26 HINDOOSTAN. 



hundred thousand inhabitants, though the harbour is small and incom- 

 modious, on which account ships generally receive and deliver their 

 cargoes for the merchants of Surat at the port of Swalley, about twelve 

 miles distant to the north-west. The English have a very flourish- 

 ing factory at Surat. 



Among the islands lying upon the same coast, is that of Bombay, 

 belonging to the English East India company. Its harbour can con- 

 veniently contain one thousand ships at anchor. The island itself is 

 about seven miles in length, and twenty in circumference ; but its 

 situation and harbour are its chief recommendations, being destitute 

 of almost all the conveniences of life. The town is about a mile long, 

 and poorly built ; and the climate was fatal to English constitutions, 

 till experience, caution, and temperance, taught them preservatives 

 against its unwholesomeness. The best water there is preserved in 

 tanks, which receive it in the rainy seasons. The fort is a regular 

 quadrangle, and well built of stone. Many black merchants reside 

 here. This island was part of the portion paid with the infanta of 

 Portugal to Charles II, who gave it to the East India company ; and 

 the island is still divided into three Roman-catholic parishes, inhabit- 

 ed by Portuguese, and what are called Mestizos and Canarines ; the 

 former being a mixed breed of the natives and Portuguese, and the 

 other the aborigines of the country. The English have found methods 

 to render this island and town, under all their disadvantages, a safe, 

 if not an agreeable residence. The reader scarcely needs to be in- 

 formed, that the governor and council of Bombay have lucrative posts, 

 as well as the officers under them. The troops on the island are 

 commanded by English officers ; and the natives, when formed into 

 regular companies, and disciplined, are here, and all over the East 

 Indies, called Seapoys. The inhabitants of the island amount to near 

 sixty thousand, of different nations, each of whom enjoys the practice 

 of his religion unmolested. 



Proceeding to the south on the western coast of what is termed the 

 Peninsula of Hindoostan, the tract that borders on the sea, from Bom- 

 bay to Goa, is called the Concan, and sometimes the Pirate coast, as 

 it was subject to the celebrated pirate Angria, and his successors, 

 whose capital was the strong fortress of Gheriah, taken by the English 

 and Mahrattas in 1755 : by the acquisition of this coast the Mahrattas 

 have become a maritime power. 



The island and city of Goa, the capital of the Portuguese settle- 

 ments in the East Indies, lies about two hundred and sixty miles south 

 of Bombay. The island is about twenty-seven miles in compass ; it is 

 one of the finest and best fortified ports in the Indies. This was for- 

 merly a most superb settlement, and was surpassed, either in bulk or 

 beauty, by few of the European cities. It is said that the revenues of 

 the Jesuits upon this island equalled those of the crown of Portugal. 

 Goa, as well as the rest of the Portuguese possessions of this coast, 

 are under a viceroy, who still keeps up some remains of the ancient 

 splendor of the government. 



The late kingdom of Canara, or Canhara, begins forty miles to the 

 south of Goa, and reaches to Calicut ; its soil is extremely productive 

 of rice, and supplies many parts of Europe, and several of the Indies. 

 The Canarines, it is said, were always governed by a queen, whose 

 son had the title of rajah; but the country was conquered by Hyder 

 Ali i and since the defeat and death of his son, Tippoo Sultan, has been 



