History of the Parsis : including their manners, customs, religion and present position : with coloured and other illustrations : in two volumes

CHAP. I.] TRADE IN OPIUM. 45

only with the intention of taking away the secreted gold as well as what they had already plundered. This they did without compunction of conscience. After this affair the family removed to Udvada, and some time later made Daman their principal place of residence. Bhikhaji’s son Beramji applied himself from an early age to trade, inoratiated himself into the favour of the native rajas of Mandyi and Dharampor, farmed the revenue of several of their villages, and in course of time amassed a large fortune. In those days the route of all the opium traffic from Malwa passed through Daman. Beramji, and after him his sons Bhikhaji and Kavasji, possessed a large interest in this trade, being the agents of most of the principal opium merchants of Bombay, and they also possessed many ships of their own plying between Daman, Bombay, Mozambique, and China. In consequence of the change in the route of the opium trade to Bombay, Daman lost all its commercial importance, and sank into insignificance. The opium trade of the family ceased, and the present Mr. Manakji Kavasji has confined himself to the administration of the villages and lands granted to his family in perpetuity by the Rajas of Dharampor and Mandvi, and by the Portuguese Government. With the power to exercise the revenue and judicial control in the villages granted by the Dharampor State and held under the guarantee of the British