History of the Parsis : including their manners, customs, religion and present position : with coloured and other illustrations : in two volumes

CHAP. I1,] STEAM NAVIGATION. 133

commercial and passenger traffic was introduced on the western coast of India. He was one of the largest proprietors of the first steamer employed in this enterprise, viz. the Sir James Rivett-Carnac. He managed the business of this undertaking so judiciously that in the course of six years he divided profits among the proprietors almost covering the cost of the original outlay. He was a guarantee broker to many European mercantile houses whose reputations were maintained by means of his capital.

His mercantile transactions were conducted in various parts of the globe, and his name was well known in all the commercial centres of Europe, Egypt, and the Hast. He found employment for his capital in advances on coffee, sugar, cocoa-nut, and other plantation estates on the Malabar coast and Ceylon, and also in the island of Bencoolen, besides himself possessing a large coffee estate in Ceylon.

We have already said that Jiibhai was a popular man in his own community, and for nearly twenty years he was also a member of the Parsi Panchayet. That body had in his day lost the respect of the community, but many Parsi families had their domestic quarrels arbitrated and settled by him. His independence and sense of justice gained him the esteem and respect of all those who had to submit to his decision. Blessed with wealth by a bounteous Providence, he was not unmindful of the claims of