Bombay was truly a meeting place of nations. As he stood in the harbour and gazed around, George Porter Dillman saw faces of many differing hues and heard voices in a confusing variety of languages. He had never been in such a cosmopolitan environment before. Bombay was not only the gateway to India, it was a large, populous, vibrant, utterly fascinating city in its own right. Unlike many ports, which were simply modes of access to a country or an island, it was a place where the traveller was encouraged to stay, to explore, and to marvel. During his short time there, Dillman had certainly marvelled at its sights and relished its unique atmosphere.
Situated on a peninsula some eleven miles long, the city occupied a site that formed a natural breakwater, enclosing the bay. Docks and wharves abounded, all of them swarming with people. Apart from its cordial hospitality, Dillman’s abiding memories of Bombay would be its baking heat, its pungent odours, and its deafening noise.
Picking his way through the crowd, it seemed to him that the harbour was the hottest, smelliest, and most earsplitting part of the city. It was also one of the busiest. Not only were the wharves teeming with bodies, the water itself was packed with craft of all sizes and shapes. Steamships and tugboats were very much in a minority, surrounded by a veritable forest of masts as ketches, barges, schooners, trawlers, cutters, yawls, sloops, dhows, and other sailing vessels jostled for position.
Having worked in the family business of designing and building oceangoing yachts, Dillman was delighted to see so much canvas still in use. He paused to enjoy the scene before moving on. In his white linen suit and his straw hat, he was a striking figure, tall, lithe, and elegant, obviously at ease in foreign surroundings and unperturbed by the hectic bustle all around him. The man who fell in beside him was far less relaxed. Mopping his brow with a spotted handkerchief, he was short, florid, and running to fat. Though he was close to Dillman’s age – in his early thirties – he looked much older and walked with a stoop.
‘I do hope it’s cooler onboard the ship,’ he observed.
‘I’m sure that it will be,’ replied Dillman.
‘Ah, you’re an American,’ said the other, hearing the Bostonian accent. ‘I thought you were one of us.’
‘In some senses, I am. My family comes from English stock.’
‘You’ll never persuade me that that’s the same thing as being born and brought up in the Home Counties. America is a different planet. So is India, for that matter. Can’t wait to get back to civilisation.’
‘India’s civilisation is much older than yours,’ noted Dillman.
‘Perhaps that’s what’s wrong with it.’ He offered a sweaty palm. ‘Nevin is the name. Dudley Nevin.’
‘Pleased to meet you,’ said Dillman, shaking his hand. ‘My name is George Dillman.’
‘What brings you to Bombay, Mr Dillman?’
‘Curiosity. I stopped off on the way back from Australia.’
‘You’re leaving just in time,’ said Nevin. ‘When the monsoon season gets under way, India is well nigh unbearable. Not that it’s tolerable at the best of times, mark you. I loathe the country.’
‘Then why come to India in the first place?’
‘Iwork here.’
‘In Bombay?’
‘No, in Delhi. I had to travel all the way here in one of those giant frying pans they call trains. It was murder, Mr Dillman,’ he complained. ‘There were times when I felt like one of those men in the fiery furnace. What were their names?’
‘Shadrach, Meschach, and Abednego.’
‘Those are the chaps.’
‘Yet they survived the ordeal,’ Dillman reminded him. ‘Even when the furnace was heated to seven times its normal temperature, they came out unscathed. Just like you, Mr Nevin.’
‘I don’t feel unscathed.’
‘What do you do in Delhi?’
‘Pray for my contract of employment to come to an end.’
‘Are you in business?’
‘The Civil Service.’
‘Why take the job if you dislike the country?’
‘Because I didn’t know that Iwould dislike it so much until I got here,’ said Nevin. ‘I was beguiled by Kipling. He made India sound so interesting. I thought that coming here would be a big adventure.’
‘I’m sorry it’s disappointed you. My time here has been delightful.’
‘How long have you stayed?’
‘Only a week.’
‘Try sticking it out for a year,’ moaned Nevin. ‘Then you’d get some idea of how bad it can be. This climate is torture for Europeans.’
Dillman gave a wry smile. ‘I’m an American, remember.’
‘I was forgetting.’
Nevin was a tense, unhappy, irritable man but Dillman sensed that he would improve on acquaintance. He looked forward to meeting the Englishman when the latter was not under such obvious pressure. They had now joined the queue that snaked towards the gangway and Dillman took the opportunity to appraise the vessel on which they were about to sail. Named after one of the islands off Bombay harbour, theSalsette had the reputation of being the most beautiful ship owned by the P&O – the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company. George Dillman could see why.
With her two yellow funnels and two masts in perfect proportion, theSalsette was an arresting sight. She had a long, sleek, white-painted hull that reminded Dillman of a yacht, and the large golden cockerel at her masthead signified that she was the fastest ship in the fleet. Designed for the express mail and passenger shuttle between Bombay and Aden, she was trim and refined, accommodating a hundred first-class passengers and a hundred and twenty in second-class, but having limited cargo space. Dillman had once worked for Cunard, sailing a number of times on each of its acknowledged ‘pretty sisters,’ theCaronia and theCarmania, yet he was forced to admit that theSalsette was an even more attractive example of marine architecture. It was not just her smaller size – her tonnage was less than a third that of the Cunard liners – it was to do with her intrinsic design. Moored in her berth, she had undeniable charm.
Dillman was still admiring her when Nevin spoke to him again.
‘Why are you going to Aden?’ he asked.
‘To pick up a ship to London,’ replied Dillman.
‘Lucky old you!’
‘Aren’t you going home to England, Mr Nevin?’
‘If only I were!’ sighed the other. ‘No, I don’t have enough time. I’m visiting a cousin who has a diplomatic posting in Aden. Anything to get away from India for a while.’
‘If you hate it so much, why do you stay?’
‘Three main reasons. One, I’m contracted to work in Delhi. Two, I left England under something of a cloud so I might not be entirely welcome there. Three – most important of all – my father.’
‘How does he come into it?’
‘Old soldier. Served most of his time in India and loved it. He more or less bullied me into coming here. Said it would make a man of me.’
‘Yet you didn’t join the army.’
‘Heavens, no! Far too dangerous.’
‘Things are fairly stable here now, aren’t they?’
‘Don’t you believe it, Mr Dillman,’ warned Nevin. ‘This country is brimming with resentment against us. Ungrateful lot, if you ask me. Can’t they see what we’ve done for them?’ he asked with a touch of indignation. ‘Granted, we may not be on the verge of another mutiny but there are hotheads everywhere, stirring up trouble. It was only a couple of years ago that someone organised mass picketing of the liquor shops here in Bombay.’
‘Why? To reduce government excise revenue?’
‘Yes. And it gave them the chance to flex their muscles. It’s the same in Punjab, Madras, and elsewhere. Too many extremists wanting to give us a bloody nose.’
‘Nobody likes being ruled by a distant foreign power.’
Nevin laughed. ‘I might have known an American would take their side,’ he said good-humouredly. ‘Because you threw off your colonial shackles, you encourage others to do the same. I think I’ve found you out, sir. You’re a rabble-rouser.’
‘I confess it,’ said Dillman, amused by the notion.
‘But you take my point, don’t you? If there is trouble, I don’t want to be drafted in as part of the army to quell it with force. I...
