1819.] the Population of Bombay. 431 



so limited a space must be considered rather as that of a town 

 than of a district of country. It is to be expected, or at least 

 not to be wondered at, that it should not maintain itself without 

 the influx of inhabitants from the neighbouring provinces. The 

 very small proportions of births in No. VII. probably arises, in 

 part, from the number of adventurous strangers who resort to 

 the most thickly peopled part of the island, while the three 

 former returns, which relate to places where the Christians are 

 native inhabitants, show a proportion of births by no means so 

 singular. That the proportion of deaths in No. VII. is the least 

 among the Christian returns, is in all likelihood to be ascribed 

 to the easy circumstances of many of the members of that con- 

 gregation, the Christians of the other parishes being chiefly of 

 the very lowest classes. Of the high rate of mortality in Nos. V. 

 and VI. which relate to two small fishing villages, no specious 

 explanation presents itself: of that, and indeed of every other 

 part of the subject, we must expect explanations from the 

 enlightened and accomplished men on the spot, who now possess 

 better means of investigation than were in such hands when 

 these imperfect returns were procured. 



It must be observed that many of the Parsees come to Bom- 

 bay in search of fortune after having reached the age of man- 

 hood, and return with a competency to their native countries. 

 Some of them are men of great wealth ; many are in easy 

 circumstances: and none are of the most indigent classes. From 

 these circumstances, the comparatively low rate of their mortality 

 and the smaller number of their females will be easily understood. 

 The famine increased their mortality from 311 in 1802 to 563 in 

 1804 ; an augmentation almost entirely to be attributed to deaths 

 of the fugitive Parsees, who were attracted to Bombay by the 

 well-known charity of their opulent fellow-religionists. 



The Mahometans are much inferior in fortune to the Parsees • 

 but they are not much engaged in the lowest sorts of labour 

 which are chiefly performed by the inferior castes of Hindus, and 

 by some of the native Christians. The famine increased the 

 deaths of the Mahometans from 1099 in 1802 to 2645 in 1804. 



Of the Hindus, who form the great body of the people, we 

 have unfortunately no enumeration ; but the return of their 

 deaths has one observable peculiarity. In the higher castes the 

 bodies are burned ; in the lower they are buried. Though there 

 be many individuals of the higher castes who occupy very humble 

 stations, and are of what an European would call very low rank, 

 there are scarcely any of the lowest castes in conditions of ease, 

 not to say afiiuence : burning or burial affords, therefore, some 

 criterion of their situation in life. The famine increased their 

 mortality from 3069 in 1802 to 23,179 in 1804. Their deaths 

 were augmented more than six-fold. But the different decree 

 in which the famine acted on the women and children of the 

 higher and lower-oastes is very striking. The deaths of the 



