Lithograph- View of English Fort in Bombay

‘t Engelse Fort in Bombaja; ‘t Engelse Fort in Bombaja aande water zyde,

Medium: Engraving. Date: 1725

Engraving by an anonymous artist of the Fort at Bombay in Maharashtra, dated between 1700 and 1750. The print is captioned ‘t Engelse Fort in Bombaja; ‘t Engelse Fort in Bombaja aande water zyde.’; and is inscribed in ink: ‘The English Fort in Bombay’. The area of Bombay was controlled by the Portuguese from 1534 until 1661, when it was ceded to the English as part of the marriage dowry Catherine of Braganza. In 1668, the directors of the English East India ordered the construction of a custom house, warehouse and quay around the Portuguese settlement on Bombay Island. In the 1670s, under the governorship of Gerald Aungier, Bombay was developed as a trading centre. In 1716, his plans for a walled town with bastions were implemented by a later governor, Charles Boone. By 1710, the fort included a magazine, quarters for soldiers and two water tanks. This engraving shows two views of the fort, one from the landward side and the other from the harbour.