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

72 HISTORY OF THE PARSTS. [CHAP. I.

This was written twenty-five years ago, and the means which the Parsis of Bombay adopted for obtaiing redress of the grievances from which their poor co-religionists suffered in their parent-country have been exactly those which we then suggested, as will be seen from the following narrative. Their unhappy condition appears to have excited the deepest sympathy in Bombay some years before the more systematic efforts which we are about to detail began in their behalf. These date as far back as 1854, when the first Parsi emissary was sent to Persia. From that year the exertions of the Parsi community in this cause have been conducted with a zeal and a pertinacity which reflect the greatest credit on those concerned from time to time with the management of the charity known as ‘The Persian Zoroastrian Amelioration Fund.” The public appeal made by the trustees of an earlier fund, at the beginning of 1854, led to their deputing to Persia Mr. Manakji Limji Antaria, a gentleman well qualified by previous experience for the duties to be performed during so important a mission, A subscription list which was put in circulation among the Zoroastrians of Bombay was cheerfully and liberally filled up, and Mr. Manakji was despatched on the 31st of March 1854 with explicit instructions to inquire into and report upon the social, political, and intellectual condition of the Zoroastrians in Persia.

The impetus thus given to this benevolent under-