thickets are bushy, and the trees grace-
fully formed and arranged in groups, while the
air is cool and embalmed by thousands of flowers.
A beautiful road, spread with gravel like a
garden alley, running for several miles through
the forest, brought me at last to the bazaar, a
long row of native stalls in the midst of a glade.
Next morning I went out at an early hour to visit
the different points of view, the beauty of which
I had so many times heard vaunted. . A light

AN ANTHOLOGY. 449

mist covering the forest, and the leaves, whitened
by an abundant dew, recalled memories of
Europe. The houses of the Europeans, substan-
tially built of red stone, crowned every height ;
alleys ran in every direction, opening out superb
vistas. One of the points of the mountain,
Louisa Point, terminates abruptly, and forms an
immense precipice, at the bottom of which en-
ormous rocks, owing to the fall of a landslip
through the infiltrations of the rains, makes a
sublime scene of chaos. At my feet stretched
the whole Konkan down to the sea, which
glittered in the sun. Bombay and its islands
looked like dark points surrounded by silvery
lines. The plain appeared parched and bare,
and the watercourses by which it is furrowed
were clearly defined by the green lines of
the trees bordering them, while here and
there small villages, surrounded by plantations
of rice, lent some little animation to the
desert tract. Nearly in front of me rose an
isolated mountain, which my guide informed
me was Mount Parbul, and which is plainly
visible from Bombay ; an enormous gulf, more
than two miles wide, separated me from its
level summit, which is at the same elevation
as the spot whereon I stood. Pretty roads
that go all round the tableland of Matheran
extend along by the edge of the precipice, and
display a richly varied panorama. The salient
points of the mountain are marked off by them
like the angles of a fortress, and so furnish

450 BOMBAY :

magnificent foregrounds of rocks and forests at
their several points of view. Far from being
completely level, the ground is decidedly un-
dulating, and forms, even on the summit of
Matheran, small valleys and peaks.

The finest view to be obtained from Matheran
is that which is commanded from the point called
that of Panorama. Before the spectator rises
the chain of Bava Malang, the crest of which,
bare and jagged, appears to be crowned with
innumerable strong castles, with towers and
belfries; and in the distance, on the other side of
a vast plain covered with forests and rivers and
sprinkled over with villages, extends the long
line of the Thull Ghauts, with their terraces,
straight and perfectly horizontal, up to the
summit, resembling a gigantic rampart. On
another side, the sea and the islands, with the
rich vegetation along the coast, complete the
magnificence of this panorama.

India and its Native Princes, 1882, pp. 59-61, 63.

AN ANTHOLOGY. 451

View from Panorama Point,
Matheran.

" The Times of India."

This height a ministering angel might

select ;
For from the summit of this hill, the

amplest range
Of unobstructed prospect may be seen
That Konkan ground commands : — low

dusky tracts,
Where Ulhas is nursed, far southward !

Sahyadri hills
To the south and east, a multitudinous show ;
And in a line of eye-sight linked with these,
The hoary peaks of Deccan that gave birth
To Godavari's sacred stream,
Crowding the quarter whence the sun

comes forth.
Gigantic mountains rough with crags;

beneath,
A little from the imperial station's

western base
Main Ocean, breaking visibly, and stretched
Far into silent regions blue and pale.
And visibly engirding Bombay's isle
That now appears a dwindled object
And submits to lie at the spectator's feet.

These graphic lines of Wordsworth, slightly
altered and adapted, give an exact description

452 BOMBAY :

of the splendid view to be obtained from this the
highest Point on Matheran. Strictly speaking it
does not belong to Matheran proper, which
extends from Hart Point north to Chowk Point
south. It is the northern end of a small range
which abuts on the east of Matheran, and extend-
ing to Garbut and Sondai in the south spurs
away to the south-west Sahyadris. It is this
range that is first seen from the railway and that
hides Matheran proper from view. Owing to
its great height of nearly 2,700 feet above sea-
level, and favourable position, it commands, as
its name implies, a panorama unequalled in these
parts for its wide sweep of hill and plain, and
for its wild grandeur. Those who have seen the
famous Matterhorn call this Point its miniature.
It boldly juts out like a cape into space and
owing to the very small width of its headland,
views from both its right and left are easily
obtained at the same time.

From its northernmost ledge the eye has a
sweep of over sixty miles of the most picturesque
country in Western India, — the near hills with
their sides clothed with thick forest, the green
plain of the Konkan through which meander
several rivers and streams, on one side the
massive wall of the distant Ghauts with the
famous peaks and fortresses of the Deccan rising
above their shoulders, and on the other the broad
sea as well as its creeks and estuaries wedging
into the land. Right in front of us and stretch-
ing away from our feet, lie the range of

AN ANTHOLOGY. 453

eccentric hills and crags known as the Cathedral
Rocks, some of whose peaks are battered and
shaped into the most fantastic forms. Nearest
to us and looking almost like a continuation of
our range, is the pointed hill of Peb or Vikatgad,
with its steep and almost inaccessible but
nevertheless fortified top. Next to it is the
rounded peak of Nakhinda, with its sloping
back, standing out from the plain and appearing
from certain points like a huge war-elephant
on the run. Here the Cathedral range takes
a turn to the west with the blade-like peak of
Chanderi, the tent-like Mhas-Mara, the finger-like
pinnacles of Navara-Navari, and the fortified top
of Tavli which appears from here like a camel
with its big hump and curved neck.

The range ends with the famous Bava Malang,
standing out in stately grandeur like a huge
cathedral with its upper outline sharp cut as if
by human hands into regular form. Ruskin in
a well-known passage calls all mountains the
cathedrals of nature set in our midst to proclaim
the glory of God. But Malangghad is not only
metaphorically a cathedral : it really requires no
great stretch of the imagination to see the form
of a cathedral in its stately and regular outline.
It is seen to its best advantage from here, rising
to its full height, and its steep sides with the
belts of green forest unobstructed by intervening
hills. From Bombay too it appears a marked
feature in the view of the Konkan hills to be
obtained there ; and when the rays of the setting

454 BOMBAY :

sun resting on its top for a while illuminate its
bold outlines with all the colours of the rainbow,
the scene as best viewed from Malabar Hill is
striking beyond measure and one not easily
forgotten.

Beyond the Cathedral range to the north are
seen some of the highest peaks of Salsette and
south Gujarat. Between Malang and Tavli
appear the high cone of Kamandurg and its
neighbour, the flat hill-top of the wooded
Tungar, ten miles from Bassein, which Sir
Theodore Hope had once tried hard to make a
rival sanitorium to this of Matheran. To their
left rises another high conical peak, that of
Dugad, and behind it the steep fortified height
of Takmak, while beyond in the dim distance
stretches the Surya range, with its chief peak of
Asheri, the once famous and important fortress
of the Portuguese commanding the rich and
fertile plains of Kelve Mahim. The steep sheer
rock of Mahalakshmi known to English sailors,
who used to take bearings at sea from it, as
Valentine's Head, twenty miles east of Dahanu
in Gujarat, is visible on the horizon over the
point of Feb; and the still more distant and
higher fortress of Gambhirghad, eighty miles
off, just peeps over the horizon as a small speck.
Much nearer than these in the valley of the Tansa
is the forked ridge of Mahuli, the highest among
these hills, being more than 2,8oo feet above
sea-level, with its three fortified peaks, Palasgad
to the north, Bhandargad to the south and Mahuli

AN ANTHOLOGY. 455

proper in the centre. To the east of Mahuli
appears the pyramidal peak of Vatwad, with
which in the north-east begins the view of the
Sahyadri hills.

Raised on these hills is the plateau of the
Deccan, and the districts of Nasik, Ahmadnagar
and Poona can be made out from here with most
of their noted peaks. Of the Nasik hills above
the Sahyadri range appear the famous Trimbak,
whence rises the sacred Godavari, and Anjaneri,
the hot weather hill of the city of Nasik,
fourteen miles to the east of it. In the adjoining
Ahmadnagar district, on the border appear the
two neighbouring forts of Alang and Kulang,
and behind and between them the pointed peak
of Kalsubai, the loftiest peak on the Sahyadris
attaining a height of nearly 5,500 feet. The high
fortresses of Ratangad, Harischandragad, and
Bahirugad in Ahmadnagar are cut off from our
view here by the crest of the Sahyadris, which
here turn west to Sidgad, whose sugar-loaf peak
stands out detached from the main line. The
two other detached hills near are those of
Gorakhghad and Machhindraghad.

Exactly opposite to us and right to the east
is the sacred hill of Bhimashankar, at the top of
one of the old highways from the Konkan to the
Deccan and a noted place of pilgrimage. In
front of Bhimashankar is the fort of Tungi and
a little to its south are Kotaligad and Peth.
Furthest to the south-west visible from here is

456 BOMBAY

the Kusur Ghaut another of the passes leading
from the table-land into the plains of the Konkan
below. The remaining Sahyadri peaks not
quite visible from this point, but seen from this
headland a little further off, are the flat-topped
Dhak, six miles east of Karjat, the terraced peak
of Rajmachi, the famous Nagphani or Duke's
Nose near Khandala, and the historical forts of
Lohgad and Visapur beyond Lanowli.

Bounded by the distant Sahyadri hills
lies the Konkan plain, studded with numerous
villages and hamlets and several forests, and
furrowed by many streams, the largest being
the river Ulhas, which coming down from the
Ghauts into the plains at Karjat, winds into
a regular circular course between Narel and
Wangni before it meets the Kalyan Creek.
The village of Narel is clearly seen from
here with its station and the railway line,
which is also discerned throughout its length
from Karjat to Ambarnath till it winds round
Bava Malang to go to Kalyan and Thana.
Abutting on our Panorama-Garbut spur is the
hill of Gardul, along whose side is cut the road
from Narel to Matheran, distinctly visible from
here. At our feet on the eastern side slopes the
Mhar forest, the well-known picnic place of
visitors here, which runs as a belt a few hundred
feet below the top and meets the Kala forest on
the other or western slope. Looking to the south-
east we observe the massive green knolls of
Mount Barry and Governor's Hill, between which

AN ANTHOLOGY. 457

loom on the horizon the distant peaks of the
Sahyadris again; while a little to the left of the
latter knoll we get a glimpse of Chowk at the
south end of Matheran just peeping over the
intervening part of the hill.

Turning from the east to the west, we see
the Salsette and Thana hills rising wave-like in
three lines one behind the other, and containing
the two Bombay reservoirs of Vehar and Tulsi.
In one corner appears Persik hill, through two
tunnels in which the railway passes soon after
leaving Bombay and beyond it glitter in the sun
the waters of Kalyan creek. At our feet is the
plain of Maldoonga, green with several villages,
through which winds the thin streak of the river
of that name which, flowing past the Talonje
hills, meets the estuary at Panwell visible from
here. Looking south-west we get a fine view of
the northern points of Matheran and its thickly-
wooded beautifully green top, through which
peep out one or two house-tops, notably Craigie-
burn. Hart, Monkey, Maldoonga and the wedge-
like Porcupine Points, all slope, gracefully
clothed in green, into the Maldoonga valley
below, while a thick green line of trees run right
from thecourse of the renowned Malet's Spring.
Behind Porcupine Point rises the twin hill of
Prabal appearing quite different from what it
appears from the nearer western Points of
Matheran. From Prabal spur away to the
Panwell plain many smaller hills, notably Morpa
and Vansa, which alone are wooded.

458 BOMBAY :

Beyond the Panwell plain shines the sea of
the Bombay harbour, dotted with several big
islands, — Trombay to the north, and the two
Karanjas, on one of which is Uran, to the south,
with Elephanta and Hog Island, in the
middle. Behind Trombay are the Coorla and
Bhandup marshes, and to their south stretches
the long line of Bombay town and island, which
appears from here as a gem set in the sea, to
use Ruskin's fine expression about Venice.
Beyond Bombay which is about thirty miles
in a line from here, shines the broad Arabian
Sea, with its waters rolling free unbroken by
any land for thousands of miles. The south
Thana hills, of which the most prominent
are the massive pyramidal peak of Manikgad
and the tall funnel of Karnala, are the only
ones round about Matheran that are not visible
from here. But with this slight exception
this Point really, as its name implies, commands
an unrivalled panoramic view of the country,
which we have endeavoured to describe with the
aid of the Gazetteer, G. T. Survey maps, and
the knowledge obtained by frequent tramping
through the picturesque country itself, " meet
nurse for a poetic child."

Times of India, i6 April rSgy.

AN ANTHOLOGY. 459

The Ghauts.

Imperial Gazetteer.
The great wall of the Western Ghats probably
represents the primaeval water-divide of the
bygone Peninsula as it represents that of to-
day ; but the upheaval to present altitudes must
be comparatively recent, inasmuch as the
steep-sided valleys of the rivers draining west-
ward, and their tendency to deepen and reach
back eastward at their sources, seem to testify
to a yet unadjusted gradient. With a general
elevation of 3,000 feet, the rugged outlines of
the Western Ghats are shaped into steep-sided
cliffs and square-crested flat-topped peaks,
which present a remarkable appearance. The
weathering action of ages has shaped the trap
formation into natural citadels and fortresses
which dominate the crest of the hills, and were
found most useful as military positions in the
wild days of Maratha supremacy. South of
Bombay the seaward face of the hills is clothed
with dense forest, and passes inland from the
coast are few. But in the north the interior
plateau is approached by several roads, famous
in history, from the level coast strip on the
western side. Of these the Borghat is the best
known, for where the railway now curls and
twists around the spurs of a tremendous ravine
to a height of 2,027 feet above the sea was once
the military road which has ever been regarded
as the key to the Deccan. It opened the way
from the rising port of Bombay to the plains

460 BOMBAY :

of India. The Thalghat (1,912 feet) to the
north-east of Bombay is another historic pass
which likewise now carries a railway; and a
third ( almost equally celebrated ) connects
Belgaum with the little port of Vengurla. The
precipitous square-cut peaks, which give such
a fantastic appearance to the scenery of the
Western Ghats, are to be found wherever
horizontal strata of varying degrees of resistance
are subject to subaerial denudation. They repeat
themselves in the Droogs of Deccan scenery.

The seaward face of the Western Ghats is
steep, a veritable 'landing stair' (ghat) from the
sea, and the intersecting valleys are filled with
luxuriant vegetation, nourished by the sea-borne
mists and vapours which condense upon the crest
of the hills and stream down the steep-sided
gullies in endless procession during the mon-
soon season. The narrow space of lowland
bordering the sea below (from twenty to fifty
miles wide ) is much broken by spurs throughout
the northern province of the Konkan, and in
North Kanara the hills approach the sea very
closely; but farther to the south they recede,
leaving the fertile plains of South Kanara and
Malabar comparatively open. In the District of
Malabar the Western Ghats merge into the
irregular uplands of the Nilgiris, rising in alti-
tude to 7,000 and 8,000 feet ere they drop suddenly
to a remarkable gap (the Palghat Gap), through
which the railway is now carried eastward from
the coast port of Bey pore.

AN ANTHOLOGY. 461

The low-lying plains bordering the sea
throughout the whole length of Western India,
from the Kathiawar promontory to Cape Comorin
represented in mediaeval ages most of the wealth
and strength of India, and are still noted for their
great fertility. Ancient ports and factories (Arab,
Portuguese, and Dutch) are to be found scattered
along the coast line, and amid the palm groves
of Malabar are many relics of the days when the
commerce of the East centred on this coast. The
long, firm, curved outline of the western sea-board
south of Bombay is lost in Malabar. Here inlets
and backwaters break across the dividing line
of sea and shore, rendering the coast scenery
impressively beautiful. Cascades plunge down
the steep-sided cliffs into depths spanned by
rainbows; and the deep stillness of primaeval
forest encloses the clear reaches of the sea.

3rd ed. 1908. Vol I pp. 38-40.

Scenery of the Ghauts.

FitzClarence, Earl of Munster.

As we approached the limits of the great
table-land of India South of the Narbuddah,
the country became less cultivated and more
romantic ; and within a mile of this termination
the views became every instant more magnificent.
The bare points of the rocks and hills appeared
above the trees and verdure: and the immense
mountain to the south of the pass, which over-

462 BOMBAY :

hangs the plain, is seen threatening all below.
The vast chasms, and perpendicular walled
valleys, many hundred feet beneath the level
of the land on which I stood, were finer than
anything I had ever beheld; and the numerous
forts on the different pinnacles of the mountains,
some near, others more distant, added to the
sublimity of the scene. I wished for a glimpse
of the sea, and since I have arrived here have
been told that from one particular spot this can
be obtained, though my longing eyes were dis-
appointed in viewing that which an Englishman
feels to be next neighbour to his native country.
The number of beautiful views which con-
tinually presented themselves were delightful.
I never in any part of Spain or Portugal saw
finer scenery. One valley, bounded with mural
sides, was so deep, that I could not perceive the
bottom, except from the very brink of the pre-
cipice ; and, being covered with trees and shrubs
of the most charming foliage, added much to
its other beauties. We found it tolerably easy
to descend that part on which our pioneers had
been employed, but the remainder was extremely
difficult ; and it took us till twenty minutes after
six ( near one hour and a half ) before we overtook
the escort and my palanquin below in the plains
oftheKonkan. But magnificent and stupendous
as the scenery is around, it does not, I am told,
in any degree equal the Ghauts to the southward.
Journal of Route 1,819, pp. 319-320.

ACCOUNTS OF BOMBAY.

ACCOUNTS OF BOMBAY.
Streynsham flaster.

1672.

Having given you a particular account of
the Religion and Practice of the Inhabitants
of Guzzaratt farr exceeding the leaves of Paper
I thought the Relation thereof would have
taken up ; I shall adventure to trespass a little
farther on your Patience and give you a Small
account of our Island of Bombay, where I now
am, and according to the little time I have had
to informs myselfe of this I desire you would
measure the imperfect account I am able to
render of it.

Bombay is an Island lying upon the Coast
of India in about 18 degress North Latitude;
'twas given to the King of England in Dowry
with Queen Katherine, the Daughter of Portugal,
anno 1662. But not delivered to the English
until anno 1668; and in 1668 his Majesty was
pleased to give it to the East India Company
by reason of some ill government. Since it
hath been in the possession of the English
both under the King and Company it hath
not flourished or Increased in Commerce soe
much as it might otherwise have done, and tis
hoped will hereafter doe, and by reason there
are other Islands lye between the Maine land and
this, especially one called Salsett upon which
the Portugals have a notable Pass called Tannah,

466 BOMBAY :

by which noe Vessell can pass into the adjacent
River and Maine, but by their Permission, for
which they exact intollerable dutys, soe that
the Comerce between this Island and the
Neighbour Country of Decan is thereby wholy
Impeded, therefore the only way to bring
Trade to it and to mrke it famous must be
by Sea, which is very^facill, only a little and
but a little Expensive at the first ; whereof I
shall not insist here. Presuming the President
(who is Governor of Bombay) and Councill
have represented the matter more effectually to
the Company.

Bombay is Inhabited by all the severall
Nations or Sects of People I have before
mentioned. Here is Mahumetans, and a place
where they say one of the Saint of their
Religion was buryed, to which many come irr
Pilgrimage and doe homage at the grave ;
here is Hindooes of all Sorts and a place to
which they goe to pay their Devotions, esteem-
nig it sacred and antient ; here is allsoe
some Parsees, but they are lately come since
the English had the Island, and are most of
them Weavers, and have not yet any place
to doe their Devotion in or to Bury their Dead.
But the greatest and the ruling part for some
years past ( that is since the Portugalls have
had it ) is that of the Christians, the Portuges
haveing erected 5 : very fair and large Churches,
and divided the Island into soe many Parishes,
though God knows the major Part of these Chris-

AN ANTHOLOGY. 467

tians are very little Different from the Hindooes or
naturall Indians, and understand as little of Chris-
tian Relij^ion; for they goe by the name of Rice
Christians, that is those that profes and owne the
Name of Christianity for Sustenance only, being
a most miserable poore People, and kept in
horrible Slavery, Subjection, and Ignorance. But
though since we have had the Island their yoke
is much eased, and they seem to be desirous of
knowing our Religion, to the Propagation where-
of on this Island a fair feild seems to be laid
open, and how farr it may spread from hence
God knoweth, who m:iy increase into the Courts
of all these Eastern Princes and the Bowells of
the Neighbour Countrys, if He have such Mercy
in Stoere for soe meek, gentiele, and charitable
a peopye. And if we were supplyed with able,
sober, and orthodox and grave divines for the
Ministry, there is great hopes of success. But the
Company were (in our Judgment) much mistaken
in those two sent out anno 1669 for this worke,
one of them to preach and the other to teach a
free schoole who were both soe very averse to
all things taught and used by the Church of Eng-
land, that instead of making new Proselits,
they had lost many of our owne People, who
refused to come to heare them, claiming the same
liberty and priviledge which they very roughly
and indiscreetly blobbed out to have themselves,
that they would not hear the Conmion Prayer or
Soe much as come into the place where it or the
Lords Prayer, Apostles Creed, or Ten Command-

468 BOMBAY:

ments were said, directly contrary to the Hon'-
ble Company's Laws which were sent out
the same year they came, wherein they require
that in Publique the King's Majestie, the Peace,
Happiness and Prosperity of his Kingdomes, and
the good and wellfare of the ^^nglish East
India Company be prayed for, and every Sun-
day the Apostles Creed, or sometim.es in place
thereof Athanasius Creed, and the Ten Command-
ments, or the Summary thereof out of the 24
Chap, of St. Matthew 37, 38, 39 and 40, ver. be
read, — these people, I say, were soe farr from
observing this order of the Company that neither
of them could be prevailed with at any time
to read the Apostles Creed, nay or to say the
Lords Prayer, which though the Company's
Laws require it not, yet we thought as good and
necessary as the other things it doth require.
But one of them would some times, tho' a long
time first, and that very rarely, would read one
of the Chapters where the lO Commandments
was, and some times where the Lords Prayer
was, but the other of them never or would did
to his Death. And when they marryed any they
did it in a strange manner, making the marryed
Sweare before God and the Congregation or
Company present, which the Soldyers made
very ill use of; and because they would not
bury the Dead many of them were highly offend-
ed, and indeed all their ways were new and soe
contrary to the Custome and Education, and
humour of the generallity there that it gave

AN ANTHOLOGY. 469

great offense and occasion of much debate, that
not only the Portugez, to whose Priests, who
are generally too well learned for such of our
Ministers, these things were very novall and
strange but also the Natives .would enquire
what Class or Sect of Englishmen they were,
and to make the busynes worst, there was a
Souldyer that came out that yeare allsoe, who
pretended the light of the Spiritt, which moved
him to Preach, and he had sometimes Delivered
his Doctrine in Publicke among them, offering
to dispute it with any of the two Ministers,
that he was as lawfully sent to Preach the
Gospell as they were. But the Deputy Governour
did not thinke it convenient to let him have the
like liberty, and therefore tooke hold of him atid
clapt him in Prison, where after a short time
he came to a soberer understanding.

" To conclude this paragraph of Bombay, I
say we here upon the place doe find that men
of this New Straine of opinion and learning
are not at all fitt to plant the Gospell here; for
it must needs be that they will be disliked of
the generallity of the English, which must
certainely much divide and distract the opinions
of new Proselites. And the honour of these
People, may I thinke the air of these Climates,
doth much incline to the old orthodox Doctrine
and episcopall government, for we find generally
those of that persuasion are not soe positive
and dogmaticall but more moderate and chari-
table (a virtue very agreeable to these People),

470 BOMBAY :

and better learned, espetially in the antient
Fathers, and Soe more able to hold a sound
argument against the Romish Priests then those
of the other Persuasions.

" I shall hot trouble you with more at
present, having, I doubt, too much trespassed
on you allready ; if you thinke this discourse
may give satisfaction to any of the Company
or Committee, who we hear, and by some pass-
ages have reason to believe soe, are of opinion
we that live here are men of noe conscience or
honesty, bringing noe Religion with us on
this side the Cape, if you thinke it may be
satisfactory to them, or others concerned in the
Trade, or for their Relations in these parts, I
leave it wholy to your self to shew as your
wisdom shall thinke fitt, reserving such part as
Treats of particular concerns, &ca.

" Sr : yours, &ca.
" Bombay, January l^: 1671'' {i.e. N.S. 1672).

Diary of W. Hedges, ed. with ioipublished
records by Yule, 1888, Vol II.

AN ANTHOLOGY. 471

Fryer.

1675.
I

Bombaim is the first that faces Choul, and
ventures farthest out into the Sea, making the
Mouth of a spacious Bay, from whence it has its
Etymology: Bombaim, quasi Boon Bay.

Beyond it lies Canorein, Trumbay, Mun-
chumbay, with their Creeks, making up the
North side of the Bay : Between whom and the
Main lies Elephanto, Kerenjau, Putachoes, with
the great Rock or barren Islet of Henry Kenry :
These, with some part of the Main, constitute
the South-East side of the Bay ; all which to-
gether contribute to the most notable and secure
Port on the Coasts of India ; Ships of the greatest
as well as smaller Burthen having quiet Harbour
in it ; wither if they can, they chuse to betake
themselves, if they happen, as oft they do, to
lose their Voyages by the Monsoons.

East Ifidia and Persia, l6gS Vol. I, page 160.
(Hakluyt Society's Edition by IV. Crookes, 1908J,

472 BOMBAY :

Fryer.

2

Where at first landing they found a pretty
well Seated, but ill Fortified House, four Brass
Guns being the whole Defence of the Island ;
unless a few Chambers housed in small Towers
in convenient Places to scowre the Malabars,
who heretofore have been more insolent than
of late; adventuring not only to seize their
Cattle, but depopulate whole Villages by their
Outrages; either destroying them by fire and
sword, or compelling to a worse Fate, Eternal
and intolerable Slavery.

About the House was a delicate Garden,
voiced to be the pleasantest in India, intended
rather for wanton Dalliance, Love's Artillery^
than to make resistance against an invading
Foe : For the Portugals generally forgetting
their pristine Virtue, Lust, Riot and Rapine,
the ensuing Consequences of a long undisturbed
Peace where Wealth abounds, are the only
Remarkable Relique of their Ancient worth ;
their Courages being so much effeminated, that
it is a wonder to most how they keep any
thing ; if it were not that they have lived
among mean spirited Neighbours. But to return
to this Garden of Eden, or Place of Terrestrial
Happiness, it would put the Searchers upon
as hard ^n Inquest, as the other has done
its Posterity : The Walks which before were
covered with Nature's verdent awning, and

AN ANTHOLOGY. 473

lightly pressed by soft Delight?, are now open
to the Sun, and leaded with the hardy Cannon ;
The Bowers dedicate:! to Rest and Ease, are
turned into bold Rampires for the watchful
Centinel to look out on; every Tree that
the Airy Choristers made their Charming Choir»
trembles, and is extirpated at the rebounding
Echo of the alarming Drum ; and those slender
Fences only designed to oppose the Sylvian
Herd, are thrown down to erect others of a
more Warlike Force. But all this not in one day.

East India and Persia, Vol. I, pa^c 1 64-5.

Fryer.

3

From whence let us walk the Rounds. At
distance enough lies the Town, in which confused-
ly live the English, Portugueze, Topazes, Gen-
tues, Moors, Coo4y Christians, most Fishermen.

It is a full INIile in length, the Houses are low»
and Thatched with Oleas of the Cocoe-Trees, all
but a few the Portugals left, and some few the
Company have built, the Custom-house and
Warehouses are Tiled or Plastered, and instead
of Glass, use Panes of Oister-shells for their
Windows (which as they are cut in Squares,
and polished, look gracefully enough). There is
also a reasonable handsome Buzzar.

474 BOMBAY :

At the end of the Town looking into the field,
where Cows and Buffoloes graze, the Portiigals
have a pretty House and Church, with Orchards
of Indian Fruit adjoining. The English have
only a Burying Place, called Mendam's-Point,
from the first Man's Name there interr'd, where
are some few Tombs that make a pretty Shew
at entring the Haven; but neither Church or
Hospital, both which are mightly to be
desired.

There are no Fresh Water Rivers, or falling
Streams of living water: The Water drank is
usually Rain-water preserved in Tanks, which
decaying, they are forced to dig Wells into
wjiich it is strained, hardly leaving its bragkish
Taste; so that the better sort have it brought
from Massegoung, where is only one fresh
Spring.

On the backside of the Towns of Bombaim
and Maijm, are woods of Cocoes (under which
inhabit the Banderines, those that prune and
cultivate them), these Hortoes being the greatest
Purchase and Estates on the Island, for some
Miles together, till the Sea break in between
them: Over-against which, up the Bay a Mile, lies
Massegoung, a great Fishing Town, peculiarly
notable for a Fish called Bumbelo, the Sust-
enance of the Poorer sort, who live on them and
Batty, a course sort of Rice, and the Wine of
the Cocoe, called Toddy. The ground between
this and the great Breach is well ploughed, and

AN ANTHOLOGY. 475

•bears good Batt}'. Here the Portugals have an-
•other Church and Religious House belonging to
the Franciscans.

Beyond it is Parell, where they have another
•Church, and Demesnes belonging to the Jesuits;
4o which appertains Siam, manured by Colum-
•l^eens, Husbandmen, where live the Frasses, or

Porters also ; each of which Tribes have a

Mandadore, or Superintendent, who give an
account of them to the English, and being born
under the same degree of Slavery, are generally
•more Tyrannical than a Stranger would be
towards them ; so that there needs no other

Taskmaster than one of their own Tribe, to keep

them in awe by a rigid Subjection.

Under these Uplands the Washes of the Sea
produce a Lunary Tribute of Salt, left in Pans
Nor Pits made on purpose at Spring-Tides .for
the over flowing; and when they are full, are
iincrustated by the heat of the Sun. In the
•middle, between Parell, Maijm, Sciam, and
Bombaim, is an Hollow, wherein is received a
Breach running at three several places, which
drowns 40,000 Acres of good Land, yielding
nothing else but Samphire ; athwart which, from
Parell to Maijm, are the Ruins of a stone Cawsey
made by Pennances.

At Maijm the Portugals have another com-
pleat Church and House; the English a pretty
Custom-house and Guard-house : The Moors
also a Tomb in great Veneration for a Peor, or

476 BOMBAY:

Prophet, instrumental to the quenching the
Flames approaching their Prophet's Tomb at
Mecha (though he was here at the same time)
by the Fervency of his Prayers.

At Salvesong, the farthest part of this;
Inlet, the Franciscans enjoy another Church
and Convent; this side is all covered with
Trees of Cocoes, Jawks, and Mangoes; in the
middle lies Verulee, where the English have a
Watch.

On the other side of the great Inlet, to the
Sea, is a great Point abutting against Old
Woman's Island, and is called Malabar-hill, a
Rocky, Woody Mountain, yet sends forth long^
Grass. A-top of all is a Parsy Tomb lately
reared; on its Declivity towards the Sea, the
Remains of a Stupendious Pagod, near a Tank
of Fresh Water, which the Malabars visited it
mostly for.

Thus we have completed our Rounds, bring-
ing in the Circumference Twenty Miles, the
Length Eight, taking in Old Woman's Island^
which is a little low barren Island, of no other
Profit, but to keep the Company's Antelopes,
and other Beasts of Delight.

The People that live here are a Mixture of
most of the Neighbouring Countries, most of
them Fugitives and Vagabonds, no account
being here taken of them: Others perhaps invited
hither (and of them a great number) by the
Liberty granted them in their several Religions.

AN ANTHOLOGY. 477

which here are solemnized with Variety of
Fopperies (a Toleration consistent enough with
the Rules of Gain), though both Moors and
Portugals despise us for it; here licensed out of
Policy, as the old Numidians to build up the
greatest Empire in the World. Of these, one
<imong another, may be reckoned 60000 Souls;
more by 50000 than the Portugals ever could.
For which Number this Island is not able to find
Provisions, it being most of it a Rock above
Water, and of that which is overflowed, little
hopes to recover it. However, it is well supplied
from abroad both with Corn and INIeat at reasori-
-able Rates; and there is more Flesh killed for the
English alone here in one Month, than in Surat
for a Year for all the Moors in that Populous
City.

The Government here now is English; the
Soldiers have Martial Law: The Freemen
Common; the chief Arbitrator whereof is the
President, with his Council at Surat; under him
is a Justiciary and Court of Pleas, with a Com-
mittee for Regulation of Affairs, and presenting
<ill Complaints.

The President has a large Commission, and
is ViceRegis ; he has a Council here also, and a
•Guard when he walks or rides abroad, accom-
panied with a Party of Horse, which are con-
•stantly kept in the Stables, either for Pleasure
or Service. He has his Chaplains, Physician,
surgeons, and Domesticks; his Linguist, and

478 BOMBAY :

Mint-Master: At Meals he has his Trumpets-
usher in his Courses, ahd Soft Music at the
Table: If he move out of his Chamber, the Silver
Staves wait on him; if down Stairs, the Guard
receive him; if he go abroad, the Bandarines and
Moors under two Standards march before him:
he goes sometimes in his Coach, drawn by large
Milk-White Oxen, sometimes on Horseback,,
other times in Palankeens, carried by Cohors,
Musslemen Porters: Always having a Sombrero
of State carried over him: And those of the
English inferior to him, have a suitable Train.

East India and Persia, Vol. /, page 171-178^

Fryer.

4
Happy certainly then are those, and only
those, brought hither in their Nonage, before
they have a Gust of our Albion ; or next to them,
such as intoxicate themselves with Laethe,
and remembep not their former Condition :
When it is e/postulated. Is this the Reward
of an harsh and severe Pupilage ? Is this the
Elysium after a tedious Wastage? For this,
will any thirst, will any contend, will any
forsake the Pleasures of his Native Soil, in
his Vigorous Age, to bury himself alive here ?
Were it not more charitable at the first Bubbles.

AN ANTHOLOGY. 479

of his Infant-Sorrows, to make the next Stream
over-swell him ? Or else if he must be full
grown for Misery, how much more compassionate
were it to expose him to an open Combat
with the fiercest Duellists in Nature, to spend
at once his Spirits, than to wait a piece-
meal'd Consumption ? Yet -this abroad and
unknown, is the ready Choice of those to
whom Poverty threatens Contempt at home :
What else could urge this wretched Remedy ?
For these are untrodden Paths for knowledge,
little Improvement being to be expected from
Barbarity. Custom and Tradition are only
Venerable here ; and it is Heresy to be wiser
than their Forefathers; which Opinion is both
bred and hatch'd by an innate Sloth ; so that
though we seem nearer the Heavens, yet Bodies
here are more Earthy, and the Mind wants
that active Fire that always mounts, as if it
were extinguish'd by its Antiparistasis: Whereby
Society and Communication, the Characteristick
of Man is wholly lost. What then is to be
expected here, where sordid Thrift is the
only Science.-* After which, notwithstanding
there is so general an Inquest, few there be
acquire it : For in Five hundred, One hundred
survive not ; of that One hundred, one Quarter
gel not Estates; of those that do, it has not
been recorded above One in Ten Years has
seen his Country ; And in this difficulty it
would hardly be worth a Sober Man's while
much less an Ingenuous Man's, who should

480 BOiMBAY

not defile his purer Thoughts, to be wholly
taken up with such mean ( not to say in-
direct ) Contemplations; however, a necessary
Adjunct, Wealth, may prove to buoy him
up on the Surface of Repute, lest the Vulgar
serve him as Aesop's Frogs did their first
rever'd Deity.

East India and Persia, Vol. /, page 180-I8I.

II

T/(/.< 2>aii.-<(ige fro in Philip Aiiderxtni aires f'"r]ier''s
(ircdunt in cdii rev ient, form.

Philip Anderson.

We will now endeavour to take a dioramic
view of Bombay in its improved condition. The
population was composed of English, Portuguese,
Hindus, Mussulmans, and native Roman Catho-
lics, called *' Cooly Christians," who were chiefly
engaged in fishing. The dwellings of these
different classes were not fixed in separate
quarters of the town, but were placed indis-
criminately. The town was a mile in length.
The houses were low, and for the most part
thatched; a few only, which had been built by
Portuguese or English, being of substantial con-
struction. None of the windows were 'glazed;
but in many, oyster shells were used as a
substitute for glass. There was a burial ground

AN ANTHOLOGY. 481

at a place called Mendaim's Point, from the name
of the individual whose corpse was first interred
there. Within six hundred yards of the Fort
the land was being gradually cleared of trees
and cottages. There was one Church, a pretty
object, belonging to the Portuguese. On Malabar
Hill stood a Parsi tomb recently erected, and
the ruins of a large Hindu temple. At Mahim
was a Portuguese Church, with a house and
other handsome buildings attached. There were
also an English Guard-House andCustom-House.
The Jesuits possessed a Church and extensive
demesnes at Parell, and Sion was also their
property. On the low ground to the South-east
of Sion were salt pans, the Court having sent
out directions that they should be constructed on
the model of those at Rochelle in France, and
Santavalli in Portugal.

Colaba, or old Woman's Island, as it was
called for long, had been taken possession of
peaceably in 1674 after an arrangement made
between Gerald Aungier and the Portuguese.
For many years it was only used " to keep the
Company's antelopes, and other beasts of
delight." None of its land was appropriated to
individuals, as from the first it was reserved to
be a military cantonment.

In the Harbour, Butchers' Island — as it was
then and still is called — was only used as a run
for a few cattle, and a place where small vessels
were hauled ashore and cleaned. Elephanta

482 BOMBAY :

was also used only for cattle, and remained in
the hands of the Portuguese. The figure of an
elephant carved out of a black stone — from
which the island received its name — was stand-
ing unmutilated, and so also was the figure of
a horse. The tract on the main land extending
from the south point of the Harbour to the river
Penn was called " The Corlahs," and Bombay
was dependent upon it for its supply of
provisions, particularly at such times as the
Portuguese prohibited all exportations from
Salsette.

At the other side of the small Strait which
separates Salsette from Bombay were the
Aquada Blockhouse, and on the hill a mile
beyond Bandora the Portuguese Church, whicli
so gracefully overlooks the sea. The Roman
Catholic services were well performed. A new
landing-place led to a College of Paulitines, as
the Jesuits were then called. Before the Col-
lege stood a large cross, and before that was a
space, which, when the traveller from v^hose
work this account is chiefly taken, visited it, was
" thwack'd full of young blacks singing vespers. '*
The collegiate establishment was defended, like
a fortress, with seven cannon, besides small
arms. Great hospitality prevailed, and distin-
guished guests were, on their arrival and depar-
ture, saluted with a roar of artillery. The Supe-
rior possessed such extensive influence that his
mandates were respectfully attended to in the
surrounding country, and the traveller who had

AN ANTHOLOGY. 483

the good fortune to be provided with his letters
commendatory, was met by the people, wherever
he halted, with presents of fruit and wine.
The town of Bandora was large, with tiled
houses. A view from midchannel embracing
the town, college, and Church of St. Andrew,
was extremely picturesque. At a distance of
four miles was another Church, described as
magnificent ; and the whole neighbourhood
was studded with the villas of Poruguese gentle-
men, many of whom lived in considerable state.

To the East of Salsette, the sail by way
of Thana to Bassein, which is now so justly
admired, must in those days have been of
unrivalled beauty. Trombay was adorned with
a neat Church and country seat. When
Thana had been passed, the traveller's eye
rested at every half mile on elegant mansions.
Two of these deserve special mention. One,
the property of John de Melos, was three
miles from Thana. It stood on a sloping
eminence, decorated with terraced walks and
gardens, and terminating at the water side
with a banquetting house, which was approached
by a flight of stone steps. A mile further was
Grebondel, [ Ghodbandar ], the property of Martin
Alphonso said to be "the richest Don on this side
Goa." Above rose his fortified mansion, and a
Church of stately architecture. Within Bassein
were six Churches, four convents, a College of
Jesuits, another of Franciscans, and a library of
moral and expository works. The Hidalgos

484 BOMBAY :

dwellings, with their balconies and lofty windows,
presentedan imposing appearance. Christians
only were permitted to sleep within the walls of
the town, and native tradesmen were compelled
to leave at nightfall.

English in Western India, 1854, pages 67-69.

OVINGTON.

1689

This Island has its Denomination from the
Harbour, which allows the safest Rideing for
Ships of any in these parts, and was originally
called Boon Bay, i.e., in the Portuguese Lan-
guage, a Good Bay or Harbour. By Ptolomy it
was described under the Name of Milizigeris.
And before it fell into the Hands of the English,
was under the Dominion of Portugal, from
whence it was translated to the Crown of
England, upon the Marriage of the Infanta of
Portugal to King Charles the Second, Anno. 1662.
And is now put into the Possession of the
East-India Company, for the convenience of
their Ships and Traffick.

Before we espyed the Main of India, several
Snakes of different sizes came swimming round
our Ship near the surface of the Water, by which
we knew we were not far from Land, because
they are never seen at any great distance from

AN ANTHOLOGY. 485

the shore; they were washed from it, I presume,
by the violence of the Rains in the times of the
Mussouns, which I shall afterwards describe.
This was seconded by another sign of our
approaching the Land, viz. by a multitude of
Locusts, which came flying upon our Masts and
Yards, when we were distant from it Thirty Lea-
gues, as we found by our Computation afterwards.
They were above two Inches in length, and their
reaching us at that distance from the Shore,
argued their great strength of Wing to flie to us
so very far; by which they mounted aloft, after
they had rested themselves a while, and took
their Flight directly upwards.

A Voyage to Siiratt, 1689, pp. 129-130.

OVINGTON.
2.
They have here abundance of Coconuts,
which bring some Advantage to the Owners,
but very little either of Corn or Cattle, but
what is imported from the adjacent Country >*
and these not in great Plenty, nor of very
good Growth. A Sheep or two from Suratt is
an acceptable Present to the best Man upon
the Island. And the Unhealthfulness of the
Water bears a just Proportion to the Scarcity
and Meanness of the Diet, and both of them
together with a bad Air, make a sudden end
of many a poor Sailer and Souldier, who pay

486 BOMBAY :

their Lives for hopes of a Livelihood. Indeed,
whether it be that the Air stagnates, for the
land towards the Fort lies very low, or the
stinking of the Fish which was used to be
applied to the Roots of the Trees, instead of
Dung; or whatever other Cause it is which
renders it so very unhealthful, 'tis certainly a
mortal Enemy to the Lives of the Europeans.
And as the Ancients gave the Epithet of
Fortunate to some Islands in the West, because
of their Delightfulness and Health ; so the
•Modern may, in opposition to them, denominate
this the Unfortunate one in the East, because
of the Antipathy it bears to those two
Qualities.

We arrived here (as I hinted before) at
the beginning of the Rains, and buried of the
Twenty Four Passengers which we brought
with us, above Twenty, before they were
ended ; and of our own Ship's Company above
Fifteen : And had we stay'd till the end of the
next Month, October, the rest would have
undergone a very hazardous Fate, which by
a kind Providence ordering our Ship for
Suratt's Rivermouth, was comfortably avoided.
A fortunate Eacape indeed! because neither
the Commander, nor myself, were in any Hopes
of surviving many Days : neither Temperance,
the most Sovereign Medicine, nor the safest
Prescription in the Physical Art, could restore
the Weakness of our languishing decay'd
Natures. And that which thoroughly confirm'd

AN ANTHOLOGY. 487

to us the unhealthfulness of the place we had
lately loosed from, was the sudden Desertion
of our Diseases, and return of Health, before
half the Voyage to Suratt was finished. In
the middle of which Passage we manifestly
perceiv'd in our Bodies as evident an alteration
and change of Air for the best, as our Palates
could distinguish betwixt the Taste of Wine,
and that of Water.

The Deputy-Governor, Mr. George Cook
a pleasant and obliging Gentleman, soUicited
me upon the account of my Function to
reside with him upon Bombay, and invited me
with all the Proposals of a frank and generous
Civility, to wave my Voyage, and continue
with him there, because they were then destitute
of a Minister. And indeed the Deference I
bore to such kind Expressions, and to the
Duty of my Calling, were invincible Arguments
for my Stay, had I not been satisfied of the
immediate infallible sad Fate I was under,
like that of my Predecessors ; one of
whom was interred a Fortnight before this time,
and three or four more had been buried the
preceding Years: Which common Fatality has
created a Proverb among the English there,
that Two Mussouns are the Age of a Man.
This is much lamented by the East-India
Company, and puts them upon great Expenses
for supplying the Island with fresh Men, in
the room of those that are taken away, and
providing able Surgeons, furnish'd with Drugs

488 BOMBAY:

and Chests from Europe, to take care of the
Infirmaries, and all that are sick.

A Voyage to Siiratt, 1689, pp. 1 40- 1 43.

OVINGTON.

3-
The Island lies in about Nineteen Degrees
North, in which is a Fort, which is the Defence
of it, flanked and Lined according to the Rules
of Art, and secured with many Pieces of
Ordinance, which command the Harbour and the
parts adjoining. In this one of the Companies
Factors always resides, who is appointed
Governour to inspect and manage the Affairs
of the Island; and who is vested with an Autho-
rity in Civil as well as Military Matters, to see
that the several Companies of Soldiers which are
here, as well as Factors and Merchants, attend
their various Stations, and their respective
Charge.

The Island is likewise beautified with several
elegant Dwellings of the English, and neat
Apartments of the Portuguese, to whom is per-
mitted the free Exercise of their Religion, and
the Liberty of erecting publick Chappels of
Devotion; which as yet the English have not
attain'd to, because the War with the Mogul
interrupts the finishing of a stately
Structure which was going on for their publick

AN ANTHOLOGY. 489

Church. For want of this a particular Room is
set apart in the Fort for Publick Service twice a
day, at which all are enjoyn'd to be present ; and
for performance of which, and other Sacred
Offices, a Salary of an 100 I. annually, besides
the convenience of Diet and Lodging, is allowed
to the Minister by the Company.

The Gentiles too, as well as Christians, are
permitted the Freedom of their Religion, and
conniv'd at in their Heathen Worship. I acciden-
tally once entred into one of the Gentiles Chap-
pels, but durst not stay for fear of disturbing the
Bramin with the Visit. The smallness of it
would scarce admit of above Nine or Ten to
enter into it. At the remotest part of it was
placed the Pagod upon the ground, which was
only a Face form'd of Tin, with a broad flat
Nose, and Eyes larger than a Crown Piece. On
the right side of this Image hung a small Purse
for the People Oblations; on the left, very near
it, lay some burnt Rice, which the Bramin had
sacrificed ; and at the entrance of the Door stood
a Trumpet, which sounded all the while he was
a sacrificing.

The Island by the War with the Mogul was
much Depopulated and Impoverished, both by
destroying the English Inhabitants, and wasting
the Fruit of the ground, especially of the Coco-
Trees, whose Nuts are the staple Income upon it.

. A Voyage to Suratt, 1689, pp. 147-149'

490 BOMBAY :

Richard Cobbe.

1715.

Bombay Castle, Oct. 5, IJIS-

My Lord,

Having had the honour of paying my res-
pects to your Lordship a little before I left
England, I remember the charge you were
pleaseci jto lay upon me, the giving your Lordship
some account of this island, and the state of
religion here ; particulars of which I hope, you
will excuse, nor having as yet been sufficiently
instructed in the manners and customs of the
inhabitants of this Place ; but, generally speak-
ing, they are a people wholly given up to
idolatry and superstition, ignorant and poor ;
they consist chiefly of Moors, Gentous, Portu-
guese and Cooley Christians, some converts
which the Portuguese have made by marrying
into their families, the better to ingratiate them-
selves with the natives.

The whole island in circumference is about
twenty miles, and eight in length, much healthier
than heretofore, or than is usually reported ;
which may be attributed not only to the prohi-
biting the Bucksho, the smaller sort of Fish, with
which they used to dung their ground and trees
in these parts; but to the stopping up and re-
pairing several sea-breaches, which formerly
overflowed a third part of the island. The soil

AN ANTHOLOGY. 491

4tself is poor and barren, a sandy rock, producing
little else besides Batty, Coco-nuts and a few
Greens ; however we are plentifully supplied with
variety of provisions from the neighbouring
Coasts ; Syrash [Siraz] Wine, which is our chief
liquor, we have from Persia, very strong and
wholesome, but not so well tasted ; Arrack from
Goa or Batavia ; and extraordinary good Wheat
from Surat, with which we make the best bread
in all India. We have three good forts here,
vand one strong built and well fortified castle.

The number of inhabitants, together with the
English, are reckoned about i6,000 souls, of
different languages as well as religions ; the
Moors and Gentous have their Mosques and
Pagoda's, the Portuguese several, I think five
Churches, supplied with Padres and Clerico's
from Goa ; but the English have only a private
Chapel for their public Devotion, Here are
indeed the remains of a spacious Church former-
ly intended, but never brought to perfection, the
ruins of which are to this day a standing monu-
ment of reproach to us, among the heathen to a
proverb; but this reproach we hope in a little time
to wipe off, having already gotten considerable
large contributions from the neighbouring fac-
tories, as well as this place, in order to rebuild
it ; which good design I hope your Lordship will
not think it amiss to approve of and encourage.
Another favour I have to beg, to know what name
your Lordship will please to give it when finish-

492 BOMBAY :

ed; and whether my reading Prayers in it wilf
suffice, for want of a regular Consecration.

Letter to the Bishop of London, Dr. John
Robinson.

Bombay Church, 1766 pp. 21 to 23^

Captain Alexander Hamilton.

Circa 1723.

Bombay comes next in course, an island
belonging to the crown of England. It was a
part of Katharine of Portugal's portion, when she
was married to Charles H of Great Britain, in
anno 1662. Its ground is sterile, and not to be
improved. It has but little good water on it, and
the air is somewhat unhealthful, which is chiefly
imputed to their dunging their cocoa-nut trees
with Buckshoe, a sort of small fishes which their
sea abounds in. They being laid to the roots of
the trees, putrify, and cause a most unsavoury
smell ; and in the mornings there is generally
seen a thick fog among those trees, that affects
both the brains and lungs of Europeans, and
breed consumptions, fevers, and fluxes.

Mr. Cook, according to the treaty, took
possession of the island, in the King's name, and
forthwith began to fortify regularly, and, to save
charges of building an house for the governor,,
built a fort round an old square house, which
served the Portuguese for a place of retreat, when

AN ANTHOLOGY. 493

they were disturbed by their enemies, till forces
could be sent from other places to relieve them.

After the fort was lined out, and the founda-
tions laid, Sir Gervas Lucas arrived from England
with two ships, but affairs being settled before
he came, did not stay at Bombay longer than
January 1666, and left the government of the
island in the hands of Mr. Cook and his council,
the presidency for the then company, residing at
Surat. Their trade flourished, and increased
wonderfully ; but, after the fort was finished, the
King finding, that the charge of keeping Bombay
in his own hands would not turn to account, the
revenues being so very inconsiderable, he made
it over to the East India Company in fee tail,
which continues so till this time.

In building the fort where it is, Mr. Cook
shewed his want of skill in architecture, where a
proper and convenient situation ought to be well
considered, for it is built on a point of rocks that
jets into the sea, where there are no springs of
fresh water, and it stands within 800 paces of an
hill, called Dungeree, that overlooks it, and an
-enemy might much incommode it from that hill,
as we found by experience in anno 1689, when
the Mogul sent an army on Bombay. As for the
magnitude, figure, and materials of the fort,
there is no fault to be found in them, for it is a
regular tetragon, whose outward polygon is about
500 paces, and it is built of a good hard stone,
and it can mount above lOO pieces of cannon;
and that is all that is commendable in it: but

494 BOMBAY :

had it been built about 500 paces more to the^
southward, on a more acute point of rocks, called
Mendam's Point, it had been much better on
several accounts. First, it had been much nearer
the road for protecting the shipping there, it had
been farther off Dungeree Hill, it would hive
had a spring of pretty good water, which served
the hospital that was afterwards built there, and
the shipping had been better secured that lay in
the little bay between the point where the fort
now stands and Mendham's Point.

They went about building several other little
forts and sconces in convenient places, to hinder
an invasion, if any of their neighbours should
have attempted one. At Mazagun there was one,
at Source one, at Sian one, at Mahim one, and
Worlee had one, and some great guns mounted
on each of them. Notwithstanding the company
was at so much charge in building of forts, they
had no thoughts of building a church, for many
years after Sir George Oxendon began to build
one, and charitable collections were gathered for
that use ; but v^rhen Sir George died, piety grew
sick, and the building of churches was grown
unfashionable. Indeed it was a long while
before the island had people enough to fill a
chapel that was in the fort, for as fast as recruits
came from Britain, they died in Bombay, which
got the island a bad name.

There were reckoned above 5,000 £ had been
gathered towards building the church, but Sir
John Child, when he came to reign in Bombay,.

AN ANTHOLOGY. 495

converted the money to his own use, and never
more was heard of it. The walls were built by
his predecessors to five yards high, and so it
continued till the year 1715, when Mr. Boone
came to the chair, who set about building of it,
and, in five years time, finished it by his own
benevolence, and other gentlemen, who, by his
persuasions, were brought in to contribute. The
Company also contributed something towards
that pious end.

About the year 1674, President Aungier, a
gentleman well qualified for governing came to
the chair, and, leaving Surat to the management
of deputies, came to Bombay, and rectified many
things that were amiss, and brought the face of
justice to be unveiled, which before lay hid in a
single person's breast, who distributed her favours
according to the governor's direction. He erected
a formal court, where pleas were brought in and
debated; but that method lasted but a few years,
when Sir John Child came to the chair the court
was done. Mr. Aungier advised the Company
to enclose the town from Dungeree toMendham's
Point, for securing the trading people from the
insults of their troublesome beggarly neighbours
on the continent ; but his proposals were rejected,
and that necessary piece of work was reserved
for Mr. Boone also. And happy it was for the
inhabitants that the town was secured by a wall,
otherwise Connajee Augarie [Angria] would have
harassed them with continual insults since his
war with the English began.

496 BOMBAY :

The name of Mr. Aungier is much revered
by the ancient people of Surat and Bombay to
this day. His justice and dexterity in managing
affairs, got him such esteem, that the natives of
those places made him the common arbitrator of
their differences in point of traffick : nor was it
ever known that any party receded from his award.

There are no dangers in going into Bombay
Road, but one sunk rock that lies about half a
league from the castle. It is dry at low water,
and has a channel within it deep enough for the
greatest ships to pass. I never heard of any
damage done by that rock, but to a small ship
called the Baden, which by carelessness, run on
it at noonday, and was lost.

New account of the East-Indies^ l739 ;

Vol I, pp. 183-/59.

*' Description of the Port and
Island of Bombay,"

1724.

The haven of Bombay near fifty leagues
southward of Surat, in nineteen degrees of north
latitude and comprehends all the waters that
enter between Colayr on the west point of the
island Salsett, and the two small islands of
Hunary and Cunary on the South near the main.

It is reputed one of the most famous havens
of all the Indies, as never being choked up

AN ANTHOLOGY. 497

by the storms, or yearly monsoons, but affords
at all seasons reception and security for
whole fleets.

Within this haven or bay stands the Island
of Bombay which gives title and denomination
to the whole sea that enters there, but as for the
Island itself, it is barren and incapable of
raising sufficient provisions for its inhabitants.

There are as appears by the annex'd chart
some small islands scarce worth the notice, but
two others are of consideration, namely
Caranjah, which is wholly encompass'd by the
waters of the Port of Bombay and Salsett, a much
larger island, in figure almost square, against
two sides whereof the water of this Harbour
strikes; the west side of Salsett is wholly
exposed to the Ocean, and the north side is wash'd
by an inlet of water called the Road of Bassein
reaching as far as the east point of Salsett.

On part of the Island of Bombay stands
Mahim, the name formerly of the whole Island.

There was in old time, built here by the
Moors, a great castle; and in the time of the
Kings of Portugal, this was the place where his
court and custom-house was kept and here
were the duties paid by the vessels of Salsett,
Trombay, Gallian [Callian] and Beundy
[Bhiwundy] on the main.

Description of the Port and Island of Bombay,
1724. pp. I-}.

498 BOMBAY :

Ives.

1754.

Bombay is a small island, but for its size^
perhaps the most flourishing of any this day in
the universe. Though the soil is so barren as
not to produce any one thing worth mentioning,,
yet the convenience of its situation will always
more than make up for that defect. It may be
justly stiled " the grand store-house of all the
Arabian and Persian commerce." When this
island was first surrendered to us hy the Portu-
guese, we hardly thought it worth notice ; but,,
in a very few years afterwards, we experiment-
ally found the value of it, and it is now become
our chief settlement on the Malabar coast.

The natives are shorter and stronger made
than those on the Coromandel coast; only four
Cooleys carry a Palanquin here, whereas six are
generally used at Madras and Fort St. David.
The inhabitants of this place are numerous, and
are made up of almost every nation in Asia.

Voyage from England to India, 177^, y^. 31-

2.

Bombay is the most convenient place among
all our settlements in the East Indies, for careen-
ing or heaving down large ships; and for small
ones they have a very good dock. At the time

AN ANTHOLOGY. 499

we were there, they were making great improve-
ments in it, which when finished, will not fail
to make it still more commodious. They have
also a very good rope-yard. Indeed, this is the
only place, in that distant part of the world, for
shattered ships to refit at ; having always a good
quantity of naval stores, and its very name con-
veying an idea of a safe retreat in foul weather.

On this island are many little forts and
batteries, as Dungaree, Massegon, Mahee, Men-
dham's Point, and Sion hill. Some guns are
mounted on each of them ; but the principal fort
which defends the place, has above an hundred.
This building is a regular square, and the
materials thereof are very good. The church
also is not less substantial than the fort ; it is a
very handsome, large edifice, and in comparison
of those which are to be met with in the other
settlements, it looks like one of our cathedrals.
It was built by a voluntary subscription among
the gentlemen of this factory, and the Rev.
Mr. Cobbe, ( father to my late worthy friend
Mr. Richard Cobbe, Admiral Watson's chaplain)
was the chief promoter of this truly pious work :
he at that time resided at Bombay as chaplain to
the factory. The whole time we spent here,
passed very agreebly ; for as the island lies in*
K)" north, the heats must of course be more
tolerable than they are at Fort St. David, which
is in the latitude of 1 1° 48' north.

The admiral's family resided at the Tank-
house ( so called from a large tank or pond near

500 BOMBAY:

to it) and here, as well as at all their other settle-
ments, the Company allowed the admiral and his
principal attendants Palanquins, over and above
the five Pagodas a day, which were given him to
defray part of the expenses of his table. As the
Indian horses are of little value, and yet very
scarce, oxen are here frequently made use of in
their stead ; and the admiral had a chaise and
pair of these oxen allowed him also by the
Company. They are commonly white, have a
large pair of perpendicular horns, and black
noses. The admiral oftentimes went in this
chaise for an afternoon's airing to Malabar hill,
and to the end of Old Woman's island, to Mar-
mulla, and many other places. In England, if
these creatures are forced out of their usual slow
pace, it is too well known that they will faint or
lie down under their burthen ; but at Bombay they
trot and gallop as naturally, as horses, and are
equally serviceable in every other respect, except
that by their being subject to a loose habit of
body, they sometimes incommode by the filth
thrown upon you by the continual motion of
their tails. Whenever we got to the end of our
ride, the driver always alighted, and put the near
bullock in the other's place; then he would put
his hand into both their mouths, and after pulling
out the froth, mount his box again, and drive
back. It seems this precaution is absolutely
necessary, for as they travel at the rate of seven
or eight miles an hour, they would otherwise be
in danger of suffocation.

AN ANTHOLOGY, 501

Whilst we were at Bombay, I took particular
notice, that at the death of a friend, the Indians
collected together and sung, either in the house
of the deceased, or under the window ; agreeable
to that passage in St. Matthew's gospel, "when
Jesus came into the ruler's house, and saw the
minstrels and the people making a noise. He
said unto them, give place, &c." There it was
that I also first saw the ceremony of their burning
the dead. As the place was very populous, there
were seldom less than three or four burned every
night near the water's edge, under Malabar-hill.

During my stay at this place, I hired by the
month, a chaise drawn by a pair of bullocks. In
the several excursions I made in this carriage, I
had frequently passed by one of those religious
persons, or anchorets, who in India are called
Joogees ; and who, in consequence of a vow made
by their parents, and during their mother's preg-
nancy with them, are devoted to the service of
heaven. One evening, I and a companion had
an inclination to pay a short visit to this Joogee ;
who always sat in one posture on the ground in
a shady cocoa-nut plantation, with his body
covered over with ashes, and his long black hair
clotted, and in the greatest disorder. As we
approached him, we made our salutation, which
he respectfully returned ; and then with the
assistance of our Indian driver, who could speak
English, we began a conversation with him, that
principally turned on the wonderful efficacy of
his prayers, and which he pretended had given

502 BOMBAY :

health to the sick, strength to the lame, sight to
the blind, and fecundity to women who for their
whole lives had been deemed barren. When we
were about to take our leave of him, I offered
him a present of two rupees which he bade me
to throw on the ground, and then directed his
servant, who was standing by, to take them up ;
which he did with a pair of iron-pincers, throw-
ing the rupees at the same time into a pot of
vinegar. After they had lain there a little while,
the same servant took them out, wiped them
carefully, and at last delivered them to his
master ; who soon afterwards, by way of return,
presented us with a few cakes of his insipid
pastry. I then requested of him, that in his next
prayers he would petition for an increase of my
happiness ; to which, with great complacency in
his countenance, he replied : " I hardly know
what to ask for you : I have seen you often, and
you have always appeared to me to enjoy perfect
health ; you ride in your chaise at your ease ; are
often accompanied with a very pretty lady; you
are ever well cloathed, and are likewise fat; so
that you seem to me to be in possession of every
thing that can be any way necessary to happi-
ness. I believe therefore, when I pray for you,
it must be in this strain : that God would
give you grace to deserve, and to be thank-
ful for those many blessings which he has
already bestowed upon you." I told him that
I was thoroughly satisfied with the mode of
his intended supplication for me and with a

AN ANTHOLOGY. 503

mutual exchange of smiles and compliments,
we parted.

Our hospital at Bombay was without the
town-wall ; and in order to make my attendance
on it the more convenient, Mr. Delaguarde (a
factor in the Company's service) was so obliging
as to give me the use of a very commodious
house, which lay near the hospital, and belonged
to him as superintendant of the powder-works.
Here I took up my residence, with other gentle-
men who assisted me in the execution of my
duty. At a little distance from the front of this
house is a capacious bason of water, which for
the greater part of the year is perfectly dry, but
during the continuance of the rainy season, and
for some time after, serves as a pond for water-
ing cattle, and swarms with a species of fish
about six inches long, and not unlike our mullet.
The natives catch them in great plenty soon
after the rain sets in, and more than once I had
them served up at my own table. This would be
looked upon as a very extraordinary circumstance
in any other place ; but as these fish are found in
almost every pool and puddle at Bombay, it
ceases to be a matter of wonder among the
inhabitants of that island. Various have been
the speculations of curious and inquisitive men
to account for this phaenomenon. Some have
supposed, that exhaling power of the sun is so
strong in the sultry seasons, as to be able to raise
the spawn of the fish into the atmosphere, and
there suspend and nourish it, till the rains come

504 BOMBAY :

on, when it drops down again in the state of
living and perfectly-formed fish. Others, per-
haps with a greater degree of probability on
their side, imagine, that after the ponds become
dry, the spawn may possibly fall into deep^
fissures made in the earth below the apparent
bottom, where there may remain through the
whole sultry season, a sufficient quantity of
moisture to prevent the animalcule from corrupt-
ing; and when the rain-waters come on and
fill the pond again, the fish is produced and made
to appear in such abundance. This, among other
hypotheses which I have heard offered on this
curious subject, seems best to account for it ; but
whether even this solution be adequate to the
effects produced, I shall not presume to determine.

Voyage from England to India, 1773, pp. 33-36.

There is another [Baman] tree of this sort in
the Cocoa-nut grove at Bombay, on the road to
the arbour near Malabar-hill, which is the third
largest and most shady of any I have ever seen ;
but this last differs from the other two in this
remarkable circumstance, that none of its
branches have descended into the earth, and
formed (as the two others have done) new
trunks or trees. It appears indeed to have
made some efforts towards it, but the rooty
shoots have not yet struck the ground. The
single body however, or trunk of the tree at

AN ANTHOLOGY. 505

Bombay, is of much larger dimensions than
any one of the many bodies of trunks belonging
to those near Fort St. David and Gombroon.
Under that on the Coromandel Coast, are the
ruins of some houses ; and it is commonly relat-
ed ( in order to make the tree appear the more
marvellous ) that this one tree once shaded a
whole town. At a small distance from this tree
near Gombroon, there is a Pagoda or temple,
in a very ruinous condition, except a small
part, which is kept in good repair, and much
frequented by the Gentoos in their devotions.
The Gentoos likewise worship under the shade
of those trees which grow near Fort St. David
and Bombay, but with this material difference,
that at the two last places they have no Pagodas
built with mens hands, any more than the
Druids of old had, who under their consecrated
oak worshipped one supreme God, immense and
infinite, and could not think of confining their
adoration to the narrow limits of a temple,
which they deemed would be quite inconsistent
with those attributes. In like manner, the
Banian tree is held sacred by the Gentoos, who
are almost as sensibly hurt by your cutting or
lopping off one of its superfluous branches, as
if you were to mutilate or destroy a cow,
between whose sacred horns they often place
their hand, when they make their most solemn
oaths, and appeals to the Deity.

Voyage front England to India, pp. l^g-200.

506 BOMBAY :

The island of Bombay has of late been
rendered much more healthy than it was for-
merly, by a wall which is now built to prevent
the incroachment of the sea, where is formed
a salt marsh, and by an order that none of the
natives should manure their cocoa-nut trees
with putrid fish.

Voyage from England to India, pp. 448,

Carsten Niebuhr.

1764.

The isle of Bombay is two German miles
in length, by rather more than half a mile in
breadth. A narrow channel divides it from
another small isle of little value, called by the
English Old Woman's Island. B3mbay produces
nothing but cocoas and rice ; and on the shore
a considerable quantity of salt is collected.
The inhabitants are obliged to bring their pro-
visions from the continent, or from Salset, a
large and fertile island not far from Bombay,
and belonging to the Marattas. Since I left
India, the English have made an attempt upon
Salset, which is indeed very much in their
power, and the public papers say that they
have been successful. Tknow not whether they
may be able to maintain themselves in it against
the Marattas, whose armies are very numerous.

The sea breezes and the frequest rains,
cool the atmDsphere, and render the climate of

AN ANTHOLOGY. 50/

Ihis island temperate. Its air was formerly-
unhealthy and dangerous, but has become pure
since the English drained the marshes in the
city and its environs. Still, however, many
European die suddenly here ; but they are new
comers, who shorten their days by mode of life
"unsuitable to the climate ; eating great quanti-
ties of beef and pork, which the Indian Legis-
lator has wisely forbidden, and drinking
copiously of the strong wines of Portugal in the
"hottest season. They likewise persist obstina-
■tely in wearing the European dress, which by
•its ligatures impedes the free circulation of
i)lood, and by confining the limbs renders the
heat more intolerable. The Orientals again live
to a great age, and are little subject to diseases,
because they keep the body at ease in wide
flowing robes, abstain from animal food and
strong liquors, and eat their principal meal
in the evening after sunset.

The city of Bombay, situate in the northern
part of the island, is a quarter of a German
mile in length, but narrow. It is defended by
an indifferent citadel* towards the sea, and at
the middle of the city. On the land side its
fortifications are very good. During the war
the East India Company expended no less than
900,000 French livres a-year, in the construction
x>( new works for its defence ; and, although
these works are no longer carried on with the
same activity, yet the fortification of Bombay
^till continues, so that it must be in a short

508 BOMBAY :

time the' most considerable fortress in India.
Besides the town, there are in the island some
small forts sufficient to protect it from any
irruption of the Indians.

In this City are several handsome buildings;
among which are the Director's palace, and a
large elegant church near it. The houses are
not flat roofed here, as through the rest of the
east, but are covered with tiles in the Europeaa
fashion. The English have glass windows.
The other inhabitants of the island have their
windows of small pieces of transparent shells
framed in wood, which renders the apartments
very dark. In the east it is the fashion to live dur-
ing the dry season in chambers open on one side.
The houses of Bombay are in general neither
splendid nor commodious in any great degree.

The harbour is spacious and sheltered from
all winds. A valuable work, which has beea
constructed at the Company's expence, is, two.
basons, hewn out in the rock, in which two ships
may be at once careened. A third is now pre^
paring. This work which has been very expen-
sive, likewise brings in a considerable annual
return; strangers pay very dear for liberty to
careen in these basons. While I was there I
saw a ship of war belonging to the Imam of
Sana, which he had sent to Bombay, solely on
purpose that it might be refitted.

The toleration which the English grant to-
all religions has rendered this island very

AN ANTHOLOGY. 509

populous. During these hundred years, for which
it has been in the possession of the Company,
the number of its inhabitants has greatly in-
•creased ; so that they are now reckoned at
140,000 souls, although within these twenty years
they did not amount to 70,000.

Of these the Europeans are naturally the
least numerous class ; and this the rather as they
do not marry and their numbers consequently
do not multiply. The other inhabitants are
Portuguese, or Indian Catholics ; Hindus, the
original possessors of the country ; Persians from
Kerman ; Mahomedans of different sects ; and in
the last place some Oriental Christians.

The English, as I have mentioned, have an
handsome church at Bombay, but only one
English clergyman to perform the service of
religion in it; and, if he should die, the congre-
gation would be absolutely deprived of a pastor;
for the Company haye no chaplains in their
ships, and entertain no clergy in their settle-
ments on the coast. Wherefore, when a child is
to be baptized, which is not often, as the English
rarely marry in India, a Danish missionary is
sent for, to administer the sacrament of baptism.

The Catholics, a scanty remainder of the
Portuguese, and a great number of Indians, their
converts, are much more numerous than the
Protestants. They have abundance of priests as
well Europeans as Indians, who attend their
studies at Goa. To superintend this herd, the

510 BOMBAY :

Pope named some years ago a bishop of Bombay,
but the Governor of the island sent him away de~
daring that they needed not Catholic priests of so
high a rank. The Catholic churches are decent
buildings, and are sumptuously ornamented
within. The Jesuits had once a college and a
church in the middle of this island. Their
college is at present the country house of the
English Governor. And the old church has been
converted into a suite of assembly rooms.

All religions, as I have already remarked,
are here indulged in the free exercise of their
public worship, not only in their churches, but
openly in festivals and processions, and none
takes offence at another. Yet the Government
allows not the Catholic priests to give a loose to
their zeal for making proselytes. When any
person chooses to become Catholic, the reasons
must be laid before government and if they are
judged valid, he is then allowed to p|;ofess his
conversion. The priests complain of the difficulty
of obtaining this permission. They, however,
have considerable success in conversion among
the slaves, who, being struck with the pomp of
the Romish worship, and proud of wearing the
image of a saint upon their breasts, choose rather
to frequent the Catholic churches than any
others, and persuade their countrymen, as they
successively arrive, to follow their example.
Voyage to Arabia, in Piukerton^s

Voyages, Vol X., pp. 201-203..

AN ANTHOLOGY. 511

John Henry Grose

1/58
Bombay is an Island, in the latitude of
eighteen degrees, forty-one minutes of north
latitude, near the coast of Deckan, the high
mountains of which are full in view, at a tri-
fling distance; and is so situate, as, together
with the winding of other islands along that
continent, to form one of the most commodious,
bays perhaps in the world; from which dis-
tinction it received the denomination of Bombay,
by corruption from the Portuguese Buon-bahia,
though now usually written by them Bombaim.
Certain it is, that the harbor is spacious enough
to contain any number of ships; has excellent
anchoring-ground; and by its circular position,
can afford them a land-locked shelter against
any winds, to which the mouth of it is exposed.
It is also admirably situated for a center of
dominion and commerce, with respect to the
Malabar coast, the Gulf of Persia, the Red-
Sea, and the whole trade of that side of the
great Indian Peninsula, and northern parts
adjoining to it : to the government of which
presidency they are vey properly subordinated.

Considering too that this island is situated
within the tropics, the climate of it is far from
intolerable on account of its heat, in any time
of the year; though never susceptible of any
degree of cold beyond what must be rather
agreeable to an European constitution. In the

512 BOMBAY:

very hottest season, which immediately prece-
des the periodical return of the rains, the
refreshment of the alternate land and sea-
breezes is hardly ever wanting, the calms
being generally of a very short duration ; so
that perhaps, in the year, there may be a few
days of an extraordinary sultry heat, and even
those may be made supportable, by avoiding
any violent exercise, by keeping especially out
of the malignant unmitigated glare and action
of the sun, and by a light unoppressive diet.
Great care too should be taken of not expos-
ing one self to the dangerous effect of the
night-dews, and of the too quick transition
from a state of open pores, to their perspira-
tion being shut up ; which is so often the
case of those, who, from an impatience of
heat, venture to sleep from under cover in the
raw air of the night, pleasantly indeed, but
perniciously cooled by the absence of the sun :
a circumstance yet more fatal, to such as
have besides been heated by any intemperance
in eating and drinking.

Bombay, in fact, had long borne an infa-
mous character for unhealthfulness. It was
commonly called the burying-ground of the
English; but this was only until an experience,
bought at the expence of a number of lives,
had rendered the causes of such a mortality
more known, an<^ consequently more guarded
against. Among others, the principal ones
doubtless were :

AN ANTHOLOGY. 513

First, the nature of the climate, and the
precautions and management required by it,
not being so sufficiently known, as they now
are; if that knowledge was but prevalent
enough, with many, for them to sacrifice their
pleasures of intemperance, or the momentary
relief from a present irksomeness of heat, to
the preservation of their healths.

Formerly too, there obtained a practice
esteemed very pernicious to the health of the
inhabitants, employing a manure for the coco-
nut-trees, that grow in abundance on the
island, consisting of the small fry of fish,
and called by the gountry-name Buckshaw ;
which was undoubtedly of great service, both
to augment, and meliorate their produce : but
through its quantity being superficially laid
in trenches round the root, and consequently
the easier to be exhaled, diffused, as it putri-
fied, a very unwholsome vapor. There are
s:^me, however, who deny this, and insist on
the ill consequences of this manure to be purely
imaginary, or at least greatly exaggerated ;
giving for reason, that the inhabitants them-
selves were never sensible of any noxious qua-
lity in that method; and that if the island is
now less unhealthy, the change must be sought
for in other causes. But all are agreed, that
liie habitations in the woods, or coconut-gro-
ves, are unwholesome, from the air wanting a
free current through them; and from the
trees themselves, diffusing a kind of vaporous

514 BOMBAY:

moisture, unfavourable to the lungs, a complaint
common to all close-wooded countries.

There has also been another reason as-
signed, for the island having grown healthier,,
from the lessening of the waters, by a breach
of the sea being banked oif; which however
does not seem to me a satisfactory one.
There is still subsisting a great body of salt
water on the inside of the breach, the commu-
nication of which with the sea, being less-
free before the breach was built, must be in
proportion more apt to stagnate, and breed
noxious vapors; so that this alteration by the
breach cannot enter for much, if any thing,.
into the proposed solution, which may perhaps
be better reduced into the before-mentioned
one of the different .diet, and manner of living
of the Europeans : not however without taking-
into account, the place being provided with
more skilful physicians than formerly, when
there was less niceness in the choice of them.

Whatever may be the reason, the point is
certain, that the climate is no longer so fatal
to the English inhabitants as it used to be,
and incojnparably more healthy than many
other of our settlements in India.

Voyage to the East-Indies, pp. 29- ^j.

AN ANTHOLOGY. 515

John Henry Grose.

This island is however a stong instance
of the benefits of a good government, and a
numerous population, by not a spot of it
remaining uncultivated : so that though it is
far from producing sufficient for the consump-
tion of the inhabitants; and notwithstanding
its many disadvantages of situation and soil,
it yields, in proportion to its bigness, incom-
parably more than the adjacent island of Salsett ;
whether under the government of the Portuguese,
or, as it now is, under that of the Morattoes.

Voyage to the East-Indies, page 48,

Abraham Parsons.

1775.

The Town of Bombay is near a mile in
length from Apollo gate to that of the Bazar
and about a quarter of a mile broad in the
broadest part from the Bunda (Bandar) across
the Green to Church gate, which is nearly in
the centre as you walk round the walls between
Apollo and Bazar gate. There are likewise
two marine gates, with a commodious wharf
and cranes built out from each gate, beside a
landing place for passengers only. Between
the two marine gates is the castle properly
called Bombay Castle, a very large and strong

5l6 BOMBAY:

fortification which commands the bay. The
works round the town are so many and the
bastions so very strong and judiciously situated
and the whole defended with a broad and
deep ditch so as to make, a strong fortress,
which while it has a sufficient garrison and
provisions may bid defiance to any force which
may be brought against it. Here is a spacious
green, capable of containing several regiments
exercising at the same time. The streets are
well laid out and the buildings (namely gentle-
men's houses) so numerous and handsome as to
make it an elegant town. The soil is a sand,
mixed with small gravel, which makes it
always so clean, even, in the rainy season,
that a man may walk all over the town within
half an hour after a heavy shower without
dirtying his shoes. The esplanade is very
extensive and as smooth and even as a bowling-
green which makes either walking or riding
round the town very pleasant.

Travels in Asia, etc., p. 2l6.

Philip Stanhope.

" Memoirs of Asiaticus. "
1778.

On the fourteenth we reached Bombay
where I have taken up my quarters in a most
excellent tavern, till the Indiaman which is tp
convey me home shall sail.

AN ANTHOLOGY. 517

The island of Bombay is situate in seventy-
two degrees of East longitude, and eighteen of
latitude, and is about seven leagues in circum-
ference. It originally belonged to the crown
of Portugal, but in the year one thousand six
hundred and sixty-three it was given to Charles
the Second, as part of the portion of the Infanta
Catherine, and that Monarch presented it as a
mark of royal favour to the East India Company,
who fortified it at a vast expence, and it is now
in the elegance of its buildings very little in-
ferior to Madras.

The manners as well of the English as of the
natives are much the same here as in other parts of
India. At present the settlement not being divided
by factions, there is more society than at Madras,
and the sources of wealth being fewer, there is
less of luxury and parade than at Cj^lcutta.

I have dined with the Governor, who is a
gentleman of plain good sense, and unaffected
politeness, and has sat in the chair with equal
honour to himself, and satisfaction to those
under him, for f»ve-and-twenty years. I have
had pleasure of seeing the beauties of Bombay,
at the monthly ball, and I have spent an agree-
able evening with Mr. Draper, who is senior
member of the Council, and is the husband
of the charming Eliza, whose fame will ever live
in the celebrated writings of the immortal Sterne.

Memoirs of Asiaticus, pp. 168 to 170.

5l8 BOMBAY:

Samuel Pechel.

1781

The island of Bombay is the antient pro-
perty of the English East India Company; it
hath hitherto been, of all her settlements, the
most conducive to the greatness of the nation
in Asia ; yet, through the splendor of atchieve-
ment, great acquisition of territory, and immense
harvests of wealth in Bengal and the Coast of
Coromandel, it hath been in some measure over-
looked, and, as if in a corner of the world,
unnoticed.

It receives great importance as well from its
situation, so advantageous not only in regard
to external trade and the internal in the "neigh-
bouring provinces, as from the docks which are
the only ones the Company have in India, and
without which therefore there can be no mari-
time power in those regions. Hitherto the ex-
pence of maintaining hath not been defrayed by
the produce ; but the present situation of affairs
in the neighbouring provinces, well improved,
may place things on a different foot, and that
expence not only be cleared, but a considerable
revenue yielded, and a great influence in the
western part of Indostan obtained.

Historical Account of Bombay, 178 1, pages 1-2.

AN ANTHOLOGY. 519

James Forbes.

1783.

We found the population of Bombay very
much increased, and constantly increasing. The
troubles on the continent had compelled many
to seek an asylum from the calamities of war;
personal security and protection of property,
under the British flag, was another great in-
ducement; while a flourishing commerce and
many other causes allured a number of merchants
to leave their fluctuating situations in other
places, for a more permanent settlement on this
little rocky island; which to the higher tribes
of Hindoos has some peculiar inconveniences,
and to the lower classes of every description
must be far more expensive than any part of
the continent.

The price of most kinds of provisions was
nearly doubled since I first knew Bombay; but
there appeared no deficiency either of European
or Indian commodities. The shops in the bazar
were well stored with articles for luxury and
comfort from all parts of the world; and every
breeze wafted a fresh supply. But if private
expenses were thus increased, great indeed was
the accumulation of public expenditure since
my arrival in India, and still more so since my
departure.

The island of Bombay should now no longer
be considered as a settlement, or separate co-
lony, but as the metropolis (surrounded indeed

520 • BOMBAY :

by a large moat ) of an extensive domain. For
this island, only twenty miles in circumference,
and almost covered with houses and gardens,
will soon become a city, similar to the outer
towns of Surat and Ahmedabad ; smaller indeed
by eight miles in its circumference than the
latter in the zenith of her glory, and much less
than London at this present day.

Oriental Memoirs, Vol II, pages 3S0-381.

Abbe Raynal,

1788.

It is computed that there are at present at
Bombay near 100,000 inhabitants, seven or
eight thousand of whom are sailors; a few of
them are employed in manufactures of silk and
cotton. As the larger productions could not
prosper upon a rock where the soil has very
little depth, the attention of the people has
been turned towards the cultivation of an ex-
cellent kind of onion, which together with
the fish that is dried there, is advantange-
ously sold in the most distant markets. Those
labours are not carried on with that degree of
indolence so common under a burning sky. The
Indian has showed himself susceptible of emula-
tion ; and his character has been in some measure
changed by the example of the indefatigable
Parsees. The latter are not fishermen and

AN ANTHOLOGY. 521

cultivators alone. The construction, fitting out,
and dispatching of ships; everything in a word
which concerns the road or navigation, is
intrusted to their activity and industry.

Philosophical and Political History

of the Indies, Vol. II, pp, lOg-IlO

Viscount Valentia,

1804.

The rage for country houses prevails at
Bombay as generally as at Madras, and the
same inconveniences attend it; for as all
business is carried on in the fort, every person
is obliged to come in the morning, and return
at night. The Governor is almost singular in
living constantly in town, having lent his country
house at Perelle to Sir James Mackintosh. This
place was the property of the Jesuits, and is the
handsomest in the island. The apartments and
verandahs are extremely handsome, and the
former chapel on the ground floor is now a
magnificent and lofty dining room. It has, how-
ever, the inconvenience of not being open to
the sea breeze, and appears to be far from
healthy, for Sir James and Lady Mackintosh,
with a great proportion of their family, had been
attacked by an intermittent fever. The gene-
rality of the country houses are comfortable and
elegant; and if they have not the splendid

522 BOMBAY :

Grecian porticos of Calcutta and Madras, they
are probably better adapted to the climate, and
have most unquestionably the advantage of
charming views; for even the Island of Bombay
itself is broken by several beautiful hills either
covered with cocoa-nut tree groves, or villas
of the inhabitants.

It cannot be expected that the third
Presidency in point of rank, should vie with
the others in splendor or expence. The society
is less numerous, and the salaries are smaller,
economy is consequently more attended to by
a kind of tacit compact; the style of living
is however frequently elegant, and always com-
fortable and abundant. I confess that having
so lately quitted my native country, I preferred
it to the splendid profusion of Calcutta. The
necessaries of life are here dearer than in
the other parts of India ; the wages of servants
are consequently much higher. Rice, the chief
food of the lowerorders, is imported from Bengal,
even in favourable years : at present the famine
has raised it to an alarming price. Grateful,
however, must the inhabitants be to Providence,
for having, at such an eventful period, placed
them under the British protection, and relieved
them from those sufferings, which afflict the
nations around them. The subscriptions, which
were entered into to extend this benefit beyond
the limits of their territory, do honour to the
gentlemen of the settlement. Hospitals were
opened for the gradual administering of relief

AN ANTHOLOGY. 523

lo such as were too much exhausted to feed
themselves, and hircarrahs were placed on the
■confines to bring in those whose strength had
failed them before they could reach the fostering
aid, that was held out to them by the hands
of British benevolence. The preservation of
several hundreds of thousands on the Malabar
coast may be attributed to the overflowing
supplies which Bengal was able to pour out for
their support, in consequence of the fifty years'
tranquillity which she has enjoyed under her
present masters. India, under our supreme
controul, can never expect to feel the effects
of famine ; for a season which causes a scarcity
in one part, generally produces an increase of
produce in another ; and the devastations of
hostile armies will be at an end, which can
alone counteract this beneficent arrangement of
Providence. For the sake of the population of
sixty millions, as well as for our own sake, we
Tnay therefore wish that the British influence
in India may remain unshaken by external
force, or internal dissatisfaction.
Voyages and Travels, T803-5, Vol. II, pages 1(^-171.

Bishop Heber.

1825.

The island, as well as most of those in its

neighbourhood, is apparently little more than a

cluster of small detached rocks, which have

been joined together by the gradual progress of

524 BOMBAY :

coral reefs, aided by sand thrown up by the sea^
and covered by the vegetable mould occasioned
by the falling leaves of the sea-loving-coco.
The interior consists of a long but narrow tract
of low ground, which has evidently been, in the
first instance, a salt lagoon, gradually filled up
by the progress which I have mentioned, and
from which the high tides are still excluded only
by artificial embankments. This tract is a per-
fect marsh during the rainy season, and in a
state of high rice cultivation. The higher
ground is mere rock and sand, but covered with*
coco and toddy-palms where they can grow.
There is scarcely any open or grass land in the
island, except the esplanade before the fort, and
the exercising ground at Matoonga, which last
is the head-quarters of the artillery. The fort^.
or rather the fortified town, has many large and
handsome houses, but few European residents^,
being hot, close-built, with narrow streets, pro-
jecting upper stories and rows, in the style
which is common all over this side of India, and
of which the old houses in Chester give a suffi-
ciently exact idea.

The Bombay houses are externally less
beautiful than those of Calcutta, having no pil-
lared verandahs, and being disfigured by huge
and high pitched roofs of red tiles. *They are
generally speaking, however, larger, and on the
whole better adapted to the climate.

Journey in India from Calcutta to Bombay, 1824-
25; Vol. in, pp. 129-131^

AN ANTHOLOGY. 525

The island of Colabah is situated at the
entrance of the harbour, and is connected with
that of Bombay by a pier, which is, however,
overflowed at high-water. Adjoining this pier
are the docks which are large, and, I believe,
the only considerable ones in India, where the
tides do not often rise high enough to admit
of their construction. Cotton is the principal
article of export, great quantities of which come
from the north-west of India, and I have
frequently been interested in seeing the immense
bales lying on the pier, and the ingenious screw
with which an astonishing quantity is pressed
nto the canvass bags. Bombay is the port
from whence almost all the trade of the west
and north is shipped for China and England;
there are several ships building in the slips,
and the whole place has the appearance of
being a flourishing commercial sea-port.

Pearls and turquoises are brought from the
Persian gulph in great numbers, some of which
are very valuable, and fine cornelians and
agates also come from Surat.

Journey in India from Calcutta to Bombay,

1824-25, Vol. in, page I2g.

526 BOMBAY:

3

We could not leave Bombay without regret..
There were some persons whom we were sincerly
pained to part with there. We had met with
much and marked kindness and hospitality,,
we had enjoyed the society of several men of
distinguished talent, and all my views for the-
regulation and advantage of the clergy, and
for the gradual advancement of Christianity
had met with a support beyond my hopes, and
unequalled in any other part of India.

I had found old acquaintances in Sir Edward'
West and Sir Charles Chambers, and an old'
and valuable friend (as well as a sincerely
attached and cordial one) in Archeacon Barnes..
Above all, however, I had enjoyed in the un-
remitting kindness, the splendid hospitality,,
and agreeable conversation of Mr. Elphinstone,.
the greatest pleasure of the kind which I have
ever enjoyed either in India or Europe.

Mr. Elphinstone is, in every respect, an-
extraordinary man, possessing great activity
of body and mind, remarkable talent for, and
application to public business, a love of litera-
ture, and a degree of almost universal infor-
mation, such as I have met with in no other
person similarly situated, and manners and'
conversation of the most amiable and interest-
ing character.

Journey in India from Calcutta to Bombay,

1S24-45, pages 131-132,.

AN ANTHOLOGY. 527

Walter Hamilton.

1820.

Bombay is a small island, formerly com-
prehended in the Mogul province of Aurunga-
bad, but now the seat of the principal British
settlement on the west coast of India. This
island is formed by two unequal ranges of whin-
stone rock, running nearly parallel to, and at the
distance of about three miles from each other.
The western range of hills is little more than five
miles long; the eastern, exclusive of Colaba^
may exceed eight in length. At their northern
and southern extremities they are united by
two belts of sand, now forming a kind of
stone, rising but a few feet above the level
of the sea. These natural boundaries were
formerly breached in several places, where
they admitted the sea, and according to Fryer's
account of Bombay in 1681, about 40,000 acres
of good land were then overflowed. It appears
also that the Goper river, which rises among
the hills of Salsette and disembogues itself into
the channel between that island and Bombay^
when swollen by floods, used to enter the
breaches at the northern extremity, and after
traversing the whole extent of the latter, dis-
charge itself into the ocean. In fact, Bombay
was nothing originally but a group of small
islands with numerous backwaters, producing
rank vegetation, at one time dry, and at another
overflowed by the sea. So unwholesome, in

528 BOMBAY:

consequence, was the situation re-ckoned, that
the older travellers agreed in allotting not more
than three years for the average duration of life
at this presidency.

The fort of Bombay stands on the south-
eastern extremity of the island, on a narrow
neck of land formed by Back Bay on the western
side, and by the harbour on the eastern. The
Worlee sluices are at the north-western end of
the island, a distance of nearly six miles from
the fort. Formerly a coco-nut wood not only
covered the esplanade, but the fort also, down to
the channel between Bombay and Colaba. At
that remote period of time, Mahim was the
principal town on the island, and the few houses
of the present town, then in existence, were
interspersed among the coco-nut trees, with the
exception of those built on the ridge of Dungaree
hill, adjoining the harbour, which appears to
have been then occupied by fishermen. When
the fortifications were erected, but very little
more land was cleared of the coco-nut trees,
beyond what was absolutely indispensable,
leaving the space within the body of the fort,
and without its walls up to the very glacis, a
coco-nut grove. From time to tirne, by various
means, the esplanade was gradually cleared of
trees to 6oo yards from the fort, and the espla-
nade was extended to 8oo yards. By this time,
the more wealthy inhabitants had built houses
in a detached irregular manner, throughout the
coco-nut woods contiguous to the esplanade.

AN ANTHOLOGY. 529

and Dungaree ridge was also built upon to the
extent of two miles and upwards from the
fort ; the little vacant ground remaining had
in consequence risen to an enormous price.
In this state of things, the sufferers by the
fire and the indigent from the esplanade had
no alternative but to resort to the Honourable
Company's salt batty ground, scarcely reco-
vered from the sea, neither had government
any ground to give in exchange for the valu-
able land taken when extending the espla-
nade. All these causes combined, serve to
account for what is called the new town of
Bombay being built in such a low, muddy,
unwholesome tract of, land, which during the
monsoon has the appearence of a shallow lake,
many of the houses being then separated
from each other by water, so that the inha-
bitants suffer from the inundation and its
effects, during seven or eight months of the
year. At all seasons the ground floor .of many
of its houses are on a level with high-water
mark, some below, and but few actually above
it at full spring tides. Much also of the rain
water that falls on the old town and the
esplanade, passes through the new town and
thence across the breach hollow to the
sluices at Worlee.

Under these circumstances, the surface of
the island is so circumscribed, rocky, and
uneven. ( except where a considerable part
^ overflowed by the sea) that it does not

530 BOMBAY :

produce a sufficiency of grain in the year ta
supply its population for one week, yet each
spot that will admit of tillage is brought
under cultivation of some sort or planted with
coco-nut trees. The vellard, which communi-
cates between Breach Candy and Lovegrove^
has prevented the ocean from making a breach
through the centre. This substantial work,
with smaller ones of the same construction,
have preserved the low lands of the island
from being inundated by the spring tides,
which but for them would have destroyed all
but the barren hills. Although the sea be
now excluded, the rain water still collects in
the lower parts of the island, where the sur-
face is said to be 12 feet under high-water
mark, during the rains forms an unwholesome
swamp. In 1805, Mr. Duncan completed a
vellard, or causeway, across the narrow arm
of the sea, which separated Bombay from the
contiguous island of Salsette : an operation
of infinite service to the farmers and garden-
ers who supply the markets, but which is said
to have had a prejudicial effect on the harbour.
The fortifications of Bombay have been
improved, but are esteemed too extensive and
would require a numerous garrison. Towards
the sea they are extremely strong, but on the
land side do not offer the same resistance,
and to an enemy landed and capable of
making regular approaches, it must surrender.
The town within the walls was begun by the

AN ANTHOLOGY. 531

Portugueze, and even those houses that have
since been built are of a s.milar construction
with wooden pillars suppnrtin<4 wooden verandas ;
the consequence of which is, that Bombay bears
no external resemblance to the other two
presidencies. The government house is a hand-
some building, with several good apartments, but
it has the great inconvenience of the largest
apartment on both floors being a passage room
to the others.

The northern portion of the fort is inha-
bited by Parsee families, who are not remark-
ably cleanly in their domestic concerns, nor
in the streets where they live. The view from
the fort is extremely beautiful towards the
bay, which is here and there broken by
islands, many covered with trees, while the lofty
and curious shaped hills of the table-land
form a striking background. The sea is on
three sides of the fort, and on the fourth is
the esplanade ; at the back of which is the
black town amidst coco-nut trees. Substantial
buildings now extend to very nearly three
miles from the fort.

Bombay appears for many years to have
been left to itself, and individuals were per-
mitted to occupy what land they pleased, nor
was there any system or regulation established
for the security of the public revenue. In
1707, the greater part of the present limits of
the fort had become private property, but by

532 BOMBAY:

purchases and exchanges, between 1707 and
1759, it became again the property of the
Company, and has been subsequently trans-
ferred to private persons. It is an extraor-
dinary fact that the principal part, if not the
whole, of the landed property which the
Company possesses within the walls of Bombay
has been acquired by purchase, having, within
the memory of many persons now living,
bought it of individuals who were always con-
sidered to be merely the Company's tenants
at will. The property thus acquired to the
Company by purchase and exchanges, cost>
since 1760, altogether about 737,927 Rupees.

The buildings within the walls of the fort
including the barracks, arsenal, and docks,
may be valued at one crore five lacks of
rupees ; the rent of the houses within the fort
in 1813 amounted to 527,360 rupees, including
the Company's property. The great price given
for ground within the fort which is daily
increasing, the buildings carried on in every
quarter of the European part, the commodious
and costly family dwellings constructed by
many of the natives, and the immense shops
and warehouses belonging both to the natives
and Europe.ans, furnish the strongest evidence
of the high price of ground within the fort-
ress of Bombay, and that it might afford to
pay a rent of 100 guineas per acre for the
support of the police, which upon 259,244
squares yards would yield 22,036 rupees.

AN ANTHOLOGY. 533

Bombay is literally a barren rock, and
presents no encouragement to agricultural spe-
culations ; but its commercial and maritime
advantages are great. It is the only principal
settlement in India, where the rise of the tides
is sufficient to permit the construction of docks
on a large scale ; the very highest spring tides
reach to \^ feet, but the usual height is 14
feet. The docks are the Company's property,
and the king's ships pay a high monthly rent
for repairs. They are entirely occupied by
Parsees, who possess an absolute monopoly in
all the departments ; the person who contracts
for the timber being a Parsee, and the
inspector on delivery of the same caste. On the
23rd of June, 1810, the Minden, of 14 guns,
built entirely by Parsees, without the least
assistance, was launched from these dock-yards,
and since then the Cornwallis and Wellesley,
and another of equal strength, have been laun-
ched under similar circumstances; besides two
of 38, two of 36, two of 18, and two 10 guns.
In addition to these, since the dock-yard has
been established, there have been built for
commercial purposes, nine ships of 1,000 tons;
five about 800 tons, six above 700 tons, and five
above 600 tons, besides 35 of inferior tonnage ;
all constructed by the Jumsetjee [ Wadia ] Par-
see family as head builders. The teak forests
from whence these yards are supplied lie
along the western side of the Ghaut mountains,
and other contiguous hills on the north and

534 BOMBAY:

east of Bassein ; the numerous rivers that des-
cend from them alfording water carriage for
the timber. The siiips built at Bombay are
reckoned one third more durable than any
other Indian built ships.

This little is!:ind commands the entire
trade of the north-west coast of India together
with that of the Persian gulf. The principal
cargo of a ship bound from Bombay to China
is cotton, in the stowing and screwing of
which, the comma iders and officers are re-
markably dexterous.
Description of Hindostan, 1820, Vol II, pp. 152-156.

SUPPLEMENT.

SUPPLEMENT.

A Noble Introduction to India.

Sir Richard Temple.

At Bombay, the western capital, the tourist
would have no time to stop and examine the
various institutions, unless, indeed, there might
bs some particular, say, educational institution
in which he took an interest, and which could
be looked at in two or three hours. But he
should make sure of seeing from some point on
Malabar Hill, say Malabar Point, the Governor's
marine villa, the long and magnificent series of
public buildings, one of the finest sights of its
kind in the world. The buildings are in them-
selves grand, but other cities may have structures
as grand, though probably separate. Bombay,
however, has all her structures in one long line
of array, as if on parade before the spectator.
And all this is right over the blue bay, with the
Western Ghaut Mountains in the distant back-
ground. This constitutes a noble introduction
for the traveller to picturesque India.

Then we pass through the vast harbour of
Bombay, with a comparatively narrow mouth,
guarded by fortifications, surrounded by hills,
and studded with islands again with a mountain
background. This harbour is in the very first

538 * BOMBAY :

rank of the harbours of the world taking an
equal place with Sydney, with San Francisco,
with Rio de Janeiro.

A Bird's-Eye View of Picturesque India, 1898 ,

pp. 20-2r.

A Glowing Sunset.

Walter Crane.

We had a glimpse of some of the palaces on
Malabar Hill, seeing the latter first against a
glowing sunset. Fringed with palms and plan-
tains, with its fantastic buildings silhouetted on
the sky, it recalled the banks of storm cloud I
had seen on the voyage, with their vaporous
trees and aerial hanging gardens.

From the Hill there is certainly a magni-
ficent view of the city of Bombay : especially if
seen just before sundown, when a golden glow
seems to transfigure the scene ; and later, look-
ing down on the vast plain, the white houses
partly hid in trees scattered along the shore,
the quays, and the ships at anchor in the bay,
all seem to sink like a dream into the roseate
atmosphere of sunset. But even that lovely light
is darkened by a heavy smoke cloud drifting
on the city from the forest of gaunt factory
chimneys rising in the east like the shadow of
poverty which is always cast by the riches of
the West.

India— Impressions, 1907, pp. 29-30.

AN ANTHOLOGY 5 38 A

Of no mean city am 1 !

RUDYARD KIPLING.

So thank I God my birth

Fell not in isles aside —
Waste headlands of the earth,

Or warring tribes untried —
But that she lent me worth

And gave me right to pride.

Surely in toil or fray

Under an alien sky,
Comfort it is to say :

* Of no mean city am I I '

( Neither by service nor fee

Come I to mine estate —
Mother of cities to me,

For I was born in her gate.
Between the palms and the sea.

Where the world-end steamers wait* )

Now for this debt I owe.

And for her far-borne cheer

Must I make haste and go
With tribute to her pier.

* The Seven Seas, '

BOMBAY. 538b

City So Full of Fate

MRS. WALTER TIBBITS.

Bombay! How shall we speak of you?
City so full of fate for us. Well may the
old Portuguese dons have named you " the
beautiful," would that my pen could describe
you as eloquently as you always speak to me
whenever I set foot upon your palm-girt
shore. Queen of all Eastern cities, standing
at the portal of that wonderful country of
Hindustan which has been as a fairy god-
mother to so many of the Anglo-Saxon race,
often beneficent, sometimes malign, always
fateful, with what mixed emotions have we,
the children of the West, greeted and paid
adieu to your matchless bay !

The Voice of the Orient, 1909, pp. 7-8.

AN ANTHOLOGY. 539

rialabar Hill by Moonlight.

William Shepherd.

The first time we visited Malabar Hill was
hy moonlight; slowly ascending the road cut
>along the rock, the waters of Back Bay glittering
under the moon's rays on one sid6, the tall pines,
rooted on huge masses of black rock, on the
other, the scene was very Eastern and striking;
the broad branching leaves of the palms
intensely dark against a sky luminous with
incredible moonlight, which served to make their
spiny fronds more fine and delicate; and yet to
mass the whole, and throw over all that grand
quietness, which that time, and perhaps the
absence of colour, tend to produce, — impressed
us greatly, and we went home with a strong
feeling of the grandeur of tropical foliage.

From Bombay to Bushire, 1857, pp. 12.

Harbour Scenery.

Edward Nolan.

The harbour scenery, is very fine : Mr.
Hamilton, thirty years ago, noticed this in his
description. Mrs. Postans, in her lively little
volume on western India, many years after,
expressed in graceful terms her admiration of
it. Many modern writers have followed in
their wake, and few have exaggerated the

540 BOMBAY :

claims of Bombay in this respect, although'
some have gone so far as to call it " the most
lovely in the world," and to describe the island
on which the city stands as the fairest of all.
" The isles that join Old Ocean's purple
diadem." It is certainly very lovely, the
azure above, reflected in the wave below, the
bright Indian sun shedding its glory over sky
and sea, constitute a magnificent prospect from
the verandahs of the inhabitants whose houses
command the view. The harbour is dotted
with palm isles, and the contrast of their greerr
feathery foliage with the bright blue water is-
strikingly picturesque. In the distance the
ghauts tower to the heavens, presenting all-
imaginable forms, and covered with all ima-
ginable hues; in one direction tinged with the
crimson sunset, in another as if clothed in a
pale purple robe, elsewhere hung with fleecy
drapery; and all these ever changing as day
dawns or sets, as its pours its burning noon-
upon the gleaming rock, or as deep shadows
sink upon them with the descending night.
Heber, with his soft poetic pencil, has impress-
ed the images of these scenes upon his pages^
so as no eye that has rested upon them can
ever forget. The island of Elephanta and the
island of Salsette, are covered with beautiful
trees, which extend their boughs over the rip-
pling waters, presenting every variety of grace-
ful form, and of tint, such as oriental foliage
only can exhibit. Yachting being a favourite

AN ANTHOLOGY. 54^

amusement, pretty pleasure boats may be seen
gliding among "the palm tasselled islets:" so
that amidst the prospects of soft beauty, and
in view of the glorious mountain distance, to-
kens of human life and pleasure are perpe-
tually indicated, adding that peculiar charm
which solitary scenery, however fine, cannot
impart. From the harbour the appearance of
the city is not attractive ; it lies too low, the
new town being lower than the old, most of
the houses having their foundations on the sea
level, and many still lower. The walls of the
fort flank the water's edge and first strikes the
the eye of the beholder; then the esplanade,
with its clusters of tents; and, stretching to
the west the island of Colabah, covered with
palm-trees and having the light-house at its
extreme point.

British Empire in India, 1859. Vol. I., p. 149.

Harbour of Bombay.

ILTUDUS PRICHARD.

The harbour, one of the finest in the world,
is formed by a crescent-shaped group of islands,
of which Salsette (connected by a causeway),
Elephanta, and Colaba are the most familiar
to English readers. The rays of a tropical
sun are tempered by a delicious breeze;
innumerable boats glide here and there • on

542 BOMBAY :

errands of business or pleasure ; stately ships,
ride securely at anchor in the offing ; pictures-
que islets rise abruptly from the ocean, clad
from the summit to the very edge with the^
richest tropical verdure ; and the branches of
the trees hang so close over the water that
they seem to coquet with the rippling waves,
as they toss themselves in wanton sport upon
the pebbly shore. Such a scene, under the^
clear blue Indian sky and bright sunshine, as.
it meets the eye of the exile who enters India
by its western gate, is well calculated ta
impress him favourably with the land of his.
adoption.

Administration of India, i86q, Vol. I, pp. 224^

Sunset in the Harbour.

Mrs. Guthrie.

In returning, (from Elephanta ) the tide-
was with us, and we stood well out into the
middle of the bay, which is very beautiful.
The amphitheatre of mountains, the Eastern
characteristics of the island we had just quitted,,
the smiling shore, with here and there a-
domed and pinnacled mosque, rosy red in the-
rays of the setting sun, made a delightful scene.
Many islets were dotted about — Butcher's Isle,
and Old Woman's Isle, and a third, with long-

AN ANTHOLOGY. 543

rows of empty barracks, built at vast expense,
and then deserted.

As we approached the harbour, the scene
became most animated. Noble three-masted
P. and O. steamers lay at ancher. A little
apart from these were others, belonging to
different companies, amongst which our own
* Hindoo ' cut no mean figure. There were state-
ly sailing vessels and small craft innume-
rable, which were not huddled together in
confusion, but lay at a friendly distance from
one another. Every spar, every rope stood
out against a back-ground of fiery crimson —
such a sunset, such vivid colouring as I had
never pictured to myself as possible even in
an Indian sunset. As the soft twilight stole
on, the hue intensified — tHe world below the
horizon might have been in flames. It was a
magnificent conclusion to one of the most
delightful days I ever spent.

My Year in an Indian Fort iSTJy Vol /, pp. 70-71,

Scenery of flahableshwar.

Meadows Taylor.

Magnificent as is the scenery of the Wes-
tern Ghauts of India throughout their range,
it is nowhere, perhaps, more strikingly beau-
tiful than in the neighbourhood of the great
isolated plateau which rising high above the

544 BOMBAY :

mountain ranges around it, and known under
the name of Mahableshwar, from the temple
at the source of the sacred river Krishna on
its summit is now the favourite summer re-
treat and sanatorium of the Bombay Presi-
dency. Trim roads, laid out so as to exhibit
the beauties of the scenery to the best
advantage, pretty English-looking cottages, with
brilliant gardens, and a considerable native
town, are now the main features of the place ;
but at the period of our tale it was uninha-
bited, except by a few Brahmins and devo-
tees, who, attracted by the holiness of the
spot, congregated around the ancient temple,
and occupied the small village beside it.
Otherwise the character of the wild scenery
is unchanged. From points near the edges of
the plateau, where mighty precipices of basalt
descend sheer into forests of everlasting ver-
dure and luxuriance, the eye ranges over a
sea of rugged mountain tops, some, scathed
and shattered peaks of barren rock — others
with extensive fiat summits, bounded by naked
cliffs which, falling into deep gloomy ravines
covered with dense forests, would seem inac-
cessible to man.

To some readers of our tale, this scenery
will be familiar ; but to others it is almost
impossible to convey by description any
adequate idea of its peculiar character, or of
the beauty of the ever changing aerial effects;
that vary in aspect almost as the spectator

AN ANTHOLOGY. 545

turns from one point to another. Often in
early morning, as the sun rises over the lower
mists, the naked peaks and precipices, stand-
ing apart like islands, glisten with rosy tints
while the mist itself, as yet dense and undis-
turbed, lies wrapped around their bases, filling
every ravine and valley, and glittering like the
sea of molten silver.

Again, as the morning breeze rises in the
valleys below, this vapour breaks up slowly ;
circling round the mountain summits, lingering
in wreaths among their glens and precipices,
and clinging to the forests, until dissipated
entirely by the fierce beams of the sun. Then,
quivering under the fervid heat, long ridges
of rugged valleys are spread out below, and
range beyond range melts tenderly into a dim
distance of sea and sky, scarcely separated
in colour, yet showing the occasional sparkle
of a sail like a faint cloud passing on the
horizon. Most glorious of all, perhaps, in the
evening, when, in the rich colours of the fast
rising vapours the mountains glow like fire
and peak and precipice, forest and glen, are
bathed in gold and crimson light ; or, as the
light grows dimmer, shrouded in deep purple
shadow till they disappear in the gloom which
quickly falls on all.

Tara, 1863, chap. 69, pp. 401-402.

546 BOMBAY:

Great Fire of 1803.

Admiral Garden.

On the 1 8th February 1803 at noon observed
the City of Bombay on fire in several places
when the signal was made by the Admiral
(Rainier) for Captains, Officers and crews from
each ship of four of our squadron to proceed on
shore and assist in saving the city. The four
Captains of the squadron landed with their
crews and ships' fire-engines and took different
stations in the city, nine being on the north
side in the circle of the magazines. The houses
being chiefly built of wood the progress of
the flames was awful, and the religion of the
fire-worshippers being that of the chief of the
inhabitants, no effort to arrest its progress could
be expected from them. The numerous inhabi-
tants, women, children and aged, who could or
would not depart from their houses until the
last extremity, or were dragged out by our
men, must have been immense, and the num-
bers who perished in the flames no one could
calculate, among whom I had to regret two of
my brave crew. Every ladder was in requisition
and thus only could the upper stories be reached
to help the women and children who were borne
down the ladders on the seamen's backs or by
ropes. It certainly was heart-rending to hear
the shrieks of those in the upper stories of the
houses in flames, when no possible help could
be afforded.

AN ANTHOLOGY. 547

While the fire was raging violently in the
district I had to act in, the Governor, Jonathan
Duncan, Esq., came up to me and while I was
replying to some questions or remarks he had
made, up came several of his stafT officers and
exclaimed, 'Sir, you had better quit the citadel
directly. Such and such street is in flames and
in a house in that street there is a deposit of
five hundred barrels of gunpowder which the
bomb-proof magazine would not contain. It
must soon take fire and then no person can
sustain the shock nor can one stone be left
on another of the walls of this city; therefore do
not stay a moment.' The Governor replied * I will
never (luit the City on such an occasion.' And
he having previously thanked me for my
unceasing exertions, now turned round to me
and said, 'Captain Garden, see if you can
save us all.' I replietl in a hurry and ejacu-
lating orders to collect my brave crew told
the Governor I should not quit my station or
slacken my exertions and would do all thai
could be expected.

My officers and men were soon around me
and water being close at hand in a pond near
the Citadel, off we started with as much water
in our fire buckets and engine as those vessels
would contain. We were led to the street
and house, when I found that the Governor's
staff officers had stated what was quite correct.
The street was in flames on both sides and
we found the temporary magazine therein was

548 BOMBAY :

only more secure than any other house in that
street by having a double door, wood porch,
and closed windows. This porch had now
begun to ignite, which we soon extinguished,
and breaking the door open (for no key was to be
found in the confusion that prevailed) I beheld
the dread combustible matter on the ground
floor of a large house. I ordered my men
to doff their duck jackets and shoulder each
a cask placing the jacket over it to screen it
from the falling fire from the house. The
distance from the sea wall did not exceed
one hundred yards. There seemed to be
some hesitation on the part of my men, when
I doffed my blue jacket, placed it over the
first barrel of gunpowder on my back, and
was directly followed by every man of my
crew, the officers first, and all unhesitatingly
followed. We got safe through the flames
of fire falling in all directions and deposited
our first burthen in the sea over the sea wall
and off again double quick to renew the effort.
On placing my jacket on my arm, I found my
cambric handkerchief in its pocket in a state
of fusion, the fire having fallen into it on
our way down the s.treet. And thus we trust
providentially successfully and opportunely
repeated our efforts, until the contents of this
dreaded store were cleared. When this work
was completed I felt much exhausted, but, it
was visible, much was yet left to do. The
City continued in awful flames for three days

AN ANTHOLOGY. 549

and two nights, and scarcely a vestige of the
City except the citadel and the houses occu-
pied by the European officers civil and mili-
tary, escaped. They were built of stone, with
slated roofs and who generally resided in the
south of the City.

Two days after this fire had subsided, I
dined with the Governor, all his staff and a
large party around him, and on my name be-
ing announced the Governor exclaimed with a
corresponding motion of his arms, ' I request
you all to stand back and allow Captain
Garden to come forward, the officer who, un-
der Providence has saved our City of Bombay
and air that are in it.' I felt the full effect of
this reception and do so to this day. But here
except in words exprsssed to Admiral Rainier
by public letter from the Governor in Council,
was obtained all the advantage derived by
me as compensation for my determined and
fatiguing exertions. And as a proof of this, I
(lid subsequently enclose letters to the Boartl
of Directors of the East India Company with
my request that they would grant a cadet
appointment in their army for my young friend
and which they refused. I now felt every
day a serious illness approaching. The
fatal disease of India (Liver complaint)
attacked me, entirely resulting from my
overstrained exertions in suppressing this
awful fire.

550 BOMBAY :

A Curtailed Memoir of the incidents and occur-
rences in the life of John Siirman Garden,
vice admiral, written by himself, 1 850.
{Now first printed and edited by
C. Atkinson ) 1912, pp. 793-/97.

Farewell to Bombay.

Prince Karageorgewitch.

Bombay, towering above the sea in a golden
glory — the tall towers and minarets standing
out in sharp outline against the sky, splendid
in colour and glow. Far away Malabar Hill
and a white speck — the Towers of Silence;
Elephanta, like a transparent gem, reflected in
the aquamarine-coloured water.

A rosy light flooded the whole scene with
fiery radiance, and then suddenly, with no
twilight, darkness blotted out the shape of
things, drowning all in purple haze; and there,
where India had vanished, a white mist rose
from the ocean that mirrored the stars.

Enchanted India, page 305.

NOTES ON THE AUTHORS QUOTED.

AN ANTHOLOGY. 553

Aberigh^riackay, George

( 1848-1881 ).

This brilliant humorist is best known by
his notn-de-pUime of " Sir Ali Baba," under which
he wrote his famous book, Twenty-one days in
India, which consists of a series of sketches of
Indian life and society, which first appeared in
Vanity Fair in 1878-79. But Aberigh-Mackay
was not only a keen humorist and satirist, but
wrote also several serious works, which, though
now forgotten, deserve to be still read. One of
these was a *' Hand-book of Hindustan " which
he wrote in 1875 on the occasion of the late King
Edward VII's visit to this country as Prince of
Wales, for the use of English visitors to India who
flocked in great numbers at the time. Our extracts
are taken from this excellent Hand-book which,
besides containing some very good writing,,
gives concise and readable information on such
subjects as Sport, British Administration, and
the Native States. Aberigh-Mackay was the son
of a Scotch missionary in Bengal and belonged
to the Education Department of the United
Provinces. He gave much attention to the edu-
cation of young native princes and was for
several years the head of the Rajkumar College
at Indore.

554 BOMBAY:

Aitken, Edward Hamilton

(1851-1909).

This distinguished author wrote under the
well-known notn-de-plmne of " Eha " formed by
his initials, several works which have obtained
a high place in Ango-Indian literature. He
was a graduate of the Bombay university and
for several years taught Latin in Deccan College,
Poona. Later he entered the Customs Depart-
ment and rose to be Collector of Customs,
Karachi. He was the son of a Scotch mis-
sionary who worked in the Bombay Presidency
with- Dr. Wilson ( 1804-1875 ) and others.
Tribes on my Frcmtier which appeared in the
''Times of India" and in book form a little
later, first revealed his powers as a light and
very clever writer and a close observer of Indian
natural history. This was followed by others
in the same vein at intervals till his death in
Scotland shortly after his retirem.ent from this
country. He was for som.e time a useful member
of the Bombay Municipal Corporation.

Philip Anderson

(1816-1857).

This antiquary belonged to the Bombay Ec-
clesiastical Establishment, being for several years
a Chaplain at Colaba. Anderson was the first

AN ANTHOLOGY. 555

to make a to special study of the antiquities and
history of our city as well as of the early English
intercourse with Western India. He wrote
on the latter subject a book in 1854, which
is still very useful because it is based on his
study of the manuscript records at the Govern-
ment Secretariat at Bombay. He was editor of
the Bombay Quarterly Review, a very able literary
periodical which did not survive his death in
1857. His "English in Western India" after
being tirst published in Bombay in 1854 was
reprinted two years later in England by Messrs.
Smith & Elder. In this work he brought his
subject to the end of the seventeenth century.
It was his intention to treat of the eighteenth
century in another volume, and he wrote several
articles about it in his "Review" which would
have formed a part of this volume; but his
premature death put a stop to further progress.

Arnold, Sir Edwin

( 1 832- 1 904).

This famous journalist and poet began his
•career in the Bombay Education Department
nearly sixty years ago. Though he left Bombay
and India after only a stay of five years, this
country had a strong fascination for him and
has inspired most of his poetry, especially the

556 BOMBAY :

famous Light of Asia. He revisited India ?r
quarter of a century after he had left it in
i86i, and recorded his impressions in a strik-
ing book from which we have quoted. It ori-
ginally appeared in the Daily Telegraph with-
which paper he was intimately connected for a
long time as leader writer and then as editor.

Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna

( 1831-1891 ).

This celebrated founder of the TheosophicaT
Society had a most romantic career and was
an intrepid traveller in several lands. The
work from which we have quoted is made up
of letters written in 1879 to a Russian paper
called the Messenger under the editorship of
the famous Russian journalist M. Katkoff^
(1818-1887). She was then on a prolongecf
visit to India in connection with the welF
known Society she had established a few-
years previously in America. Her impressions-
of Bombay are very interesting and couched
in very striking language.

AN ANTHOLOGY. 557

Buist, Dr. George

( 1805-1860).

A well-known Anglo-Indian journalist who
was for 18 years (1839-59) editor of the
Bombay Times, which later became the Times
•of India. He not only made his mark as a
very able and independent journalist but won
renown also as a scientist, especially as a
meteorologist and geologist. He also took great
interest in our city of Bombay of which he
wrote a somewhat fragmentary guide, chiefly
scientific, on which he was long engaged.
Towards the end of his career he severed his
connection with the Bombay Times and also
with our city, and settled at Allahabad as
Superintendent of the Government Press there;
but he died shortly afterwards at Calcutta
during a brief visit to that city.

Buckingham, James Silk

(1786-1855).

This noted journalist of the early nine-
teenth century, who founded in 1828 the well
known literary paper, the Athenaeum, first came
to India in I815 landing at Bombay, the life
^nd society of which he has described in
his Autobiography published soon after his

558 BOMBAY :

death in 1855. He afterwards went to Calcutta^,
where as an independent journalist he soor>
came into collision with the Company's autho-
rities, who deported him to Europe under the rig
old Press regulations then in force. He entered
the Reformed Parliament in 1832, and both-
there as well as in the press he ceaselessly
urged his grievances against the Company till
a few years before his death he succeeded in.
obtaining a pension from the latter by way
of compensation. He was also a noted tra-
veller, and his books of travel were interesting.
When he came to Bombay in 1815 he had"
passed through Egypt, Asia Minor, Arabia-
and other less known lands of his time, and'
he recounted some of his interesting travelling,
experiences before the Bombay Literary society-
founded ten years previously by Sir James;
Mackintosh,

Baker, Sir Samuel

(1821-1893).

This distinguished traveller and explorer-
is best remembered as the discoverer of the
Albert Nyanza, one of the two great lakes
which are the principal feeders of the Nile.
He was in the service of the Khedive of Egypt
for several years and did much to suppress-

AN ANTHOLOGY. 559

slave-trade, an account of which he published in
a work entitled Ismailia, a new name which
he bestowed, in honour of the Khedive Ismail^
on the country formerly known as Gondokoro,.
on its annexation to Egypt. He visited India
seven times between 1879 and 1892 and took
a close personal interest in the administration
and defence of this great dependency. It was.
during his visit to this country during the cold
weather of 1888, that he wrote the remarkable
article in the Fortnightly Review from which
we have given his striking description of
Bombay. This article contains his mature
reflections on the Indian Empire and especially
on its Frontier-policy, which he considered too
strictly defensive and inactive. He favoured
a bold forward policy. He was also a keen
sportsman and the big game of India had great
attractions for him.

Burton, Isabel Lady

(1831-1896).

The wife of the famous traveller and
linguist, Sir Richard Burton (1821-1890), was
in some ways as remarkable a woman as the
husband was as a man. She came to Bombay in
February 1876 with her husband, and our extracts.
are taken from the elaborate journals that

560 BOMBAY :

she kept then and that are printed in W. H.
Wilkins' biography of her published by Hut-
chinson in 1897. Her descriptions of Matheran,
Mahableshwar, Hyderabad, and above all, of
Goa, which had particular attractions for her as
an ardent Catholic, on account of its containing
the shrine of St. Francis Xavier, the Apostle
of India, are very vivid.

Brown, Robert

(1822-1864).

This philanthrophist was a partner of Ewart
Lyon & Co., from 1845 to 1856, during which
eleven years he was in Bombay. He was
well-known for his earnest Christian spirit,
and he devoted his life here to doing practical
good amongst his fellows. A rare little book
called Passages in the Life of an Indiaji Merchant,
published in 1867, by Nisbet, containing extracts
from his journal and letters, gives an excellent
insight into the noble character of this truly
remarkable Christian merchant. This book,
compiled by his sister, contains also the extracts
we have given, descriptive of Bombay and
its surroundings two generations ago. An ill-
ness which affected his chest made him retire
from Bombay at the early age of thirty-four.
He survived eight years longer and died an

AN ANTHOLOGY. 561

early death in 1864. Brown was of extra-
ordinary height being six feet seven. When he
was sixteen, his sister tells us, "he had a
rheumatic fever and on recovery his figure grew
to the extraordinary height of six feet seven
inches rendering him a 'marked' man in
after life."

Lady Brassey

id. 1887).

The first wife of the present Lord Brassey
{h. 1836) whom she married in i860, and
mother of Lady Wiliingdon, is known all over
the world by her books, which have obtained
immense popularity, describing the various
voyages of the yacht ** Sunbeam " which has
come to be inseparably associated with her
name. Her first voyage was undertaken in
company with her husband in 1876 round the
world, and her account of it, which she was
induced to publish two years later, met at
once with a very flattering reception from the
public which surprised no one more than her-
self. As Lord Brassey says in his brief hut
very touching memoir that he wrote for his
children immediately after her sad death at
sea off the coast of northern Queensland in
the Sunbeam, "the favourable reception of the

562 BOMBAY:

first book was wholly unexpected by the writer r
she awoke and found herself famous." During
the next nine or ten years she published some
more Sunbeam books, till her Last Voyage under-
taken in 1887 was published posthumously from
her journal and notes. During this voyage she
came to India and stayed in Bombay while
we were celebrating ^tlie Golden Jubilee of
Queen Victoria in February l887, of which
she has given a vivid account from which we
have taken an extract. Her health, which
had been excellent in Northern India, fell
away after leaving Bombay, and in Borneo
she was attacked by malarial fever which
recurred on the north coast of Australia where
she died on 14 September 1887.

Lady Brassey had a singularly charitable
disposition, and she took part in several
philanthropic movements, chief amongst whicb
was the St. John's Ambulance Association in'
which she interested herself most zealously..
She took up ambulance work at a time when
it was not in fashion as it is now, because
she sincerely believed it to be a good cause
worthy of all her efforts. During her last
voyage she tried to interest people in this-
cause wherever she went ; and while she was.
in Bombay, Lord Reay, the Governor, called
at her instance a meeting of influential citi-
zens in order to revive some interest, as she
says, in the rather languishing local branch-
of this very useful institution.

AN ANTHOLOGY. 565

Birdwood, Sir George

{b. 1832).

This distinguished Anglo-Indian passed
only some fourteen years of his long life in
Bombay, and retired at the early age of thirty-
six owing to ill health ; but his enthusiasm
for our city has all along been boundless.
One of the ways in which he has shown
this enthusiasm is by writing and speaking
about Bombay and its surroundings in striking
and eloquent terms v/henever he has an oppor-
tunity. His article in The Times on the burst
of the monsoon from which we have given
an extract is really remarkable for its sin-
gular beauty of style and close observation
of nature. It has remained all these years
almost unknown, chiefly because it appeared
anonymously, like nearly all the articles in
the great London paper, and because it was
not reprinted in book form. Indeed nearly
all of Sir George's writings lie scattered in
various newspapers and journals and are not
easily accessible to the public though many of
tliem are of permanent value.*

•As these sheets are passing throagh the press a volume
of selections from these writings has appeared ( Philip Lee-
Warner, London, 1915 ), and the article on the Monsoon has
rightly the place of honour in it.

564 BOMBAY:

On Bombay he has written largely during
the past half century, and even now though
he has entered upon his ninth decade, he still
hardly ever allows an opportunity of writing
about the city, which was the scene of his early
labours in this country, pass by unutilised..
He may be said to have been one of the founders
of "New Bombay" in Sir Bartle Frere's days.
Many improvements in our city in those days
can be traced directly or indirectly to him
and his influence with the high authorities.
He designed the Victoria Gardens and took
a lead in founding the Victoria and Albert
Museum close by ; but it is strange that there
should be nothing in the Gardens to comme-
morate the fact. There is, however, a bronze
bust of him in the University Library, the
tribute of his Bombay admirers.

Caine, William S.

(1842-1903).

This English politician who took a keen
interest in India and its affairs, is best
remembered for his zeal in the cause of tem-
perance in this country to which he came
several times. He wrote Picturesque India pub-
lished by Messrs. Routledge in 1890, which is
a sort of tourist's guide-book and does justice

ANTHOLOGY. 565

within its limits to the various cities and
other objects of interest in India. He was a
severe critic of the waj^s of Indian Adminis-
tration and was a member of the Royal com-
mission on Indian Expenditure which was
appointed twenty-one years ago to suggest
means of reducing the costliness of the Indian
Administrative system.

Gaunter, John Hobart

(1794-1851).

This author of the well-known " Romance of
Indian History " began his career as a soldier
in India, and was in Bombay and Western
India at the beginning of the second decade
of the last century. But he was disgusted
with oriental life and returning home he
entered the Church. The remainder of his
life he passed as an Anglican clergyman.
His rather voluminous works are like his
career divided between India and theology.
His Oriental Annual, a series of sketches and
scenes in India, issued for several years from
1834, was once very popular. The volumes
contained beautiful engravings of Indian scenes
and buildings from the drawings of the fa-
mous painter William Daniell {d, 1837), who
had passed several years in India with his

566 BOMBAY:

uncle Thomas, Daniell (1749-1840), for pictorial
purposes. The descriptive accounts in the
volumes were written by Gaunter. As Gaunter^
had himself been in India and wielded a good
pen, these accounts which embrace nearly all
the ancient and famous cities and other places
in India, are very readable and vivid. His
descriptions of Bombay and the Elephanta and
Kanheri Gaves, from which we have quoted,
are particularly striking.

Campbell, Sir James

( 1847-1903 ).

An eminent Bombay Givilian, whose labours
extending nearly over a generation on the
organisation and compilation of the Gazetteer
of our Presidency will be long remembered.
The long extract we have given is taken from
one of the many useful red-letter chapters
as they are called, which are published decenni-
ally in the Administration Reports of this
Presidency. This minute pen picture of the
panorama of Bombay lies buried in a huge folio
and is not generally known. We hope that in
the form in which it is presented here, it will
be widely read and appreciated. His ''Bombay
Gazetteer" is an extensive and very painstaking
work in 35 distinct parts, the last of which

ANTHOLOGY. 567

appeared in 1901, a year after his retirement from
Bombay. This great work, however, did not
include a Gazetteer of Bombay City, though in
three thick parts of its twenty-sixth volume
are embodied extracts from Government Records,
which are very useful as materials for Bombay
history up till the beginning of the nineteenth
-century. This want was supplied six years
after Campbell's death by Mr. S. M. Edwardes,
who gave us in three volumes a work worthy
at once of the City and of the high reputation
■deservedly enjoyed by the series of Gazetteers
of this Presidency in which it appeared and
which it fitly closed. Campbell's research work
for the Gazetteer was recognised by his own
University of Glasgow which conferred on him
an honorary doctorate, and he also got a K.C.I.E.
from the Government towards the close of his
active career mainly for these literary labours.

Crane, Walter

(b. 1845).

This well known painter and book illustrator
-came to India in the cold weather of 1906-07
and published his book of impressions obtained
during his Indian tour soon after. The book
is illustrated with excellent sketches by the
-author who shows himself no less clever with

568 BOMBAY :

the pen than with the pencil. Mr. Crane shows
himself very sympathetic towards the people
of this country, as was to be expected from one
who was very friendly with the young Indian
reformers in England.

Craik, Sir Henry

{b. 1846).

This eminent Scotch educationist has for
a long time been in the Education Depart-
ment at Whitehall. He has latterly been in
Parliament also. In 1907-8 he made a tour of
India, writing about it in the Scotsman. His
impressions were so favourably received that
they were at once published in a book (London,.
Macmillan) which is of great value as contain-
ing the ripe reflections of a penetrating observer.
Sir Henry is an accomplished author and has
written on literature and history. Some thirty
years ago he edited an excellent series of little
manuals by various writers on the rights and
responsibilities of the English Citizen, himself
contributing to it a volume on the "State and
Education."

ANTHOLOGY. 569

Crowe, Sir Joseph

(1825-1896).

A distinguished diplomatist, who in early-
life spent a few years in Bombay as a journalist
and also as a teacher in the local School of
Arts. A little before his death he published
a volume of reminiscences of his varied and long
career, and his recollections of Bombay life
and society in the late fifties of the last century
form not the least interesting portion of it.
His literary partnership with Cavalcaselle in
producing the famous "History of Italian
Painting" is well known.

Cunha, Dr. Gerson da

( 1 842-1 900).

This distinguished Orientalist had settled
in Bombay from Goa, and was for long a well-
known figure in literary and scientific circles
in our city. He was particularly interested
in the antiquities of Bassein, Bombay and other
places during the period of Portuguese ascen-
dancy. At the beginning of his career he wrote
a valuable book on Bassein and Chaul. At the
close of it he was engaged on a work on our
city, which was published posthumously, called

570 BOMBAY :

The Origin of Bombay, This book owing to the
<:ircumstances of its production is ill arranged
and not well digested, but contains good
materials, especially for the Protuguese period
of the history of Bombay which is so little
known. Da Cunha who was by profession a
physician, was also an expert numismatist.

Crawford, Arthur Travers

1835-1911.

No English official of the past generation
knew Bombay so intimately as Arthur Craw-
ford and no one had the real good of the
city at heart more than he. He had very
large opportunities during his eventful Muni-
cipal Commissionership nearly fifty years ago,
and he utilised them to the full, beautifying
the city and doing good to it in numberless
ways in spite of the bitter opposition of its
citizens. He was a man with grand ideas
looking far ahead into the future and antici-
pating in those early days the city's position
at the present time. All his ideas and sche-
mes were not of course carried out in the
•sixties of the last century owing to financial
considerations. But if they had been, our
work in the twentieth century would have
been simplified considerably. He had forseen

AN ANTHOLOGY. 571

the great progress which our city has made and
would fain have provided for a Greater Bombay-
such as the present generation is engaged in
•building, had he had his own way unham-
pered. But it must be said that the resources
of the city in his time were narrow and he
far outran them. He never stooped to count
-the cost of his improvements and was lavish
in expenditure. So the civic finances were
hopelessly deranged and the bitter outcry
from the citizens drove him from his post and
most of his plans were abandoned. Crawford
later fell on evil days, and had to leave the
Bombay Civil Service in gloom almost at the
end of his long career and after having risen
-almost to the top. In the last part of his
long life he came to Bombay again and had
the great satisfaction of seeing with his own
-eyes the immense progress of the city along
the lines he had foreseen in his younger days.
After leaving the service in 1889, he turned
author and wrote some very good books
i>ased on his personal knowledge of this coun-
try and intimate acquaintance with its people.
His Reminiscences of an Indian Police Official, from
which we have quoted, is indeed a remarkable
4}ook, and the acquaintance which it reveals
-with the searny side of Indian life in our
^presidency and city is almost unrivalled.

572 BOMBAY :

Del Mar, Walter

(b. 1862).

This retired American Banker and son of
a well-known economical writer has travelled
a good deal, and published several books of
Eastern travel and impressions. He came ta
India in 1904 and wrote his Lidia of To-dayy
from which our extract is taken.

Douglas, James

1 826- 1 904.

This well-known local antiquary, who did'
much by his writings, spread over nearly a
quarter of a century, to stir up zeal in the-
present generation for old Bombay history and
antiquities, was by profession not a man of
letters at all, but a broker doing exchange
business for thirty years in our city. He re-
mained in Bombay till he was well past his
seventy-fifth year and went home to Scotland^
only to die. He contributed his articles chiefly
to our two local papers, and collected them-
at first in two pleasant little volumes called
Book of Bombay ( published by the *' Bombay
Gazette" in 1883) and Round About Bombay
(1886). In 1893 he expanded these two books,
into two large volumes, Bombay and Westertt

AN ANTHOLOGY. 573

India, by which it was his ambition to be
known to posterity. But though the book has
merits, not the least of which is that of stir-
ring up the enthusiasm of its readers, it has
some grave defects which stand in the way
of its being recognised as a work of perma-
nent historical importance and value. One of
the chief of these is that he rarely, if ever,
verified his references. He quotes his autho-
rities loosely from memory which, however
tenacious, betrays him • into many misstate-
ments, and it is rare to find among his sparse
foot-notes a book referred to by volume and
page. In 1900 he published a supplementary
volume called Glimpses of Old Bombay, contain-
ing some more of his pleasant chatty articles,
which are by no means confined to old Bombay
but range from Alexander the great and
Herodotus and Pliny to the Crusades and
Albuquerque and Aquaviva. One of these latter
miscellaneous papers, "Ostia to Ozein, A.D. 68,"
is however the best thing Douglas ever wrote,
being distinguished alike by a fine imaginative-
ness and vivacity.

Dufferin, The Harquess of

1 826- 1 902.

'This well-known Viceroy of India from
1884 to 1888 was in the diplomatic service and

574 BOMBAY :

the only administrative post that he had filled
before coming to India was that of Governor-
General of Canada. However in spite of his.
lack of previous administrative experience, he-
proved a highly successful and popular Viceroy.
His chief work was the annexation of Burma,
a country which had long continued to trouble
us. This annexation was at first unpopular with>
the Indians, who severely criticised it as an-
additional burden on the revenues of this-
country, as Burma for some years did not pay its:
way. But time has justified Lord Dufferin's-
wise step, and the new province not only pays
its way now, but every year gives a handsome
surplus to the Imperial treasury and is an-
undoubted source of strength to the empire^
besides getting rid forever of a very trouble-
some and semi-savage independent neighbour..
Lord Dufferin had brilliant literary gifts, inherit-
ed no doubt partly from his great-grandfather^
Sheridan. His mother also was a brilliant
literary lady. He wrote only a couple of books,,
but his brilliancy also appears in his letters,
one of which we have quoted, and many of them?
have been included in the late Sir Alfred LyalTs,
life of him (published by John Murray) that
appeared four years after his death. Lady
Dufferin, who accompained her husband to
India, published in Our Viceregal Life in Indict
a very vivacious account of the lighter side of
the lives of rulers of this country.

AN ANTHOLOGY. 575

Edwardes, Stephen fleredyth

(b. 1873).

This prominent Bombay Civilian and man
of letters, has continued Sir James CampbelTs.
labours on the Bombay Gazetteer and given us.
in 1909 in three volumes a long needed Gazetteer
of our City which had not been included in its.
35 big tomes. He has also published a sketch
of the rise and growth of Bombay, and an
excellent series of papers describing phases of
life in our city and its neighbourhood. The
latter were contributed to the Times of India and
afterwards separately published in a volume,,
from which we have made our extracts. The
former first appeared in 1901 as the historical
part of the Report of the Census of Bombay City
which he wrote as Census Commissioner. This
historical part was so thoroughly done by him
that his successor ten years later during the
Census of 191 1, Dr. J. Turner, needed not
to do it again. He is since 1910 Commissioner
of Police of the city, with whose past as well as.
present he is so intimately acquainted.

Elphinstone, flountstuart

1779-1859.

This well-known Governor of Bombay from
1819 to 1827, though he passed nearly the whole

576 BOMBAY :

of his active career in our Presidency was a
Bengal Civilian and had originally spent a few
years in that Presidency. He made his mark
very early at the Mahratha court of the Peshwa
at Poona, where he was posted, and was present
at the battles of Assaye and Argaum, Welling-
ton's great Indian victories, and witnessed the
shattering of the power of the Mahratha Con-
federacy. He again went to Poona, after a
few years, as Resident at the last Peshwa's
court. He spent seven laborious years in watch-
ing and checkmating the tortuous policy of
Baji Rao II and his anti-British advisers. At last
Baji Rao was obliged to declare himself in
his true colours, and make open war against the
English. The battle of Kirkee in 1817 put an
end to his rule, and the honours of the battle
belonged to Elphinstone, though he was a civi-
lian. The Peshwa's territories were annexed,
and Elphinstone after spending some time in
the work of 'settling' them, was appointed
Governor of Bombay at the unusual age of forty.
His rule, prolonged for eight years, was
marked by consolidation of territory, and by
amelioration of the condition of the people. His
efforts for the education of the people under him
were very zealous, and he has the great credit of
laying the foundation of the system of public
instruction in this Presidency, which has been pro-
ductive of great good to the Indians, who showed
their gratitude on his departure by large vo-
luntary contributions towards the establishment

AN ANTHOLOGY. 577

of the College called after his name. He
left Bombay for Europe in 1827 and though
he was then under fifty and though he lived
for over' thirty years afterwards, he declined
many high and very responsible posts that were
offered to him. He twice declined the Governor-
Generalship of India, besides the permanent
Under-Secretaryship of the Board of Control
and a special mission to Canada.

Elphinstone is well-known also as the author
of several important books, and his history
of India has long been a standard work on the
Mohammadan period which it mainly treats
of. He was also a good letter-writer as appears
from the intimate letters that he wrote to friends,
especially those to Edward Strachey, the father
of the late Sir Richard and Sir John Strachey.
The letter we have given describing his
impressions of Bombay life and society on the
threshold of his Governorship here, was address-
ed to his relative John Adam, another brilliant
Bengal civilian who rose to be member of the
Supreme Council in the same year in which
Elphinstone got the Bombay Governorship and
also acted as Governor-General for several
months in 1823 at the early age of forty-four.
These letters as well as a very interesting
journal that he kept for a good part of his life
were published in 1884 by Sir Edward Cole-
brooke in his biography of Elphinstone (publish-
ed by John Murray).

578 BOMBAY:

Elwood, rirs. Anne

This writer came to Bombay in July 1826
by the Overland Route through Egypt and
the Red Sea and was the first lady to travel
by this route. Of this journey overland from
England to India she published an account in
two volumes in 183O'. She was in Bombay and
the neighbouring places for nearly two years
and her account of the city and other places in
Western India is very elaborate. On her return-
voyage to Europe she followed the old route
by the Cape of Good Hope. Mrs. Elwood after-
wards wrote another book called "Memoirs of
the Literary Ladies of England." She was
the daughter of Edward Curteis of Windmill
Hill, Sussex, and was married to Col. Elwood.
The account of her overland journey to India is
written in the form of letters addressed to her
sister Mrs. Elphinstone.

Fraser, Lovat

This brilliant Anglo-Indian journalist was-
ten years in Bombay first as assistant editor and
then as editor of the Times of India, and during
all this time he came to know our city intimately.
After his retirement in 1907, he wrote his
India under Lord Cnrzcn, which is generally
accepted as a worthy record of a great Indian

AN ANTHOLOGY. 579

administration. Bombay, naturally, is often
mentioned in Mr. Fraser's book and his account
of the Plague in our city, from which we have
quoted, is valuable as well as vivid. He wields
a powerful pen and is still writing about
Indian affairs in the Times and other leading
papers. He is at present engaged upon
the biography of a great Bombay citizen, the
late Mr. Jamsetji Tata.

Falkland, Amelia Viscountess

1803-1858.

This lively lady was the daughter of
William IV. and Mrs. Jordan. She married
Viscount Falkland, (a descendant of the famous
Falkland of the time of the Great Rebellion),
who was Governor of Bombay from 1848 to
l853- She came out with her husband and
took keen interest in her surroundings in this
city and presidency. She kept a Journal from
which she published selections on her return
to Europe in 1857 under the somewhat cryp-
tic title of Chow-Chow. She herself ex-
plains it as follows: — "The Pedlers in India
carry their wares from village in boxes and
baskets; among the latter, there is always
one called the Chow-Chow basket, in which
there is every variety of merchandize. The
word Chow-Chow means * Odds and Ends,'

580 BOMBAY :

and in offering my Chiow-Chow basket to the
public, I venture to hope that something, how-
ever trifling, may be found in it, suited to
the taste of everyone." The book contains
vivid accounts of her experiences here of the
various classes of people with whom she
came in contact, of the manners and customs
of Indians and many other interesting things
besides. She was an admirer of Nature
and her descriptions of the natural scenery
of places like Poona, Mahableshwar etc. are
striking. She mixed with the Indians freely and
came to know their sentiments and opinions
somewhat intimately. Her sketches of Bombay,
of which we have given some specimens, are
life-like as well as lively. The book is well
worth reprinting. Lady Falkland died shortly
after the publication of her book.

Forjett, Charles

I 8 10-1890.

A well-known Commissioner of Police in
our city two generations ago. His knowledge
of Indians and his command over their lan-
guages was so perfect that he passed easily
as an Indian himself in their midst whenever
he chose. At the crisis of the Mutiny his
intimate knowledge of Indians as well as his
marvellous sources of gathering information

AN ANTHOLOGY. 58 1

were of great use to our city, in as much as
they averted a serious Sepoy outbreak here.
He has himself told the story in a book pub-
lished twenty years later from which we have
given extracts. It is pleasant to recall ^that
the citizens of Bombay appreciated his great
services on his retirement in 1864 in a sub-
stantial manner by presenting him with a
purse of over a lakh of rupees.

Forrest, L. R. Windham

A well-known member of the Anglo-Indian
mercantile community of our city twenty
years ago. He was a partner in the firm of
Messrs. Killick Nixon, and was for several
years Chairman of the Bombay Chamber of
Commerce. He was also member of the local
Legislative Council. He took a great interest
in developing the resources of Gujarat and
under his guidance his firm undertook the
work, very beneficent for commerce, of com-
mencing to build feeder-railways in that pro-
vince. The Tapti Valley Railway, running
through a very fertile country and connecting
the Bombay Baroda with the Great Indian
Peninsula Railway, owes its construction
mainly to his enterprise. Our city where he
resided for over thirty years and to develop
whose commerce he had worked hard, he knew

582 BOMBAY :

intimately and on his retirement he read a
paper before the Royal Society of Arts in
1901 which gives in short compass an outline
of the history and present position of Bombay.

Fortescue, The Hon. John

(b. 1859).
This eminent writer, is better known as
the historian of the British army than by any
books on India. But as Librarian at Windsor
Castle he came out to this country in the
suite of the King and Queen during their
visit in 1911-12 and wrote a narrative of the
Royal Tour ( published by Messrs. Macmillan).
This book though not very striking is a useful
short account of this epoch-marking event.
He is a son of the late Earl Fortescue.

Frere, Sir Bartle

1815-1884.

One of our greatest Governors and one
to whom the city of Bombay especially owes
much. He belonged to the Bombay Civil
Service, and was the last member of that
Service so far to rise to the post of ruler of
the presidency. Modern Bombay owes its rise

AN ANTHOLOGY. 583

mainly to him. The Town walls, which were
so long felt to be a hindrance, were finally
pulled down under him and the site thus
released was utilised for erecting splendid
mercantile and other useful buildings. The
city was vastly improved in several other
directions also and he gave us our first Muni-
cipality. The first years of his governorship,
•coincided with the period of phenomenal
prosperity which Bombay enjoyed owing to
the enormous rise in the price of cotton con-
sequent on the Civil War in America. This vast
and sudden influx of wealth led to extrava-
gant projects, and wild speculation raged un-
checked for a time. Then came the crash
and numberless people were ruined. The
great wealth that had turned the heads of
most of its people suddenly disappeared.
Frere was blamed by many at the time for
not having checked the spirit of speculation
in time. The last two years of his rule were
those of gloom and reaction. But making
allowance for his mistakes, it must be said
that he did much to soften the blow which
staggered Bombay in 1865. He left Bombay
in 1867. He came once more to our city
eight years later as the cicerone of the late
King Edward when he visited India as
Prince of Wales in 1875-76. When Frere's
term as Governor was over all the communities
and the various representative bodies of our city
presented him with farewell addresses to

584 BOMBAY

mark their sense of his great services, and he
delivered many important speeches in answering
these addresses. We have given some cha-
racteristic extracts from these speeches, which
along witH others were collected in a volume
with an introduction by that eminent Indian,
the late Mr. Justice Ranade ( 1842-1901 ).

Forbes, Alexander Kinloch

1821-1865.

This distinguished Bombay civilian who
died at Poona an early death was a Judge
of our High Court and Vice-Chancellor of our
University. Throughout his career here he
devoted all his leisure to the early history of the
Province of Gujarat where he mostly served.
He acquired great command over old Gujarati,
the language in which most of his materials
were composed. In 1856 when he was only
thirty-five he brought out the results of his
historical labours in his Ras-Mala or Hindu
Annals of Gujarat in two volumes, a work of
great labour and value which does for its subject
what Tod's Rajasthan has done for Rajputana.
Unfortunately it is not so well known and
appreciated as it deserves, though its merits
both literary and historical are great. Forbes
though an antiquary was no Dryasdust; he
had fine imagination and an excellent style.

AN ANTHOLOGY. 58S

He took great interest in architecture and his
descriptions of old cities like Anhilwada
and Champanir and their ruins are well worth
reading.

Graham, Maria

1785-1842.

This lady is better known in the literary-
world as Lady Callcott, the author of the widely
read "Little Arthur's History of England.""
She was the daughter of Admiral George Dundas.
In 1809 she married Captain Thomas Graham
of the Royal Navy and spent the next year in
India travelling through the country. Whilst
in Bombay she was the guest of Sir James
Mackintosh who was then Recorder here. She
published two books on her return to England
in 181 1 descriptive of her Indian travels. The
first was called "Journal of a Residence in
India" which was later translated into French..
Her second book was called "Letters on India"
and was published in 1814. Both these books
contain much that is interesting about this
country and its peoples. Captain Graham
having died in 1822 she married in 1827 Sir
Augustus Callcott (1779-1844) a well-known
landscape painter. As Lady Callcott she wrote
many successful children's books of which the
best remembered now is " Little Arthur's History

586 BOMBAY :

•of England" first published in 1835. Besides
India she travelled in several other countries
such as Brazil and Chili and wrote books
^bout them.

Grant=Duff, Sir Hountstuart
Elphinstone

1829-1906.

This distinguished English politician be-
■came Governor of Madras from 1881 to 1886.
He had been previously connected with Indian
•administration as Under-Secretary of State for
thiscountry whentheeighthDuke of Argyll (1823-
1900) was Indian Secretary in Gladstone's first
Administration of 1868-74. Some months after
that great Administration was dissolved by the
defeat of the Liberals at the polls in 1874, Grant
Duff visited India to see personally the country
for whose government he was responsible in the
House of Commons for the preceding six years.
The impressions of this Indian tour were first
printed in a Review, and afterwards appeared
in book form. Grant Duff was passionately
fond of botany, and his "Notes of an Indian
Journey" are full of information and observation
on the flora of this country. Though he
was officially connected with the southern
Presidency as its Governor, he had an hereditary
interest in our province. His father knew the

AN ANTHOLOGY. 587

IMahrathas intimately and wrote their history in
an authoritative work. His god-father w^as the
Tamous Governor of Bombay, Mountstuart
Elphinstone (1779-1859) whose name he bore.
During the latter part of his life he published
tiis voluminous ''Notes from a Diary," a work
useful to the future historian of the state of
society in Victorian times.

Grindlay, Robert Melville

The founder of the well-known firm of Anglo-
Indian agents and bankers, Grindlay Groom and
"Co., was at first in the service of the East India
<^ompany from which he retired with the rank of
"Captain. Being fond of sketching and drawing,
tie had made a large collection of drawings
of scenery and buildings whilst in this country.
In 1830 he published a selection from his own
-as well as other artists' Indian pictures, under
Ihe title of " Scenery Costumes and Architecture,
-chiefly on the Western side of India," which
was well received and several times reprint-
ed, the last being in 1892. This magnificent
■work consists of thirty-six large plates of which
TIG less than twelve are devoted to Bombay,
Elephanta and the neighbouring places. The
plates are accompanied by descriptive letter-
press which contain several good passages.

588 BOMBAY:

rirs. Guthrie

This charming writer was the wife of an
officer in the Bombay Presidency and came to
Bombay about forty years ago. She hat!
already travelled in Russia and written a book
called "Through Russia." She lived for some
years in this country and wrote two books,
about it. Her first book "My year in an Indian
Fort" describes her life in Belgaum where she-
was stationed for a year. The preliminary part
of the book is devoted to the outward voyage
and to Bombay, and her account of the sights
and scenes in our city is very lively as may
be judged from the extracts we have given.
The other book, "Life in Western India,'^
published in iSSi is devoted to various places,
like Bijapur, Dharwar, Sholapur, Hyderabad
where duty took her husband. The delightful
hill-station of Mahableshwar is well described
at length in the first volume. In both these
works Mrs. Guthrie weaves into her narrative
much of the folklore and legends that she heard!
at various places, and there are also in the
volumes several bits of natural scenery excellent-
ly described.

AN ANTHOLOGY. 589

Hall, Basil

I 788-1 844.
This well-known traveller and author was
the son of Sir James Hall (1761-1832) a noted
geologist. He was a captain in the Royal navy
and served in various countries. He visited
China in Lord Amherst's embassy and on the
way he had an interview at St. Helena with
Napoleon, who had known his father, Sir James
Hall, when a boy at school at Brienne. Basil
Hall was in Bombay in 1812 with his frigate, and
in 1814 he became Captain of the Victor sloop
which was then building at Bombay and which
he took to England in the following year. He
visited later several countries about which
he wrote various books. But his reputation
mainly rests on his "Fragments of Voyages
and Travels" which appeared in three series
in three successive years from 1831. These
contain many interesting personal experiences
of the author gained in several countries and
imparted in a good literary style. Whilst in
Bombay he was charmed with every thing
and his accounts as given in the second
series of this work are very enthusiastic. Two
years before his death his mind unfortunately
gave way and he died in an asylum.

590 BOMBAY :

Harris, Lord

{b. 1851 ).

Governor of Bombay from 1890 to 1895^
His term of office was marked by the great
encouragement given to sport amongst Indians^
especially cricket. Lord Harris was himself
a great cricketer and did'much to promote his
favourite game here, especially among Parsis^
On his return to England he read a paper or>
Bombay before the Society of Arts which
shows his great love and enthusiasm for our
city. Lord Harris came again to our city
during the Royal Visit in the cold weather
of 1911-12. His connection with India is here-
ditary, his father having been Governor of
Madras sixty years ago during the Mutiny;
and his great-grandfather was the famous,
conqueror of Tipu, the great Duke of Wel-
lington then serving under him.

Hiibner, Baron Joseph von

1811-1892.

An eminent Austrian diplomatist and man^
of letters. He was also a great traveller. In
1883 he travelled through the British Empire,,
visiting India and t}\e Colonies. He wrote an
account of this tour in 1885 from which w^
have taken a part abcut what he saw in Bombay^

AN ANTHOLOGY. 591

In this excellent work von Hubner does fulfc
justice to England's work in India, and it is.
well worth close attention, coming as it does,
from a foreign statesman of his wide experience-
and high position. He was Austrian ambassador
at various European Courts including those of
Paris and Rome, He was also a well known
author and an earlier account that he wrote
in 1 871 of a tour round the world, which
however did not include India, was translated
into several European languages. He also
wrote an excellent history of Pope Sixtus V.,
from the Catholic point of view.

Hunter, Sir William Wilson

1840-1900.

This distinguished Anglo-Indian, historian-
and statistician was at the head of the Sta-
tistical Department of the Government of India
and planned the series of Gazetteers for the
various provinces of this country, compiled by
a whole host of district officers intimately ac-
quainted with the places about which they wrote..
He himself took under his special care the
Gazetteer of the whole country of which he
published the first edition in 1881 in nine-
volumes and the second five years later in
fourteen volumes. He, however, died just
before the third edition was decided by Lord

592 BOMBAY:

Curzon's Government to be undertaken. The
article on Bombay in the second edition of
his Imperial Gazetteer from which we have
quoted gives an excellent compact account of
our City. He also wrote the article on Bombay
in the ninth edition of the Encyclopcedia Briian-
nica. He was also a voluminous writer on Anglo-
Indian history and biography, and edited the
well-known series of short biographical and
historical monographs called " Rulers of India."
Towards the close of his busy literary life he
began to publish a great history of British
India which would have run to five or six
large volumes ; but his death at the age of
sixty put a stop to what would have been
his magnum opus. It proceeded to only a couple
of volumes.

Von Koeningstnarck, Count Hans

This distinguished military officer on the
General Staff of the German Army came to
India in the cold weather of 1905-06, and
wrote on his return his impressions of India
and the British Administration here, which
were published in Germany where they were
very favourably received. In 1910 this German
book " Dii Englanden in Indien " was trans-
lated into English and became very popular.
The Count had previously twice visited the

AN ANTHOLOGY. 593

country in the early nineties, so his knowledge of
India cannot be said to be very limited. He
showed great powers of accurate observation and
also marked literary ability. His judgment of
the English work in India is very favourable and
he praises without stint the high purpose and
lofty aims with which he saw the officials
here inspired. This was all the more remark-
able as coming from a foreigner and espe-
cially, a German. The Count's description of
Bombay is striking both on account of its
enthusiasm and literary power. The book "A
German Staff Officer in India" (Kegan Paul)
is gracefully dedicated to Lady Blood, the
wife of General Sir Bindon Blood and daughter
of the late Sir Auckland Colvin, as a token
of the Count's homage to the English-woman
in India.

Karageorgevitch, Prince Bojidar

This Prince of the reigning family of Servia
came to India in 1897, when we celebrated
the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria and also
when Plague had only recently entered the
country. Enchanted India (Harpers) as he
calls his book of Indian travel is remarkable
for its striking and picturesque descriptions
of the cities and sights of this country. The
passages that we have given will give some

594 BOMBAY:

idea of the Prince's great gift of conveying the
impressions made by Indian sights and scenes,
in striking language.

Lamington, Lord

(b. i860).

Governor of Bombay from 1903 to 1907. He
was another of the retired rulers of this Presi-
dency who was invited by the Society of
Arts to read a paper on his reminiscences of
life here. He had previously discoursed
before the same Society on his travels in Indo-
China. He is very fond of travel, and since
he left Bombay seven years ago has been twice
to Persia. He was also Governor of the Colony
of Queensland in Australia before he came
to Bombay as its Governor. Popular among
all classes in Bombay, his premature departure
was regretted when owing to domestic circum-
stances he had to give up his office before
his term of five years was over. He is the son
of a great friend of Disraeli, Baillie-Cochrane
first Baron Lamington, who was a well-known
writer and whose book In the Days of the
Dandies had a great vogue once.

AN ANTHOLOGY. 595

Lee=Warner, Sir William

1846-1914.

This brilliant Anglo-Indian official and
writer knew our city thoroughly as he passed
almost his whole Indian career in the Secretariat
here; and long residence did not cool the
enthusiasm he had at first felt for it. The fine
passage we have quoted about Bombay and its
glorious scenery from a lecture that he gave
almost towards the close of his residence in this
city is proof of the spell that Bombay had
cast round him. After his retirement from the
Bombay Civil Service nearly twenty years ago, he
published some noteworthy books, especially a
biography of the Marquess of Dalhousie in
which that much-maligned ruler has at last had
full justice done to him after nearly half a
century of misunderstanding at the hands
of posterity. Sir William died only very
recently, a little after his retirement from
the India Council which he had serve^l either
as Political Secretary or member for seventeen
years after leaving India.

Low, Sidney

{b. 1857).

This able journalist came to India in 1905-
06, as special correspondent of the London

596 BOMBAY:

Standard, with which paper he has been closely
connected for a series of years, during the
first tour in India of His present Majesty as
Prince of Wales. This book A Vision of India
( 1906, Smith Elder) does not merely give an
account of the Royal Tour, but also attempts
to give the reader an idea of the conditions
of life and society prevailing in the country.
He tries to convey to the reader his impres-
sions not only of the sights he saw but of
the machinery of British Administration and
its manifold results. He mixed with officials
as well as non-officials, and the views that he
expresses strike one as those of a man of
wide learning and close observation. His
powers of picturesque narration and vivid de-
scription of the sights that he saw are also
remarkable.

He is also the author of the *' Governance
of England" a very able work on the English
constitution in its practical working; and of
the final volume treating of the reign of
Victoria in Dr. William Hunt's " Political
History of England." He edited thirty years
ago with the late Prof. Pulling a valuable
historical work of reference called ''The Dic-
tionary of English History," a book still in
wide use.

AN ANTHOLOGY. 597

Lytton, Lord

1831-1891.

Viceroy of India from 1876 to 1880. He came
to India lilce another Viceroy, Lord Dufferin, from
the diplomatic service, and like Lord Dufferin too,
who had previously declined the Governorship
of Bombay, he had declined the Governorship of
Madras. His rule in India was eventful and
marked not only by the Afghan War but
by wide-spread famine and popular dis-
content. Queen Victoria was proclaimed Em-
press of India with great pomp and circum-
stance in a grand Darbar at Delhi, the precursor
of the grander Darbars of our days. He was
a favourite with that good Queen with whom
he corresponded freely, and the letter giving
his impressions of Bombay on first arrival, from
which we have quoted, will give some idea of
his powers as a letter writer. Many of his
letters to friends were published in 1906 by
his accomplished daughter. Lady Betty Balfour,
who had previously written an account of his
Indian Viceroyalty. Lord Lytton was a very
good writer, and his speeches and despatches
had literary finish. He wrote also poetry and
some of his poems like "The Ring of Amasis,"
and ''King Poppy,'' are well-known. He was
made an Earl for his work in India, and on being
sent later to Paris as British Ambassador he
became very popular with Frenchmen.

598 BOMBAY :

riackintosh, Sir James

1765-1832.

This famous English writer and politician
came to Bombay in 1804, as Judge of the
Recorder's Court, established here six years
before. The first Recorder, Sir William Syer,
had succumbed here to the Indian climate and
Mackintosh came here with some hesitation ; but
he stayed here for nearly eight years return-
ing home to take part in English politics
for over twenty years thereafter. He had
previously applied unsuccessfully for the post
of Advocate-General of Bengal, but he got
the higher judicial post at Bombay which also
carried with it a knighthood. He had came
to India with the same object as Macaulay
in the following generation, namely, to obtain
a competency for life from his Indian savings
which would enable him to take an independ-
ent part in politics at home. While Macau-
lay, who had great admiration for him, achieved
that object remaining for only about half
the period of Mackintosh, the latter somehow
missed his, and failed to take the high
position in the political life of his time
which his parts undoubtedly deserved. Nor
did he, like Macaulay, make his mark in
literature by a great work. A certajn weak-
ness of character and infirmity of purpose are
responsible for this double failure. He had
planned on a great scale a history of the

AN ANTHOLOGY. 599

English Revolution of 1688 and though he
worked at it off and on for twenty years and
more, he left it only a fragment when he died.

When he was in Bombay he read immensely
taking little part in society, and Govefnm. '
House at Parel, which Governor Duncan kin<.l .,
laid at his disposal for residence at first, and then
"'Tarala" his subsequent house at Mazagon,
never harboured so erudite an inmate before
or since. But he seems to have read his whole
time away at Bombay doing very little sub-
stantial literary work. While Macaulay wrote
some of his best essays in Calcutta, Mackintosh,
w^ho was also an Edinburgh Reviewer, did no-
thing of the kind whilst at Bombay. One great
thing, however, he did whilst here, and that was
to found the Bombay Literary Society which
under a changed name still exists and has in
the course of its long existence done much for
the archaeology and philology of Western
India. Through this Society Mackintosh in-
fluenced several young Anglo-Indians to in-
vestigate and write about the antiquities and
history of India. Mackintosh whilst here kept
-a journal which was subsequently published
in his biography by his son and from this we
have taken our extracts.

600 BOMBAY :

Maclean, James Mackenzie

1835-1906

A distinguished Bombay citizen and jour-
nalist^ who after his retirement from our city
in 1880, took an active part in English poli-
tics and was a member of Parliament for
many years. Whilst in Bombay he was not
only editor of the Bombay Gazette for a long time^
"but also a prominent member of our Munici-
pal Corporation. He took a large part in
obtaining the present municipal constitution
for our City, which owes to him too its proud
motto Urbs prima in Indis. His Guide to Bo?nbayr
originally published in 1875 in connection with
the visit to India of the late King Edward VII
as Prince of Wales, occupied for nearly a
quarter of a century a unique place as a com-
pact and trustworthy handbook to our city
useful alike for the tourist and the permanent
resident. It was republished annually with
occasional revisions till fifteen years ago when
it was allowed to go out of print.

When the Riots of 1874 broke out, and
the Mahomedans of Bombay rose against the
Parsis and wrecked their fire-temples, Maclean
took up the cause of the latter, and did much
to obtain justice for them by his articles and
reports in his paper. He was an eye-witness
of most of the scenes of lawlessness then enact-
ed in the city, and his accounts were con-
sidered the best at the time. His writings in

AN ANTHOLOGY. 6oi

the Bombay Gazette on the subject were collect-
ed and reprinted in a pamphlet which had
a wide sale. Our extract about an episode
during these riots which attracted much at-^
tention at the time is taken from this pamphlet..

riacleod, Norman

1812-1872,

This eloquent and popular Scotch preacher
came to India at the end of 1867. He was
sent to this country to inquire into the condition
of the Church of Scotland Missions. His
interest in India had been first aroused early
in life by the Marchioness of Hastings, widow
of the famous Governor-General of India, who
presented him with his first living, that of
Loudoun in Ayrshire in 1838. Ever since those
early days of intercourse with the noble widow^
he had taken deep interest in Indian affairs
and history, and latterly he took an active
part in the management of India Missions. Sa
that when he was selected along with Dr. Watson
of Dundee by the General Assembly of 1867
to go to India and after personal enquiries.
on the spot to report on Missions there, he
undertook the journey with alacrity, though
his medical advisers had assured him that his.
going out to India would entail almost certain
death.

-602 BOMBAY :

In Bombay and wherever else he went, he
■was received most cordially by all classes of
-the people. He was Chaplain to Queen Victoria
-and one of her favourite preachers in Scotland.
This official position had something to do with
his reception, but apart from this his attractive
personality and intense sincerity would have
-ensured him a hearty welcome everywhere. Sir
Arthur Helps has called him the greatest and
most convincing preacher he had ever heard,
and in India too people crowded to hear him
-preach or speak. He spent only three months in
4he country, but the impressions that he gather-
ed in such a short time were remarkable for
-their accuracy and fairness. He came to
Bombay just in time to be present at the great
St. Andrew's dinner of 1867. He went about
•everywhere and saw everything. His impres-
sions and reminiscences of Bombay and other
Indian cities he contributed to Good Words, a
magazine which he edited and which became
in his hands one of the greatest successes of the
time in periodical literature. These articles were
re-published with additions and alterations in
1869 in a book called "Peeps at the Far East"
which had great vogue at the time and deserves
to be read still, as it has an inner depth and
a philosophical value beyond that of a mere
record of travel. Our extracts will, we hope,
-show the great value of the book. There is
:not much about missions in it, the main
object for which he came here; but that is

AN ANTHOLOGY. * 603

l)ecause he embodied his investigations on that
subject in a separate official Missionary Report.
The year after his return from India he was
chosen Moderator of the General Assembly and
in his official address he dealt la'^ely with
his Indian experiences. He survivee. ^ return
from the Indian tour only four years and died in
June 1872.

riayo, Lord

1822-1872.

This popular but unfortunate Viceroy of
India, from 1869 to 1872, came to Bombay,
in the latter part of December, 1868, on his
way to Calcutta to assume the Viceroyalty
from Lord Lawrence. He had been appoint-
ed to his high office by Disraeli when his
first administration was already tottering. It
was at Bombay that Mayo heard of the fall
of Disraeli and the advent of the Liberals
under Gladstone. While he was in England
there had been a violent outcry against his ap-
pointment on the score of his want of expe-
rience of Indian affairs. So he might well
have been doubtful, when he landed in Bombay
and saw our city, about his further journey to
Calcutta to assume office. But Gladstone and
the Liberal Ministry confirmed their prede-
cessors' nomination. During the ten days that

604 BOMBAY:

he spent in our city he discussed most of the
local problems and was specially interested
in our Municipal affairs which were then under
Arthur Crawford, our great Municipal Com-
missioner. He visited the Vehar Water Works^
at that time our only works of the kind and saw
the docks. These too were very small affairs-
indeed compared to the extensive docks that we
have now come to possess. Still Mayo was much
impressed with all that he saw and called Bombay
the finest site for commerce in the world. He
was destined never to come again to Bombay
for his departure at the end of his term of office.
He was assassinated in the midst of his
beneficent career three years later by a fanatic-
Afghan in the Andamans when he had not
yet completed his fiftieth year. Sir William
Hunter, who was then a rising official, published
his biography three years later, in which he
gives Mayo's diary from which we have extract-
ed, and other personal materials.

floor, Edward

1771-1848.

The well-known author of the Hindoo Pan-
theon was in the military service of the East
India Company and employed mostly in the
South. The last six years, 1799-1805, of his
stay in India he spent in Bombay, where he was.

AN ANTHOLOGY. 605

employed as garrison store-keeper or Com-
missory-General. He retired in 1805 when he
was only thirty-four. He was of an observing
studious nature and had while in this country
made the Hindoo religion his special study. He
had gathered extensive materials for this and
made a large collection of Indian images, pictures
and the like. Five years after leaving India he
published his great work on Hindoo Mythology
and religion in which he utilised the materials
he had collected in this country. This work
as well as another smaller book called *' Oriental
Fragments" which he published in 1834, contain
several passages giving interesting remini-
scences of his residence in Bombay and other
Indian places. Our extract from the former
work, Hindoo Pantheon, about the Hindoo sacred
place at Malabar Point illustrates this. The
year before he left Bombay, he was among those
learned Anglo-Indians who helped Mackintosh
to found the* Literary Society of Bombay. His
valuable collection of Indian images was lately
exhibited by his grandson at the Indian Court
of the Festival of Empire.

rirs. Postans

This lively writer of two generations ago
was the author of several books about Bombay
and Western India which were popular in her

606 BOMBAY:

days. She was married twice, first to Capt.
Postans and then to a missionary named Youngs
and came in close contact with Indian life
and society in this city as well as Surat and
other places. Her book on Bombay from which
our extracts have been made, is a good recorcf
of the city at the beginning of Queen Victoria's
reign, and may be read with profit for the
sake of comparison with the progress since-
made. Her Moslem Noble, which she published
in 1857 under her second name of Mrs. Young, is
a good picture of high class Mahomedan life
at Surat from within as it were, and contains
other interesting matter besides.

Perry, Sir Erskine

1 806-1 882.

Once the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court
at Bombay, Perry is much better known as a
lawyer than as a man of letters. His Bird's-eye
Viezv of India is well worth reading still, though
it appeared sixty years ago. It contains a
journal kept during one of his long tours in
India and gives several first hand impressions
which are worth reading. He wrote also a very
interesting book of gleanings of Indian social
life from his judge's note-book. After his
retirement from Bombay in 1852, he was long
known in England for his strong and persistent

AN ANTHOLOGY. 60^

advocacy of the cause of Indians first in Parlia-
ment and then in the Council of India. During-
his sojourn in Bombay from 1839 to 1852, he
took great interest in the education of the-
natives of this city and was President of the-
old Board of Education which gave place a
little after his retirement to the Department ol"
Public Instruction.

Price, David

1762-1835.

Like Major Moor with whom, while in India,,
he had contracted a life-long friendship, David
Price was in the army of the East India
Company and employed against Tipu in Mysore-
and the South. He began his career in this,
city and was off and on in Bombay, Poona^
Surat and other places in Western India during:
his Indian career extending from 1782 to 1805,.
He was Judge Advocate of the Bombay army in
1795 and the following years. With his friend
Moor he retired early from the service in 1805^
and like him too he spent his retirement ia
literary ease writing several important works..
He too a little before his retirement took part ir^
founding the Bombay Literary Society. The
subject of his special studies was Mahomedan
History.

6o8 BOMBAY :

Prinsep, Valentine Cameron

1838-1904.

This distinguished English artist belonged
to the well known Anglo-Indian family of the
Prinseps who have been for several generations
in the Indian Civil Service. He himself like his
father and brother was intended for the same
service and actually was for some time at
Haileybury; but having decidedly an artistic
bent he chose to pursue an artistic career, in
which he achieved a marked success. Being
born on Valentine's Day at Calcutta, where his
father then was in the Supreme Council, he was
called Valentine, and this was contracted into
Val, and he w^as known generally as Val Prinsep.
He was the pupil with Sir Edward Poynter and
Whistler of the famous painter G. F. Watts
(1817-1904). He was an intimate friend of Millais,
Burne-Jones, and other celebrated Victorian pain-
ters. In October 1876 he received from Lord Ly tton
a commission to paint a picture for the Indian
Government of the coming Imperial Assemblage
at Delhi to be given as a present to Her Majesty
Queen Victoria on the occasion of her assumption
of the title of Empress of India. This picture
necessitated a long tour of nearly a year, as he had
to be present not only at the Darbar but had also
later on to visit the Native Courts in order to
portray from life in his picture the various and
numerous Native Princes that attended that
grand function. This picture was finished in

AN ANTHOLOGY. 609

1879 and was exhibited at the Royal Academy in
the following year. It hangs now at Bucking-
ham Palace. He afterwards published an
account of his tour for his Durbar picture in a
book called bnperial bidia: An Artist's Journals.
(1879, Chapman and Hall). This book like
Rousselet's deals almost exclusively with Native
India, as he visited only the Courts of the prin-
cipal Native Princes. Prinsep relates his experi-
ences in a bright humorous way. He executed
several commissions for the Native Princes and
his portraits hang in several Native Courts
in India.

Ramsay, Balcarres D. Wardlaw

A grandson of the 23rd Earl of Crawford
and Balcarres, Col. Ramsay was well connected
with the aristocracy of England and obtained
several coveted posts. He served in India twice:
he passed through the Indian Mutiny, and some
thirteenyearsearlierhecameouttoBombay on the
personal staff of the Governor, Sir George Arthur
(1784-1854). Towards the close of his career he
published his "Rough Recollections of Military
Service and Society" (1882, 2 vols., Blackwood)
which are very pleasant reading and contain
many good anecdotes. His recollections of
Bombay as he saw it in 1844-45, are very

_6lO BOMBAY.:

interesting as Ramsay went about with his eyes-
open. He was afterwards on the staff of the
Governor-General, Lord Hardinge, (1785-1856).

Reed, Dr. Stanley

{b. 1872).

This distinguished Anglo-Indian journalist
is editor of the Times of India since 1907.
His connection with this paper began ten
years earlier, and he was its Special Corres-
pondent on important occasions like the great
Famine of 1900-OI, the tour of the Prince and
Princess of Wales in India, 1905-O6, the Amir
of Afghanistan's visit, 1907, etc. His account
of the Prince's tour of 1905 was so well
written and highly appreciated that it rendered
unnecessary the official narrative whose publi-
cation was dropped in its favour. He also
represented his paper when six years later the
King and Queen visited India again. His
narrative of this memorable Royal visit attract-
ed considerable attention, and was well re-
ceived when it appeared, like its predecessor,
in a sumptuous volume. From both these books
our extracts are taken. Much of what relates
to Bombay in the volume on the Royal Visit
is from the pen of Mr. S. T Sheppard, Assis-
tant Editor of the Ti?nes of India, who has
made Bombay history and topography his

AN ANTHOLOGY. 6il

special subject, as appears from the preface
of Dr. Reed, who says: "I am indebted
to my colleague, Mr. S. T. Sheppard, for
much valuable assistance. He wrote a consi-
derable part of the Bombay chapter, etc."

Dr. Reed represented the press of Western
India at the Imperial Press Conference held
in London in J909, and the University of
Glasgow conferred its Doctorate on him on
the occasion. A predecessor of his in the
editorship of the Times of Indidy the well-known
Dr. Buist (1805-1860) had been similarly honoured
by a Scotch University two generations earlier.

Kees, Sir John

ih. 1854).

A distinguished Anglo-Indian writer, who
after a career in the Madras Civil Service from
187S-1901, has entered English politics, and be-
come Member of Parliament. While in India he
was Private Secretary to three successive Gover-
nors of Madras, and wrote an excellent account
of the tours of one of them, the late Lord
Connemara (1827-T902), from which our extract
is taken. The quotation in this extract (p. 4 supra)
is from Tennystjn's well-known lines on Milton
beginning * O Mighty-mouth'd inventor of har-
monies'' ( Poetical Works, Globe ed.,.p. 243 )w

6l2 BOMBAY:

Rousselet, Louis

A French artist who spent six years, 1864-69,
in India on a picturesque tour like Daniell and
some other Englishmen before him, studying
the architectural monuments and other works
of art in this country. He was particularly
interested in the India of the Native Princes and
he visited their Courts, not caring so much for
the parts under the British rule. He was
received by these ^Native Princes with great
honour, and every facility was given him of
prosecuting his artistic studies. During the
years he was in India the name of France
stood high in the world, and though he had come
in no official capacity from his country, the Native
States received him everywhere as a distinguish-
ed visitor belonging to a great nation. He
afterwards published an elaborate book of his
Indian experiences and impressions which also
appeared in an English edition in 1876. This
book was beautifully illustrated with the
author's striking engravings especially of the
architectural remains. The book naturally
contains little about British India; still Bombay
has a good many pages, as Louis Rousselet
started on his long Indian tour from our city
in which he stayed for several months in 1864,
visiting Elephanta and Kanheri Caves and other
places of interest. His long account of
Bombay, its peoples and sights, is lively and
entertaining, as may be seen from our extracts.

AN ANTHOLOGY. 61 3

Steel, Flora Annie

ib. 1847)-

A noted novelist and writer on India, this lady
has achieved a name in Anglo-Indian literature
second only to that of Mr. Rudyard Kipling.
The wife of a Bengal Civilian serving in the
Punjab from 1862 to 1889, she was with him
for twenty years in this country, and was
herself officially employed as an Inspectress
of Schools in the Land of the Five Rivers whose
people she came to know intimately. Of her
several novels the most noteworthy are "On
the Face of the Waters," a powerful tale of
the Indian Mutiny, and "The Potter's Thumb," a
remarkable story of Anglo-Indian and Indian
life. Mrs, Steel wrote the letterpress for one
of Mr. Mortimer Menpes' books of coloured
illustrations on India in Messrs. Black's delightful
series of "Colour Books," and our extract is
taken from thence.

Steevens, George Warrington

1869-1900.

This brilliant journalist came to Inilia only a
y^ar before his untimely death, and wrote as the
result the most brilliant of his books. In India
(Blackwood, 189^). lie came with Lord Curzon
when the . latter assumed the ViceroyaUy

6i4 BOMBAY:

at the beginning of 1899, and remained
some months traversing the country, and the
impressions that he gathered of life and society
as' well ias administration, he has put in this
remarkable book which is wonderfully accurate,
besides being thoroughly readable. Steevens
had the gift of insight combined with that
of vivid and telling description, which together
make his book really remarkable.

After his return from India, Steevens went to
South Africa as war correspondent of the Daily
Mail, and was subsequently besieged in Lady-
srhith, where unfortunately he died of enteric
fever on the 15th of January 1900. His corres-
piondence during the Boer War and the Siege
of Ladysmith was afterwards published pos-
thumously. He also wrote during his short
career four or five other books describing
America, Egypt, the Sudan, etc., which were
made up of his brilliant special correspondence
for the Dailv Mail.

Sydenham, Lord

ib. 1848).

Governor of Bombay from 1907 to I9I3-
The term of the administration of Sir George
Clarke, as he was known whilst in Bombaj',
was eventful in itself, and the Royal Visit to'
our city that fell during it, may also be said

AN ANTHOLOGY. 6K

to have distinguished it much. To the rapid
growth and expansion of Bombay that has
been going on for years past he devoted
special care and attention, drawing up elaborate
projects for the improvement and extension
of our city. Education and popular unrest
also engaged him largely. His rule was .on
the whole successful and he was popular with
several classes of Indians. He was made a Baron
shortly before he left Bombay for his vigorous and
successful administration. Lord Sydenham is a
practiced writer and has written more than half
a dozen books. His special subject is Imperial
defence, on which he is considered an authority
and for which he had visited various outlying
parts of the Empire before coming to Bombay.

Temple, Sir Richard

1826-1902.

This well-known Anglo-Indian Civilian was
for three years, 1877-1880, at the close of his
brilliant Indian career, Governor of Bombay.
Like other rulers he too was charmed with
Bombay and is enthusiastic in his references
to our city in his various works, especially his
autobiography called "Story of my Life"
published in 1896 from which our extracts are
taken. Sir Richard besides being an admini-
strator of great note, was also a voluminous

6l6 BOMBAY:

writer on India, many of whose provinces ne
had known intimately and administered ably.
He had the reputation of being acquainted
personally with the nooks and corners of our
presidency more than any of his predecessors,
and the experience thus gained he utilised not
only in his minutes here as governor but also in
his books later on.

West, Sir Raymond
1832-1912.

A well-known Bombay Civilian of the last
generation and educationist. He was Judge
of the Bombay High Court for many years and
closed his career as Member of Council retiring
in 1892. With the Bombay University he was
intimately connected as its Vice-Chancellor for
a series of years. His annual Convocation
a^idresses in the latter capacity were models of
learning and academic eloquence. He was also
an ardent encourager of research and learning,
whilst in Bombay. As a lawyer his reputation
was high and his work on Hindu Law in
collaboration with Dr. Biihler (1837-1898) is.
authoritative.

't

AN ANTHOLOGY. 617

NOTE ON THE

WRITERS OF ACCOUNTS

OF BOMBAY.

The earliest account of Bombay under the
English hitherto quoted is that of Fryer written
in 1675 only six or seven years after the Island
passed into British hands. But a still earlier
account was uneatthed by the late Sir Henry
Yule and published a little before his death in
1889, amons other unpublished materials in
his very valuable edition of the Diary of Sir
William Hedges for the Hakluyt Society. This
was written by Sir Streynsham Master (1640-
1724) who was one of the four leading servants
of the East India Company who had been
selected in 1668 to go to Bombay from Surat
and take over the Island from the King's officers,
when Charles II had determined to transfer
it to the Company, thinking it useless and
expensive. Master had first come to Surat as
a lad of sixteen in 1656 in company with
his uncle, George Oxenden, who later became
President of the Surat Factory and was the
first Company's Governor of Bombay, dying
a few months after his appointment in July r669.
Oxenden has been completely forgotten long
ago, though he has a splendid mausoleum at
Surat. So also is Master, who had left no trace
of his connection with Bombay before the for-
tunate discovery of this account among the family
papers by a descendant who communicated

6i8 BOMBAY :

it to Yule. He is remembered now, if remembered
at all, for his later connection with Madras, where
he became chief of the Factory in 1678 and built
the Church which has the distinction of being the
first English Church in India. Owing to grave
differences with his emploj^ers he returned to
England in [681, and took a prominent part in
the affairs of their rivals the New East India
Compan5^ of which he b€;pame one of the
Directors.

Yule's edition of Hedges' Diary, which mostly
refers to Bengal, is not a very likely place for
finding an account of Bombay, and consequently
I have hardly ever seen it referred to or used by
writers about our Island. I called attention
to it in 1900 in the Times of India, where it was
quoted in its entirety. In the present book it takes
its proper place as leading all the early accounts
of this Island given in the section specially
devoted to them. Valuable and detailed as
is Fryer's account, yet Master's has an authority
which the latter cannot claim. Fryer was a
traveller, a globe-trotter, though a very intel-
ligent one, and new to the country ; while Master
had been sixteen years in India at the time of
writing his description and must have known
the Island pretty intimately as he was one of
the Commissioners, as said above, for receiving
it on behalf of the Company from -the King's
officers. Till the official account written by
Master's chief, the well-known Gerald Aungier,
turns up some day at the India Office Library

AN ANTHOLOGY. 6r9

or elsewhere, this account is not likely to lose
its great importance.

John Fryer (1650-1733) was a physician
who, soon after taking his M.B. degree at
Cambridge in l67r, embarked on a lengthened
tour in India and Persia, undertaken in the
interests of the East India Company, which
lasted for ten years from 1672 till 1682. He was
in Bombay in 1674 ^^^ his account, from
which we have quoted, is contained in a letter
dated from Surat, 15th January 1675. This
and the other letters which form his well
known book A New Account of Enst Indiii and
Persia were not published till 1698. He could
not easily be persuaded to give an account
of his wanderings to the world, but at length
piqued at the frequent appearance of trans-
lations of foreign, especially French, books of
travel in which English industry and enterprise
in India were decried, and annoyed by numerous
private enquiries about his experiences, he came
•out with the handsome folio which has saved
his name from oblivion, and which has been
quoted so often for these two centuries. The
book besides narrating his experiences of the
various parts of India and Persia he passed
through, in an interesting and often amusing
manner, contains curious particulars respecting
the natural history and medicines of these
<ountries. Fryer took his M.D. on returing
from his tour in 1683 and was elected a Fellow of
the Royal Society a year before the appearance

620 BOMBAY :

of his book, which fully testiliecl to both his
medical and scientific attainments. It was
somewhat strange that Fryer's book, considering
its great interest and value, should not have beem
reprinted till a few years ago, when Mr. W^
Crookes brought out for the Hakluyt Society his
scholarly edition. The late Mr. Talboys Wheeler
(1824-1897), the historical writer, had indeed
reprinted the Indian part in the Calcutta English-
?nan more than forty years ago, but the volume
in which the articles were collected soon went
out of print. Philip Anderson (1816-1857) in his
excellent historical account of the English irt
Bombay and Western India in the seventeenth
century, published in 1854, in our city, has sum-
marised Fryer so deftly that we have given it also.

Ovington who came sixteen years after Fryer^
published his book, A Voyage to Stiratt in the year
/659,two years earlier in 1696. He was a Chaplain
in the Royal Navy and remained for several
years on the coasts of India; and he has left
behind in this book, beside his account of Bombay
and Elephanta, a detailed description of Surat
and its cosmopolitan population, for Surat was
in his days prett}^ much what Bombay is at
present, representing so many castes and creeds.

A quarter of a century later came another
Chaplain, Richard Cokbe, a learned and pious
man, who left his mark here during the few
years that he resided in this settlement by
stirring religious enthusiasm and thereby

AN ANTHOLOGY. 621

promoting the erection of our venerable Cathed-
ral, not indeed so styled at the time, but
as he modestly calls it, "the Bombay Church."
But he held peculiar views about his office and
duties as chaplain, and coming into collision
with the Council, he had to retire abruptly
in 1719. He survived for half a century and
published so late as 1766 a rare little volume
giving an account of the Bombay Church
in whose erection he had taken a large and
enthusiastic part. In this he prints a letter
<iddressed to the Bishop of London, soon after
his arrival here in 1715, in which he gives him a
short account of Bombay which we have quoted
from this scarce book. The Bishop, it seems,
had asked him, on parting, to interest himself
in the* place and send him some account of
the island and the state of religion. The letter
was in answer to this request and though it
<loes not say nuich has still some interest.

Alexander Hamilton (?i658-l732) whose
account is as well known as that of Fryer, was a
sea captain, who, after gaining some maritime
experience in Europe and the West Indies, came
out to the East Indies in 1688 and did not
return to Europe till 1723, visiting during those
thirty-five years almost every port from Jeddah
to Amoy. He was in Bombay often and knew
it intimately. But he was what was called
an ''interloper," following a life of commercial
adventure, and as such had a strong prejudice
against the East India Company with which

622 BOMBAY :

his book is strongly tinged. His New Account of
the East Indies was published in 1727 and went
through a second edition in 1744. Though it has
not been reprinted since in separate form, it is
well known owing to long extracts given by both
Pinkerton and Kerr in their general collections
of voyages and travels published in the
early part of the last century. Of this work of
Capt. Hamilton, a very competent authority,
Sir John Laughton, speaks in these high terms:
"In the charm of its naive simplicity, perfect
honesty, with some similarity of subject in its
account of the manners and history of people
little known, it offers a closer parallel to the
history of Herodotus than perhaps any other in
modern literature," (Diet, of Nat. Biog., Vol.
VIII, p. 1017, 2nd ed.)

Edward Ives (?J720-I786) was a surgeon
in the navy who came to Bombay in 1754 on
board the 'Kent,' the ship bearing the flag of
Admiral Watson (1714-1757) as commander-in-
chief in the East Indies, and remained in the
Indian seas till the Admiral's death in Aug. 1757,
when he resigned his appointment and returned
to England overland by way of Persia and
Asia Minor. In 1773 Ives published his ex-
periences in India and of his overland journey
homewards in a quarto volume entitled "A
Voyage from England to India in 1754 and
an Historical Narrative of the Operations of the
Squadron and Army in India under the command
of Vice-Admiral Watson and Col, Clive in

AN ANTHOLOGY. 623

1755-57," which is important on account of his
personal intimacy with Watson and of his
presence at many of the transactions described.

Carsten Niebuhr (1733-1815) the father of
the famous historian of Rome, Barthold Niebuhr
(1776- 1 831) came to Bombay in the course of
his scientific tour in Arabia and India in 1761-
1767, undertaken at the expense of the Danish
Government, and stayed here for fourtee-n
months from Oct. 1763 to Dec. 1764, and wrote
a well-known account which is often referred
CO. This appeared in his Voyage eti Arabic which
was published in two volumes in 1774-78, and
contains his experiences of that long and inter-
esting tour in the course of which he visited
Egypt. Arabia, India, Persia and Palestine.
At Bombay he was well received and made
several lasting friendships with Englishmen
on the Island. He also learned English here,
and endeavoured to obtain information about
the Parsis and Hindus which he utilised in his
work, which was translated in an abridged
form from the original French into English.
Niebuhr was a native of Hanover, and educated
at the Gottingen University, from which he
passed to Copenhagen and entered Danish
service in which he passed his life. His more
famous son, born at Copenhagen, began life in
the service of Denmark, but soon entered that
of Prussia and distinguished himself as a
diplomatist and still more as a historian. As^
a young man he studied at Edinburgh for a

624 BOMBAY :

year and was, as he himself says, received
<is one of the family in the house of a
venerable man, Francis Scott of Harden,
whose friendship had been formed by his
father while in Bombay.

John Henry Grose, (fl. 1750-1783) younger
brother of the well-known antiquary Francis
Grose, (1731-1791), came out to Bombay in 1750
-as a Civil Servant of the East India Company
and on his return published in 1757 in a single
volume an account of his experiences. This
volume gives a good account of Eastern man-
ners and customs then little known, and was
said to have been compiled from Grose's notes
by John Cleland (1709-1789), who had himself
been in Bombay as servant of the Company
for several years. (For Cleland's career in
Bombay and other matters, the curious may
refer to an article by me in the Aihencuum,
December, 1905). A second edition appeared
in 1766, enlarged in two volumes, and a third
followed in 1772. The first edition was translat-
ed into French in 1758. The work has been
made the basis of many popular accounts.

James Forbes (1749-1819) was another of
the Company's Bombay Civilians who wrote a
widely known account of our Island after a
iong residence here. He came to Bombay as a
Civil Servant in 1766 and remained in the service
till 1783, serving in various places in Gujarat like
Broach, Dhabhoi, etc. During these seventeen

AN ANTHOLOGY. 625

years he had imbibed a genuine love for the
country and its inhabitants as well as amassed
a large collection of sketches and notes on the
flora, fauna, manners, religions, and archaeology
of India. These he utilised as materials for his
great work Oriental Memoirs, which he published
in four large quarto volumes between 1 813 and
18 1 5. This work has now for a century
deservedly held a very high place in Anglo-
Indian literature. Its marked .characteristic is
the genuine love for the country and sympathy
for its inhabitants that it shows by the
side of its intimate arquaintance with their
sentiments and prejudices. Count de Montal-
^mbert, (1810-1870), the famous French orator and
historian was his daughter's son and was
brought up with great care in his early days
by him. For his grandson's eventual use when
he should come to the age of discretion, Forbes
prepared an enlarged manuscript edition of
the Memoirs, expanding the four volumes to
forty-two by inserting copies of his original
sketches, letters, verses and numerous other
additions ; but Montalembert took no interest
in the East and conseciuently neglected these
manuscript treasures, which, however, are
preserved by the family at Oscott College.

Forbes had retired from Bombay on a com-
fortable competency and spent thirty-five years
of retirement in learned ease and occasional
travel. Whilst travelling in France during the
oeace of Amiens, he was detained prisoner with

626 BOMBAY :

all other British subjects by Napoleon when
he broke that peace in 1803. He was, however,
after some time allowed to return to England
in the middle of 1804, and he published two years
later his '' Letters from France," which contain
an interesting account of his captivity. His
only daughter who had married Marc de Montal-
embert, a member of an old French noble family,
whom the Revolution had driven to Engl-
and, published .in 1834 an abridgement of
the " Oriental Memoirs" in two octavos, which
brought the splendid but unwieldy work into a
form more adapted for easy handling. It is some-
what strange that in these days of reprints
nobody should have thought of republishing in
a popular form Forbes' most interesting and
diverting volumes. If Englishmen in India were
to read these Memoirs at the outset of their career
here, they could not fail to imbibe at least some
of the author's love for the land and sympathy
for its peoples.

Of the two anonymous accounts quoted,
that of 1724 is from an exceedingly rare
little volume kindly placed at my disposal
by Mr. S. T. Sheppard, of the Times of India,
an enthusiastic collector of Bomhayana.
This book is specially important for an
account of the Portuguese cession of the
Island to the English and the documents relating
thereto. The other book, published in 1 781, is
attributed to Samuel Pechel in Halkett and
Laing's " Anomymous Literature." He is

AN ANTHOLOGY. 627

supposed to be a Civil Servant, but I have been
unable to trace him in the official lists given in
Sir G. Forrest's old Bombay Secretariat Papers^
The book is almost entirely devoted to a
narrative of the first Mahratha War ( 1778-1781 )•
then drawing to a close.

It has been thought fit to close this section
with Walter Hamilton's account, as his bulky
book. Description of Hindustati, may be said to
have begun the age of Indian Gazetteers. Indeed
he called the second edition of the book pub-
lished in 1828 by this title. From that point
forward the accounts multiply fast and the books
(|uoted in the other sections will give a clue to
them.

^-^^^>^^^^^

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APR 23 1935

nEG 3 1935

MAR 231937

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