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

78 AISTORYV OF THE PARSIS. [CHAP. II.

expense, from four to five thousand persons every day. In 1808 he built a fire-temple in Persia at a place called Mubaraka. He also built an “adaran” or fire-temple in the fort of Bombay in memory of his father. For his noble character and many excellent virtues he was held in the highest estimation by all classes and races of the people of Bombay, who manifested the greatest grief at his death. The Honourable Jonathan Duncan, Governor of Bombay, on learning that he had breathed his last, went to St. Thomas's Cathedral, which is opposite the street in which Ardeshir lived, and remained outside to view the funeral, ordering the cathedral bell to be tolled while the cortege passed down the street.

But the man who shed the greatest lustre on the Parsi race in India was Jamshedji Jijibhai, a name widely known throughout the whole of the civilised world on account of his numerous munificent public benefactions. He was born of poor but respectable parents on the 15th of July 1783 at Navsari, in the territory of the Gaikwar of Baroda. He came to Bombay at an early age and lived with his father-in-law, whom he joined in business after he had served his apprenticeship to him. Of a restless and adventurous disposition, he found his energies fettered in Bombay. He therefore sought other fields for the exercise of his commercial spirit, and in 1799, when he had scarcely completed his sixteenth year, he