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

28 HISTORY OF THE PARSTS. [CHAP. 1.

of the Kathiawar coast. Here, it is stated, they disembarked and took up their residence for nineteen years, at the expiration of which period they quitted Diu to find another place of settlement. The causes which led to this second migration have not been satisfactorily explained; but the following mysterious passage relating to the event occurs in the Aissah-7Saran :-—“ An aged ‘dastur’ (high priest) reading the tablets of the stars, made an augury that it behoved them to depart from that place, and seek out another abode. All rejoiced at his words, and sailed swiftly towards Gujarat.”

That misfortunes never come singly was demonstrated in the case of these ill-fated people, for they had hardly lost sight of land when a severe storm oyertook the little fleet, and deprived them of all hope of reaching their destination. Rather than abandon the faith they had inherited from their fathers, they had voluntarily made themselves exiles for ever from the land that gave them birth. Their later experience had been equally hard. Refusing to be dependent upon strangers for a home, they were now at the dAcunha succeeded, in 1535, in obtaining possession of Diew, and within a very short time rendered it almost impregnable to the assaults of the native powers. . . . History asserts that the trade of Surat was destroyed to encourage commerce at Diew; and Osorio makes mention of the splendour of its buildings and the greatness of its maritime powers. Upon Surat recovering itself, Diew declined,

and is now said to be a vast pile of dilapidation.”—Briges’s Cities of Gujarashtra.