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

CHAP. VI.] A RAILWAY CONTRACTOR. 253

settle in Daman with their families, and promote the cultivation of cotton in the village of Varacanda.

One more instance of the enterprising spirit of the Parsis deserves to be prominently noticed. As soon as the construction of railways in India commenced several Parsis obtained employment for themselves as contractors for the railroads. In a field of labour entirely new to them they have made a name and attained distinction. The name of Jamshedji Dorabji will always find a prominent place in the history of railway enterprise in Western India. A brief sketch of his career as a railway contractor will, we think, be read with interest. When tenders for the contract for the first section of the Great Indian Peninsula Railway from Bombay to Thana were invited in 1850, J amshedji was bold enough to tender for it. The contract, bemg the first public work of the kind, necessarily comprised many novel and difficult operations. By these he was undaunted, but the railway company could not bring themselves to entrust their experimental undertaking to a contractor who had no previous experience in the construction of railways. Not disappointed by the failure of his first effort, he entered again into competition for the second contract, but this was even a more formidable work than the former, and for the same reason as in the first case he again failed to obtain the commission. Persevering and enterprising, he again offered to undertake the third contract, at a