Extracts from Between Boston and Bombay: Cultural and Commercial Encounters of Yankees and Parsis, 1771-1865, reproduced with permission from author Jenny Rose.
In a neatly handwritten account, Cursetji Merwanji (Wadia) described the journey that he and Captain Faucon took together during the week of December 7-15, 1848 from Bombay to Poona (C. M. Waya, A short account of a journey from Bombay to Poona and vice versa). Faucon was a seasoned sailor, who had …spent many years in command of vessels in the Indian and Chinese seas, and by the time of his excursion with Cursetji Merwanji had been running opium for Heard and Co. …for three years.
Faucon left the organizational details of the sightseeing trip to Cursetji, who looked to a network of Parsi acquaintances along the route to provide suitable transport and accommodation, including "Nesserwanjee,” the Customs Master at Panwell… where the travelers docked on the first evening…
Faucon and Cursetji travelled by "carriage and pair” in four relays of about six miles each, from Panwell to Bingary, to Chowk, to Khallapore, ending at Kampoolie (Khopoli). As they exited the carriage to begin the ascent of Bhow Ghat, Cursetji realized that he had lost one of his shoes; although the vehicle was searched thoroughly, it was nowhere to be found. Cursetji was not too perturbed, however, as he knew that at some point one of his co-religionists "would supply the deficiency.” He then described their means of transport up to Khandala, the hill station atop the Western Ghat:
"Those whose circumstances can afford it, mount it in a palanquin, conveyed on the shoulders of men, each palanquin having 16 bearers. And we had two of these conveyances by which to ascend the Ghant (Ghat), an ascent of several thousand feet, and by the zigzag road which government constructed in 1826 from the foot to the summit, is a distance of nearly five miles…”
This part of the journey was a memorable experience for Cursetji, even though he had traveled that way before:
"The scenery as we ascended by the light of the moon was far from beyond my powers of description and such as I never anticipated, not having at any previous time ascended the mountain at night. It was truly magnificent, grand and sublime. A profound stillness reigned among those stupendous hills, and was unlike any thing I ever met with having for the greater part of my life lived in a densely populated city.”
By six o’clock that evening, the travellers had reached the chowky (toll house), where …they chanced to meet the "American agent to Aden,” another Parsi, named Merwanji Sorabji, who was on his way down to Bombay. After chatting with Merwanji for some time, the two explorers climbed the last half-mile to Khandala, where they were warmly received by the Parsi postmaster and "comfortably lodged in a bungalow adjacent to his own house.”
The following evening, the duo made their way from Khandala to the government travellers’ bungalow, where they took some refreshment before getting ready for another palanquin ride, this time in three individual chairs. At four o’clock in the morning of December 10 they set out for the Karli caves, about five miles away. Once there, they "minutely examined” the interior of the caves — with which "Capt Faucon seemed highly delighted” — and ate their breakfast before exploring the mountain above…
That afternoon, Faucon and Cursetji traveled by carriage over the 36 miles to Poona, again changing horses every half-dozen miles. In Poona, they met a "new friend,” Edulji Hormusji, the son of Hormusji Sorabji, the kotwal (local magistrate) in charge of the Sadar Bazar in the cantonment town. Edulji Hormusji accommodated the visitors in a house that his family owned near the Cantonment, which was the main British military base in western India. According to Cursetji, Edulji’s hospitality was exemplary: he provided "every necessary at his own expense, and…all the requisite apparatus for breakfast etc from his own house in the Bazar to that near the Cantonment where we quartered.” Cursetji particularly appreciated that his host provided him with a pair of "Parsi shoes,” to replace that mislaid earlier!
On the last day, the carriage took them to "the Parsis’ burial place on a hill adjacent to the English burying ground.” This must have been one of the two dakhmas in Poona, the first built by Sorabji Ruttonji Patel in 1825 and the second, larger one, in 1835, by contribution from the local Parsi community, supported by several members of the Sethna family... Cursetji Merwanji makes no other remark concerning the function of the dakhmas, nor of Faucon’s reaction to them…