CHAPTE R VII. 
Such as I have endeavoured to describe, in the preceding chap- 
ters, was the stale of Hindostan, and such the character of its 
inhabitants at the close of the fifteenth century, when the passage 
to India, round the Cape of Good Hope, was discovered by Vasco 
de Gama, the celebrated Portugueze navigator. That nation soon 
extended her commerce to its remotest shores, and established 
settlements in different regions, especially on the Malabar coast, 
and island of Ceylon: the excellent harbour at Bombay caused it 
to become one of the principal ports: it continued under their 
government until it was ceded to the English, on the marriage of 
the Infanta Catherine to Charles the Second. The Portugueze have 
left numerous descendants there, who live under the protection of 
the English laws, and enjoy the free exercise of their religion: they 
are generally styled Portugueze, retain their European names and 
dress, and speak their original language, although greatly cor- 
rupted; but from their intermarriages with the natives of inferior 
tribes, their complexion is darker than the high castes of Hindoos, 
and their education is very contracted. 
The proselytes made by the Romish missionaries in the East 
are generally among the lowest tribes of the Hindoos; or such 
n 
