194 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AXD SPORT. 



of the plain, at such isolated hill-forts and sanitaria 

 as Singhur and Poorundhur ; and that, in the cold 

 season, you can take a two months' tour in Kathiawar, 

 Sind, or liajpiitana, in order to get a little real cold 

 weather and brace yourself up after your fatiguing 

 residence in Bombay, then, I frankly admit, a 

 residence in the capital of Western India is not only 

 endurable, but has great advantages of its own. Ad- 

 mirable as this arrangement is, it does not appear to 

 leave much time to be spent in Bombay ; but then a 

 very little time spent there goes a long way, and also 

 goes far to impart a pleasing consciousness that you 

 have been an unrewarded and unacknowledged bene- 

 factor of your fellow-creatures. It may be well, how- 

 ever, not to impart any whisper of this conviction to 

 your fellow-citizens of Bombay; for now that the 

 Indian element has got the upper hand there, nothing 

 is regarded with more dislike and distrust than any 

 expression of dissatisfaction with the climate of that 

 great city. Admit at once that it is simply perfection, 

 and that your sole duty in life is to devote all your 

 capacity and all your means to the benefit of its 

 population, and then you will soon become a popular 

 character, even though you may labour under the 

 serious disadvantage of never having been twice 

 born or circumcised, or bowed as a worshipper of 

 the sacred fire. 



It need not be denied, however, that the climate 

 of Bombay, though debilitating, and favourable only 



