This photograph shows the Prince's carriage travelling through Bombay. The initial views of the city were overwhelming and Russell observed that every yard of the city presented

extraordinary types of dress and effects of colour. There was something almost supernatural on those long vistas winding down banks of variegated lights […] as the carriage proceeded slowly, new effects continually opened up, and fresh surprise came upon one, from point to point, till it was a relief to close the eyes out of sheer satiety and to refuse to be surprised anymore.

William Howard Russell

By the mid-nineteenth century, Bombay was a diverse and cosmopolitan city and it attracted people from across India, and from Europe, to settle there for trade.