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

254 AUISTORY OF THE PARSTS. [CHAP. VI.

very considerable reduction on the estimate of the chief engineer, Mr. Berkley, and his tender was accepted. The manner in which it was executed not only gave great satisfaction to the engineers of the Company, but considerably surprised them. Jamshedji subsequently obtained another and a more important contract from the Company. It was then predicted that the work was beyond his strength, or more than he could perform ; but, to the surprise of the railway authorities, it was finished within the appointed time, and, in the words of Mr. Berkley, “in a style worthy of any contractor of any country, and of the approbation of any engineer.” Jamshedji celebrated the successful completion of this work on the 30th of April 1855, by giving an entertainment near the Kali viaduct, to which were invited the élite of Bombay society, both Europeans and natives. The words of high praise used by Mr. Berkley, in proposing the toast of the host of the evening, are worth recording. ‘“Jamshedji has now earned for himself,” he said, “a public claim to be regarded as the finest native contractor in India; he has promulgated a favourable and worthy name for railway operations throughout the remote sources of labour and material upon which we so greatly depend, and he has this day on a munificent scale added to those many developments of which we have heard so muchas the natural results of Indian

railways another development—I mean the develop-