Читать книгу The Sea: Its Stirring Story of Adventure, Peril, & Heroism (Vol. 1-4). The History of Sea Voyages, Discovery, Piracy and Maritime Warfare онлайн

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In 1509, the Portuguese visited it, and in 1530 it became theirs. In 1661, it was blindly ceded to our Charles II., as simply a part of the dowry of his bride, the Infanta Catherine. Seven years after Charles the Dissolute had obtained what is now the most valuable colonial possession of Great Britain, he ceded it to the Honourable East India Company—though, of course, for a handsome consideration.

Bombay has many advantages for the sailor. It is always accessible during the terrible south-west monsoons, and possesses an anchoring ground of fifty miles, sheltered by islands and a magnificent series of breakwaters, at the south end of which is a grand lighthouse. Its docks and dockyards cover fifty acres; ship-building is carried on extensively; and there is an immense trade in cotton, coffee, opium, spices, gums, ivory, and shawls. Of its 700,000 inhabitants, 50,000 are Parsees—Persians—descendants of the original Fire-worshippers. A large proportion of them are merchants. It may not be generally known to our readers that the late Sir Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy—who left wealth untold, although all his days he had been a humane and charitable man, and who established in Bombay alone two fine hospitals—was a Parsee.