WESTERN HINDOOSTAN. 91 



diers. The capture gave fiefli fecurity and importance to the 



ifle of Bombay. 



That iiland was part of the portion given to Charles 11. with Island of Bom- 

 bay. 

 his Queen, in 1662. His Majefty fent, in 1661, James Ley, Earl 



of Marlborough^ a moft experienced failor, with a ftrong fleet, 



to receive it from tlie Portuguefe. This nobleman was killed 



foon after his return, in the bloody fea fight againft tlie Dutch 



in 1665. " He was," fays Clarendon, " a man of wonderful 



" parts in all forts of learning, which he took more delight in 



" than in his title*." Charles, in 1668, granted theifland to the 



Eaji India Company, under a rent often pounds in gold, payable 



annually at the Cuttom-houfe at London. 



Its length is about feven miles ; it is flat, and at firft was 

 extremely unwholefome, infomuch, that " two monfoons at 

 *' Bombay is the age of a man," became here a i)roverb ; but by 

 draining, and by prohibiting the ufe of putrid filh for manur- 

 ing the coco trees, it is rendered tolerably healthy, and is be- 

 come the great port and fliip yard of the Englijlj in IruJia ; three 

 hundred fail can at one time lie here in fafety. 



On the ifle is the town, the docks, and arfenal, feated in Town-, Docks, 

 Lat. 18° 58' N. Long. 72° 40' E. llrongly fortified; and behind 

 them the Dungeree town for the natives. When the Portuguefe 

 ceded this place to us, it had only ten thoufand inhabitants. By 

 our mild government, in 1764 it increafed to fixty thoufand. 

 Abbe Raynal gives this ifland a hundred thoufand inhabitants, of 

 which feven or eight thoufand are failors. Mr. Ives calls it the 

 grand ftorehoufe of all \\\q Arabia 7t and Perjian commerce. The 



* Lord Clarendon's Life, ii. 508. Anderfon's Did. li. ijg. 



N 2 Arabs 



