zoology, a synonyme of a species of co-

† See Coen. nus†.—Bombax is also used sometimes for silk or cotton; but the true botanic name of cotton is Gossypium. It is likewise applied by Linnaeus to signify such insects as have incumbent wings, and feelers resembling a comb.

an island of Asia, in the East Indies, on the west coast of the peninsula on this side the Ganges. It is about seven miles in length, and 20 in circumference, and is situated in E. Long. 73°. N. Lat. 19°. The principal town is near a mile long; but the houses are mean, low, and paltry, a few only excepted which belong to the Portuguese. The soil is barren, and incapable of any improvement, nor has the island any good water on it. The beef is what they prefer in their cisterns after the rains, that which is afforded by the wells having a brackish disagreeable taste. The estates on the island are chiefly laid out in groves of fine cocoa-trees. Their gardens also produce mangoes, jacks, and other Indian fruits. They make salt in large quantities by letting the sea into pits, where the sun evaporates the water, leaving the salt behind. The Bombay air and climate are rather unhealthy, although the natives, and persons accustomed to the country, live to a good old age. Most people on their arrival are seized with fevers, fluxes, scrophulous disorders, or a disease they call the barbiers, which wholly enervates the body, reducing it to a total state of inactivity, and deprivation of all its locomotive faculties. After rains a multitude of venomous creatures appear, which grow to an extraordinary size. Their spiders are as large as a walnut, and their toads almost equal a duck in magnitude. The inhabitants are a mixture of several nations, English, Portuguese, and Indians, amounting in all to 50,000 or 60,000. Formerly the president of Bombay appeared with all the pomp of a crowned head; being attended when he went abroad by troops of Moors and Bandarins, colours flying, drums beating, and music playing; but after the presidency was removed to Surat, this splendor greatly diminished.

Bombay formerly belonged to the Portuguese; but on the setting on foot a treaty of marriage between Charles II. and the infanta of Lisbon, it was thought a proper opportunity for procuring the cession of some convenient port and mart for the India company, as part of the infanta's portion; and thus the island of Bombay came into the hands of the English, with whom it has ever since continued. After the king's marriage, a squadron, conducted by lord Marleburgh, was sent to receive the possession and investiture of the island from the viceroy, who had received his Portuguese majesty's commands to that effect. But on lord Marleburgh's arrival in September 1633, with a squadron of five men of war, the clergy made such violent opposition, and so positively refused to yield the island to heretics, that the viceroy was terrified, and determined to keep possession of the island. The governor of Surat, under whose jurisdiction Bombay then was, threatened the English factory at Surat, in case the English troops did not reembark from that place, to which lord Marleburgh had been obliged to retire on account of the viceroy's obstinate refusal. His lordship therefore set sail in January 1644, with two ships for England; leaving the rest under the command of Sir Abraham Shipman, to spend the remainder of the western monsoons in some of the neighbouring ports. During his stay he buried above 200 of his men on a desolate island called Anjediva, where he had wintered. The monsoons being over, Sir Abraham threatened the viceroy and clergy who opposed his pretensions with the vengeance of the kings of England and Portugal if they continued longer obstinate, or denied obedience to their majesties instructions and contracts. At last the terrors of a British fleet got the better of religion; the church began to abate of her zeal, and consented to a treaty, by which the inhabitants were to be continued in the free exercise of their religion and possession of their estates under the crown of England. Sir Abraham dying, Mr Cook, next in commission, signed the treaty; and, in quality of governor, took possession of the island in the name of the king his master. Here he immediately set about building a fortress; but a capital mistake he made in concluding the treaty, by not including the appendages to Bombay, extending to Verica on Salet, has been a bone of contention ever since. The fort was laid out in a regular manner, and an old square house fitted out for himself as governor; but Mr Hamilton observes, that both Mr Cook, and some of his successors, never once thought of a church.

Thus the trade of Bombay flourished exceedingly; but the revenues of the place not being equal to the expense of keeping it, and other political and commercial reasons superadded, the crown was obliged to make it over in fee-tail to the East India Company, who still continue to hold it in that manner. After the fort was traced and the foundation laid, Sir George Lucas arrived from England with two ships; but affairs being accommodated before he came, he continued here no longer than January 1666, when he returned to England, leaving the government as he found it, in the hands of Mr Cook and the council, under the presidency of the settlement at Surat. Mr Cook shewed his ignorance of architecture, by building the fort upon the ground on which it stands, and which is exceedingly inconvenient. As an engineer, too, he committed a capital error; his fort being commanded by a hill called Dangerree, about 800 paces distance. The consequences of this unfortunate choice were apparent in the year 1689, when it was besieged by the Mogul. In this he is the more inexcusable, as common sense, though joined with the greatest ignorance of architecture and engineering, might have pointed out a much more commodious situation about 500 paces to the southward. As for the magnitude, figure, and materials of the fort, says captain Hamilton, there is nothing considerably faulty. It is a regular tetragon, whose outside polygon is about 500 paces, built of an excellent hard stone. It can mount too pieces of cannon; and these particulars are all that can be alleged in its favour. It has not a single spring of fresh water; which very circumstance must, in case of a siege, render all its fortifications of little or no value, since a little patience must render the enemy masters of it at discretion.—For the further particulars of the history of Bombay, see the article East Indies.