BOMBAY, an island of 8 m. by 3. on the w. of IIindustan, having its southern ex tremity in lat. 18' 57' n., and long. 72' 52' e. It consists of two rocky ridges. which embrace a valley so low as to require embankments against the tide. ha productions, of course, are scanty and unimportant. The rain-fall, with an annual mein of 80 inches, gave. in 1831, and in 1638, only 50.78. The temperattme, ranging between 70' and 100', averages, duriug the year, about 80°. The climate, at one time very lin• healthy, has latterly been so much inipiovell by drainage and other appliances, that. in favorable seasons, the proportion of deaths is said very little to exceed that of London. In 1509, about a year hefore the capture of Goa, the visited the island; and by 1530, they had made it their own. In 1661, they ceded it to Charles 11. of England. as part of the dowry of his blade, the Infanta Catherine. In 1668, his majesty granted it to the East India company, which, in 1685, transferred what was then its principal presidency to 11. from Surat. The name of fae island, though manifestly a corruption of the native Manila/a may yet, with reference to the goodness of the harbor, have owed its specific form to the Portuguese boon /Hilda. The bay towards the main-land. even in its
natural state, presents one of the finest havens in more particularly as being one of the few on the e. side of the Arabian sea which are accessible during the s.w. mon soon. Anehoringaground, of about 50 sq.1.11., available for vessels of any burden, is shel tered on the n. by Trombay and Salsette, and on the w. by 13. itself and its two insular isle and Colaba; and lastly, the open passage at tiles_ which thus makes an entering wind of the monsoon already mentioned, is narrowed on the e. by the island of Caranja. Art also has done nitwit to aid nature. The island on the n. and w.—all but Trombay, which, in fact, is itself inclosed—are welded into one by three causeways; while at the s. end of this continuous breakwater, the light-house of Colaba, 150 ft. high, indicates to mariners the entrance of the port along a radius of 20 miles.