124 



ORIENTAL COMMERCE. 



[Bombay. 



Kenery ; the former is about a mile distance from the main i it is very 

 small, and surrounded with fortifications. 



Kenery, likewise small, lies due S. of the light-bouse, and is just dis- 

 cernible from the decks of the ships in Bombay liarhour. It is nearly of a 

 circular form, and has a small creek on the N. E. side, where boats lie, and 

 is the only landing-place about it. The island is near 600 yards in circum- 

 ference, surrounded by a wall irregularly divided by towers ; it is covered 

 witii houses, and very populous. 



The inhabitants of Bombay are composed of persons from almost every 

 Asiatic nation. Nothing has contributed more to the prosperity of the 

 island than the mildness of its Government, and the toleration of all 

 reb'gions : Persees, Mahometans, Gentoos, Arabs, and Itoman Catholics, are 

 alike protected. 



The European houses of agency at this Presidency are few. None of 

 them could subsist upon the agency business alone, it being very confined, 

 and the profits in a great measure absorbed by interest of money on the cash 

 balances they are obliged to keep, and the expences of the establishment. 

 Their advantages arise principally from mercantile transactions ; and though 

 they hold out the agency business to be the line they confine themselves 

 to, yet without trade they would scarcely gain a subsistence. Agency, 

 however, gives them the command of a capital, which enables them to 

 embrace every favourable opportunity that occurs, to forward their com- 

 mercial pursuits. 



The Persees rank next to the Europeans. They are active, industrious, 

 clever, and possess considerable local knowledge. Many of them are very 

 opulent, and each of the European houses of agency has one of the 

 principal Persee merchants concerned with it in most of their foreign 

 speculations. They have become the brokers and banians of the Europeans. 

 The factors belonging to these different houses resident in China, Bengal, 

 &c. are generally Persees, and the correspondence is carried on in the country 

 language, so that the British merchant knows no more than they com- 

 municate to him. The sen-ants attached to Europeans at this Presidency 

 are Persees, and the best of any in India. 



Many considerable Portuguese, Armenian, and Hindoo merchants 

 reside here, who possess great property, and are men of much integrity. 

 There are likewise some Borah merchants, or Mahometan Jews, who carry 

 on a great trade with Guzerat, and other places to the northward. Upon 

 the whole, Bombay may be considered the emporium of Persia, Arabia, 

 and the western part of India, and where the manufactures and produce 

 of all parts of the world may be readily procured. 



