at a vast extent of territory you are to explore in
India," the speaker began, "I realize that not much of your time must be
taken up in long discourses, and especially not in lengthy introductions.
Bombay, the western province of the peninsula, includes twenty-four British
districts and nineteen native states, the latter governed wholly or in part
by Hindu rulers. This word Hindu, I repeat, properly applies to only a
portion of this country, but has come into use as a name for the entire
region.

"This is the Bombay Presidency, with a governor appointed by the crown, a
Legislative Council, a mixed garrison of English and native soldiers, under
a local commander-in-chief. That is all I shall say of the presidency,
which is one of three in India.

"The city of Bombay occupies the south end of the island of the same name,
and is one of a group of several, of which Salsette is the largest, with
which Bombay Island, eleven miles in length, is connected by causeways,
over which the railway passes. The business part is at the Fort, where we
landed, and the bazaars extend from that in the direction of Mazagon, which
lies to the north and east of it.

"You will find here many public buildings and commercial structures which
compare favorably with similar edifices in any city of the world; and we
shall see them to-morrow forenoon. The Princess Dock, where the great
steamship lines land their merchandise, cost a million sterling. Three or
four miles off this dock, to the eastward, you saw a couple of islands, the
farther one of which is Elephanta, with its wonderful cave, which you will
visit.

"The western terminus of the Great Indian Peninsula Railway is here, and
with its connections it extends all over India. This is the first port
usually reached by vessels from Europe, though Kurrachee is nearer. It is
the great mail port; and I have seen landed at Dover thirty tons of
post-bags, sent from here by Suez and through Europe by the Orient Express.

"Bombay now exceeds Calcutta in the extent of its commerce. The principal
exports are cotton, wheat, shawls, opium, coffee, pepper, ivory, and gums;
and the chief imports are the manufactured goods of England, metals, wine,
beer, tea, and silks. The prominent industries of the city and its vicinity
are dyeing, tanning, and metal working. It has sixty large steam-mills. Of
the vast population, now approaching a million, not more than 13,000 are
British-born. The water here is exce