ships that come to Bombay are consigned to him, as also French ships of war, and the creditable and regular manner in which he conducts the business, has excited the approbation of his Majesty, the King of the French, who sent him a very handsome present of a gold medal, and deputed the celebrated Marshal Soult to write to him and to say that it was a special mark of the King's favour. In addition to this, he has the American ships consigned to him, so that it may not be presumptuous to state that our family has been very instrumental in promoting the commerce and the prosperity of Bombay.

We ourselves are the fifth generation, from Lowjee that continue to serve the Honourable East India Company, with fidelity and attachment, through a period of one hundred and six years as ship builders. But we heard much of the progress making by that giant Steam; we found that it was becoming more extensively applied to marine purposes; that instead of its being only used for inland navigation and short distance, vessels were sent to Bombay to keep up the communication between India and England; we were informed that vessels of immense tonnage were designed to cross the Atlantic, and that steamers were applied to purposes of war; that, indeed, there appeared to be no bounds to the mighty strides that it was

taking from the applicability of steam as a propelling power to ships of all sizes.

The Head Builder was, therefore, advised by many of his friends that though as constructors and builders of ships, himself and his ancestors were highly complimented for their skill and ability, yet a new era had arrived when the attention of scientific men must be turned to that form of a body, which was to be rapidly propelled through water by wheels, instead of by the power of wind and canvass, and that he should, therefore, send two or three young men to England, where steam vessels of all descriptions were being designed, from a small river boat to those magnificent passage vessels employed in crossing the Atlantic, and those still more noble fabrics constructed in the several royal yards for the conveyance of mails, and also those destined for men of war.'

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Among the friends that thus advised him the foremost was John Seppings, Esq., surveyor of shipping to the Honourable East India Company at Calcutta, who had come to Bombay in February, 1838, to return to England by the overland route, he strongly urged the necessity of taking such a step in order that Bombay dock yard should keep pace with the improvements of the day, and being an eminent naval architect himself gave the head builder the assurance

of our having every opportunity of perfecting ourselves in that branch of naval architecture in England.

Having been encouraged by Mr. Seppings, and hearing the same thing from the then worthy superintendent, Rear-Admiral Sir Charles Malcolm, he at once applied to the government for sending two of us to this country. Government approved of the measure, and very kindly promised to recommend us to the notice of the Honourable Court of Directors of the East India Company.

To these two sincere advisers of our Father and Uncle we owe every thing, they were actuated by the best of motives, and a disinterested anxiety for our welfare, which we shall never forget. It was through Sir Charles Malcolm and Mr. Seppings that we have had the good fortune of coming to England, and we here beg to convey to them our best thanks and grateful feelings for it, as well as for the kindness and attention we subsequently received from them in England.

With the specific object, therefore, of acquiring a correct knowledge of the construction of steam vessels and ships, we left our relatives and friends at Bombay, and embarked on the 29th of March, 1838, on board the Buckinghamshire, with our friend and preceptor, Dorabjee Muncherjee, and two servants of our own caste. We

have spent a large sum of money upon our maintenance and education, and we humbly hope that our residence in this country has been attended with the desired result.

We had the opportunity of daily visiting Chatham dock yard, where large steamers were being built, by the kind permission of the Lords of the Admiralty, to whom we feel most grateful. We have availed ourselves of the able instruction of John Fincham, Esq., the talented master shipwright of Chatham dock yard, who was for many years the superintendent of the school of naval architecture at Portsmouth, and who is also the author of several works on ship building; to him we feel particularly indebted for the information that he imparted to us.

We have also to acknowledge the uniform kind disposition shown to us by all the officers of that as well as other royal yards that we have visited. We more particularly allude to Richard Blake, Esq., master shipwright of Portsmouth yard, and T. Hawkes, Esq., master shipwright of Plymouth yard. It would be invidious to name others, as we here publicly acknowledge our thanks to all from whom we asked for information, and we may state without vanity that we have made such progress as to enable several of our professional friends to give us testimonials so strongly worded as amply to compensate for our

long separation from our families, friends, and country.

Language will not express the gratitude we owe to the Honourable Court of Directors of the East India Company, particularly their two late, and the present Honourable Chairman, Sir James Law Lushington, Sir Richard Jenkins, and William Butterworth Bayley, Esq., also the worthy Secretary, James Cosmo Melville, Esq., and J. C. Mason, Esq.,of the Marine department, for the uniform kindness, patronage, and liberal encouragement we received from them officially, and the zeal and disinterestedness which they evinced for our welfare, in return for which we can only offer the assurance of earnest and indefatigable attention to our duties in India.

To our worthy patron, Sir Charles Forbes, we feel highly obliged, and we cannot sufficiently express ourselves in acknowledging his numerous acts of patronage, sound advice, and real friendship, not only towards us, but to the family to which we belong, and the paternal care with which he watched over our studies, movements, comforts, &c., during our residence here, and we must take the liberty of referring our readers to that part of our work where we have expressed our gratitude to him and his family, but which we consider not at all adequate to the good-will he entertains towards our countrymen