118 THE SEA. 



On the African side, besides Suez, there are the ports of Cosseir, Suakim, and Massuah. 

 The Red Sea is deep for a partially inland sea ; there is a recorded instance of sounding's 

 to 1,000 fathoms considerably over a mile and no bottom found. 



After leaving- the Red Sea, where shall we proceed ? We have the choice of the 

 India, China, or Australia Stations. Actually, to do the voyage systematically, Bombay 

 would be the next point. 



Bombay, in general terms, is three things : a city of three-quarters of a million 

 souls ; a presidency of 12,000,000 inhabitants ; or an island the island of Mambai, 

 according to the natives, or Buou Bahia, the " good haven," if we take the Portuguese 

 version. The city is built on the island, which is not less than eight miles long by three 

 broad, but the presidency extends to the mainland. 



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. 



Calcutta, in 1700, was but a collection of petty villages, surrounding the factories 

 or posts of the East India Company, and which were presented to that corporation 

 by the Emperor of Delhi. They were fortified, and received the name of Fort William, 

 in honour of the reigning king. It subsequently received the title of Calcutta, that 

 being the name of one of the aforesaid villages. Seven years after that date, Calcutta 

 was attacked suddenly by Surajah Dowlah, Nawab of Bengal. Abandoned by many who 

 should have defended it, 146 English fell into the enemy's hands, who put them into that 

 confined and loathsome cell of which we have all read, the " Black Hole of Calcutta/' 

 Next morning but twenty-three of the number were found alive. Lord Clive, eight months 

 later, succeeded in recapturing Calcutta, and after the subsequently famous battle of Plassey, 

 the possessions of the East India Company greatly extended. To-day Calcutta has a " Strand " 

 longer than that of London, and the batteries of Fort William, which, with their outworks, 

 cover an area half a mile in diameter, and have cost 2,000,000, form the strongest fortress 

 in India. 



Across the continent by railway, and we land easily in Calcutta. It has, with its 

 suburbs, a larger population than Bombay, but can never rival it as a port, because it is 

 a hundred miles up the Hooghly River, and navigation is risky, although ships of 2,000 



