BOMBAY, India., city and the chief sea port of western India, capital of the presi dency of the same name, situated at the south ern extremity of the island of Bombay, and con nected with the mainland by causeways and breakwaters, and with the interior by exten sions of the Bombay, Baroda and Central India and the Great Indian and Peninsula railway, the terminus of the latter being a splendid edi fice which cost $1,500,000. Extensive water works have been constructed on the main land at Lake Tanza, 65 miles north, including a dam two miles in length, and were opened in 1892. The town comprises two main portions, one known as the Fort, and formerly sur rounded with fortifications, on a narrow point of land with the harbor on the east side and Back Bay on the west; the other known as the City, a little to the northwest. The European population live mostly in villas surrounded with extensive areas, called compounds, in various parts of the island, the favorite location being the suburb of Malabar Hill. The native quarters, with their handsome bazars, temples, carved and elaborately ornamented houses, and polyglot Asiatic population, are exceedingly picturesque. Bombay has many handsome buildings, both public and private, and a num ber of fine the latter being in many cases traversed by street railways. The castle, the government offices and almost all the merchants' warehouses and offices are in the fort. On the esplanade facing southwest is a fine range of public buildings, including the secretariat, the courts of justice, the offices of the public works department, the post and telegraph offices, etc. There are a cathedral and several other churches. in Bombay, which is the see of the Anglican bishop. There are six hotels, including the Taj Mahal Hotel, opened in 1904, one of the finest in India. In 18.57 a university was opened, and the university hall, library and clock tower are among the hand somest buildings in the city. Other educational institutions are the governmental Elphinstone College, the Grant Medical College, two mis sionary colleges, Sassoon's Institute, schools of art and law and the Victoria Jubilee Technical Institute. There are several fine hospitals and three English newspapers besides native ones. Various industries, such as dyeing, tanning, metal, lacquer, gold and silver thread working, pottery and wood carving, are actively car ried on, and there are now 83 cotton mills em ploying 180,000 hands. The commerce of the port was greatly benefited by the opening of the Suez Canal and is now very extensive, by far the greater portion of the exports and im ports of the presidency passing through Bom bay. The chief article of export is raw cotton, the chief import cotton piece-goods,' the com merce being chiefly with Great Britain. The harbor is one of the largest and safest in India; while its scenery and that of the neighbor ing continent presents a rare combination of grandeur and beauty. It is situated be
tween the islands of Colabah, Bombay and Salsette on the one hand, and the mainland and islands of Caranjah and Elephanta on the other. It is 14 miles long by five miles wide and is defended by numerous batteries armed with the most modern guns. There are large and commodious docks, chief of which are the Prince's dock, the Victoria dock, with a water area of 25 acres, and the new Alexandra dock, the largest in India, 50 acres in area, the foundation stone of which was laid in 1905, erected at a total cost of over $25,000,000 (in cluding reclamation of land and new railway station). There is a large traffic with steam vessels between Bombay and Great Britain, and regular steam communication with China, Australia, Singapore, Mauritius, etc. A rail way between Bombay and Tannah, on the island of Salsette, 20 miles distant, opened in 1853, was the first Indian railway constructed. The island of Bombay is about 11 miles long from north to south, and about three miles broad, formed by two ranges of rock running parallel to each other on opposite sides of the island. The interior was formerly liable to be over flowed by the sea, to prevent which substantial walls and embankments were constructed.
Bombay was obtained by the Portuguese in 1534 from the Sultan Bahadur; by them it was ceded to Great Britain in 1661, as part of the dowry of the Infanta Catherine, bride of Charles II, and in 1668 it was transferred to the East India Company. The following year the modern city was founded by Gerald Aungier,president of Surat from 1669-77, who fortified it, set up law courts and estab lished freedom of trade and religion. During the American Civil War, Bombay became one of the cotton markets of the world and enjoyed immense prosperity, followed by a financial crisis at the end of the war, from which however it quickly recuperated. Next to Madras it is the oldest of the British pos sessions in the East, and in trade and popula tion it is only excelled by Calcutta, which owes its pre-eminence largely to the fact that Bom bay has since 1891 been frequently decimated by the plague. The government of the city consists of a municipal corporation of 72 mem bers (of whom 16 are nominated by the gov ernment, 36 by the rate payers, 16 by the justices of the peace, 2 by the senate of the university and 2 by the chamber of commerce), and a town council of 12 members (four of whom are nominated by the government and the rest by the corporation). By the census of 1911 the population numbered 979,445, of whom 664,042 were Hindus, the remainder being composed of Mohammedans, Parsees, Jains, Europeans and Eurasians (16,082), native Christians and Jews. Consult Drewitt, F., 'Bombay in the ays of George IV' (London 1907); Karlcaria, R. P., 'The Charm of Bom bay> (Bombay 1915) ; 'The Gazeteer of Bombay City and Island,' compiled by D. M. Edwards (Bombay 1909-10).