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

THE DELTA OF THE INDUS. 615that many troubles aud quarrels among the satraps on theArianian uplands maele the appearance of an army amongthem essential to restore order. Craterus had at least onethird of the force which started down the Indus. On theway thi'ough Ai*achotia and Drangiana he was given authorityto settle controversies and punish delinquents, and wasespecially instructed to order the satraps of the adjoining territoriesto send provisions to the desert ofwhich the king was himself to march.Gedrosia, throughAlexander for the present continued down the river in hisfleet, while Hephaestion, with the bulk of the army, marcheddown the right bank, and Peithon, having first swept thedefiles inflanks ofthe mountains clear of hostile tribes, to protect thethe army, crossed and marched, with horse-archersand Agrianians, dowTi the left bank. The rendezvous was tobe Patala, and each on his way was to provide for the futuresecurity of the country through which he passed. The deltaof the Indus has so much altered the course of its waters intwo thousand years that the position of Patala cannot now beidentified. It may be modern Haiderabad.Before arriving at Patala, which he reached about midsummer,Alexander learned that it was deserted. The inhabitantshad fled to a man from very terror at what they heardof Alexander. But the king sent after them, captured a fewprisoners, and made the latter his messengers to their fellowcitizens,and thus persuaded them to return ; whom, whenthey did so, he treated wdth the utmost generosity and helpfulness.At Patala the delta of the Indus began. Here theking transformed the city into a new Alexandria, which heleft Hephaestion to fortify, built a dockyard, and sent outmany days' journey into the desert to teach the inhabitantshow to sink wells and thus increase their limited supply ofwater. These well-digging parties had many brushes with