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

246 HISTORY OF THE PARSIS. [cuap. vi.

It was the Eastern trade which brought the Parsis a mine of wealth. The Readymoneys, the Dadiseths, the Banajis, Sir Jamshedji Jijibhai the first baronet, the Kamas, and many others amassed their wealth in this trade. It will thus be seen that the Parsis were the first to bring prosperity to Bombay, which prosperity, as times went on, supported and fostered by British power and the enterprise of British merchants, has raised Bombay at this day to the proud position of second city of the British Empire.

Not long after their settlement in Bombay a great many Parsis went to Northern, Southern, and Central India, and established themselves as shopkeepers dealing in Huropean articles, a business which was beset a century ago with innumerable obstacles on account of the difficulty of transit from one place to another. There were then not only no railroads but no roads of any kind for traffic. Ten miles a day in bullock carts was all that could be accomplished in those times. Then, again, the goods had to be protected from the depredations of the lawless marauders who infested the country, yet it was Parsi energy alone which supphed the wants of the increasing British forces in the different military stations in India. The persons who engaged themselves in this kind of business in both Bombay and other cities were honest and respectable, and at all the principal stations in former years they acted as the bankers