Illustration from

"Oriental Memoirs" by James Forbes, 1813

Hill Fort on the Island of Caranjah


Plate forty from the first volume of James Forbes' "Oriental Memoirs". From Salsette near Bombay, Forbes (1749-1819) sailed to Karanja and landed about two miles from the principal town, situated between two lofty mountains, on the west. He observed that it was: 'nothing more than a large Mahratta village, with low-straggling houses, near a tank covered with wild ducks and water-fowls, hitherto unmolested by Europeans. On its bank a small fort, a Portuguese church and a Hindoo temple embellished the view. It commands a western view of the town and harbour of Bombay, Salsette and all the adjacent islands, and to the east the mountains of the continent, and nearer plains of Caranjah; abounding in rice-fields, coco-nut, palmyra, mango and tamarind trees, filled with monkeys, parrots, owls, and singing-birds of various kinds'.

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