Two days after this encounter in the Indian Ocean, we were safely riding at anchor opposite the Fort of Bombay, and in one of the most lovely and picturesque harbours it has been my good fortune to visit. We had been just three months and a half upon our voyage, and I really felt sorry that it was over; for the last ties that seemed still to bind me to sweet home were now to be broken. We had scarcely come to an anchor, before our vessel was surrounded by canoes, punts, dingies, and a dozen different kinds of shore-boats, all of which had come off from the custom-house bunda, in the full expectation of getting a job of some description or other.-One contained the custom-house officers; another, the parties to whom our ship was consigned; another, the master dobie, or ship's washerman, who kindly volunteered to wash for captain, mates, and sailors, at an almost nominal charge. He had a turban full of the highest testimonials, signed by all the known and unknown officers of the Indian army and navy, extending over a period of thirty years, at the very least, and carefully enclosed in an oiled paper envelope. Another boat had been engaged by a collection of Portuguese servant-boys, who were anxious to hire themselves to captain, mate, passengers, or, in fact, to any one that was silly enough to take them on the strength of their suspicious-looking recommendations. Another boat had pulled over a remarkably jolly-looking Hindoo, who kindly offered to dispose, for the commander, of any little thing he might have brought out on his own

account to speculate with. He said, in very good English, he was intimately acquainted with all the London and Liverpool ships, and had been the means of putting their captains into the way of realizing large sums on their Yorkshire hams, Cumberland bacon, greyhounds, &c., &c. He was, in fact, a Jew of the St. Mary Axe caste. Another, and perhaps the most acceptable boat in the lot, was filled with all sorts of desirable things; fresh water, new-baked bread, goats' milk, pots of country butter, or ghee, eggs, poultry of all descriptions, meat, vegetables; newspapers, foreign and native; Manilla cheroots, Chinese punkahs, hookahs, pumpkins, and fifty nameless articles, difficult to remember. Then there was a boat crowded with Lascars, fine, strongly-made men, who had come off to assist in unloading the ship; for in warm climates our sailors are unequal to this task without assistance. A knowing-looking Mussulman, seeing me staring about on the quarter-deck, came up the ladder, aud after making me a very low and graceful salaam, begged my acceptance of a bunch of sweet green leaves, and a real genuine Provence rose, which appeared to me doubly sweet. He had tied them up neatly on a painted stick; and having thus introduced himself, he began to recommend, in very glowing terms, a young gentleman sitting in the bow of one of the boats, and holding over his head a ragged pink umbrella, as a fit and proper person to look after my luggage, and act as valet de chambre during my sojourn in Bombay. I told him, however, that I

F

No

should probably have to be my own, for some years to come. He apologised for the intrusion; and was afterwards, with about two dozen others, peremptorily, and rather hastily, ordered off the deck by the mate, as some of the sailors had discovered that our polite visitors had made several mistakes, in taking away with them articles not lawfully their own. sooner had they pushed off, than it was discovered that the loose ends of every rope had been cut off.— We had evidently fallen amongst thieves, perhaps the most expert and cunning which the world could produce. One of our crew declared that a Lascar was sawing off, with the greatest coolness, and with his hands behind him, about three yards of new rope, as he was conversing with him about the nature of the cargo. It may appear strange, that the captain was not aware of this national failing; but it was his first voyage to India. We got a most acceptable supply of fresh water from the pilot-boat, as we had suffered much during the voyage from the bad tank that ours had been put into. After so long an abstinence, I thought I had never in my life tasted anything so delicious as this water. Truly, we. never know the value of any blessing till we lose it.

"And this is India !" thought I, as with a strange feeling of pleasure and surprise, my eyes, as I sate upon a chair on the quarter-deck, wandered over the scenes on shore. "This is the far-famed country concerning which I have heard so much!the land of gold and sunshine-of nabobs and

diamonds; the land of which tradition has told us so many marvellous tales, and of which such wondrous accounts have been handed down, ever since the day when Vasco del Gama, the first European navigator, found his way to India by doubling the Cape of Good Hope; opened, on the 20th of May, 1498, friendly communications with the Zamarin, or Sovereign Prince of Calicut; and laid the foundation of a scheme which was soon to disturb its tranquillity, and to relieve it of a portion of its riches. How little did he dream, that England was eventually to reap the benefits of his discovery, and that a quiet little company of Leadenhall Street merchants would, in due time, take counsel together to turn the trade of Hindostan into a new channel, and to deprive the Venetians, the Genoese, and finally the Portuguese, of all the golden harvest they had been so long reaping on the sunny shores of the famed Indies. Here then was Bombay,* which the Moguls had surrendered up to the Portuguese, in 1530, and which was to be rather more than a century afterwards a part of a wedding-gift of the Infanta of Spain, on her marriage to Charles the Second. My mind pictured

Bombay takes its name from two Portuguese words, bom bahia, signifying a good harbour or bay. It is stated, that in the age of Perlplus, this island, then called Kalliena, was little frequented. It had previously been an established port, but Sandanes, one of the Sovereigns of Barugaza, prohibited any of the Egyptian vessels from entering the harbour; and if any were compelled to do so by accident or stress of weather, a guard was immediately put on board, and they were taken to Barugaza.

the fleet of five ships of war, under the command of the Earl of Marlborough, arriving here, in 1662, to take possession of this valuable acquisition, which is now the site of a prosperous and populous city, remarkable for its strong fortifications, magnificent harbour, fine docks, and wealthy merchants; in fact, one of the most flourishing depôts for the produce of the East that we possess. The Island of Bombay is beautifully situated on the western coast of Hindostan, 18 deg. 56 min. N. Lat., and 72 deg. 57 min. E. Long., and lies off the shore of Concan, in the province of Bejapore. It was united, in 1805, to the large and interesting Island of Salsette, on the south, by a noble causeway constructed by the then governor, Mr. Duncan. Bombay is said to be formed of two ranges of whinstone rock, of unequal length, running parallel to each other on opposite sides of the island, and at the distance of two or three miles from each other. The eastern range is about seven, and the western about five miles long; these ranges, being united at the north and south by belts of sandstone, which are only a few feet above the level of the sea. The harbour is bounded on the north and west by Bombay, Colabah, and Salsette. On the eastern side is Butcher's Island; and behind this, Elephanta.-Three miles south of Butcher's Island is Caranjah.-The channel thus formed by Colabah and Caranjah is about three miles wide, and about seven or eight fathom deep; and is rather dangerous, on account of a sunken rock and bank occurring near the entrance to the harbour.