1837,] 



Bombay Islands: 



167 



must be admitted, is not for the advantage of science), not only the 

 varieties of the trap formation should be discriminated, but the whole 

 group should have an appellation, indicative of its production at a 

 distinct period, and under different circumstances, from modern 

 volcanoes. The term subaqueous volcanic rocks, expresses the hypo- 

 thetical nature of their ejection. 



In the centre of the island are situated the celebrated temples of 

 Salsette, or rather their remains, since they have received great muti- 

 lation, not from the influence of natural causes, which from the hardness 

 of the rock of which they are formed, they are calculated in a great 

 measure to withstand, unlike the polished remnants of Greece and 

 Eome, which are daily dissolving in the very rains which nourish the 

 earth,* but from the hands of barbarous men. 



It is not our purpose to describe them ; it is sufficient to refer to ac- 

 curate details respecting their appearance and size, which have afford- 

 ed subject of admiration to numerous ages. f They are literally caves 

 in hills, composed of porphyry and amygdaloid, thus differing 

 from the pagodas on the coast of Malabar which consist of black 

 basalt.J 



The Portuguese, who were the first European settlers in this country, 

 justly merit the high degree of reprobation, which has been attached 

 to their conduct, in the destruction of these extraordinary antiquities, 

 for they must have been infatuated with the most determined intention 

 of mutilation. The datcpf this dilapidation may be reckoned about 

 the year 156^, as we learn from the historian of that period ; that D. 

 Antony de Noronha, the 9th Viceroy, and 23rd Portuguese governor of 

 India, who succeeded John de Mendoea in 1564, and held the office 

 till 1567, finding the people incorrigible, notwithstanding the exertions 

 of the religious of the society of Jesus, who had laboured indefatiga- 

 bly for the conversion of infidels, and had sent some of their num- 

 ber into the island of " Salsette," which contained 66 villages of 

 pagans ; destroyed all their pagodas to the number of 200.§ The 

 soil in this neighbourhood is highly improvable, if we may judge 

 from the flourishing appearance of the gardens at Powey, and the quan- 

 tity of produce raised. In the low valley which runs towards the centre 



* Davy's Consolations in Travel, Dialogue vi. ; p. 266. 



+ Gemelli Careri, vol. iii. p. 36. Asiatic Society Trans, vol. iv. Sousa notices a tradi- 

 tion that a subterraneous passage exists between " Canari," and Cambaya, running under 

 the sea, which was the work of Bimilaraansa, who was king of all that country in the 

 third century. Others attribute the work to the holy prince Josaphat, F, Antony de 

 Porto, a Franciscan, is said to have travelled for seven days in this passage, without arriv- 

 ing at its termination. Sousa's Asia, torn, ii, '258, 395. 



% Sonnerat Voyage aux Indes, torn. ii. c. 4. 



\ " Portuguese Asia, by Manuel de Faria y Sousa, translated from the Spanish by Capt, 

 John Stevens." Lond. 1695, 3tomes8vo., tome iii. p. 14, tome ii. p. 253. The original 

 title of the work is Asia Portuguesa, 3 torn. fol. Lwboa, 1666-75. 



