TOMB OF SHEKH SALEM, FATTEHPUR-SIKRI . THE BOLAND DARWAZA, FATTEHPUR-SIKRI THE RESIDENCY, LUCKNOW AITKEN POST, BAILEY GUARD, LUCKNOW THE KAISAR BAGH, LUCKNOW THE MASSACRE GHAT, CAWNPORE 183 187 . 191 TH HE last week in October we left Victoria Station to join the P. & O. mail steamer at Brindisi. The air was chill and damp, and the fog lay thick over city and river. At dawn, fourteen days after, we were anchored in the harbour of beautiful, sun-girt Bombay, and the air was sultry with the heat of summer. A rosy mist was hanging over the blue mountains in the distance, and the fishing boats, with their large brown lateen sails, were gliding away before the bright morning breeze. Steamers and brigs, and Arab dhows, with their broad, raised poops-like the poops of the vessels that sailed the Spanish Main-are anchored before us; and not far from the dhows are two turret ships of ugly, but imposing presence, meant to protect the gate of our Indian Empire. In the far distance rises into sight a well-wooded hill, and between it and a long spit of land. lies the city of Bombay, whose towers and domes soar clear in the serene and transparent air. Immediately in front of the deck are the grey walls of the old castle, which has been ours for two centuries and a quarter. - When in the year 1663 Mr. Humphrey Cook and his men took possession of Bombay in the King's name, they found "a pretty well Seated, but ill Fortified House, four Brass Guns being the whole Defence of the Island." "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." Ten years after, Ten years after, "Bombay opened itself" to John Fryer, M.D. Cantabrig., and Fellow of the Royal Society, and during that time a great change had been wrought "in this Garden of Eden, or Place of Terrestrial Happiness. The Walks, which before were covered with Nature's verdent awning and lightly pressed by soft Delights, are now open to the Sun, and loaded with the hardy Cannon : the Bowers dedicated 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 War-like Force." Captain Alexander Hamilton, who was in Bombay within twenty years of its occupation, informs us in A New Account of the East Indies that "No sooner had Mr. Cook acquired the Island than he 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 they were disturbed by their Enemies, till Forces could be sent from other Places to relieve them." In erecting the Fort in its present situation Hamilton considered "Mr. Cook showed his want of skill in Architecture, when a proper and convenient Situation ought to be well considered "; but "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 100 Piece of Cannon; and that is all that is commendable in it. But had it been built about 500 Paces more to the Southward on a more acute Point of Rocks, called Mendham's Point, it had been much better on several Accounts." A French traveller, who visited Bombay the same year as Fryer, describes the Castle as "a very fine Fort in which the English President commonly keeps residence"; and the Fellow of the Royal Society tells us that even at that early date the Governor of Bombay held considerable state. "The President," he writes, "has a large Commission, and is Vice-Regis; he has a Council here also, and a Guard when he walks or rides abroad, accompanied with a Party of Horse, which are constantly kept in the Stables, either for Pleasure or Service. He has his Chaplains, Physician, Chyrurgeons, and Domesticks; his Linguist and Mint-Master. At Meals he has his Trumpets usher in his Courses, and Soft Musick 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 Palenkeens, carried by Cohors, Musslemen Porters: Always having a Sumbrero of State carried over him : And those of the English inferior to him, have a suitable Train." Sir Gerald Aungier, President of the East India Company's factories and trade, was, at the time of Fryer's visit, the ruler over Bombay, " for the King, finding that the Charge of keeping Bombay in his own Hands, would not turn to account, the Revenues being so very inconsiderable," had made the island over to the Company. It was to be held by them of the King "in free and common Soccage as that of the Manore of East Greenwich on payment of the annual rent of £10 in gold on the 30th September in each year." Gerald Aungier was one of the men who make empires and bind them together. During his three years' stay at Bombay he so improved the fortifications of the place that, finding "Bombaim" fort as "stark as de Deel," the Dutch retreated to their boats without any booty. Aungier quelled a formidable mutiny, and by strict discipline pre pared the troops for action, and formed the inhabitants into a militia to act with the garrison. He laid out a town on the site of a few fishermen's huts, and erected houses for the factors' warehouses to store his masters' goods, a granary, mint-house, and a court of judicature. He organized the administration, and made his famous convention with the inhabitants—a wise and statesmanlike measure which has done much to promote the welfare of the island. His Imperial policy, however, did not meet with the approval of his masters at home. They blamed him "for the great charges expended, and the grandeur he used on their island Bombay." But Aungier replied that “Fame hath aggrandized the expenses of Bombay more than really it is." "The moneys expended in public appearance were, by serious debate in Council, made suitable to the decency and advantage of your affairs free from vanity or superfluity, and ever ended with the same reasons that also produced them." As for the buildings, they were judged "absolutely necessary and such as you cannot be without," "yet if you shall not approve thereof your President offers to take them to his own account provided you will please to allow him reasonable rent for the time they have been employed in your service and give him leave hereafter to improve them to his best advantage." 66 For twenty years Gerald Aungier conducted the government of Bombay and Surat with great skill and judgment. Then, in a letter dated "Surat, ye 30th June 1677," we read, It hath pleased God to our great sorrow after a tedious sickness to take out of this life our worthy Presidt Gerald Aungier, who decd this morning between four and five of ye clock, of wch wee thought good to give you this timely notice, yt you might prevent all innovations or disturbances upon ye island." The Bombay Council, in acknowledging the receipt of this sad intelligence, remark: "Wee cannot rightly express ye reallity of our grief wee conceived at ye |