British soldiers who had been sent out to take over the place were landed on the island off Carwar to await the settlement of the dispute, which many anticipated by dying. Charles II. was exceedingly wrath with his father-in-law, blustered a good deal, demanded £100,000 by way of compensation, and finally took nothing. Two years later the English troops somehow or other got into Bombay, and in 1668, nothing in the way of money being squeezable out of the new possession, King Charles handed it over to the East India Company for an annual payment of £10.

The Company proceeded in business-like manner to improve the attractiveness of the place, and had succeeded so well that in 1675, when Dr. John Fryer visited it, the original population of 10,000 souls had been multiplied sixfold. They were, according to the early traveller's account, a very mixed lot—“a set of the most confounded rascals in the world," as Sir John Astley, on an historical occasion, urbanely described the Irish Home Rulers in the House of Commons. What the East India Company wanted was men and women to fill up the new settlement, which speedily became the Alsatia of India.

Strangely enough, this early characteristic of mixed nationality clings to Bombay to the

present day. All the nations of the world jostle each other in its teeming streets. According to the last census, the population of 10,000 which owned the sway of Portugal in 1661 had, in the course of 220 years, reached over 773,000. Of these, only 10,451 were Europeans, a mere handful of the dominant race planted out amid the luxuriance of native growth. Considerably more than half the population is Hindoo, of various castes and divers principalities; 158,000 are Mahommedans; the rest are Parsees, Jews, Portuguese, negroes, half-breeds, and Chinese.

These last, which form so important and numerous a section of other countries on the coast of the Eastern hemisphere, have gained no foothold in Bombay. After all these years there are only 169 in the city. The reason for this is perhaps not far to seek. The work which the Chinese successfully undertake in Hongkong, the Straits Settlements, and the Malay Peninsula, is accomplished in Bombay by natives or earlier settlers. Where the Chinaman would set up as a banker he is faced by the Marwaree; where he would embark as a merchant or shipowner he finds the Parsee in possession. He is an excellent cook and household servant; but so are the IndoPortuguese, who have an earlier claim; whilst

for the lower arts, the washing and tailoring, the native is more than equal to demands upon his time and energies.

Bombay had at one time an evil reputation for its fatal insanitariness. It was a common saying that the duration of a European's life was spanned by two monsoons. On one side

of the town there was, and in bettered condition still is, a wide expanse of low land called the Flats. Over these the ocean washed when the monsoon blew; and when the wind ceased, the sea, sullenly retreating, left behind a morass which bred malarious fever. This evil was grappled with, just a hundred years ago, by Governor Hornby. He had frequently represented to the Directors of the East India Company the perils of the situation, and had pointed out how they might be averted by the creation of an embankment that would keep the sea off the Flats.

The proposed improvement would, however, cost a lac of rupees, and such wilful extravagance the Court of Directors resolutely declined to sanction. Repeated application met with persistent refusal. But Governor Hornby was a man of courage and resource. He estimated that the work might, if undertaken in a liberal spirit, be completed in a year. He waited till his term of office was

within eighteen months of expiring and then began the embankment.

There was no telegraph in those days, nor any overland mail expedited by swift ships and express trains. News travelled slowly to Leadenhall Street, and the embankment grew apace. The Directors, either getting wind of the project or suspecting the Governor of evil intent, sent an urgent despatch bearing on the subject. It duly reached Governor Hornby; but he, desiring not to have his mind distracted whilst the great work was in progress, left the despatch unopened in his desk. When the embankment was completed and the lac of rupees spent, he opened the letter, and found it was an order for his suspension from the office and authority of Governor of Bombay. It was too late to prevent the creation of the embankment, and the Governor could only write and express his regret for the series of circumstances that had baffled the intent of the Court of Directors. The Honourable Court momentarily went mad with rage; but it could not tear up the embankment, which remains to this day-the salvation of Bombay, and an enduring monument to the memory of the audacious Governor.

Oddly enough, within the last twenty years Bombay has permanently benefited by

a somewhat similar high-handed proceeding on the part of an official. Any one who lived in Bombay in 1860, and returned to it now would scarcely recognize his old acquaintance. Within that period, chiefly between 1861 and 1872, Bombay was visited by something like an epidemic of palatial building. It began during the American War, when the price of cotton steadily went up, pouring sovereigns by the million into the lap of Bombay. It is estimated that between 1861 and 1866 Bombay received eighty-one millions sterling over and above what she had during the previous five years gladly accepted as full value for her cotton. A great deal of this fabulous wealth disappeared during the mad rush of speculation which whelmed the city in 1864; but a good deal of it stuck, and its proceeds may be seen to this day. Wealthy natives, making coup after coup in cotton, and scarcely knowing what to do with their money, determined to keep their memories green by dowering the city with some stately gift in stone.

One presented a lac of rupees wherewith to build the clock tower which looks abroad over island, sea, and mainland. When the inevitable crash came, this benefactor was ruined. Only recently the tower has been