186 
BOMBAY 
a gallon for every twenty men, or two drams each : at other times 
only half the quantity. This might probably do no harm, were it 
not that the soldier is able, at his own expense, to procure as much 
as he pleases, in addition, from the camp followers, w^ho are 
licensed by Government, and pay a duty on all they sell. This plan 
has been adopted in preference to allowing the profits to be re- 
ceived by the commanding officers, which had led to the greatest 
abuses. To deprive the soldier of an injurious quantity of spirits 
is impossible in a country, where an execrable kind is sold at a low 
rate in every village ; it has been therefore considered as more 
advantageous, to secure him a supply of a less deleterious kind. 
Could the quantity allowed by the Government be reduced one 
half, a diminution would no doubt take place in the deaths ; and 
every exertion ought unquestionably to be made, to preserve the 
lives of persons, so valuable to their country, as the soldiers em- 
ployed in India. 
The greater proportion of the inhabitants of Bombay are Persees, 
descendants of the ancient Persians, who fled from the persecution 
of Shah Abbas, who in the sixteenth century destroyed the tem- 
ples which had till then remained in the mountain Albend, and 
drove the worshippers of fire to seek an asylum in other countries. 
Bombay they have almost entirely made their own, for hardly a 
house or a foot of land in the island belongs to any other. They 
form a body of people totally dissimilar to any other in India, and 
seem to have perfectly domesticated themselves in their new abode, 
where they receive a protection, for which they are very grateful. 
Tasked a very respectable Persee why they built such splendid 
habitations, and purchased land at a price that yielded only four 
