Page 272 - Early English Adventurers in the Middle East_Neat

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272 EARLY ENGLISH ADVENTURERS IN THE EAST

and to a less extent the Mahommedans, they quickly made
themselves a force in the community. That position has
>1 been consolidated and extended, until to-day they are :
the backbone of Bombay’s commercial and professional
life, and a factor in the larger field of Indian political and
■
economic development.
i
As an idle speculation we may wonder what the excellent
Gerald Aungier would think if he were permitted to revisit
the earth and see what kind of city has developed out of
i; the modest town of 50,000 inhabitants of which he was so
I
justly proud. Nowhere in the East, perhaps, are the
marks of British genius more vividly impressed than upon
that wonderful port at which the stranger from the West
i usually gets his first glimpse of India.
Thy towers, Bombay, gleam bright they say
Across the dark blue sea,
1
sang the saintly Ileber in anticipation of a meeting with
his wife in the city. But even in his time Bombay, though
a picturesque spot, was a sleepy and insignificant place,
vastly different to the city of to-day. A population of )
over a million drawn from the four quarters of Asia and f
J
from most of the countries of Europe is now crowded upon
the island. Its streets palpitate with a life more picturesque
and varied than that of any populous centre under the sun. I
In and out of its docks passes annually a volume of ship­
ping which places Bombay amongst the largest ports
‘
of the world. Public buildings, vast in size and of impos­
II' ing architectural features, crowd the European quarter,
and from its central railway station—the most magnificent
structure of its kind in the East—are daily dispatched trains
which cover the journey across the continent in fewer
days than it took Heber months to traverse the distance,

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