Indian Antiquary Vol 05

SR No.: 032497
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jas Burgess
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 438
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 20 MB

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96
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[MARCH, 1876.
companion-cavalry,-a force consisting in all of 8,000 men. Orders had been given to the troops under Craterus and Hephæstion prescribing where, after marching in advance of the fleet, they were to wait its arrival. And Philip, whom he had appointed Satrap of this part of the country, he despatches to the banks of the A cesines, sending with him also a numerous force ; for by this time 120,000 fighting men followed his banner, including those whom he had led up from the sea into the interior, and also the recruits who from time to time were sent to his levies when he began to receive all sorts of barbaric tribes, however diversely armed. Then he weighed anchor and sailed down the Hydas pes as far as to its junction with the A cesines. Now the ships numbered altogether 1800, including the long narrow ships of war, the round-shaped roomy merchantmen, and the transports for carrying horses and provisions to feed the army. But how the fleet bailed down the rivers, and what tribes AlcXander conquered in the course of the voyage, and how he was in jeopardy among the Malli, and how he was wounded in their dominions, and how Peucestas and Leonnatus protected him with their shields when he fell, -all these incidents have been recorded by me in the separate narrative written in the Attic dialect. My present object is, therefore, but to describe the voyage made by Nearch us, with the ex. pedition which sailed under his command, from the mouths of the Indus through the great ocean as far as the Persian Gulf, or, as others call it, the Erythræan Sea.
XX. Now of this voyage the following account has been given by Nearchus. He states that Alexander had a great desire to have all the coast of the sea which extends from India to Persia circumnavigated, but that he hesit ated to take the necessary steps, as he reflected on the length of the voyage, and feared lest the fleet coming, as might happen, to some desolate coast e her destitute of harbours or incapable of furnishing adequate supplies, might thus be destroyed, and a great stain attaching itself thereby to his mighty deeds might tarnish all his good fortune; but that his eagerness to be ever doing something new and marvellous prevailed over all his scruples; that he was, however, at a loss what officer to choose as not an incompetent hand to execute his designs, and at a loss, too,
about the men put on board the fleet, -how, on their being despatched on such an enterprise, he could take away their fear that they were recklessly sert into open peril. Here Nearchus tells us that Alexander consulted with him whom he should select to lead the expedition, and that when Alexander had mentioned one officer after another, rejecting them all, some because they did not show readiness to face danger ;'some because they were of a weak, irresolute temper; some because they were yearning after home, ---making this and that objection to each in turn, --he then proffered his own services in these terms :-"I then, O king! undertake to lend the expedition, and, if God but help me, I will conduct the ships in safety, and the men, all the way to Persia, provided of course that the sea is navigable that way, and the task not beyond human capacity." To this, we are told, Alexander answered, in mere pretence, that he did not wish to expose any one for whom he had an affection to so much hardship and so much danger, but that Nearchus did not on that account withdraw his offer, but pressed its acceptance with the greater urgency; that Alexander was, of course, much pleased with the ready devotion of Nearchus, and appointed him to take the chief command of the expedition; that then, too, the troops destined for the voyage, and the oarsmen, alike were still more cheered in heart, feeling assured that Alexander would not send into palpable danger such a favourite as Nearchus unless he was to be restored to him in safety. At the same time the great splendour with which the preparations were conducted, the gallant trim of the ships, and the obvious rivalries between the captains about their oarsmen and their crews, had rovsed to energy even those who formerly altogether shrunk back, and also inspired them with more salutary hopes of the whole enterprise. And it much helped also, he adds, to give the men good heart, that Alexander himself, taking the ships from both the mouths of the Indus, sailed out into the open main, and slew victims to Poseidon and all the other sea-deities, and presented magnificent gifts to propitiate the sea; and so the men, trusting to the immeasurable good fortune which had attended all the other projects of Alexander, deemed there was nothing he might not dare, nothing but would to him be feasible.