Alexander : a history of the origin and growth of the art of war from ...

XXXVIII.THE COPHEN COUNTRY. MAY, B. C. 327, TO WINTER.During the spring of b. c. 327, Alexander set out for India, a sort of fairylandto all Greeks. From some Indian princes who had come to him with emhassiesof peace he had discovered that the Cophen cuts its passage through themountain ranges to the Indus, in a narrow defile which formed, as it were, theGates of India. With some hundred thousand men he left Zariaspa, andcrossed the Caucasus to Alexandria. Thence, in two columns he advanceddown the Cophen. The lesser column marched down the south bank, subduingthe narrow strip of land between the river and the mountains, with orders tomeet the king at the Indus. With his own column he moved along the northbank, and by sending detachments up each valley, and holding its outlet, hesubdued the peoples of these mountains. This campaign in the mountainsnows was very severe on the men, and cost much toil. A number of minorbattles and sieges were among its features, and Alexander showed again andagain how remarkable he was as a mountain fighter. He was twice woimdedduring this campaign. At Massaga, especially, he had a difficult problem,being repeatedly repulsed by Indian mercenary troops frona the walls of thecity. Finally all tlie barbarians abandoned the cities, and fled for refuge tothe Rock ofAornus-Spring being well advanced, Alexander began to makedefinite arrangements for his expedition to India. OnlyBacchus and Hercules had preceded him on this route. Thiscountry had always been a species of fairyland to the westernnations. Shut out from access on the north and west bythe greatest of mountain chains, it was a rare person, in thedays of Alexander, who had ever reached the land of Brahma.Its wealth and glories were known only from the tales ofmerchants. Probably then at the height of its glory, thesereports had been enough to excite the cupidity as well as thecuriosity of Alexander, beyond any other land, and having