Volume 2

The history of Hindostan; its arts, and its sciences, as connected with the history of the other great empires of Asia ... / By the author of Indian antiquities [T. Maurice].

  • Thomas Maurice
Date:
1795-1798[-1799]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The history of Hindostan; its arts, and its sciences, as connected with the history of the other great empires of Asia ... / By the author of Indian antiquities [T. Maurice]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    361/372 (page 699)
    [ G99 ] served, he liad dispatched westward from the Indus through the more practicable country of Arachosia and Drangiana. Ihcse, wjth the greater part of the army, the elephants, camels, and olhei beasts of burthen, were now ordered to proceed, under the command of Hephsestion, to Susa, by the way of tlie sea-coast, not only because that region of Carmania was the most favourable lor a winter-maich, but tha^t they might be at hand to render every possible assistance to the fleet, and occasionally be assisted by them. The king himselt, with a considerable body of light troops, infantry and cavalry, took the road to Pasargadte, in Persia, to visit the tomb of Cyrus, which liad been plundered of immense wealth, to punish the robbers, and settle the affairs of that province and Media. He then returned to meet the fleet at Susa, to the farther progress of which we must now return, though only to notice its transactions with the brevity pro- posed. Nearchus, having but a slender guard with him, and the Carma- nians not being wholly subdued, encountered some difficulties before he regained the part of the coast where his fleet lay; but having at length reached it, having also oflered sacrifices to Jupiter Sotei for his preservation, and exhibited gymnastic exercises on the shore, he ordered the ships to be unmoored, and joytully resumed the naviga- tion of the Persian Gulph. The whole length of the voyage along the Carmanian coast from Badis, or Cape Jask, where it begins, to Kataia, (Keish J where it terminates, is stated by Arrian to be three thousand seven hundred stadia; the Carmanians are repicsentcd as living after the Persian manner, as using the same arms, and ob- serving the same martial discipline. They now entered on the navi- gation of the coast of Persis, the province properly so called, a navigation of four thousand four hundred, or, as amended by our British Strabo, five thousand eight hundred, stadia, amounting to thiee hundred and sixty-two English miles. The fatigue of this long voyage, however, was mitigated by a pause of one-and-twenty days at the