BOAIRAN city, in lat. 18° 55' 5' N., and long. 75° 53' 55^ E., is situated on an island of that name, with all area of 18.22 square miles, and gives its name to a presidency under the rule of a Governor and Council ; also to the army which holda the Bombay territories and the pen insula of Aden ; also to the small naval force of the Bombay Marine; and likewise to a group of islands off the Bombay shore. The English name is a changed form of Mumbadevi, a local Hindi' goddess. The countries under the Bombay go vennnent present markedly differing features, alike in their physical in the races occupy ing them, and in the languages that they speak. In the times preceding and following the Christian era, portions of the territories under notice were distinct nationalities,— Kat'lliawar, Maharashtra, ujaraslitnt, Saurashtra, and Sindhu; and a power ful ancient dynasty seems to have had their capital at Wallablii, in the modern Gohilwad, another being the great Chalukya empire of the Dekban, iu the Deklian part of the Bombay territories, on a portion of the plateau between the rivers Nerbadda and Kistna, elevated about 1700 feet above the sea. What is known of the history of these regions while under their early rulers is chiefly derived from legends handed down by traditions relating to the various sectarian religions that were acknow ledged, and by the architectural and sculptured remains and rock - inscriptions, which Colonel James Tod, Mr. James Fergnsson, Colonel Sykes, Mr. James Prinsep, General Cunningham, and Mr. JaibeS Burgess have investigated. But since the time of the Arab, Turk, Moghul, and Pathan conquerors, all of them Mahomedans, and all of them creditably recording races, followed by the Portuguese, the Dutch, and the British, the event ful changes in these countries have been well known. The first of these, after the Scythia and Rajput occupancy, was Mahmud of Ghazni, who in 1024-6 captured and sacked the Saiva temple of Somnath in Gujerat, carrying back with him immense booty. From that time, the Rajput rulers of Gujerat, whose capital was at Anhalwara Patan, had to meet waves of invasion, until their dynasty was at last subverted in 1297 by Alaf Khan, the general of the Turki emperor of Dehli, Ala-ud-Din Khilji. In 1403, Jafar Khan,
a Rajput convert, assumed independence, and the dynasty advanced to high power and splendour. The annual revenue rose to 11 millions sterling; and the ruins still at Ahmadabad and Champanier bear a mournful testimony to its former great ness, and to the revolutions to which it has since been subjected ; for, in 1573, Gujerat was con quered by the emperor Akbar, and has repeatedly since then changed masters. The Bahmani kings, 1347-1526, the Nizam Shahi dynasty in 1490-1595, at Ahmadnaggur, the Adal Shahi, 1489-1579, at Bijapur, the great Sivaji, 1627-1674, carved out kingdoms for themselves ; and on the death, in 1707, of Aurangzeb (Alamgir I.), the disorders led, in 1757, to the cession of the Gujerat Province to the Mahrattas, under the joint rule of the Peshwa and Damaji Gaekwar. While such changes were occurring in these northern tracts, natives of western Europe had appeared on the southern sea board,—Vasco da Gama, a Portuguese leader, in 1498; the great Albuquerque, 1503, and that nation was in possession of Bombay island in 1532. A ship from England visited Surat in 1608; and the English in 1613 obtained permission from the em peror Jahangir to erect a factory there, which in 1618 was also granted to the Dutch. In 1661 the Portuguese gave Bombay island to Charles ii. of England, as part of the dower given with his bride; and Charles sent the Earl of Marlborough, a most experienced sailor, with a strong fleet, to receive it from the Portuguese. In 1668 Charles trans ferred it to the English East India Company, for an annual rent of £10. In 1686 it was declared the chief seat of the English on that side of India ; and in 1708 the territories attached were created the Bombay Presidency. All that remains of the Portuguese power on that coast is the territory of Goa, Daman, and Diu, an area of 1146 square miles, and 428,955 inhabitants.