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

INDIAN JOINT SCHEME FAILS. 595A rendezvous was given to all the detachments at the junctionof the Hydraotis and Acesines.These bodies thus marched in such a manner as to be ableto cooperate in working against the Mallians ; Nearchus andCraterus were to look after the western bank, and keep aneye on the barbarians opposite. Alexander was to marchdirectly against the Mallians as was his wont, while Hephaestionwould be within sustaining distance of his right andPtolemy of his left flank. It should be noted that the presentconfluence of the Acesines (Chenab) and the Hydraotis(Ravi) is thirty miles above Multan. In Alexander's timeit was just below Multan, with a branch inclosing the townand citadel. There has always been a tendency in theseIndian rivers to seek channels farther west. The course ofthe Indus has greatly changed.It issaid that the Mallians and Oxydracians had laid asidetheir usual quarrels to meet the overwhelming danger andagreed to work together to resist the threatened invasion.The forces they had raised were sixty thousand foot, tenthousand horse and seven hundred chariots, and they had givenmutual hostages.As the Mallian territory was the one primarilythreatened, the Oxydracians would have been obligedto leave their own to join the Mallians. The joint armyproposed to manoeuvre under cover of the desert.But as thetribes could not agree on a common leader (being among thefree Indians and, says Arrian, jealous of each other to thelast degree) the confederate scheme fell through.While notvouched for on good authority thisstatement seems to agreewith subsequent facts.The first half day's march brought Alexander to a smallwater a dozen miles (one hundred stades) from the Acesines(perhaps the small river Ayek, midway between Jungh andShorkot, eleven miles from the Chenab).Informed that this