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

XLV.GEDROSIA. FEBRUARY, B. C. 325, TO FEBRUARY, B. C. 324.Alexander reached tlie delta of the Indus after subduing the land of Oxycanus,Sanibus, and Musicanus, and chastising' the Brahmins who had on severaloccasions instigated revolt. Here, at Patala, he established a city anddockyard ; and from here he sailed down both branches of the delta to the sea.Then he began preparations for moving back to Babylon along the coast, for hehad conceived the idea that ships could sail from the mouth of the Indus to themouth of the Euphrates, and proposed to send a fleet, and himself march thatway. He dispatched Craterus, with half the army, invalids and trains, byway of Arachotia and Drangiana ; and with the stronger part of the army, aftersubduing the border tribes, he started across the desert of Gedrosia. Nearchus,somewhat later, sailed with the fleet along the coast. No body of menhad ever crossed this desert ; and the provisions Alexander ordered to be sentto meet him never came to hand. The king was gravely at fault in not beingsure of his supplies. On the march he dug wells at places on the coast, andleft stores of provisions for Nearchus. After sixty days' march over burningsands, in which nearly all the beasts and three fourths of the men are said tohave perished, Alexander reached Paura, and after a rest, returned to Pasargadaeand Susa. He found his kingdom all but falling to pieces for lack of thehand of the master.Craterus was now put over the Acesines to the left bankof the Indus, with the elephants, and the army was collectedin one body. On this bank the marching was easier, therebeing no mountain range, and there were more unsubduedtribes.Alexander was now entering the province of modernSindli. Cultivation existed some distance inland, along thispart of the Indus. The king headed down stream to thecountry of the Sogdians or Sodrians, whose capital city(modern Faxilpur) he transformed into another Alexandria,built shops and a dockyard, and made necessary repairs tothe fleet. The character of the river, the people and the