214 
SCENES IN INDIA. 
is quite disagreeable to pass through the streets in 
which they live. Bombay is a barren rock, and 
therefore holds out no prospects to the agriculturist; 
but in a commercial point of view it is a place of 
importance. It has the finest docks of any settle- 
ment in India, from which many ships of war of 
the first class have been launched, and many large 
Indiamen. All these have been built solely by Par- 
sees, who rent the docks from the Company, and pos- 
sess an exclusive monopoly in this department, all 
the repairs of whatever ships put into Bombay to refit 
being done by them. They are decidedly the best 
shipwrights in India. The Jumsetjee family were, 
and I believe still are, the head builders on the island, 
to whom great wealth has accrued from their success 
in this lucrative business. 
From the year 1810 to 1820 they built twelve 
ships of war, four of which carried seventy-four guns ; 
besides a great number of merchant-ships, from a 
thousand to six hundred tons’ burthen. 
The teak forests, from which the supply of timber is 
derived, cover the western side of the ghaut moun- 
tains in the province of Arungabad, the numerous 
rivers which descend from those hills affording a ready 
conveyance for the timber. 
The ships constructed of teak are far more durable 
than any others, but in general they sail more heavily. 
Those launched from the docks of Bombay have the 
reputation of being the best ever built out of Eu- 
rope ; they are therefore more highly valued than 
those launched from any other oriental port. The 
great staple exported from this island is cotton, which 
