At the time I speak of, it was almost the only possession exclusively British within several hundred miles in any direction.

The enormous territory of the Mahrattas lay close to Bombay on the east.
On the morning after my arrival at Bombay, I got up with the first blush of the dawn, and hastily drawing on my clothes, proceeded along greedily in search of adventures.

I had not gone far, before I saw a native sleeping on a mat spread in the little verandah extending along the front of his house, which was made of basket-work plastered over with mud.

He was wrapped up in a long web of white linen, or cotton cloth, called, I think, his cummer-bund, or waist-cloth.

As soon as the first rays of the sun peeped into his rude sleeping-chamber, he "arose, took up his bed, and went into his house." I saw immediately an explanation of this expression, which, with slight variations, occurs frequently in the Bible, in connection with several of the most striking and impressive of Christ's miracles, particularly with that of the man sick of the palsy.