VOYAGE TO BOMBAY. 159 CHAPTER X. SKETCHES IN HINDOOSTAN. October, 1835. Just as the sun set, on the 10th of October, we fired a farewell salute, and bade farewell to the barren rocks of Oman, with a gentle land-breeze, anxious to be far away from its "green waters," beneath a less ardent sky. Our passage was marked by light airs, calms, and sultry weather. On several occasions while crossing the Arabian sea, we remarked the phosphorescence of its waters at night; and when about two hundred miles to the southward of the classic Indus, we were visited by several beautiful land-birds. In the sultry calm, which generally prevailed about mid-day, we saw a number of yellow water-snakes, marked by bright black bands, floating lazily upon the mirror-like bosom of the sea: and, on two or three nights we saw Halley's comet, which had been so long anticipated by astronomers. 160 SKETCH OF BOMBAY. On the evening of the 22nd, we descried the lighthouse of Bombay, and after firing in vain for a pilot, dropped anchor in sight of a large fleet of fishing-boats. Early on the following morning, we were again under way; a pilot boarded us, and about midday the ship was fast to the moorings assigned to her. We had the pleasure to find the Enterprise had been waiting our arrival several days; and the officers of the two vessels allowed but little time to elapse before they met. It has been truly said by Captain Basil Hall,* that "Of all places in the noble range of countries so happily called the Eastern World, from the pitch of the Cape (of Good Hope) to the Islands of Japan, from Bengal to Batavia, nearly every hole and corner I have visited in the course of my peregrinations, there are few which can compare with Bombay. If, indeed, I were consulted by any one who wished as expeditiously and economically as possible to see all that was essentially characteristic of the oriental world, I would say without hesitation, Take a run to Bombay; remain there a week or two; and having also visited the scenes in the immediate neighbourhood, Elephanta, Carli, and Poonah, you will have examined good specimens of most things that are curious or interesting in the East."" * In his amusing" Fragments of Voyages and Travels." HARBOUR OF BOMBAY. 161 The harbour of Bombay is formed by a number of islands situated in the vicinity of the main, which shut in a beautiful sheet of water of several miles in extent. The land is generally not very high, and the island of Bombay itself, though studded with some few hills, is low and marshy. There is a sufficient depth of water for the largest ships, and a tide that rises and falls seventeen feet. From the anchorage there is nothing striking, either in the appearance of Bombay or of the harbour, except its extent; and after reading the paragraph quoted above, I felt a very considerable degree of disappointment on observing nothing but an extensive fortress of no great height, built of hewn stone and darkened by time; nothing appearing above it except one needle-like spire of a presbyterian church. With what degree of allowance the impressions conveyed by that paragraph are to be received in relation to the scenes on shore, is a matter we may not at present decide; yet, we certainly did not anticipate much from the picture after a glimpse of its setting. Perhaps the warm colours in which travellers so commonly draw pictures of places they visit, too readily fire the imagination, warmed by the anticipation of seeing new countries, and betray the judgment into too exalted notions; thus bringing |