BOMBAY 51 



Parsees stand preeminently at the head of all the 

 races of Western India, many of them being among 

 the wealthiest merchants in India, while others 

 have won high positions in the government, and 

 their universal liberality is well known in Bombay, 

 where numberless public buildings, hospitals, and 

 colleges have been endowed by their public-spirited 

 generosity. It is indeed greatly to their credit that 

 the one hundred thousand followers of Zoroaster, 

 who still tend the sacred flame, should, in spite of 

 their numerical insignificance, play so large a part 

 in the development of India. 



The streets and buildings of Bombay may be 

 lightly passed over, for splendid as is the " Queen of 

 Cities," she is by no means typical of India: the 

 hand of the Anglo-Saxon rules supreme ; her great 

 public edifices, her shops, her churches, imposing as 

 they are, would be as much in place in London or 

 New York as out here in the East. 



Then, too, one has no great enthusiasm for a place 

 where for a month one has been flat on one's back in 

 bed, with a temperature somewhat too high for 

 either convenience or safety; for the fever, which 

 on my departure from Singapore had appeared 

 to be cured, had on my arrival in Bombay come on 

 again with redoubled intensity, and quickly laid me 

 low. If these pages are ever glanced at by Mr. 



