EXUBR1S 
 
 sar=--^=^ 
 
 *.-, 
 

 
 

 
 
I 
 
 
 
 
 

THE 
 
 HISTORY OF HINDOSTAN; 
 
 ITS 
 
 ARTS, AND ITS SCIENCES, 
 
 AS CONNECTED WITH 
 
 THE HISTORY OF THE OTHER GREAT EMPIRES OF 
 
 ASIA, 
 
 DURING THE MOST ANCIENT PERIODS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 WITH 
 
 ngrabingg, 
 
 BY THE 
 
 AUTHOR OF INDIAN ANTIQUITIES. 
 
 VOL. Ill, and PART FINAL. 
 
 Uon&on : 
 
 
 
 FEINTED FOR THE AUTHOB, 
 
 AND SOLD BY 
 
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 G. H. HUTTMANK, PRIXTEH, 
 FENCHUECH-STREET. 
 
ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 To answer the urgent and reiterated demand for this last portion of 
 the ANCIENT INDIAN HISTORY, of which a considerable less number was 
 printed than of the former parts, the Author has at length been prevailed 
 upon, though at a very heavy expence, to remedy the deficiency by re- 
 printing it. 
 
 Of the collective work, having been nearly twenty years out of print, he 
 would, also, have been happy to have given a new edition ; but the charge 
 to an unaided individual would have been ruinous, and it must, therefore, 
 still remain among the desiderata of Ancient Indian Literature. Instead 
 of the third part, it is here entitled the THIRD VOLUME, to which its 
 magnitude lays claim, and any future edition cannot be comprized in less 
 
 than THREE VOLUMES. 
 
 British Museum, 1st January, 181&. 
 
 709C 
 
PREFACE TO THE THIRD VOLUME. 
 
 J. ii E farther the reader proceeds in the Life of the Eight Avatar, 
 the more he must be convinced of the absurdity and impiety of the 
 comparison, which has been so insidiously attempted to be made by 
 M. Volney, between the Christian and the Indian Preserver. As 
 he has already, in the two introductory chapters, been sufficiently 
 prepared to form a proper judgment on the subject of Creeshna, 
 I have permitted the sportive young deity to continue acting his 
 romantic exploits on the plains of Mathura ; only throwing an oc- 
 casional veil over the more licentious parts of the conduct of this 
 Apollo Nomius of India, whose amours are certainly not less nu- 
 merous than those of the Greek ; of whom, in many respects, he 
 appears to have been the studied exemplar. 
 
 It cannot be denied, however, that, amidst all this licentiousness 
 which the Brahmins, in fact, are anxious to explain away, as if the 
 whole were a sublime allegory, resembling the Greek story of the 
 loves of CUPID and PSYCHE, there often issue from the lips of 
 Creeshna maxims and precepts worthy of a deity ; while many of 
 the apologues, occasionally introduced into it, impress the noblest 
 lessons of piety and philanthropy. Among these may be enu- 
 merated, Akroor's noble apostrophe to Creeshna, while bathing ; 
 Odhoo's instructive theological discourse with Nanda ; his subse- 
 quent sublime address to Ram ; the impressive relation intended 
 to inculcate the omnipresence of God, which represents the prophet 
 Nared visiting the golden palace of Creeshna, in Dwaraka, and 
 ranging its spacious apartments in search of its Lord, whom he 
 finds absent from no part of it; and the powerful dissuasive against 
 
 Vol. in. A 
 
11 PREFACE TO THE THIRD VOLUME. 
 
 the baneful effects of INEBRIETY, by which a whole race becomes 
 exterminated, towards the conclusion: these, with many other 
 weighty moral truths and affecting observations, interspersed 
 throughout the work, will, it is hoped, make the reader amends 
 for much puerility blended with them, and the magical machinery, 
 so congenial with the practice of remote and barbarous ages. For 
 the style being sometimes less accurate and elegant than I could 
 wish, the only apology in my power to make is that first offered, 
 viz. that the Life of Creeshna, is in great part, a literal translation 
 from the SRI BIIAGAVAT, by Mr. Halhed, preserved among his 
 MSS. in the BRITISH MUSEUM, and not originally intended for 
 the public eye. 
 
 The two remaining Avatars will be found, I trust, detailed and 
 explained to the complete satisfaction, at least, of that numerous 
 class of my readers, who do not think the theological disquisition 
 the least important portion of this historical retrospect on the most 
 ancient events transacted on the great theatre of Asia, events which 
 carry us back so near to the sera of the venerable patriarchs. To 
 that respectable, but less numerous, class of my readers, who, less 
 ardent for theological research, seek for historic truth amidst the 
 darkness of those early ages, I flatter myself the final portion of 
 this volume, which discusses the connection of the Tartars, Per- 
 sians, and early Greeks, with the Indians, will not be wholly 
 unsatisfactory : they will candidly remember the remoteness of the 
 sera, and the scanty materials yet in our possession for the full 
 investigation of events then transacted. When more ample ma- 
 terials shall have been discovered, with adequate encouragement 
 I shall not be reluctant to resume the investigation ; and, since all 
 theological discussion is now finally terminated, to present the 
 public with a volume of purely historical fact, relating to the inva- 
 sions of India by Greek, Persian, and Mohammedan, conquerors, 
 
PREFACE TO THE THIRD VOLUME. Ill 
 
 down to the death of Aurungzeb in the present century. A con- 
 siderable part of this vast and interesting history has been long 
 written by me, but disquisitions thought by my friends more im- 
 portant have superseded its appearance. The event has justified 
 their advice ; and the learned reader who may have perused the 
 ingenious and elaborate, but dangerous, work of M. Dupuis, on 
 the Origin of all Religions, alluded to in the preface to the former 
 part, a work comprised in three large quarto volumes, with two 
 additional volumes of plates, illustrative of his ehimaeras, must be 
 convinced of the necessity which existed of the previous appearance 
 of a work like mine ; however inferior in point of execution. He 
 will there see with what determined hostility the noble science 
 of ASTRONOMY, which I have endeavoured to render subservient 
 to the cause of Christianity, has been employed on the Continent 
 to subvert, and, if possible, to eradicate it from the earth. 
 
 For denominating, as I have done, in the subsequent pages, the 
 Indian prince, who most vigorously opposed Alexander, PAURAVA, 
 I beg permission to produce the authority of Sir William Jones, 
 in a letter addressed to me, from Bengal, on my first making known 
 to him my intention of commencing this History, and soliciting- 
 his support and patronage in India. As it is not long, I insert it 
 unabridged, except in that part which confided to me the opinion 
 which I ought to entertain, but which I shall never divulge, of 
 certain persons who have not since proved the most zealous friends 
 to my literary labours. Yet have those labours succeeded beyond 
 my utmost hope, and persevering exertions have at length trampled 
 upon every difficulty. 
 
 A 2 
 
IV PREFACE TO THE THIRD VOLUME. 
 
 Chrisha-Nagar, IQth October, 1790. 
 Dear Sir, 
 
 IT is not possible for me to forget the pleasure 
 which I have received from your conversation, and the opinion 
 which I always entertained of your parts and industry. The 
 arduous undertaking, of which I have just perused the plan, fully 
 justifies my opinion ; but I am so oppressed with a heavy arrear 
 of business, that I cannot Avrite at large on the subject of it. I 
 will desire my agent in London to subscribe for me, and will do 
 all I can to promote the subscription here. Such is the expense 
 of printing at Calcutta, that it would cost thirty pounds sterling to 
 reprint the pamphlet ; but the proposals shall be reprinted, and 
 carefully circulated. I am confident that you might learn Persian 
 in six months, (if you have not learned it already,) so well at least 
 as to read the original text of Ferishtah, whose work, with sub- 
 mission, is very highly esteemed by all learned Indians and Indian 
 scholars. To an historian I must express every truth, even 
 though friendship might induce me to conceal it; ******* 
 ******** L e {. me, at the same time, exhort you not 
 wholly to rely on my authority ; for, though I have diligently 
 avoided errors, yet I have made many : for instance, Por, a word 
 which I found for Porm in the Shah-Nameh, is, I now find, pro- 
 nounced Pur, or Poor, by the native Persians ; and I have reason 
 to believe, from Sanscrit authorities, that the true name of that 
 prince was PAURAVA- If you read Persian, Mr. Boughton Rouse 
 will, I dare say, lend you the Modern History of India, by Gholam 
 Husain. Farewell, my Dear Sir, and believe me to be, with great 
 regard, 
 
 Your ever faithful humble Servant, 
 
 WILLIAM JONES. 
 Rev. Thomas Maurice. 
 
THE 
 
 LIFE 
 
 OP 
 
 CREESHNA, 
 
 THE EIGHTH 
 
 INDIAN AVATAR, 
 
 FROM THE 
 
 BHAGAVAT POORAUN. 
 
 PART THE SECOND. 
 
 DETAILING THE EXPLOITS OF CREESHNA, AFTER THE 
 
 DESTRUCTION OF CANSA, TO THE DEATH 
 
 OF JARASANDHA. 
 
THE LIFE OF CREESHNA. 
 
 PART THE SECOND. 
 
 W HEN Creeshna found that the eyes of Vasudeva and Devaci 
 were opened to his real character, as Perebrahme, or Universal 
 Lord, while there still remained so much to be performed by him 
 on that earth, which, as an Avatar, he had condescended to visit, 
 he again plunged them into forgetfulness. In consequence, they 
 once more thought him their son, and beheld him and Ram stand- 
 ing before them in a posture of the utmost respect. Creeshna now 
 began to bewail aloud the many evils to which they had been 
 exposed on 'his account : he lamented that they had not even en- 
 joyed the common gratification of parents in the company of their 
 own children, the care of their education having fallen to the lot 
 of Nanda and Yasodha. " Formerly," says he, " when men were 
 infinitely more long-lived, their whole existence on earth was pas- 
 sed in the service of their parents ; and now life is so short, your 
 maternal comforts, O Devaci ! have been, to my shame and regret, 
 abridged of that little, but I hope to obtain forgiveness from parental 
 commiseration." Thus did Ram and Creeshna comfort Vasudeva 
 and Devaci, who most heartily rejoiced in the sight of their chil- 
 dren, insomuch that even the milk started from the breast of 
 Devaci, throbbing with transport. After this, the crown of the city 
 and kingdom of Mathura was placed on the head of Ogur Sein, to 
 
[ 8 ] 
 
 whom, by right, it belonged ; when Creeshna thus addressed him : 
 " O rajah! do not refuse the government from the hands of a 
 youthful destroyer of an usurper. May your reign be long and 
 fortunate, and all rebellion and faction be for ever crushed ! Be 
 assured, that those of the tribe of the Yadavas, who have left 
 Mathura through the oppressions of Cansa, will all speedily return. 
 Govern them with wisdom, and do not increase the tribute beyond 
 that of former times, nor delight, like Cansa, in aggrieving thy 
 subjects." From that very day, Ogur Sein took upon himself the 
 government of Mathura, and, by Creeshna's aid, his reign pros- 
 pered exceedingly. Wherever Creeshna resides, prosperity must 
 necessarily ensue ; thus it was, while he abode in Gokul and 
 Bindreben as the son of Nanda and Yasodha, and when he had 
 cleansed Mathura from the filth of injustice and oppression, his 
 parents Vasudeva and Devaci became most happy and exalted in 
 their new-found progeny. One day Creeshna sent for Nanda and 
 Oope-Nanda, and all the Gopas, or shepherds, and cow-herds, and, 
 in aposture of reverence, presented Nanda withhis and Ram's thanks 
 for all the favours bestowed on them by him and Yasodha ; more, in 
 fact, than could have been expected from natural parents, and then 
 told him that it was necessary that he (Nanda) should go to Bindreben 
 to console Yasodha and the Gopias, or shepherdesses. He then gave 
 Nanda mighty presents in money and goods, and dismissed him with 
 the other Gopas, who all returned to Bindreben in tears. Soon after, 
 Vasudeva and Devaci, in council with the heads of the family and 
 wisest of their Zennardars, reflecting that they had not hitherto 
 been able to give Ram and Creeshna an education suitable to 
 Khettris, and, according to the rites of the rajah tribe, desired that 
 the Zennar might be duly conferred on them, and the ceremonies of 
 the nuptial festival were now performed in a fortunate hour ; they 
 were bathed in the holiest waters, and were taught the Proheete 
 
[ 9 ] 
 
 and Gayatree, and invested with the Zennar. On that day, innu- 
 merable cows and vast quantities of gold were given away Vasu- 
 deva then sought for a complete tutor for his son; and, having 
 heard of a famous Zennardar in Avengtee, he determined to send 
 Ram and Creeshna thither. They went accordingly to Avengtee, 
 and entered into the discipline of the tutor, and, by their extreme 
 attention, so rivetted the esteem of Sendeepen, that he presently 
 taught them the whole science of the Vedas. Although, to save 
 appearances, they staid some time in Avengtee as his pupils, yet, 
 in fact, Creeshna learnt all the sciences in one day and night, and 
 perfectly knew all the sixty-four Kela, to the great joy and equal 
 astonishment of Sendeepen, who had been used to see his pupils 
 employ months and years upon only one book. Creeshna, after 
 acknowledging his obligations to Sendeepen, desired him to de- 
 mand what he wished for most, as his tutors's fee. Sendeepen 
 begged leave to consult his wife before he determined on his re- 
 quest. The wife entreated, that, if it were possible to raise her 
 two sons to life, that might be the boon bestowed. Sendeepen 
 accordingly requested of Creeshna to restore his two dead sons. 
 Creeshna said it should be done; and then, with Ram, went to the 
 sea-shore, when the Sea, assuming a human shape, came before 
 him, and most submissively asked his pleasure. Creeshna de- 
 manded the two sons of Sendeepen. The Deep replied, he had 
 them not; but, if Creeshna commanded, he would demand them 
 of PANCHAJANYA, the great Shankhe, or shell-fish, who was in his 
 belly. Creeshna immediately leaped into the sea himself, and, 
 seizing the Shankhe, tore it open. When he found them not there, 
 he brought the Shankhe up with him for the purpose of using it as 
 a trumpet, and going thence to the abode of Dherme Rajah, the 
 god of justice, or Pluto, he there sounded the Shankhe. Dherme 
 Rajah immediately appeared, and, making most profound sub- 
 Vol. in. B 
 
missions, entreated to know his commands. Creeshna demanded, 
 as before, the two sons of his tutor Sendeepen ; and, by this com- 
 mand of Perebrahme, these two young men became alive again, 
 and Dherme Rajah presented them to Creeshna, who, with Ram, 
 immediately took them to Sendeepen, and, presenting them to him, 
 said, " O Gooroo ! demand of us something yet more, for our wish 
 is to serve thee." But Sendeepen answered, " O Ram and Creeshna! 
 I am delighted with you to the soul; nor have I more to ask, but 
 receive at least my blessing ; and may the sciences you have learned 
 of me remain for ever fresh in your memories \" Creeshna and 
 Ram then taking leave of their tutor set off from Avengtee, and 
 soon came to Mathura, and the people there received them like 
 lost wealth restored. 
 
 Creeshna having, as we have seen, thus rapidly learnt the whole 
 circle of sciences from Sendeepen, and being returned to Mathura, 
 on a certain day called to him his kinsman Oodhoo, and, taking 
 him aside, requested of him to go to Bindreben, and bear his salu- 
 tations to Yasodha and all the Gopas, and particularly to the Gopias 
 whom, most of all, his absence grievously afflicted; announce to 
 them his intended return the instant his affairs permitted, and, in 
 the mean time, until they could obtain his personal presence, to 
 exhort them to be constantly employed in YUG, which is his spiri- 
 tual presence. Oodhoo, having accordingly received Creeshna's 
 instructions, set out for Bindreben on the following morning, and 
 arrived the same evening. He found all the Gopas and Gopias 
 sitting in a melancholy attitude, and meditating on Creeshna; the 
 Zennardars at prayer, and the secular persons engaged in charity 
 and other pious works, to obtain his presence. Nanda carried 
 Oodhoo to his own house, and there refreshing him after his jour- 
 ney, anxiously asked him the news of Creeshna, of Mathura, of 
 Vasudeva, and Devaci, and whether Creeshna meant to keep his 
 
[ 11 ] 
 
 former promise of coming to see them. In short, he became ex- 
 tremely garrulous, running over all Creeshna's miracles while a 
 little boy, and declaring, that, from what Garga had told him, he 
 knew Creeshna to be Bhagavan, Perebrahme, Pooran-Pooroosh, 
 who was born for the protection of Devatas and Zennardars, and 
 the relief of the oppressed ; as was clear from the destruction of 
 Cansa, who had the strength of a thousand drunken elephants ; and 
 of Keishee Assoor, who was also strong as a thousand elephants ; 
 and from his breaking the bow, which was beyond the power of 
 man. Yasodha then took her turn to speak, and said, she thought 
 it very hard, that when Creeshna was little, he permitted Nanda 
 and Yasodha to be called his parents ; but now Devaci was be- 
 come Nanda, and Creeshna was called Vasudeva: still, however, 
 from having had the care of Creeshna's infancy, she thought her 
 prerogatives greater than those of Devaci. Oodhoo silenced them, 
 by saying, that whoever is constantly night and day thinking of 
 Creeshna becomes exalted above all the three worlds ; and that it 
 is pronounced in the Vedas and Smreete, that whosoever, at the 
 time of expiring, shall retain Creeshna in his remembrance, he will 
 infallibly become Peremookte, or thrice-blessed ; that Nanda and 
 Yasodha were at the pinnacle of their desires, and that he knew 
 even them to be Avatars of Devatas. Nanda again earnestly de- 
 manded if Creeshna would keep his promise in returning to Bin- 
 dreben? And Oodhoo replied, that Perebrahme was at all times 
 present every where, just as fire, though concealed, is always pre- 
 sent in wood: that it was not for a moment admissible, that, be- 
 cause he now called Vasudeva and Devaci his parents, he should 
 forget Nanda and Yasodha ; for that the Preserver of the world has 
 no parents, nor can be called the particular parent of any one, but 
 is Creator of the universe. In the state of his present existence he 
 is to be considered as an Avatar, like that of Matsya, Kourma, 
 
 B2 
 
t 12 ] 
 
 Varaha, Nara-Sing, and others, which are all emanations of that 
 tremendous power who is at once the Creator, Preserver, and De- 
 stroyer, of all things. " We short-sighted men," exclaims Oodhoo, 
 " resemble a child, who, having turned round till he is giddy, thinks 
 the heavens and earth also turn round with him, and does not con- 
 sider that the rotatory motion is all in his own brain. Thus, 
 O Nanda! are we bewildered in prejudices, thus are we groAvn 
 giddy with pride, and know not the Creator. Now, therefore, 
 O Yasodha ! think no more of Creeshna as your son, but as a being 
 who is father, child, husband, wife, brother, and whatever you can 
 think of that is dear among human beings, all centring in one ob- 
 ject, and without that object there is nothing!" Thus did Oodhoo 
 pass the whole night in discourse with Nanda and Yasodha; and, 
 at sun-rise, next morning went to bathe in the Jumna, dressed in a 
 shining robe set with lovely jewels. As he drove along in his 
 splendid carriage, in all houses which he passed, he heard the inha- 
 bitants at their different employments singing the miracles of Creesh- 
 na. He beheld all the Gopias in profound affliction for his ab- 
 sence; and, as most of them were ignorant of Oodhoo's arrival, 
 they said to each other, "Ah! there is Akroor's carriage! he is re- 
 turned ; but, if Cansa had lived, he would have been devoted to 
 instant destruction." Another supposed Creeshna had sent some 
 other herald to inquire after them. A third observed that Creeshna 
 had now other affairs to mind than to send after them; while a fourth 
 insisted that Creeshna did most certainly recollect them. Innu- 
 merable discourses of this kind met the ears of Oodhoo, all the 
 result of affection and grief; and he was astonished at the uni- 
 versality of the theme. 
 
 By the time Oodhoo returned from the water, the Gopias had 
 learned that some one on the part of the Yadavas was arrived, but 
 it was not Creeshna, and they all hurried to Nanda's house to learn 
 
[ 13 ] 
 
 news from Mathura. A sense of modesty, added to intense grief 
 on account of Creeshna's absence, kept them for some time silent, 
 but at length they broke silence, and overwhelmed Oodhoo with the 
 multiplicity of their inquiries. Oodhoo, after many panegyrics on 
 their fidelity, delivered Creeshna's message to them, desiring them 
 not to mourn his absence, for, that there was no absence where 
 there was mental union, as was the case between him and them. 
 "Therefore, O Gopias! betake yourselves to Yug, or devotion; 
 for that is the point at which no such thing as absence takes place." 
 The Gopias, on hearing this, said to Oodhoo, " What manner of 
 conduct is this, or what justice does Creeshna use, to give Yug 
 (mental union) to us, and Bhook (corporeal union) to the women of 
 Mathura? Alas! there is no mention made of us in Creeshna's as- 
 semblies? Does he ever recollect that night in which we forsook 
 our husbands and children to share his beloved embrace? Will he 
 ever mitigate the torments of separation which we now suffer? As 
 for ourselves, we do not for a single moment forget those nights 
 wherein we obtained our hearts desire, and surely, O Oodhoo! you 
 will not fail to tell Creeshna of our inexpressible misery." Oodhoo 
 stayed some months in Bindreben, to console and comfort the Go- 
 pias, and satisfied them greatly by again and again repeating the 
 words of Creeshna, insomuch, that, to the people of Bindreben, 
 his stay appeared but for a moment. Transported with passion, 
 they shewed Oodhoo the places in the wood and by the water-side 
 where they had tasted happiness with Creeshna Oodhoo was in- 
 finitely pleased with their constancy, and assured them, in his turn, 
 that Creeshna never had so much love and attachment to Lakshma, 
 whose pure body is all one fragrance, and the bedam (almond) 
 beneath whose foot for ever blows, as for them: that Lakshma had 
 never known, even in a dream, that entire satisfaction which they 
 had enjoyed with him awake: that, for himself, he only wished God 
 
[ 14 ] 
 
 would make him one of the happy Gopias ; and that, as Creeshna 
 was to him a deity, so he esteemed them also to be Devatas ; for, 
 that they were never separated from that sublime Pooran-Pooroosh. 
 And now Oodhoo, with difficulty, obtaining leave to return to 
 Mathura, Nanda, Yasodha, and all the Gopas and Gopias, sent 
 separately their congratulations to Creeshna by Oodhoo, who, as 
 soon as he arrived at that city, delivered an account of his mission ; 
 of the exact state in which he had left Nanda, Yasodha, and the 
 Gopias, and presented the congratulations of each separately by 
 name. Creeshna was not insensible to these tokens of their regard ; 
 for, on hearing the report, his eyes were moistened with tears of 
 sympathy, and he resolved to seize the first opportunity of revisit- 
 ing the scene where his childhood and youth had been so delight- 
 fully passed. 
 
 Creeshna recollecting that he had promised Koobeja a visit, in 
 pursuance of that promise he one day went to her house, accom- 
 panied by Oodhoo. Koobeja was overjoyed, and, with her own 
 hands, presented him the clothes, jewels, necklaces, betel, and 
 sweetmeats, which she had prepared for the occasion. Oodhoo was 
 greatly amazed at her beauty; but she, with a conscious shame, be- 
 held Oodhoo as an intruder, for Creeshna was the idol of her heart. 
 Creeshna, observing the ardency of her passion, took hold of her 
 hand, and, gently drawing her towards him, placed her by his side, 
 and she was made happy as a Yogee is by the completion of his 
 Yug. What the devotee and the penitent often seek in vain (union 
 with Deity) Koobeja easily obtained, and she persuaded Creeshna 
 to stay some days at her house. Some time after, he went, ac- 
 cording to promise, to Akroor's house with Ram, where his recep- 
 tion was equally warm and respectful. Akroor made him a most 
 devout and submissive speech, and prophecied that he should slay 
 the army of eighteen Kshoonees (or Kshouheenees) now he had 
 
[ 15 ] 
 
 assumed the full splendor of his Avatar for lightening the burthen 
 of the earth Creeshna answered him with great tenderness and 
 respect, as head of the Yadava family, and requested as a favour 
 of him that he would go to Hastanapoor to bring certain intelligence 
 of the state of affairs at that capital, where he had heard that, after 
 Rajah Pandoo's death, Doorjoodhen oppressed his five cousins; 
 Judishter, that ocean of modesty and tenderness; Bheema, strong 
 as the mountain Sumeru; Arjoon, the famous bowman; Nacul, 
 renowned for his beauty ; and Sahadeva, the wise and penetrative ; 
 in short, that he looked with an eye of extreme jealousy and ill- will 
 on all the Pandoos. 
 
 Akroor, exceedingly happy at this commission, chose a fortunate 
 moment for his journey, and went to Hastanapoor. There he first 
 respectfully visited Bheekheem, and Dhreetrarashtra, and Doorjoo- 
 dhen, and his brothers. He then went to the abode of the Pandoos, 
 where he paid the profoundest reverence to Koontee, and severally 
 embraced Judishter and his brothers, and made a proper obeisance 
 to Dropeda, their sister, endeavouring by every means in his power 
 to comfort the Pandoos. For the purpose of learning a true state 
 of affairs, Akroor stayed some months at Hastanapoor; but, such 
 was the general fear of Doorjoodhen, that no one ventured to tell 
 him the truth. At last, Koontee had a private interview with him, 
 and at that interview informed him of the secret of Dhreetrarashta's 
 weakness and Doorjoodhen 5 s jealousy of the Pandoos, who were 
 every where well spoken of, but against whom his fury had risen 
 to such a height, that he had some time before presumed to put a 
 venomous snake into their victuals and poison into their water. 
 Koontee pleaded to him her near affinity with Creeshna, as sister 
 to Vasudeva, and sent a message to Creeshna, complaining that 
 Doorjoodhen, like some fatal eclipse of the sun and moon, ob- 
 structed the rising glory of her sons, and imploring his assistance, 
 
t 16 ] 
 
 since she herself and all her family placed their reliance solely on 
 Bhagavan. Akroor comforted her as well as he could, and took 
 an early opportunity of remonstrating with Dhreetrarashtra on the 
 glaring injustice of his own and Doorjoodhen's proceedings. 
 Dhreetrarashtra answered, that he felt the force of Akroor's argu- 
 ments, but that his heart was blackened by the intense affection 
 which he bore his children, and could not assume the colour of his 
 good advice, which, like lightning, had, for a single moment, 
 flashed upon the obscurity of his mind ; that he knew, however, 
 Bhagavan had been born for the purpose of relieving the burthens 
 of the earth, and for the protection of his friends, and paid him all 
 due reverence. Akroor, after having given his advice to Dhree- 
 trarashtra, and hearing his answer, took leave of him, andKoontee, 
 and the Paifidoos, and returned to Mathura. 
 
 Akroor, on his arrival from Hastanapoor, communicated ail he 
 had heard to Creeshna, and immediately that all-wise Being re- 
 solved within his mind what should be done. Now the two wives 
 of Cansa, Asep and Peranet, daughters of Rajah Jarasandha, mo- 
 narch of the kingdom of Maghada, had continued in a state of the 
 most profound grief ever since the death of their husband, and went 
 weeping and wailing to their father. Jarasandha was exceedingly 
 grieved at the intelligence, and, being moved with extreme pity 
 for his daughters, swore an oath and performed sacrifice that, if he 
 did not slay every one of the Yadavas in revenge for the death of 
 his son-in-law, the guilt of the murder of Cansa should lie upon 
 him. Accordingly he levied an army of three Kshouheenees,* 
 
 * This is the word which often occurs written in Mr. Halhed's manuscript ; but, in Ferishta, 
 it is written COHEEN, and is there said to be a military body, "consisting: of twenty-one 
 thousand eight hundred and sevtenry elephants of war, an equal number of chariots, six thousand 
 six hundred and ten horsemen, and one hundred and nine thousand three hundred and fifty 
 
 foot ! ! !" Credat Judaus. 
 
[ 17 ] 
 
 and set out for Mathura Creeshna on hearing it, said to Ram, 
 that, as he was come for the purpose of lightening the burthens of 
 the earth and punishing the wicked, he would slay Jarasandha, but 
 not at that time, having other affairs to transact of more immediate 
 importance. In the mean time, there descended from heaven two 
 carriages, the shining of whose jewellery was like the splendor of 
 the stars, and in each carriage was a collection of various kinds of 
 arms. Creeshna looked towards Ram, and asked his advice, as 
 they two were the only protectors of the Yadavas, and as it was 
 necessary to lighten the overburthened earth of Jarasandha's army. 
 Creeshna then ascended one of the carriages, and made Dareke his 
 driver, while Ram mounted the other carriage. Taking with him a 
 few chosen troops, Creeshna sounded the dreadful shell Pancha- 
 janya, whose roar re-echoed from earth to heaven, and both went 
 to meet Jarasandha, whose army was affrighted and confounded 
 with the sound of that wonderful instrument. But Jarasandha 
 himself, advancing before his army to the sound of trumpets and 
 clarions, exclaimed, " O Creeshna ! it is improper for me to meet 
 you in battle, since I know you to be invincible by any hostile 
 weapon of mine. How, therefore, can I possibly, on any equal 
 ground, engage with you, since the very attempt to combat with 
 an Avatar must infallibly draw down upon me a severe and just 
 punishment. I will fight Balhadur. Now, therefore, O Balhadur ! 
 take care ; for, with a single arrow, I shall dispatch your mighty 
 spirit to Deva Loke." Creeshna desired Jarasandha not to praise 
 himself, as he and Ram knew not each others strength ; and where- 
 fore did he glory, since his relation Cansa had just obtained the 
 merited fruits of his baseness ? Jarasandha now became violently 
 enraged, and overwhelmed Creeshna and Ram with a shower of 
 arrows, like the sun in a cloud. The women of Mathura stood on 
 their balconies anxious spectators of the battle : when Creeshna was 
 Vol. in. C 
 
[ 18 ] 
 
 obscured by arrows, they were oppressed with grief, but rejoiced 
 exceedingly when by the flash they beheld the standard on which 
 was the figure of Garoor. Jarasandha exhausted all his strength, 
 and that of his army to no purpose ; he could by no means obtain 
 the victory. Creeshna then strung the all-conquering bow, and, 
 drawing it, shot one arrow. With the stroke of that one arrow all 
 the chariots, with the chiefs they bore, and the elephant-drivers, 
 and their horses, with their riders, and the infantry, were all dis- 
 comfited and slain. The blood streamed from the heads of ele- 
 phants like rivers of red water from the mountains in the rainy 
 season ; the carriages were dashed about like ruined houses: the 
 light of the standards was like the wood of a burning jungle ; and 
 there was a sea of blood flowing around, in which the heads of 
 young warriors floated, while the jewels on their plumes resembled 
 the shining of the sands, and the noble victims expiring, exclaimed 
 aloud, Jeye ! Jeye ! Those that excaped, fled in the utmost tre- 
 pidation ; but Ram pursued them, and with his Moosel, (mace) 
 pounded to atoms all the bones of his adversaries. When Jaras- 
 andha alone remained alive, Ram seized him as a lion seizes a kid, 
 and was going to strangle him ; but Creeshna took hold of Ram's 
 hand and prevented him, saying, that he himself would slay Jaras- 
 andha hereafter, when other more weighty affairs were finished. 
 So they left Jarasandha at liberty, and returned to Mathura, where 
 great rejoicings were made, and the Devatas rained flowers from 
 the sky. Thus did Creeshna return triumphant into Mathura ; and 
 Jarasandha, defeated and ashamed, went alone to his own kingdom, 
 resolving, as he journeyed, that he would immediately commence 
 most severe austerities, and by that means acquire the power of 
 taking Creeshna and completing his revenge. As he went along, 
 some of the neighbouring rajahs, his allies, comforted him ; remind- 
 ing him that conquest and defeat were accidents ; that it was the 
 
[ 19 1 
 
 business of recluses to pray and mortify, and that of a monarch to 
 fight. Stimulated by these and similar expressions, Jarasandha 
 went into his own country, again levied a mighty army, and, in 
 pursuit of the determined revenge he had vowed, came seventeen 
 times more to Mathura with so powerful a force, that no human 
 efforts seemed able to oppose it ; but he was each time defeated 
 by the Giver of Victory, and fled each time with precipitation. 
 On the eighteenth attack be brought, to assist him in its reduction, 
 Kalee-Jeven : at which time Nared came to the latter, and ac- 
 quainted him with Creeshna's delightful colour and fine dress, and 
 all the marks and celestial appurtenances of the divine Bhagavan. 
 This last time, when Kalee-Jeven came to Jarasandha's assistance, 
 he took an army of three Crores of his own with him, and with 
 that force came to Mathura and invested the city. Creeshna, on 
 this, said to Ram, " O brother ! since the Yadavas suffer extreme 
 hardships on my account, this time I will kill Kalee-Jeven, and 
 afterwards Jarasandha : but, as the men of Mathura are so dis- 
 pirited and alarmed, I am resolved to relieve their apprehensions, 
 and to place them in a state of security while you and I are em- 
 ployed in battle." On that same day he commanded Vesookerma 
 to found a city in the midst of the sea ; and in obedience to his 
 commands, a city was instantly built all resplendent with jewels. 
 In it were to be seen bazars with beautiful shops richly decorated, 
 and gardens adorned with the trees Pareejatek, the houses shining 
 with chrystal, the stables for horses composed of iron and silver, 
 golden vases over the door of every house, and innumerable temples, 
 whence clouds of incence perpetually ascended. In one moment 
 every thing was ready, and now Bhagavan took all the living crea- 
 tures of Mathura and carried them thither as a Yogee enwrapt in 
 his Yug. Having thus placed them in security, he advanced, toge- 
 ther with Ram, to give battle to the invader. 
 
 C 2 
 
C 20 ] 
 
 While Creeshna pressed forward to meet the enemy's army, Kalee- 
 Jevan recollected the description given him by Nared, viz. Nara- 
 yen, with the Kernel, and Chacra, and Geda, and Shankhe, in his 
 hand, and rejoiced when he saw these signs that he should take this 
 conqueror, shining like the sun. Kalee-Jevan ignorantly pre- 
 sumed to hope that he should take Bhagavan, whom even the 
 Yogee by Yug, and the devotee by devotion, and the penitent by 
 mortifications, cannot reach. Shree-Bhagavan now advanced ; 
 but, having formed his resolve in respect to the rajah, fled from 
 him. Kalee-Jeven pursued him with celerity, telling him all the 
 time it was unworthy of one, who called himself a Khettree, to flee ; 
 and that certainly he would bring shame on Vasudeva, and lose all 
 the renown he had already acquired. At length Bhagavan came 
 to a wood where the Reyshee Metsye Gundhe was sleeping ; on 
 whom he threw his robe, and retired into the thicket. Kalee- 
 Jeven, in close pursuit, soon arrived at the same place ; and think- 
 ing he had now caught his prey, drew in a hurry the yellow robe 
 of Bhagavan from Metsye Gundhe's head, and spurned the 
 sleeper with his foot : at which the Reyshee awoke, and the fire of 
 his eye falling upon Kalee-Jeven, who stood before him, instantly 
 reduced him to ashes. This Metsye Gundhe was the son of Rajah 
 Mandhata, who conquered wheresoever he turned his arms ; for 
 which reason Devatas and men besought his assistance in their wars 
 with their enemies. As Metsye Gundhe was extremely fatigued 
 by the toils of war, and had not slept for a number of nights, Eendra 
 and the other Devatas thanked him for the satisfaction he had pro- 
 cured them, and desired him, at length, to retire, and enjoy the 
 refreshment of a long repose. They told him they had the power 
 of conferring on him Dherme, Arthe, or Kam, but that, without 
 the favour of Bhagavan, they could not give him Mookt, or beati- 
 tude ; that, however, Shree-Bhagavan would one day bestow it on 
 
[ 21 ] 
 
 him. They entreated him, for the present, to repair by sleep the 
 fatigues of war, and denounced, that, whoever should disturb and 
 awaken him, should instantly by his look be reduced to ashes. Un- 
 der these circumstances, Kalee-Jeven awoke the sage, and suffered 
 the fate denounced. Creeshna then came forward in all the splen- 
 dor of the Divinity, and was respectfully asked by Metsye Gundhe 
 who he might be, and how, with his tender and beautiful feet, he 
 arrived at that thorny place. Then, suddenly, as if in reply to his 
 own question, he exclaimed, " Thou art the sun ! the moon ! Bha- 
 gavan ! Gopal !" adding, that he knew him from the splendor of 
 his countenance, which had exchanged his darkness for light, that 
 he acknowledged him for the superior of the three Devatas ; and, 
 after again asking by what earthly appellative he was known, told 
 him that himself was Metsye Gundhe, son of Rajah Mandhata. 
 Creeshna replied, that his names were like his bodies and his actions, 
 innumerable : that even those who could count the grains of the uni- 
 verse could not number them. But that now, when he was come to 
 lighten the burthens of the earth, to comfort the good and punish 
 the wicked, he was called Vasudeva, after his earthly progenitor ; 
 that he had slain a number of Rakshas, and, lastly, Cansa : that 
 there were reasons why he had brought Kalee-Jeven to that fate ; 
 and, as the Devatas had told him he should obtain Mookt from 
 Bhagavan, and as in a former life he had been a sincere devotee to 
 him, (Creeshna,) he bid him ask what he desired. Metsye Gundhe, 
 recollecting that Garga had cast his nativity, and told him that he 
 should one day enjoy a sight of Bhagavan, was elated with joy, and 
 said, " O supreme Lord ! how can MAN, who is the prey of Maya, 
 (delusion,) praise THEE properly? Blinded by the passions, he 
 spends the precious moments of existence in their service ; and, 
 like a frog secluded in a well, who knows nothing of the external 
 state of things, is lost in oblivion. But now, by the advantage of 
 
[ 22 ] 
 
 beholding thee, my understanding is enlightened, and I know thee 
 to be Bhagavan !" Creeshna replied, " O Metsye Gundhe ! I know 
 what is your desire, and it is granted, although the giver of the 
 throne of the Chekrewertee cannot obtain it. He who gives up his 
 mind to me and seeks no other support, I am his possession and 
 treasure." Metsye Gundhe, after praises and thanksgiving to the 
 Almighty, being aware that the influence of the Cali Yiig was ap- 
 parent, wherein men would become very short-lived and be im- 
 mersed in depravity, thought it better to withdraw his mind alto- 
 gether from the world. Taking leave, therefore, of Creeshna, he 
 set out towards the north, and, going to the mountain Gundhe- 
 maden, gave up his mind to the recollection of the Almighty Crea- 
 tor, beheld the Splendor God and became so absorbed as to lose 
 all self-consciousness. 
 
 Creeshna, after this, came down by the way of the mountains, 
 defeated the entire army of Kalee-Jeven, and sent all the booty 
 and prizes to Dwaraka. Jdrasandha set out in search of Creeshna, 
 and, when he saw him ;, Creeshna and Ram went before him as if 
 in flight. There is a mountain called Nevedroog Naghen, into the 
 defiles of which they retired. Jarasandha rejoiced at this, assuring 
 himself that no road was now left for their escape ; collecting, there- 
 fore, a great number of faggots, and blocking up all the avenues of 
 retreat, he set fire to them all at the four sides, and concluding 
 that both Ram and Creeshna were certainly burnt, returned trium- 
 phant to his own dominions. This mountain was eleven Yogans 
 high above the earth, but Creeshna and Ram leapt over it in safety, 
 and came to Dwaraka. 
 
 Rajah Bhekhem was monarch of Redeeme, and had five sons, 
 RokenvAkrej, Rokemrethe, Rokemmahoo, and Rokemmalee, 
 and one daughter, named Rokemenee, who, having heard much 
 of the miracles and praises of Bhagavan, became almost frantic 
 
[ 23 J 
 
 with love for him, and was dying for a sight of him. &he made a 
 vow, wj|;h heart and soul, never to accept of any other being for a 
 husband than Bhagavan : he, too, having been variously informed 
 of her beauty, was equally in love with her. Rajah Bhekhem and 
 four of his sons were content to unite Rokemenee with Creeshna, 
 but the eldfest, Rokem, was utterly averse ; he thought Creeshna 
 beneath them, and preferred Rajah Seespopal both for his dignity 
 and qualities ; so, in compliance with the recommendation of his 
 eldest son, Rajah Bhekhem commenced the nuptials of his daughter 
 with Seesoopal, son of Rajah Demkhookhe, monarch of Chende- 
 peree, but always in despight of Rokemenee, who abhorred the 
 union. When the time of marriage approached, she dispatched a 
 Zennardar to Dwaraka with an account of her melancholy situation. 
 The messenger soon arrived, and, going to the palace of Bhagavan, 
 was ushered in, when Creeshna immediately descended from his 
 embroidered throne and performed Dendevet, and received him 
 with all possible marks of respect, to the surprise of the Yadavas, 
 who did not think him worthy of so much honour, and spoke 
 slightingly of this behaviour : but Creeshna rebuked them, and 
 very highly advanced the character of Brahmins as heirs of Brahma. 
 " O Swamee !" said he to the Brahmin, " in whatever kingdom 
 you reside there is peace and prosperity. O Brahma-Mooret ! this 
 day is fortune indeed propitious, since an elevated character like 
 yourself is come to my city. Speak openly and truly for what 
 purpose are you come that I may fulfil it." The Brahmin, greatly 
 pleased with his reception, said he was from Gundenpoor, and deli- 
 vered Rokemenee's message, informing him how fervently that prin- 
 cess was attached to him, and that she had vowed with heart and 
 soul to put herself under no protection but his, and that it was in- 
 cumbent on him not to let the jackal seize on the food of the lion ; 
 that, for his sake, she had worshipped both Devas and Devatas, 
 
[ 24 ] 
 
 and now, perhaps, the son of Demkhookhe would obtain her, for 
 the day of marriage approached ; and, to celebrate the nuptials, 
 Seesoopal had brought with him, to Gundenpoor, Jarasandha, and 
 Sal, and Denteblicktra : " Come, therefore," she added, " and 
 slay these enemies, and release me from the anguish of suspense ; 
 contrive to get me out of my father's house, or remain concealed 
 near Gundenpoor, (but how can the sun be concealed?) and, when 
 the women of my tribe bear me forth out of the city to worship the 
 Deva who presides over marriage, you may then easily bear me 
 away. It is for you that I have long worshipped that Deva already : 
 without your assistance I shall perish, and my blood will lie at your 
 door ; but nobles like yourself never soil their hands with the blood 
 of youth and innocence." Creeshna, on reading this Patee, and 
 hearing the message of the good Zennardar, determined to satisfy 
 Rokemenee's inclinations. 
 
 Creeshna took the Brahmin by the hand, and ordering Dareke, 
 his driver, to prepare his carriage immediately, desired the Brahmin 
 to be seated therein. The horses were so fiery and unruly that 
 Creeshna was obliged to seat him first and afterwards himself; he 
 
 O 
 
 then again took hold of the Brahmin's hand that he might not be 
 alarmed by the rapidity of the motion ; for, distant as it was from 
 Dwaraka to Gundenpoor, they performed the journey in one night. 
 In the mean time, Rajah Bhekhem had made magnificent prepara- 
 tions for Seesoopal's approach. Learned Brahmins read the Vedas, 
 the bridal women sung hymns, and intelligent sagos consulted the 
 Yejoor Veda for a lucky moment to perform the ceremonies and 
 bind on the bracelets, while magnificent offerings of gold, silver, 
 cows, rice, &c. were made in Rokemenee's name. Demkhookhe, 
 also, on his part, had made equally splendid arrangements, and set 
 out with his nobles for Gundenpoor, besides elephants, and fine 
 horses, and carriages, and numberless attendants on foot. They 
 
[ 25 ] 
 
 were met by Rajah Bhekhem, who with much ceremony conducted 
 them into the city, and the whole cavalcade were provided with 
 lodgings suitable to their rank. Among these, Jarasandha, See- 
 soopal, Sal, and others, enemies to Creeshna, were in hopes that 
 the Yadavas would attend this marriage, that so they might seize 
 Creeshna and Ram. Creeshna set out first alone, and Ram fol- 
 lowed with a puissant army : but, as they did not arrive when the 
 day of marriage came, and Rokemenee's Brahmin was not then 
 returned, she went to her balcony, and, with great anxiety, stretch- 
 ed her longing eyes towards Dwaraka, bewailing her lot, ardently 
 addressing Bhagavan, who knows the heart, and weeping exceed- 
 ingly. At this time her left arm began to start, at which she re- 
 joiced much, taking it for a happy omen ; and, after a little time, 
 looking again towards Dwaraka, she beheld an army approach, 
 and recognized the standard for that which she had heard belonged 
 to Creeshna, and soon after espied her Brahmin returning. At 
 this moment her exultation exceeded all description, and she gave 
 him a most gracious reception for having so well performed her 
 commission. Soon after, Rajah Bhekhem heard the news of 
 Creeshna's coming from Dwaraka to Gundenpoor, and then recol- 
 lected how desirous himself had been for an union between him and 
 Rokemenee, if Rokem had not opposed it. In consequence, he 
 went out to meet Creeshna with all possible civility and respect, 
 and attended him into the city with every offer and office of hospi- 
 tality. His arrival occasioned a prodigious ferment through the 
 whole town ; for neither man nor woman was ignorant of the won- 
 derful feats of Creeshna, and they all ran forth to behold him, with 
 one voice exclaiming, " O Vidhata ! make this a day worthy of 
 conquest and victory for Rokemenee, for whom Seesoopal is by 
 no means qualified." On the day of marriage, after various prece- 
 ding ceremonies, the women led Rokemenee out of the city to 
 Vol. in. D 
 
[ 26 ] 
 
 worship Ambeka-Deva amid a multitude of singers and musicians, 
 and guards ranged on all sides. When they came to the place of 
 worship, the guards, &c. remained on the outside of the temple, 
 and the musicians, &c. with a vast crowd, stood before the door. 
 Rokemenee and the women went in, the former praying to Deva 
 Bhavani to unite her with Bhagavan, as had been the incessant 
 tenor of her prayers. Then she washed her hands and feet, and 
 went through all the preparations for the Pooja ; but, when she 
 bowed her head in the Dendevet, she said, in her heart, " O Deva 
 Bhavani ! to thee I bow for the desire of my soul, which is Creeshna." 
 With Rokemenee all the women joined in that ejaculation who were 
 present and assisting in the preparatives of the Pooja. On that 
 day Rokemenee fasted the whole day, remaining in profound si- 
 lence, and, on going away, bowed her head to the ground on the 
 Deva's threshold. Rokemenee had then a lotos-flower in her hand, 
 and a ring of valuable jewels on her finger, so resplendent, that the 
 Apsaras beheld it from heaven, and said, " This cannot be Roke- 
 menee ? it is Ambeka-Deva herself." In short, her beauty and 
 elegance struck even ethereal spectators with astonishment, and 
 the guards, in a transport, fell down before her, unconscious that 
 their bows escaped from their hands. Rokemenee, in hopes that 
 Bhagavan would appear, walked very slowly forward ; and, as the 
 procession for the performance of the Pooja was of great length, 
 her hair was wet with perspiration, resembling the morning dew in 
 the cup of the hyacinth. Looking on all sides earnestly round, she 
 soon perceived an army approaching, which she immediately con- 
 ceived to belong to the monarch of her heart ; and, in the excess 
 of her joy, her feet refused to move forwards. Creeshna, like a 
 ravenous lion, (with Balhadur before him) burst through the throng, 
 and, taking Rokemenee by the hand, placed her instantly on his 
 own carriage, and carried her triumphantly away. Numbers of 
 
[ 27 ] 
 
 the guards, mounted on the fleetest horses, beheld the scene with 
 amazement and stupefaction ; and, when the news came to See- 
 soopal, and Sal, and Denteebektree, and Poorende, they were 
 overwhelmed with grief and vexation. But Jarasandha was more 
 inflamed with anger than all, and, in his rage, exclaimed, " This 
 is surely most astonishing, that, in the presence of so many crown- 
 ed heads as are here assembled, this cowherd should make so bold 
 an effort, and succeed in taking away Rokemenee." 
 
 The several rajahs, however, immediately set out and pursued 
 Creeshna with their respective armies ; and Creeshna and Ram, 
 aware of that pursuit, drew in their reins, and waited for them in 
 serene composure. Then all at once began to rain a storm of ar- 
 rows upon Creeshna and Ram, which Creeshna parried with his 
 arrow ; but Rokemenee, who had never seen a battle, was exceed- 
 ingly terrified at the shower of arrows that fell around her, and 
 clung close to Bhagavan ; Avho bid her be of good courage, and 
 observe how quickly he would slay them all. Balhadur took his 
 weapons, the Kel and Moosel, and with them slew the elephants, 
 broke the chariots, and levelled with the dust both horse and horse- 
 men, while, with his foot, he spurned all the infantry to death. 
 Only Jarasandha, and Seesoopal, and Sal, and Denteebektree, 
 and Poorende, remained alive, and attempted to save themselves 
 by flight ; but Creeshna caught Seesoopal alive, and, after much 
 scoffing and ironically declaiming on the fickleness of fortune, ob- 
 served, that he himself, after defeating Jarasandha seventeen 
 times, was worsted the eighteenth ; although he gloried not in vic- 
 tory nor despaired in defeat ; and even now he did not vaunt, 
 though he had carried away Rokemenee from so numerous an as- 
 semblage of monarchs. After these bitter taunts he gave him his 
 liberty, and Seesoopal slunk away with downcast and sorrowful 
 looks, while the Yadavas acquired prodigious booty from their 
 
 D2 
 
[ 28 ] 
 
 routed enemies. Rajah Bhekhem soon heard of this defeat and of 
 the slaughter of the armies, which made Rokem all on fire with rage 
 and jealousy, and taking his arms, he swore in presence of all the 
 rajahs, that, if he did not take Creeshna and Ram prisoners, he 
 would no longer be accounted a man. Immediately assembling 
 an army of one Kshouheenee, and, filling his quiver with arrows, 
 he set off to give them battle. When he approached them, he ex- 
 claimed with a loud voice to them to stop, and not consider him as 
 another Seesoopal. Creeshna immediately checked his horses, and 
 Rokem again began to threaten what Rokemenee's five brothers, so 
 well known throughout India for their valour, would do, and de- 
 clared that those whom Creeshna had hitherto conquered were not 
 true Khettrees. After vaunting for some time in this manner, he 
 discharged three arrows successively. Creeshna parried them with 
 his own arrow, and then shot six others : with four of those he 
 killed the four horses of the carriage, with the fifth he extended the 
 charioteer senseless, and the sixth cut away the flag of his standard. 
 Rokem instantly launched at his foe five arrows, but they all missed. 
 With another arrow Bhagavan broke his bow, and Rokem then 
 had recourse to his other arms, and alternately used his spear, his 
 gun, his battle-axe, and every other weapon he possessed, all of 
 which Creeshna broke with his arrows, so that Rokem was reduced 
 to a state of inactivity and disgrace, and with grief and rage ap- 
 proached Bhagavan as a moth flies round a taper, irresistably at- 
 tracted by its splendor. Creeshna drew his sword, and was going 
 to cut off his head, but Rokemenee started up trembling and af- 
 frighted, which averted Creeshna from his bloody purpose, and 
 made him smile. Rokemenee acknowledged her brother's guilt, 
 but pleaded successfully for his life ; so Creeshna only tied his 
 hands behind his back, and, with another arrow, struck off all the 
 hair from his head and beard, while Ram and the other Yadavas 
 
[ 29 ] 
 
 slew the whole Kshouheenee of troops. Ram laughed exceedingly 
 when he came to Creeshna and saw the unfortunate plight to which 
 Rokcm was reduced, and said, it would have been a thousand times 
 better for him to have been slain in battle, when he would have 
 gone instantly to paradise, than to be reduced to such a disgrace- 
 ful figure ; for that even his own wife must now desert him as an 
 object of disgust and horror. Then turning to Rokemenee, he 
 said, " Be not angry with me, for JOY AND GRIEF ARE BORN 
 TWINS FROM THE WOMB OF ETERNITY." And now he ironically 
 remonstrated with Creeshna for his cruelty, while the warrior's best 
 attribute was mercy. In the mean time Rokem was tortured with 
 anguish ; and, in despair, reflected on the oath he had taken in 
 presence of all the rajahs, he himself being now a captive instead 
 of Ram and Creeshna ; and, dreading to . hew his face among his 
 friends, stayed where he was. Rajah Bhekhem presented to 
 Creeshna the accustomed presents for the marriage-portion, and 
 took leave. Thence Creeshna went to Dwaraka, where very great 
 rejoicings were made for his return. They had all heard the ac- 
 count of his carrying away Rokemenee in the presence of so many 
 crowned heads, and of the flight of Jarasandha and the other noble 
 warriors, as well as of the state to which Rokem had been reduced. 
 Devaci met Creeshna and Rokemenee at the palace, and con- 
 ducted them to the bridal apartments. 
 
 Creeshna, about this period, from his great affection and friend- 
 ship for the Pandoos, returned to Hastanapoor, and they, like dead 
 men revived, went out to meet him. Creeshna acknowledging Ju- 
 dishter for his senior, went forward to salute him with his eyes fixed 
 on his feet, and laid his head at Judishter's feet and also at Bheema's, 
 and took Arjoon in his arms, while Nacul and Sahadeva kissed 
 Bhagavan's feet. After seeing the Pandoos, Creeshna waited upon 
 Koontee, who, covering his head and eyes, took him in her arms 
 
[ 30 1 
 
 and wept. Bheema, at the same time, smiling, told her it was a 
 day to rejoice in and not to weep. Koontee then spoke for some 
 time of the difficulties tp which her children had been reduced, and 
 that all her alliance was placed upon Creeshna. After her, Ju- 
 dishter opened his mouth in praise of Bhagavan, and said, " Surely 
 I have performed some extraordinary acts of piety in a former life, 
 since your august foot, which neither the Yogee by Yug, nor 
 the Tepeswee by Tepe, can obtain, hath vouchsafed to come to me \" 
 and recommended himself to his divine protection. Creeshna staid 
 a full year in Hastanapoor to gratify the Pandoos : and one day he 
 mounted Arjoon's carriage as driver, and they went together to 
 the forest, and in Arjoon's ensign was the figure of an ape. On 
 that day Arjoon hunted, with great success, lions, tigers, bears, 
 boars, and transfixed very many stags with his arrows, so that he 
 sent some of the venison to Rajah Judishter ; and, being dry with 
 the fatigue of the chase, he went to the bank of the Jumna to drink 
 of the sweet and clear water, and they sat there some hours looking 
 at the waves, when, by chance, they saw a beautiful girl who seemed 
 earnestly looking after some person. Arjoon, by Creeshna's de- 
 sire, went up to her and asked what she sought after, thus wander- 
 ing alone in the desert? She answered, " Koorneste, I am the 
 daughter of the Sun, and am in search of a husband, being deter- 
 mined to have none but Creeshna : and, if you should say that 
 Creeshna will not have me, alas ! alas ! that granter of the desires 
 of the world, and understander of the situation of his suitors, will 
 surely at some time be propitious to me. Kakenderee is my name : 
 my father made me a place here in this water to stay till Creeshna 
 should arrive/' Arjoon, coming to Creeshna, began to laugh ex- 
 ceedingly, and wished him much joy of the adventure ; for, that 
 the girl had been in search for him, and now she had found him ; 
 and how happy his destiny was, that, wherever he went, the hand- 
 
[ 31 ] 
 
 some girls followed him. Creeshna then placed Kaleenderee in 
 the carriage, and they went to Hastanapoor, where he ordered 
 Vesookerma to build her a fine house, which was finished that same 
 day, and Kaleenderee resided in it, and he indulged her in all the 
 wishes of her heart. Creeshna thus staid one year in Hastanapoor, 
 which seemed but a single day to his friends. When that year ex- 
 pired, Kama-Deva presented him with a bow, with two white horses, 
 with a quiver that was never empty ; and a shield for Arjoon ; and 
 Maya, the Ditya, whom Arjoon had preserved from the fire, built 
 him a Devankhaneh, or council-chamber, all of chrystal, which the 
 jealous Doorjoodhen beheld with rage and envy. Creeshna having 
 thus powerfully manifested his protection of the Pandoos, returned 
 to Dwaraka, taking Kaleenderee with him. 
 
 Rajah Koosele, monarch of Kooselya, who was also called Mek- 
 henjeyt, had a daughter named SEETA, and in his circar were 
 seven bulls. lie had made a promise, that, whoever should over- 
 come these seven bulls, he would give his daughter to him. Creesh- 
 na having heard of this promise went to Kooselya. Seeta had 
 knowledge of his coming, and said to herself, " My felicity will 
 then only be complete when the son of Devaci shall make Pan- 
 grehen with me. The print of the foot of that Yadoopetee is like 
 the flower on the head of Brahma who sprang from the lotos, and 
 Roodra Mahadeva is ever in search of that place ; the honour, 
 therefore, of kissing that foot is reserved for the fortunate alone. 
 Neither is it repugnant to his mercy to attend to my prayer : for, 
 although that august personage hath no desire for any beautiful wo- 
 men, yet it is his peculiar excellence not to be forgetful of any one 
 that seeks him. O I shall feel myself raised to the state of a 
 Devata could I but be enrolled in the list of his attendants !" 
 Creeshna, arriving at Kooselya, told Mekhenjeyt, that he had 
 long been desirous to see him ; and, as he had recently heard of 
 
[ 32 ] 
 
 his promise concerning the conquest of the seven bulls, he was 
 come to combat with them. " Although," said he, " O Mekhenjeyt ! 
 I am not on a level with monarchs, and have no intention to make 
 myself equal with the mighty, jet, as in this case no difference is 
 expressed between high and low, chance must decide the event/' 
 Rajah Mekhenjeyt answered, that the truly great never praised 
 themselves, that Creeshna's fame was not unknown to the world, 
 that he was very happy to see him ; and that, if he had visited him 
 sooner, the proclamation for a public competition and contest 
 should never have been made. Creeshna then asked where the 
 seven bulls were. The rajah told his servant to prepare a place 
 for the conflict, and great numbers of rajahs and rajahpoots were 
 collected to behold it ; while Creeshna prepared himself to attack 
 them. The seven bulls were brought in bound with chains of iron : 
 the very sight of them diffused a general terror, and it was difficult 
 to loose their chains. Creeshna, dividing himself into seven dis- 
 tinct persons, intrepidly approached the bulls, and, like a child 
 taking a goat by the ear, caught them all seven, put a halter into 
 each of their nostrils, and made them perfectly submissive and tame. 
 Rajah Mekhenjeyt rejoiced exceedingly that the performer of this 
 feat was Yadoopetee ; the Devatas in heaven, as well as men on 
 earth, were all gladdened by the event, and, in a fortunate moment, 
 Rajah Mekhenjeyt married his daughter to Creeshna At that 
 happy marriage Devatas and Vidyadhers attended in transport : 
 the mother of Seeta too was at the summit of bliss. Rajah Mek- 
 henjeyt gave as a marriage-portion 10,000 milch-cows, 3,000 pounds 
 weight of jewels, with very valuable chains, 9>000 elephants, 90,000 
 carriages, ten times as many horses as carriages, and ten times as 
 many slaves as horses, and, besides these, other articles out of 
 number; after which Creeshna departed. The other rajahs all 
 conceived extreme envy and jealousy that so very beautiful a 
 
[ 33 ] 
 
 princess with such prodigious wealth should be taken away by 
 Gopal ; therefore, collecting their troops together, they pursued 
 Creeshna ; but, such was their appearance, that one would say 
 they were a parcel of vagabonds and beggars come out of the city 
 to demand charity ; and when they came near, they all hung their 
 heads down upon their breasts. Then Arjoon, who was with 
 Creeshna, turned about, and strung his famous bow Kandeva, when 
 they all fled away from that renowned warrior like a huge flock of 
 kids from a wolf, and Creeshna, by gentle and easy stages, pro- 
 ceeded on to Dwaraka. There was a rajah named Soot-Keret, 
 who had a daughter named BH ED ERA, whom he married to 
 Creeshna in spight of his sons, who opposed the match. There 
 was also another rajah who had a daughter named LECHMEENA, 
 who had been adopted by Sooneter, and from him Shree-Creeshna 
 had her in the mode of Pangrehen. These are the eight NAYEGA 
 whom Bhagavan first espoused ; and now will be given an account 
 of a great number of rajah's daughters whom he released from the 
 captivity in which they were kept by Bhoom Assoor Ditya. 
 
 Bhoom Assoor Ditya, son of the Earth, was so mighty and pow- 
 erful, that he threw even Soorg-Loke into confusion, and drove 
 Eendra from Eendra-Pooree, and set up his own government there, 
 after grievously harrassing Eendra. Then leaving a deputy of his 
 own in Soorg, he returned to his own city, which was called Prag- 
 Jothek ; and he had round his castle a defence of fire, and water, 
 and poisonous snakes, and a white mountain like quicksilver. One 
 day, Seete-Bhavani expressed a wish to see the trees of Soorg ; and 
 Creeshna, immediately taking her along with him upon Garoori, 
 said, " We must first see the person who has driven Eendra out of 
 Soorg ;" so they went to the city of Prag-Jothek. Bhagavan first, 
 with the arrow of his might, threw down the quicksilver mountain, 
 and Garoori, by his command, devoured all the castle of snakes. 
 
 Vol. in. E 
 
t 34 
 
 He commanded the rain also to descend in s6 violent a manner, 
 that the castle of fire was reduced to ashes ; while, from the fierce look 
 of that Lord of the three Lokes, the castle of water was dried up. 
 Then he sounded the great shell Panchajanya, and the hemisphere 
 re-echoed with the noise : at the sound thereof, the hearts of all the 
 pious persons in that city were turned towards Creeshna, while those 
 of the guilty were struck with fear and amazement. Bhoom, with 
 his five heads, was at that time asleep ; but, as the noise awakened 
 him, he began to reflect that on earth he had left no mighty warrior 
 alive, and that in Soorg no one was greater than Eendra, whom he 
 had thrust out from Eendra-Pooree. He, therefore, came forth in 
 a great rage, terrible as the sun of the last day, with a Treesoole 
 (tridental weapon) in his hand, and, seeing Creeshna, struck Ga- 
 roori on the breast, at the same time bellowing with a mighty voice 
 from each of his five mouths. Treesenek Ditya, one of his servants, 
 now came forward and represented to him that he demeaned him- 
 self in this paltry engagement, and offered to take it entirely upon 
 himself. Treesenek had a Geda in his hand, which he struck with 
 all his might at Bhagavan, who shivered it with his Van. Treese- 
 nek took another Geda, which Creeshna parried, and asked Seete- 
 Bhavani if she was afraid, adding, that there was no cause for 
 alarm or grief. Creeshna then urged Garoori a few steps forward, 
 at which time he cut off Treesenek's three heads, and turned them 
 round, as Eendra, with his Kothare, cut off the tops of the three 
 branches of Soomeeroo. Treesenek had sons, whom he called Rehee- 
 berwen, who, being exceedingly affected with their father's death, and 
 knowing Bhoom for their lord and protector, came to the conflict 
 and prepared to fight with every species of weapon ; but they wasted 
 their strength in vain, their utmost efforts were of no avail, for 
 Creeshna broke all their weapons like a grain of Sesame. He then 
 severed each of their heads from their bodies : and, by the efficacy 
 
[ 35 ] 
 
 of Creeshna's omnipotence, the hands and feet of all the soldiers 
 fell from their arms and thighs. Bhoom, now, in great anger, 
 driving his elephants before him, advanced towards Creeshna ; and 
 at that time, in the sight of Bhoom Assoor, clouds and thunder 
 only appeared. Bhoom Assoor, with the assistance of Maya, some- 
 times rose up like a fire, sometimes like water, sometimes like a 
 burning wind, and sometimes like a violent rain, and thus dis- 
 charged his arrows. But Creeshna so collected his own Maya that 
 the mightiest exertions of his art were entirely fruitless. Those, who 
 were mounted on elephants, Garoori, with his wings, hurried up 
 into the air ; those who were in chariots or on horseback, with his 
 talons and claws, like a file, he grated to pieces ; while those who 
 were terrified sought their safety in flight. Bhoom, however, did 
 not once turn his back ; but, fixing his foot firmly on the ground, 
 and taking a spear in hand, he whirled it over his heads, and threw 
 it at Creeshna. Now, though the spear was more ponderous than 
 was ever before hurled from a human arm, yet it fell on Creeshna's 
 body lighter than a flower ; and, when Bhoom Assoor had ex- 
 hausted all his rage and strength, Creeshna, taking a Treesoole, 
 cut off all Bhoom's five heads as he sat upon his elephant, and threw 
 them to the ground. All the Devatas rejoiced at the slaughter of 
 Bhoom, and rained down flowers from heaven. The earth, which 
 was Bhoom's mother, came to offer service to Creeshna, and pre- 
 sented him with a Koondel of great cost, and a Vingenee-Mala, 
 and other very valuable articles, and made a long speech to pro- 
 pitiate Creeshna ; entreating, that, although Bhoom had been 
 most criminal, yet as his Avatar took place for the express purpose 
 of lightening her burthens, that still he would let her behold with 
 her own eyes the extent of his mercy to the defunct. The Earth, 
 indeed, was with heart and soul devoted to Creeshna, and he in 
 return gave her son Mookt. Bhoom Assoor, by force and vio- 
 
 E2 
 
[ 36 ] 
 
 lence, had carried away every rajah's daughter who he had heard 
 was beautiful, so that each day when any of those ladies came 
 before him, he beheld her, indeed with his eyes, but immediately 
 thought no more of her. Perasere, the Reyshee, hath observed 
 that he had collected 16,000 of these girls, and other Reyshees say 
 they exceeded that number. Creeshna, after slaying Bhoom, entered 
 his house, and at last came to these young ladies, who, having 
 heard of Creeshna's miracles amid all the calamities of their cap- 
 tivity, had rested their whole reliance upon him for their release, 
 and had heard his person described ; so that, the moment they saw 
 him, they conceived him to be the deliverer of the world. They 
 all respectfully rose up and most submissively addressed him, 
 praying for relief ; adding that, though they were not Hooris, they 
 were desirous at least to be the slaves of his palace, and wives, 
 and the very Dasees (slaves) of his Dasees. Creeshna sent these 
 16,000 girls, and prodigious wealth, and the elephant Iravet with 
 four teeth, and 6,400 white elephants, and besides them very many 
 other elephants and carriages without number, and horses of the 
 first race, to Dwaraka ; and himself, with Seete-Bhavani, pro- 
 ceeded to Eendra-Pooree, whither Eendra had gone after the 
 slaughter of Bhoom- Assoor. Eendra, with all his thousand eyes, 
 could not be satisfied with beholding Creeshna, but saluted him 
 with mingled joy and reverence, and prostrated himself seven times 
 before him. Creeshna gave the ear-rings and necklace which he 
 had received from Bhoom's mother to the mother of Eendra. Een- 
 dra, with his hands joined before him, said he had brought the tree of 
 Pareejatek according to order, and he laid it on Garoori's back ; 
 so, when Creeshna returned to Dwaraka, the tree was planted in 
 Seete-Bhavani's court. Thither came the bees of Soorg attracted 
 by the blossoms of Pareejatek ; and Creeshna in an instant, mul- 
 tiplying his own person into 16,000, went to the palace of each, 
 
[ 37 ] 
 
 and, by joy and pleasure, dissipated the grief and pining of them 
 all. Those young and modest creatures knew not at first how to 
 behave, but hung down their heads with mingled shame and bash^ 
 fulness Creeshna saw their confusion, and taught them how to 
 look and how to laugh ; he behaved with such kindness to them, 
 as greatly increased their affection for him ; and, in a short time, 
 instructed them in all the rules and ceremonies of the haram, and 
 in all such qualifications as are expected from their sex and con- 
 dition. 
 
 The Creator of the world, who had come into existence for the 
 protection of the Devatas and his devotees, for the nourishment 
 of milch cows, and for the destruction of Cansa, had built Dwaraka 
 with unspeakable magnificence. All the walls Avere so studded 
 with brilliant jewels that there was no need of lamps in the night. 
 The canopies to all the houses were suspended by strings of pearl, 
 whose lustre illuminated earth and heaven ; and, by the odour of 
 the flowers of Pareejatek, the courts and gardens of Dwaraka were 
 all scented. To describe the full splendor of Dwaraka would be 
 an endless labour. One day Creeshna was sitting in his magnifi- 
 cent palace among those who conceived themselves his relations ; 
 one his father, another his son, another his brother, &c. &c. ; and 
 Rokemenee, dressed in all her richest jewels and choicest habili- 
 ments, exhibited the full display of her beauty, when Creeshna, to 
 try her temper and give her charms a new mode of lustre under the 
 influence of anger, began jocosely to taunt her with having refused 
 so excellent a match as Seesoopal, and for having been so forward 
 as to send her Brahmin to him at a time that he had made her no 
 advances, and certainly was not in love with her. In this style of 
 keen but good-humoured satire he tormented her so much, that at 
 last she turned pale and descended from her seat: she stood for 
 some time before him in the utmost shame and distress, unable to 
 
[ 38 ] 
 
 utter a syllable, and at length fell down senseless to the ground. 
 Creeshna found by this that she could not bear the pressure 
 of grief, and, pitying her situation, rose up with his hair 
 dishevelled, and, taking her to one side, pressed her to his 
 breast, and dried her tears with his robe. By these means 
 he brought her to herself, and told her that all he had said had 
 been in jest, and only to try her affections, of which he now had 
 no sort of doubt. By much gentleness and many soft expressions 
 he at length completely restored her peace of mind, and she then 
 entered into a full and clear explanation of every thing which he 
 had objected to her, assuring him that she had not the presumption 
 to conceive herself the wife of him, the dust of whose feet, not 
 only men and Devatas, but Brahma and Roodra, the most exalted 
 of Devatas, sought with earnest devotion: that she considered 
 herself as the slave of his slaves ; that she knew him for the Creator 
 of the world, and that Seesoopal himself was but a creature of his : 
 that, had she been wife to Seesoopal, she should still have been 
 subject to the miseries of transmigration, from which, by her pre- 
 sent connection, she nattered herself she was for ever liberated. 
 That his black colour, which, to men of dark conceptions, ap- 
 peared merely sable, in her sight was the brilliant pupil of the eye 
 of the universe : that, undoubtedly, all that he had said to her was 
 just, and she bowed submissive to all his censures ; and she con- 
 cluded with again declaring that she did not call herself his wife, 
 but the meanest of his slaves. Creeshna again assured her that his 
 fondnees for her was undiminished, that he had only tempted her 
 in jest, and that the gold of her fidelity was now tried on the touch- 
 stone of experience, and found pure. That her patience and 
 forbearance were most exemplary in never having given vent to 
 improper or harsh language, even when he had bound her brother 
 Rokem's hands behind him and cut off his hair, but had con- 
 
[ 39 ] 
 
 fined herself to supplication and submission ; nor even when Bal- 
 hadur 'cut off his head did she suffer the violence of her anguish to 
 get the better of her discretion, and that he had come to her 
 assistance the moment he had received her letter, not because of 
 her beauty, but on account of her excellent temper. Thus the 
 affair ended ; and in the same manner did Creeshna behave to all 
 the 16,000 to promote mirth and pleasure. He was assiduous to 
 fulfil all the customs and duties of domestic life, and from morning 
 to evening acted as became a Greheste. 
 
 Each of these eight Nayega* bore Creeshna ten sons; so also each 
 of the 16,000 bore him ten sons : Rokemenee, however, was the 
 chief favourite, the others never really inspired him with love not- 
 withstanding their exquisite beauty: but neither Brahma, nor 
 Roodra, nor Eendra, could attain to the rank and dignity which 
 the eight Nayega acquired by their fidelity and attachment. Their 
 names are as follows : ROKEMENEE, SETEE-BHAVANI, JAMOO- 
 META, KALENDEREE, LECHMEENA, SEETA, BHEDRAVETEE, 
 MHIRBINDA. 
 
 In the mean time, Ram, recollecting Nanda and Yasodha, and 
 his former pleasures with the Gopias, one morning early set out 
 for Bindreben On his arrival there, all were overjoyed : Nanda 
 and Yasodha kissed him, and were eager to tell him that his long 
 absence had appeared to them a whole YUG : then they anxiously 
 solicited tidings concerning Creeshna. They had heard of the won- 
 derful splendor and magnificence in which he lived, and lamented 
 that he was removed to Dwaraka, whither their occupations and 
 age equally prevented them from going : and, in respect to Vasu- 
 deva, whom, however unhappy he had been while in confinement 
 at Mathura, they at least had some opportunities of seeing, they 
 
 * Perhaps the word NAYEGA is the feminine of NAIG, formerly a title of HYDF.R ALLY. 
 Halhed. 
 
[ 40 ] 
 
 could now hope to see him no more, since he also was removed to 
 DAvaraka. Ram made himself acceptable to all, both old and young, 
 and particularly endeavoured to comfort and console the Gopias, 
 who were quite overpowered with joy at again beholding him, and 
 began to talk altogether concerning Creeshna, and at once to blame 
 and lament his absence ; then they asked after the children of the 
 eight Nayega and of the 16,000 Rajaguees, and wished them all 
 manner of happiness. Others desired to know if those 16,000 were 
 all dutiful and obedient wives ? and thus by degrees they worked 
 themselves into an agony of passion, and all wept and wailed ex- 
 ceedingly. Balhadur endeavoured to pacify them ; and, at last, 
 seeing there was no remedy but patience, and that he consoled 
 them to the utmost in his power in the name of Creeshna, they 
 began to be more tranquil. Balhadur stayed there the two months 
 of spring, and one morning he went to the banks of the Jumna, 
 the Gopias accompanying him. The soft wind blowing cool and 
 perfumed from the water, and its flowers playing a prelude to 
 desire, Balhadur, sometimes bathing in the stream and sometimes 
 recumbent on the bank, enjoyed all sorts of pleasure and delight 
 with the Gopias. Varuna, the Devata, now brought him a musi- 
 cal instrument, and Ram and all the Gopias became intoxicated 
 with the melody Avhich issued from that jungle ; they indulged in 
 violent fits of laughter, the effect of excessive pleasure, and sang 
 without any fear or restraint, till at length, what with singing, 
 dancing, and a thousand sportive gambols, they were all in a pro- 
 fuse perspiration, and it shone upon their cheeks like drops of 
 dew on the flowers. Ram, in his fit of intoxication, stretched out 
 his hand to the Jumna several times, and called upon the River to 
 come personally to him. After waiting some time, and receiving 
 no answer from the water, he grew angry, and said, " Jumna, 
 thou wilt presently appear when I shall have cut thee into seven 
 
pieces." Then he rose, and taking up his weapon, the Kel,* he 
 placed it on the bank. The Jumna was exceedingly alarmed and 
 trembled with fear, and, appearing before him, said, " O Balha- 
 dur ! thou Avatar of Seshanaga, who has the earth on his head, to 
 thee I bow with reverence. Thou art Creeshna ! and before thee, 
 as Creeshna, I now appear : do with me as seems good unto thee." 
 Thus did the Jumna humble itself before Ram, who then became 
 appeased, and taking up his KEL, went back to Bindreben. Then 
 Varuna Deva presented him with a Neelamber, and a precious 
 chain, and a string of pearls. Thus did Balhadur remain two 
 months, with all manner of satisfaction, in Bindreben. 
 
 Nared one day felt himself extremely perplexed when he con- 
 sidered that Creeshna should be called Bhagavat-Perebrahme, and 
 yet that he should be so much attached to women. Again he re- 
 flected that, whereas, a man has more than enough with one wife, 
 how could Creeshna conduct himself with 16,000? Does he enjoy 
 them in rotation, or by his power and might, has he all of them al- 
 ways with him ? This Nared determined to see for himself, and 
 learn the truth ; accordingly he went to Dwaraka. On arriving at 
 the skirts of the town he was delighted with the sight of the gardens 
 full of flowers in fresh bloom ; and round all the environs were 
 houses for devotees, which added beauty to the city like amulets 
 against malignant eyes tied round the arm. Learned Brahmins 
 were every where chanting the Vedas, like intoxicated bees buzzing 
 around aromatic Nenuphar. Geese and Sares's (called by tts Cyrus's) 
 adorned the banks of the water, and Lotos's beautified its surface. 
 He beheld houses for 300,000 men, all of lofty architecture and 
 
 KEL means a scythe, i. e. the blade of it, the third Ram being considered, in India, as the 
 patron of agriculture. Cyrus is, in the same manner, said to have cut the River Gyndes into 
 small portions, out of revenge for one of the horses sacred to the sun having been drowned in it. 
 The one story is probably a copy of the other. 
 
 Vol. in. F 
 
[ 42 ] 
 
 built of chrystal, the windows of diamonds and precious stones of 
 every colour, and embroidered canopies before all the houses. All 
 the streets and lanes were entirely free from dust and filth : there 
 were also many curiously-painted temples adorned with water- 
 gilding. The shops in the bazars, with pillars on every side, were 
 all set out to the best advantage, and the palaces of the great were 
 superb beyond all description, uniting magnificence with elegance. 
 The houses of the eight Nayega and 16,000 wives of Creeshna 
 were built in a line by themselves with the utmost symmetry, 
 beauty, and splendor. Nared, on approaching them, beheld the 
 pillars of every house formed of coral, and the courts and Serais 
 embellished with jewels ; canopies of cloth of gold were every 
 where suspended with valuable strings of the finest pearl ; beauti- 
 ful children were playing in the courts ; while charming slave-girls 
 were diligently attending their several mistresses. The peacocks 
 on the house tops were rejoicing and singing in the exhalation, which 
 arose, from the constant burning of aromatics, in such quantity, 
 as to form a cloud that resembled the rainy season, and num- 
 berless rubies that were distributed about the buildings preserved a 
 constant light over the place. Nared, with all his curiosity of in- 
 spection, could not distinguish between the slaves and the mistres- 
 ses. In the first house which he entered he beheld 1,000 maids, 
 perfectly handsome, standing with their hands joined before them 
 round their lady, who, with a fly-flap, the handle set with jewels, 
 was preventing Creeshna from being molested with flies. When 
 Nared came in, Bhagavan spied him at a distance, and, immedi- 
 ately rising from his Musmud, went to meet him, laid his head at 
 Nared's feet, and welcomed him. Nared was ashamed of so great 
 an honour, and made an apologizing speech. Creeshna then 
 washed Nared's feet, and poured that water on his own head ; after 
 which, he seated Nared in the place of honour, paid him worship, 
 
[ 43 ] 
 
 and made the mistress of the house do the same. Nared, in a 
 transport of wonder and delight, exclaimed, " O Natha ! no one 
 can fathom thy mercy and benevolence ! thy Avatar is for the pur- 
 pose of protecting the good and punishing the wicked. If it be 
 thy august will to perform services to Nared, it is as a father and 
 mother perform service for their children, out of their own volun- 
 tary affection and good-will. Men, who are submerged in the pit 
 of their passions, have no possibility of escaping from their con- 
 trol, except by thy mercy, in being born again in this transient 
 world." Thus did Nared utter various praises and thanksgivings ; 
 yet did his mind still misgive him, and he determined to go to 
 another house to see if he should find Creeshna there, or if he 
 would take the first opportunity of going thither. He went, there- 
 fore, with speed to the next house, and there he found Creeshna 
 sitting and amusing himself with the mistress of it. On seeing 
 Nared, Creeshna rose up as before, received him with the utmost 
 reverence, respectfully thanked him for the honour his house re- 
 ceived from his visit, and hoped he would stay there some days. 
 Thence Nared went to a third house, where Creeshna was looking 
 at the children at play ; and, in a fourth house, he was bathing. 
 Nared suspected that Creeshna had come by some secret way from 
 the former house with such haste as to get before him, and there- 
 fore determined that he would hurry as fast as possible to another 
 to ascertain the fact : so he ran with all expedition to the next 
 house and there he found Creeshna sitting at a banquet. At ano- 
 ther he was giving alms to the Brahmins ; at another he was prac- 
 tising at his weapons ; at another he was reviewing the ordinary 
 elephants and horses ; at another he was in conference with Ood- 
 hoo and Akroor ; at another he was sitting and hearing the songs of the 
 beautiful slave girls ; at another he was distributing milch cows in 
 charity ; at another he was hearing the Poorauns ; at another he 
 
 F2 
 
[ 44 ] 
 
 was laughing and joking with the mistress of the house ; at another 
 he was performing the Howm : at another he was exercising 
 Dherme ; at another he had set the women to quarrel, and was 
 amusing himself with looking on ; at another he was pacifying a 
 dispute among them ; at another he was sitting with Ram ; at 
 another he was preparing a marriage-portion, or Dheek ; at ano- 
 ther he was rejoicing at being returned from his son's wedding ; 
 at another he was digging a well or tank ; at another he was 
 preparing for the chase. In this manner did Nared enter the 
 houses of the eight Nayega and of the 16,000 wives, and 
 in every one of them he found Creeshna differently engaged, so 
 that he was altogether astonished and confounded. Creeshna, at 
 length, appeared, and thus addressed him : " O Nared ! these se- 
 cret doubts and suspicions which have so perplexed thee are no 
 fault of mine but of thine own mind. On subjects where the wis- 
 dom even of Devatas is confused, what can be said of man's limi- 
 ted understanding ? Ask each of my wives separately whether she 
 ever thinks me absent from her ; she will answer that I am never 
 for a moment from her sight." Nared humbled himself and con- 
 fessed his weakness, that he was bewildered by Maya, and sub- 
 missively implored Creeshna's mercy in his behalf. Creeshna 
 answered, " O Nared ! I am the sole Kerta. My acts are inscru- 
 table ; nor must any suspicions be cherished, nor any distraction 
 of mind be endured, on account of them, nor any idle fancies and 
 curiosity be indulged. Perplex not thyself farther, but quietly 
 pursue thine own affairs, and make mankind happy with thy pre- 
 sence and conversation." Nared, however, was several times 
 subject to the same distraction ; but, at length, calling on the name 
 of Narayen and playing on his Veena, he departed. Creeshna, 
 in the mean time, employing himself in the functions of a Gre- 
 hecharee, regulated the affairs of his families and children, while 
 
[ 45 ] 
 
 each of his wives conceived that Creeshna preferred none to her- 
 self, and that he wished for no other. 
 
 Creeshna acted in all his domestic concerns precisely according 
 to the institutes of the Vedas for masters of families, and daily in- 
 creased in confidential intercourse with his respective wives, who 
 severally returned it. Rokemenee, however, enjoyed the pre- 
 eminence of esteem. This was Creeshna's way of life : he rose 
 every morning at the time of Brehmenee Mhooret, and went 
 punctually through the various ceremonies and devout exercises 
 prescribed by the Brahmins, and all those purifications appointed 
 for the purpose of Prachheete for the actions proper to human na- 
 ture, which every day are committed. If it be asked how could 
 there be supposed any necessity for Prachheete in that pure es- 
 sence, the answer is, that it is by reason of his coming in a material 
 form. After the Prate-Sendhya, he washed, and then went to 
 salute and pay Nemeskar to his father and mother and the elders 
 of the family. At mid-day and at evening he again performed the 
 prescribed devotions and ablutions ; and, at the time of each 
 Sandhya, as well as at his meals, he spoke to no one, because 
 this is recommended as profitable to every one by the rules of the 
 Vedas ; for, the good of the speaker at such times is transferred 
 to the person addressed, and his evil reverts to the speaker. He 
 performed Terpen in respect of the Devatas, Reyshees, Muni- 
 Eswaras, and Zennardars ; after which he distributed cows with 
 gilt horns to the Brahmins ; and necklaces of pearl, and silver, 
 and silk clothes, and much Sesame, to Zennardars of good con- 
 duct and learning. But of young milch-cows, having calves of 
 beautiful forms and good tempers, he every day gave a certain 
 number more than the day before, and uttered Mantras and Slocas : 
 afterwards he went to dinner. First he set apart one morsel from 
 each meal in respect of Jegedeish, and performed Dyhan, and 
 
[ 46 ] 
 
 called to mind his own figure. The second morsel he took into 
 his mouth in the name of Perebrahme ; for every day certain Zen- 
 nardars were appointed who gave him his food. After eating, he 
 dressed and put on fine garments, and rubbed himself with sandal 
 and other perfumed waters, and regaled himself with the odour of 
 them, first giving some to the Zennardars and then serving himself. 
 Every day he beheld the reflexion of his own face on Ghee, with 
 gold and silver vessels, and gave orders for supplying victuals and 
 clothes for his wives, and children, and dependants of all kinds. 
 Plis carriages and horses were always in readiness. Sometimes he 
 rode in his chariot with Satek, sometimes with Oodhoo, and some- 
 times alone. When he went from his palace, his jewel-studded 
 carriage glistened like the sun, and the women of the city mounted 
 on their roofs to behold it as long as it was visible. Dareke, the 
 charioteer, guided the reins. When he sat with the Yadavas in 
 his assembly, which surpassed the council of Eendra, it would be 
 degrading it to compare that assembly to the moon and stars shin- 
 ing in midnight glory. 
 
 One morning after public devotion, there arrived at Dwaraka a 
 messenger, who, on being admitted to the palace, thus delivered 
 his charge : " O thou who givest kings their thrones, hast thou not 
 heard of Jarasandha how he boasts his superiority over all other 
 men of renown ! Whensoever he sallies forth for the purpose of 
 conquest over the four points of the world, he leaves to those who 
 submit and become his subjects their rank and property, and grants 
 them peace ; but whosoever opposes him is taken prisoner and kept 
 in confinement. I come an embassador from those wretched state- 
 prisoners ; who, having heard of thy glory both on sea and land, 
 have sent me to thy august presence to sue for protection. There- 
 fore, O thou destroyer of the unjust ! forget not us miserable cap- 
 tives, but free us from the chains of the tyrant. Man is stricken 
 
[ 47 ] 
 
 by outward circumstances, and, mistaking evil for good, becomes 
 forgetful of thee ; but he who knows and remembers thee is free from 
 all error. We, too, ignorant and short-sighted mortals knew not 
 thy truth, but thought Jarasandha the chief and head of the king- 
 doms of the earth ; but now we are better acquainted with thy 
 mighty and miraculous acts, and that thou wert born in the world 
 to protect the good and punish the wicked. We, therefore, are 
 also under thy protection, and our loss of honour falls on thee. 
 Our faults and crimes doubtless are many, but look not on them 
 while we are under misfortune ; consider thy own name, which is 
 THE PARDONER !" After the messenger had uttered this, and much 
 more to the same purpose, Creeshna comforted and dismissed him. 
 In the mean time Nared came into his presence, with his Veena in 
 his hand, calling on the name of Narayen. Creeshna immediately 
 rose from his throne, saluted him with great respect, and placed 
 him in the seat of honour. Nared then played so delightfully on 
 his instrument as to ravish all the hearers. When he had finished, 
 Creeshna demanded of him news of the Pandoos, and how they 
 fared under the tyranny and oppression of Doorjoodhen ? Nared 
 answered, " O my lord ! with what astonishment am I seized to 
 hear thee ask news of the Pandoos ! What being is there in the 
 circle of existence of whom Shree-Creeshna has not the most com- 
 plete knowledge ? But as thou hast had the condescension to ask 
 for information, I am bound to impart it. O Creeshna ! at present 
 the Pandoos, relying on thy benevolence, entertain a design to ce- 
 lebrate the Raisoo-Yug ;* but, for myself, I am amazed to think 
 where they will be able to make the arrangements for so grand a 
 festival. Yet there are very many rajahs assembled in Hastanapoor, 
 whose expectations are all turned towards Dwaraka. Now, since 
 
 * The Raisoo-Yug, or feast of rajah's, could only be performed by a monarch who had con- 
 quered all the other sovereigns of the world. 
 
[ 48 ] 
 
 thy favour is more particularly extended towards the Pandoos than 
 others, certainly thou wilt have the goodness to go thither. O 
 Natha ! he who lives in remembrance of thee, be he prince or beg- 
 gar, assuredly obtains Peremekete, for thy name is equivalent to 
 happiness." Thus did Nared utter Creeshna's praises. Creeshna 
 spoke kindly to him in return, and, calling Oodhoo, asked him 
 his advice if it were not right that he should go to Hastanapoor, 
 since the Pandoos had already commenced the Raisoo-Yug in 
 reliance upon him : and, since it was time that those rajahs, who, 
 being prisoners to Jarasandha, had put themselves under his pro- 
 tection, should be released; in short, whether he thought the 
 journey could not be so contrived as at once to accomplish the two 
 desirable objects. 
 
 Oodhoo, by his prophetic spirit, knew what was the wish of the 
 principal among the Yadavas, and therefore he answered, " That 
 certainly there was great difficulty in procuring and arranging the 
 necessaries for a Raisoo-Yug, and that Judishter ought to have first 
 weighed his own strength, and have considered how it would be 
 possible for him to reduce to subjection the rajahs of all the eight 
 sides round him, as well as to have consulted his great support, 
 Creeshna, on the subject ; but that his present conduct proceeded 
 entirely from his firm reliance and full confidence in Creeshna's 
 friendship, who would indisputably interfere, and bring his expec- 
 tations to a fortunate issue. He therefore counselled Creeshna to 
 go to Hastanapoor, whence the distance was not very great to Jara- 
 sandha's kingdom; who, in consequence of his violence and 
 strength, which surpasses that of 10,000 elephants, thinks no one 
 on earth able to cope with him, yet Bheema is full as strong as Ja- 
 rasandha. He advised, therefore, that Bheema, should present 
 himself in the habit of a Brahmin, and demand alms of Jarasandha, 
 who, being himself a Brahmin, would not fail to say he would give 
 
C 49 ] 
 
 him whatever he should ask. Let Bheema then require Dherme- 
 joodhe, after which, by his own strength and your favour united, 
 he will infallibly conquer him. The journey to Hastanapoor is a 
 good pretext ; for, Jarasandha will think it undertaken on account 
 of Judishter's Yug." It should here be remembered that Creeshna, 
 on a former occasion, did not himself crush Jarasandha, and that, 
 by his order, he was not slain by others. In fact, he was fated to 
 die by the hand of Bheema-Seen, and could not be slain until 
 Bheema and Creeshna should be together hostilely inclined in the 
 place where he was. Oodhoo knew this prophetically, and there- 
 fore made this proposal : at the same time he reminded Creeshna 
 of the message of the rajahs who were in prison, and whose wives 
 had no other comfort to give their disconsolate children than the 
 hope of relief and release from him. Oodhoo subjoined, that there 
 was no injustice in destroying Jarasandha to release the others ; 
 for that, by this very act, his liberation, from alternately living 
 and dying, would be ensured, and the Yug of Rajah Judishter 
 could proceed only in the event of Jarasandha's subjugation or 
 death. The Yadavas all applauded Oodhoo's advice, and Creeshna 
 ordered a fortunate moment to be chosen for sending forward the 
 advanced baggage : Balhadur, the beauty of the Yadavas, was 
 appointed to accompany it. Predemne, and others of his august 
 sons, who stirred not without a signal from Creeshna, were honoured 
 with the permission to be of the party. On the day of march, 
 heaven and earth re-echoed with the sound of the kettle-drums. 
 The eight Nayega all went with them in Palekees, Doolees, &c. 
 and the baggage was mounted on elephants and camels, or con- 
 veyed in large waggons : crowns, and thrones, and litters, and 
 armour, and Hejas-Meekhee, or weapons with a thousand spikes, 
 were all conveyed in great quantities in the field-armory. The 
 spears in the hands of the young warriors glittered like fishes 
 Vol. in. G 
 
[ 50 
 
 sparkling in the sea. Select messengers went before and comforted 
 the imprisioned rajahs with assurances that Creeshna was ap- 
 proaching to release them : and Nared, having obtained favour in 
 the sight of Creeshna, returned joyfully home. 
 
 Creeshna set forth in all pomp and splendor from Dwaraka ; and, 
 passing through the kingdom of Soorethe, came to the confines of 
 Meevat. Judishter came out several stages to meet them, taking 
 with him Brahmins learned in the Vedas, and pious Acharyas, 
 with music and singing, to swell the procession, and express his 
 joy at the meeting. Creeshna, as younger than Judishter, would 
 have kissed his feet ; Judishter anticipated his intention, and fell 
 at Creeshna's feet in tears of rapture. In the records of mankind, 
 beauty and loveliness of person are first numbered from Rajah Bali, 
 from Nacul, and Sehedeva ; hence most of the Yadavas came ea- 
 gerly from Dwaraka on purpose to see the two latter. Creeshna, 
 after having saluted the Pandoos, the Brahmins, Acharyas, &c. 
 went forward, surrounded, preceded, and followed, by music and 
 singing. Every inhabitant of Hastanapoor, male and female, re- 
 joiced at his arrival, and crowded the roofs, windows, and doors, 
 to see him enter, and had bedecked all their houses for the triumph. 
 Great crowds stood in the road to receive him, and the women 
 presented him with flowers of five colours as he passed. All the 
 streets were cleansed from dirt and dust, and sprinkled with per- 
 fumed water. The bazars and squares were all new beautified with 
 golden plaster, and odoriferous woods were burning in all the 
 houses. The brilliant jewels which adorned the doors of the Pan- 
 doos shone like lamps, as if they had been placed there for the 
 purpose of shedding their combined lustre on Creeshna. The wo- 
 men all praised and envied the happiness of the eight Nayega, and 
 flocked round Creeshna in adoring multitudes. When Creeshna 
 entered the palace of the Pandoos, Koontee (the mother of three 
 
[ 51 ] 
 
 of the five sons of Pandoo) rose up at a distance, and with the 
 tenderest maternal affection held him a long time to her breast, and 
 wept ; while he several times laid his head at her feet. Droua- 
 charye and Kerpacharye were there, whom Creeshna saluted with 
 Nemeskar ; and the eight Nayega were introduced to- Koontee and 
 to Dropeda, &e. Rajah Judishter appointed magnificent lodgings 
 and entertainment for all the Yadavas, at the same time making 
 many apologies for the inadequacy of accommodation, and saying 
 that he was exalted to heaven by their arrival. Thus they passed 
 some months in pleasure and delight, but the moments of happiness 
 are never counted. 
 
 During this period, Rajah Judishter held an assembly, in which 
 he seated Creeshna above himself; and many famous Gooroos and 
 all the four casts were there also. At this assembly Judishter re- 
 minded Creeshna of his intention to perform the Raisoo-Yug with 
 his aid, of which he did not doubt from his constant kindness to 
 him ; although he sometimes did entertain doubts whether one man 
 could be preferred to another in the eyes of him who was the Crea- 
 tor of the world : still, however, he conceived, that, as here there 
 was this difference, that one man necessarily had occasion for ano- 
 ther's assistance, and with Creeshna there could not possibly exist 
 the want of aid from any one, so those who faithfully addressed 
 themselves to him obtained the completion of their desires. Creeshna 
 desired him to make himself perfectly easy and satisfied on the 
 subject ; that, since he had now expressed publicly his wish to 
 perform the Raisoo-Yug, and his enemies had notice of his inten- 
 tions, the Creator would certainly make the matter easy to him. 
 That, certainly, though preparations for that Yug were exceed- 
 ingly difficult, yet he was to be commended for the intention ; 
 since Devatas, and Reyshees, and Muni-Eswaras, and Peetrees, 
 were all anxious for that Yug, which ennobles the name of the 
 
 G2 
 
[ 52 ] 
 
 celebrator for ever. " Now, then," said he, " the necessaries for 
 the Yug must be prepared ; and, first, the monarchs and warriors 
 of all the four quarters must be reduced to your subjection. Your 
 four brothers, who excel the Devatas in glory and renown, will 
 soon cause your authority to be acknowledged in all the four quar- 
 ters ; and even I, who am confined by no one, yet hold myself 
 bound by friendship and esteem for you. Take courage, therefore, 
 and commence the Yug." Judishter, elated by Creeshna's kind- 
 ness, sent his brothers to the four quarters accordingly ; and, in a 
 fortunate moment, Bheema took his way to the west ; Arjoon to 
 the north ; Nacul, bright as the sun, to the east ; and Sehedeva 
 drew his sword to the south. In a small space of time they sub- 
 dued the rajahs on every side, except only Jarasandha, and 
 brought back with them prodigious booty. After these atchieve- 
 ments, Judishter, in conference with Creeshna, stated the difficulty 
 of overcoming Jarasandha ; that, without his submission, the Yug 
 could not properly be denominated RAISOO, and begged his ad- 
 vice. In this interview Oodhoo gave it as his opinion that Jara- 
 sandha was superior to all the other monarchs, and that Judishter 
 could not subdue him by force. He proposed, therefore, to make 
 use of stratagem, and recommended that Creeshna, and Bheema, 
 and Arjoon, should go to Jarasandha in the habit of Brahmins : 
 he said that Jarasandha had no rival in liberality, so that if any 
 religious mendicant should demand even his life, he would instantly 
 lay it down for him : that, when those three addressed him in the 
 habit of Brahmins, and demanded Dhermejoodhe, he would not 
 turn away from their request. " Liberality," said he to Judishter, 
 " is the first duty of monarchs ; all that we behold will perish, but the 
 name of the liberal man will endure for ever !" Creeshna, Bheema, 
 and Arjoon, accordingly set off from Hastanapoor in the dress of 
 Zennardars, and addressed themselves to Jarasandha in the name 
 
[ 53 ] 
 
 of Narayen. Jarasandha, the instant he saw them, knew by their 
 speech, the marks of their bodies, and by Arjoon's thumb, (worn 
 by the bow-string,) that they were not Brahmins, but princes of 
 some kingdom; yet he said to them, " O Brahmins ! whatever ye 
 desire, whatever the hand of mendicity can grasp at, be it a Geda 
 or even a whole kingdom, I shall not turn from your demand . 
 but, as Rajah Bali was driven by the foot of the Bamun-Avatar 
 beneath the earth, yet did not turn his face from Dherme, although 
 warned by Sookra that his suppliant was not a Brahmin ; so I, too, 
 fully persuaded that ye are not Brahmins, will yet bestow on you 
 whatever you request." Creeshna stepped forward and demanded 
 Sengram : " And if," said he, " thou dost not perfectly know us, 
 lo ! this is Bheema, and this Arjoon, and I am their cousin." Ja- 
 rasandha looked towards his courtiers and smiled, bidding them 
 admire the insolence of this cowherd, whom he had already so often 
 caused to run away, happy to have saved his life, and who now 
 demanded another battle. " Well," said he, " I will give you Sen- 
 gram. You formerly escaped from my hand, and saved your life 
 in the sea ; but whither will you now go to save it ? Yet it is a dis- 
 grace to me to fight with one whom I have already defeated. As 
 to Arjoon, delicately formed as he is, he will certainly never pretend 
 to cope with me in battle ; but Bheema seems in vigour and good 
 case, if he hath but courage to meet me." Jarasandha then sum- 
 moned his whole army, and, divesting Bheema of his Brahmin's 
 dress, asked him with what weapon he chose to engage. Bheema 
 chose the mace. Jarasandha immediately put one into his hand 
 and armed himself with another : and now, first addressing Nemes- 
 kar to himself, (as to a god,) and then kissing his hand, he ad- 
 vanced towards Bheema, and the engagement commenced. They 
 were equal in strength, and their maces so violently crashed together 
 as they fought, that the concave of heaven was rent by the sound. 
 
[ 54 ] 
 
 Creeshna and Arjoon thought Bheema would soon conquer : Jara- 
 sandha's people thought the same of their master; but they still 
 kept their equality, and saved themselves from the blows of the bat- 
 tle-axes, which were all broke to pieces by their hands of adamant. 
 After the maces, they tried their strength with other weapons ; and, 
 at last, when the armory was exhausted, they fought with their fists. 
 It appeared as if they had both learned the science of the pugilist 
 under one master, so equal was their skill. In this manner they 
 passed twenty-seven days, fighting the whole day and in the eve- 
 ning performing Sendhya, eating together like brothers and sleeping 
 under the same roof. Bheema, by signs, gave Creeshna to under- 
 stand that he thought it hard to be exposed to all the danger and 
 mischief, while Creeshna himself remained a quiet spectator ; that 
 this contest with Jarasandha began to be too much for him, his 
 ribs being all bruised and broken with the blows of his fists, while 
 Creeshna suffered no inconvenience whatever ; and that he would 
 very willingly retreat, but a sense of shame restrained him. Arjoon, 
 on this, was in great terror ; his face became of a yellow paleness, 
 arid he said, in his heart "Would to heaven that Rajah Judishter had 
 never thought of this Yug !" Creeshna answered Bheema's signs by 
 others as expressive, signifying that it was wrong to grieve or repent 
 now a difficult affair was actually on his hands : then rising from his 
 seat, he took up a blade .of grass, and, in his view, split it in two 
 down the middle ; meaning, in this manner you must rend asunder 
 the body of your antagonist. Bheema was overjoyed at this : his 
 strength became suddenly augmented, and he felt. that he had got 
 the remedy in his hands. Thus inspired with new vigour, he seized 
 Jarasandha by the foot, and threw him to the ground. If it be de- 
 manded by what means Bheema now became so superior in strength 
 to Jarasandha after they had for so many days been an equal match 
 for each other, the answer is, that Jarasandha perceived his death 
 
 
[ 55 ] 
 
 to be approaching by Creeshna's signals ; he found that his adver- 
 sary 'had comprehended the means of his speedy destruction, and 
 that, in consequence, a weakness had seized all his limbs, as is al- 
 ways the case with men before their death. Bheema was the con- 
 queror, and we must praise the acts of the Creator. Thus then it 
 was : Bheema put one of Jarasandha's feet beneath his own foot, 
 and took the other foot in his hand, then, with one prodigious effort, 
 tore him in halves from the base of the chine to the crown of the 
 head, so that one half fell bleeding to the ground, and the other re- 
 mained quivering under his foot. Creeshna and Arjoon applauded 
 Bheema, and the Devatas hailed him with a shower of flowers from 
 heaven, while men remained astonished spectators of the event. 
 Creeshna, for the purpose of completing the Yug of Judishter, 
 crowned Sehedeva, the son of Jarasandha, immediately in his father's 
 place, and did all he could to console him. He descanted on the 
 fickleness of fortune and the rapidity of human vicissitudes ; obser- 
 ving to him that it was the decree of fate that Jarasandha should thus 
 perish, and that he ought rather to grieve for his own continuance in 
 life than for his father's death, since he too must at some time go the 
 same road. " Now, therefore," said he, "ascend thy father's 
 throne, young prince, and release the many rajahs whom he kept 
 in confinement." 
 
 ' 
 ' 
 
 
 .. 
 
THE LIFE OF CREESHNA. 
 
 PART THE THIRD. 
 
 
 JL WENTY thousand and eight hundred rajahs of eminence, who 
 had been taken by Jarasandha, as men take beasts of the chase, 
 were now released from confinement. They had long indulged se- 
 cret, but vain, hopes that their children and friends would have 
 come to their aid ; but, finding none able to help them, they had at 
 last looked up to Creeshna, whose name and miracles they had 
 heard of while in prison, as their only resource. On obtaining their 
 liberty they immediately recognized their benefactor from the de- 
 scription they had heard of his person, viz. the Incarnate, conspi- 
 cuous with Geda, and Chakra, and Kernel, with a brilliant Koon- 
 del in his ear, and valuable chains of pearl around his neck, a 
 yellow robe circling his waist, and a crown of peacock's feathers 
 on his head ; and, all squalid as they were and overrun with un- 
 seemly hair, they threw themselves at his feet, uttering the most 
 lively expressions of gratitude, and calling him, amongst other 
 titles, Madhoo.* Creeshna expressed himself perfectly satisfied 
 with their repentance from the errors of their former pride before 
 their misfortunes, assuring them that he had more regard for those 
 who turned their minds towards him after wicked conduct, than even for 
 
 * Madhoo means slayer of Madhoo Ditya. See Mahabbarat, 13 perb. p. 474. Halhed. 
 
[ 57 ] 
 
 devotees and penitents who had passed their whole lives in prayer and 
 austerity* He then dismissed them free and happy to their seve- 
 ral provinces, and himself proceeded leisurely on to Hastanapoor. 
 Rajah Judishter came out and conducted him with all honour into 
 the city, and Koontee praised him exceedingly for having thus se- 
 cured the celebration of Judishter's Yug ; but Bheema, smiling, 
 told his mother that Creeshna had set very quietly by in a corner, 
 while all the hardship of combating Jarasandha had fallen upon 
 himself. Creeshna admitted the fact, but mentioned the hints he 
 had given Bheema for tearing Jarasandha asunder. Judishter, in 
 the mean time, could not contain his satisfaction, which found its 
 way through his eyes in tears ; while Creeshna, as the younger of 
 the two, laid his head at the feet of Judishter. 
 
 Judishter endeavoured to express his thanks to Creeshna, since 
 now, by the exertions of his friendship and benevolence, he beheld 
 all the wish of his heart accomplished : wherefore, he summoned 
 from every quarter Brahmins learned in the Vedas and skilled in 
 the rites of Yugs ; as well as many rajahs from the most distant 
 countries, some brought thither by force of arms and others in the 
 way of friendship, with their sons and suite ; and of Brahmins, 
 Khettrees, Vysyas, and Soodras, an innumerable multitude. The 
 vessels for the celebration of the Yug were all of gold. Rajah Ju- 
 dishter, throwing oft" the clothes from his breast, remained covered 
 with a single piece of cloth, /'. e. he became Pootree ; and, giving 
 into the hands of the Zennardars a string of gold, began the Yug. 
 All mankind were astonished at the profusion of gold and wealth 
 that was displayed, but the wiser few knew that wherever Creeshna 
 was present, there could be no deficiency whatever. Rajah 
 
 * Here is evidently another imitation of the genuine Gospel; for, it contains a sentiment 
 not congenial wiih the theological code of the Brahmins ; in which, although repentance can 
 obtain heaven, the most brilliant rewards are assigned to persevering austerity, 
 
 Vol. in. H 
 
[ 58 ] 
 
 Judishter, with his head bare, and holding in his two hands the sa- 
 cred grass Cusa, performed the Pooja ; then, calling on the name 
 ofNarayen, turned towards Creeshna and smiled, expressively 
 intimating that all this was entirely the fruit of his kindness, and 
 that all he did was for HIM. Judishter addressed the elders of his 
 family, requesting of them to give their advice in a matter of such 
 infinite consequence as this Yug, to whom Pooja should be first 
 addressed. No one had yet spoken to the subject ; when Saha- 
 deva, Judishter's youngest brother, rose, and, with great modesty 
 and respect, observed, " That this was a question which had been 
 asked by one who well saw and knew the proper answer ; that 
 there was no room nor necessity for a question ; that the Pooja 
 should certainly be first addressed to Creeshna ; that, as well by 
 the institutes of the Vedas as by the decision of all the learned, 
 Pooja to Shree-Creeshna was the same as Pooja to all the Devatas, 
 just as watering the root of a tree affords moisture to the whole plant. 
 That He was the Creator, the Preserver, and the Destroyer, all in 
 one, and that, merely on hearing the Shree-Bhagavat, the soul 
 was purified from all its crimes ; therefore, when he was present, 
 none else could be worthy. That the earth was in the nature of a 
 body, of which he was the soul ; and that, for his own part, he 
 should worship none but him." Creeshna requested Sahadeva not 
 to proceed in this adulatory strain ; but the audience all applauded 
 and encouraged him. Rajah Judishter was overjoyed that this 
 proposition had succeeded exactly in conformity to his wishes, 
 washed Creeshna'sfeet, and threw that water over his own head and eyes; 
 after that, he washed the feet of the eight Nayega and of Oodhoo, 
 and, in the same manner, cast it on his head ; and, arranging be- 
 fore him the finest clothes and precious chains, with all the other 
 apparatus, performed the Pooja, and humbled his head in the dust 
 of Creeshna's foot. After this he performed Pooja to all the Devatas 
 
and all the Yadavas. While Judishter was thus performing the Pooja 
 to Shree-Bhagavan, it rained flowers from the sky, and Devatas 
 uttered praises, and men proffered Aservad, for his sake. But 
 Rajah Seesoopal, son of Rajah Demkhook, burnt with grief and 
 anger, and, with fiery eyes, starting up from his seat, made a long 
 philippic against Creeshna ; first inveighing against the Brahmins 
 and others for listening to the proposition of one of the youngest 
 in the assembly ; then adding, " that he did not advise the Pooja 
 to be addressed to himself, but to some of the noble persons or 
 learned Reyshees, of whom there were many present infinitely 
 more worthy than the object of their choice : that they did not 
 offer the Ahoot Howm to the fire and the Zennardars, but brought 
 it to this crow (alluding to his black colour) : that the person who 
 forsook the Vedas, to choose a different religion for himself, was 
 not to be ranked among their objects of veneration : that they must 
 have heard that the Yadavas were under the Srap (curse) of a 
 holy Reyshee, which denounced they should never wear the dia- 
 dem ; how then could they be addressed with Pooja ? That a man 
 who could quit such holy places as Mathura, Gaya, and other 
 Teerthes, to make a settlement on the sea-side, and establish there 
 a seminary of plunder and robbery, from which to dispatch ban- 
 ditti to other kingdoms and provinces, could not be allowed to pos- 
 sess any sort of nobility." In these, and other words of a similar 
 malignant purport, did Seesoopal vent his rage, while Creeshna, 
 by signs, prevented all the persons present from interrupting him. 
 However, his insolence was no longer to be borne, and most of 
 them got up and retired to one side, as not thinking it decent or 
 worthy of them to hear such abuse of Creeshna, nor choosing to 
 participate in the crime incurred thereby. Bheema and his bro- 
 thers, rising hastily, seized their arms, and attempted to kill See- 
 soopal, who, on his side, prepared for the conflict ; but Creeshna 
 
 H 2 
 
[ 60 ] 
 
 interfered and prevented a battle, lest it should throw the Yug into 
 confusion, and desired Bheema neither himself to interrupt him 
 nor to suffer others to do so. After Seesoopal had thus a hundred 
 times vilified Creeshna, the latter cut off his head with his Chakra ; 
 a flame of fire then issued from Seesoopal's head, which for a time 
 hovering about in the air, at last entered Creeshna's mouth, where 
 it subsided ; and his army fled away in the greatest consternation. 
 Rajah Judishter, after the close of the Yug, made great presents 
 to the Brahmins, and from that day became rajah of rajahs. 
 Creeshna staid some months in Hastanapoor, and at length took 
 leave and went to Dwaraka, which Judishter consented to with 
 much reluctance. 
 
 Judishter 's younger brothers were all very dutiful to their senior, 
 performing whatever he enjoined, whether it were agreeable to 
 them or not, without repining ; every thing of difficulty that 
 was undertaken was by Creeshna's directions ; the care of less 
 important matters devolved on Bheema. Arjoon had the depart- 
 ment of attending to the great men and all the rajahs, in whatever 
 concerned them. Dropeda managed the affairs of provision, by 
 the consent and agreement of her brother. Beder had the arrange- 
 ment of the assembly, and Kerne the care of the expense. On the 
 day that the Yug was completed, Creeshna, in the fulness of his 
 beneficence, was present in one place with all the Devatas, and Rey- 
 shees and Brahmins, and Rajahs, and they carried Rajah Judish- 
 ter to the banks of the Ganges. Brahmins chanted the Vedas, 
 and Rajah Judishter bathed, while flowers rained from heaven upon 
 his head. There was an endless variety of music and singing. All 
 men rejoiced, and dressed themselves in their most sumptuous ap- 
 parel, and perfumed themselves with sandal, and saffron, and 
 sweet waters. The women, who, buried in Harams, were seldom 
 permitted to see the sun, came out on that day to view Rajah Ju- 
 
[ 61 ] 
 
 dishter. Even the inhabitants of Soorg were all delighted with the 
 news of that Yug ; and so prodigious were the crowds which were 
 collected together in Ilastanapoor, on account of it, that the earth 
 groaned beneath their weight ; while all, with one voice, gave 
 glory to Creeshna, for having procured the celebration of so mag- 
 nificent a festival. The Yadavas were struck with astonishment at 
 beholding the beauty of the inhabitants of Hastanapoor, having 
 before conceived that nothing in the world was equal to Dwaraka. 
 The assembled rajahs were deeply grieved to quit Rajah Judishter, 
 but one necessity or another at length carried them all to their own 
 homes. Every individual of the human race has some desire or 
 other ungratified ; but Judishter, by the kindness of Creeshna, at- 
 tained to the completion of all his wishes. Doorjoodhen was fretted 
 to the soul at his celebrity and renown, and was for ever nourish- 
 ing ill designs against him. Creeshna, to torment Doorjoodhen 
 the more, ordered the eight Nayega to pay all kind of respect and 
 service to Dropeda ; and, on her sitting down or rising up, the 
 Devatas became mad with admiration at the tinkling that proceeded 
 from the golden bells that adorned her feet and ancles ; while the 
 reflection of every colour of jewels on her polished cheeks, where- 
 ever it fell, exhibited a variety of beauty. All these circumstances 
 greatly incensed the jealous mind of Doorjoodhen, but his fury 
 was wrought to the highest pitch by the following incident : The 
 lofty edifice which formed Judishter J s council chamber was erected 
 by Maya the Ditya ; it consisted entirely of polished chrystal, 
 embellished with jewels, so that, from the clearness of the chrys- 
 tal, those parts, which were perfectly dry, appeared full of water; 
 and, where there was really water, in vast chrystalline recesses, 
 all appeared dry. Rajah Judishter one day holding a council in 
 this magnificent apartment, Doorjoodhen with his brother came 
 thither ; and, imagining he was approaching water, though the 
 
[ 62 ] 
 
 place was perfectly dry, started back, and extended the golden 
 wand, which he held in his hand, to explore if it really were wa- 
 ter before him. Bheema at this instantly burst out into a loud 
 laughter, nor could all Judishter's authority restrain him, so lu- 
 dicrous was the spectacle. Doorjoodhen was exceedingly ashamed 
 and affronted, and went away from the council in great wrath. 
 All this was Creeshna's sport ; but, as it was his intention to put 
 to death altogether in one place a number of those wicked tyrants, 
 by whose weight the earth was oppressed, he for the present over- 
 looked it, while Doorjoodhen, by his secret destination, grew 
 daily more inveterate in his malicious and treacherous designs.* 
 
 At the time that Rajah Seesoopal went to Gundenpoor to marry 
 Rokemenee, and when Creeshna stole her aAvay from the midst of 
 all the assembled rajahs, among the number was Rajah Sal, a parti- 
 cular friend of Seesoopal, who swore, that if he did not root out 
 the very name of the Yadavas, he would be no more a Khettree. 
 He too was one of those who, with Seesoopal, pursued Creeshna, 
 and who, on dire experience of Creeshna's might, turned back and 
 fled, glad to escape with his life. But this oath always remained at 
 the bottom of his mind ; and, when Creeshna slew Seesoopal, Sal 
 was again exceedingly irritated, and felt the weight of his former 
 oath like a mill-stone round his neck, esteeming life itself no longer 
 tolerable, if he could not revenge his friend's death. But how to 
 
 * This incident is differently related in Baldseus, with the addition of a most cutting speech 
 to the eldest son of the blind and feeble monarch of Hindostan, who, in fact, by that blindness, 
 was legally incapacitated from reigning ; and the throne of which, therefore, by right belonged 
 to the oppressed Yadavas. " It had happened some time before, that Doorjoodhen, being in 
 Judishter's palace, looked into Dropeda's apartment, which, being paved with glass, (a thing 
 he never had seen before, he look it for water, and would not venture to go in. Dropeda, per- 
 ceiving his error, exclaimed, ' How ! are the sons like the father ! Is the whole family BUND ?' 
 which put Doorjoodhen into such a rage, that he swore he would revenge it the first opportu- 
 nity." Baldaeus, p. 881. 
 
[ 63 ] 
 
 effect it was the question. After much consideration, he concluded, 
 it could only be done by the assistance of the Devatas ; and as 
 Mahadeva is the chief of them, he began a most rigorous course 
 of mortification, in which, after fasting the whole day, he took no 
 other sustenance in the evening than a handful of earth. This 
 austerity lasted a whole year ; and then Mahadeva appeared to him, 
 and bid him name his desire, and it should be gratified. He de- 
 manded revenge on his enemies. Roodra promised it, and va- 
 nished. After this, Rajah Sal built a city, and fortified the castle of 
 it in the most complete manner, to serve as an asylum in the day of 
 danger ; and then, taking with him a great army, went to Dwaraka. 
 The first effort of his fury was to cut down all the trees and plants 
 in the suburbs ; then, forcing the city-gate, and raising a lofty 
 (temporary) structure that commanded the city itself, he began to 
 practice all the arts of sorcery, in which he was an adept. He caused 
 it to rain stones from heaven, he raised tempestuous hurricanes 
 that bore down every thing before them, houses, temples, palaces ; 
 and, by these means, he threw all Dwaraka into confusion. Pre- 
 demne, in Creeshna's absence, was governor of the city, and exerted 
 his utmost endeavours to soothe and tranquillize the inhabitants, 
 telling them, that all their troubles would certainly be assuaged by 
 the blessing of Him who had taken on himself a mundane exis- 
 tence, for the purpose of lightening the burthens of the earth. 
 Predemne then mounted his chariot, and after him came Satek, and 
 Chardeshe, and Behane, and others, followed by a very great 
 crowd of warriors. Sal, then, by his magical power, rendered the 
 air so completely dark, that a man could not see his own hand. 
 Predemne, on this, discharged a fire-dart, which instantly dissipated 
 the obscurity. Sal and Predemne then recognized each other ; and 
 Predemne, on seeing him, shot an arrow, which felled his standard- 
 bearer to the ground, while the driver met the same fate from ano- 
 
[ 64 ] 
 
 ther. After that, he struck the horses of the carriage, and wounded 
 his troops, so that rivers of hostile blood began to flow ; and Sal, 
 who could not find a moment to return the discharge, with grief 
 and amazement discovered that Creeshna's sons were even more 
 courageous than their father. Sal was now again obliged to 
 have recourse to his magic and incantations instead of the sword, 
 and made himself one moment a dwarf, the next a giant ; now visi- 
 ble, now invisible : one moment he was in the sky, another on 
 earth ; now raining down water, and now fire. Predemne de- 
 molished the force of all his spells and sorcery by his own superior 
 skill in the black art. Sal had a particular friend, named Dere- 
 man, whom, at his first effort, Predemne had stretched senseless on 
 the ground with an arrow. When he came to himself, he grasped 
 his battle-axe, and, running up to Predemne, with a furious blow 
 deprived him of sensation. 
 
 Predemne's companions, on his being thrown down senseless, had 
 been cast into utter despair ; but, on his recovery, which was in- 
 stantaneous, new life seemed to have entered their bodies. Pre- 
 demne, now, with four arrows, slew Sal's four horses ; next his 
 driver : he then cut away his standard and canopy, or umbrella, and 
 so terrified his army, that most of them fled and plunged into the 
 river. The battle lasted twelve clays. All the Yadavas applauded 
 Sal ; for, no warrior before him had been able to keep on the en- 
 gagement with them for more than five days, and he had fought 
 twelve. About this period, Creeshna took leave of the Pandoos, and 
 returned to Dwaraka. On the road he discovered that great mischief 
 had been done in Dwaraka, and concluded that Rajah Sal had gone 
 thither. Although he knew that Predemne had learnt the arts of 
 Maya, yet he thought Sal his superior in that science ; so he made 
 his charioteer Darek make all possible expedition, and they quickly 
 arrived at Dwaraka. Sal's troops spied Creeshna's standard, and 
 
[ 65 ] 
 
 told their master. When, therefore, Creeshna came nigh, Sal 
 stepped forward, and meeting him, and lifting on high a glittering 
 spear, was on the point of aiming it at Creeshna's driver ; but he 
 had not yet launched it, when Creeshna snapt it in his hand with 
 an arroAv. Sal, violently enraged, shot an arrow, which broke 
 Creeshna's bow with a crash that resounded to heaven, and he now 
 began to triumph as in certain victory, exclaiming aloud, " O 
 Creeshna ! dost thou remember the day when thou didst steal Ro- 
 kemenee from Rajah Seesoopal, my beloved friend, and after- 
 wards how thou didst stain Judishter's Yug with his blood ? For 
 these acts I am this day going to take revenge. It is useless for 
 thee to bemoan thy inferiority ; stand firm, nor attempt to flee, 
 for there is no road open for retreat." Creeshna rebuked him for 
 his idle boasting, and taking his Geda, aimed it so forcibly at Sal, 
 that he vanished away, and for two hours was utterly invisible. At 
 the expiration of that period, he appeared before Creeshna in the 
 dress of a messenger, having changed his natural form for another, 
 and, with his hair all clotted with dirt, and speaking with the voice 
 of one out of breath, he said, " O Creeshna ! Vasudeva, your 
 noble father, sent me hither to acquaint you that he knows you 
 came into the world for the relief of the oppressed and the support 
 of the weak ; yet, in spite of this, Rajah Sal has taken that father 
 prisoner, and is carrying him off." Creeshna was wonderfully struck 
 with this event, yet thought that perhaps it was true. This mistake, 
 indeed, is not reconcilable with Creeshna's omniscience, but it is a 
 mark of his taking on himself the exact state of human life, that such 
 opinions should occupy his mind. In this interval, Rajah Sal, by 
 Maya, formed a counterfeit Vasudeva, and caused him to appear 
 upon that spot, making him utter these words : " O Creeshna ! 
 with so godlike a son as you, is it not lamentable that your father 
 should be in so wretched a plight?" Sal, in his own shape, 
 Vol. in. I 
 
[ 66 ] 
 
 exclaimed, " Now, Creeshna, will I slay your father before your 
 face !" Accordingly, drawing his sword, he instantly cut off the 
 counterfeit Vasudeva's head. Creeshna was dreadfully perplexed, 
 and in doubt whether this was all real or by the force of Maya ; 
 and for the space of one Mhooret, his understanding was utterly 
 confused ; but, on coming to his reflection, he assured himself that 
 it was all Maya-Vee-Maya. So he pursued Sal, who took to the 
 air, and Creeshna went through the air after him. Creeshna soon 
 overtook Sal, and annihilated all his Maya ; from thence he went 
 to his city and castle, which he had also fortified by the power of 
 Maya, and, with a heavy battle-axe, softened all Sal's bones, and . 
 broke in pieces his city and castle. In this manner did he strike 
 Sal a hundred times with his battle-axe, and he, at every stroke, 
 broke Creeshna's weapon. Several times Sal fell down with the 
 force of the repeated blows, but again rose up, and returned to the 
 charge. At last, Creeshna struck him so violently with a spear, 
 that, pressing clean through one arm, it fixed in his chest, and even 
 pinned down his other arm : after which, he cut oft' his head with 
 his crown on, and a shining Koondel in his ear, and threw his city 
 into the river. The Devatasjn Deva-Loke made great rejoicing 
 at his fate. Denteebektre, who had been exceedingly affected with 
 his brother Seesoopal's death, was now doubly enraged at the 
 slaughter of their dearest friend, Rajah Sal, and made mighty pre- 
 parations, and levied a strong army against Creeshna. 
 
 Creeshna had not yet set out for Dwaraka, when Denteebektre, 
 vowing vengeance, came to the very place where Rajah Sal had 
 been slain. The Yadavas, aware of his prowess, were all exceed- 
 ingly alarmed, and Denteebektre, with a battle-axe in his hand, 
 coming close to Creeshna, began to upbraid him with the fate of his 
 brother and his friend, and, collecting all his strength, aimed a. 
 blow at him ; but Creeshna, at that instant, struck him so violently 
 
[ 67 ] 
 
 on the breast with his Geda, that his soul immediately parted from 
 his body ; and a flame of fire issuing from his head, ascended into 
 the air, whence it came back and went into Creeshna's mouth, 
 where it was quenched. Denteebektre had a younger brother, 
 named Vederoothe, who also attempted to risk a battle, but Creeshna 
 cut his head off with Sodharsan-Chakra. After the death of these 
 three persons, the Devatas launched out in praise of Creeshna, 
 and the Muni-Eswaras and Reyshees were unbounded in their 
 panegyrics ; and all the intelligent were fully convinced that he was 
 Perebrahme-Pooraun-Poorash, while those of confined understand- 
 ings, whose ideas were circumscribed by the mere limits of the 
 senses only, conceived that he had gained a victory, (as any other 
 mortal might have done,) and that there might exist another who 
 would have vanquished him ; but, in fact, whatever exists is HE, 
 and all these notions are the fantasies and sport of Maya, or self- 
 delusion. 
 
 Soodaman, a poor Brahmin and fellow-student with Creeshna 
 under his tutor Sendeepen, by the instigat'on of his wife, about 
 this time paid a visit of respect to Creeshna at Dwaraka, having 
 nothing with him for a present except one handful of rice. Creeshna 
 received him most affectionately, and, in his absence, transformed 
 his cottage to a palace, and his wife to a beauty ; gave him a large 
 sum in money, and, at his death, rendered him Mooktee (beatified). 
 
 One day, Dropeda requested the eight Nayega to give her an 
 account of their several marriages, which they did in their turns, 
 relating their history as in the former chapters, except that of 
 Lekshema, which is not there inserted, and is as follows : 
 Lekshema informed Dropeda, that she had one day heard Nared 
 give a description of Creeshna to her father, and he had painted 
 him in such lively colours, that, from the same moment, she fell 
 violently in love with him, and was determined to marry no other. 
 
 12 
 
[ 68 ] 
 
 Her father, however, erected a Soombere (a pavilion) for her, and 
 in the middle of the Soombere was placed a butt or target, and on 
 the top of the butt a fish, with this express condition, that whoever 
 should make his arrow hit the fish, by taking aim through a vessel 
 of water, should have her for a wife ; and all the rajahs and chiefs, 
 who came to court her, were introduced into the Soombere, and a 
 bow and arrow were put into their hands. Rajah Magende, and 
 Bheema, and Doorjoodhen, and Kerne, and others, exerted their 
 strongest efforts in vain. " Creeshna, the master of all hearts, 
 knew the secret wish of my heart, took his aim through the vase of 
 water, and easily hit the fish. When I put the Mooktee-Mala 
 round Creeshna's neck, all the others burnt with rage ; but Creeshna 
 lifted me into his carriage, and Darek drove us away with the ut- 
 most rapidity. His rivals followed us in chariots and on elephants, 
 and their fleetest horses ; but, on his very first attack, they all faced 
 about and fled. Thence Creeshna, like the sun bursting from 
 Oodachel to perform his western journey, went to Dwaraka, the 
 beauty of which is not now to be described. My father sent a mag- 
 nificent portion after me, but I do not presume to call myself his 
 wife ; I am one of his humble attendants and slaves." After this, 
 the other 16,000 wives related, one by one, the history of their cap- 
 tivity under Bhoom-Assoor, together with the death of that tyrant 
 by the hand of Creeshna, and added, that, from that time, they 
 were become the lowest of his slaves. 
 
 Towards the close of Creeshna's sojourning among mortals, 
 Vasudeva and Devaci began fully to comprehend the divine cha- 
 racter of Creeshna, and acknowledged hiui"fbr the Creator, Pre- 
 server, and Destroyer, of the world ; for* before they had been 
 prevented from understanding by the power of Maya. After 
 Creeshna had one day satisfied Vasudeva on this head, he went 
 with Ram to see his mother Devaci, who received them with the 
 
L 69 ] 
 
 tenderest affection, and told them, she had heard how they had 
 raised the two sons of their tutor Sendeepen to life ; that she, too, 
 had at least the pretensions of their tutor with three times the loss ; 
 that she now required of them the six sons which Cansa had slain, 
 and who had left six deep wounds in her heart, which nothing but 
 their presence could heal. Creeshna and Bahadur, smiling, told 
 her, that they would bring back her sons upon one condition, 
 which was, that she should not set her heart too strongly on them, 
 but be satisfied with seeing them once more. Thereupon, in sight 
 of their mother, they went into the earth, and, passing through, 
 came to the nether world. Rajah Bali, hearing of their approach, 
 met them with great ceremony, and accommodated them with all 
 possible attention ; and, after every testimony of reverence and 
 respect, requested to know the cause of his being honoured with 
 the visit of the Lord of the three worlds. Creeshna now began an 
 account of former times, and informed him, " that, in the house 
 of Mereechee, had been born of the seed of Brahma six sons; 
 and, a second time, the same six sons were born in the house of 
 Hiranyacasipu. The same were also again born in the house of 
 Kal-Neeme, and in that life inflicted much vexation and infinite 
 troubles on holy men and Devatas, who therefore fixed this curse 
 on them : ' As ye now give so much molestation to us, may your 
 own father be your murderer !' Kal-Neeme was an Avatar of 
 Cansa, and these six sons did Devaci, the sister of Cansa bring 
 into the world, who have all been slain by Cansa. Devaci is our 
 mother also, and has obtained of me permission once more to be- 
 hold her children. I have heard that they are in your kingdom, 
 being now released from the curse of the Devatas. These are their 
 names : Semer, Kehe, Bergoon, Chhoodre, Derkheren, Tebeek. 
 Inquire after them, that I may shew them to their mother, and that, 
 after a sight of her, they may go to paradise/' Rnjah Bali instantly 
 
C 70 ] 
 
 dispatched some servants to look for them, and in one hour they 
 were all brought to Creeshna, who, taking them under his arm, 
 and kindly accepting all Rajah Bali had set before him, came up 
 from beneath the earth to the place in Dwaraka where Devaci was 
 sitting, in anxious expectation to behold her children, and presented 
 the six little ones to their mother. The instant she saw her sons 
 the milk began to flow from her breasts, and, after gratefully thanking 
 Creeshna and Balhadur, she hugged them to her bosom, and kissed 
 their foreheads, and suckled them with milk from the very same 
 breast which had once nourished Creeshna. All that she had formerly 
 promised as the condition of seeing them was now overturned, and 
 Creeshna was obliged to desire her to suspend her fondness, and be 
 calm, that they might take their departure for paradise. Devaci 
 acknowledged his kindness in having procured for her a sight which 
 it was not otherwise possibfe to behold, and submitted. The children 
 having drunk of Devaci's milk, and having Creeshna's hand also 
 passed over their bodies, became immortal, and all appeared in the 
 figure of Creeshna, with a shining Koondel and Mookete. They 
 then mounted on an eagle, resembling Creeshna's ; afterwards, 
 falling at his and Ram's feet, and paying Nemeskar to Vasudeva 
 and Devaci also, they set off for paradise, in the sight of all the 
 people. Devaci exclaimed, that, having now seen her dead sons 
 revived, and on the way to paradise, she was well assured that she 
 also herself should speedily go thither. 
 
 Distinctly to mark the equal regard with which the Deity ob- 
 serves all his devout worshippers of every rank and class, Creeshna 
 one morning set out with a great suite of Devatas for TIRHUT, 
 for the express purpose of exhibiting the marks of his divine favour 
 to Bhoolamen, the rajah of that place, and also to one Mhooret- 
 Deva, a poor Brahmin inhabitant of the same city, both of whom 
 where his most zealous devotees. When he arrived there, knowing 
 
C 71 ] 
 
 that their faith and religious merits were upon par, although their 
 station and circumstances were widely different, he was solicitous 
 not to appear to give the one a preference above the other, nor let 
 either feel himself slighted. He, therefore, made a double repre- 
 sentation of himself, both Avatars exactly similar, so that the 
 rajah, who received him with all the pomp and splendor of royalty, 
 and with magnificent presents of exquisite clothes, chains, and 
 strings of pearls, &c. conceived himself' the most favoured of mor- 
 tals, in having the divine personage under his own roof ; while the 
 humble Brahmin, no less overjoyed, was laying his unaffected 
 offerings of the choicest fruits and strings of sweet flowers before 
 the very same Creeshna at the same moment in his own house. 
 Creeshna, at the earnest instances of the rajah, stayed some time 
 with him in his magnificent palace to fortify his devotion, and all 
 the inhabitants of Tirhut were eased of their doubts and perplexities 
 by his presence : at the same time he was daily present in the 
 lowly cottage of Mhooret-Deva, receiving grateful prayers and 
 thanksgivings, with the greatest condescension and benevolence. 
 After some time thus employed, Creeshna returned to Dwaraka, 
 and the Brahmin accompanied him a considerable way on the 
 journey. 
 
 Terek-Assoor one day demanded of Nared, which of the three 
 Devmas, Brahma, Veeshnu, and Mahadeva, was to be propitiated 
 witlmhe least worship ? Nared answered, Mahadeva; who pre- 
 setjBy grants whatever is desired by those who worship him with 
 their whole heart. Accordingly, Terek-Assoor became a most 
 zealous worshipper of Mahadeva, to obtain his own particular 
 purposes. But Mahadeva shewed him no signs of encouragement ; 
 the Ditya, however, redoubled his austerities in such a manner, 
 that, in the space of seven days, he cut oft' all the flesh from his 
 own body with a knife, and burnt it in the fire ; and, after those 
 
C 72- ] 
 
 seven days, was preparing to cut off his own head also, as a pro- 
 pitiatory sacrifice. Mahadeva at length appeared to him, and 
 took hold of his hand, by which his flesh was instantly restored to 
 its former state, and told him, that, whatever was his wish, it 
 should be granted. At the same time he demanded why he had 
 proceeded to such severe austerities, declaring, that, whoever in 
 sincerity sacrificed to him, even with water, obtained the object 
 of his desires. Terek-Assoor demanded, " that on whose head 
 soever he should lay his hand, that person might be reduced in- 
 stantly to ashes." On hearing this extraordinary request, (which 
 of course was immediately granted,) fear came on the world, and 
 Mahadeva himself also recollecting the story of the black snake, 
 who prepared to bite his benefactor on the very day he had fed 
 him with milk, and concluding the Ditya had a mind to make ex- 
 periment of his power, by laying his hand on Mahadeva' s own 
 head, fled hastily away. Terek-Assoor following him at full speed, 
 Mahadeva made the circuit of the seven stages of the earth and the 
 seven stages of heaven, but no one was able to protect him from 
 his pursuer, so he urged his flight back again to paradise. There 
 Narayen, taking pity on his situation, came immediately forth to 
 comfort him, and assuming, by the force of his Maya, the figure 
 of a beautiful woman, met the exasperated Ditya, and, with a 
 delicate voice, asked what was the reason of his running so fast ? 
 adding, that if he had placed any confidence in Mahadeva's 
 promises, he was woefully deceived ; for that, ever since the day 
 when that deity had interrupted Dekshe's Yug, Dekshe had uttered 
 a curse against him, and from that tune Mahadeva's words never 
 produced any effect. That he had only to put his hand on his own 
 head, and he might depend on finding Mahadeva's promise to be 
 utterly false. On hearing the soft speeches of this enchanter of the 
 world and its inhabitants, Terek-Assoor put his hand on his own 
 
[ 73 ] 
 
 head, and was instantly reduced to ashes by the touch. Jeye ! 
 Jeye ! resounded through paradise on his death, and it rained 
 flowers from heaven, since the evil which he destined in his 
 heart fbr another fell upon himself. Mahadeva, overjoyed at his es- 
 cape, came out fr6m his lurking-place, and retired to his palace 
 at Kylass. 
 
 A similar question was once proposed by the Reyshees and 
 Muni-Eswaras, as they were at a certain time performing a Yug 
 near the river Saraswatty. These holy men demanded of Bhreegoo, 
 whether Brahma, Veeshnu, or Mahadeva, were most worthy to be 
 worshipped, that they and all the people might address their devo- 
 tions accordingly ? Bhreegoo said, he would first try all the three, 
 and then inform them. In consequence, he went first to Brahma, 
 and addressed him with the salutations proper from a son to his 
 father,* to see what kind of temper and patience he possessed. 
 Brahma at first grew angry, and accused him of want of ceremony, 
 but was soon appeased ; and his son perceived he was like fire and 
 water, alternately hot and cold. Bhreegoo, in the second place, 
 went to Mahadeva's abode : Mahadeva rose up, and was going to 
 embrace him, but Bhreegoo would not let him approach, and made 
 use of very disrespectful language. Mahadeva drew himself up in 
 wrath, and, snatching up his trident, rushed forward with intent to 1 
 kill him ; but Parvati interfered, and falling at her husband's feet, 
 pacified his anger. Bhreegoo hastily retreating thence, went to the 
 place called Vaicontha, the lord of which is Veeshnu. Him he 
 found sleeping on the lap of the universe, or Leckshmeen. Bhfee- 
 goo, on seeing him, struck him forcibly with his foot on the breast. 
 Veeshnu started up, and taking hold of the foot, said, " This 
 breast of mine is extremely hard, and your foot very tender ; un- 
 
 * Bhreegoo was one of the sons of Brahma, and the promulger of the Vedas, 
 
 Vol. in. K 
 
[ 74 ] 
 
 undoubtedly it must be much hurt." With these and other kind 
 words, mollifying his wrath, he entreated Bhreegoo to stay a little 
 time, and honour his abode with his presence, adding, that he was 
 sorry he had been taken unawares from being ignorant of his ap- 
 proach, entreated his pardon, and hoped his foot would not be 
 injured by so violent a blow. Bhreegoo, weeping for joy at this 
 kind reception, went away, exclaiming, " This surely is the true 
 Lord of the three worlds I" He now returned to the Reyshees, and 
 told them, " Veeshnu for certain was the deity most benignant and 
 worthy of adoration ; that he was the Omnipotent, and that, who- 
 soever with heart and soul should address his vows to him, would 
 obtain all he desired." This same Veeshnu is Creeshna ; the same 
 who exhibited to Arjoon his own exalted might on the following 
 occasion. 
 
 A Brahmin of Dwaraka, who had lost eight sons in their youth, 
 was so transported with grief, that he went one day into the assem- 
 bly where Creeshna, Arjoon, and the other Yadavas were sitting, 
 and, without the least ceremony, boldly accused their crimes as the 
 cause that the children of Brahmins died so immaturely. Creeshna 
 said nothing ; but Arjoon exclaimed with a loud voice, " O Brah- 
 min ! is there none here skilful at the bow ? That rajah is not a 
 true Khettree, in whose city a Brahmin should have such cause of 
 mourning. What is past, indeed, cannot be recalled ; but I my- 
 self will guard your children in future. In my time no such event 
 shall take place, and I will throw myself into the fire if I cannot 
 prevent it." The Brahmin told Arjoon, that he talked very pre- 
 sumptuously, since he certainly was not so able a bowman as 
 Balhadur, Creeshna, Predemne, and others, who had not hitherto 
 succeeded. Arjoon replied, that neither Creeshna, nor Predemne, 
 nor Aneroodhe, nor any other Khettree, could prevail against his 
 own famous bow Gandeeva; that he had compelled Mahadeva 
 
[ 75 ] 
 
 himself to acknowledge his superior skill in shooting, and should 
 have no difficulty whatever in opposing Yama (the king of Hades). 
 The Brahmin on this returned home, and, when his wife was again 
 in labour, failed not to inform Arjoon, who, bathing himself, and 
 calling upon the name of Bhagavan, and taking up his bow Gan- 
 deeva, so completely nailed up the Brahmin's door with arrows, that, 
 on all the six sides, there remained not a single opening where even 
 the air could enter : and there he stood watching with his bow and 
 arrows ready in his hand, but could see nothing. On the former 
 occasions the child came out (of his mother's womb) when dead, 
 but now even the dead child was vanished through the air. The 
 father wept and mourned, and, going to Creeshna, abused Arjoon 
 in the most unqualified terms for his idle boasting ; and Arjoon was 
 so much ashamed, that he said he would go and fetch the Brah- 
 min's son away from Yama himself. But though he went thither, 
 and also to Eendre-Pooree, and other Poorees, he could get no 
 tidings whatsoever of the child ; so, coming back to the earth, af- 
 ter a fruitless search in extreme affliction, he collected a heap of 
 faggots, and, setting them on fire, was going to cast himself into 
 the flames. Creeshna seeing this, took him by the hand, and said 
 he had news of the Brahmin's son, and that they must go together 
 and fetch him from a place whither neither his own hand nor Ar- 
 joon's could reach. So they mounted a carriage together, and went 
 towards the west, and, passing all the seven climates and all the 
 stages of the universe, came to that profound and palpable darkness, 
 where there is no admission of the sun, or the moon, or fire. As 
 they had now no other means of proceeding, Soodharsan-Chakra* 
 
 * " In the Persian translation of the Bhagavat," meaning 1 the present, says Sir William 
 Jones, " Creeshna is said to have descended with his favorite Arjoon to the seat of the Stygian 
 Jove of India, from whom he instantly obtained the favour which he requested, that the souls 
 of a Brahmin's six sons, who bad been slain in battle, might re-animate their respective bodies : 
 
 K 2 
 
t ] 
 
 was ordered to go forward, that the horses might get on by means 
 of its light. When Arjoon beheld that light, which is the light of 
 God, he could not turn his face towards it ; but, covering his eyes, 
 to preserve them from the dazzling glare, remained in deep and 
 awful reflection. When the resplendent brightness of that light 
 overcame them, they entered an expanse of water, where a cold 
 wind reigned. Within that, they observed a splendid palace and 
 throne, whereon sate Seshanaga, the snake, w*ho had a thousand 
 heads, and who seemed in magnitude to resemble Kylass, while 
 his thousand eyes shot terrific flames. There they beheld the Be- 
 ing undescribable, who is pure and all-sufficient. His countenance 
 was like the flower of the lotos, and he wore a yellow robe on his 
 body, and golden earings, and a profusion of jewels ; a string of 
 the finest pearls adorned his neck, and the Kowsteke-Men blazed 
 on the middle of his breast, a figure beautiful in its proportions, 
 and resplendent with Shanka, and Chakra, and Geda, and Padma. 
 Creeshna and Arjoon, perceiving him to be the true object of wor- 
 ship, stood with their hands joined before them in adoration. That 
 sublime Being, which was purity itself, spoke these words : " It 
 was I, who, taking on myself the form of Yama, bore away the 
 
 and SESHANAGA is thus described : ' He had a gorgeous appearance, with a thousand heads, 
 and on each of them a crown set with resplendent gems, one of which was larger and brighter 
 than the rest ; his eyes gleamed like flaming torches ; but his neck, his tongues, and his body, 
 were black ; the skirts of his habiliment were yellow, and a sparkling jewel hung in every one 
 of his ears ; his arms were extended, and adorned with rich bracelets, and his hands bore the 
 holy shell, the radiated weapon, the mace for war, and the lotos/ Thus Pluto was often exhi- 
 bited in painting and sculpture with a diadem and sceptre ; but himself and his equipage were 
 of the blackest shade." Asiatic Researches, vol. i. p. 43. Thus far Sir William Jones, whose 
 translation of the above passage seems to be more general and laboured than Mr. Halhed's, 
 which, though rapid, appears to be minutely correct, from his particularly mentioning the 
 " flower of the lotos" and the " Kowsteke-Men," which latter I ought before to havejacquainted 
 the reader from a note of the translator on a passage not printed, is a most resplendent jewel, 
 worn on the breast as a talisman, and like the carbuncle, dissipating midnight darkness. 
 
[ 77 ] 
 
 Brahmin's son, because I had an earnest desire to see you. You 
 have done what was your function to do, and have released the 
 earth overladen with her heavy weight. Your incarnation was for 
 the purpose of illuminating the darkness of the world : both of you 
 are Avatars of Narayen, and have well performed your appointed 
 functions." On beholding these wonders, Arjoon totally forgot 
 every thing that had passed in his mind, and now fully compre- 
 hended that Creeshna was Lord of heaven and earth, and that 
 oil that he saw was HIS FORM and HIS LIGHT. They then took the 
 Brahmin's son away with them, and came back. Arjoon, 
 astonished and amazed, totally laid aside his former presumption, 
 and-felt both Creeshna' s might and his own weakness. The Brah- 
 min, in great joy, received back his son, praising them for the 
 miracles they had wrought and the toils they had undergone. 
 
 One day, in Dwaraka, which is a second Vaicontha, Creeshna 
 was enjoying himself with his relations, and sons, and grand- 
 children, and his 16,000 wives, and all his wealth : his elephants, 
 his horses, his carriages out of number, were arranged in order. 
 In the midst of his golden castle extended his apartments on all the 
 four sides. His gardens were of golden earth, wherein were trees 
 of paradise full of variegated fruits. Peacocks, and cocelas 
 (Indian nightingales), and other birds, were sporting therein. 
 Creeshna on that day was surrounded with his 16,000 wives, AS 
 LIGHTNING WITH A CLOUD, and they gathered innumerable 
 flowers as offerings to Creeshna, like the Devatas presenting flowers 
 to Eendra; and, in all the licence of joy, they and Creeshna were 
 sporting together, and throwing the flowers at each other. In the 
 garden was a river, whose banks were all gold and jewels, the 
 water of which, from the reflection of rubies, appeared red, though 
 perfectly white; it was the WATER OF LIFE: and thousands of 
 lotoses floated on its surface, among which innumerable bees were 
 
[ 78 ] 
 
 humming and seeking their food. In this river they bathed and 
 played, Creeshna always in the midst of them. At length, in the 
 very height of all their revels and enjoyments, he suddenly dis- 
 appeared ! ! ! His principal wives, which were the eight Nayega, 
 remained for some time in profound astonishment : then they all 
 burst out into the most passionate exclamations, crying, " Whither 
 is he gone ?" One demanded of the birds if they had seen him, 
 wondering they could sing till he returned. Another asked of the 
 four-footed beasts why they made such loud meanings, as if 
 Creeshna had left and deceived them too. One addressed the sea, 
 " Thou ocean ! who art night and day roaring, hath not Creeshna 
 taken thy fourteen Reten, or precious things, also, as well as our 
 hearts, and is it not therefore thou grievest ?" Another addressed 
 the moon, " O thou Lord of the stars ! why dost not thou draw on 
 the world the veil of darkness ? Art thou not affected by his ab- 
 sence? at which every one must be heartless, like us wretched 
 creatures, who know not what is our fault to be thus forgotten and 
 forsaken." Another spake to the passing clouds, " Ye, too, are 
 impressed with the colour and figure of Creeshna, and, as he has 
 taken his departure, so ye also are ever on the wing ; and ye, like 
 us mourning for his absence, overspread every quarter with 
 gloom." Another asked the cocela why he had lost his tine notes? 
 
 " Is your mate also fled ?" 
 
 ******** 
 
 Mr. Halhed's copy of the Mahabbarat was imperfect and ended 
 abruptly ; but he has added in the manuscript these words : " Few 
 events of any importance occur in the history of Creeshna between 
 this period and that of his going to Hastanapoor to assist the Pan- 
 doos, just before the breaking out of the war of the Mahabbarat, 
 which ended in the destruction of the Kooroos." 
 
[ 79 ] 
 
 THE FATE OF THE YADAVAS, AND DEATH OF CREESHNA, 
 FROM THE MAHABBARAT. 
 
 After the completion of the war of the Mahabbarat, and the vic- 
 tory over Doorjoodhen, Judishter reigned in triumph and profound 
 peace with his brothers thirty-six years. After that period, com- 
 menced their calamities and bad omens of every kind. Great 
 storms of wind, accompanied with hail and stones, fell upon the 
 city. Those animals, whom it is reckoned fortunate to meet on 
 the right side, met them on the left, and the contrary. The sky 
 rained fire, and ashes, and half-burnt coals ; and, sometimes, with- 
 out any wind, such a dust was raised, that the sun was hidden at 
 mid-day ; while, at other times, his disk appeared without any 
 light, and figures of men, without heads, appeared on all sides of 
 the sun, or there was a black halo encircling it. The Pandoos, 
 and indeed all human beings, were astonished and alarmed at 
 these prodigies, and expected some most extraordinary and dread- 
 ful event to follow. In the midst of these horrors, on a certain day, 
 as the Pandoos and nobles were all sitting together, arrived a per- 
 son from Dwaraka, who brought news that the Yadavas had quar- 
 relled among themselves, and had all cut each other to pieces. 
 Rajah Judishter immediately, in the utmost anxiety and appre- 
 hension, sent off a messenger to learn the truth of these melancholy 
 tidings. 
 
 Rajah Jenemejeye here requested of Vyshempayen to give him 
 an account of this calamity that had befallen the Yadavas, which 
 he accordingly commenced as follows : 
 
 Viswamitra, Dervasa, and Nared, three most perfect Reyshees, 
 were sitting one day together, when Sarane, Son of Vasudeva, with 
 Sanete, one of Creeshna's sons, and a multitude of other young 
 
C 8<* I; 
 
 persons, all extremely merry, came to the place where they were ; 
 and, dressing up Sateebe in women's clothes, brought him to the 
 Reyshees ; and, telling them it was the wife of Beber-Jaroone, beg- 
 ged to know (as they were so exceedingly wise and prescient) 
 what she was likely to bring forth. The Reyshees answered, that 
 they very well knew what person it was thus disguised, and that 
 he should bring forth an iron club, which would be the death of 
 the whole family of the Yadavas. That for their contemptuous 
 insolence to the poor j and their general pride and arrogance, no 
 one should escape the effects of the iron club, out of the whole 
 tribe of the Yadavas, except Creeshna and Balhadur. That Bal- 
 hadur should quit his present body, and go away into the river, 
 and that Creeshna's time was come to forsake this world. After 
 having said this, these Reyshees took up the skins of Cheeteks on 
 which they sat, and, throwing them over their shoulders, hasted 
 away out of D waraka, and went to Rajah Judishter at Hastana- 
 poor. The news of all this was presently spread over the whole 
 city, and caused a general consternation. The next day Sateebe 
 brought forth an iron Destehavenee, or club, such as those of wood 
 which are used by athletics in their exercise, with a view to in- 
 crease their strength. Ogur Sein, who had heard the Avhole affair, 
 ordered his smiths to grind and pulverize this club, so that a mor- 
 sel of it should not remain ; which they did, and strewed it, when 
 thus ground, to dust, by the river-side : and it was all thus reduced 
 to impalpable powder, except a piece less than the palm of one's 
 hand. From the dust thrown away by the river-side sprung up a 
 great quantity of reeds, and, after the order for grinding away this 
 club, another order was issued, strictly forbidding all the Yadavas 
 to drink wine in future, on pain of death. From that time they 
 left off wine out of fear, and did not even venture to name it. 
 After this, DEATH appeared in Dwaraka in a human ,shape, the 
 
C 81 ] 
 
 colour of his skin being black and yellow, his head close shorn, 
 and all his limbs distorted. He placed himself at men's doors ; so 
 that all those who saw him shuddered with apprehension, and be- 
 came even as dead men from mere affright. Every person, to 
 whose door he came, shot an arrow at him ; and the moment the 
 arrow quitted the bow-string, they saw the spectre no more, nor 
 knew which way he was gone. At the same time adverse winds 
 blew so violently, that all the trees were thrown down ; and the 
 tempest was so fierce, that men and brutes were carried away by 
 it. Besides this, innumerable quantities of mice swarmed in 
 every house, so that the moment any thing was set down, if it 
 were not closely watched, the mice carried it away. Swarms upon 
 swarms of these vermin ran about the market-places ; and men's 
 doors being entirely torn away by the dreadful winds, the mice 
 came and gnawed off all their hair and beards while they slept. 
 Nightingales and shareks lost their own notes, and squeaked like 
 mice or hooted like owls, and never left off moaning day or night. 
 Multitudes of owls, also, entered all the houses by night; or, sit- 
 ting on the roofs, continued hooting and screeching till the morn- 
 ing. In that dreadful period, cows brought forth ass-colts ; mares, 
 the foals of camels ; bitches, kittens ; and weasels, mice. The 
 Yadavas, too, became addicted to all sorts of wickedness and 
 depravity, and were perpetually abusing and reviling the poor and 
 the good ; and left off paying all kind of respect to their spiritual 
 guides and men of science, while the order of nature was reversed, 
 and women got the better of men. Fire gave no light ; the flames 
 burnt dusky and livid ; and, at the time of sun-rise and sun-set, 
 there appeared near the sun thousands of human figures in the air, 
 with weapons in their hands, skirmishing together, and these ap- 
 pearances were visible to every body. The Yogees and the Rey- 
 shees, and the devotees, and all the religious, whatever skin they 
 Vol. in. L 
 
[ 82 ] 
 
 spread upon the ground to sit. on, after a few minutes, found in 
 the place of it nothing but worms. The moon was eclipsed on its 
 twelfth day, and the sun on the twenty-seventh of the moon. This same 
 prodigy had happened there once before, at the time of the war of 
 the Mahabbarat. Creeshna, when he saw this miracle, said, " It 
 is now thirty-six years since this same portentous sign was seen 
 in the war of the Mahabbarat, and at that time did Kandharee 
 utter her curse against us ; the very same ill omens then appeared 
 at the extinction of all the Kooroos ; and, as they portended the 
 death of all the Kooroos at that time, so they now forbode the death 
 of all the Yadavas." 
 
 One night Creeshna ordered the heralds to proclaim, that, on 
 the next day, all men should go to the banks of the river in pil- 
 grimage to a famous place of Avorship and bathing ; and that same 
 night there suddenly appeared in Dwaraka a woman of the very 
 blackest complexion ; she was also dressed in black attire, and 
 was hideous, with yellow teeth. She entered every house grinning 
 horribly a ghastly smile, and all who saw her were stricken with 
 dread. The moment any person attempted to catch her, she van- 
 ished, and immediately appeared in some other house ; so that on 
 one and the same night she was seen in almost every house at 
 Dwaraka ; and, in places where they were celebrating Yugs, such 
 heart-appalling terrors arose, that no one could possibly go thither. 
 Daemons also came, and carried away the ornaments of the women 
 and the arms of the men, and no one could impede them, or re- 
 cover the things they seized. In the midst of this dreadful tumult 
 and distraction, the heart of Creeshna, taking its direction through 
 the air, ascended to heaven, so that all men saw it, and, with a 
 confused clamour, exclaimed aloud, " Lo ! Creeshna's heart as- 
 cends its native skies !" Every one followed it with their eyes till 
 distance rendered it completely invisible. Dareke, too, the driver, 
 
[ 83 ] 
 
 having put the horses to the carriage, they took fright, and wildly 
 ran away with the carriage into the pathless regions of the air, far 
 beyond the ken of mortals. The figure on the standard of Balha- 
 dur being a falcon, and on that of Creeshna being Garoori, the 
 eagle, left the standards of themselves, and went up to heaven. 
 Apsaras hovered about in the air, and were continually wailing, 
 and crying out, " Arise ye, and flee !" and this voice resounded 
 through all the houses. On the next day, being that whereon 
 Creeshna had ordered an universal visitation to a certain holy 
 Teerthe on the bank of the river, the people sent down thither 
 great quantities of provision and wine, and took with them all 
 their finest dresses and richest ornaments : immense was the mul- 
 titude that flocked thither of men, women, and children, some in 
 carriages, some on horseback and elephants, and other means of 
 conveyance. The retailers carried down their shops thither, and 
 the people all got such accommodation as they could, either in 
 tents or under the trees. When every body was gone to the Teerthe, 
 one Oodhoo, a Yadava, who, for learning, piety, and exalted 
 merit of every kind, had no equal, took leave of Creeshna, and 
 went away towards the northern countries. This man, from the 
 brightness of his devotion, had acquired so luminous an appear- 
 ance, that wherever he went, the road for a long way shone, as if 
 with fire. When the people had all taken their places, Creeshna 
 ordered that they should first prepare a variety of victuals and 
 drink for the Brahmins ; and while they were doing so, a drunken 
 Yadava, who happened to have a pitcher of wine in his hand, 
 spilt some of its contents on the provision, and contaminated the 
 whole, so that the Brahmins would not touch a morsel of it ; and 
 Creeshna commanded the whole to be thrown to the monkeys. As 
 this was a great festival, all the first musicians, dancers, &c. began 
 their amusements ; and men, having been so long deprived of wine, 
 
 L* 
 
[ 84 ] 
 
 were now eager to indulge in it even to satiety, while Creeshna 
 arranged in order the various guests. All the elders and nobles of 
 the family, of whom Ogur Sein was the first in age, and Balhadur, 
 Creeshna's elder brother, and Beber, and Satyekee, and Keret- 
 Brema, and the sons of Creeshna, Predemne, Neset, &c. were 
 all present in that assemblage, and every one of the Yadavas of 
 note to a man. 
 
 When they were all duly seated, Balhadur, who was impatient 
 for liquor, called to the attendants to bring some pitchers of wine, 
 and set them before each person, while the master of the ceremo- 
 nies took especial care to place those persons together who were 
 known to be particularly intimate, that they might quaff the spark- 
 ling beverage with more hilarity. Balhadur and Keret-Brema 
 were thus in one party ; Predemne and Satyekee in another ; 
 Veere, or Beber, and Creeshna's younger brothers, in another. 
 Satyekee soon became extremely intoxicated, and, looking towards 
 Keret-Brema, cried out, " See that Khettree, my friends, who 
 vaunts so much of his manhood : he, with the concurrence of As- 
 westhame, went by night to attack a parcel of inoffensive young 
 people, and killed all the poor innocents most unjustly ! Yet he 
 boasts of his courage." Predemne exclaimed, " Bravo !" Keret- 
 Breme, who was also very much intoxicated, said, " Do you, 
 Satyekee, upbraid me ? you, whose merciless sword has perpetra- 
 ted so many murders?" Creeshna now hinted to Satyekee to 
 reproach Keret-Brema for killing Sete-Rajeete, and carrying away 
 his jewel. [Here the story of Sete-Rajeete is related, as in a former 
 page,* see 56 Adhyaye.] When Setebame, Creeshna's wife, heard 
 her father's name mentioned, she began to weep exceedingly, and 
 asked Creeshna how he could suffer those men to live who had 
 
 j i . .,,,,,, 
 
 * This story, which was tedious and uninteresting, and had no connection with the liistory 
 
 in point of event, I purposely omitted. M. 
 
[ 85 ] 
 
 killed her father ? but Creeshna gave her no answer. Satyekee 
 then rose up, and desired her not to grieve, assuring her that he 
 would revenge her father's blood on that villain who was the very 
 assassin that, in confederacy with Aswesthame, basely murdered 
 the sons of Dropeda, and Sookemeda, and Drestedoomne, and so 
 many thousand others : but that his life should instantly terminate 
 in expiation of all those bloody deeds. Then, drawing his cimeter, 
 he flew towards Keret-Brema, who also got up to draw his sword, 
 when Satyekee, at the first blow, cut off his head. The relations 
 of each party immediately engaged in furious contest, and several 
 were presently killed on both sides. Creeshna, seeing the violence 
 of the fray, rose up, endeavouring to appease them ; but all his 
 exclamations and endeavours were fruitless. Keret-Brema's rela- 
 tions lanced upon Satyekee ; and Predemne, having spoken to 
 Creeshna, went to keep the assailants from him ; but two of the 
 opposite party having drawn their swords, slew both Predemne 
 and Satyekee before Creeshna's face. Creeshna was now greatly 
 enraged, and, having no other weapon by him, tore up some of 
 those reeds which grew by the river's side, and struck with them 
 those who had slain Predemne and Satyekee. Wherever those 
 fatal reeds fell, they caused certain death ; and as they now began 
 to attack Creeshna himself, he presently dispatched all his assailants 
 with the same weapon. Others, also, ran and took some of the 
 same reeds, and began to fight with them, and their effect, whom- 
 soever they touched, was like the arrow of death; for, instant des- 
 truction ensued. The father here slew his son, and the son the 
 father ; brother killed brother, and relations perished by the hand 
 of each other, all fighting with these reeds for, in truth, by the 
 curse of those three Reyshees, they were all reduced to such a 
 desperate situation, that they knew not what they did, but conti- 
 nued smiting and striking, till in the end every one of Creeshna's 
 
[ 86 ] 
 
 sons and all their posterity were slain on that calamitous spof. 
 Creeshna there beheld, among others of the dead, his sons Pre- 
 demne, and Sanete, and Jaredvesoo; and Aneroodhe, the son of 
 Predemne ; and Kephe, or Goped, his own brother ; and all his 
 other relations. While he was absorbed in grief at this event, 
 Dareke, his driver, came and told him, that, before this quarrel 
 commenced, his elder brother Balhadur had risen from the assem- 
 bly, and had gone no one knew whither ; and it was much to be 
 apprehended that some fatal accident had befallen him also. 
 Creeshna immediately ordered his carriage to be got ready, that 
 he might go and seek his brother. Then himself and Veere, the 
 Yadava, mounted the chariot, and Dareke drove them. 
 
 They had proceeded but a little way when they discovered Bal- 
 hadur sitting under the shade of a pepal (or pepper) tree, with his 
 eyes closed, and apparently immersed in deep thought. Creeshna 
 and Veere, the Yadava, approached very gently, and sat down 
 beside him. But Balhadur was so much absorbed in his reflections, 
 that he did not in the least perceive any person's approach. 
 Creeshna now said to Dareke, " You see what a horrible calamity 
 has happened to all our people ! Go quickly to Rajah Judishter, 
 acquaint him with the sad catastrophe, and desire him to send 
 Arjoon hither immediately." Dareke, mounting the carriage, 
 drove with all speed towards Hastanapoor. After he was gone, 
 Creeshna said to Veere, " You are aware of the miserable fate of 
 these men ; go now to Dwaraka, and look after my wives and 
 houses, lest any thieves or villains, knowing that the town is 
 empty, should come thither in hopes of plunder, offer violence to 
 the women, and ransack the city. My father Vasudeva is also in 
 the town, pay also the utmost attention to his safety." So Veere 
 hastily returned towards the city ; but, in his way, met with a 
 hunter quite intoxicated, who had in his hands some of those fatal 
 
C 87 ] 
 
 reeds, with which he struck Veere, and killed him. A spectator 
 of this ran immediately and brought Creeshna news of his death ; 
 and Creeshna then, rousing Balhadur, said to him, " I am afraid 
 that some invader will desolate the town. I request of you to stay 
 here while I go thither, and I will return the instant I have in- 
 formed myself." Then Creeshna went directly towards Dwaraka. 
 On arriving there, he hastened to his father Vasudeva, and, after 
 salutation, acquainted him with the utter annihilation of the whole 
 of the males of the Yadava family. Vasudeva immediately began 
 to weep bitterly ; but Creeshna told him, that, notwithstanding 
 this most dreadful of all calamities, the present was not a time for 
 weeping, but that he must exert himself for the protection of the 
 women till Arjoon's arrival, for whom he had already dispatched 
 Dareke with all expedition ; that he himself must now reluctantly 
 take leave to return to his brother Balhadur, whom he had left 
 sitting disconsolate under a pepal-tree, and anxiously waiting his 
 return ; that he had formerly seen all the Kooroos slain, but that 
 now all the Yadavas, his own relations, had experienced the same 
 fate : and that, being without sons and relations of every kind, he 
 would never more come back into that city, but had made an agree- 
 ment with Balhadur that they should retire together into the desert 
 to pass their lives in prayer. Having said this, he respectfully 
 kissed Vasudeva's feet. At the same time his wives and women 
 began to weep and bewail their fate in the most heart-rending 
 plaints. Creeshna told them not to be so loud in their lamenta- 
 tions, nor to give way to excessive grief, since there was no remedy 
 for the decrees of fate ; that Arjoon would arrive there the ensuing 
 day, and dispel their sorrows. Creeshna having said this, and 
 again taken a most affectionate leave of his father and the rest, 
 departed from the city, and came to the place where he had left 
 Balhadur, whom he found sitting in the very same posture. 
 
[ 88 ] 
 
 Creeshna then beheld a snake of an enormous magnitude, and 
 exceedingly white, issue from his mouth. When the snake was 
 entirely come forth, all at once it assumed a thousand heads, and 
 went towards the river, while the carcase of Balhadur remained 
 without life under the shade of the same tree as before, while the snake 
 gradually approached the river's side. Creeshna then saw that the 
 river appeared in the figure of a Brahmin, advancing respectfully 
 forward to meet the snake, and said to it, " Approach, and be wel- 
 come." The snakes that were beneath the earth, such as Vasookee 
 and the rest, [a long catalogue of them follows,] and Varoona, who 
 is the spirit of water, all came to meet that snake, and all devoutly 
 worshipped him. That mighty snake moved on majestically in this 
 manner till he entered the river, and, going into the middle of the 
 stream, plunged into it, and was seen no more. When Creeshna saw 
 that Balhadur's spirit had finally departed, he became exceedingly 
 sorrowful. Near where he stood there was a jungle, or brake, into 
 which he entered, and, leaning his head on his knees, sat absorbed 
 in the deepest melancholy. He reflected within himself, that all 
 the effect of Kandharee's curse had now fully taken place on the 
 Yadavas, and he now called to his remembrance these prophetic 
 words which Doorvasa had once uttered to him : " O Creeshna ! 
 take care of the so/e of thy foot; for, if any evil come upon thee, 
 it will happen in that place :" (as is related in the 13th perble of 
 the Mahabbarat.) Creeshna then said to himself, " Since all the 
 Kooroos and the whole of the Yadavas are now dead and perished, 
 it is time also for me to quit the world." Then, leaning to one 
 side, and placing his feet over his thighs, he summoned up the 
 whole force of his mental and corporeal powers, while his hover- 
 ing spirit stood ready to depart. At that time there came thither 
 a hunter with his bow and arrow in his hand ; and, seeing from a 
 distance Creeshna's foot, which he had laid over his thigh, and 
 
[ 89 ] 
 
 which was partly obscured among the trees, he suspected it to be 
 some animal sitting there. Applying, therefore, to his bow and 
 arrow, the point of which was formed from the very iron of that club 
 which had issued from Sateebe's belly, he took aim, and struck 
 Creeshna in the sole of his foot. Then, thinking he had secured the 
 animal, he ran up to seize it, when, to his astonishment, he beheld 
 Creeshna there with four hands, and drest in yellow habiliments. 
 When the hunter saw that the wounded object was Creeshna, he 
 advanced, and, falling at his feet, said, " Alas, O Creeshna ! I 
 have, by the most fatal of mistakes, struck you with this arrow. 
 Seeing your foot at a distance, I did not properly discern my 
 object, but thought it to be an animal : O pardon my involuntary 
 crime !" Creeshna comforted him to the utmost of his power, say- 
 ing, " It was no fault of thine. Depart, therefore, in peace." 
 The hunter then humbly kissed his foot, and went sorrowing away: 
 The piece of iron which had stricken Creeshna was, as before-ob- 
 served, the remains of that very club which had been ground away 
 by order of Ogur Sein, and of which the small bit that was left had 
 been cast into the river, where a fish had swallowed it ; and that 
 fish, being caught, had been sold to this hunter, who, finding a 
 morsel of iron in its belly, formed it into the head of an arrow, 
 with which same arrow he wounded Creeshna. After the hunter 
 was gone, so great a light proceeded from Creeshna, that it en- 
 veloped the whole compass of the earth, and illuminated all the 
 expanse of heaven. At that instant, an innumerable tribe of Devatas 
 and other celestial beings, of all ranks and denominations, came 
 to meet Creeshna ; and he, luminous as on that night when he was 
 born in the house of Vasudeva, by that same light pursued his 
 journey between heaven and earth to the bright Vaicontha, or pa- 
 radise, whence he had descended. All this assemblage of beings, 
 who had come to meet Creeshna, exerted the utmost of their power 
 Vol. in. M 
 
[ 90 ] 
 
 to laud and glorify him. Creeshna soon arrived at the abode of 
 Eendra, who was overjoyed to behold him, and accompanied him 
 as far as the extent of Eendra-Loke reached, and offered him all 
 manner of ceremonious observances. When Creeshna had passed 
 the limits of Eendra's territory, Eendra said to him, " I have no 
 power to proceed any farther, nor is there any admission for me 
 beyond this limit." So Creeshna kindly dismissed him, and went 
 forward alone. 
 
 In the mean time Dareke, who had been sent to summon Ar- 
 joon, immediately on his arrival at Hastanapoor, waited upon 
 Rajah Judishter, who rejoiced exceedingly to see him ; but, when 
 he heard the fatal news of the death of all the Yadavas, he fell 
 down senseless through the distracting violence of his grief. When 
 he came to himself, Dareke related to him all the particulars of 
 this sad catastrophe, at which he and his brothers remained more 
 dead than alive. Arjoon, however, instantly hurried away to visit 
 Vasudeva, and see in what state Creeshna himself might be. So 
 he mounted the carriage, and came with all possible speed to 
 Dwaraka. He beheld the city in the state of a woman whose husband 
 is recently dead ; and, finding neither Creeshna nor Balhadur, nor 
 any other of his friends there, the whole place appeared in his eyes 
 as if involved in a cloud of impenetrable darkness, nor could he 
 refrain from bursting into tears. The 16,000 wives of Creeshna, 
 the moment they set their eyes on Arjoon, burst also into a flood 
 of tears, and all at once began the most bitter lamentations ; and, 
 in truth, the whole city was so rent with uproar and distraction, 
 that it surpasses description. Arjoon, on seeing them thus left 
 without husband, children, father, brother, or friend of any sort, 
 was so affected with their situation, that all his understanding, 
 judgment, and courage, forsook him ; and, for a time, he was 
 utterly unable to come to any resolution. After a long pause, 
 
[ 91 ] 
 
 recovering his bewildered intellects, he anxiously enquired were 
 Vasudeva was, and went to see him. Here the scene of grief and 
 misery was renewed ; and, after a mutual intercourse of lamenta- 
 tion, in which Vasudeva told him he had neither eaten nor drunk 
 since Creeshna had left him, Arjoon, taking Dareke with him, 
 went to Creeshna's palaces, and, summoning together such of his 
 people as were left, told them, that, in seven days from that time, 
 the sea would rise in mountain-billows, and entirely submerge the 
 city ; that, therefore, they must, before that time, exert them- 
 selves, get every carriage, elephant, and horse, in the place ready, 
 and carry away the women and all the best part of the treasure 
 towards Eendraput, i. e. Dheli ; that they must, moreover, take 
 with them Vejre, son of Aneroodhe, and Creeshna's great grand- 
 son, and seat him in the government of Dheli. He assured them 
 there was not a moment to be lost ; for, that, the very same day 
 they should quit Dwaraka, it would be deluged by the ocean; and 
 if any inhabitant loitered there, he must perish. That whole night 
 was passed by Arjoon in weeping ; he rose early the next morn- 
 ing, and after bathing was going to see Vasudeva, when he met 
 all the women running out of the house, shrieking, beating their 
 breasts, and tearing their hair. Vasudeva had expired that same 
 night, and fourteen of his wives were standing around him, among 
 whom were Yasodha, mother of Creeshna, and Roheenee, mother 
 of Balhadur. Arjoon was, at this news, again for a time bereft 
 of his senses ; but Creeshna's wives, - coming to him, roused him 
 from his trance, and told him there was no time for useless weep- 
 ing, as he had Vasudeva's funeral to direct, and to provide for 
 their own departure. Arjoon accordingly had the funeral-pile 
 prepared in the very place were Creeshna had performed the As- 
 wammedha-Yug, as Vasudeva had desired in his life time. Four 
 of his wives burnt themselves with his corpse. Arjoon next came 
 
 M 2 
 
[ 92 ] 
 
 to the fatal field of dispute, where he had fresh cause to mourn 
 over the lifeless remains of his slaughtered friends, Predemne, and 
 Creeshna's other sons, brothers, &c. all of whose bodies he caused 
 to be burnt. Search was also made for the earthly portions of 
 what once was Creeshna and Balhadur. These also he solemnly 
 committed to the flames. After he had finished these melancholy 
 ceremonies, on the sixth day Arjoon ordered that all the people, 
 men, women, and children, should quit the devoted city of Dwa- 
 raka, and take the road to Eendraput. Accordingly, they all left 
 Dwaraka ; Creeshna's 16,000 wives also, and all their servants and 
 maids in very great numbers ; and before them went Vejre, the son 
 of Anaroodhe, while Arjoon brought up the rear. On the same day 
 on which Arjoon left the city, the agitated deep began to swell, 'and 
 rising higher and higher, even to the roofs of the loftiest edifices 
 of Dwaraka, overwhelmed them in the sight of all the people, who, 
 with the utmost trepidation and horror, lest the spreading waves 
 should overtake them, travelled with all possible haste to a place 
 where five streams unite with the river Indus, and there they halted. 
 The people of that quarter were all thieves and plunderers, who, 
 seeing so many beautiful women and so much valuable treasure 
 slightly guarded, attacked the caravan, in spite of Arjoon's re- 
 monstrances and threats, and began to hurry away the women and 
 plunder the baggage. Arjoon now attempted to string his bow 
 Gandeeva, but was a long time before he could succeed. He then 
 put an arrow to the string, but with all his strength could not draw 
 the bow. He then pulled at his sword, but could not unsheath it. 
 In the mean time, every thief, at his option, took one of Creeshna's 
 wives, and bore them in triumph away. Arjoon, with great diffi- 
 culty, at last drew his bow, and shot an arrow ; but whereas for- 
 merly one arrow would do prodigious execution, and his quiver 
 remained always inexhaustible, his arrows now were soon spent, 
 
[ 93 ] 
 
 and almost wholly without effect. He next began to strike at the 
 thieves with his bow Gandeeva, but the effect was trifling. The 
 villains with ease carried off the women and the booty before his 
 face ; and Arjoon, exhausted with labour and grief, sat down to 
 weep. Some few, however, of the women, and a small part of 
 the treasure were still remaining, and Arjoon, in an agony of des- 
 pair, knelt down to pray ; when, finding his strength a little re- 
 stored, he drew his sword and killed a few of the plunderers, and 
 rescued some of the women. Ordering his people to place these 
 and the remaining baggage on the carriages again, he then pro- 
 ceeded towards Hastanapoor and Eendraput. When they came 
 to Koorookshetre, the son of Keret-Brema came out to meet them, 
 and him they established in the government of Meerenhe and sove- 
 reignty of that country. After taking care of Koorookshetre, 
 they came to Eendraput, and Arjoon settled the government of 
 that city and its dependencies on Vejre Natha, son of Anaroodhe. 
 In Koorookshetre, five of Creeshna's wives, Rokemenee, Ya- 
 moonetee, Seebeesa, Heimootee, and Kandharee, whose father 
 was of the country of Kandhar, (Candahar,) burnt themselves ; 
 while Sete-Bame, with some others, invested themselves with the 
 habits of Sanyassi's, and, forsaking the world, retired into the 
 deserts to pass their lives in solitude and prayer. 
 
 END OF THE LIFE OF CREESHNA. 
 
[ 94 ] 
 
 CONCISE ADDITIONAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE AVATAR OP 
 
 CREESHNA. 
 
 The two introductory chapters to the Life of Creeshna have 
 sufficiently shewn it to be a compound of some traditional predic- 
 tion, alluding to a great spiritual, but obscure, character, about 
 to arise from the womb of time, the preserver of the world from crimes 
 and punishments, and the history of some ancient hero ; in all pro- 
 bability of that very Rama who forms so conspicuous a portion of 
 the Avatar. Through the whole of it, however, there runs such 
 frequent reference to the power and operations of the SOLAR DEITY; 
 he combats both in youth and age with monsters so much resem- 
 bling those of the sphere, with bulls, dragons, serpents, wolves, 
 crows, and others, enrolled among the forty-eight oldest constella- 
 tions; he maintains such dreadful contests with enemies in the form 
 of tempests, whirlwinds, hurricanes, and other aerial prodigies, 
 that for a while envelope and obscure him ; and, what is not the 
 least remarkable circumstance in his history, he is so constantly 
 represented as absorbing into himself, or, as the fable expresses it, 
 receiving into his mouth, the noxious fires and devouring conflagra- 
 tions which hostilely assail his comrades ; that the astronomical 
 relation of his character to that planet cannot be passed over un- 
 observed, or its existence denied, though it is impossible -to draw 
 any exact parallel. That Osiris, too, the black divinity of Egypt, 
 and Creeshna, the sable shepherd-god of Mathura, have the striking- 
 similitude of character, intimated by Mr. Wilford, cannot be dis- 
 puted, any more than that Creeshna, from his rites, continuing so 
 universally to flourish over India from such remote periods down 
 to the present day, was the prototype, and Osiris the mythological 
 copy. Both are renowned legislators and conquerors, contending 
 
C 95 ] 
 
 equally with physical and spiritual foes ; both are denominated 
 THE SUN ; both descend to the shades, and both raise the dead to 
 life. 
 
 There is also another great personage in Asiatic antiquity to 
 whose history, as related by Herodotus, that of Creeshna bears, 
 in many parts, a striking similitude, I mean the great Cyrus, or 
 CAT COSROE of the Persians; a name apparently connected with 
 the Indian ; for, its primitive is Coresh, an old Persian name for 
 the sun, whence Creeshna might have been originally formed. In 
 that case, we may apply to our black deity of India that celebra- 
 ted line of Milton : 
 
 DARK with excess of LIGHT thy skirts appear. 
 
 The account of Cyrus in Herodotus is, in some instances, so 
 minutely particular, that a doubt can scarcely be entertained of 
 his having seen some ancient legend concerning Creeshna, and 
 consequently additional evidence is thence brought to the truth of 
 Herodotus, who could only have seen it in those Persian annals 
 which he asserts he consulted in writing his history ; a circumstance 
 extremely probable, since the remotest annals of India and Persia 
 were the same. Let any man coolly read the remarkable, though 
 generally exploded, relation of Herodotus concerning the birth and 
 exposure of the infant Cyrus, through the jealous dread and hatred 
 of his grandfather, to whom it was announced in a dream that he 
 should be dethroned by that grandson ; let him consider the ac- 
 count given in that author of his being rescued from the threatened 
 doom by the tenderness of the herdsman Mithridates and his wife 
 Spaco ; the exchange of Cyrus for their new, but still-born, son, 
 who was exposed in his stead on the mountains of Ecbatana ; his 
 being trained up in the scenes of pastoral life at their farm, and 
 
[ 96 ] 
 
 the notable circumstance of his being chosen king, or chief, as 
 Creeshna was, of the young shepherds, his companions ; together 
 with the complete fulfilment of the prophecy in the subversion of 
 the throne of Astyages :* let any person, I say, compare this sin- 
 gular narration with what he has read concerning Creeshna in the 
 preceding pages, and he will not only be convinced of the truth of 
 the assertion of Sir William Jones, that the Indian and Iranian 
 annals were originally the same, at least as to their general purport, 
 but that Herodotus had actually consulted them, and not fabrica- 
 ted, as his calumniators have asserted, an idle romance to please 
 the fabulous mythologists of Greece. But concerning the different 
 degrees of credit which ought to be given to the two only authentic 
 historians of Cyrus, Herodotus and Xenophon, an observation or 
 two will occur in a subsequent chapter relative to the second, or 
 Caianian, dynasty of Persia, in which Cyrus ranks the third; and 
 it is time that we quit this extended Avatar for that of BUDDHA, 
 the next in order of succession. 
 
 * Herodotus, lib. i. p. 81. et seq. 
 
[ 97 ] 
 
 THE NINTH INDIAN AVATAR, OR THAT OF BUDDHA, INCARNATE 
 FOR THE PURPOSE OF PUTTING A PERIOD TO SANGUINARY 
 SACRIFICES OF MEN AND BEASTS. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The vast Extent in which the religions and philosophical Doctrines of 
 BUDDHA, the Ninth Avatar, have been diffused throughout Asia. 
 Sanscreet Documents concerning himself and his extraordinary His- 
 tory. His secluded and penitentiary Life, persevered in with a View 
 more efficaciously to inculcate the main Object of his Avatar, PARDON 
 WITHOUT PROPITIATORY SACRIFICE, the grand Exemplar which 
 the ancient Gymnosophists and the modern Yogees imitated in the 
 dreadful and disgusting Austerities to which, from remote ages, 
 they have voluntarily devoted themselves. 
 
 1 HE ninth Avatar, or that of BUDDHA, commenced, according 
 to Sir William Jones, in the year 1014 before Christ.* Buddha, 
 however, must have nourished at a period much earlier, if, as is 
 intimated in another part of the Asiatic Researches, he appeared on 
 earth towards the commencement of the Cali-Yug, and married Ila, 
 whose father (Noah, or llus, as he is called by Sanchoniatho-f) 
 was preserved in a miraculous ark from a universal deluge.^ Possibly 
 Buddha may be the name of a dynasty, as were Bali and Rama; a 
 dynasty extending from very remote a?ras down to periods compara- 
 
 * Asiatic Researches, vol. i. p. 425. f See Bishop Cumberland's Sanchoniatho, p. 29. 
 
 * Asiatic Researches, vol. ii. p. 376. 
 
 Vol. in. N 
 
[ 98 ] 
 
 tively recent in their romantic annals; and, in fact, Buddha is to be 
 found in a preceding page at the head of the great lunar dynasty 
 of India. His Avatar is asserted to have taken place for the ex- 
 press purpose of putting a stop to the bloody sacrifices with which 
 the Brahmins had polluted the pristine purity and simplicity of 
 their religion. A rock-altar, therefore, that altar on which the 
 blood of animals had profusely flowed, was sacred to him through- 
 out Asia ; and he himself was often represented by a huge columnar 
 black stone, black being among the ancients a colour emblematical 
 of the inscrutable nature of the Deity. How wide his fame and 
 the mild rites of his religion were diffused will be evident, when 
 it is considered that the Indian Buddha is the Budso and Dai-Bod, 
 that is, Deva-Buddha, of the Japanese, whose history and super- 
 stitious rites are detailed at great length by Kaempfer. Among 
 other circumstances, he relates, that, in the reign of the eleventh 
 emperor from Syn Mu, Budo came over from the Indies into Ja- 
 pan, and brought with him, upon a white horse, his religion and 
 doctrine.* Kaempfer here evidently confounds the two last Ava- 
 tars, the tenth being a warrior with a winged white horse. Chrono- 
 logy marks him for the undoubted Fot of China, the name being 
 thus softened down by a race who have neither a B nor D in their 
 alphabet. He was the Wod, or original Oden, of the Scandinavi- 
 ans, proved to have been so by the rock-worship in use among 
 them and their Druid-descendants in Europe. For the same rea- 
 son he is known to be the elder Thoth and Hermes of Egypt, 
 pyramids and certain pillars called Herma being sacred to that 
 deity. He is also known to be the Taut, or Mercury, of Phoeni- 
 cia, as well by the same species of rude worship and symbols, (the 
 Mercurial heaps,) as by the very curious circumstance, often be- 
 
 * Ksempfer's Japan, lib. ii. p. 163. 
 
[ 99 ] 
 
 fore alluded to in this work and the Indian Antiquities, that the 
 fourth day of the week, (our Wednesday, a corruption of Woden's 
 day,) which is assigned to Buddha in India, called Bhood-War, 
 is the Dies Mercurii of the West. There is also some reason to 
 suppdse, from the following passage of Sir William Jones, that 
 the rites of his religion were not wholly unknown among the Ara- 
 bians, whose principal divinity was represented under the form of 
 a cubical black stone. He observes, that, " the powers of God 
 represented as female deities, the adoration of stones, and the name 
 of the idol WUDD, induce us strongly to suspect that some of the 
 Hindoo superstitions had found their way into Arabia; and, though 
 we have no trace in Arabian history of such a conqueror or legis- 
 lator as the great SESAC, who is said to have raised pillars in Ye- 
 men as well as at the mouth of the Ganges, yet, since we know that 
 SACYA is a title of BUDDHA, whom I suppose to be WODEN, and 
 since the age of Sesac perfectly agrees with that of Sacya, we may 
 form a plausible conjecture that they were in fact the same person 
 who travelled eastward from Ethiopia, either as a warrior or as a 
 lawgiver, about a thousand years before Christ, and whose rites we 
 now see extend as far as the country of Nifon, or, as the Chinese 
 call it, Japuen, both words signifying the vising sun."* 
 
 Buddha is not entirely unknown even to classical writers : Arrian 
 denominates him, as we have seen before in the chapter concern- 
 ing Hercules, Budeeiis rf~ and Clemens, of Alexandria, terms him 
 Bouta.$. Buddha opposed the sanguinary sacrifices of the Brah- 
 mins, and, consequently, in a degree, the holy Vedas themselves 
 which enjoined them : in India, therefore there has always been a 
 sect who are violently hostile to the followers of Buddha, denomi- 
 nating them atheists and denying the genuineness of his Avatar. 
 
 * See bis Essay on the Arabians. f Arrian in Indicis, p. 421. J Stroinata, lib. i. p. 35. 
 
 N 2 
 
But the rescinding of a precept when abused is no valid argument 
 against its original rectitude ; and how far the philosophical doc- 
 trines promulgated by Buddha may be considered as tending to 
 establish materialism will be the subject of future discussion. The 
 learned Indians seem, from a very remote period, to have been 
 divided into two grand sects, a circumstance noticed by classical 
 writers, who name them Brachmans and Samanaeans, z. e. the fol- 
 lowers of Samanacodom, an appellative of Buddha. Hence Mr. 
 Chambers, in the Asiatic Researches,* where he is treating of 
 some grand remains of ancient Hindoo temples and sculptures, 
 like those of Salsette and Elephanta, cut out of the solid rock, on 
 the Coromandel coast, observes, that there anciently prevailed in 
 India, or at least in the Peninsula, a system of religion, very dif- 
 ferent from that inculcated in the Vedas, and, in some respects, 
 totally inconsistent with the principles and practice of the present 
 Brahmins. This religion still flourishes in the farther Peninsula, 
 particularly among the Siamese, between whom and the inhabi- 
 tants of Deccan and Ceylone, it is evident, from his Dissertation, 
 that a considerable intercourse, in very remote periods, has subsis- 
 ted. Mr. Chambers supposes this religion to be the worship of the 
 God BOODH, whose votaries, Mr. Knox observes, took particular 
 pride in erecting to his honour temples and high monuments, " as 
 if they had been born solely to hew rocks and great stones, and 
 lay them up in heaps. "-f- Their kings, he adds, are now happy 
 spirits, having merited heaven by those stupendous labours. In 
 the same treatise, among other evidences of the probability of his 
 supposition, Mr. Chambers has inserted a passage from M. Gentil, 
 
 * Asiatic Researches, vol. i. p. 145. 
 
 t See Knox's curious and authentic historical account of the island of Ceylone ; published 
 at/ London, 1681. 
 
t 101 ] 
 
 who remarked, in the neighbourhood of Verapatnam ; a statue of 
 granite, very hard and beautiful, probably" of many thousand 
 weight, but half sunk in the deep sand, and standing, as it were, 
 abandoned in the midst of that extensive plain. He observed 
 " that it exactly resembled THE SAMANACODOM, or principal stone 
 deity of the Siamese, in,the form of its head, in its features, and 
 in the position of its arms, but that it bore no similitude to the 
 present idols of the Hindoos; and, upon inquiry of the Tamulians, 
 he was constantly informed, that it was the God BOODH, who was 
 now no longer regarded, since the Brahmins had made themselves 
 
 o o 
 
 masters of the people's faith."* 
 
 To explain the obscure and apparently contradictory circum- 
 stances above alluded to in the history of Buddha, I mean his op- 
 pugning the doctrines of the Vedas, and his being considered in 
 India as a favourer of the principles of Materialism, principles so 
 directly contrary to the sublime conceptions of the Brahmins con- 
 cerning the Diety as an active spirit pervading every particle of 
 matter, a conjecture has been started by some Indian mythologists, 
 that, as there were two exalted personages in antiquity of the name 
 of Hermes, so there might have been two Buddhas ; the latter, an 
 usurper of his name and honours, they suppose to be the famous 
 BUDIIA SAKIA, a priest of Memphis, mentioned by Kaempfer to 
 have been driven from Egypt, with others of his persecuted breth- 
 ren, to the shores of India, during the ravages of Cambyses, in the 
 year 525 before Christ, -f- In fact, it is not uncommon in the 
 complex system of Asiatic mythology to find two persons of the 
 same name, and of doctrines presumed similar, living in quite 
 different ages, as in the case of Zoroaster, Orpheus, and Hermes ; 
 
 * Mr. Chambers in the Asiatic Researches, in loco citat. 
 t Kaempfer's Japan, vol. i. p. 38. edit. 1728. 
 
[ 102 ] 
 
 L 
 "and the cause qf.it is to be found in the general belief of the 
 
 Asiatics in the doctrine of the Metempsychosis, in the stages of 
 which the same spirit was supposed to animate, at different periods, 
 different human forms. Ingenious, however, as the attempted 
 solution of this difficulty may appear, it by no means effectually 
 removes it ; and the best explanation will be a concise, but fair, 
 statement of the genuine doctrines of Buddha, which have been 
 manifestly perverted by the sophists of India from their original 
 meaning. Buddha signifies a nise man, and Sacya, his other title, 
 means a feeder upon vegetables : this Avatar was, therefore, intended 
 not only to put an effectual termination to the barbarous custom of 
 profusely shedding bestial blood, its more professed object, but to 
 impress on the Indians the maxims of a sublime and sound 
 philosophy, the consequence of the practice of which would render 
 sacrificial atonement for crimes less necessary ; to animate them 
 to the attainment of purity and pardon by personal mortification 
 and severe abstinence rather than by the expiatory ablution of a 
 more innocent animal ; in fact, to inculcate, according to the pre- 
 cept and practice of Buddha, a total subjugation of sense and an 
 utter annihilation of passion. 
 
 These general remarks will serve as no improper introduction to 
 such authentic Sanscreet documents of this Avatar as from various 
 sources I have been able to collect together for its more complete 
 elucidation. 
 
 I cannot more properly commence the native accounts concern- 
 ing this Avatar of Buddha, than by inserting the subsequent extract 
 relating to him, from the Asiatic Researches. It is part of a transla- 
 tion, by Sir John Shore, of an inscription on a silver plate found 
 in a cave near Islamabad. The reader is already too well ac- 
 quainted with the romantic style in which all the Indian legends are 
 written to need any apology for my inserting it verbatim. From 
 
[ 103 ] 
 
 the presence and services of so many deities of superior order at 
 his birth, and on other occasions, a just idea of the importance of 
 his character may be formed, and fully establishes his title to the 
 distinguished rank of an AVATAR. 
 
 " God sent into the world Buddha-Avatar to instruct and direct 
 the steps of angels and of men ; of whose birth and origin the fol- 
 lowing is a relation : When Buddha-Avatar descended from the 
 region of souls in the month of Magh, and entered the body of 
 Mahamaya, the wife of Sootah Dannah, rajah of Cailas, her womb 
 suddenly assumed the appearance of clear transparent chrystal, in 
 which Buddha appeared, beautiful as a flower, kneeling and re- 
 clining on his hands. After ten months and ten days of her preg- 
 nancy had elapsed, Mahamaya solicited permission from her hus- 
 band, the rajah, to visit her father, in conformity to which the roads 
 were directed to be repaired and made clear for her journey ; fruit- 
 trees were planted ; water-vessels placed on the road-side ; and 
 great illuminations prepared for the occasion. Mahamaya then 
 commenced her journey, and arrived at a garden adjoining to the 
 road, where inclination led her to walk and gather flowers. At this 
 time, being suddenly attacked with the pains of child-birth, she laid 
 hold on the trees for support, which declined their boughs at the 
 instant, for the purpose of concealing her person, while she was 
 delivered of the child; at which juncture Brahma himself attended 
 with a golden vessel in his hand, on which he laid the child, and 
 delivered it to Eendra, by whom it was committed to the charge of 
 a female attendant ; upon which the child, alighting from her arms, 
 walked seven paces, whence it was taken up by Mahamaya, and 
 carried to her house ; and, on the ensuing morning, news were cir- 
 culated of a child being born in the rajah's family. At this time 
 Tapaswi Muni, who, residing in the woods, devoted his time to the 
 worship of the Deity, learned by inspiration that Buddha was come 
 
[ 104 ] 
 
 to life in the rajah's palace : he flew through the air to the rajah's 
 residence, where, sitting on a throne, he said, ' I have repaired 
 hither for the purpose of visiting the child.' Buddha was accord- 
 ingly brought into his presence : the Muni observed two feet fixed 
 on his head, and, divining something both of good and bad im- 
 port, began to weep and to laugh alternately. The rajah then 
 questioned him with regard to his present impulse, to whom he 
 answered, ' I must not reside in the same place with Buddha, when 
 he shall arrive at the rank of Avatar : this is the cause of my pre- 
 sent affliction, but I am even now affected with gladness by his 
 presence, as I am hereby absolved from all my transgressions.' 
 The Muni then departed ; and, after five days had elapsed, he 
 assembled four Pandits for the purpose of calculating the destiny 
 of the child ; three of whom divined, that, as he had marks on his 
 hands resembling a wheel, he would at length become a Rajah 
 Chacraverti ; another divined, that he would arrive at the dignity 
 of Avatar. 
 
 " The boy was now named Sacya, and nothing important oc- 
 , curred till he had attained the age of sixteen years ; at which period 
 it happened, that the Rajah Chuhidan had a daughter named 
 Vasutara, whom he had engaged not to give in marriage to any 
 one till such time as a suitor should be found who could brace a 
 certain bow in his possession, which hitherto many rajahs had at- 
 tempted to accomplish without effect. Sacya now succeeded in 
 the attempt, and, accordingly obtained the rajah's daughter in 
 marriage, with whom he repaired to his own royal residence. 
 
 " One day, as certain mysteries were revealed to him, he formed 
 the design of relinquishing his dominion ; at which time a son was 
 born in his house, whose name was Raghu. Sacya then left his 
 palace with only one attendant and a horse, and, having crossed 
 the river Ganga, arrived at Balucali, where, having directed his 
 
[ 105 ] 
 
 servant to leave him and carry away his horse, he laid aside his 
 armour. 
 
 " When the world was created, there appeared five flowers, 
 which Brahma deposited in a place of safety : three of them were 
 afterwards delivered to the three Thacurs, and one was presented 
 to Sacya, who discovered that it contained some pieces of wearing- 
 apparel, in which he clothed himself, and adopted the manners and 
 life of a mendicant. A traveller one day passed by him with eight 
 bundles of grass on his shoulders, and, addressing him, said, ' A 
 long period of time has elapsed since I have seen the Thacur ; but 
 now, since I have the happiness to meet him, I beg to present him 
 an offering consisting of these bundles of grass/ Sacya accordingly 
 accepted the grass, and reposed on it. At that time there suddenly 
 appeared a golden temple, containing a chair of wrought gold, and 
 the height of the temple was thirty cubits, upon which Brahma 
 alighted, and held a canopy over the head of Sacya : at the same 
 time Eendra descended with a large fan in his hand, and Naga, the 
 rajah of serpents, with sandals in his hand, together with the four 
 tutelar deities of the four corners of the universe ; who all attended to 
 do him service and reverence. At this time, likewise, the chief of 
 Assoors, with his forces, arrived, riding on an elephant, to give battle 
 to Sacya, upon which Brahma, Eendra, and the other deities, de- 
 serted him and vanished. Sacya, observing that he Avas left alone, 
 invoked the assistance of the Earth ; who, attending at his summons, 
 brought an inundation over all the ground, whereby the Assoor and 
 his forces were vanquished, and compelled to retire. 
 
 " At this time five holy scriptures descended from above, and 
 Sacya was dignified with the title of Buddha-Avatar. The scriptures 
 confer powers of knowledge and retrospection, the ability of accom- 
 plishing the impulses of the heart, and of carrying into effect the 
 words of the mouth. Sacya resided here, without breaking his fast, 
 
 Vol. HI. O 
 
[ 106 ] 
 
 twenty-one days, and then returned to his own country, where he 
 presides over rajahs, governing them with care and equity."* 
 
 From the same collection I present the reader with the following 
 translation, by Mr. Wilkins, of a Sanscreet inscription, copied from 
 a stone at Booddha-Gaya, in the province of Bahar. 
 
 "In the midst of a wild and dreadful forest, flourishing with trees 
 of sweet-scented flowers, and abounding in fruits and roots ; infested 
 with lions and tigers, destitute of human society, and frequented by 
 the Munis, resided Buddha, the author of happiness, and a portion of 
 Narayen. This deity Haree, who is the lord Hareesa, the possessor of 
 all, appeared in this ocean of natural beings at the close of the 
 Dwapar, and beginning of the Cali Yug : he who is omnipresent and 
 everlastingly to be contemplated, the Supreme Being, the Eternal 
 One, the Divinity worthy to be adored by the most praise-worthy of 
 mankind, appeared here with a portion of his divine nature. 
 
 " Once upon a time the illustrious Amara, renowned amongst 
 men, coming hither, discovered the Supreme Being, Buddha, in the 
 great forest. The wise Amara endeavoured to render the God 
 Buddha propitious by superior service; and he remained in the 
 forest for the space of twelve years, feeding upon roots and fruits, 
 and sleeping upon the bare earth ; and he performed the vow of 
 a Muni, and was without transgression. He performed acts of severe 
 mortification ; for, he was a man of infinite resolution, with a com- 
 passionate heart. One night he had a vision, and heard a voice, 
 saying, ' Name whatever boon thou wantest.' Amara-Deva, having 
 heard this, was astonished, and, with due reverence, replied, ' First, 
 give me a visitation, and then grant me such a boon/ He had 
 another dream in the night, and the voice said, ' How can there be 
 an apparition in the Cali-Yug? The same reward may be obtained 
 
 * Asiatic Researches, vol. ii. p. 30!). 
 
[ 107 ] 
 
 from the sight of an image, or from the worship of an image, as may 
 be derived from the immediate visitation of a deity/ Having heard 
 this, he caused an image of the Supreme Spirit Buddha to be made, 
 and he worshipped it, according to the law, with perfumes, incenses, 
 and the like; and he thus glorified the name of that Supreme 
 Being, the incarnation of a portion of Veeshnu : ' Reverence be unto 
 thee in the form of Buddha ! Reverence be unto the Lord of the 
 earth ! Reverence be unto thee, an incarnation of the Deity and the 
 Eternal One ! Reverence be unto thee, O God, in the form of the 
 God of Mercy, the Dispeller of pain and trouble, the Lord of all 
 things, the Deity who overcometh the sins of the Cali-Yug, the Guar- 
 dian of the Universe, the Emblem of Mercy towards those who serve 
 thee! OM, the possessor of all things in vital form! Thou art 
 Brahma, Veeshnu, and Mahesa! Thou art Lord of the Universe! 
 Thou art, under the proper form of all things, moveable and im- 
 moveable, the possessor of the whole ! and thus I adore thee. Re- 
 verence be unto the Bestower of salvation, and Resheekesa, the 
 ruler of the faculties ! Reverence be unto thee, (Kesavah,) the 
 destroyer of the evil spirit Kesee ! O Damordara, shew me favour ! 
 Thou art he who resteth upon the face of the milk}' ocean, and 
 who lieth upon the serpent Sesha. Thou art Treeviekrama, (who, 
 at three strides, encompassed the earth!) I adore thee, who art 
 celebrated by a thousand names, and under various forms, in the 
 shape of Buddha, the God of Mercy ! Be propitious, O Most 
 High God!' 
 
 " Having thus worshipped the guardian of mankind, he became 
 like one of the just. He joyfully caused a holy temple to be built 
 of a wonderful construction, and therein were set up the divine foot 
 of Veeshnu, for ever purifier of the sins of mankind, the images of 
 the Pandoos, and of the descents of Veeshnu, and in like manner of 
 Brahma and the rest of the divinities. 
 
 O 2 
 
[ 108 ] 
 
 " This place is renowned, and it is celebrated by the name of 
 Booddha-Gaya. The forefathers of him who shall perform the 
 ceremony of the Sradha at this place shall obtain salvation. The 
 great virtue of the Sradha, performed here, is to be found in the 
 book called Vayoo-Poorana ; an epitome of which hath by me been 
 engraved upon stone. 
 
 " Veekramadeetya was certainly a king renowned in the world. 
 So in his court there were nine learned men, celebrated under the 
 epithet of the Nava Ratnanee, or Nine Jew els; one of whom was 
 Amara-Deva, who was the king's chief-counsellor, a man of great 
 genius and profound learning, and the greatest favourite of his 
 prince. He it certainly was who built the holy temple which 
 destroyeth sin, in a place in Jamboodweep, where, the mind being 
 steady, it obtains its wishes, and in a place where it may obtain sal- 
 vation, reputation, and enjoyment, even in the country of Bharata, 
 and in the province of Cicata, where the place of Buddha, purifier 
 of the sinful, is renowned. A crime of a hundred fold shall un- 
 doubtedly be expiated from a sight thereof, of a thousand fold from 
 a touch thereof, and of a hundred thousand fold from worshipping 
 thereof. But where is the use of saying so much of the great 
 virtues of this place? Even the hosts of heaven worship with joyful 
 service both day and night. 
 
 " That it may be known to learned men that he verily erected the 
 house of Buddha, I have recorded, upon stone, the authority of the 
 place, as a self-evident testimony, on Friday, the fourth day of the 
 new moon, in the month of Madhoo, when in the seventh, or man- 
 sion of Ganisa, and in the year of the era of Veekramadeetya 1005." 
 As the period of Buddha's incarnation is of the highest conse- 
 quence in the arrangement of the chronology of India, Sir William 
 Jones has very much laboured, and, 1 think, as far as possible, has 
 determined, that difficult point. He tells us, that the priests of 
 

 
 [ 109 ] 
 
 Buddha left in Tibet and China the precise epoch of his appear- 
 ance, real or imagined, in India ; and their information, which had 
 been preserved in writing, was compared by the Christian mission- 
 aries and scholars with our own era. Couplet, De Guignes, Giorgi, 
 and Bail! y, differ a little in their accounts of this epoch, but that of 
 Couplet seems the most correct. On taking, however, the medium 
 of the four several dates, we may fix the time of Buddha, or the 
 ninth great incarnation of Veeshnu, in the year one thousand and 
 fourteen before the birth of Christ, or two thousand seven hundred 
 and ninety-nine years ago. Now the Cashmirians, who boast of his 
 descent in their kingdom, assert that he appeared on earth about 
 two centuries after Creeshna, the Indian Apollo, who took so de- 
 cided a part in the war of the Mahabbarat ; and, if an etymologist 
 were to suppose that the Athenians had embellished their poetical 
 history of Pand ion's expulsion and the restoration of ^geus with the 
 Asiatic tale of the Pandoos and Judishter, neither of which words 
 they could have articulated, his conjecture ought not hastily to be 
 derided. Certain it is, that Pandumandel is called by the Greeks the 
 country of Pandion. 
 
 The following are two Sanscreet lines, taken from an ancient book 
 of high authority, and cited by our author for the purpose of fixing 
 the precise time of the appearance of this Avatar in India. The obser- 
 vations that follow will advance us still farther in the history of this 
 obscure character. 
 
 " Asau vyactah calerabclasaliasradvvitay gat, 
 
 " Murtili patalaverna'sya dwibhuja cliicurojj'liita ; or, 
 
 " He became visible, the thousand and second year of the Cali 
 age being past ; his body of a colour between white and ruddy, with 
 two arms, without hair on his head," (that is, as a penitent.) 
 
 Cicata, named in the text as the birth-place of Buddha, he tells us 
 is supposed to have been Dhermaranya, a wood near Gaya, where a 
 
[ no ] 
 
 colossal image of that ancient deity still remains : it seemed to him 
 of black stone ; but, as he saw it by torch-light, he could not be po- 
 sitive as to its colour, which may, indeed, have been changed by 
 time. 
 
 The Brahmins, he adds, univerally speak of the Buddhas 
 with all the malignity of an intolerant spirit, yet the most orthodox 
 among them consider Buddha himself as an incarnation of Veeshnu. 
 It seems highly probable, therefore, that the Buddha, whom 
 Jayadeva celebrates in his hymn, was the Sacyasinha, or lio n of 
 Sacya, who, though he forbad the sacrifices of cattle, which the 
 Vedas enjoin, was believed to be Veeshnu himself in a human form, 
 and that another Buddha, one perhaps of his followers in a later 
 age, assuming his name and character, attempted to overset the whole 
 system of the Brahmins, and was the cause of that persecution from 
 which the Buddhas are known to have fled into very distant regions. 
 May we not reconcile the singular difference of opinion among the 
 Hindoos, as to the time of Buddha's appearance, by supposing that 
 they have confounded the two Buddhas, the first of whom was born 
 a few years before the close of the last age, and the second when 
 above a thousand years of the present age had elapsed ?* 
 
 Of the account given of this curious Avatar, and the doctrines of 
 Buddha, in the Ayeen Akbery, the following is the substance: His 
 father, according to Abul Fazil,-j- was Rajah Siddown, prince of 
 Bahar, and his mother, named Maia, was delivered of him through 
 her navel. At his birth there shone forth a wonderful light; the 
 earth trembled, and the water of the Ganges rose and fell in a most 
 astonishing manner. The very hour he was born he walked seven 
 steps, and discoursed with an eloquence that ravished the hearts of 
 
 * Sir William Jones in Asiatic Researches, vol. ii. p. 93. 
 f Ayeeri Akbery, vol. iii. p. 157. 
 
[ 111 ] 
 
 his hearers. The early part of his life is said to have been spent in 
 retirement from the world, and contempt of its grandeur ; in acts of 
 severe penance, and in the incessant worship of Mahadeva. He had 
 likewise the gift of prophecy, and could alter the course of nature. 
 It was predicted of Buddha that he should introduce a new religion 
 into the world. The prediction was fulfilled, and the leading prin- 
 ciple of that benevolent religion was, that the horrid custom of. 
 offering up men and beasts in sacrifice should be abolished. He is 
 said to have had above eighty thousand disciples, who propagated 
 his doctrines through all the neighbouring kingdoms ; and ten only 
 of these disciples published five thousand volumes in honour of their 
 master. At the close of a life, whose duration was one hundred 
 years, consumed in acts of exemplary piety and beneficence, it is 
 asserted that Buddha, convoking his disciples together, retracted the 
 pious doctrines which he had, through the whole of that prolonged 
 life, inculcated ; telling them that the worship of any deity was 
 mere delusion, for that, in fact, no deity presided over the universe ; 
 that every thing is the effect of blind chance, and that the world is 
 eternal, but subject, at stated periods, to alternate destruction and 
 renovation. The sacred character of an Avatar, however, as we 
 before observed, absolutely forbids the possibility of his speaking in 
 this impious manner, though doctrines very similar are imputed to 
 Buddha by some of the more inveterate of the sect of the Brahmins -. 
 and it is in part to explain this difficulty, as well as to account for 
 some other contradictions in his character, that the existence of a 
 second Buddha has been supposed, who flourished many centuries 
 after the first, and who imported those principles into India from 
 Egypt, where Plato, in his Timaeus, has expressly asserted that such 
 doctrines were maintained. 
 
 It is to Mr. Wilford, who has gone pretty much at large into the 
 history of this Avatar, that we must ultimately recur for a genuine 
 
[ 112 ] 
 
 account both of Buddha and his doctrines. To me, however, it 
 appears exceedingly singular, that both Sir William Jones and him- 
 self should coincide in assigning to Buddha an Egyptian origin ; for 
 surely the Brahmins, so devoted as they are, and ever have been, to 
 their native country and ancient rites, would never have conferred 
 the exalted dignity and distinguished rank of an AVATAR on a 
 foreigner ? The matter is inexplicable, except by the supposition, by 
 no means improbable, that this Avatar took place at the remote 
 period when Misrasthan, or Egypt, formed a permanent part of the 
 great Indian empire ; though even that supposition will not account 
 for the asserted difference in features of the images of Buddha from 
 those of the old Hindoo idols. 
 
 " Most of the Brahmins insist, that the Buddha, who perverted 
 Divodasa, was not the ninth incarnation of Veeshnu, whose name, 
 some say, should be written Bauddha, or Boddha ; but not to men- 
 tion the Armacosh, the Mugdhabodh, and the Gitagovinda, in all 
 of which the ninth Avatar is called Buddha ; it is expressly declared 
 in the Bhagavat, that Veeshnu should appear ninthly in the form 
 of ' Buddha, son of Jina, for the purpose of confounding the Dityas, 
 at a place named Cicata, when the Cali age should be completely 
 begun.' On this passage it is only remarked, by Sridhara Swami, 
 the celebrated commentator, that Jina and Ajina were two names of 
 the same person, and that Cicata was in the district of Gaya ; but the 
 Pandoos, who assisted in the Persian (that is, the preceding) transla- 
 tion of the Bhagavat, gave the following account of the ninth 
 Avatar : The Dityas had asked Eendra by what means they could 
 attain the dominion of the world ; and he had answered, that they 
 could only attain it by sacrifice, purification, and piety ; they made 
 preparations accordingly for a solemn sacrifice and general ablution ; 
 but Veeshnu, on the intercession of the Devas, descended in the 
 shape of a Sanyassi, named Buddha, with ///.s hair braided in a knot 
 
[ 113 ] 
 
 on the crown of his head, wrapt in a squalid mantle, and with a broom 
 in his hand. Buddha presented himself to the Dityas, and was 
 kindly received by them ; but, when they expressed their surprise 
 at his foul vesture, and the singular implement which he carried, he 
 told them, that it was cruel, and consequently impious, to deprive any 
 creature of life; that, whatever might be said in the Vedas, every 
 sacrifice of an animal was an abomination, and that purification 
 itself was wicked, because some small insect might be killed in 
 bathing or washing cloth ; that he never bathed, and constantly 
 swept the ground before him, lest he should tread on some innocent 
 reptile : he then expatiated on the inhumanity of giving pain to the 
 playful and harmless kid, and reasoned with such eloquence, that 
 the Dityas wept, and abandoned all thought of ablution and sacri- 
 fice. As this Maya, or illusive appearance, of Veeshnu, frustrated 
 the ambitious project of the Dityas, one of Buddha's titles is the Son 
 of Maya : he is also named Sacyasinha, or the lion of the race of 
 Sacya, from whom he descended, an appellation which seems to 
 intimate that he was a conqueror or a warrior as well as a phi- 
 losopher. Whether Buddha was a sage or a hero, the leader of a 
 colony or a whole colony personified, whether he was black or 
 fair, whether his hair was curled or straight, if indeed he had any 
 hair, (which a commentator on the Bhagavat denies,) whether he 
 appeared ten, or two hundred,* or a thousand years, after Creeshna, 
 it is very certain that he was not of the true Indian race : in all his 
 images, and in the statues of Bauddhas, male and female, which are 
 to be seen in many parts of these provinces, and in both peninsulas, 
 there is an appearance of something Egyptian or Ethiopian ; and 
 both in features and dress they differ widely from the ancient 
 Hindoo figures of heroes and demi-gods. Sacya has a resemblance 
 
 * It is generally supposed that he appeared two hundred years after Creeshna. M. 
 
 Vol. in. P 
 
[ 114 ] 
 
 in sound to Sisac, and we find Chanac abbreviated from Chanacya ; 
 so that Sisac and Sesonchosis may be corrupted from Sacyasinha, 
 with a transposition of some letters, which we know to be frequent 
 in proper names, as in the. Avord Banares. Many of his statues in 
 India are colossal, nearly naked, and usually represented sitting in a 
 contemplative attitude ; nor am I disinclined to believe, that the 
 famed statue of Memnon, in Egypt, was erected in honour of 
 Mahiman, which has Mahimna in one of its oblique cases, and the 
 Greeks could hardly have pronounced that word otherwise than 
 Maimna or Memna. They certainly use Mai instead of Maha ; for 
 Hesychius expressly says, MJ, peyd. 'ivSoi; and Mai signifies great 
 even in modern Coptic. We are told that Mahiman, by his wife 
 Mahamanya, had a son named Sharmana Cardama, who seems to be 
 the Samana Coclom of the Bauddhas, unless those last words be 
 corrupted from Samanta Gotam, \vhich are found in the Amarcosh 
 among Buddha's names. Cardam, Avhich properly means clay or 
 mud, Avas the first created man, according to some Indian legends ; 
 but the Puranas mention about seven or eight, who claimed the 
 priority of creation. Be this as it may, Cardama lived in Varuna- 
 Chanda, so called from his son Varuna, the god of ocean. 
 
 " The three sects of Jina, Mahiman, and Buddha, Avhatever may 
 be the difference between them, are all named Bauddhas ; and, as 
 the chief laAv, in Avhich, as the Brahmins assert, they make virtue 
 and religion consist, is to preserve the lives of all animated beings, we 
 cannot but suppose, that the founder of their sect Avas Buddha, the 
 ninth Avatar, who, in the Agnipuran, has the epithet of Sacripi, or 
 Benevolent; and, in the Gitagovinda, that of Sadaya-Hridaya, or 
 Tender-Hearted : it is added by Jayadeva, that ' he censured the 
 Avhole Veda, because it prescribed the immolation of cattle.' This 
 alone, we see, has not destroyed their A^eneration for him; but they 
 contend that atheistical dogmas have been propagated by modern 
 
Bauddhas, who were either his disciples or those of a younger Bud- 
 dha, or so named from Buddhi, because they admit no Supreme 
 Divinity, but intellect."* 
 
 The reader has now been presented with all the various opinions, 
 concerning this singular Avatar, of the Indian literati ; he has like- 
 wise before him such native accounts of the history of Buddha as I 
 could collect from the sources hitherto investigated, which, after all, 
 we see, Mr. Wilford considers as insufficient for the full display of his 
 character and doctrines. These accounts, however, so minute as to 
 the place and time of his birth, in my humble judgement amply de- 
 monstrate the true Buddha to have been an Hindoo, and not a fo- 
 reigner ; a rigid penitent, like SAC YA, not a triumphant conqueror, 
 like SESAC. Added to this, Buddha is throughout these accounts 
 considered as the preserver of life, not the destroyer of it ; as the 
 benevolent friend of his species, not the merciless exterminator of 
 mankind. It unfolds a stupendous system of human penance, 
 founded on the extensive basis of the Metempsychosis. It exhibits 
 man as coming into the world a miserable delinquent; it consequently, 
 in a most powerful manner, confirms the scripture-doctrine of 
 THE FALL; and it finally and unanswerably establishes that grand 
 principle, (let it be denominated system, or by whatever other odious 
 term the sceptic pleases,) on which this work originally set out, that 
 throughout Asia, and particularly in India, amidst the immense 
 mass of its mythological superstitions, are to be found, as deeply as 
 widely diffused, the evident vestiges of the primitive patriarchal 
 doctrines, for many centuries preserved inviolably sacred in the first 
 virtuous branches of Shem, the father and founder of the Persian 
 empire ; that Shem who I have more than once observed was, in the 
 
 * Asiatic Researches, vol. iii. p. 157. 
 P2 
 
[ 116 ] 
 
 succeeding ages of idolatry, when the Sabian superstition became 
 genera], canonized in the beneficent Mithra. 
 
 If, therefore, doctrines at all tending towards materialism have 
 been ingrafted on those originally promulged by Buddha, they are 
 evidently a base forgery, because utterly inconsistent with the 
 main principle of genuine Buddhism, viz. an ardent desire in its 
 professors, by means of abstraction from matter, by a subjuga- 
 tion of the senses, and a course of the most dreadful austerities un- 
 dauntedly persevered in, to become worthy of being re-united to the 
 supreme Spirit from which the soul of man, however gradually in 
 the progress of ages depraved, originally emaned. For the particular 
 detail of those austerities, and for the more complete developement 
 of the sentiments that impel to them the deluded Samanaean, I beg 
 to refer the reader to the chapter on Hindoo penitents, in the fifth 
 volume of Indian Antiquities, where the struggles of the emerging 
 soul (the basis of the ancient mysteries) are faithfully represented 
 through the various stages of the Cn AR ASHERUM ; through scenes 
 of suffering which make humanity shudder ; through torrent floods, 
 through raging fire, and the profoundest horrors of subterranean 
 darkness. 
 
 In considering this Avatar of Buddha, it is impossible to pass un- 
 noticed the reiterated and outrageous attacks, which, founded upon 
 the doctrines attributed to the disciples of Buddha, have been 
 recently made by Mr. Volney on Christianity and the four sacred 
 books, in which its doctrines are principally contained. After having, 
 with so much ingenuity and truth, as we have seen above, deduced 
 the name Christ-os from the Indian Chris-en and Christ-na, and after 
 having discovered, as he conceives, the radix of Jesus (a Hebrew 
 proper name co-incident with Joshua) to YES, the ancient caba- 
 listical name of young Bacchus, the clandestine son of the virgin 
 Minerva ; after having informed us, that the Indian preserving 
 
[ 117 ] 
 
 deity, incarnate in Christ-na, rescued the world from the venomous 
 serpent Galen gam, (the French orthography for Callinaga,) whosr 
 head he crushed, after having himself received a wound in his heel;* 
 a remarkable concession, from so inveterate an enemy, though made 
 Avith the most insidious design ; still, however, highly important, 
 since it proves from the mouth of an adversary that I have not, to 
 serve a favourite hypothesis, misrepresented the sentiments of the 
 Brahmins on this subject; after these accumulated insults, Mr. 
 V^olney has had the audacity to assert, that even the existence of 
 Jesus Christ is no better proved than that of Osiris, Hercules, and the 
 Chinese Fo ; and that the Gospels were not written by the Evangelists, 
 whose names they bear, but are errant forgeries " compiled from the 
 books of the Mithriacs of Persia and the Essenians of Syria, who 
 were only reformed Samaritans. "-\- 
 
 The writer who thus shamelessly violates the truth of history, and 
 sets at defiance the united attestation of ages, merits no answer 
 but contempt. That contempt, however, is turned into indignation 
 and horror, when all this insult to truth and decency is known to 
 spring from motives hostile to the peace and order of society, and 
 subversive of the best interests of man. Contempt itself, therefore, 
 refuses to be wholly silent on a subject so unspeakably important; 
 and the answer is both easy and obvious, a full refutation of 
 the whole argument being contained in a plain statement of what, 
 at the first view, to every impartial examiner must appear to be the 
 genuine fact. The insane reveries of the Persian Mithriacs, in their 
 romantic legends, are as different from the rational, the pure, the 
 temperate, theological doctrines inculcated in the New Testa- 
 ment, as the unsocial habits, the disgusting austerities, and the 
 haughty reserve, affected by the Indian gymnosophists, were from 
 
 * Ruins, p. 202. t Ibid. p. 209. 
 
the cheerful manners, the affectionate communion, and the unosten- 
 tatious, but dignified, piety of the first Christians. With respect to 
 those more refined points of doctrine, in their respective systems, that 
 may appear to have some resemblance, and there certainly are such 
 points, the similitude may be accounted for and the difficulty ex- 
 plained, by recurring once more to Jtrst principles. It is neces- 
 sary for me again to impress on the reader's mind, and, as we are 
 now reaching the conclusion of the AVATARS, it is the last opportu- 
 nity which I shall have of so doing, the solemn and often repeated 
 fact, that, in the ancient system of theology derived to the Asiatics 
 from their venerable ancestors, the patriarchs, there were certain 
 grand and fundamental truths, which, in the degrading systems of 
 idolatrous worship that succeeded, were still retained, and never 
 could be wholly obliterated from them, even amidst the profoundest 
 darkness of Paganism. The similitude, then, in those points, is to be 
 accounted for by a reference to the pure primeval principles 
 which formed the creed of those patriarchs, and on which, corrupted 
 or misunderstood, all the wild doctrines and superstitious practices 
 of the Mithriacs and the Samanaeans were founded. 
 
 THE MORAL AND ASTRONOMICAL ALLUSION OP THE BUDDHA- 
 AVATAR. 
 
 The general moral tendency of the preceding Avatar, however 
 rigidly severe the precept inculcated, and however overcharged the 
 picture exhibited in it, will be readily acknowledged. A greater 
 Deity than the fabulous Veeshnu of India has declared, that a pure 
 and contrite heart is to him the most acceptable sacrifice ; and in those 
 sacred oracles, where truth beams forth unobscured by mythology, 
 has denounced his vengeance against that infatuated race who sub- 
 
stituted hecatombs of slain animals for acts of piety, and who shed 
 torrents of bestial blood, while the tear of genuine sorrow never 
 streamed from the moistened eye, nor the sigh of agonizing remom 
 ever heaved the repentant bosom. The extravagant doctrine of the 
 Metempsychosis, incorporated with the purer principles of genuine 
 Buddhism, and the unbounded excess to which they were carried by 
 some of its votaries, only serve to display to us additional proofs of 
 the folly and imbecility of human nature, even in those who arro- 
 gate to themselves the distinguished title of philosophers, without the 
 aid of DIVINE itEVELATioN to direct and restrain it. 
 
 The Avatar of Buddha has, not less than the others, a connection 
 with the astronomy of the Brahmins ; for, according to their Sabian 
 system of superstition, he is the planet Mercury ; being considered, in 
 the wild details that relate the sidereal genealogy of their gods, as 
 the son of CHANDRA, the Moon, a male deity in India, by his 
 favourite wife Ron INI, the bright star in the Bull, the Arabian 
 AiN-AL-TiiAuu and ALDEBAEAN of our sphere. From this cir- 
 cumstance of Chandra being his immediate progenitor, his de- 
 scendants in India are called Chandra-Bans, or Children of the 
 Moon, which we have seen is their second great dynasty, the first 
 being called Surya-Bans, from their solar descent, like the Heliadre 
 of Greece. I have already hinted, that, by the marriage of two 
 celestial bodies, the ancients meant no more than their accidental 
 conjunction ; and that as the nativity of great personages in India is 
 constantly cast by the attendant seers, the sum of the allegory may 
 imply that Buddha was bom when the moon was in conjunction 
 with Mercury in the sign Taurus, or was passing through the stars 
 which form the fourth lunar mansion, denominated in India Rohini. 
 Mercury is numbered in India among the beneficent planets. The 
 antiquity of this birth, or conjunction, or transit, or by whatever 
 name the reader may choose to denominate it, we have already seen 
 
[ 120 ] 
 
 is fixed by the circumstance of Buddha's having married I LA, the 
 daughter of ILUS, who was saved in the ark, plainly Noah, and 
 marks the real antiquity of those kings of the lunar dynasty who 
 were not wholly imaginary. 
 
 The Avatar of Buddha is the last that has appeared. It has 
 already been observed, that the Indian Yugs are very regularly and 
 artificially disposed ; the human stature, together with human life 
 and human virtue, becoming less and less in a kind of geometrical 
 progression from a hundred thousand years to one hundred years, 
 the brief period of man's existence in the Cali age. In the same 
 manner the number of Avatars in each Yug decreases arithmetically 
 from four, and consequently the termination of Buddha's terrestrial 
 residence Concludes the third age, himself and Creeshna being the 
 only Avatars that become incarnate in the DWAPAR-YUG.* That 
 Yug consists, according to Brahminical computation, of one million 
 six hundred thousand years ; and it is scarcely necessary again to 
 state, that all the YUG s are merely astronomical periods, founded on 
 the basis of the precession of equinoxes of fifty-four seconds, more 
 or less times repeated, according to the number of Avatars in each 
 Yug. 
 
 * This is undoubtedly the fact, and yet so strangely inconsistent are the Brahmins, that 
 books of high authority, cited as the reader has seen above, and cited too by the respectable 
 person who originally made the assertion, expressly place the birth of Buddha in the Cali-Yuc;. 
 I mention this as one of those numerous perplexing circumstances which constantly rise to 
 obstruct the progress of any man who would write an intelligible history of India from native 
 accounts, and which has made my task at times difficult and disgusting in the extreme. 
 
 END OF THE DWAPAR-YUG, OR THIRD INDIAN PERIOD. 
 
[ 121 ] 
 
 THE CALCI, OR TENTH, AVATAR OF INDIA. 
 
 The Calci, or final, Avatar exhibits to us Veeshnu incarnate in the 
 form of an armed warrior, for the purpose of dissolving the universe. 
 The duration of the Cali period, or Yug, in which this is the only 
 incarnation, has already been stated to be 432,000 } r ears, during 
 which scarcely any vestiges of justice or piety will remain among 
 mankind, who, degraded equally in stature as intellectual vigour, are 
 considered at the end of that period as ripe for the scythe that is 
 doomed to mow them down. The Calci, it is recorded, will be in- 
 carnate in the house of the Brahmin BISHENJUN, the apparent 
 offspring of that sage by his wife AWEJSIRDENEE*, and will be 
 born in the city of Sambal, towards the close of the Cali, in the 
 month of VAISACH, the Scorpion. In one hand he is repre- 
 sented as bearing aloft a " cimeter, blazing like a comet-jV' to 
 destroy all the impure, who then shall inhabit the earth ; and, in 
 the other, he displays a circular ornament, or RING, the emblem 
 of cycles perpetually revolving, and of which the existing one, in- 
 cluding the ten grand Avatars above-recorded, is on the point of 
 being finally terminated. The Calci hero appears leading a white 
 horse, richly caparisoned, adorned with jewels, and furnished with 
 wings, possibly to mark the rapid flight of time. The horse is 
 represented standing not on terrestrial, but atherial, ground, on 
 three feet only, holding up, without intermission, the right fore- 
 leg, with which, say the Brahmins, when he stamps with fury upon 
 the earth, the present period shall close, and the dissolution of nature 
 take place. 
 
 * Ayeen Akbery, vol. iii. p. 241. 
 
 f See the Ode of Jayadeva on the Avatars of Veeshnu, at the commencement of vol. ii. 
 
 VOL in. Q 
 
[ 122 ] 
 
 THE ASTRONOMICAL AND MORAL ALLUSION OF THE CALCI- 
 
 AVATAR. 
 
 The above fanciful relation and decorative imagery is evidently 
 in great part, for, I am far from thinking it wholly, the result of the 
 astronomical calculations of the ancients, and the general persuasion 
 that prevailed throughout the philosophical schools of Asia, concern- 
 ing the AiroxatTas'airis, or final restitution of all things after a certain 
 stated period ; viz. when the fixed stars had completed their long 
 revolution eastward. This period is asserted by modern astronomy 
 to be twenty-five thousand nine hundred and twenty years, and is well 
 known to arise from the multiplication of three hundred and sixty 
 into seventy-two, being the number of years in which a fixed star 
 appears to move through a degree of a great circle. The ancient 
 Hindoo astronomers believed it to be completed in twenty-four 
 thousand years ; while the philosophers of the Egyptian and Greek 
 schools thought it would not be accomplished under the protracted 
 period of thirty-six thousand years; conceiving the precession of the 
 equinox to be after the rate of one degree in one hundred years, 
 and, consequently, if 1 : 100? : : 360 : 36,000?. That the more 
 early race of Indian astronomers were also of the same opinion with 
 those of Egypt and Greece, can scarcely admit of a doubt, when it 
 is considered, that, according to the assertion of the great astrono- 
 mer, Mr. Reuben Burrow*, given in the former volume, the life of 
 Brahma himself consists of 36,000 of his days (cycles) ; that is, in 
 fact, the presumed period of the long revolution of the heavenly 
 bodies, the ANNUS MAGNUS of antiquity. This imagined RESTI- 
 
 * See vol. i. p. 302, where the reasons, which induced the Brahmins to fix on the exact pe- 
 riod of 432,000 years for the duration of the Cali age, are ably unfolded and learnedly discus- 
 sed. That Essay is extremely valuable, having been transmitted to me from India, iu manu- 
 script, by a friend of Mr. Burrow, and was never before published. 
 
[ 123 ] 
 
 TUTION, which was in its origin a thing purely astronomical, they 
 applied morally to terrestrial affairs, and bounded, by that sum of 
 years, as well the existence of the present race of human beings as 
 of the sphere which they inhabit. That the tremendous catastrophe 
 in question is fated, according to the Brahmins, to take place in 
 VAISACH, or Scorpio, is another circumstance highly deserving no- 
 tice ; since it tends still farther to demonstrate the striking co-inci- 
 dence of their system Aviththat of the Egyptians, who assigned to the 
 destroying Typhon that malignant asterism ; under whose envenomed 
 rage Nature was represented as convulsed, and the beneficent Osiris 
 as vanquished. The fiery breath of the Scorpion consumed Egypt, 
 and the Hindoo YUGS terminate in a general conflagration. The 
 destructive weapon with Avhich CALCI is armed, "the cimeter bla- 
 zing like a COMET," which are the words of Jayadeva, have a deci- 
 ded reference to that mode of destruction ; and the white horse, ever 
 sacred to the Sun through all antiquity, which is to bear that death- 
 ful conqueror down to the earth, seems to imply that the solar orb 
 was to be instrumental in its destruction. Of all the conjectured 
 means of effecting that dissolution, Whiston's idea of a COMET thus 
 commissioned seems the most probable ; and, in fact, in a Sastra 
 cited by me in the preceding volume, it is expressly said, that, at the 
 end of time, ** Seeva, with the ten spirits of dissolution, shall roll a 
 COMET under the moon, which shall involve all things in fire, and 
 reduce the world to ashes*." M. Sonnerat, also, after describing 
 this Avatar from the sources of information which he obtained in 
 India, informs us, that, " on the approach of Calci, the sun and 
 moon shall be darkened ; the earth tremble, and the stars fall from 
 the firmament: that then the serpent AN A NT A, (or infinity, on 
 which Veeshnu reposes,) from his thousand mouths, shall vomit forth 
 
 * See vol. i. p. 58. 
 
 Q2 
 
[ 124 ] 
 
 FLAMES, which shall consume . the spheres and all living crea- 
 tures*." After this dissolution of the mundane system, the Hindoos, 
 not less than the Platonists of old, believe that a new world will 
 spring up, like a phrenix, out of the ashes of the former, and a new 
 Satya commence its vast career. 
 
 To return to mythology : by the white colour of the horse in the 
 Calci-Avatar, its brilliancy and purity may be typified. Its expanded 
 wings, and its exalted station, which is properly on celestial ground, 
 naturally remind us of the Pegasus, which the Greeks elevated 
 to the sphere, and the flying warriors, Perseus and Bellerophon ; 
 nor ought the stamping of the foot of Pegasus, which, according to 
 some of their mythologists, produced the celebrated fountain Hippo- 
 crene, or Parnassus, to be entirely forgotten. These concurring cir- 
 cumstances evince some connection, in very remote aeras, between 
 the Indians and Greeks, probably by the way of Egypt ; and the fact 
 of that connection is placed beyond all dispute, by the sequel of the 
 Greek fable relative to Perseus and Andromeda being so accurately 
 detailed by the Indian astronomers under the resembling appellations 
 of PARASICA and ANTARMEDA, as given in the former volume-f ; 
 of which the reader Avill be pleased to recollect, that one principal 
 object was to shew the origin of the Egyptian and Greek legends 
 in India. But it is high time that we should quit these fablers for 
 the consideration of the more important objects connected with the 
 express intention of the tenth Avatar, which was to designate the 
 end of time and the dissolution of nature. 
 
 Although, as I have before observed, the romantic notion enter- 
 tained by the ancients of the destruction of the world, when a com- 
 plete zodiacal revolution shall have been effected, was in great part 
 the result of astronomical calculation, it was not wholly so. Over 
 
 * Sonnerat's Voyages, vol. i. p. 37, Calcutta, octavo edit. f See vol. i. p. 356. 
 
all the Higher Asia there seems to have been diffused an immemorial 
 tradition relative to a second grand convulsion of nature, and a final 
 dissolution of the earth by the terrible agency of FIRE, as the first 
 was by that of WATER. The two pillars which are recorded by Jo- 
 sephus (whether the asserted fact of their existence in his day, or 
 even after the deluge, be true or not, is of no material consequence) 
 to have been erected by Seth before the flood, and to have been in- 
 scribed with the prediction to this purpose of our grand parent, to 
 whom it might have been revealed by the Deity himself, may be 
 adduced as the first proof of such a tradition; and the evidence is 
 so material that I consider myself bound to insert it at length : " The 
 sons of Seth," says this historian, " were the inventors of that pe- 
 culiar sort of wisdom which relates to the heavenly bodies and their 
 order. That their inventions might not be lost before they were 
 sufficiently known, upon Adam's prediction that the world was to be 
 destroyed at one time by a deluge of water, and at another time by 
 the violence of fire, they made two pillars, the one of brick, the 
 other of stone : they inscribed their discoveries on them both, that in 
 case the pillar of brick should be destroyed by the flood, the.pillar of 
 stone might remain, and exhibit those discoveries to mankind, and 
 also inform them that there was another pillar of brick erected by 
 them. Now this remains in the land of Seriad to this day*." 
 
 I must again beg permission to observe, that neither the existence 
 of the pillars nor the place of their erection is of any consequence to 
 the general argument : the record of the prediction by Josephus is 
 sufficient for my purpose, because it supposes the belief of it general 
 among the ancient HEBREWS. The venerable book of Enoch, ex- 
 pressly alluded to by St. Jude, confirms this traditionary dogma ; 
 and, if that production should appear to some of my readers of little 
 
 * Vide Joseph! Autiq. Judaic, lib. i. cap. 2, sect. 3. 
 
[ 126 ] 
 
 authority, they will find in St. Peter's sublime account of the final 
 conflagration, (2 Peter, iii. 9,) an incontrovertible proof, that, among 
 the Jews of his day, the predicted catastrophe by fire was still be- 
 lieved. 
 
 From the Hebrew patriarchs the doctrine was, in all probability, 
 derived to the Egyptian priests, who made it known to Plato and the 
 other Greeks, who studied philosophy in the colleges of the Thebais. 
 No words, indeed, can be more express on this subject than those of 
 Plato in the Thnaeus, where he introduces his Egyptian priest an- 
 nouncing this fatal exTrvqaa-is, or purification of all things by fire ; 
 declaring to them that the Greek fable of Phaeton's burning the 
 world should one day be verified*. Zoroaster and Pythagoras, who 
 might have learned this doctrine from the Jews themselves, also 
 affirmed that the dissolution of the world should be by fire. Seneca, 
 a philosopher of the Stoic school, declares, Ignis exitus mundi estf- ; 
 and Ovid, from the same sources, is still more particular in the 
 following well-known lines : 
 
 Esse quoque in FATIS remlniscitur affore tempus, 
 Quo mare, quo tellus, correptaquc regia cceli 
 ARDEAT. 
 
 Metam. lib. i. fab. 7. 
 
 Upon traditions similar to these, and drawn doubtless from the 
 same primeval fountains, have the Indians formed their final Avatar. 
 Their astronomical speculations gave strength and probability to the 
 conception thus formed ; but the image by which they represented 
 their ideas is so complex, and, at the same time, so much in unison 
 with that presented to the Christian world, in immediate reference to 
 the same subject, that it is impossible not to suspect that the Hindoos, 
 
 * Timseus, p. 22. t Qusest. Natural, cap. iii. sect. 13. 
 
[ 127 ] 
 
 by the same channel through which they interpolated the life of 
 their favourite Creeshna, have, in addition, borrowed a part of the 
 decorative symbols of this Avatar from the Apocalypse, of which, 
 as we learn from Fabricius, there was also a spurious copy early dis- 
 persed throughout the East. In that sacred record we read as follows : 
 And I saw, and behold A WHITE HORSE; and he that sate on him 
 had a bow, (i. e. was armed,) and a CROWN was given unto him, and 
 he went forth conquering and to conquer*. Another mighty angel is, 
 in a subsequent chapter, represented as descending from heaven; an 
 Avatar, however, much more magnificently arrayed than any of 
 those of India, for, he was clothed with a cloud, with a rainbow upon 
 his head, his face like the sun, and his feet like pillars of fire ; this 
 same angel, standing with his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot 
 upon the earth, lifted up his hand to heaven, and swart by Him that 
 livethfor ever and ever, that there should be TIME no longer^. 
 
 There existed an ancient sect of Arabian philosophers, according 
 to Dr. Pocock, who conceived that the period of the existence of the 
 present mundane system consisted of 36,425 years, when every thing 
 living was doomed to perish, but afterwards to be renovated ; and 
 thus successively for ever. This renovation of nature and of man 
 they termed their resurrection from the dead, and, he adds, they be- 
 lieved in no other. " Statuunt post spatium annorum 36,425 de- 
 cursum omnes animantium species interire, ac deinde renovari, na- 
 tura universi in singulis terrae climatibus bina uniuscuj usque speciei 
 paria de novo producente : atque ita seculum seculo continuo suc- 
 cedere, nee aliam dari resurrcctionem'\." 
 
 Mr. Volney, ever forward to aid the cause of infidelity, like those 
 Arabian philosophers, denies also the resurrection, and, as he had 
 before insisted, that by the awful event of the death of Christ, was 
 
 * Rev. vi. 2. t Rev. x. C. J See Pocock's Specimen Hist. Arab. p. 145. 
 
[ 128 ] 
 
 merely meant the termination of the career of the star of day at the 
 winter solstice ; so, by his resurrection, nothing more was denoted 
 than the same star again rising in the heavens, like Osiris from the 
 tomb in which he had been buried by Typhon, the Genius of Evil 
 and" Leader of the brumal Signs*. Here again the truth of history 
 and the evidence of the cloud of witnesses who attested that mo- 
 mentous fact, and many of whom, among the five hundred attesta- 
 tors in Galilee, sealed their testimony with their blood, are, with the 
 grossest outrage to decency, set aside to establish the nefarious hy- 
 pothesis that would rend from man his birth-right, IMMORTALITY. 
 A philosopher, far more illustrious than any bred in the new school 
 of France, the truly virtuous GILBERT WEST, could have taught 
 this author a very different lesson, and to him I must refer him 
 together with all those of his sceptical stamp. The Indians, of 
 whose extravagant astronomical vagaries he and his confederates are 
 so immoderately fond, could also have informed them otherwise ; 
 for undoubtedly the doctrine, so ancient and generally diffused 
 among them, of the soul's pen-jutf/t^wm?, or transmigration, of its 
 [Aerepo-upotTutris, or migration from body to body, and its iraXiyyevnio-ta, 
 or regeneration, is only a corruption, though a dreadful one, of 
 traditional dogmas concerning its immortality, and that resurrection 
 from the grave, which the pious Job so early and so solemnly an- 
 nounced to the whole Pagan world. 
 
 * Tliis author insists, with equal ignorance and presumption, that the word " resurgere, to 
 rise a second time," can by no means be applied to signify a restoration to life, but can only 
 have an astronomical allusion to the sun and peculiar stars ascending above the circle of the 
 horizon. But in the precipitancy of his attack, he forgets the moral relation which the term 
 bears to man's original production from dust, and his resuscitation, through the merits of his 
 Saviour, from the same cold earthy bed. 
 
 END OF THE CALI-YUG, OR FOURTH INDIAN PERIOD, AND OF 
 THE HISTORY OF THE TEN AVATARS. 
 
[ 129 ] 
 
 
 SUCH are the AVATARS OF INDIA, which the reader is, I trust, 
 by this time, sufficiently convinced are ingenious moral allegories, 
 with a great portion of metapliysics and astronomy couched under 
 them, and throughout deeply interwoven with the traditional his- 
 tory of the first ages of the world j when the Cuthite ancestors of 
 the Indian nation swayed its imperial sceptre. Of those ages I do 
 not even pretend to give any other history ; nor, in my opinion, 
 will any more satisfactory history of them ever be given to the 
 public, at least till a correct version of the Mahabbarat shall be 
 edited in Europe, and even then, if a judgement may be formed 
 from the native accounts presented to the reader in the preceding 
 pages, he will have to wander after historic truth in the devious 
 labyrinth of a complicated mythology. 
 
 The MAHABBARAT, towards the commencement, informs us, 
 that the first dynasty of India, or that of the SUN, reigned un- 
 interruptedly on its throne during the space of four hundred years ; 
 and the second, or that of the MOON, during the more extended 
 period of seven hundred years. This statement approaches nearly 
 to the truth, and is in part confirmed by Sir William Jones, where 
 he tells us that the posterity of Buddha are divided into two great 
 branches, meaning the SOLAR and LUNAR dynasties, and that the 
 lineal male descendants in both those families are supposed to have 
 reigned in the cities of Oitde and Vitora, respectively, till the 
 thousandth year of the present, or Cali, age. Again we have been 
 informed, from the same authority, that the son of Jarasandha 
 instituted a new dynasty of princes in Magadha, or Bahar, the last 
 of which was the celebrated Rajah NANDA, recorded to have been 
 murdered by a passionate and vindictive Brahmin, of the name of 
 Chanacya. Chanacya, by his power and influence, raised to the 
 
 Vol. in. R 
 
[ 130 ] 
 
 i 
 
 throne a man of the Maurya race, named Chandragupta, the un- 
 doubted Sandrocottus of the Greeks, who thus, with very little 
 deviation from the Sanscreet orthography, have written the name 
 of that sovereign. This important event, the reader will observe, is 
 fixed by Sir William, to have taken place in the year 1502 before 
 Christ, but the true date of which he will hereafter perceive, by a 
 more recent statement of the same author, to be nearly twelve 
 hundred years later ; an anachronism from which no blame what- 
 ever can be attached to Sir William, who only states the absurd 
 details of the Brahmins, but which shakes to pieces the laboured 
 fabric of their exaggerated chronology, and gives to the whole the 
 appearance of an Arabian tale. To the ten kings who formed the 
 Maurya dynasty, on the throne of Magadha, succeeded an equal 
 number of the Sunga line ; to these, four of the Canna race ; and, to 
 them, twenty-one sovereigns of the Andhra family, the line ending 
 in Chandrabija, when it became extinct, and the Magadha throne 
 seems to have been subverted. Empire then travelled southward, 
 and we find seven dynasties established in the Deccan, of which 
 seventy-six princes are recorded to have reigned one thousand 
 three hundred and ninety-nine years, but their names alone, and 
 not their history, are there inserted. With these seven more recent 
 dynasties, however, we have no immediate concern, as they flou- 
 rished posterior to the Christian aera. On the whole, we may justly 
 conclude the history of the Avatars and of these most early dynasties 
 in the words of our author, who, after affirming that the most 
 authentic system of Hindoo chronology, which he had been 
 able to procure, terminated with CHANDRABIJA, adds, " Should 
 any farther information be attainable, we shall, perhaps, in due time 
 attain it, either from books or inscriptions in the Sanscreet language ; 
 but, from the materials with which we are at present supplied, we 
 may establish as indubitable the two following propositions ; that the 
 
three first Yugs, or ages, of the Hindoos are chiefly mythological, 
 whether their mythology was founded on the dark enigmas of their 
 astronomers, or on the heroic fictions of their poets ; and that the 
 fourth, or historical, age cannot be carried farther back than about 
 two thousand years before Christ *." 
 
 * Asiatic Researches, vol. ii. p. 150. 
 
 R 2 
 

CLASSICAL HISTORY 
 
 - 
 
 OF 
 
 HINDOSTAN 
 
 RESUMED. 
 
HOT 
 
 J 
 
 IM1FI 
 
HISTORY OF HINDOSTAN. 
 
 BOOK V. 
 
 ' 
 
 CONTAINING THE HISTORY OF THE EARLIEST TARTAR, PER- 
 SIAN, AND GRECIAN, INVASIONS OF HINDOSTAN. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Sketch of the original Form of Government of India under its ancient 
 Maharajahs, or great Rajahs. Causes assigned of the frequent 
 and successful Invasion of India by their Tartar and Persian 
 Neighbours. An Account, from Persian Authorities, of the first 
 Settlement of the Provinces directly North of India, called by them 
 the Empire of TURAN, and by the Arabians MAVER-AL- 
 NAHAR, or Transoxana, with an Account of the earliest Irruptions 
 into India of their Inhabitants, known generally under the Name 
 O/'ORIENTAL TARTARS. 
 
 F ROM the regions of doubt and the mazes of mythology we 
 return, with renewed pleasure, in the present book, to explore the 
 field of classical history ; a field, however, in these early ages, not 
 wholly unadorned with those gaudy but delusive flowers which 
 spring up in such wild luxuriance on Indian ground. We are 
 now to enter upon the detail of events comparatively modern, to 
 
[ 136 ] 
 
 those already related, and of which the Greeks were, in man}' 
 instances, at once the eye-witnesses and historians. From all 
 the information we are able to collect concerning India, in the 
 Greek writers, we are led to conclude that Darius Hystaspes opened 
 the way to the first Persian invasion of India, by sending Scylax, 
 of Caryandria, to explore the river Indus and the adjoining coast. 
 This, however, is far from being the fact ; for, the Oriental writers, 
 scanty as their accounts are that have descended to us, represent 
 India and Persia as engaged, almost from the foundation of their 
 respective empires, in fierce and sanguinary contests, arising princi- 
 pally from causes which shall presently be explained. 
 
 It is a circumstance extremely unfortunate, that the Greeks, in 
 their supreme contempt of foreign literature and history, when they 
 conquered Persia, neglected to procure and treasure up, as such 
 venerable documents merited, the ancient annals of that country, 
 and the neighbouring regions of Asia under the control of its sove- 
 reigns. By the frantic deed of firing Persepolis, and similar devas- 
 tations, who can say what invaluable materials for a complete history 
 of Asia, in its most early periods, may not have been destroyed ? 
 The history of ancient India, in particular, could not fail of being 
 greatly illustrated by those annals ; for, amidst the perpetual and 
 obstinate wars in which the two nations seem to have been, in the 
 remotest periods, embroiled, founded probably on the notion inti- 
 mated above in the account of Semiramis, that the Indians were 
 originally emigrated Iranians, if the artful policy of the Brahmins 
 operated towards concealing the disgrace of their country, by re- 
 fraining from publicly recording the defeats of their kings, doubtless 
 the arrogance and vanity of the conqtierors must have induced them 
 to blazon their triumphs on the plains of India. Concerning the events 
 transacted .in Persia during the present period of our history, nearly 
 all the classical information that has descended to us has been derived 
 
[ 137 ] 
 
 from two sources, Herodotus, and Ctesias in Diodorus Siculus, once 
 considered of very disputable authority, but whom minute investi- 
 gation and recent discoveries have demonstrated, as far back as they 
 go, to be very deserving, if not of implicit confidence, at least of a 
 very considerable degree of credit. The former of these historians 
 flourished in the fifth century before Christ, is entitled by Cicero 
 the Father of History, a title of which the experience of twenty- 
 two centuries has fully confirmed the justice, and wrote, in the 
 Ionic dialect, the history of the Persian wars from Cyrus to Xerxes, 
 in whose reign he flourished. The latter, whose accounts have been 
 adopted by Diodorus Siculus, was a native of Cnidos, by profession 
 a physician, and in that character resided seventeen years at the 
 court of Artaxerxes the Second, or Mnemon, as the Greeks called 
 him, in the succeeding century. He professes to have taken his ac- 
 counts, and, from the striking similarity of many parts of his narra- 
 tion to the Indian historic details, inserted by Mr. Wilford, from 
 the Puranas, in the third volume of Asiatic Researches, in all proba- 
 bility he did take them, IK ruv @a.<rt\muv SicpQeguv*, from the royal 
 records. The principal objection urged against these historians is 
 the romantic nature of many of the facts recorded by them, and 
 the great mixture of Eastern legends and fables with what is asserted 
 for historic truth. These, however, are in the true spirit of all Asiatic 
 history, and confirm, rather than invalidate, their pretensions to be 
 genuine abstracts of Oriental annals, which are all strongly tinctured 
 with the marvellous. There is, indeed, another celebrated Greek 
 writer, who flourished about the same period, and who has treated 
 of the affairs of the Persians, to whom no such objection can be 
 made ; but it will be remembered, that the Cyropaedia of Xenophon 
 is not properly an historical, but a political and moral, treatise, 
 
 
 
 * Diod. Sic. lib. ii. p. 14O. 
 Vol. III. S 
 
[ 138 ] 
 
 exhibiting the picture of a great prince and commander, and into 
 which the military exploits of Cyrus, with whatever truth recorded, 
 are introduced to exemplify his own maxims rather than to afford a 
 regular historical detail of Persian events ; while his celebrated ac- 
 count of the retreat of the ten thousand from the field, in which the 
 younger Cyrus lost his life, is an eulogium on Greek, not Persian, 
 skill and valour, and principally relates to his own personal conduct 
 on that memorable occasion. Xenophon, in no part of his narration, 
 touches on the affairs of India ; he only informs us that Cyrus made 
 the Indus the eastern boundary of his empire*. 
 
 The very mention of this circumstance, however, by Xenophon, 
 is highly deserving of our attention, because even the native histories 
 of India, if the Mahabbarat may be relied on, speak of India long 
 before the time of Cyrus, as subject to the control of the monarchs 
 of Iran ; in truth, as a conquered country, paying tribute, and the 
 Panjab, or the country watered by the five branches of the Indus, 
 as actually annexed to the Persian territory, and its most eastern 
 river as its boundary. Now it is not very probable, if such were 
 the case, that the greatest of the Persian monarchs, and, according 
 to classical writers, the first of them, (though that is not consistent 
 with the Iranian histories, which make him only the third sovereign 
 of the second, or Caianian, dynasty, the first being that of Pishdad, 
 of which Caiumaras was the head,) that the great Khosru, whose 
 general was the celebrated Rostam, or Hercules of the East, should, 
 after all his conquests in Asia, sit down contented with the loss of 
 India, the brightest jewel in the crown of his ancestors, and make 
 the Indus the eastern boundary of his empire. But, farther, it is 
 even said, in the same authentic register, that Khosru, by his general 
 Rostam, actually carried on a war of long continuance in India, and, 
 
 
 
 * Xenophon Cyropied. lib. viii. p. 233. 
 
C 139 ] 
 
 dethroning its sovereign, subdued the whole country, and placed a 
 successor inJiis stead, who became the head of a new dynasty. 
 It is, therefore, worthy of inquiry by what means so great, so brave, 
 and populous a nation, as the ancient Indian sare, by both classical 
 and Sanscreet writers, allowed to have been, so early became de- 
 pendant on the Persian crown, and tributary to its sovereigns ; and 
 the review, which I am about to take, will exhibit to us a picture 
 of the Indian empire as it flourished about a thousand years before 
 the Christian rcra, which is nearly as high as any profane records, 
 not professedly mythological, can carry us. 
 
 The universal diffusion of the Brahmin religion and sciences over 
 the vast continent of India, would lead us, without the confirming 
 voice of history, to suspect that, at some remote period there sub- 
 sisted, in that region of Asia, an empire as widely diffused, under 
 the guidance of one puissant sovereign. Under BALI, if that name 
 imply not rather a dynasty of princes than an individual monarch, 
 we have, in fact, seen that such an empire did flourish. Under 
 Rama, the next in succession, as an Avatar and king, whose capital 
 was Oudhe, in Bahar, there is every appearance of its having re- 
 mained unbroken. Under Bharat, also, a prince of such extensive 
 power, that his name was conferred on the whole region, there is 
 no reason to suppose that any division of it had taken place. Ju- 
 dishter is generally acknowledged to have been the sovereign of all 
 India ; his capital, as we have seen, Hastanapoor, or Delhi. If the 
 preceding assertion be true in regard to these and a few others of 
 the earliest monarchs of Hindostan, and certain of the most renown- 
 ed among the later, it does not hold good of those of her sovereigns, 
 who reigned in more recent aeras, till the period of their absolute 
 subjection to the Mohammedans. Their native princes, with the 
 title of universal monarchs, seem to have been invested only with a 
 delegated power, voluntarily conferred by a numerous and powerful 
 
 S2 
 
[ 140 ] 
 
 band of subordinate sovereigns. The very title of MAHARAJAH, or 
 Rajah of Rajahs, which the nominal head of that vast empire 
 anciently bore, evidently implies no more than a kind of feudal 
 jurisdiction over chieftains, possessing absolute dominion in their 
 own territories, but contributing a stipulated sum and force to sup- 
 port the grandeur of the imperial throne, and on great national oc- 
 casions, ranging themselves, with succours proportionate to the ex- 
 tent and population of their respective domains, under the banners 
 of one supreme chief. Nature herself, in fact, seems to have placed, 
 in this respect, a barrier to human pride ; forbidding Hindostan, 
 except in the limited way just intimated, to continue long under the 
 control of one overgrown monarch. To bound the ambition of prin- 
 ces, over the surface of the country she drew those vast lines which 
 so peculiarly distinguish that quarter of the globe; those lofty moun- 
 tains, those deep and rapid rivers, those extensive lakes, those vast 
 deserts of sand and impassable forests, which intersect India. 
 Again, whatever may be boasted by the Indian historians concern- 
 ing themselves, and the chain of succession remaining for such an 
 extended period of years unbroken, in its two first and greatest dy- 
 nasties of the sun and moon, their accounts are rendered exceedingly 
 suspicious, not only by what we know of the perpetual proneness 
 in mankind to abuse extensive power, but by the corruptions ne- 
 cessarily attending the education of Eastern princes, by the number 
 of royal children yearly produced in the seraglios, and by the spirit 
 of intrigue that in a particular manner constantly agitates the 
 Asiatic courts, amidst so many rivals as the first order of nobility 
 affords for wealth, power, and renown. 
 
 Divided by the Oriental geographers into two grand portions, 
 AL SIND, or the tract lying on the Indus, and AL HIND, or the 
 territory stretching on both sides the Ganges, Hindostan, or Su- 
 perior India, seems, from time immemorial, amidst innumerable 
 
[ 141 ] 
 
 sovereignties of inferior degree, to have cherished, on its two great 
 rivers, two mighty kingdoms, while the Peninsula, till subdued by 
 Akber and Aureng-Zebe, exhibited a third, formed exactly on the 
 same feudal principles. Alexander, on his invasion of the Panjab, 
 experienced the truth of this statement, in the formidable opposition 
 which he met with from Porus ; and the report of the ambassadors 
 of Seleucus, at Pallibothra, fully confirms it with respect to the re- 
 gions adjoining the Ganges. The confederated rajahs, who so long 
 bade defiance to the Mohammedan armies in the Deccan, leave in 
 our minds no doubt of this fact in regard to the Peninsula. The 
 most powerful, because the most remote from foreign invasion, of 
 these kingdoms, seems to have been that on the Ganges, of which 
 Oude, Pallibothra, Canouge, and Gour, were the successive capitals. 
 When the early Mohammedan sultans of the Gaznavide dynasty 
 conquered the Superior India, they politically made Delhi, founded 
 on the ruins of the ancient Hastanapoor, which seems to have 
 been the first imperial city of Hindostan, and stands on the river 
 Jumna that disembogues its water into the Ganges, their principal 
 residence, because it was more central, and placed them nearer their 
 territories on the west of the Indus, which extended even to the 
 capital of their hereditary domain. Afterwards even Lahore and 
 Cabul became the successive abode of those sovereigns, who erected 
 in them magnificent palaces ; while the victories of Akber, in the 
 Deccau, gave being to the superb palace and splendid decorations 
 of Agra. The puissant sovereign of the empire on the Ganges, an 
 empire which comprehended Delhi and the Dooab, and extended to 
 the eastern limits of the Panjab, seems to have been for many ages 
 acknowledged Lord Paramount of India ; and accordingly we have 
 seen, that, when Judishter celebrated the great festival of the 
 RAISOO, to the capital of that empire all the inferior rajahs flocked, 
 and at a very late period of its glory, an instance related in the 
 
[ 142 ] 
 
 Introductory Work occurs of the pre-eminent grandeur of the Ca- 
 nouge sovereigns, in the following terms : 
 
 Sir William Jones, speaking of this part of India, says ; " The an- 
 cient system of government, which prevailed in this country, seems 
 to have been perfectly feudal : all the territories were governed by 
 rais, or rajahs, who held their lands of a supreme lord, called Bal- 
 hara ; the seat of whose residence Avas the city of Canouge, now in 
 ruins*." The Ayeen Akbery -J- exhibits a curious proof of this feudal 
 dependance of the subordinate rajahs, and the necessity of their 
 paying homage in person, at stated periods, to the supreme Balhara ; 
 for, at a great festival, or sacrifice, called RAISOO, at which all the 
 rajahs of Hindostan were obliged to attend, and of which the meanest 
 offices, " even to the duties of the scullery," were performed by 
 rajahs ; Pithowra, the rajah of Delhi, from contempt of the sovereign, 
 not attending, " that the festival might not be incomplete," an effigy 
 in gold of the absent rajah was formed, and by way of retorted con- 
 tempt assigned the ignoble office of porter of the gate. The rash- 
 ness of Pithowra, in the end, cost him his crown and his lifej.. 
 
 The profound policy of an institution, like this.mu st be evident 
 to the reader, since it at once cherished the bond of general union, 
 and preserved in a necessary state of subordination the detached 
 members of a widely extended empire. The strength of this bond, 
 and the degree of this subordination, without doubt, greatly varied, 
 according to the degree of energy and wisdom possessed by the su- 
 preme head. If he were valiant and enterprising, the whole civil 
 and military power acted as the counsel and army of one sovereign ; 
 if cowardly and effeminate, the bond became relaxed in proportion, 
 and the inferior dependent states insulted the throne they were in- 
 
 * Description of Asia, p. 30. t See Ayeen Akbery, vol. ii. p. 120. 
 
 I See the Introductory Work, Indian Antiquities, vol. i. p. 193. 
 
[ 143 ] 
 
 tended to protect and adorn. In truth, the FEUDAL SYSTEM seems 
 to have originated in the East, perhaps first in the wide plains of India; 
 and, by the northern hordes that inundated Europe, and over- 
 whelmed the Roman empire, towards the close of the fourth century, 
 it was imported into Europe ; whose system of laws and government 
 gradually experienced, from that introduction, a considerable 
 change. By the same hardy race, the descendants of the Tartar 
 tribes that tenanted the north of Asia, were introduced ARMORIAT, 
 B E A R i N G s, which originally were nothing more than the hieroglyphic 
 symbols, mostly of a religious allusion, that distinguished the banners 
 of the potentates of Asia : for instance, in India, Veeshnu had the 
 eagle, Seeva the bull, Rama the falcon, engraved on their banners ; 
 animals respectively sacred to them in their system of mythology. 
 The ancient standard of the Tartars displayed the sun rising behind 
 a recumbent lion ; the eagle of the sun was engraved on that of 
 Persia, Avhose inhabitants worshipped that orb; and it will be remem- 
 bered that the Hebrew tribes had also their sacred symbolic devices, 
 descriptive of their office, character, or situation. 
 
 Had the Indians continued thus united, according to the original 
 intention of their legislator, they would probably have remained, 
 if not unmolested, at least unconquered, by that swarm of foreign, 
 particularly Persian and Tartar, invaders, which harassed, in every 
 aera, their devoted country. But the great distance of many of the 
 provinces governed by those subordinate princes, from the capital of 
 the reigning Maharajah, added to the amazing strength of those 
 lofty fortresses that abound in every region of India, some utterly in- 
 accessible to an enemy, and others impregnable by any force that 
 could be brought against them in those days, were a perpetual 
 temptation to the feudal sovereigns of those provinces to violate the 
 grand national compact, to withhold the stipulated tribute, and en- 
 gage in acts of rebellion against the supreme constituted authority . 
 
[ 144 ] 
 
 The same species of dark and criminal policy, which, in the present 
 century, induced Nizam-al-Muluck, the self-constituted sovereign of 
 Deccan, to invite Nadir Shah from Persia to invade the Superior 
 India, and which ultimately proved the destruction of an empire 
 which he meant only to convulse, in order to escape punishment 
 amidst that convulsion, seems to have been the principal cause of the 
 Tartar and Persian chiefs originally gaining any permanent footing 
 on the Indian shore. Abounding in every species of production that 
 could allure the avarice or gratify the luxury of Eastern despots ; 
 with treasure in gold and jewels to pay the vast armies which their 
 fears and their cruelty compelled them to maintain ; with the richest 
 manufactures to ornament the body, and with the choicest fruits, 
 odours, and spices, with which to indulge, even to satiety, the de- 
 lighted senses ; that envied country needed not the invitation of the 
 domestic traitor to draw down upon its fruitful territories the horrors 
 and devastation inseparable from invasion. That, however, was 
 precisely the case with respect to the first interference of foreigners 
 with their internal government ; for, we are expressly informed by 
 their own historians, that it was principally owing to civil dissen- 
 sions springing up among themselves, that the aid of Persia was first 
 demanded in the time of Feredun, sixth sovereign of the Pishdadian 
 dynasty, who naturally took advantage of those distractions to bend 
 India, at least in tributary obedience, to the power of Persia ; but 
 the Persian invasions of India will be the particular subject of the 
 succeeding chapter. 
 
 The old tradition, also, frequently intimated above, that the 
 Indians were originally emigrated Iranians, undoubtedly had its 
 effect in urging on their foes, both on the northern and western fron- 
 tiers, to attempt their subjugation; for, it must here be observed, that, 
 though the monarchs of IRAN and TUEAN were perpetually en- 
 gaged in hostilities, they were descended from the same primordial 
 
[ 145 ] 
 
 stock, and fought therefore with the embittered animosity of rela-r 
 tions engaged in contest. Both, however, seem to have eagerly 
 embraced every possible opportunity of oppressing the unoffending 
 race to the south of the snowy mountains. This affinity, not gene- 
 rally known or attended to, added to an incorrect idea of the limits 
 of the two countries just mentioned, has been the occasion of much 
 confusion in the historical accounts of this period and of this part of 
 Asia ; since many of the conquests of the Transoxan monarchs in 
 India have been assigned to the Persians, and the honour of some of 
 the achievements of the Persians, with equal injustice, has been 
 conferred on the sovereigns of Turan. The first recorded invasion of 
 India, either by Persian or Indian historians, took place under 
 Feredun, the sixth monarch of the first, or Pishdadian, dynasty, 
 who, according to Sir William Jones, in his Short History of Persia, 
 by which I shall principally guide myself in this survey of its 
 ancient events, flourished about the year before Christ 750*, which, 
 though many centuries later than the period generally fixed by the 
 Asiatics for the reign of that prince, who was the son of the great 
 Gemshid, the builder of Isthakar, or Persepolis, is very likely to be 
 its true date. That monarch had three sons, among whom, from a 
 determination formed, at an advanced period of life, to devote the 
 remainder of it to studious retirement, he divided his vast empire. 
 The name of the first was SALM, probably the Salmanassar of Scrip- 
 ture, to whom he allotted SYRIA ; that of the second, TUR, to whom 
 he assigned the country lying between the Gihun and Sihun, the 
 ancient Oxus and laxartes, from him called TURAN; and that of the 
 youngest, IRAGE, who received the largest and most beautiful por- 
 tion, including Khorasan and other provinces in the heart of the 
 empire, thenceforth denominated, after himself, IRAN. " This divi- 
 
 * Short Hist, of Persia, p. 42. 
 
 Vol. in. T 
 
[ 146 ] 
 
 sion of the Persian empire," says our author, " into Iran and Turaii, 
 has been a source of perpetual dissensions between the Persians and 
 Tartars, as the latter have taken every opportunity of passing the 
 Oxus, and laying waste the districts of Khorasan ; they have even 
 pushed their conquests so far, as to overturn the power of the califs, 
 and afterwards to raise a mighty empire on the banks of the 
 Ganges*." 
 
 Of the unceasing contests carried on between these jealous and 
 warlike nations, it was impossible for so powerful a race as the In- 
 dians to be unconcerned spectators. To the aid of one or the other 
 of the contending parties they were compelled to send a considerable 
 army, and the vanquished enemy generally took the earliest oppor- 
 tuipdty of revenging the affront, by the plunder of India in its most 
 vulnerable parts. Whosoever conquered, they were infallibly the 
 ultimate victims. The Tartars were animated to the attack by the 
 thirst of plunder only ; the Persians, in addition to that incentive, 
 were goaded on by their religious principles, for their zealous adora- 
 tion of the solar orb and elementary fire, to which, in the early 
 periods of their empire, no temples were erected, and indeed, in the 
 latter, only perforated domes were elevated to protect the sacred 
 flame from the violence of wind and rain ; the same impetuous zeal, 
 I say, which led them, in their invasion of Egypt, to burn the 
 magnificent temples of the Thebais, in which the grossest rites of 
 bestial idolatry flourished, urged them to carry on implacable war 
 against the kindred superstitions of India, where the animals and 
 objects, by which the attributes of Deity were symbolized, were 
 mistaken for deities themselves, and filled the Sabian devotee with 
 indignation, and horror. The reader shall presently be presented 
 with a direct proof of this, on the authority of the Persian historian 
 
 * Short Hist, o Prsia, p. 43. 
 
[ 147 ] 
 
 Mirkhond, when we come to consider the exploits of Gushstap, the 
 Darius Hystaspes of the Greeks, in India. Our present concern is 
 with the Tartars, whose first king, Oghuz Khan, we left, in a former 
 chapter, at a period so early as that of Hushang, the grandson of 
 Cauimaras, over-running with a vast army both Iran and the north of 
 India ; and, in the same character of invader and plunderer, we are 
 now to introduce its next most powerful monarch, AFRASIAB, a 
 direct, and not very distant, descendant from Tur, fixed by Jones 
 at very near the year 800 before Christ. Afrasiab was probably the 
 Phraortes and Aphraortes, mentioned by classical writers of the 
 ancient Median histories ; for, he seems to have poured his victorious 
 armies over all the Higher Asia ; and Media, in that general subjuga- 
 tion of its monarchs, might have also fallen under his dominion. 
 Afrasiab, determined to assert his presumed right to the crown of 
 Iran, passed the Oxus with a formidable army, attacked and defeated 
 Nuear, or Nudar, eighth prince of the Pishdadian dynasty, and, with 
 the ferocity of a real Tartar, killing the vanquished monarch with 
 his own hand, mounted his vacant throne, on which he reigned 
 twelve years ; but, at the end of that period, was expelled by the 
 vigorous exertions of Zalzer, the prince with golden hair, governor of 
 the province of Segestan, and father of the renowned Rostam*. 
 
 Afrasiab, thus expelled Iran by Zalzer, assisted by Rostam, his 
 son, then but a youth, neglected no opportunity of harassing the 
 Persian empire under the two weak princes that succeeded to its 
 throne. At length Caicobad, the first monarch of the Caianian 
 dynasty, so called from CAi,a word signifying the great king, and 
 the Cyaxares of the Greeks, under their joint protection, assumed 
 its sceptre and restored its ancient splendor. With Rostam, now 
 
 mature in years and wisdom, for his general, he marched into the 
 
 . 
 
 * Short Hist, of Persia, p. 44, and D'Herbelor, under the article Naudhar. 
 
 T2 
 
[ 148 ] 
 
 territories of the Turanian sovereign, and defeated him in a great 
 battle, from which he with difficulty escaped alive, Rostam, for 
 this and other services, was made governor of Zablestan, which, in- 
 cluding both Cabul and Gazna, cities situated close on the borders 
 of India, and intimately connected with it by commerce, rendered 
 him necessarily attentive to what was transacting in that region, 
 and eventually caused it to become the theatre of many of the ex- 
 ploits of that celebrated warrior. The death of Caicobad opened a 
 new field for the hostile efforts of Afrasiab against Iran, and he ac- 
 cordingly once more commenced them with such signal success, as, 
 in a battle fought in Mazenderan with Cai-Caus, his successor, to 
 take that king prisoner ; but this intelligence having reached the 
 ears of Rostam, he immediately entered Turkestan with a vast army, 
 wasted all before him with fire and sword, and swore that he 
 would lay the whole realm in desolation, if Afrasiab hesitated imme- 
 diately to liberate his imprisoned master. The outcries and distress 
 of the terrified inhabitants, who were on the point of rising in general 
 rebellion, had the effect of inducing Afrasiab to set the king of 
 Persia at liberty, after he had solemnly promised to recal the terri- 
 ble Rostam, on whom, in reward, Cai-Caus bestowed his own sister 
 in marriage ; and, that so great a genius in military affairs might not 
 remain unemployed, he sent him, with armies proportionably power- 
 ful, to conquer Egypt, Arabia, Syria, and all Asia Minor, which he 
 successfully accomplished. The Persian empire now approached 
 to the zenith of its glory, and the mighty Shahinshah only wanted the 
 addition of the empires of Turan and India to be the master of Asia. 
 The same Rostam , if in this period of Persian history we are not 
 hurried away by Oriental writers into the region of fable, under the 
 succeeding reign accomplished that desired event also. That reign, 
 however, was the reign of Cai-Khosru, or the great Cyrus ; the 
 reign of enterprize and of glory, when Wisdom planned and Valour 
 
[ 149 ] 
 
 fought. The occasion of Cai-Khosru's invasion of Turau, accord- 
 ing to Mirkhond in D'Herbelot*, was the murder of his father 
 Siavek, an appellation in which we can find no traces of the Cam- 
 by ses of the Greeks, at the court of Afrasiab, where his newly mar- 
 ried wife Franghiz was delivered of Cai-Khosru, after the death of 
 that father. Franghiz was the daughter of Afrasiab, and from her 
 Cyrus derived that hereditary claim upon the throne of Turan which 
 he afterwards so successfully exerted. The rival armies were led 
 by the two greatest monarchs that the East ever saw, assisted by the 
 two greatest generals it ever produced. The name of the Tartar 
 general was Peiran Visseh, (the same person mentioned above in 
 the extract from Ferishta,) and Rostam still, at an advanced age, 
 headed the Persians. In this contest Schangal, king of India, is 
 expressly mentioned by Mirkhond as an all} 7 of Afrasiab, and as fight- 
 ing on his side, together with the Kah-Khan of Great Tartary, and 
 this offensive step of Schangal was probably the cause of the conse- 
 quent descent of Rostam upon India, which both the Indian and 
 Tartar histories enumerate, among the conquests of that great war- 
 rior. The long and sanguinary contests which had agitated the two 
 branches of the family of Feridun, were to be terminated for a time, 
 at least, if not for ever, by the approaching battle between the great 
 surviving chiefs of it. The Tartar sovereign, owing to his vast su- 
 periority in numbers, was at first victorious, and drove the Persians 
 back into their own province of Chorasan, where they fortified them- 
 selves in its mountainous districts, till powerful reinforcements ar- 
 rived ; but the result was the total discomfiture of Afrasiab and the , 
 destruction of half his army. Retiring, however, into his own do- 
 minion, he soon recruited the waste of battle, and rushed with ncu 
 vigour on the forces of Khosru. But in this second engagement he 
 
 * See D'Herbelot Bibliotb. Orient, under the article Siavek and Rostam. 
 
[ 1*0 ] 
 
 was again defeated, and had the heavy additional calamity to lose 
 the valiant and faithful Peiran Visseh, over whom Khosru himsdf 
 shed a tear of regret. The Iranian monarch, determined to follow 
 up his victory, and crush, by one decisive, blow, all the remaining 
 hopes of Afrasiab, pursued his march towards the capital of Turk- 
 estan, and at Kharesm, on the banks of the Oxus, obtained that me- 
 morable victory over Afrasiab, which proved the means of giving its 
 present name to that province ; for Khosru, finding he had gained 
 the day, without any material loss on his side, is said exultingly to 
 haveexclaimed, " Kharesmi-bud ! I have gotten an easy victory* !" 
 The path now lay open to the metropolis of Turan, which Khosru 
 took ; and, following the fugitive monarch from province to pro- 
 vince, at length overtook him, at the head of a small band of faithful 
 troops, on the mountains of Azerbijian, where, being compelled to 
 surrender, he was put to death by the order of the conqueror, who 
 seems not to have thought his throne secure while Afrasiab lived. 
 The death of this formidable rival left Khosru the undisputed sove- 
 reign of those two mighty empires. That he might more conveni- 
 ently govern both, and be at hand with speed and energy to sup- 
 press any attempts at insurrection among the Turanian princes, he 
 fixed his future residence at Balk, the capital of Chorasan, the 
 ancient Bactriana ; possibly he might have passed at this capital a 
 portion of the summer months, which he is said, by Xenophon -f-, to 
 have spent at Ecbatan, to avoid the intense heat of that climate. 
 With the fortitude of a conqueror, in Khosru was united the wisdom 
 of an able legislator, and he assiduously endeavoured, by mild laws 
 and generous treatment, to reconcile the Turanians to their new 
 sovereign, urging the folly of cherishing hostile sentiments against 
 their Iranian neighbours, who sprang originally from the same 
 
 * Short Hist, of Persia, p, 20, f Cyropxdia, lib. viii, p. 233, 
 
stock, and were again become their fellow-subjects under the same 
 king. 
 
 The elegant conciseness with which Sir William Jones has, in a 
 few lines, compressed the whole of the history of Cai-Khosru, in- 
 duces me to insert it in this part of our account of the Turanian 
 empire, and the rather, because it confirms the circumstance stated 
 in D'Herbelot, that the ruling sovereign of India was engaged in it. 
 " Cai-Khosru, whom the Persians consider as a demi-god, on ascend- 
 ing the throne, determined to revenge the death of his father, and 
 to deliver his kingdom from the tyranny of Afrasiab. He, therefore, 
 assembled all his forces, and gave battle to the usurper, who, on the 
 other side, was supported by the kings of KHATAI and INDIA ; but 
 the valour of Cyrus and of his general Rostam prevailed against the 
 united power of so many sovereigns, and Afrasiab lost his life on the 
 mountains of Media. This war is celebrated in a noble, poem by 
 the illustrious Ferdusi, who may welt be called the Homer of 
 Persia*." 
 
 During the vigorous government of Khosru, it is probable that 
 Turan continued under the immediate control of the Persian mo- 
 narch ; but, in the time of Lohorasp, his successor, we find a native 
 prince of its own again on the throne, and bound, by a tributary 
 obligation, to the king of Iran. Lohorasp at first appears to be, and 
 in point of time, and order of succession ought to- be, the Cambyses 
 of the Greeks, but their characters are so extremely different, tUe 
 former being represented by the Orientals as a most virtuous and 
 amiable prince, while the latter, according to the Greek writers,, was 
 a frantic and merciless tyrant, that the supposition i& utterly re- 
 pugnant to reason. Lohorasp had two sons, the eldest of whom was 
 the famous Gushstap, the Hystaspes of the Greeks, who, prematurely 
 
 * Short Hist, of Persia, p. 48. 
 
[ 152 ] 
 
 aspiring to the throne, excited and headed a rebellion against his 
 father ; but, being defeated, took refuge at the court of the sovereign 
 of Turan, married his daughter, and kindled in that region also 
 the flames of rebellion. He was on the point of leading into Iran a 
 powerful army intended to dethrone his father and lawful sovereign, 
 when Lohorasp, sinking under the weight of years and infirmity, 
 took the resolution to avert from his kingdom the horrors of civil 
 war, by a voluntary resignation of his sceptre to this turbulent and 
 ambitious prince. Gushstap, on receiving this intelligence, was 
 penetrated with a proper sense of shame and sorrow for his unworthy 
 conduct to so good a father, and now set forward, with a splendid 
 and peaceable retinue, to implore his forgiveness, and ascend his 
 abdicated throne. Their meeting was in the highest degree tender 
 and affecting, and, a cordial reconciliation taking place, Lohorasp 
 was prevailed upon to live as a guest in the palace where he once 
 swayed the sceptre ; assisting his son till his death with his advice 
 both in civil and martial concerns. He died at a very advanced age 
 at Balk, which he had made his constant residence, and thence ob- 
 tained the additional name of BALKI, by which he is distinguished 
 in the Persian annals. With the reign of Gushstap, or Darius Hy- 
 staspes, the Greek history of events relating to India properly com- 
 mences ; and, as no more irruptions of importance into India by the 
 kings of Turan seem to have taken place for some centuries after- 
 wards, we shall, for the present, quit that remote region of Asia for 
 Persia, and review the series of events that gradually paved the way 
 to the subjugation of INDIA, first, by the PERSIANS, and, afterwards 
 by their conquerors, the MACEDONIANS. 
 
 
[ 153 ] 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Short Retrospect on the History of the ancient Sovereigns of MEDIA, 
 according both to Oriental and Classical History. Its Union 
 with the Persian Throne formed the Basis of the Grandeur of the 
 latter Empire. The vast Extent of IRAN, or PERSIA, in the 
 Reign of the early Monarchs of the CAIANIAN Dynasty. Its 
 History, as connected with that of INDIA, resumed and continued 
 down to the Period of the Invasion of the latter Country by 
 GUSHSTAP, or Darius Hystaspes. 
 
 JL HE empire of Media, if that name be justly derived from Madai, 
 the son of Japhet, which is the most probable etymon, must have been 
 one of the most ancient in the world, and co-aeval with the first esta- 
 blishment of regular governments in Asia. This great branch of the 
 Japhetic family probably for a long time flourished in undisturbed 
 security, owing to the strong and almost inaccessible nature of the 
 country which they inhabited. The lofty mountains of Azerbijian, 
 the Hyrcanian cliffs of Caucasus, and dark Iberian dales, noticed by 
 Milton, which are stated in the Short History of Persia principally to 
 have reference to SHIRVAN, the region of lions, and DAGHESTAN, 
 the country of rocks, provinces widely extending along the in- 
 hospitable shores of the Caspian Sea, sheltered the first settlers from 
 the desolating fury of ambition, and on this account there is strong 
 reason for believing that the dynasties of most ancient Median sove- 
 reigns, inserted in Herodotus and in Diodorus, from Ctesias, and 
 affirmed by those writers to have reigned during an immense period 
 Vol. in. U 
 
[ 154 ] 
 
 in the earliest ages, are not, as they are generally supposed to be, 
 wholly imaginary. As the Median kings extended their power over 
 the southern and eastern provinces, adjoining their hereditary domain, 
 they seem to have excited alternately the envy and assaults of the 
 Assyrians and Tartars, between whom they were situated ; for, we 
 have seen, at page 220 and those succeeding, that both the Assyrian 
 Ninus and the Scythian Oghuz subjugated them to their control. 
 Indeed, so fatal to that power proved the assaults of these formidable 
 nations, that it was not till the entire subversion of the Assyrian 
 monarchs, that the Median empire again reared its head under 
 Dejoces, generally, but improperly, considered as its first monarch ; 
 nor till Cyaxares, by a bold and successful manoeuvre, had expelled 
 from his oppressed country the Tartar hordes, which had inundated 
 the Southern Asia, that Media reached the height of its glory as an 
 empire. Now there is a train of indisputable evidence to prove 
 not only that Cyaxares was the Cai-Cobad of the Persians, but that 
 the chief and the Scythians thus expelled were this very Afrasiab 
 concerning whom so much has previously occurred, and those very 
 Turanians, or Oriental Tartars, his subjects, who have been in this as well 
 as in many other instances, confounded with the northern Scythians. 
 It is remarkable that Cai-Khosru is represented by the Asiatic writers 
 to have been the grandson of Cai-Cobad, in the very same manner as 
 Cyrus is stated by the Greek historians to have been the grandson of 
 Cyaxares. It does not appear, however, from Oriental writers, that 
 this expulsion of the invading Tartars took place, in the manner de- 
 scribed by the Greeks, after a banquet to which their chiefs had 
 been invited and massacred by Cyaxares, but that they were com- 
 pelled, by a vigorous and united exertion of the invaded nation, to 
 repass the Oxus*. The subsequent conquest of Assyria, and destruc- 
 
 Short Hist, of Persia, p. 47. 
 
[ 155 ] 
 
 tion of Nineveh, its capital, by the same monarch, has been already 
 noticed ; a conquest which widely extended the power of the Medes 
 over the region of the Higher Asia, and was secured not only by bonds 
 of public alliance, but by the force of domestic ties with Nebuchad- 
 nezzar, the reigning sovereign of Babylon, who married the daughter 
 of Cyaxares. 
 
 To Cai-Cobad, on the Imperial throne of Iran, succeeded Cai- 
 Caus, called by the Greeks Darius the Mede, the word Darius being 
 formed from Dara, the Persian word for sovereign ; and the title, 
 therefore, should more properly be applied to the dynasty than to 
 any individual prince of Persia then flourishing. In his reign, with 
 the assistance of his successor, Cai-Khosru, the great Cyrus, the 
 Babylonian kingdom was added to this amazing empire ; and, at 
 his death, Khosru, by hereditary right king of the empire, properly 
 called Persia, became the undisputed sovereign of all the Greater 
 Asia. But even this immense domain could not satisfy the bound- 
 less ambition of Khosru, who soon subjugated Asia Minor also, and, 
 by the invincible Rostam, extended his sway over Syria and Ara- 
 bia ; the Gulph of that name and Ethiopia forming the southern, 
 and the Caspian and Euxine Seas the northern, limit of his empire ; 
 while the distant ./Egean Sea washed it on the western, and the Indus 
 on the eastern, frontier. Although the Indus be here stated, on the 
 authority of Xenophon*, as its eastern boundary, that is only to be 
 understood in a geographical sense ; for, so rich a prize as India, and 
 so near a neighbour to the provinces over which Rostam and his 
 brave sons successively enjoyed little less than a kingly authority, 
 can scarcely be supposed to have been, under this vigorous reign, 
 absolved from that tributary dependance under which it was holden 
 by former monarchs of Iran. In truth, the extracts from the native 
 
 * Cyropaedia, lib. viii. p. 233. 
 
 U 2 
 
[ 156 ] 
 
 Hindoo records in Ferishta positively assert the continuance of that 
 dependance,in the following passage : Speaking of the last sovereign 
 of the race of Barage, (he means BAL RAJAH ; for, the descendants 
 of Bali Rama still reigned on the throne of Oude, in Bahar, where, 
 in fact, this history places the capital of Barage,) Ferishta tells us 
 that " Keidar, a Brahmin, from the mountains of Sewalic, having 
 collected a great army, invaded him, and having in the end entirely 
 defeated the king, wielded the sceptre of government with his own 
 hands. When Keidar, the Brahmin, had claspt the bride of royalty 
 in his arms, being a man of learning and genius, he became a great 
 king ; but, carrying the trappings ofCai-Caus and Cm-Khosru on his 
 shoulders, he was constrained, by way of tribute, to send them annual 
 gifts. In the latter end of his reign, one Shinkol, a native of Kin- 
 noge, (the Shangal alluded to before,) having strengthened himself, 
 took possession of Bengal and Bahar, where he had been governor ; 
 and, leading a great army against Keidar, after many battles had 
 been fought with various success, the fortune of Shinkol at length 
 prevailed*." 
 
 It is not my intention to enter in this place into any more length- 
 ened detail than has been given, in the preceding chapter, concern- 
 ing the warlike acts of the mighty Khosru and his general Rostam ; 
 I mean only to shew that India, during the extended period of their 
 glory in Asia, was not, as the Greek accounts insinuate, by making 
 Hystaspes the first explorer of the Indus and the adjoining districts, 
 wholly independent of the Persian empire. The fact is, that Rostam, 
 by holding the large principalities of Sigestan and Zablestan, the 
 ancient Drangiana and Arachosia, closely confining on the Western 
 India, as fiefs, from the kings of Persia, possessed the key that 
 opened an immediate passage into the heart of India ; for, it has 
 
 * Ferishta, vol. i. p. 18, idem edit. 
 
t 157 ] 
 
 before been remarked, that Cabul is the capital of the latter province, 
 and it is an old Indian adage, that nobody can be called the master 
 of India who has not taken possession of Cabul. The extensive 
 conquests of Cyrus, in Asia the Greater and the Less, have been 
 already glanced at, to which Mirkhond and other Eastern historians 
 bear full testimony, with only the difference of ascribing the 
 honour of the greater portion of them to Ros tarn. In the disputed 
 circumstance of the death of Khosru, they agree rather with Xeno- 
 phon than Herodotus, recording that death to have happened in 
 philosophic composure, in the plenitude of years and glory, and not 
 in a disgraceful war with the Massagetes, as stated by the latter*, 
 whose relation is much more applicable to the destruction of Afra- 
 siab, the sanguinary tyrant of Turan, put to death for those enormi- 
 ties by Khosru. It is most probable, therefore, that the Greek his- 
 torian, who undoubtedly had heard some resembling story, during 
 his abode in Asia, concerning the destruction of an army and chief- 
 tain engaged, as the Persians incessantly were, with the Turanian 
 barbarians, has, by a mistake easily enough to be accounted for in 
 a foreigner, applied to Cyrus a catastrophe which might have ac- 
 tually befallen one of his generals, or possibly, Afrasiab himself, 
 the tyrannical and powerful antagonist of the Persian monarch. 
 
 The fury of his frantic successor, Cambyses, happily for the re- 
 pose of India, took a southern direction, and, after laying waste 
 Egypt, exhausted itself in destructive expeditions to the country of 
 the Hammonians, in the Lybian deserts, and in wild projects to 
 subdue the ^Ethiopians. Chronology marks Cambyses for the 
 Ahasuerus of Scripture, in whose correct page, doubtless with refer- 
 ence to this last insane attempt, it is said his kingdom extended 
 from INDIA even unto ^ETHIOPIA. The preceding history, how- 
 
 * Herodotus, lib. i. p. 213. 
 
[ 158 ] 
 
 ever, it should be remembered, is the Grecian account of Cambyses, 
 who is very differently known to the Orientals both by name and 
 character. That name is LOHORASP, and that character, as before 
 observed, not cruel and tyrannical, but virtuous and amiable*. 
 The softer Greek name of Cambyses was probably derived from the 
 Persian KAMBAKSH, or granter of desires, one of the numerous 
 titles often assumed by the Persian sovereigns, in addition to their 
 patronymic name, on ascending the throne. For a similar reason, 
 doubtless, we find the same name bestowed by the Greeks on Siaveh, 
 the native appellation of the father of Cyrus. By Mirkhond he is 
 stated to have passed his long reign principally at Balk, in Khorasan, 
 imitating, in this respect, his predecessor, whose object was, by a 
 residence in that most eastern province of Iran, to overlook and 
 keep in awe, by his presence, his new subjects of Turkestan. Lo- 
 horasp, though thus himself remote from the storms of war, had a 
 general very celebrated in Asiatic annals, of the name of GUDERZ, 
 who is recorded to have pushed his conquests very far in the west, 
 and, ravaging all Syria, to have returned to his government of Baby- 
 lon loaded with the wealth of Palestine, whose capital, Jerusalem, 
 he sacked and plundered, and attended by innumerable captives. 
 This man, therefore, surnamed Bakht-Nassar by the Persians, must 
 have been the Nebuchadnezzar of sacred history ; and to him alone, 
 if the Persian records truly state that no intermediate monarch 
 reigned between Cyrus and Lohorasp, must be attributed all the 
 outrages in Egypt, supposed to have been committed by Cambyses. 
 The Persian histories make not the least mention of the usurpation 
 of Smerdis, the Magi, of the murder of that impostor by the seven 
 conspirators headed by Hystaspes, nor of the ingenious stratagem to 
 effect the neighing of the horse, at sun-rise, put in practice by the 
 
 * Jones's Short History of Persia, p. 49. 
 

 [ 159 ] 
 
 groom of the latter, to secure him the Persian diadem. They state 
 Hystaspes, or GUSHSTAP, as they write the name, to have been the 
 eldest son of Lohorasp, a prince of great talents, but of a haughty 
 and martial disposition, constantly engaged, during his youth, in re- 
 bellious projects against his father's life and throne ; and, in his more 
 mature years, endeavouring once more to rend Turan, the daughter 
 of the nominal sovereign of which empire he espoused, from its tri- 
 butary dependance on the kings of Persia. At length, the prudent 
 resignation by Lohorasp of a sceptre, which increasing years and in- 
 firmities rendered him unable to wield with energy, saved himself 
 from public degradation, while this unexpected act of paternal kind- 
 ness contributed to reclaim a son whom no menaces could daunt and 
 no open hostilities subdue. For a long period they lived together in 
 one palace in the utmost harmony and affection. The dethroned 
 monarch, at length disgusted with the pomp of courts, laid aside 
 every vestige of his former dignity, invested himself with the habit of 
 a priest, and retired to spend the remainder of his life in the solitude 
 of a cloister, which he built for that purpose. . In that solitude he 
 passed thirty years in meditation and prayer, but it afforded not the 
 repose for which he languished to his closing life ; being, at the end 
 of that period, barbarously massacred with the other Magi in an ir- 
 ruption of the Turanians. On this voluntary retirement of his father, 
 Hystaspes having, by his marriage with the daughter of the king of 
 Turan, more firmly than ever established the union of the two king- 
 doms, quitted Balk as an imperial residence, and fixed his future 
 abode at Istakar, called by the Greeks Persepolis, where afterwards 
 he became the decided patron of the new superstition, which, under 
 Zeratusht, was then springing up in Persia, and with the insignia of 
 which he probably adorned the lofty walls and portals of that superb 
 palace, hewn, as its name implies, out of the living rock. 
 
 Concerning the age and meaning of those sculptures, many wild 
 
[ 160 ] 
 
 and baseless conjectures have been formed, but, though generally at- 
 tributed to the remote aera of Cayumeras and Gemshid, of which 
 latter sovereign, in fact, they bear the name, being known to the 
 natives by that ofTAKHTi JEMSHID, or throne of Jemshid, the 
 Sabian mythology, and particularly the solar adoration, every where 
 conspicuous throughout those stupendous ruins, appear indubitably 
 to mark for their adorner, at least, if not for their founder, the im- 
 perial Archimagus. It is possible that Jemshid, who is recorded to 
 have first introduced, among the Persians, the use of the solar year, 
 and instituted, in commemoration of it, the magnificent festival of 
 the NAURUZ, when the sun enters Aries, originally founded that 
 magnificent edifice, the wonder and ornament of Asia, and engraved 
 on its walls the birth-day procession of nobles offering presents, usual 
 on that solemnity, till a very late period, in the courts of the 
 Persian sovereigns, and even of the Indian emperors, with which the 
 massy porticoes and winding staircases are covered ; yet it is more 
 than probable that Chelminar is indebted for no small share of its 
 now-faded grandeur to Hystaspes ; that Hystaspes, who was inferior 
 only to Cyrus in the magnificence of his designs and in the extent 
 of his power; under whose protection the arts and sciences advanced 
 rapidly towards maturity in Persia ; and by whose vigorous intellect 
 the ancient prejudices, both in religion and government, were 
 spumed, as is evidenced not less in his patronizing the reformer 
 Zeratusht, than in his first establishing a formidable marine, explor- 
 ing the shores of the Indus, and navigating the Persian and Arabian 
 Gulphs. Were its ranging columns and the general plan of that 
 immense fabric surveyed with an astronomical eye, I have no 
 doubt but that, like the Stonehenge of our Druids, it would afford 
 us a new insight into the scientific attainments in that line of the 
 ancient Persians, the immediate pupils of the Chaldean school. 
 Whatsoever may be the decision of the reader concerning the dis- 
 
puted age of Istakhar, no doubt can possibly be entertained of that 
 of NAKHTI HOST AM, two leagues distant from Persepolis, since it 
 could not have been designed before the hero was born, and the 
 mighty exploits had taken place, which the ornamental sculptures 
 on that monument were intended to celebrate. Now, allowing to 
 Rostam the very extended age which the Persian historians assign 
 him, that hero (or rather the first and most celebrated of the name ; 
 for, to give sense or credibility to the Eastern relations concerning 
 him, we must suppose there to have been a succession, or dynasty, 
 of them reigning in Sejestan) could not have been long dead when 
 Hystaspes mounted the Persian throne ; which circumstance, added 
 to the impressive one of the mystic designation, (a direct allusion to 
 the worship of the sun and of fire,) engraved on the front of that 
 rocky shrine, forbid us to hesitate at pronouncing Hystaspes to have 
 designed it in honour of the friend and defender of his family. The 
 reader will observe that Istakhar is, throughout these short stric- 
 tures, considered as a palace, not as a temple, in which light some 
 eminent antiquaries have regarded these ruins ; for, I am aware 
 that the erection of temples was contrary to the principle of the 
 reformed religion of Zeratusht, and it was that very principle which 
 urged them on with such furious zeal to destroy the sublime edifices 
 first of Egypt, and, as we shall presently see, of India itself. If an 
 objection should be started to this hypothesis, which gives the ho- 
 nour of founding Persepolis to Hystaspes, on the ground of the in- 
 scription not being written in the Zend character, which was then in 
 use, and which, in that case, must have been long ago deciphered by 
 learned Persians, the most satisfactory answer to this, and indeed to 
 all similar questions concerning them, is to be found in Sir William 
 Jones's Essay on the Persians, who thinks it may reasonably be 
 doubted whether those characters are really alphabetical : he is of 
 opinion "that they are secret and sacerdotal; or, perhaps, a mere 
 Vol. in. X 
 
[ 162 ] 
 
 cipher, of which the priests alone had the key*/' and which, conse- 
 quently, has perished with them. 
 
 Concerning Zoroaster himself, the peculiar purity of the original 
 dogmas which distinguished his enlightened sect, and the rapid 
 diffusion of their influence, either by the force of arms or of argu- 
 ment, through nearly the whole of Asia, a diffusion so fortunately 
 introductory (perhaps intended to have been so by a supreme all- 
 ruling Providence, during the blind and continued infatuation of 
 the Jews) to the still purer doctrines of Christianity, in a few cen- 
 turies about to break forth and illumine the Pagan world ; con- 
 cerning that theologue, I say, the tenets which he propagated, and 
 as explained by himself, the innocent symbol which characterized 
 his almost Christian ritual, the FIRE, on which, radiating from 
 the ark of the covenant, the Hebrews themselves were taught to 
 look with a kind of religious awe, as the sublime kebla of their de- 
 votion ; such extensive strictures have already occurred in the pages 
 of the Indian Antiquities, as to preclude all necessity of resuming a 
 subject which otherwise would naturally claim a distinguished place 
 in a work professedly retrospective on the interesting events that 
 anciently took place on the great theatre of Asia. One remarkable 
 fact only, alluded to in a former page-f-, as more immediately con- 
 nected with this period of our history, again presses for notice ; I 
 mean the journey of the Persian sage in company with Hystaspes, 
 probably in disguise, to the woody recesses of the Brahmins in the 
 Superior India, to obtain initiation into the mysteries of their religion 
 and the wonders of their philosophy. This visit of Hystaspes was, 
 probably, the secret cause of the resolution which that monarch 
 afterwards took, to be better acquainted with a country which pro- 
 duced and cherished, in ease and undisturbed retirement, a race of 
 
 * Asiatic Researches, vol. ii. p. 57- 
 
 t See page 277 preceding of the second volume, and the quotation there from Ammianus. 
 
[ 163 ] 
 
 men so admirable for their wisdom and so renowned for their 
 austerities. It is the duty of the historian to explore the secret 
 springs of great public events, and notwithstanding his invasion of 
 India, as related by Herodotus, is generally considered to have been 
 the result of ambition and avarice united, I have very good au- 
 thority, which shall presently be adduced, for announcing that 
 religion, a vehement desire of overturning the Brahmin superstition, 
 and erecting upon its ruins the pure theism of Zeratusht, was the 
 principal inducement to that irruption. In fact, that superstition, 
 from the multiplied idols, bestial, human, and compounded of both 
 forms, that crowd the walls of the Indian pagodas, which, though 
 to the devout Indian they only present the idea of the personified 
 attributes of God, yet to the abhorrent Persian appeared as so many 
 direct objects of adoration, added to the innumerable pagodas them- 
 selves, which at that time covered the face of the country, must 
 have been extremely offensive to a zealous advocate of the reformed 
 religion of Persia ; and thus Hystaspes, while he respected the 
 Brahmins for their love of science and their devotion to philosophy, 
 might deem himself bound, at all hazards, to attempt their conver- 
 sion, and, like Cambyses in Egypt, to root out the very vestiges of 
 an idolatry so base and abominable. Such was the powerful incite- 
 ment, or, at least, such was the plausible pretence, that, in after-ages, 
 urged on the furious Mahmud, and the still more sanguinary Timur, 
 to overwhelm with desolation the fairest region, and devote to sla- 
 very and massacre the happiest people, of Asia. 
 
 There is no occasion for our entering any farther into the history 
 of events in Persia during this long reign, than as those events bear 
 reference to India. For that reason, we shall pass over, as irrelevant 
 to our subject, all that is related by Herodotus concerning the long 
 sack and subsequent capture of Babylon by this monarch, and his 
 subjugation of the Thracian territory. In respect to the same writer's 
 
 X 2 
 
[ 164 ] 
 
 relation of his unsuccessful expedition against the Scythians, which, 
 of all those events, has alone any connection with the events of this 
 history, we shall extract an account of the occasion and progress of 
 it from Oriental sources, which, however, will be found widely 
 different, as to the conduct and the result of the campaign, from the 
 melancholy detail given us by Herodotus ; since Darius is by those 
 writers recorded to have returned from it, as might well be expected 
 from so able and experienced a general, crowned with the most 
 brilliant success. Whether, after all, the occasion of the Scythian 
 war be rightly or erroneously stated by Mirkhond, the motive for 
 that expedition was probably different from that assigned by the 
 Greek historian, viz. the irruption of the Tartar hordes one hundred 
 and twenty years before, in the time of Cyaxares; for, since that 
 period, successive inter-marriages had strengthened the bands of 
 connection between the two royal houses ; and Darius himself, we 
 have seen, had married the daughter of the Turanian emperor. 
 
 It originated, according to Mirkhond, in religion ; in the anxious 
 desire of Hystaspes to diffuse, over the continent of Asia, the new 
 faith of Zeratusht. With this important object in view, he wrote an 
 urgent letter to Argiasp, the reigning sovereign of Turan, and his 
 near relation, using every argument which his superior genius and 
 fervid devotion to reformed Sabaism could invent, to induce him to 
 adopt the creed of the Persian theologue. The Turanian monarch, 
 however, was so far from being convinced by the eloquence of 
 the royal tiro, that he returned an answer which at once re- 
 proached Hystaspes for deserting the faith of his ancestors, and 
 was replete with sarcastic reflections on the novel doctrines pro- 
 pagated by the upstart prophet whom he protected. Roused to 
 revenge at this premeditated insult, Hystaspes and his valiant son 
 Asfendiar immediately took the field, with all the forces of the 
 empire, and, entering Turan, advanced to give its sovereign bat- 
 
[ 165 ] 
 
 tie. After a contest of great obstinacy and slaughter, in which 
 half the royal family of Turan perished, victory declared for 
 the former; and, before Argiasp could levy a new army or 
 rally the routed one, the victorious Persians were in his capital, 
 where every thing was given up to pillage and the licentious 
 outrages of an enraged soldiery. Having taken this signal revenge 
 for religion derided and a throne insulted, Hystaspes marched 
 triumphantly back to his own dominion, where, from one or other 
 of those various causes, jealousy, or suspicion, which distract Eastern 
 courts, he shortly after tarnished his laurels by imprisoning the 
 prince, who was the partner of them, in a strong fortress, on the 
 summit of a lofty hill, called Gaird-Kuh, or the Round Mountain, 
 in the country of Rudbar*. 
 
 The hostile flames, lighted at the new altar erected by Zeratusht 
 to the sovereign power who formed the elements, still burned with 
 unextinguishable fury in the northern Asia. Goaded by the recol- 
 lection of the aggravated injuries recently received from the Per- 
 sian monarch, his slaughtered relatives and ruined capital, Ar- 
 giasp, now, in his turn, meditated a deep and dreadful blow at the 
 very existence of the empire of Iran, and the holy impostor, (as he 
 deemed him,) who had instigated Hystaspes to invade his dominions. 
 Balk, the capital of Corasan, was at that time the hallowed re- 
 sidence of Zeratusht and the Magi, his disciples. The hoary 
 monarch who had once wielded the sceptre of Iran, secluded in the 
 cloister which he had erected, in that metropolis devoted the few 
 moments of his declining life to meditation and prayer. But soon 
 the sacred fires were to be quenched by the blood of the ministering 
 priests, and the ashes of royalty to be blended with those of the altar, 
 which its power had protected. Indefatigable in collecting an army 
 
 * Mirkhond apud Texeira, p. 66. 
 
[ 166 ] 
 
 adequate to the full accomplishment of the extensive destruction 
 which he intended should overwhelm his enemies, the Turanian 
 sovereign rushed forwards at the head of the formidable forces he had 
 raised, to the attack of Balk, to which he instantly laid siege : and, 
 having at length taken it by storm, with Tartar ferocity, put all the 
 inhabitants indiscriminately to the sword, subverted the grand fire- 
 temple, and sacrificed, as victims to his rage, Zeratusht and the 
 seventy priests, who were in the act of officiating at it. Enfeebled 
 by age, but retaining still a portion of the martial vigour which 
 distinguished his juvenile years, the veteran Lohorasp, issuing from 
 his cloistered retreat, at the head of a few faithful followers, in vain 
 attempted to stem the deluge of Barbarians, who were spreading 
 desolation through the sacred city. He fell early in the unequal con- 
 test ; and, no obstacle then remaining to obstruct his march, Argiasp 
 pressed on with his victorious army into the centre of Persia, where 
 so great a panic had seized the Persians, that the prudent Hystaspes 
 did not think it proper to make an immediate attack upon him. 
 He suffered him to waste his strength in long and fatiguing 
 marches and in attacks on fortified towns, which daily diminished 
 his numbers. Then (at the united request of the nation, who 
 loudly called for his release) liberating his son Asfendiar from 
 confinement, he sent him, with a fresh and powerful army, against 
 troops emaciated by fatigue and thinned by disease. The attack 
 was made with such irresistible impetuosity that the Turanian army 
 was compelled to make its retreat out of Persia with more rapidity 
 than they had advanced into it, and were driven with great slaughter 
 beyond the limits of the northern mountains. 
 
 It was now evident that Asia could not, at the same time, hold 
 two monarchs of such power and military spirit as Hystaspes and 
 Argiasp ; the entire subjugation, or rather extirpation, of the latter 
 was therefore determined on in the court of Persia, and Asfendiar 
 
[ 167 ] 
 
 only paused on the Scythian frontier to get his army recruited 
 among the hardy race of the ancient Bactrians. Having ob- 
 tained those recruits, and being joined by his elder brother Bashu- 
 ten, sent by Hystaspes, and with powerful reinforcements from 
 the heart of Persia, these determined warriors pursued the fugi- 
 tive monarch over the wide champaigns and rugged forests of the' 
 Tartarian deserts, till they compelled him and his whole court 
 at length to take shelter in one of the strongest fortresses he pos- 
 sessed, in a remote part of his dominion. As, on the sack of 
 Balk, Argiasp had seized and sent captive into Turan, the sisters 
 of Asfendiar, and as these constantly attended the court, it was 
 necessary to make use of stratagem to procure the return of 
 the princesses without injury : Asfendiar, therefore, himself boldly 
 undertook and successfully accomplished an expedition of great 
 hazard for their rescue. To the fortress in question, says Mirkhond, 
 there lay open only three roads. The first, plain, and easily passa- 
 ble by caravans, with plenty of fine pasture on each side for cavalry ; 
 but withal so long and circuitous, that it would require several 
 months for an army to approach the city by that avenue : to this 
 road was necessarily confined the march of the great body of the 
 Persian army and the heavy baggage. The second road was ex- 
 tremely steep and rugged, and impassable by carriages ; but, at the 
 same time, so direct, that, in a month, at farthest, the fortress 
 might be reached. The third was still nearer, but lay through 
 woods and morasses, and over mountains covered with snow. The 
 second of these roads was that on which a large selected body 
 of cavalry, with Bashuten at their head, was ordered to advance 
 with all possible celerity. On the third road, Asfendiar determined 
 to force his way through every surrounding obstacle on the se- 
 cret expedition which he meditated. After unfolding his plan 
 to his brother Bashuten, he set off from the Persian camp with 
 
[ 168 ] 
 
 seven other noblemen disguised as merchants, carrying with them 
 jewels and other valuable commodities, small of size, but in great 
 request at the courts of Asia. Under this disguise, which was a 
 sure passport in the East, where commerce has ever been so highly 
 respected, they passed through the hostile camp, and arrived safe 
 and unsuspected at the city adjoining to that fortress. Here the 
 splendor of the jewellery and other articles of traffic which they 
 had brought attracted general notice, and the fame of their arrival 
 soon reached the court, at a period when kings themselves did not 
 indignantly disdain sometimes to assume the honourable character 
 which these strangers bore. But their principal recommendation 
 to royal notice was the alleged plea of having been driven from the 
 Persian dominions by the tyranny and extortions of its monarch, 
 from whose barbarous exactions they professed to have fled for 
 protection to the court of Turan. Presents of high value, the 
 usual tribute on supplicating the patronage of the despots of Asia, 
 accompanied this address, and by degrees these mercantile strangers 
 grew into such high favour at the court of Turan, and so far had 
 the disguised Asfendiar wrought himself into the confidence of 
 Argiasp, that a sumptuous banquet was prepared by the king for 
 the princely adventurer. After a certain period, when he thought 
 the Persian forces had arrived near enough to execute their com- 
 mission, he obtained permission, in return s to provide an entertain- 
 ment, suitable to the high dignity of the guests, for the whole 
 Turanian court, in an extensive meadow adjoining the city. On 
 that day, the king, his family, the captive princesses, and all the 
 attendant officers of state, presuming that the invading army was 
 still at a great distance from the scene of their festivity, resigned 
 themselves to the unbounded joys of the banquet; but the nu- 
 merous fires kindled all over the plain, by which that banquet was 
 prepared, in addition, perhaps, to signals like our rockets, thrown 
 
[ 169 ] 
 
 into the air, which we know to have been immemorially used in 
 the campaigns of Asia, were the directing flames that lighted the 
 Persian cavalry from the woody ambuscades in which they lay hid 
 to vengeance and to glory, if, indeed, true glory can ever really be 
 united with sentiments of vengeance. At that luminous signal, 
 the impetuous phalanx of Persia burst forth from their retreat, 
 and, while one part surrounded the field, and all the avenues that 
 Jed to the city and fortress, the other part acted the bloody office 
 of executioners to the assembled nobles and terrified citizens. 
 Asfendiar himself, at the head of his seven heroic comrades, and 
 now arrayed in a different attire from that of merchants, having 
 first secured his sisters, and sent them back under a strong guard 
 to Persia, along the road by which the cavalry had arrived, with 
 his own hand slew the unhappy sovereign of Turan ; while those in 
 his train devoted to promiscuous slaughter the principal grandees 
 of his court. The chief booty obtained, says our historian, on this 
 memorable occasion, was a throne of gold, set with precious stones, 
 of exquisite workmanship, and a white elephant. These he sent 
 into Persia as presents to his father, and followed them himself 
 as far as the mountains of Caucasus, whither we shall presently 
 return to him, after detailing another important event of this reign 
 materially connected with the subject of our history, and prominently 
 conspicuous in the ancient annals of Asia*; 
 
 In the introductory work-f, when speaking of the ancient com- 
 merce carried on between India and Persia, I had occasion to ob- 
 serve, that the latter nation, from the earliest periods, were equally 
 restrained, by the precepts of religion and the dictates of policy, 
 from engaging in maritime expeditions. The element of water, not 
 less than that of fire, was the object of their superstitious veneration ; 
 
 * Mirkhond Hist, sect. Iti. f Sec Indian Antiquities, vol. vi. r p. 40>. 
 
 Vol. in. Y 
 
[ 170 ] 
 
 and, while that superstition made them shudder at the idea of pol- 
 luting it themselves, by any species of filth, thrown from vessels, 
 the dread of invasion from a quarter in which they were so defence- 
 less induced them to prohibit the entrance of foreigners into their 
 dominions, by any maritime inlet, under penalties extremely ri- 
 gorous. To render that event impossible by the channel of their 
 two great rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates, they effectually 
 dammed up the mouths of those rivers with immense engines ; to 
 remove which cost Alexander, when his fleet, under the command 
 of Nearchus, sailed, by the route of the Persian Gulph, into Mesopo- 
 tamia, no small portion of time and labour. At length, roused to a 
 sense of danger by the accounts brought to the court of Persia of the 
 maritime genius of Greece, and of the great naval armaments fitting 
 out in the various ports of that nation, their brave and aspiring neigh- 
 bour, the Persian sovereigns broke through the fetters of their ancient 
 superstition, and, by the assistance of the Phoenicians, and even of the 
 Greeks themselves, I mean the Ionic and Carian Greeks, constructed 
 a navy, and ploughed the forbidden ocean. In this new project, am- 
 bition also had a considerable share, and it was a desire of ascertain- 
 ing the exact point at which the Indus meets the ocean, as well as 
 of exploring and conquering the western provinces of India, that in- 
 duced Darius to fit out at Caspatyrus, a city on the Indus, and in 
 the territories of Pactyia, the modern Pecchely, the fleet so celebrated 
 in history, of which he gave the command to Scylax, a Grecian of 
 Caryandria, a city of Caria, and sent with him others in whose nau- 
 tical skill he placed an entire confidence, with express orders to 
 sail down the current of that rapid river ; diligently to observe the 
 countries that lay. on. either side of it; to enter the southern ocean 
 beyond it; to coast along the Persian and Arabian shore; to enter 
 the Red Sea by the Straits of Babelmandel ; and, finally, sailing up 
 that Gulph, to land in Egypt, at the same place whence Nccho, 
 
[ 171 ] 
 
 king of Egypt, some time before, dispatched a fleet of Phoenicians 
 with orders to sail round the coast of Lybia*, and by that route 
 return westward to the capital of Persia. By Lybia our historian 
 means, in general, Africa, and the port where they landed, was 
 probably Arsinoe, situated on the extreme western point of the 
 Gulph, near which the modern Suez stands. This tedious, and, for 
 those days, hazardous, navigation, Scylax and his companions suc- 
 cessfully accomplished in the thirtieth month from its commence- 
 ment ; and, arriving at the court of Susa with the desired intelligence, 
 animated that monarch to attempt the conquest of the western re- 
 gion of India. This conquest, according to our historian, he after- 
 wards fortunately effected ; but he acquaints us with no farther par- 
 ticulars concerning it. In his third book, however, enumerating 
 the provinces subject to Persia, which, under Darius Hystaspes, are 
 said to have amounted to twenty in number, and the tribute derived 
 from them, India ranks as one of them, and the tribute of the newly- 
 conquered province is stated at four thousand six hundred and eighty 
 Euboic talents, amounting to nearly a third part of the whole re- 
 venue of his other dominions, which was fourteen thousand five 
 hundred and sixty Euboic talents, or ="2,807,437 sterlingf . The 
 Indian tribe, he tells us, was paid in gold, while that of all the 
 other satrapies was paid in silver. Herodotus is very particular in 
 relating this fact ; for, in one place, he expressly declares they paid 
 six hundred talents in golden ingots ; in another, that it was three 
 hundred and sixty talents of gold, the number of the days of the 
 ancient Persian year. The reason of the Indian tribute being paid 
 in gold rather than silver is properly assigned by Rennel, from the 
 Ayeen Akbery, that, " the eastern branches of the Indus, as well as 
 
 * Herodotus, lib. iv. p. 270. t Ibid. lib. iii. p. 227. 
 
 Y2 ' 
 
[ 172 ] 
 
 some other streams that descend from the northern mountains, an- 
 ciently yielded gold-dust*." 
 
 As this maritime expedition was entrusted to a Greek admiral, 
 the account of it by a Greek writer is most likely to be correct. 
 The Persian historian, however, makes little mention of it ; he only 
 observes, that Asfendiar, the son -of Hystaspes; on his return from 
 the conquest of Turan, crossed the mountains of Caucasus, with 
 intent to survey the Indian Ocean, and compel the princes border- 
 ing on the Indus to renounce idolatry and embrace the reformed 
 religion of Zeratusht-\-. If this prince pursued his march so far 
 southward as to reach the shore of Cuzzurat, washed by the Indian 
 Sea, his line of conquest must have been extensive indeed, and 
 satisfactorily accounts for the large annual tribute obtained by this 
 vast acquisition of territory to the Persian crown : most probably, 
 however, the fleet in question attended the progress of the invading 
 army, and, as much as possible, facilitated its motions and assisted 
 its operations. 
 
 Although we did not think it necessary to enter into any par- 
 ticular detail concerning the events of the Ionian war, commenced 
 at- the beginning ^of this reign, because not immediately con- 
 nected with those of the Indian history, yet, before we close our 
 review of the life of Hystaspes, it is important to notice that his 
 dispute, or, rather, the disputes of the governors who commanded 
 in the distant provinces that bordered on Greece, with that war- 
 like people, was the certain, though remote, origin of all those 
 violent contests which afterwards convulsed the two states, and ul- 
 timately terminated in the subversion of the Persian empire. The 
 immense distance of the Grecian republics from the capital of 
 Persia, from which they were separated by the great Tauric range 
 
 * Kennel's Memoir, p. 25, edit. 1788. f Mirkhond apud Texeira, p. J8. 
 
[ 173 ] 
 
 tl^at runs through Asia, and their apparent insignificancy as a na- 
 tion, added to the endless feuds and jealousy that raged among 
 themselves, would probably have for ever prevented their beco- 
 ming an object of apprehension to the Persians, had it not been 
 for their great experience in maritime concerns and the restless 
 ambition of some of their chiefs, whose intrigues or perfidy brought 
 down upon them the vengeance of the satraps of Sardis. The 
 greater the exertions made by the Persians for the establishment 
 of a navy,, the more sensible did they become of the growing 
 power of that republic, the more feelingly did they lament their 
 own inferiority on that ocean, upon which, as upon land, they 
 equally now aspired at uncontrolled dominion. It was not, how- 
 ever, the Greeks of the distant islands that yet excited any vio- 
 lent sensation of alarm at the Persian court, it was the Greeks 
 settled in the nearer districts of Ionia and JSolia, whose history, 
 or, at least, all of it that is important to our subject to be rela- 
 ted, is as follows. The rich and flourishing kingdom of Lydia, 
 previously to its reduction, had early cherished, on its extensive 
 coast, successive colonies from Athens, Thebes, and the other great 
 cities of Greece ; and these Asiatic Greeks, firmly established and 
 widely diffused over the western shore of Asia Minor, by assi- 
 duously cultivating that commerce, for carrying on which they 
 were so advantageously situated, at the time of the subjugation 
 of Groesus, had arrived at no inconsiderable height of splendor 
 and power. In the overwhelming violence, however, with which 
 the weight of the Persian power descended upon that region of 
 Asia, distinction was lost, and subordinate states and interests in- 
 gulphcd. Lydia became a province of the Persian empire, and 
 the Greek republics of Ionia, dependent upon it, after a resolute 
 but ineffectual resistance to the generals of Cyrus, commissioned 
 to effect the complete conquest of them, finally became tribu- 
 
[ 174 ] 
 
 tary to the Persian monarch. In the next reign, Cambyses, du- 
 ring his frantic Egyptian expedition, (if, -in fact, it ever took 
 place,) derived the greatest advantage from the assistance of the 
 Greeks of Ionia and Caria, who, with singular deviation from 
 those principles of liberty and independence on which the Greek 
 republics were originally founded, had enlisted as auxiliaries in his 
 own army and that of Prammetichus, his adversary, and were 
 the means of affixing in future, on all their successors, the dis- 
 graceful title of mercenaries. Nor was his land-army alone re- 
 cruited from the Greeks of that district ; they furnished him also 
 with a considerable navy, towards effecting the purpose of his 
 expedition. During the early period of the reign of Hystaspes, 
 the Ionian Greeks continued uninterruptedly to pursue the same 
 rapid career of wealth and commerce, and rose so high in na- 
 val renown that all the islands of the ^Egean-Sea either felt or 
 trembled at their power. Instigated, at length, by some daring 
 chiefs of their own nation, and some disaffected Persian nobles, 
 exiled from the court, confiding on their decided superiority in 
 naval concerns, and relying on the vigorous support of the other 
 republics of Greece, they endeavoured to wrest the whole of that 
 rich satrapy from the hands of the Persians. The result of this 
 bold project, and of subsequent very spirited efforts to accom- 
 plish it, proved very different from what their sanguine expec- 
 tations had predicted, and what in fact the boldness of the de- 
 sign merited; for, though the Athenians, enraged at some recent 
 insults received from the court of Sardis, joined them with a 
 considerable naval force, (the more cautious Lacedaemonians re- 
 fusing to have any share in the war,) and though Sardis itself 
 was taken by the united forces, and the greater part of that ce- 
 lebrated capital burnt ; yet the triumph of the Grecians was but 
 temporary, and their total overthrow, which followed almost im- 
 

 [ 175 ] 
 
 mediately, under the walls of Ephesus, served only, for the present, 
 to bind more firmly the Persian fetters on their Greek subjects of 
 Asia Minor. For Athens, and the other Greek confederates who 
 assisted the revolters, a severer vengeance was meditated by the 
 conqueror, and the accidental burning of Sardis was but a prelude 
 to those more fatal flames by which the finest temples and loftiest 
 edifices of Greece were consumed, and Athens itself, with other 
 celebrated cities, levelled with the dust. Hystaspes, however, 
 did not survive this event long enough to inflict that ultimate 
 revenge : he lived, indeed, to witness the desolation of Eretria, 
 one marked object of his implacable resentment, but he also lived 
 to have the transports it occasioned effaced amid the pangs inflicted 
 by the disgraceful defeat of his troops on the plain of Marathon, 
 that disastrous plain on which the Persian eagles, for the first time, 
 bowed the head in battle to the rising genius of Greece*. 
 
 BAHAMAN, the son of Asfendiar, and consequently the grand- 
 son of Gushstap, is mentioned in the Oriental histories as the im- 
 mediate successor of the latter on the throne of Persia. His 
 Persian surname is DIRAZDEST, literally translated by the Greeks 
 Mx0;E/f, or the Long-Handed, in which we have a just specimen 
 of the confused manner in which the Greeks have handed down to 
 us, in the order of succession, the names of the Persian sovereigns. 
 This prince ought properly to be the Xerxes of the Greeks; a 
 name probably derived from SHIRSHAH. Sir William Jones offers 
 the only explanation which I have met with of this difficulty, when 
 he says, " Our chronologists place the reign of Xerxes after Darius 
 Hystaspes ; and he might, perhaps, have outlived both Lohorasp 
 and his successor -f. He must, however, on this supposition, have 
 flourished to a wonderful old age, and, at all events, is a very 
 
 * Herodot. lib. vi. cap 99-102. t Short Hist, of Persia, p. 50. 
 
[ 176 ] 
 
 different character from the youthful, ardent, aspiring, Xerxes of 
 the Greeks. From his other name of Ardeshir, often given him in 
 Mirkhond, he is, most probably, the Artaxerxes of their history. 
 Mirkhond, in Texeira, asserts, that his right hand and arm were 
 actually considerably longer than his left ; but the judicious author 
 above-cited thinks that his title of Longimanus metaphorically 
 alluded to his extensive power. There certainly are not, in the 
 Oriental writers, as Mr. Richardson has observed, any accounts, 
 similar to those of the Greeks, of the invasion of Greece by the 
 myriads of Xerxes, or of the subsequent defeat of that monarch 
 and the dispersion of his innumerable army and fleet. A defeat 
 and compelled retreat of such a disgraceful kind was not likely to 
 become the theme of any contemporary domestic historian in the 
 despotic empire of Asia ; or, if the story were ever recorded by the 
 Persian historic muse, may it not have perished with the archives 
 of the state, and the other treasures of Persian literature, on the 
 invasion of the Greeks, and amidst the flames that consumed Per- 
 sepolis ? It is impossible to conceive that Herodotus, who flourished 
 so near that period, and doubtless had his account from eye-wit- 
 nesses of that dreadful catastrophe, could be deceived as to the 
 leading circumstances of a fact of such public notoriety ; or to 
 coincide with Mr. Richardson in opinion, that the movements of a 
 Persian general and the inferior army of a satrap, or several satraps, 
 could be mistaken for the solemn march of Xerxes himself and 
 the concentrated force of the whole Persian empire. Convinced, 
 therefore, that, in travelling over the page of Greek history, de- 
 scribing this invasion, we are not wholly treading on fairy-ground, 
 and that, under whatever name, a monarch of the genius and cha- 
 racter of Xerxes once sat on the Persian throne, I shall proceed 
 to connect the narrative of events before-described, as ultimately 
 tending to the subjugation of India, by a concise recapitulation of 
 
[ 177 ] 
 
 facts, which, though well known to every classical scholar, cannot, 
 consistently with the object of this history and the information of 
 the less learned, be entirely omitted. 
 
 Twice, in the preceding reign of Darius, had the small kingdom 
 of Macedonia been compelled to pay to that monarch the accus- 
 tomed, but degrading, tribute of earth and water : first, at the 
 return of Darius from his Scythian expedition, when he appointed 
 Megabazus commander-in-chief of the forces in the western ex- 
 tremity of his empire, and who obtained that mark of homage to 
 his master from Amyntas, the reigning monarch; secondly, after 
 the Ionian revolt and conquest, when Mardonius, the Persian 
 satrap, led the first armament against the Greek inhabitants of the 
 islands of the ^.gean Sea. That armament, however formidable, 
 proved inefficacious as to its objects, as well from a furious storm 
 that dashed to pieces the greatest part of the Persian fleet, when 
 attempting to double the Cape of Mount Athos, as from an un- 
 expected attack made by night on his army by the Brygian 
 Thracians, who stormed his camp, not sufficiently fortified, slew a 
 great number of his men, and, wounding Mardonius himself, com- 
 pelled him for that season to relinquish the expedition. With the 
 ensuing spring the design was renewed : an army and fleet more 
 powerful, commanded by generals more skilful and determined, 
 were ordered to enforce on the Grecian republics the usual demand 
 of earth and water from the haughty Persians ; but the undaunted 
 spirit of the insular Greeks could not brook the indignity to which 
 the feebler government of Macedon had tamely submitted. At 
 Athens and at Lacedaemon, when the heralds of Darius appeared 
 publicly, to demand that proof of their submission, the general 
 indignation was so extreme, that, at the one place, amidst the 
 execrations of the people, they were thrown into a deep ditch, and 
 at the other into a well, and, in the firm language of free-born men, 
 
 Vol. in. Z 
 
[ 178 ] 
 
 told there to collect the required earth and water*. A sense of 
 the danger that now threatened all Greece put an end to the debates 
 which had previously, for many ages, agitated those rival republics, 
 and united them in one firm body against the common enemy. The 
 glory, however, of Marathon's proud day was reserved solely for 
 Miltiades and his daring Athenians, who, in number scarcely ten 
 thousand, defeated the Persian army, consisting, according to the 
 moderate computation of Cornelius Nepos, of one hundred thousand 
 foot and ten thousand cavalry-f-. The disgrace of this defeat from 
 so despised a power was severely felt at the court of Susa, and 
 stung Darius to the quick, who was then preparing to march 
 against Egypt, engaged in recent revolt. He immediately ordered 
 fresh forces to be levied throughout the whole extent of his empire, 
 and, resigning to able generals the conduct of the war in Egypt, 
 resolved to march in person against this rising competitor for mi- 
 litary glory. In the midst of these mighty preparations, he ex- 
 pired ; leaving his successor, whom the Greeks, we have seen, 
 called Xerxes, animated with the same resentment, and ardently 
 bent on the same means of accomplishing the deep-laid project of 
 revenge. 
 
 The immense army, though doubtless greatly exaggerated, led 
 by this monarch into Greece; his cutting a passage through 
 Mount Athos, if ever, in reality, accomplished ; his celebrated 
 double bridge of boats thrown over the Hellespont to connect the 
 two continents of Asia and Europe; his repulse at Thermopylae 
 by the daring valour of Leonidas and his immortal comrades; 
 the plunder of Delphi ; and the completion of his revenge by the 
 capture and conflagration of Athens ; together with the disgraceful 
 defeat of his fleet at Salamis, and the final ignominious retreat of 
 
 * Herodotus, lib. vi. cap. 49. t Cornelius Nepos, in Vita Miltiad. 
 
[ 179 ] 
 
 this monarch out of Europe ; have been too often the theme of 
 admiring historians and enraptured poets to be dwelt on in these 
 pages, with which they are only collaterally connected. These 
 events, however, mark the beginning and gradual progress of that 
 desperate contest for sovereignty, which could only be terminated 
 by the utter destruction of the one or the other powers at variance. 
 It exceeds belief that the innumerable army and fleet of Xerxes, 
 the collected force of exhausted Asia, could be intended to act 
 solely against the petty sovereignties of Greece, for the utter 
 extermination of which a fourth part might have been well deemed 
 amply sufficient. Herodotus is of opinion that a more extensive 
 project of conquest in the western regions of the world was in the 
 contemplation of Xerxes ; and thus, perhaps, the resolute resistance 
 of Leonidas and his brave three hundred Spartans at Thermopylae 
 might have proved the means of saving Italy and farthest Europe 
 from ravage and desolation. It is deserving of notice, that when- 
 soever the overbearing power of their Asiatic foes more severely 
 pressed upon the Greeks, the connecting ties between the con- 
 federated republics became more firm and binding ; but, when that 
 danger was removed, the leading states were agitated with incessant 
 feuds, and particularly the great cities of Athens and Lacedaemon, 
 who were involved in everlasting contests for superiority of domi- 
 nion ; and, while they themselves spurned the oppressive yoke of 
 Persia, in the true democratic spirit, were continually labouring to 
 fix their own yoke on the neck of their weaker neighbours. Without 
 this powerful incentive to union, perhaps the Grecian states would 
 have continued for ever in their original insignificance and im- 
 becility, the result of that distraction ; and thus, in some measure, 
 Persia may be said to have created the very power that afterwards 
 annihilated herself. 
 
 It is impossible for any circumstance more strongly to evince 
 
 Z 2 
 
[ 180 ] 
 
 the jealous dread, which the court of Susa at this time entertained 
 of the rising power and ambitious views of Athens, than the conduct 
 of Xerxes, in renewing, with that power, after so public and 
 disastrous a defeat, in the ensuing spring, those hostilities, which 
 the re-assembling of his dispersed forces, still numerous and formi- 
 dable, enabled him to carry on with energy. Grown wise, however, 
 from sad experience, Xerxes advanced not in person beyond the 
 walls of Sardis. Mardonius was once more appointed commander- 
 in-chief; but, before he struck the important blow which was 
 intended to annihilate Greece, he was directed to hold out the 
 olive-branch of peace to the Athenians at least, at that time the 
 inspiring soul of the vast confederated body. Little as Xerxes 
 could reasonably flatter himself that the Athenians would be duped 
 by so shallow an artifice, intended, under the mask of friendship, 
 to detach them from their allies and weaken the confederacy, the 
 attempt was resolved upon ; and, by the singular caprice of for- 
 tune, it was decided that an Alexander, then king of Macedonia, 
 should be the herald of the auspicious tidings ; an Alexander 
 should plead the cause of an Asiatic despot ; an Alexander propose 
 to rivet the chain of Persia on the prostrate neck of Athens. The 
 embassy was received at Athens with merited contempt, and the 
 remembrance alone of the alliance and friendship that had sub- 
 sisted, for many generations, between the two kingdoms of Athens 
 and Macedon, preserved the royal messenger from obloquy and 
 insult. Alexander, however, we shall find, not long afterwards 
 effaced the guilt of this liberticidal conduct by an undertaking 
 essential to the salvation of Greece; an undertaking fraught 
 with uncommon hazard, and executed with the most undaunted 
 courage. 
 
 The proffered friendship of Persia, and her proposals of ample 
 indemnification for expences incurred and damages suffered during 
 
the war, being thus disdainfully rejected by the Athenians, Mardonius 
 immediately commenced his march for Attica. From the distrac- 
 tion and jealousies, which, owing to the miserably defective, though 
 imposing, political system of Greece, still unhappily prevailed 
 through the several republics of the Peloponnesus, Attica was by 
 no means provided with a land-force adequate to oppose them, 
 though their fleet rode triumphant in the surrounding seas. By 
 rapid advances, Mardonius soon reached that capital, which, on his 
 approach, was again deserted by the inhabitants, who took refuge 
 in Salamis, where they could be protected by the fleet till a sense 
 of shame or of honour should rouse their tardy allies to hasten 
 to their relief, and fulfil the stipulations by which they were bound 
 to act with vigour against the common foe. The politic Mar- 
 donius took advantage of their deserted situation, and again 
 made proposals of acccommodation, which were again indig- 
 nantly rejected . In consequence of this obstinate refusal to break 
 their solemn engagements, and listen to any terms whatever with 
 the Persians, the enraged Mardonius, who had hitherto spared 
 Attica and its new-rising capital, commanded a general plunder of 
 the country, and once more devoted to destruction that ill-fated 
 city. At length the Spartans, sacrificing mistrust and jealousy to 
 a sense of the common danger that impended over Greece, sent off 
 Pausanias, with a body of forty thousand men, including Helots, to 
 their aid; and these, in their march, being reinforced by other 
 Greek confederates, and finally forming a junction with the 
 Athenian forces at Eleusis, proceeded to offer immediate battle to 
 the enemy. Mardonius, after ravaging Attica, had retired from that 
 country, and drawn up his numerous forces on the wide champaign 
 of Boeotia, so favourable to the operations of cavalry, ever the glory 
 and principal dependence of the Persian army. The celebrated 
 and decisive battle of PLATJEA was the consequence, in which 
 
[ 182 ] 
 
 Mardonius was slain, and the Persian camp stormed and plundered 
 of inestimable booty. This dreadful overthrow, being followed, on 
 the evening of the very same day, by the spirited attack made by 
 the Grecian naval force on the Persian entrenched camp and fleet 
 near the promontory of Mycale, on the coast of Ionia, whose 
 inhabitants, long grown impatient under the Persian despotism, had 
 broke out into general revolt, an attack in which the whole navy of 
 Persia was burnt, put an end to all future invasions of Greece by 
 the Persians, who never afterwards dared to appear on this side 
 the Hellespont. Xerxes, in every instance baffled and defeated, 
 returned precipitately to Susa, impressed with humbler notions of 
 the invincible power of the GREAT KING than he left it ; and found 
 how little avail, in the field, are myriad bands of slaves, who fight 
 for hire, when opposed to free-born men, who combat for virtue 
 and independance- In the hurry of his departure, however, he 
 forgot not to make a grand sacrifice at the shrine of the national 
 religion ; for, he issued positive orders for all the temples through- 
 out the Greek settlements in Asia that yet remained in subjection 
 to him, to be burned and levelled, which was rigidly performed in 
 every instance except that of the magnificent fane of Diana of 
 Ephesus*. The reader will now no longer remain in doubt as to 
 the real cause of the total silence or suppression of the Persian 
 annals concerning this reign and its disastrous events : those events, 
 however, are faithfully recorded by an historian whose fame bids 
 fair to be eternal, and on the elegant medals and sculptured monu- 
 ments of Greece, which, preserved with pious care in the cabinets 
 of taste and science, probably will only perish with the wreck of 
 nature. The rapid and disgraceful retreat of Xerxes from his 
 western frontier only served to inflame the courage and persevering 
 
 * Herodot. lib. ix, cap. G9-JOO, ubi supra. 
 
C 183 ] 
 
 ardour of the Athenians, and to wrest from his control the remainder of 
 the Greek cities and islands subject to his authority in Asia Minor 
 and Europe. With the united exertion of the confederated fleets, 
 under the command of Cymon, the son of the great Miltiades, a 
 soldier equally daring and discreet, in a series of brilliant successes 
 on both the Grecian and Phoenician coasts, this was effectually 
 performed ; and a large addition both of domain and of revenue 
 was thus obtained to Athens, the head of that confederacy. Their 
 posterity, unfortunately, as the page of Athenian history shews, did 
 not bear the gale of prosperity with the same noble equanimity with 
 which their fathers had braved the rude storm of adversity. They 
 soon grew haughty to their Greek allies and tyrannical to the con- 
 quered countries : hence sprang that eternal jealousy, between them 
 and their Spartan rivals, which kindled the dreadful Peloponnesian 
 war, and fully revenged Persia by deluging the cities of Greece with 
 the blood of her most illustrious progeny *. 
 
 To return to Bahaman, or Ardeshir, in whose reign, doubtless, 
 that of the former monarch has been swallowed up, he is repre- 
 sented by Mirkhond as a prince remarkable for strict justice and 
 his zealous attachment to the Magian religion, as the reformer of 
 many abuses, and the repairer of many noble structures ruined by 
 the lapse of time or the violence of war. He was also remarkable 
 for his unbounded hospitality, constantly affirming that no door 
 ought to be shut in the palace of a princef-. He is said, by his 
 generals, to have made conquests in Syria and Palestine ; but not 
 a word occurs in Mirkhond concerning Greece ; except a remark 
 confirming the accounts of our western chronologers, that Hippo- 
 crates and Democritus, philosophers of that country, flourished in 
 this reign, and that their works, with those of Plato and Socrates, 
 
 * Plutarch in Vita Aristid. t Mirkhond, p. 73. 
 
[ 184 ] 
 
 are well known to the learned of the Persian nation. He is said to 
 have killed by stratagem the formidable Rostam, who had rebelled 
 and made himself independent in the provinces . of Sejestan and 
 Cabul : but this, we have observed, must be a mistake, or Rostam, 
 in that case, must have lived to four hundred years of age. A 
 descendant only of the mighty chief of that name can be alluded 
 to by the Persian annalist *. 
 
 From Xerxes (or, rather, the last-mentioned Ardeshir) to the 
 reign of Darius, the younger, under whom the fatal Macedonian 
 invasion took place, according to the Persian annals, only two sove- 
 reigns swayed the Persian sceptre. These were Homai and her son 
 Darab, and neither of these are recorded to have had any particular 
 intercourse, either in the way of friendship or hostility, with India, 
 which probably continued, during this long interval, to remain un- 
 disturbed and in its ancient state of tributary subjection. For the 
 sake of connecting, however, the Persian, Greek, and Indian, his- 
 tory of this important period, and on the presumption that the 
 Greek historians are worthy of credit in their narration of facts, 
 which either the policy of the Persian historians may have con- 
 cealed, or of which, if recorded, every vestige was swept away during 
 the long troubles that convulsed Persia to its centre, urged, I say, 
 by these motives, I shall regulate this part of the history by the 
 accounts that have descended to us from classical writers concern- 
 ing the order of succession of the Persian sovereigns, and take a 
 rapid review of the principal events that continued to increase the 
 rooted hatred of the two former nations till that dreadful catastrophe 
 took place. 
 
 The advantageous terms which the valour of Cymon, the Athenian 
 general, had extorted from Artaxerxes at the conclusion of the 
 
 * Ibid. p. 74, and Sir William Jones's Short Hist, of Persia, p. 52. 
 
[ 185 ] 
 
 former war, amounting to an absolute renunciation on the side of 
 that monarch of every claim on any part of the Grecian territory, 
 had secured permanent tranquillity to Greece from that once- 
 dreaded quarter*. But the unceasing jealousy and contest for power 
 which agitated those turbulent republics, and particularly the two 
 leading states, unfortunately gave birth, as was before observed, to 
 the Peloponnesian war, in which the strength of the contending 
 parties becoming at length nearly exhausted, each of those states, 
 with a policy as narrow as the meanness was despicable, made 
 urgent applications to Persia for warlike assistance against the other. 
 It does not appear, however, that the Persians were at all anxious 
 to renew their connection with a people from whom they had 
 already suffered so severely. That war was considerably advanced 
 before any attention was shewn to the application ; it was almost 
 finished before any effectual assistance was sent ; and then it was sent, 
 not to Athens, the ancient determined foe of Persia, but to Sparta, 
 her ambitious rival. In the mean time Ardeshir, or the first Artax- 
 erxes, dying, Darab, or Darius Nothos, that is, the Bastard, suc- 
 ceeded to the vacant throne. This was the son of the Queen 
 Homai, a word in Persian signifying the bird of Paradise, who is 
 said by the Persian writers to have reigned during his minority, 
 which he is said to have passed in exile from her and her court, 
 having been exposed, as soon as born, in consequence of the 
 predictions of the seers, who calculated his nativity, that he should 
 bring an infinity of evils on his country. '* The Eastern writers tell 
 us," says Sir William Jones, " that he was exposed by his mother, 
 like the Hebrew law-giver, on a river, which, by its rapid current, 
 carried him to the habitation of a dyer, who knew him to be a child 
 of high birth by the trinkets which adorned his cradle ; that he was 
 
 * Thucydides, lib. i. p. 96. Plutarch iu Vita Cymon. 
 
 Vol. in. 2 A 
 
[ 186 ] 
 
 educated by this honest man, who sent him to the wars, where he dis- 
 tinguished himself in fighting against the Greeks ; that, being intro- 
 duced to the queen as a brave youth, she knew him again by the 
 jewels which he wore, and which his reputed father had restored to 
 him *. w Sir William brands this story as an Eastern romance, the 
 predictions being supposed to have reference to the invasion of 
 Alexander, which, in fact, took place under a later Darius. The 
 astrologers who made them might possibly have meant by them to 
 excuse the rashness and impolicy of Darius, by imputing the 
 disasters of his reign to the stern inevitable decrees of destiny. I 
 have transcribed it on purpose that the reader may again ob- 
 serve, in this Legend, the usual magnified difficulties which the 
 Asiatic writers are habitually addicted to represent as surmounted, 
 in thev infancy and youth, by great personages celebrated in Eastern 
 annals. The whole seems nothing more than a repetition of those 
 undergone by Creeshna and the great Cyrus. The new prince, 
 named Darab, or Dara in Persian, began his reign with an appear- 
 ance of vigour and prompt decision that marked the ancient kings 
 of Persia, not without a considerable portion of brilliant success in 
 the field against the revolted provinces of Media, Arabia, and 
 Egypt, whose inhabitants seemed inclined to take advantage of the 
 debilitated state of the empire and the inexperience of the monarch, 
 entirely to shake off their dependance on Persia-f-. In either cir- 
 cumstance they were deceived, nor did the principals of the Grecian 
 commonwealth less effectually impose upon themselves, when they 
 conceived that a power which had recently experienced such a 
 humiliating reverse of fortune, from their joint exertions, would 
 heartily join with either to effect the complete reduction of the 
 other. The experience of half a century had taught the court of 
 
 * Short Hist, of Persia, p. 53. f Thucydidcs, lib. ii. cap. 15. Diod. Sic. lib. xiii. p. 160. 
 
[ 187 ] 
 
 Susa that the Grecian states were then only not formidable to 
 Persia when she was distracted with internal dissensions, and to 
 keep their passions in ferment, and their respective interests and 
 powers so properly balanced against each other, that neither side, 
 if it were possible, should materially preponderate, would be the 
 line of sound policy for her invariably to pursue. Such appear to 
 have been the constant maxims that swayed the two predecessors 
 of Darius Nothos, and such was the wise conduct of the satraps of 
 Sardis, till the unfortunate period when the younger Cyrus, in the 
 inexperienced ardour of early youth, was invested with the com- 
 mand of that important province, with positive orders, which his 
 impetuous disposition scarcely needed, by calling forth all the 
 resources of that rich satrapy to destroy that equipoise, and secure 
 to Laoedaemon a decided superiority over Athens. The result was, 
 what might easily have been foreseen. The orders, if ever in reality 
 given, (for, doubts may very reasonably be entertained,) were a 
 disgrace to the policy of the hitherto cautious court of Susa. The 
 Peloponnesian war, stained as it was with the blackest perfidies and 
 the most barbarous massacres on either side, through the influence 
 of Persian gold, ended in the complete subjugation of Athens. But 
 this important event, while it crushed the ancient and sworn foe 
 of Persia, exalted its antagonist to that height of glory and power, 
 which in the end would have undoubtedly proved fatal to their 
 protectors, had they not resorted to the very same means as before 
 for dividing, and consequently weakening, the authority which they 
 dreaded ; and had they not squandered the treasures of Sardis in the 
 profusest bribery, and conquered Agesilaus, as he himself confessed, 
 with an army not of thirty thousand men, but of thirty thousand 
 darics. 
 
 However deficient we may be in authentic Persian records to 
 guide us through the train of events that distinguish the present 
 
 2 A 2 
 
[ 188 ] 
 
 period of their empire, it is fortunate for the credit of history that 
 we have the advantage of referring, as we proceed, for the truth of 
 the extraordinary facts related in it, to two Greek writers of the 
 highest honour and veracity, who were successively eye-witnesses 
 of the facts which their pens describe, and on whose relation we can 
 rest with the fullest confidence, Thucydides and Xenophon. The 
 former was as distinguished for his abilities as a profound politician 
 and statesman, as for his elegance and authenticity as an historian : 
 the latter attended the younger Cyrus in that memorable, but fruit- 
 less expedition to the plains of Babylon, which his pen so elegantly 
 relates, and which, as still farther inflaming the hatred of the two 
 nations, it is necessary for us cursorily to notice. The despotic 
 cruelty with which that haughty young prince acted in his satrapy 
 of Sardis, added to his assumption of honours scarcely less than 
 imperial, occasioned his recall to the court of his incensed father, 
 where, however, the unbounded influence of Parysatis, his mother, 
 over Darius, procured not only his pardon, but a bequest in per- 
 petuity of the government which he had relinquished. During his 
 stay at Susa, Darius Nothos died, and was succeeded by the second 
 Ardeshir, the elder brother of Cyrus, called by the Greeks, from 
 his uncommon strength of memory, Artaxerxes Mnemon. The 
 violent temper and ambition of the prince urging him to make an 
 attempt at once on the life and throne of the new monarch ; on the 
 fortunate discovery of the conspiracy almost at the moment when 
 it was to have been executed, Cyrus was seized and condemned to 
 death for the intended fratricide ; but here again parental affection 
 interfered in his behalf, and he was not only pardoned, but, with 
 glaring impolicy, sent to take possession of the government be- 
 queathed him by his deceased father. The soul of Cyrus, instead of 
 overflowing with gratitude to so benevolent a king and brother, 
 was inflamed with revenge at the design of taking away his justly- 
 
[ 189 ] 
 
 forfeited life ; and, immediately on his arrival at Sardis, his rage 
 broke forth in a secret and cautious, but most malignant and deter- 
 mined, project to usurp the throne, and sacrifice to his vengeance a 
 too lenient brother. 
 
 The preparations made by Cyrus, both by sea and land, for this 
 important undertaking, according to the accurate and elegant ac- 
 count of the historian Xenophon, who beheld them, were of an ex- 
 tent and magnitude adequate to the bold design. The whole of the 
 maritime provinces of his satrapy were compelled to furnish an am- 
 ple supply of ships and men, which were put under the direction of 
 Tamos, an Egyptian well skilled in naval affairs ; while a powerful 
 additional fleet, under Pythagoras, sailed from Sparta to join the 
 naval force collected on the coasts of Asia. This fleet was intended 
 to awe the coast of Cilicia and other maritime provinces, through 
 which their progress lay, and cause a diversion of the forces which 
 might be sent to oppose their march by land. By land, an army of 
 a hundred thousand of the choicest regular troops, fit for such an 
 arduous enterprize, were assembled, and the command of them 
 given to Persian officers, in whose courage and attachment Cyrus 
 knew he could confide : but, what was, at that time, of far more 
 consequence in a land-engagement, a band of determined Greeks, 
 to the amount of thirteen thousand, were assembled from all the 
 states in alliance with Lacedaemon, and marched, in a firm pha- 
 lanx, under the command of Clearchus, a general equally renowned 
 for policy and valour. Tidings of these formidable preparations 
 soon reached the court of Susa; but the artful satrap contrived to 
 quiet the apprehensions to which they naturally gave rise by solemn 
 assurance that they were intended partly to reduce Thrace, and 
 partly to repel the aggressions of Tissaphernes, a neighbouring satrap 
 at enmity with Cyrus, and against whom he insidiously preferred 
 the loudest complaints of treachery and rebellion. 
 
[ 190 ] 
 
 As it was, at that period of its debilitated authority, the wretched 
 policy of the Persian court to encourage perpetual disputes between 
 the governors of the distant provinces, with a view to incapacitate 
 them for engaging in projects of higher ambition, for some time 
 Artaxerxes continued without alarm, though not without suspicion, 
 at the reports of the increasing numbers that daily flocked to the 
 standard of his perfidious brother. At length Tissaphernes, con- 
 vinced of the real designs of his rival, set off with all speed from 
 Miletus to the imperial residence, and gave such indubitable proofs 
 both of his own innocence and of the treason of C} r rus, as induced 
 Darius immediately to take the field with a great army, that he 
 might be prepared to meet the danger that threatened his throne 
 and life. Having drawn out his forces on the spacious plains of 
 Cunaxa, in the province of Babylon, where the Persian cavalry, 
 still formidable in battle, could act with most effect, he there fixed 
 his camp, and waited with dignified composure the awful day that 
 was to establish, or annihilate, his just claim to the throne of Persia 
 against the intrigues and usurpation of his turbulent and aspiring- 
 brother. 
 
 Cyrus, in the mean time, was advancing to the Babylonian terri- 
 tory, by long and rapid marches, at the head of an army of which 
 Clearchus and the principal Persian leaders alone knew the real 
 destination. The incessant fatigues they endured, the mysterious 
 silence observed in regard to the enemy with whom they were to 
 contend, want of regular and sufficient pay, owing to the exhausted 
 treasury of Cyrus, together with numerous other irritating causes, 
 required the exertion of the most consummate policy joined to 
 the most undaunted firmness, in the general, to keep so vast and 
 various an assemblage of men from mutiny ; and especially the 
 Greeks, who were several times on the point of disbanding. When, 
 at length, after having passed the great Tauric range, they had ad- 
 
vanced so far as to make retreat scarcely practicable, and when the 
 plunder of some of the wealthiest cities of Cilicia, and other rick 
 satrapies in their way, had enabled him to discharge existing ar- 
 rears, and promise a considerable increase of pay in future, the real 
 object of the expedition was announced to the army, and the im- 
 mense spoil held out to them as their certain reward, added to the 
 glory to be acquired by success in so hazardous an expedition, not 
 only reconciled the Greeks to the project, but animated them to push 
 forward with ardour to its accomplishment. The native legions 
 were at all times too much in the habit of paying implicit obedience 
 to the despotic injunctions of their chieftains to make the least demur 
 or offer the smallest opposition to the orders for marching to de- 
 throne their prince. The various particulars of this long and toil- 
 some march, the battle of the contending armies on the plain of 
 Cunaxa in Assyria, the consequent death of Cyrus himself, hurried on 
 by his impetuous spirit to brave inevitable destruction by rushing on 
 Artaxerxes in the midst of his body-guard, and still more deserving 
 of notice, the celebrated retreat of the ten thousand Greeks, under 
 the conduct of the brave and judicious general, who so elegantly and 
 circumstantially relates it, are to be found in the interesting details 
 of the Grecian history of this period. They are solely mentioned 
 here for the purpose of distinctly marking the causes and progress 
 of that fatal rupture, that long-continued enmity, between the two 
 countries, which finally terminated in the downfal of the Persian 
 monarchy. 
 
 . 
 
[ 192 ] 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The PERSIAN and GREEK History of this Period continued. 
 The Effect which the celebrated Retreat of the TEN THOUSAND, 
 under Xenophon, had on the future Conduct of Greece ' towards 
 Persia. AGESILAUS. The Peace of ANTALCIDAS. Persia 
 increases the Number of foreign Mercenaries in her Army, and, 
 by dividing, governs Greece. Rapid Rise and Decline O/THEBES. 
 PHILIP, King of Macedon, gains a decided Ascendancy over 
 the rest of Greece. Partly by Bribery, and partly by open Force, 
 subdues them. He is chosen Generalissimo of the confederated 
 Greeks against Persia. Philip assassinated by Pausanias. Es- 
 CANDER, or ALEXANDER, succeeds to his Throne, and exalted 
 Station in the Army of Greece. Persian Accounts of Esc ANDER, 
 and of his Motives for invading Persia. Alexander crosses the 
 Hellespont. Visits Ilium. Battle of the GRANICUS. He sub- 
 dues Asia Minor. Battle of Issus. Alexander conquers Syria, 
 and exterminates the Tyrians. Marches into Egypt. -^-Builds 
 Alexandria. Visits the Temple of Jupiter Hammon. Returns to 
 
 Asia, and renews the War. The Battle of ARBELA. Death of 
 
 j j 
 
 DARIUS, and Extinction of the CAIANIAN Dynasty. 
 
 
 THE decided superiority which the disciplined valour of a small 
 Greek army gave them over the enervated myriads of Persia, was so 
 effectually demonstrated by the important enterprise alluded to in 
 the preceding chapter, that the Lacedaemonian government, now 
 committed in open hostility with that of Susa, reinforced the re- 
 mainder of that invincible band, which had thus retreated under 
 Xenophon, with fresh troops, commanded by Agesilaus, a man 
 
[ 193 ] 
 
 equally eminent in the field of politics and of war, with positive 
 orders not only to emancipate the Asiatic Greeks wholly from the 
 Persian yoke, but to carry on a vigorous and active war against the 
 satrap who governed the districts in which they lay. These orders 
 were immediately and successfully put in execution, in the first 
 instance, against Tissaphernes, satrap of Sardis, who was defeated in 
 a regular battle, and the plunder of his rich government afforded 
 ample means of enlarging the sphere of operation, and subjecting 
 that of Bithynia, and others still more remote from Greece*. 
 While Agesilaus was pursuing this victorious career, and on the 
 point of carrying the war into the very heart of Persia, a storm, more 
 fearful than ever had yet hovered over any city of Greece, was 
 about to burst upon Lacedaemon. The ill use she had made of the 
 conquest of her once-haughty rival, and her almost boundless con- 
 trol over the other dependant states, had operated, in conjunction 
 with a plentiful diffusion of Persian gold, to arm against her, in one 
 general confederacy, all the inferior republics of Greece, which, 
 with Athens at their head, were preparing to take a severe revenge 
 for the injuries inflicted by her tyranny. The intrepid spirit and 
 deep political wisdom of Agesilaus were now become necessary 
 to the very existence of his country, and he was recalled from the 
 ardent pursuit of foreign glory to the domestic defence of all that 
 was dear to him as a king and a man . But his return and exer- 
 tion, though vigorous, were of little avail: it was now the turn 
 of Athens once more to triumph. The Lacedaemonian fleet being 
 completely beaten at sea, by the confederated Persian and Athenian 
 navy, under the able conduct of Conon, left Laconia open to the 
 ravages of the enemy ; and afforded opportunity to that patriot 
 admiral to rebuild the long walls which had formed the glory 
 
 * Xenophon Hellen. lib. iii. cap. 4, sect. 25, et Plutarch in Agesilao. 
 
 Vol. in. 2 B 
 
[ 194 ] 
 
 and defence of Athens, but had been demolished through the 
 jealousy of her rival in the Peloponnesian war. In the end, the 
 constant and deep-laid policy of Persia, in regard to Greece, pre- 
 vailed, and both powers, impoverished and exhausted by incessant 
 conflicts, in which fortune alternately favoured the contending 
 powers, were at length obliged to submit to a peace dictated by 
 Persia ; that disgraceful peace which bears the name of Antalcidas, 
 the projector of it, which, however necessary to Greece in her 
 present debilitated state, and even sanctioned by the assent of 
 Agesilaus himself, certainly rendered abortive all that commander's 
 noble and repeated efforts to liberate the Asiatic Greeks, and threw 
 them again at the feet of their former tyrants*. 
 
 During the remainder of the long reign of Artaxerxes Mnemon, 
 by a continued adherence to the same line of insidious policy in 
 regard to Greece, that is, by following the old maxim of dividing 
 and governing, alternately dispensing bribes and holding out me- 
 naces, the great leading states were kept pretty equally balanced 
 against each other ; at least no such formidable confederacy against 
 the Persian power, as had more than once spread terror even through 
 the distant court of Susa, again appeared to interrupt its repose. 
 Henceforward, too, a considerable band of Greek mercenaries con- 
 stantly ranged under the banners of that empire, and were consi- 
 sidered as the flower of its army. No less than twenty thousand 
 under the command of Iphicrates, an Athenian general, attended 
 this monarch shortly after his expedition into Egypt ; and, though 
 that expedition proved unfortunate, the miscarriage was by no 
 means to be laid to their charge, but to the obstinate infatuation of 
 Pharnabazus, the Persian commander. In fact, they seem ever to 
 have well deserved their pay, and fought with fidelity and zeal, a 
 
 
 
 * Xenophou, lib. iv. p. 551, et Plutarch in Agesilao. 
 
[ 195 ] 
 
 remarkable instance of which occurred at the battle of Issus between 
 Darius and Alexander ; for, when the Persian legions had given way 
 in every quarter, the Greek mercenaries alone stood their ground, 
 even against the attacks of their invading countrymen; and, by 
 their determined bravery, were nearly rescuing the Persian empire 
 from that gulph of destruction on which it then verged. It must be 
 owned, however, that this perpetual recruiting of the Persian army 
 with Greek mercenaries, and this constant dependance upon them, 
 in all important engagements, were the extreme of impolicy, and 
 gradually paved the way to the Grecian irruption in the reign of 
 their last ill-fated monarch. The mercenaries retained, indeed, per- 
 formed with fidelity their task ; but those, that were discharged at 
 the expiration of the period for which they had enlisted, returned 
 to their native country, impressed with a perfect knowledge of the 
 vices and luxury, and a rooted contempt for the imbecility, of the 
 Persian government. They diffused these sentiments widely through 
 the Grecian states, and thus kept alive the favourite idea, secretly, 
 but warmly, cherished among them, of repaying some time or other 
 the visit of Xerxes, intended to crush them collectively. The 
 Persians on the other hand, while they saw and admired the steady 
 bravery and exact discipline of the Grecian legions, neglected to 
 improve their own by the brilliant example ; but, on the contrary, 
 knowing that their overflowing treasures could always procure them 
 foreign soldiers, suffered the vigour of their native troops to languish 
 in inaction . 
 
 On the decease of Artaxerxes Mnemon, according to the Greeks, 
 his youngest son, Ochus, ascended the throne through a torrent of 
 kindred blood. This Ochus, as has been before observed, is un- 
 known in the Persian records; for, he is not even mentioned by 
 Mirkhond ; and Sir William Jones, in this period of his concise 
 Memoir, has the following observation: "There seems, in this 
 
 2 B2 
 
[ 196 ] 
 
 place, to be a chasm of many years in the annals of the Persians, 
 for they say nothing of Ardeshir, son of Dara, by Parizadeh, or 
 Parysatis, whose brother Cyrus led the Greeks to Babylon ; nor of 
 the third Ardeshir, whom our historians call Ochus; nor of Arogus, 
 whose true name it has not been in my power to discover. Now, 
 if we suppose, as we reasonably may, that these three kings reigned 
 about twenty-one years each, we shall bring the reign of Dara the 
 younger to the year 337 before Christ, which will agree tolerably 
 well with the chronologers both of Asia and Europe*." Of a 
 monarch terrible in vengeance, and treacherous in friendship, like 
 Ochus, neither Lacedaemon nor Athens courted the alliance, or 
 dared in their weakened state to rouse the resentment; especially 
 as he was a formidable warrior, and, in the beginning of his reign, 
 reduced both Egypt and Phoenicia, which had revolted, once more 
 beneath the Persian yoke. His sanguinary reign was at length ter- 
 minated by a death as violent, and torments as painful, as any he 
 had inflicted on the numerous victims of his undistinguishing furyf-. 
 The Egyptian slave Bagoas, who, in pious revenge for his murder 
 of the god Apis, had compelled Ochus to drink the poisoned bowl, 
 immediately raised to the vacant throne Arses, the youngest son of 
 the deceased emperor ; but this new pageant of royalty, being either 
 not sufficiently callous in iniquity, or not compliant enough with 
 his patron's designs, was speedily assassinated. Darius Codoman- 
 nus, a direct descendant of Darius Nothos, was then exalted by 
 this tyrannical arbiter of the fate of kings, to the imperial honours. 
 The character of Darius is very differently drawn by the Persian 
 and Greek historians ; the former representing him as a severe, 
 cruel, and implacable, despot ; the latter as a prince, mild, magna- 
 nimous, and amiable J. It is possible that character might have 
 
 * Short Hist, of Persia, p. 54. t Diod. Sic. lib. xvii. sect. 5. J Short Hist, of Persia, p. 56. 
 
[ 197 ] 
 
 varied with his situation, and that misfortune awakened the virtues 
 to which prosperity is unfavourable. He is allowed, however, by 
 both parties to have been a prince of great personal bravery and 
 accomplishments, and it was to a happy exertion of fortitude that 
 he retained, even the few years he reigned, the possession of the 
 Persian throne ; for, according to Diodorus, when the perfidious 
 regicide, fearing his independent spirit, resolved to dispatch him as 
 he had done Arses, and caused the fatal, but disguised, potion, that 
 was to mingle him with his predecessors, to be administered to his 
 sovereign, Darius, apprized of his villany, ordered the traitor to be 
 brought into his presence, and there compelled him to drink the 
 poison which he had prepared for himself*. 
 
 During these revolutions at Susa, the states of Greece were again 
 convulsed with violent internal dissensions, where a new 'competitor 
 for the sovereign power had started up in Thebes, the hitherto- 
 despised capital of Baeotia. With the continued and obstinate con- 
 tests, however, that immediately followed between the Lacedaemo- 
 nian and Athenian states, or rather the greater part of confederated 
 Greece with that aspiring republic, rapid in its exaltation, and not 
 less rapid in its decline, the History of India could have no possi- 
 ble concern, had not Philip, the father of its destined conqueror 
 been brought up under Epaminoridas, its invincible general, and 
 instructed by him in the principles and practice of that military 
 science, which he afterwards so effectually and fatally employed, 
 in conjunction with the blackest perfidy, the deepest dissimulation, 
 the profusest bribery, by means of the gold mines at Philippi, and 
 in defiance of the fulminating eloquence of Demosthenes, to subvert 
 the liberties of all Greece. When that event was effected by a 
 series of events, the consideration of which is foreign to our subject, 
 
 * Died. Sic. lib. xvii. sect. C. 
 
[ 198 ] 
 
 the Macedonian monarch, whose ambition disdained the limits set 
 to his conquests by the surrounding ocean, panted to display his 
 genius on that nobler theatre, the continent of Asia. Flattered by 
 the easy subjugation of one empire, he already, in the comprehen- 
 sive grasp of his aspiring -mind, meditated the destruction of 
 another; and no object less magnificent than the sceptre of. Persia, 
 weakened as that monarchy was by. its vast extent, and undermined 
 by the general corruption of both governors and governed, seemed 
 worthy of his boundless ambition. 
 
 Greece, in a divided state, impressed Persia with no terror; 
 united, she was dreadful and irresistible. Her present-union, indeed, 
 under Philip, was the result of constraint ; and, though the means 
 used by that politic prince to effect the general submission to his 
 will through all its limits, which followed the decisive battle of 
 Choronaea, ought ever to be spoken of in the strong reprobative 
 language of Demosthenes, yet it cannot be denied that some power- 
 ful commanding influence was necessary to cement the varying 
 interests ; and that, without it, the national energy could never have 
 been fully concentrated, nor effectually directed to one focal point. 
 The ancient ardour to revenge the invasion of Xerxes still glowed in 
 every Grecian bosom, inflamed by the accumulated injuries and 
 oppressions experienced during nearly three centuries from the 
 imperious satraps that presided on her western frontier. Philip 
 himself, in addition to the general incentive of glory and aggran- 
 dizement, pretended also private motives of revenge for the assis- 
 tance recently and avowedly given by the king of Persia to the 
 besieged cities of Perinthus and Byzantium*. By means of his 
 usurped authority, having convened a general assembly of the 
 Amphyctions, he there procured himself to be declared generalissimo 
 
 * Died. Sic. lib. xvi. cap. 77. 
 
[ 199 1 
 
 of the Grecian forces to act against Persia. Having in this capacity 
 settled with the Amphyctionic body the quota of troops and money 
 to be furnished by the respective states of Greece for that impor- 
 tant expedition, he dismissed the assembly, and, retiring to Mace- 
 don, devoted his whole time and attention to insure success to the 
 daring project ; but, while Philip was thus eagerly engaged in plan- 
 ning the downfal of the Persian monarch, he himself fell a victim 
 to the private revenge of an insulted courtier, to whom he had 
 neglected to render the essential justice which atrocious guilt de- 
 manded*. The honour of subjugating Persia was therefore reserved 
 for a son, who, with his father's genius and ambition, possessed a 
 mind superior to the baseness of fraud ; a son, who, with all the 
 numerous faults which disgraced him, disdained to conquer by 
 bribes where the sword could prove ineffectual. 
 
 During the extended period in which the Macedonian kingdom 
 was holden in tributary chains by the Persian monarchs, there had 
 not been wanting one or two striking proofs how ill the sovereigns 
 of the former brooked the insolence of the latter; and, though 
 compelled to submit to their control, how sincerely attached they 
 were, at heart, to the great cause of Greece and liberty. The first, 
 a very violent one indeed, was given in the reign of Amyntas, the 
 ninth sovereign of Macedonia, and given too by an ALEXANDER, 
 a name fatal to Persia from the beginning ! When, in the reign of 
 the first Darius, the Persian general, Mardonius, was on his return 
 from the conquest of Thrace, he dispatched seven noblemen, 
 officers of high rank in his army, to demand from Amyntas the 
 usual tribute of earth and water, as an acknowledgement of the 
 
 * The disgusting story of the abused Pausanias is told at length in the 16th book of Dio- 
 dorus ; but, though this uuredressed grievance was the alleged cause of the murder of Philip, 
 it probably was not the real one, which may, with more justice, be referred to the secret 
 machinations of the jealous court of Persia, which had its emissaries in every city of Greece. 
 
[ 200 ] 
 
 submission of the people whom he governed to the great king. The 
 ambassadors were respectfully received, and magnificently enter- 
 tained : the required tribute also, with whatever reluctance, was 
 granted. At a banquet purposely provided for his Persian guests, 
 Amyntas was requested, in the hour of high festivity, to introduce 
 the women of the palace ; a custom consistent enough with the 
 luxury of Persian manners, but by no means compatible with the 
 strictness of those of Macedonia. Amyntas, however, fearful of 
 giving offence to the formidable power whom they represented, 
 indulged them in their desire, and the ladies were commanded to 
 join the company. Their exquisite beauty, added to the sparkling- 
 wine, so far inflamed his Persian guests, that they immediately 
 proceeded to violate hospitality by the most indecorous treatment 
 of the princesses. This being observed, with rage and indignation, 
 by the young Alexander, his son, he contrived some excuse for the 
 women to withdraw, and, in the mean time, caused an equal num- 
 ber of handsome youths to be dressed in women's apparel, and 
 armed with concealed poniards. When the intoxicated Persians 
 demanded the return of the illustrious females, these youths were 
 admitted, who, the instant they began to repeat their indecent 
 freedoms, fell upon them with their poinards, and laid them 
 prostrate at their feet. By an exertion of consummate policy on 
 the part of Alexander, the affair was hushed, and the kingdom 
 saved from that inevitable destruction which must have attended 
 the discovery*. It was this very Alexander, indeed, who after- 
 wards became the herald of the message sent by Mardonius, after 
 the disgraceful flight of Xerxes, alluded to in the preceding chapter, 
 and insidiously intended to separate Athens from the general 
 confederacy of which she was not only the head, but the inspiring 
 
 * Herodot. lib. v. cap. 20. 
 
[ 201 ] 
 
 soul. This message, it is fair to conclude, was undertaken by com- 
 pulsion ; but he shortly after assumed a conduct more consonant 
 to his name and the true interests of his kingdom, in which we find 
 a second proof of the radical antipathy of the Macedonians to their 
 Asiatic masters. In the dead of the night, immediately previous to 
 the battle of Plataea, so fatal to Mardonius and his army, Alexander, 
 at that time following the Persians as a compelled ally, mounted 
 his horse, and, riding to that part of the Grecian camp which the 
 Athenians occupied, unfolded to Aristides, their general, the plan of 
 attack intended to be made the next day by Mardonius on the 
 Grecian lines ; he mentioned this attack as the result of necessity 
 from the exhausted state of the magazines, no longer adequate to 
 the supply of so vast an army ; if that attack should be prevented 
 by any unforeseen circumstance, he encouraged them not to retire 
 from their present advantageous position : he added, that his affinity 
 and friendship to the Greek nation led him thus to hazard his lite 
 and kingdom in their cause ; and he confided in their gratitude, 
 should they prove victorious, to attempt the emancipation of Mace- 
 donia from the tyranny which they themselves had so magnani- 
 mously disdained, and hitherto so successfully resisted*. These 
 instances, and many others that might be adduced, of the impa- 
 tience with which the Macedonians bore the yoke of Persia, seemed 
 to me no improper introduction to the particular detail of events in 
 the subsequent pages, which display their struggles for the dominion 
 of Asia ; and indeed of the world itself, which then acknowledged 
 Asia for its master. 
 
 Before we enter on the Greek accounts of Alexander's Persian and 
 Indian conquests, it is necessary, since our historic march is pro- 
 perly on Oriental ground, that we cursorily notice from Mirkhond, 
 
 * Herodotus, lib. ix. cap. 45, and Plu^irch in Vita Aristid. 
 
 Vol. in. 2 C 
 
[ 202 ] 
 
 the Persian historian, such relations as have been preserved for pos- 
 terity in his page, professedly taken from the ancient archives of the 
 nation concerning the great Escander, as they denominated him. 
 Romantic as they are, they cannot, with propriety, be omitted. 
 It has been already observed, that the three monarchs, whom the 
 Greeks represent as having reigned in the interval between Darius 
 Nothos and Codomannus, are not to be met with in the Persian 
 annals. Their acts are referred to Ardeshir, Homai, and the first 
 Darius ; and indeed with no greater inconsistency than making the 
 reigns of those princes disproportionably long. Codomannus is 
 called by Mirkhond, Darab, the son of Darab ; and, Avith a view, it 
 is presumed, to preserve the lineal succession in the royal family of 
 Persia unbroken, Escander himself is made out to have been the 
 son of Darab, by a daughter of Philip, or Filikous as they term him. 
 With this prince, Darius is represented to have waged, in person, a 
 successful war, to have compelled him to pay a large annual tribute, 
 and afterwards, by way. of cementing more closely the ties of national 
 union, to have demanded of him his daughter, accounted one of 
 the most beautiful women of her age, but whom, shortly after mar- 
 riage, he returned, when pregnant, to the court of Macedon, on the 
 plea, that, with all her beauty, her breath was too disgustingly offen- 
 sive to permit her longer to share his bed. On this absurd story, it 
 may be remarked, in the first place, that we read in the Greek his- 
 torians, of no particular act of hostility that passed between any 
 Persian sovereign and Philip, besides the former throwing succours 
 into the besieged cities of Perinthus and Byzantium; secondly, 
 that it is highly improbable that the GREAT KING would condes- 
 cend to espouse the daughter of the petty subjugated sovereign of 
 Macedon ; and, thirdly, if he had espoused her, that he would 
 insultingly have sent her back on any such frivolous pretence. Be- 
 sides, had this been the case, would the politic Alexander, ambitious 
 
[ 203 ] 
 
 of the Persian throne, have neglected, by public manifestos, to urge 
 his hereditary claim ; or \vould he have paid that affectionate 
 regard, which, to his honour as a son, he ever did pay to Olympias, 
 not only when first disgracefully repudiated by his father, on ac- 
 count of imputed infidelity, but through life- 
 
 Extravagant as they are, such are the Asiatic statements ; and, 
 in fact, according to them, it was the determination of Escander 
 to assert his maternal right to the Persian throne, added to the 
 invitation of the nobles of Persia disgusted at the vices and cruelty 
 of Darius the Second, which induced him to invade that empire. 
 
 Whatever improbability there may be in the accounts given by 
 Oriental writers concerning the immediate descent of Alexander, 
 there is no reason wholly to discredit their relations concerning an 
 actual and violent war carried on for some time between the two 
 monarchs, Darius Ochus and Philip, or Filikous, as they denomi- 
 nate the latter, on account of his refusal to pay the accustomed 
 tribute. That it terminated adversely to Philip, perpetually engaged 
 as he was in attempts to subjugate the Grecian states, is also not 
 incredible ; but that he was compelled to purchase peace of the 
 Persian sovereign, by consenting to pay an increased annual tribute 
 of forty thousand pieces of gold*, as recorded by Mirkhond and the 
 historians cited in D'Herbelot, is an assertion that partakes far 
 more of the air of Eastern fable than of sober historic truth-f-. It is 
 not, however, so much the magnitude of the sum as the degrada- 
 tion of Philip's martial character, by so servile a compromise, that 
 renders this account improbable; for, Diodorus acquaints us, that 
 he received yearly, from the mines of Philippi, a thousand talents 
 of gold J, which amount to nearly three millions sterling, and could 
 
 * Mirkhond apud Texeira, p. 79. t D'Herbelot, under the article Escander, ubi supra. 
 
 1 Diod. Sic. lib. xvi. p. 260. 
 
 2 C 2 
 
[ 204 ] 
 
 easily have been spared from the treasures devoted to corrupt the 
 venal republics of Greece. Such, however, are the Persian tradi- 
 tional histories, and the quarrel and consequent irruption of Alexan- 
 der is by them referred to the following cause : The stipulated tri- 
 bute having been again withholden, an ambassador was dispatched 
 to the court of Macedon to demand it of the young monarch, who 
 returned this metaphorical answer; that the bird, which had been 
 Accustomed to lay those golden eggs, (the original term signifying 
 both an egg and a piece of money,) had taken its flight into the other 
 world. This message violently enraged Darius, who sent back the 
 ambassador with a second message, equally irritating and insulting, 
 accompanied with a present expressive of his marked contempt for 
 the person and power of the juvenile possessor of the Macedonian 
 throne. Before the Persian herald could arrive, Alexander had 
 taken the field at the head of an army, worthy of their general; an 
 army more brave than numerous, inflexibly determined, at all 
 hazards, to humble the overgrown power of Persia, and consisting 
 of the flower of the warlike progeny of Greece, collected from every 
 region, whence the most undaunted champions of freedom for 
 three centuries had issued forth to brave the fiercest rage of battle 
 and run the noblest career of glory. By far the greater part of his 
 infantry, however, were natives of the mountainous districts of the 
 Superior Macedonia, cradled in the forest and rocked by the storm, 
 who, having had their turbulent spirits regulated by the strict dis- 
 cipline of Philip, had constantly fought under his banners, and been 
 trained, from their youth, to conquest. Such, in general, were the 
 hardy bands that formed his infantry ; while the wide plains of 
 Thrace and Thessaly furnished him with squadrons of cavalry, the 
 most expert and daring in the world. The total amount is stated 
 by Arrian at thirty thousand foot and five thousand horse, with 
 
[ 205 ] 
 
 which he was now to contend against the uncounted myriads of 
 Persia*. 
 
 Were I at the beginning instead of being near the close of 
 a great historical work, I should be tempted by the subject to 
 launch out pretty much at large into the history of this great man, 
 to whose original cast of character and comprehensive scope of 
 mind, bold to project, and vigorous to execute, plans of equal 
 magnificence and utility, and of which, had he lived to mature 
 them, the whole human race would probably have reaped the 
 lasting benefit, preceding historians do not appear to have done 
 sufficient justice. For what, had he been fortunate enough to have 
 lived to subdue the irregularities of youthful vanity and passion, 
 was not to have been expected from a prince of Alexander's genius 
 and talents, tutored in the military art by so consummate a general 
 as Philip, and in letters, philosophy, and politics, by so great a 
 master in every science as Aristotle. The task, indeed, of drawing 
 his portrait with the bold pencil which a character so transcendently 
 distinguished by the noblest qualities, however sullied by tempo- 
 rary excess, requires, properly belongs to the general historian of 
 his life, and not to him whose province is only to record his ex- 
 ploits in the limited sphere of Western Hindostan ; but I cannot 
 avoid, however prematurely, observing, that even those exploits en- 
 title him to immortality. For, what general ever, before himself, 
 carried on an Indian campaign, and kept the contested field, in the 
 country of a brave and obstinate enemy during two rainy seasons ? 
 or what soldiers, besides those inured to the hardy athletic exercises 
 of Greece, and brought up in the woods and mountains of Mace- 
 donia and Thessaly, could have borne, as, according to Diodorus, 
 they cheerfully did, a continued drenching rain of seventy days-f 1 , 
 
 * Arrian Expedit. Alexand. lib. i. p. 18. f Diod. Sic. lib. xvii. cap. 94. 
 
[ 206 ] 
 
 surrounded with the waters of the inundated Panjab ; which must 
 have been the case, since Alexander entered India in the spring*, 
 when the rainy season had already begun in the mountains, and 
 crossed the Hydaspes at the summer solstice, when it was at its 
 height. Who ever, before Macedonia's Madman, as our great poet, 
 ignorant of the vast designs he had formed, unwarrantably calls 
 him, embarked so large an army on board a fleet hastily construct- 
 ed ; and, though every thing was at stake, in the ardent pursuit of 
 those designs, dared the unknown perils of a rapid and dangerous 
 river ; exposed the greatest part of them to instant destruction, by 
 coasting the Indian Ocean in the face of the monsoon ; and success- 
 fully braved the accumulated horrors of the Gedrosian deserts? 
 But I must not farther anticipate a subject upon which it will be 
 my duty presently to expatiate more at large, and have merely 
 premised thus much by way of apology for commencing, at so 
 early a period of the life of Alexander, a history with which that of 
 India has no intimate connection, till the battle of Arbela had de- 
 cided the fate of the Persian empire. Still, however, the subject is 
 not wholly irrelative ; still it is the history of the Sovereign, by 
 conquest, of Western Hindostan. Minute details are out of the 
 question ; a general sketch of occurrences, previous to that event, 
 will be found of use to illustrate those that follow it. We shall be 
 taught, by the survey, no longer to impute to motives of vanity 
 and fruitless curiosity the perilous voyage down the Indus ; the 
 necessary, but arduous, subjection of the predatory nations who 
 inhabited the banks of that river to a wild spirit of making conquests 
 and a boundless thirst of plunder ; nor consider the circuitous march 
 along the desolate coast and burning sands of Carmania, to Baby- 
 
 * Arrian, lib. iv. cap. 21. 
 
[ 207 ] 
 
 Ion, as the extreme of rashness and folly, or the result of a frantic 
 desire to surpass the feats of Semirarais and Cyrus ! 
 
 Alexander, according to the most esteemed of his biographers, 
 was born in the summer of the year 356, and succeeded to the 
 throne of Macedon in the year 336, before Christ ; being at that Before ciu-ist, 
 
 800* 
 
 time little more than twenty years of age. But the intellectual ^^v^ 
 faculties of this prince by no means kept pace with the slow pro- 
 gress to maturity of the corporeal : in his earliest youth he astonished 
 the court of his father by the display of unrivalled genius in almost 
 every line of exertion; Nature seemed to have formed him for 
 some project transcendently daring and magnificent, while Art and 
 Science exhausted all their treasures to finish the prodigy. 
 
 Whatever may be strictly called Grecian history, I mean such 
 portions of it as are not immediately connected with that of Persia, 
 and consequently with India, at this period in tributary dependence 
 on the former empire, can have no claim to insertion in these pages. 
 Yet, before we attend Alexander across the Hellespont, it will not 
 be improper to observe, that the sudden death of Philip, the inex- 
 perienced age of Alexander, and the impatience of the Greek states 
 to throw off the yoke of a Greek oppressor, had not permitted the 
 latter to take quiet possession of the wide sovereignty acquired by 
 his father. Trained up, however, in maxims of government equally 
 vigorous in the design and rapid in the execution, Alexander allowed 
 no time for opposition to ripen to maturity, or any general confe- 
 deracy to be formed by the dissatisfied cities of Greece. With 
 intrepidity and speed that evinced a mind fully adequate, even at 
 this early period, to his new and important station, he immediately 
 led the veteran troops of Philip to every district of Greece which had 
 elevated the standard of rebellion against his authority. The states 
 nearest to Macedon, which had set the first example of insurrection, 
 soon found a second Philip among them, at once to charm them by 
 
[ 208 ] 
 
 his eloquence and awe them by his sword. Thebes paid the penalty 
 of its obstinate perseverance in rebellion by its utter destruction ; 
 and Athens itself was glad to escape the same fate by making the 
 most abject submission to that conqueror against whom she had 
 been the principal means of inciting the rest of Greece to take up 
 arms*. In this disgraceful reverse of fortune, however, it should 
 not be forgotten that she had the virtue to refuse surrendering up 
 Demosthenes to the fury of his enemy, and Alexander was too 
 ardently intent upon his meditated Persian expedition, to delay it, 
 by prolonging the contest for the sole cause of punishing that ob- 
 Christ, noxious orator. Greece being thus restored to a state of profound 
 
 334. 
 
 tranquillity, Alexander was unanimously appointed generalissimo of 
 its united forces destined to act against Persia, in a general assembly 
 of the states convened for that purpose at Corinth ; and, having 
 made the necessary arrangements for preserving that security 
 during his absence, both in Macedonia and the rest of the depen- 
 dent cities, but especially in Macedonia, of which he appointed 
 Antipater governor, with an army highly disciplined and brave, of 
 twelve thousand infantry^ and fifteen hundred horse, he commenced 
 that celebrated expedition, to the particular detail of which we now 
 return. 
 
 Alexander was one of those enlightened princes who consider 
 RELIGION as essential to the wise government of an empire. Pre- 
 viously, therefore, to his departure from Greece, he offered mag- 
 nificent sacrifices to the gods of his country, in order to gain their 
 protection and avert evil. Indeed, his conduct in this respect was 
 uniformly consistent throughout the whole of his expedition, as no 
 undertaking of consequence commenced or terminated without the 
 solemnity of sacrifice. To these sacrifices succeeded public feasts of 
 
 * Arrian, lib. i. cap. 10, 11, et Plutarch in Vita Alexand. 
 
[ 209 ] 
 
 great splendor, as between men of whom a great portion were 
 doomed never to meet again. After which the king made ample 
 presents to the courtiers, dividing among his friends even the royal 
 domains and hereditary revenues. On this occasion there fell from 
 him that remarkable expression which so strikingly displayed the 
 grandeur of his designs and the extent of his views, fully demon- 
 strating that he had no idea of a speedy return, if ever, to his here- 
 ditary kingdom of Macedon; for, when one of his courtiers, struck 
 with the prodigality of his donations, asked him what he reserved 
 for himself, Alexander replied, HOPE : in other words I have no 
 occasion for the riches of Macedon ; the treasures of Asia, the sub- 
 jugated world, will shortly be mine*. 
 
 When the army assembled at Amphipolis, on the river Strymon, 
 in order to pass over Hellespont into Asia, it amounted, according 
 to Arrian, as before observed, to thirty thousand foot and five thou- 
 sand horse ; the former commanded by Parmenio, the latter by the 
 generals Philotas and Galas. Thence they inarched to Sestos, 
 where they embarked on board a fleet of one hundred and sixty 
 galleys, of three benches of oars, besides others of smaller burthen. 
 When the vessel which contained Alexander had reached the mid- 
 dle of the streight, he sacrificed a bull to Neptune, and poured out 
 a libation to the Nereids from a golden cup. On approaching 
 the continent, which was to be the scene of his future glory, Alex- 
 ander, in a transport of joy, launched a javelin, which struck deep 
 into the earth ; and, when the ship reached it, he leapt in complete 
 armour upon the shore, sacrificed to the tutelary gods of Greece, 
 and immediately hastened to that Ilium of which his favourite 
 Homer had early charmed him with the affecting tale. The 
 electric effect which a visit of this kind, to a spot so consecrated 
 
 * Diod. Sic. lib. svii.p. 361. 
 
 Vol. in. 2 D 
 
[ 210 ] 
 
 from age to age, must have had on the mind of our young hero, 
 may more easily be conceived than described ; he sacrificed to the 
 manes of the mighty heroes whom he made his exemplar ; he 
 adorned their tombs with garlands ; and he departed with re-anima- 
 ted ambition to rival them in renown. 
 
 Under these impressions he pursued his march, without opposition, 
 to the river Granicus, where an army, says Diodorus, of one hun- 
 dred thousand foot and ten thousand horse, commanded by the 
 Persian governors of the neighbouring provinces, lay encamped, in 
 order to dispute the passage. Arrian states the Persian force at 
 twenty thousand foot and the like number of horse ; but the Per- 
 sians, who could always bring such immense armies into the field, 
 would scarcely risk an action under the larger number of infantry 
 mentioned by Diodorus, while Arrian's account of the cavalry may 
 yet be correct, because on them their principal dependence lay. 
 The Granicus was a river exceedingly rapid, and, in some parts, 
 very deep ; the banks were steep, broken, and craggy. No posi- 
 tion, therefore, seemed to the Persian commander more eligible 
 to check the career of the invading Greeks than the station they 
 had chosen ; but this arrangement was in diametrical opposition to 
 that of an officer of far higher military experience than them all, 
 Memnon of Rhodes, whom Darius had appointed commander-in- 
 chief of the whole coast of Asia Minor, a man who well knew the 
 desperate courage of the enemy with whom they had to engage. 
 It was his decided opinion that the Persians should by no means, 
 at this early period of the contest, hazard a battle with the more 
 experienced Macedonians ; but that their numerous cavalry should 
 scour the country in every direction, laying all in desolation, that 
 the supplies of forage and provision might be wholly cut off, and 
 the invading enemy be driven to the necessity of a retreat from the 
 mere pressure of famine. In the mean time, he proposed to send 
 
[ 211 ] 
 
 an army into Macedonia, and thus divide their force and distract 
 their councils. This judicious advice was over-ruled by the selfish 
 policy of the governors of the maritime provinces, who, unwilling 
 to have their satrapies desolated and their property destroyed, im- 
 puted these sound maxims in the science of war to latent treachery 
 in Memnon. 
 
 The Persians, thus advantageously posted, and lining the whole 
 shore to a great extent, conceived that every attempt to dislodge 
 them must be fruitless, and looked down with dismay on the ap- 
 proaching army of the Macedonians. On the arrival of the latter, 
 notwithstanding the great superiority of the enemy in numbers 
 and their strong position ; notwithstanding the fatigue of a long 
 march which his troops had just undergone, and the urgent de- 
 sire of Parmenio that he would defer the attack till the following 
 morning ; Alexander, disdaining to be stopped by a brook, as he 
 termed the Granicus, after having passed an ocean, finding a place 
 where the stream was fordable, commanded the trumpets to sound, 
 and a considerable body of his light-horse to advance into the 
 river, himself following at the head of the right wing, which 
 consisted wholly of Thessalian cavalry, to give them support and 
 animate them to the attack. The Persian horse, posted on the 
 heights above, poured down upon them, as they forded the river, 
 a shower of arrows, which killed and wounded many of the horses ; 
 and, as the Macedonians successively endeavoured to ascend the 
 steep banks, pushed them back into the stream with their long spears. 
 The place most favourable for effecting a landing was, in particular, 
 guarded by a strong and select band of Persian cavalry, at the 
 head of whom fought Memnon, the Rhodian, with his sons, and the 
 most valiant of the Persian officers. These brave men made dreadful 
 havoc of the assailing enemy, so that all that fought in the first 
 ranks were slain, except a. few who retreated to the stronger body 
 
 2 D 2 
 
[ 212 ] 
 
 now advancing- in an impenetrable phalanx, under Alexander him- 
 self. These, drawing up in order, as they reached the shore, by 
 their superior discipline, their martial skill, and the strength and 
 depth of their column, gradually gained ground upon the Persians, 
 and drove them from their station. 
 
 The other battalions now pressing eagerly forward, successively 
 ascended the bank, in spite of all the efforts of the Persians to repel 
 them, and the contest became most obstinate and bloody. In 
 the midst of it, Alexander observing Spithridates, son-in-law of 
 Darius, mounted on a stately horse, and fighting valiantly at the 
 head of a band of Persian officers and relatives, immediately rode 
 up at full speed to the spot, and, at the first onset, thrust him 
 through the mouth with his spear. At that instant Rhassaces, the 
 brother of Spithridates, coming up, aimed so furious a blow Avith 
 Ins sword at the king's head, that it divided his helmet, grazed his 
 skull, and struck off a part of his plume. He was just on the point 
 of repeating the blow, which, in all probability, would have anni- 
 hilated his hopes of being the conqueror of Asia, when Clytus, 
 springing forward, with one stroke of his cimeter, cut off the 
 sword-arm of the fierce assailant, and saved the life of his master. 
 The Macedonians, animated by the example of their sovereign to 
 brave every danger, now rushed upon the enemy, and soon routed 
 all but the Greek mercenaries, who firmly stood their ground, and 
 for some time sustained the attack of the whole army ; but, being at 
 length overpowered, were nearly all cut to pieces. Two thousand of 
 them, who surrendered themselves prisoners, were sent in chains to 
 Macedon, the just scorn of their fellow-citizens, for having fought on 
 the side of the barbarians against their country. With them were 
 transmitted three hundred suits of Persian armour, to be suspended as 
 trophies in the temple of Pallas, in grateful remembrance of this 
 
[ 213 ] 
 
 important victory *. Diodorus states the loss of the Persians, in the 
 battle of the Granicus, at ten thousand infantry and two thousand 
 cavalry ; but it seems scarcely credible, considering the obstinate 
 resistance of the Persians on its banks, and the numbers that perished 
 in the river, that the loss of the invading army should only amount 
 to eighty-five horse and thirty foot-f-. In this, as in all other similar 
 cases throughout the campaign in Asia, we must allow no small 
 latitude to Greek vanity and exaggeration. 
 
 We have been more particular in our account of this first engage- 
 ment of Alexander in Asia, because it clearly shews the resolute 
 character of the man, in exposing his life to such imminent danger, 
 and his full confidence, or rather a kind of prescient conviction, of 
 the success of his Asiatic expedition. The affair of the Granicus has 
 been branded by Plutarch J as the result of extreme rashness and 
 almost insanity in the Macedonian hero, in attacking, to such infinite 
 disadvantage, an army so superior in point of numbers and position ; 
 but he is fully exculpated by Arrian, who brings in Alexander, de- 
 claring it was done that the enemy might see the determined ardour 
 with which he pursued his great object of subduing Persia, and that 
 he might at once strike an irresistible terror into the soul of his 
 enemies. The consequence was as Alexander had wisely pre- 
 judged ; this decisive victory put him in possession of Sardis, the 
 capital of Lydia, and all the adjacent region. The rich city of 
 Ephesus surrendered to him without a summons; and, though at 
 Miletus and Halicarnassus, he met with a vigorous resistance from 
 the determined valour of Memnon, the Rhodian, who successively 
 threw himself into those cities with a body of resolute Greeks, who 
 had escaped with him from the battle of the Granicus, yet, on their 
 
 * Arrian, lib. i. cap. 17. t Diod. Sic. lib. xvii. p. 367. 
 
 * Plutarch in Vit. Alexand. 
 
333. 
 
 [ 214 ] 
 
 subjection, all the other Greek cities of Asia joyfully opened their 
 gates, and hailed him their deliverer from the bondage of Persia. 
 The approach of winter put an end to the first campaign, and left 
 him at full leisure to provide for the security of his new con- 
 quests. 
 
 Alexander, about this period, took the uncommon resolution of 
 entirely dismissing his fleet; another circumstance that strongly 
 evinces how very remote from his thoughts was an idea of re- 
 turning to his hereditary dominions, and that he thought Asia already 
 his own. At the same time, he took effectual care to render the 
 Persian fleet useless, by immediate and vigorous efforts to make 
 himself master of all the ports on its extended coast. To this end , 
 having obtained fresh recruits to his army from Greece, during the 
 Before Christ, winter, early in the spring of the year 333, he began his march 
 through Phrygia, Pamphylia, Cappadocia, and the other maritime 
 provinces of Asia Minor, all which he rapidly subdued, appointing 
 governors to each from the number of his most tried friends. In the 
 mean time, Darius was by no means inactive. At the desire of M em- 
 non himself, he dispatched that faithful and enterprising officer with 
 a considerable army into Greece, with the view of exciting insur- 
 rection among the Greek states, and of compelling Alexander to re- 
 turn to the defence of his hereditary dominions. The unfortunate 
 death of Memnon, by sickness, before Mytelene, which city he 
 was at that time besieging, frustrated all the intended effects of 
 this wise project ; and Darius, now convinced of the necessity of 
 vigorous exertion, summoned the forces of his vast empire to Baby- 
 lon, where they assembled to the amount of nearly half a million. 
 Instead, however, of waiting for Alexander in the wide plains of 
 that province where his immense army, and, in particular, his 
 cavalry, would have room to act to the greatest advantage against an 
 army so very inferior, his evil genius hurried him into the fatal 
 
 
 
[ 215 ] 
 
 resolution of seeking the Macedonian monarch in the confined 
 and mountainous district of Cilicia. On being informed of the 
 movements of Darius, Alexander immediately commenced his 
 march for Upper Asia, being determined to offer him battle, and 
 he had already passed the three celebrated streights of that province, 
 when, to his astonishment, he learned that Darius himself had 
 entered Cilicia, and was at Sochas, within two days march of those 
 streights. No intelligence could be more agreeable to Alexander 
 than that of his enemy having taken a position in so confined a 
 situation, as must necessarily deprive hirn of the use of half his 
 forces ; and therefore, without any delay, he repassed the streights, 
 in order to bring him to engagement. Alexander, in advancing 
 and forming his army for that purpose, contrived to have his 
 right wing protected by the mountains, and his left by the sea, 
 to prevent the possibility of being surrounded. Darius opposed 
 to them, in his first line, thirty thousand Greek mercenaries, sup- 
 ported on their right and left by sixty-thousand heavy-armed 
 Persian cavalry ; the whole number of which the ground they 
 occupied would allow. Behind the whole were ranged, in crowded 
 and useless lines, the remainder of this unwieldy army, in the 
 midst of which, according to an ancient custom of the Persian 
 monarchs, Darius himself took his station. In this, as in the former 
 battle, a river, the river Pinarus, separated the two armies. 
 
 Alexander took upon himself the command of the right wing of 
 his army, with which he rushed forward to attack the left wing 
 of that of Darius, which he broke and defeated. In the rapid pur- 
 suit of them he crossed the Pinarus ; and, observing Darius fighting 
 from his chariot, and surrounded with nobles and the flower of the 
 Persian army, he eagerly pressed forward to engage him. He 
 hoped, by an exertion of personal valour, at once to put an end to 
 the contest ; but successive bodies of horse interposing, prevented 
 
[ 216 ] 
 
 his coming near enough to attack him, and the contest in that 
 quarter soon became extremely violent and bloody ; the heaps of 
 slain nobility, who had sacrificed their lives to preserve that of their 
 master, making almost an entrenchment round the chariot of the 
 Persian sovereign. In the heat of the conflict, Alexander was 
 wounded in the thigh ; and the horses that drew the chariot of 
 Darius, taking fright, became utterly ungovernable, and hurried 
 their master from the scene of death. The involuntary flight of 
 Darius was the signal for that of his troops, and the foremost ranks 
 ialling back upon each other, the first tumultuously pressing on the 
 second, the second on the third, and so on, a scene of infinite con- 
 fusion and disaster ensued, and multitudes were trampled to death 
 both by the horses and by their comrades. As the conquerors kept 
 on their pursuit, Darius was at length compelled to quit his chariot, 
 and insure his safety by mounting a horse, and riding incessantly 
 at full speed, till he reached the Euphrates. 
 
 The centre, consisting of the Macedonian phalanx, engaged the 
 mercenaries that formed the opposite centre, and both fought with 
 such obstinate bravery that for a long time the victory remained 
 extremely doubtful ; the mercenaries having more than once broke 
 the phalanx ; but the horse that formed the right wing, after routine- 
 the enemy's left, came to their aid, and turned the scale in favour 
 of the latter. At that moment the carnage of the mercenaries be- 
 came dreadful, being attacked both in front and flank, cut to 
 pieces by the cavalry, and thrust through with spears by the infantry. 
 Still, however, the greater part intrepidly stood their ground, selling 
 their lives as dear as possible. At length, being reduced from 
 thirty thousand to a third of that number, disdaining to yield, they 
 made good their retreat, in excellent order, to the mountains of 
 Syria, and, pursuing their route to the coast, embarked for Greece 
 in the same transports that had brought them. As to the Persian 
 
[ 217 ] 
 
 horse that formed the right wing of the enemy, they for a long 
 time resolutely combated the powerful body of Thessalian horse* 
 that formed Alexander's left ; but, seeing their own left wing totally 
 routed, Darius fled, and the mercenaries compelled to retreat, 
 they also betook themselves to flight. The chariot of Darius, con- 
 taining his bow, his shield, and the imperial chlamys worn by the 
 kings of Persia, but relinquished during his precipitate flight, in 
 the pursuit were seized, and brought to Alexander. The superb 
 tent of that monarch also, with his mother, his wife, his children, 
 and a numerous train of Persian ladies of the highest rank, were 
 among the spoil and captives of that day. The treasure, taken in the 
 camp, did not exceed three thousand talents of silver ; the rest, 
 with an immense quantity of plate, rich furniture, and other articles 
 of high value, had been sent for safety to Damascus ; but these, also, 
 shortly after, became the property of the victor. The numbers 
 reported to have fallen on either side are, again, incredibly dis- 
 proportionate ; Arrian, the most authentic guide, stating the loss of 
 the Persians at ninety thousand foot and ten thousand horse, and of 
 the Macedonians of high rank, among whom was Ptolemy, the son 
 of Seleucus, he says there were one hundred and twenty *. Of the 
 total amount of the slain in Alexander's army he gives no account ; 
 from which circumstance it may easily be gathered, that it must 
 have been much greater than is stated by the highest computation in 
 Diodorus, which is three hundred men-f. Thus terminated the 
 fatal battle of Issus ; and, in commemoration of the decisive victory 
 obtained at that place> Alexander afterwards erected that celebrated 
 city near the scite of it, on the Sinus Issicus, or gulph of the same 
 name, which is even at this day called after his name, in Persian, 
 
 * Arrian, lib. ii, cap. 10, 11. t Diod. Sic. lib. xvii. cap. 512-518. 
 
 Vol. in. 2 E 
 
[ 218 ] 
 
 Scanderoon, or the city of Escander, and by the Greeks Alex- 
 andretta, the sea-port of the great commercial city of Aleppo. 
 
 The path now lay immediately open to Babylon and the heart 
 of Persia, but Alexander did not, at this period of the war, incline to 
 pursue Darius beyond the Euphrates. He had other projects to be 
 completed before he took entire possession of the vast empire 
 which he seemed to be convinced DESTINY had reserved for him*. 
 The grand scheme already formed within his comprehensive mind 
 of uniting Europe and Asia by the ties of affinity and the bond of 
 commerce, as well as giving a new, an ampler, and an unre- 
 strained, current to that commerce, did not admit of the coast of 
 Phoenice being left unconquered, nor the existence of TYRE, its 
 capital where it had long centred, in its ancient glory, if at all. In 
 truth, Alexander justly considered himself as only a state-prisoner 
 in a vast empire, while a powerful Phoenician fleet, always at 
 the beck of the Persian monarch, sailed triumphantly on the ocean ; 
 and, having as yet no navy of any importance, he was resolved to 
 crush that abundant source of the Persian power at the fountain- 
 head, by the utter humiliation, if not the annihilation, of Tyre. 
 Regulating his conduct, therefore, by the above sound political 
 maxim, and considering subjugated Asia itself as little better than a 
 magnificent prison -f- until he should be fully master of its maritime 
 regions, he marched, towards the close of the year 333 before 
 
 * Such was Alexander's and such was his historian, Arrian's, idea; but a Christian historian, 
 however he may occasionally accommodate himself to a Pagan mode of expression, would be 
 criminal if he did not add that THE POWER, who rules the destiny of man, HE who setteth 
 up and putteth down kingdoms, had himself ordained Alexander, (Daniel, viii. 1-8,) the 
 mighty HE-GOAT with one horn, to be the subverter of the Persian empire. When he had 
 finished his allotted task, this AVATAR, (if we may so denominate him,) for his impiety and 
 intemperance, was cut off. Mark, sceptic, and be dumb ! 
 
 t As France in fact is, though far from a magnificent one, to its tyrannical rulers, at 
 the present day, (1796.) 
 
[ 219 ] 
 
 Christ, into Syria, where the cities of Biblos and Sidon immediately 
 threw open their gates to him ; but the merchant-princes of Tyre, 
 probably conjecturing his real intentions, refused to admit his army 
 within their walls, and prepared, without a moment's delay, for 
 active and resolute resistance. There is scarcely any event more 
 celebrated in the history of Alexander, or in the annals of maritime 
 Asia, than the prolonged and vigorous siege, the obstinate and 
 skilful defence, and final subversion, of Tyre, during which all the 
 military science at that time known was not only exerted, but ex- 
 hausted, by either party. It cost Alexander seven months to reduce 
 it, and this unexpected delay undoubtedly provoked him to take 
 that sanguinary revenge on its brave inhabitants, which remains a 
 deep and indelible blot on his memory. All the circumstances of 
 this memorable affair are minutely related by Arrian, and to that 
 author the reader is referred for those particulars which would swell 
 this volume to a disproportionate magnitude*. 
 
 Twice, during this protracted interval, ambassadors had arrived 
 from Darius with offers of enormous sums as the ransom of the 
 captive royal family, and with earnest supplication for peace on 
 Alexander's own terms ; but his views admitted of no peace till Asia 
 was wholly subjugated : it was far from his intention to hold a di- 
 vided empire with another. Asia itself was scarcely large enough 
 for an Alexander. 
 
 Though there are some inconsistencies in Josephus's disputed 
 account of the visit which Alexander paid to Jerusalem in his way 
 to Gaza, of his prostration of himself before the high priest, and 
 hearing the unequivocal prophecies relating to himself in Daniel, 
 read and explained to him in the temple, in' which he is also re- 
 corded by the same writer to have sacrificed to the true God ; yet I 
 
 * Arrian, lib. ii. cap. 18-24. 
 
 2 E 2 
 
{ 220 ] 
 
 cannot bring myself to believe, with a late writer*, that so cir- 
 cumstantial an account could ever have been forged by that author. 
 It might have descended to him traditionally, and been omitted by 
 Arrian and other biographers of Alexander, as in their opinion not 
 important enough for the page of history -f . 
 
 Difficulties scarcely less discouraging and numerous than those ex- 
 perienced at Tyre attended the reduction of Gaza ; but the genius of 
 Alexander surmounted them all, though in surmounting them he was 
 severely wounded in the shoulder. The same genius displayed the 
 consummate policy peculiar to itself in afterwards constituting that 
 almost impregnable fortress, situated on the extremity of Egypt 
 and Syria, a grand magazine of arms ; at the same time leaving in it 
 a numerous garrison. By these two arduous enterprises, his army 
 being much reduced, he delayed his march into Egypt till he 
 could procure fresh recruits from Greece, and these having at 
 length arrived, he hastened thither, and, in seven days, reached 
 Pelusium. The terror of his arms, added to the rooted detestation 
 of the Egyptians for the Persian tyrants who had mutilated and 
 slain their gods, opened for him an uninterrupted passage to Mem- 
 phis, its capital ; where, in direct opposition to the bigoted policy of 
 the Persians, he offered public and splendid sacrifices, as well to the 
 Egyptian as the Grecian deities. We shall scarcely ever find 
 Alexander entering upon a new conquest, but he navigates the 
 rivers and explores the coasts of the subjugated country. At Mem- 
 phis he embarked on the Nile, and sailed down its stream through 
 the Canopic, or most western mouth, into the ocean. It was the 
 result of an accurate survey of that part of the coast, and of the ad- 
 vantageous situation it afforded for establishing there an emporium for 
 the commerce of the whole world, on the conquest of which he 
 
 * The Baron de St. Croix. t Vide Joseph! Antiq. Judaic, lib. xi. sect. 8. 
 
[ 221 ] 
 
 firmly depended, that induced him to give immediate orders for 
 the erection of a city to be called after his own name. Of this 
 celebrated city, which, for eighteen centuries, continued the glory 
 of the East, and, from its opulence, was denominated the Golden, 
 Alexander himself projected the magnificent plan, and marked the 
 extended boundaries. It is said to have originally resembled, in Before Christ, 
 
 * 332. 
 
 form, a Macedonian mantle, having one vast street a hundred feet 
 in breadth, and no less than five miles in length, open through its 
 whole extent to the salubrious Etesian breezes blowing from the 
 Mediterranean that bounded it on the north, while the great lake 
 Mareotis constituted its southern limit This noble street was inter- 
 sected by others of equal breadth and beauty, running in parallel 
 lines, forming, at their junction, extensive squares, and crowded 
 with lofty edifices, temples, baths, amphitheatres, while walls of 
 amazing height and thickness, flanked at regular distances with 
 strong bastions, surrounded this intended metropolis of the commer- 
 cial world. Its excellent port he caused to be cleansed and deepened, 
 but it was reserved for his successors, the Ptolemies, to add the stu- 
 pendous mole that joined Alexandria to the isle of Pharos, and 
 divided the spacious harbour into two, as well as that majestic 
 Pharos itself, erected entirely of white marble, which, for beauty 
 and grandeur, had no rival, and was justly enumerated among the 
 wonders of the ancient world. Its superb palace, its famous mu- 
 seum, its vast gymnasium, its noble library, though not all the 
 immediate work of Alexander, but probably exactly finished by 
 Ptolemy Lagus according to the plan of his sovereign, his friend, 
 and his brother, all combined to render Alexandria a lasting monu- 
 ment of the towering genius of its founder, while it exhibited in- 
 dubitable testimony of the grand commercial designs, which he had 
 thus early formed, but which unfortunately he lived not to 
 mature. 
 
[ 222 ] 
 
 To return to our narration : Alexander, having consigned the 
 charge of this great concern to Dinocrates, the immortal architect of 
 the second temple of Diana, immediately commenced that extra- 
 ordinary and perilous visit to the temple of Jupiter Ammon in the 
 deserts of Lybia, the incentives to which in the mind of a general of 
 such foresight, and intent as he was upon the accomplishment 
 of such arduous schemes, have proved the cause of infinite per- 
 plexity to all his biographers. The motives more generally assigned 
 are, the example of Hercules, and his vanity to be thought the son 
 of the Lybian, as Hercules was of the Grecian, Jupiter, who, in that 
 superb and secluded sanctuary, was Avorshipped under the form of a 
 .ram. On this account, the tiara of Alexander, and, after him, of all 
 the Macedonian sovereigns, was generally decorated with the HORN 
 of that animal, his ambition aiming to be considered as his de- 
 scendant ; not that he was absurd enough to think so himself, but he 
 politically yielded to the prevailing prejudices of the day, in regard 
 to the celestial descent of heroes, and to the general impression 
 that the conqueror of the world ought to be somewhat more than a 
 mortal. It is remarkable, too, that the Oriental denomination of 
 Escander is DULCARNEI.N, oiTwo-Horned, because, as they explain 
 it, in his career of conquest, he seemed to have passed from one 
 horn of the sun to the other, or from west to east : it is, however, 
 far more probable to have been derived from some adulatory Greek 
 title, allusive to this Ammonian genealogy. Whatever might have 
 been the motive, whether to rival Hercules, Or to have himself pub- 
 licly acknowledged the son of the Lybian Jove, and however ex- 
 aggerated by historians may have been the sufferings of the army, 
 during this expedition, there can be no doubt but that great peril 
 was run in traversing those immense deserts immediately under a 
 tropical sun, from the failure of water and the drifting of the sands in 
 that arid region ; as well as much unnecessary delay in the critical 
 
[ 223 ] 
 
 situation of Alexander : nor is it easy to conceive of what utility 
 it could prove adequate to the risk and inconvenience of such a 
 toilsome march. His fortunate arrival and safe return, therefore, 
 with such an army, are by all his biographers accounted as mi- 
 raculous ; and the effect of the interposing aid of that sovereign 
 Jupiter, whose protection he sought, and whom he claimed as his 
 august progenitor. Alexander, on his return, found the works, in- 
 tended to make his new city the wonder of the East, already far 
 advanced, and, marching to Memphis, received there ambassadors 
 bearing congratulations from the various states of Greece, with a 
 considerable body of fresh recruits, both cavalry and infantry. 
 
 Having placed a strong garrison in that city, and other fortresses 
 of Egypt, headed by commanders of tried loyalty and valour, and 
 every thing being now fully mature for the accomplishment of the 
 great projects which he had been so long planning, of empire and 
 of glory, Alexander, in the spring of the year before Christ 331, Btfore ciirit, 
 hastened back into Syria ; and thence bent his course to the Upper 
 Asia, with the fixed determination of seeking Darius, wheresoever he 
 was to be found, and deciding, by one general engagement, the fate 
 of the interior of that vast continent, of which the whole maritime 
 region was now entirely in his power. Animated by these hopes, 
 and impatient for the dazzling prize, he passed with rapidity the 
 intervening country between Tyre and the Euphrates, and, arriving 
 at Thapsacus, on that river, repaired the bridge, over which Darius 
 and his routed army had passed after the battle of Issus ; but which 
 now served to transport his conqueror into the heart of Mesopotamia. 
 This was effected without opposition, notwithstanding the charge 
 of guarding that passage had been committed to a Persian officer, 
 named Maza3us, who was stationed there with a corps of three 
 thousand horse and two thousand Greek mercenaries ; for, at the 
 near approach of the Macedonians, that commander immediately 
 
 331. 
 
[ 224 ] 
 
 retreated, setting fire to the whole country on his flight, that it 
 might not afford forage and provisions to the invaders. Alexander 
 now continued his progress towards Babylon, but not by the direct 
 road, probably because that route was desolated by Mazaeus ; he, 
 therefore, continued his march to the Tigris by a more circuitous, 
 but, at the same time, less sterile, tract, keeping, says Arrian, the 
 Euphrates and the Armenian mountains on his left hand*. Darius, 
 in the mean time, had collected from all the distant provinces of 
 his empire an army at least double in number to that which he had 
 commanded at Issus, and had encamped at the village of Gauga- 
 mela, near Arbela, where a wide champaign country afforded ample 
 room for his innumerable forces to act without that obstruction and 
 confusion which were the necessary consequence of the former 
 engagement in the narrow streights of Cilicia. Of those forces, and 
 of their respective commanders, there is, in Arrian, a minute and 
 circumstantial account, as well as the provinces whence they were 
 drawn, among which it is only necessary for us to notice the 
 INDIANS adjacent to Bactria, which are mentioned first in this 
 muster-roll, and, added to the Arechosian troops, the INDIAN 
 mountaineers, with a train of elephants from the districts beyond the 
 Indus : a convincing proof that the Indians continued in that tri- 
 butary dependence upon Persia, which we have all long contended 
 they did, from their conquest by Hystaspes-f-. 
 
 On hearing that the Macedonian army were approaching the 
 Tigris, Darius dispatched Mazseus, at the head of a considerable 
 body of chosen horse, to give every obstruction possible to his 
 passage of that river; but this precaution was ineffectual, for, before 
 their arrival, Alexander had completed the passage, although with, 
 the utmost difficulty, from its extreme rapidity. 
 
 * Arrian, lib. iii. cap. 7j 8. f Ibid. 
 
[ 225 ] 
 
 Such was that difficulty, and such the fatigue they endured, that 
 he was compelled to permit them to halt two whole days on the 
 opposite banks to recover themselves ; during which period a lunar 
 eclipse, a phenomenon at all times esteemed by the Asiatics highly 
 inauspicious, struck the Greeks with such terror, that they hesitated 
 to proceed farther on an expedition to which earth and heaven 
 seemed to be alike adverse, and in which they appeared to be hur- 
 ried, by a spirit of unsatiated and indomitable ambition, equally 
 beyond the limits of reason and the bounds of nature*. The pious 
 policy of Alexander, however, on this as well as many other im- 
 portant occasions, failed not, by means of the flattering tribe of 
 Egyptian soothsayers that attended his army, to convert this omen, 
 as well as he had many preceding ones of a presumed malignant 
 import, into an omen of triumphant success, and a means of exciting 
 a general enthusiasm to an immediate battle ; those-venerable seers 
 declaring, that, by this sign, it was evident that the glory of the 
 Persian sovereign was eclipsed by that of the Macedonian ; and that 
 the lustre of the Persian crown would soon be extinguished for ever. 
 This flattering interpretation of the omen being widely circulated 
 through the army, revived their courage and inflamed their ardour. 
 Alexander took advantage of this favourable change in their senti- 
 ments, and broke up his camp at midnight to go in quest of the 
 enemy. Under these impressions, they continued their march 
 through Assyria, and being at length arrived within a short distance 
 of the Persian lines, he there halted, that he might grant his men 
 that repose Avhich they needed after their march, and lead them in 
 full vigour and spirits against an army, formidable for its numbers 
 and valiant from desperation. 
 
 * Curtius, lib. iv. cap. 23, 24. 
 
 VoL m_ 2 F 
 
[ 226 ] 
 
 At this period of awful suspense, ambassadors arrived from Darius, 
 bearing, at once, that unhappy monarch's warmest acknow- 
 ledgments for the magnificent funeral honours with which he had 
 buried Statira, his queen, lately deceased, in the Grecian camp, 
 and new overtures for an accommodation of their differences. He 
 now offered him, as the price of peace, the uncontrolled sovereignty 
 of all the countries lying between the Hellespont and the Euphrates, 
 with the addition of thirty thousand talents, as the ransom of the royal 
 captives. Parmenio in vain counselled his master to listen to propo- 
 sals at once so liberal and honourable ; but Alexander would hear of 
 no terms short of the unconditional submission of Darius, and the ex- 
 plicit acknowledgement of himself as his lord and conqueror; adding, 
 that there had been no instance, in the records of time or the 
 history of nature, of two suns shining forth in one firmament. 
 Such being the imperious answer returned to this embassy, the two 
 monarchs prepared once more to settle, by arms, the final ad- 
 justment of their claims to the sovereignty of Asia*. The dis- 
 position of the Persian army, according to certain memoirs of its 
 arrangement, found after the battle in the camp of Darius, was as 
 follows : Numerous squadrons of Bactrian, Persian, and Arachosian, 
 cavalry formed its left wing, opposed to Alexander's right. The 
 right consisted of the Phoenician, Mesopotamian, and Median, horse, 
 commanded by natives of those respective regions. In the centre, 
 led on by Darius, surrounded by the flower of the Persian nobility, 
 were placed the numerous infantry, composed of Babylonians, 
 Susians, Indians, the royal guard, and the Greek auxiliaries, on 
 whom he principally depended to repel the Macedonian phalanx, 
 which always formed the enemy's centre. In the front of his 
 army were ranged two hundred chariots, armed with scythes, and a 
 
 * Curtius, lib. iv. cap. 26. Justin, lib. ii. cap. 12. 
 
[ 227 ] , 
 
 considerable body of elephants obtained from the tributary provinces 
 of India. Of the army of Alexander in the front and centre, as we 
 just observed, were stationed the Macedonian phalanx as an im- 
 pregnable bulwark; and, behind them, the auxiliary Greek in- 
 fantry. Alexander himself, as usual, commanded the right wing, 
 consisting of the Macedonian and auxiliary horse ; while the left, 
 composed principally of Thessalian cavalry, was led on by Par- 
 menio. As the army of the enemy covered nearly twice the space 
 of ground occupied by his own, and it was probable they might 
 attempt to surround him, these wings were directed to extend 
 themselves as wide as they possibly could, without too much weak- 
 ening their strength. The rear of the centre-battalions had also 
 orders, in that case, to face about, and charge the encircling enemy 
 with their spears ; and, as a still farther precaution, Alexander took 
 care to have a flying squadron of considerable force in reserve 
 against such an emergency. In respect to the scythe-armed cha 
 riots, on whatever quarter they might make their attack, orders 
 were issued for that division immediately to open, that their progress 
 might be unobstructed, and, consequently, innoxious. The Persian 
 army on this grand occasion, if estimated at a fair average of the 
 varying historians, amounted to five hundred thousand foot and 
 forty thousand horse : that of Alexander is said, by Arrian, to have 
 been only seven thousand horse and forty thousand foot*. 
 
 Such, very generally stated, (for it is not necessary, nor, amidst the 
 jarring accounts of the ancients, is it possible, to be minutely correct,) 
 were the numbers and arrangement of the mighty armies that con- 
 tended at Gaugamela for the sovereignty of Asia. The Persian Before 
 army, numerous as it was, by no means possessed the vigour and spirit 
 proper for such an important day, having, in the constant apprehen- 
 
 * Arrian, lib. iii. cap. 1J, 12. 
 2 F 2 
 
 331. 
 
[ 228 ] 
 
 sion of an attack from the enemy, been all night under arms, and 
 consequently exhausted by that unnecessary vigil. Alexander com- 
 menced the dreadful contest by a furious attack at the head of his 
 right wing on the Scythian and .Bactrian cavalry that formed the 
 left of the enemy. These brave and athletic natives of the Northern 
 Asia repelled the assault with equal fury, while, to assist their 
 efforts and break the impetuosity of the Macedonian horse, the 
 scythe-armed chariots were ordered to bear down upon that division. 
 A shower of darts, javelins, and other missile weapons., from a select 
 band of archers, stationed at hand, for the purpose, was immediately 
 poured upon the charioteers and horse, which wounded some and 
 killed others ; while the troops dividing as directed, opened to the 
 remainder a clear passage through the midst of them to the troops in 
 reserve, who were prepared to complete their destruction. The 
 unwieldy Indian animals, at the same time, being severely galled 
 by the javelins and terrified by the shouts of the assailants, were 
 driven back on the Persian infantry, and becoming ungovernable, 
 through the violence of pain, spread confusion and dismay wherever 
 they came. The conflict between the right and left wings was soon 
 renewed with redoubled fury, and the hardy Scythians, as often as 
 routed, presently rallied again, and returned to the charge. No exer- 
 tions, however, of barbarian fortitude could long resist the disciplined 
 bravery and superior manoeuvring of the Macedonian and Grecian 
 horse. After an obstinate contest, the former were entirely broken 
 and dispersed. Alexander did not lose time in pursuing the fugitives ; 
 but, wheeling about, fell, with his whole, force on. the flank of the 
 Persian centre ; and the Macedonian phalanx, that formed his own 
 centre, immediately coming up, and attacking them in front, they 
 were quickly thrown into irrecoverable disorder, betaking themselves 
 to flight in every direction. The auxiliary Greeks, however, and 
 the body-guard of Darius, whose station was always in the centre, 
 
[ 229 ] 
 
 disdained to fly, and for a long time fought with obstinate intrepidity ; 
 though excessively impeded in their movements by the pressure of 
 the immense throng around them, who had already suffered dis- 
 comfiture. 
 
 The immediate presence of the two mighty competitors for Asia, 
 the amaxing greatness of the stake, and the exasperation of personal 
 animosity between the loyal and rebellious Greeks, between those 
 who fought for the liberty of their country and those who combated 
 to overthrow it, animated either party to deeds of incredible bravery, 
 and the carnage in that quarter became not only continued and hor- 
 rible, but the ultimate success Avas, for a long time, in the highest 
 degree doubtful. At the hottest period of the contest, a circumstance 
 occurred that immediately turned the scale in favour of the Ma- 
 cedonians ; for Alexander, impatient of protracted victory, with all 
 his strength launching a javelin at his rival as he sate fighting in his 
 lofty and splendid car, struck the charioteer to earth. An imme- 
 diate rumour spread rapidly through the ranks that Darius himself 
 was slain, and the loud and piercing shrieks of lamentation that 
 followed, for the fallen sovereign, served at once to propagate and 
 confirm the disastrous report. All the rest of the royal family, who 
 were in the battle, supposing that every thing was now lost, imme- 
 diately fled with the guards ; and Darius, in the agony of his 
 despair, is reported by some of his historians to have drawn his 
 cimeter with intent to dispatch himself; but, looking eagerly round, 
 and seeing the large portion of his army that formed his left wing, 
 still furiously engaged with the enemy, and a few loyal battalions 
 still encircling him, he was received into the centre of that faithful 
 band, and by them protected in the flight which his personal safety 
 now rendered indispensably necessary*. The imminent danger which 
 
 * Diod. Sic. lib. \vii. p. 540. 
 
[ 230 ] 
 
 at that instant threatened Parmenio and the left wing, prevented any 
 vigorous pursuit on the part of the Macedonians ; for that body was 
 nearly surrounded by Mazaeus at the head of the numerous and ex- 
 pert body of cavalry, principally Median and Parthian, that formed 
 Darius's right wing, and nothing but the instant and effectual 
 succour, which the Macedonian sovereign was thus enabled to give 
 them, saved them from entire destruction. During also this un- 
 fortunate situation of Parmenio, and the distant engagement of 
 Alexander, a considerable body of Indian and Persian horse had 
 taken an opportunity to penetrate even to the Macedonian camp, 
 and assisted by the Barbarian captives, who had risen upon their 
 weak guard, were plundering the tents and baggage. These were 
 immediately attacked by the rear of the centre-division, who had 
 faced about, as commanded in the general orders of the day, and 
 were in part defeated ; but the assailants, being horse, could not be 
 pursued. In their retreat, however, with the plunder, they were 
 met by Alexander on his return to succour Parmenio ; the spoil 
 was retaken, and themselves almost to a man cut to pieces. As soon 
 as the troops had reached their object, the right wing, a combat 
 still more determined and bloody than that in which he had 
 already been engaged with the left commenced, and on this occa- 
 sion many of his most valuable officers were wounded ; among 
 whom was Hephaestion. Victory was at length, though dearly, 
 earned, and the rout became universal and complete. Parmenio 
 then returned with Alexander to the pursuit of Darius, whom they 
 followed as far as Arbela, about six hundred stadia, or seventy-five 
 English miles, distant from the field of battle, but could not over- 
 take ; the royal fugitive never thinking himself secure, nor stopping 
 till he had reached the remote northern provinces. Immense piles 
 of baggage, treasure in money and bullion, and rich furniture of 
 every description, again became the property of the victor ; and, in 
 
[ 231 ] 
 
 this battle, denominated that of Arbela, but fought, in reality, at 
 Gaugamela, a village on the banks of the river Bumelus, according 
 to Arrian, no fewer than three hundred thousand of the enemy were 
 slain, while the loss of the Macedonians and auxiliaries together is 
 most absurdly and incredibly stated to have amounted to only one 
 hundred horsemen, and a thousand horses, who died in the heat 
 and fatigue of pursuit, or of wounds received during the engage- 
 ment*. 
 
 After this important victory, Alexander, still adhering firmly to 
 his original opinion, that religion was essential to the raise government 
 of a great empire, returned thanks to heaven in a profusion of 
 splendid and costly sacrifices. Despairing at that time to overtake 
 Darius, he afterwards marched to Babylon, of which city the gates 
 were thrown open to him by Maza3us, the Persian governor, and 
 where he was joyfully received by the inhabitants ; for, the intolerant 
 spirit of their former masters, in point of religion, had induced 
 them to act with the same hostility towards the magnificent temple 
 of Belus with which they had acted towards the temples of Egypt 
 and of Greece. In this great city he refreshed himself and his 
 army thirty days ; admiring its lofty walls and superb edifices, taking 
 possession of its immense treasures, and unhappily too much in- 
 dulging in those voluptuous excesses so customary in great cities, 
 and, in fact, so congenial to his time of life. His conduct began 
 to be visibly affected by the mighty change in his fortune, which 
 converted the humble sovereign of Macedon into the uncontrolled 
 emperor of Asia: he assumed all the pomp and magnificence of 
 the ancient Persian monarchs, and, still indulging the favourite 
 idea of his descent from Jupiter, he wished to engraft divine upon 
 human honours. Excuses have in vain been urged for this altered 
 
 * Arrian, lib. iii. cap. 14, 15, ubi supra. 
 
[ 232 ] 
 
 conduct by his partial biographers ; but none are adequate to his 
 vindication. To strike a degree of awe and veneration into the 
 minds of his new subjects, though it might be necessary for Alex- 
 ander to affect the pomp and splendour which distinguished the 
 court of the ancient sovereigns of the Persian empire, it was by no 
 means necessary that he should disgrace it by unbounded luxury 
 and continued intemperance. That fatal rock, on which he knew 
 their power had been so recently wrecked, ought to have kept him 
 steady in the rigid practice of Macedonian temperance; and he 
 ought to have made the great Cyrus the founder, and the first Darius 
 the establisher, and not the last, the subverter, by his effeminacy, 
 of that vast empire, the bright exemplar of his conduct. Hardy 
 and inflexible in the field, Avhen surrounded by numerous and 
 active enemies, in the face of danger and on the verge of death, 
 when the strongest cities were to be besieged, the loftiest mountains 
 to be crossed, and the deepest rivers to be forded, Alexander was 
 invincible ; but, the instant he was seated on the throne of Darius, he 
 seems to have forfeited that superior title, his virtue and his forti- 
 tude, by which he gained possession of it; and, in the moment of 
 victory, became vanquished. Thus inconsistent is MAN, the victim 
 of contending passions, the sport of endless vicissitudes ; MAN, who 
 seems to be conspicuously placed on the great theatre of time, to be- 
 come the successive object of respect and of commiseration; a 
 spectacle of alternate admiration and derision ! 
 
 This general relaxation, however, in point of morals and discipline, 
 was not accompanied with any relaxation of vigorous exertion in 
 regard to the great and ultimate object of Alexander's ambition. 
 An attentive view of the situation of Babylon, near the confluence 
 of two noble rivers rolling from the centre of civilized Asia into 
 the great Eastern ocean, and in an abundant and delightful pro- 
 vince, convinced him, that on that spot alone should stand the im- 
 
[ 233 ] 
 
 perial residence of the conqueror of the East. His conduct at Perse- 
 polis, the ancient capital of the kings of Persia, clearly, I think, 
 demonstrates this project to have been formed in his mind before he 
 quitted Babylon to pursue Darius and Bessus. Another circum- 
 stance occurred at Babylon, greatly to the honour of Alexander 
 and the advantage of that literature which he was ever forward to 
 patronize ; a circumstance, which, by some, may be thought to 
 counter-balance the excesses committed at that metropolis, I mean 
 his researches relative to the astronomical observations made by the 
 Chaldrean priests, at the observatory of Belus, during a period of 
 . one thousand nine hundred and three years, and the transmission of 
 the table of them by Calisthenes to Aristotle. As that period extends 
 back as far as the age of Nimrod, the discovery has proved of the 
 last importance to history, science, and religion ; but the subject has 
 been too amply discussed in the former volume, and its consequence 
 to the systems, both of sacred and pagan chronology, too frequently 
 pointed out, to require being farther dwelt upon in this place*. 
 
 His army being reinforced from Greece with thirteen thousand 
 five hundred foot and about two thousand horse, Alexander com- 
 menced his inarch to Susa, that immense store-house of the wealth 
 of the Persian monarchs, which now became the reward of Macedo- 
 nian perseverance and valour. On his approach to the city he 
 was met by Abulites, the Persian governor, with presents of great 
 value, among which are again enumerated elephants which Darius 
 had procured from the tributary provinces of India; an animal, adds 
 
 * I request, also, the reader's particular attention to what is said, on this subject, in 
 the preceding pages of the present volume. Had this acquisition been the only fruit of 
 Alexander's expedition, it would have been of incalculable benefit to science; but it also 
 opened to the Greeks, for the first time, an acquaintance with Asia beyond the Euphrates; 
 and it certainly laid the foundation of all our knowledge of India, which will, I trust, 
 prove no inadequate apology for my detailing that expedition at such length. 
 
 2 G 
 
[ 234 ] 
 
 Curtius, now no longer an object of terror to the Macedonians*. To 
 its magnificent palace, said by Diodorus to be the noblest edifice in 
 the world -f-, he restored the mother and daughters of Darius, and 
 established them there in splendor, only not imperial. Having per- 
 formed this act of honourable attention to his unfortunate prisoners ; 
 having, also, replenished his treasury from the overflowing abun- 
 dance of that of Susa, and placed a strong garrison in this fortress ; 
 he pursued his march, not without great obstruction, from the nature 
 of the mountainous country through which he passed, and the 
 determined opposition of some noble chieftains, who remained 
 steady in their loyalty to Darius, and guarded the frontiers into 
 Parsis, or Persia, properly so called. The governor of Persepolis, 
 its renowned capital, by no means possessed the unshaken loyalty 
 which had distinguished those on the frontiers ; but invited the 
 approach of Alexander, and threw open its gates to the foes of his 
 master. The massacre of its numerous inhabitants, the plunder of 
 its vast treasures, and the burning of that celebrated palace which a 
 long race of illustrious princes had laboured to adorn with whatever 
 is costly in price and exquisite in science, were the unhappy conse- 
 quence, and fix an everlasting blot on the character of Alexander, 
 in other respects the patron of the arts and the friend of the 
 wretched. Pasargadae, the city built by Cyrus, and rendered sacred 
 by the tomb of that monarch, was next plundered ; and, early in the 
 Before Christ, spring, Alexander again renewed his pursuit of Darius, who, dis- 
 daining to surrender himself to an usurper, was, as he had recently 
 been informed, at Ecbatana, in Media:]:. By forced marches, in 
 fifteen days, he reached that capital, a distance of nearly four 
 thousand stadia, or five hundred miles, where he had the mor- 
 tification to find that Darius had left it, at the head of a considerable 
 
 * Curtius, lib. iv. cap. 2. t Died. Sic. lib. xviii. cap. 06. J Arrian, lib. iii. cap. 19. 
 
[ 235 ] 
 
 body of troops, principally Greek infantry and Bac'trian horse, who 
 yet remained faithful to him, five days before ; and had passed the 
 Caspian Streights with intent to seek protection or to raise fresh 
 forces in the most distant provinces of his empire. Nothing, how- 
 ever, could damp the ardour of his pursuit, and he resolved to follow 
 him, if necessary, even to the pole. 
 
 In the strong and remote fortress of Ecbatana, Alexander de- 
 posited, under the care of Harpalus, his treasurer, the accumulated 
 wealth obtained in the plunder of the great cities of Persia, amount- 
 ing, in the whole, according to Strabo, to a hundred and eighty 
 thousand talents, thirty millions sterling*; and he left with him a 
 guard of six thousand Macedonian foot and a proportionate body of 
 horse. He had scarcely passed the Caspian Streights, when tidings 
 reached him of the seizure of Darius by the traitor Bessus and his 
 comrades, who had bound him in chains (of gold, says Curtius), and 
 were hurrying away the royal prisoner, closely confined in a chariot, 
 covered with the skins of beasts, to his government of Bactria. On 
 this affecting intelligence, Alexander urged on the pursuit day and 
 night with such precipitation, that many of the men and horses 
 perished through the severity of the fatigue they underwent. As 
 he approached nearer the ruffians, he learned that Bessus affected to 
 wear the imperial purple, and had been hailed the sovereign of 
 Persia by the whole army, except the Greek mercenaries and a 
 few faithful Persian battalions. 
 
 The ardour and impatience of Alexander's mind prevented him 
 from sinking under the incessant fatigue he had endured ; and, at 
 length, arriving at a village in which Bessus and his Bactrian ad- 
 herents had encamped the preceding day ; fearful, also, that their 
 treason might even attempt the life of Darius, he pressed on with 
 
 * Strabo, lib. xv. p. 741. 
 2 G 2 
 
[ 236 ] 
 
 redoubled eagerness, being conducted by certain loyal Persian 
 nobles, who detested the perfidy of Bessus, along a private road, till 
 he came suddenly within sight of the rebels, who, ignorant of his 
 approach, were leisurely pursuing their march, and in much dis- 
 order. Though Alexander had with him but an inconsiderable 
 body of troops, compared with those of the enemy, yet the terror of 
 his name and the consciousness of guilt had such a powerful effect 
 upon them, that they immediately betook themselves to precipitate 
 flight. Bessus and his treacherous accomplice, Nabarzanes, who, 
 with Darius, were advanced considerably before the main. body of 
 the army, on being informed of their situation, anxiously solicited 
 their royal prisoner to quit the chariot which conveyed him, and 
 continue on horseback his progress into Bactria ; but the indignant 
 monarch refused any longer to be the dupe of their artifices, and 
 declared himself determined rather to confide his life in the hands 
 of a generous enemy than to perfidious friends. On this, the en- 
 raged parricides pierced him through with darts, and left him, 
 covered with wounds. They also killed the driver, and struck their 
 spears into the horses that drew the chariot. Those animals, being 
 in agony and without a guide, wandered a few furlongs out of the 
 road to a stream of water, to which Polystratus, a Macedonian, 
 wearied and heated in the pursuit, accidentally came to quench his 
 thirst. The groans of a dying man that seemed to issue from the 
 carriage awakened his curiosity ; and, on removing the covering, he 
 beheld Darius pierced with darts, and " weltering in his blood/' The 
 dying prince had sufficient strength left to demand some Avater,, 
 which a Persian captive, who attended the Macedonian, understood, 
 and which was given him by Polystratus in his helmet ; the Persian, 
 who, at a distance, had witnessed the cruel conduct of Bessus, 
 at the same time acquainting him with the rank and tragical 
 catastrophe of the personage whom he thus benevolently relieved. 
 
[ 237 ] 
 
 Darius refreshed, amidst the agonies of death, by the cooling draught, 
 embraced the opportunity which Providence seemed to afford him, 
 in having the Persian for his interpreter, to desire that his warmest 
 acknowledgements might, through Polystratus, be tendered to 
 Alexander, for the humane attention which he had shewn to 1 his 
 family ; he implored " heaven to grant him that success which his 
 valour and generosity so highly merited ; and expressed an ardent 
 hope that he would revenge a murdered sovereign on his rebellious 
 subjects. Then, grasping the hand of Polystratus with all the strength 
 that yet remained to him, he entreated of him that he would, in 
 the same manner, grasp the hand of Alexander, as the only humble 
 pledge of genuine and grateful affection in his power to bequeath to 
 the Macedonian monarch*. Having faintly uttered these affecting 
 words, he expired in the arms of Polystratus. A Greek embittered 
 his living, a Greek soothed his dying, moments. Alexander, at that 
 instant, coming up, on beholding the mangled and breathless body 
 of his rival, could not refrain from bursting into a flood of tears. 
 Penetrated with anguish, anguish not, perhaps, untinctured with 
 remorse, he tore the royal mantle from his own shoulders, and 
 spread it over the body of Darius. He then gave orders for its 
 being embalmed, and sent it in a rich coffin, adorned with the 
 most costly robes and embalmed with the richest aromatics, to the 
 disconsolate Sisigambis, to be interred in the mausolea of the Persian 
 kings. 
 
 Such was the melancholy end of the last monarch of the Caianian 
 dynasty, who thus prematurely perished, after a disastrous reign of 
 six years, in the fiftieth year of his age, and in the month 
 Hecatomboeon, (August,) before Christ 330-f. The varying accounts 
 
 * Curtius, lib. v. cap. ult. 
 
 t According to Usher, the first day of this month answers to our 24th of July. Uskcrii 
 Aunal. p. 167. 
 
[ 238 ] 
 
 transmitted down to us of Darius by the Oriental and Greek histo- 
 rians have been already noticed ; and, in fact, they are so utterly 
 contradictory, that there is no possibility of reconciling them in the 
 character of one person. In such turbulent periods, and from people 
 so inveterately hostile to each other, the true portrait of neither the 
 conqueror nor the conquered can, perhaps, be drawn ; nor ought it 
 to be expected. If the Greeks have described the Persian monarch 
 in amiable characters, many of the Orientals, and, in particular, the 
 Indians and Persians, by tradition, depict Alexander in the most 
 odious colours ; representing him as divested of every great and 
 generous quality, and never naming him but as a " most mighty 
 robber and remorseless destroyer of the human race*. 
 
 * Holwell's Interesting Historical Events, part ii. p. 4. Chardin's Voyages en Perse, 
 torn. ii. p. 185. Herbelot, article Escander and Dara. 
 
[ 239 ] 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 ALEXANDER pursues BESSUS into Bactria. Traverses the Northern 
 Asia. Crosses PAROPAMISUS. Conquers the Nations to the 
 West of the INDUS. Passage of the INDUS. Of the HY- 
 DASPES. Battle with PORUS, orPAURAVA; and Subjugation 
 of Western India. The Army mutinies. He erects stupendous 
 Altars, and returns. Voyage down the INDUS. Progress of 
 the Army through GEDROSIA, and of the Fleet up the PERSIAN 
 GULPH. Return to BABYLON. Death of ALEXANDER. 
 Conclusion. 
 
 J-HE mighty projects of Alexander were now approaching to 
 maturity, and Asia bows her head to the hereditary sovereign of the 
 small kingdom of Macedon. Indignation at the unworthy treatment 
 of Darius, and solicitude to revenge the insult offered, in the 
 murder of that prince, by his rebellious subjects, to thrones and 
 the imperial dignity in general, urged Alexander to continue the 
 pursuit of Bessus into the more northern provinces of Asia. This, 
 however, was not done immediately, as the treason of that regicide, 
 and his assumption of the purple, awakened indeed his resentment, 
 but inspired him with no apprehension. He wished to render per- 
 manent the conquests he had recently made, and to prevent the 
 danger of revolt, by striking that terror into the adjoining provinces 
 which his presence with a victorious army so powerfully excited 
 wheresoever he went. Many hardy and valiant nations, also, in 
 that region of Asia, remained to be subjugated; and, therefore, 
 quitting Parthia, the Macedonian army marched into Hyrcania, 
 
[ 240 ] 
 
 where they found, as they had been taught to expect, a vigorous 
 resistance from various resolute and barbarous tribes of warriors, 
 inhabiting that mountainous province and the shores of the Caspian 
 Sea; especially from the predatory race of the Mardi. To this district 
 the Persian troops and Greek mercenaries, who had been faithful- 
 to Darius, under all his misfortunes and defeats, had retired : ho- 
 nourable conditions were now offered to them by Alexander, and 
 accepted *. 
 
 He then marched into and subdued the province of Aria, of 
 which the classical appellative is recognized in Herat, its present 
 capital. Drangiana and Arachosia, the modern Sejestan and Za- 
 blestan, provinces which we have observed were for several ages 
 held by the descendants of the great Rostam, the Hercules of Persia, 
 in a state almost independent of the Persian crown, and border 
 upon India itself, next felt and trembled at the Macedonian power. 
 The Drangae, alluded to above, are called by Arrian Zarangtf, 
 but they were certainly one people ; for, D'Anville has well re- 
 marked -f-, that this diversity in the orthography of the same name 
 is produced by a practice, familiar to the Orientals, of inter- 
 changing the Zain and the Doled. There is no modern Persian 
 name at all corresponding with Drangiana ; but as it will be 
 useful, in our progress through part of Asia, to give, from this 
 author, the modern denomination when the least resemblance can 
 be traced, it may be noticed that the scite of Arachosia is re- 
 cognized in the Oriental name of its present capital, Arrokhage. 
 That a connection and correspondence still subsisted between these 
 Persian satrapies and the frontier provinces of India is evident, 
 from a remarkable circumstance recorded in Arrian, viz. that 
 
 * Arrian, lib. iii. cap. 24. Diod. Sic. lib. xvii. p. 537. 
 -. .. t Aucient Geography, under AslA. 
 
[ 235 ] 
 
 Barzaantes, at that time prince of the country, who had been one of 
 the murderers of Darius, on Alexander's approach, fled for pro- 
 tection into the provinces beyond the river Indus ; with the addi- 
 tional circumstance, that the Indians sent him back to Alexander, 
 who executed the traitor*. This fact is the more deserving of atten- 
 tion, because, if Arrian were rightly informed, it proves that the 
 fame of Alexander had already reached the Indians, who dared not 
 protect even so considerable a person as the prefect of the Arachosians 
 and Drangae. He is afterwards said, by the same author, to havfe 
 proceeded against the Indians in that quarter; but, from pursuing 
 at this time any attempt on India itself, he was prevented, by certain 
 intelligence, that Bessus was growing formidable in Bactriana, had 
 assumed the name of Artaxerxes, and displayed, on his brows, at 
 public entertainments, the diadem of Persia. Nothing can more 
 fully demonstrate Alexander's contempt for the usurper than his 
 advancing so far southward as Aria and Arachosia ; whereas Bessys 
 and Bactriana lay behind him in a quite contrary direction. 
 
 There can scarcely be a doubt that Alexander conceived, during 
 this last expedition, the first idea of penetrating into India beyond 
 the Sinde, as the natives term the Indus. He had observed, 
 perhaps, with admiration, the martial and splendid appearance 
 which they made in his various battles with Darius; the stately, 
 though unwieldy, animals their country produced, and history and 
 common report had informed him of other prodigies, and the im- 
 mense riches in which it abounded. Among the Arians also and the 
 Arachosians, who largely shared the commerce of India, (for, Cabul 
 is the capital of Zablestan,) he might have discovered other con- 
 vincing proofs of the amazing advantages, which, from a firm con- 
 nection and an extended commerce with India, would redound to 
 
 * Arrian, lib. iii. cap. 25, at the close of that chapter. 
 
 Vol. iii. 2 H 
 
[ 236 ] 
 
 the conqueror. This observation is confirmed by an attention to geo- 
 graphical circumstances ; for, thus we read in the excellent little 
 treatise so frequently above referred to : " We may place the large 
 province of SIND next to Segestan, because, though it is generally 
 reckoned a part of India, yet it comprehends both Mocran, the 
 ancient Gedrosia, and Multan, which have been considered as 
 provinces of Persia ; and here we may observe, that the Eastern 
 geographers divide the Indian empire into two parts, which they call 
 HIND and SIND. By Hind, in its strictest sense, they mean the 
 districts on both sides the Ganges ; and, by Sind, the country that 
 lies on each side of the Sindab, or Indus, especially where it dis- 
 charges itself into the ocean. Sind, therefore, including Mocran 
 and Multan, is bounded on the south by the Indian Sea, which 
 embraces it in the form of a bow : it has Hind on the east, and, on 
 the west, Kermau, with part of Segestan, which also bounds it on the 
 north ; but if, with some geographers, we make it comprise even 
 Zablestan and Cabul, its northern limits will extend as far as Cash- 
 mere*." Possibly, also, other causes, resulting from the proximity 
 of the two countries, might have operated towards strengthening 
 his idea of invading India, such as that constantly given by the 
 Asiatics, the withholding from the new monarch the ancient sti- 
 pulated tribute, and Barzaantes himself might possibly not have been 
 given up without menaces. 
 
 It was during Alexander's stay among the Arians and Arachosians, 
 at the close of the present year, that a spirit of mutiny and dis- 
 affection, from the great length of the campaign, began very generally 
 to pervade the Macedonian army. His partial adoption, though 
 extremely politic, of the Persian dress, and his assumption, in some 
 degree, of the manners of the conquered people, so contrary to the 
 
 * Sir William Jones's Description of Asia, p. 8. 
 
[ 237 ] 
 
 rigid severity of the Grecian character, gradually tended to weaken 
 their ancient attachment to him, and even alienate from him the 
 affection of his best friends. Hence various conspiracies were formed 
 against the life of the altered prince ; and, though that imputed to 
 Philotas in particular be involved in not a little mystery and doubt, 
 it is not impossible but that the high, and yet unconquered, spirit of 
 Grecian independence might have justified to itself the elevation 
 of the dagger against the presumed assassin of Grecian liberty. 
 Whether Philotas were innocent or criminal is still a question of 
 deep perplexity ; but no kind of uncertainty whatever hangs over 
 the fate of the aged and venerable Parmenio, whose unjust murder, 
 aggravated by the concomitant circumstances, must ever remain 
 another deep blot on the character of his destroyer. 
 
 On receiving the above information of the public and avowed 
 competition of Bessus for the empire of Asia, the king immediately 
 led his army towards Bactria, and crossed the Paroparnisus, im- 
 properly denominated Caucasus by the Grecian writers, either from 
 national vanity or adulation of Alexander, in the most rigorous 
 season of the year. In crossing it, the army suffered severely from 
 the piercing cold, which, owing to its vast elevation and the accu- 
 mulated snow that falls on its summit during the winter-months, even 
 in that moderate latitude, only 33 north of the equator, is intense. 
 On the descent of that mountain, known to the present inhabitants by 
 the term of Hindoo-Ko, Alexander founded a city, distinguished by 
 ancient geographers as the Paropamisan Alexandria, and of which the 
 name and scite decidedly mark it for the modern Candahar, (a name 
 derived from Escander,) the key of the western provinces of Persia. 
 This city, like Alexandria, has survived amidst the wreck and revo- 
 lutions of the other great cities of the East, and continues, to this day, 
 a fortress of great strength and the capital of a considerable district, 
 known to the ancients by the name of Paropamisus, thus deno- 
 
 2 H2 
 
L 
 
 minated from the vicinity of the mountain. He peopled Alex- 
 andria with about seven thousand Greeks, who were either too infirm 
 from their wounds or from age, to bear longer the fatigues of such 
 an arduous campaign, and, thus disencumbered, pressed on with 
 increased celerity into Bactria. Neither the inclement season, (for, it 
 was still the depth of winter,) nor a country entirely laid in desola- 
 tion by Bessus, to obstruct the progress of the invading army, could 
 check his impetuous career. He directed his first attack against 
 Drapsica, a considerable city in those parts, (now Bamian), which 
 he took, and where he refreshed his army after their sufferings in 
 crossing Paropamisus. He then assailed with success Aornus, a 
 rocky fortress on a mountain of great strength, and, lastly, Bactra, 
 its capita], the modern Balk. Alarmed at these rapid movements 
 of his indefatigable enemy, Bessus, at the head of a great body of 
 Bactrian and Sogdian horse, passed over the Oxus into Sogdiana ; 
 and, after burning all the vessels which he had used in the trans- 
 portation of his forces, fortified himself at Nautaca, a city of Sog- 
 diana, now called Nekshab. This large and fertile province is so 
 denominated from the beautiful valley of Sogd, one of the four 
 paradises of Asia, through the midst of which rolls the noble river 
 CAI, " which branches into a thousand clear streams, that water 
 the gardens and cultivated lands, with which the whole plain is 
 covered*." On its banks stood Maracanda, its capital, the modern 
 Samarcand, a city very celebrated in the annals of Asia and in the 
 page of her enraptured poets. But this delightful and secluded 
 region was now doomed to become the theatre of a war of dreadful 
 devastation ; not indeed between Alexander and Bessus, for the latter 
 was soon overpowered, but between that conqueror and a hardy race 
 of northern warriors, Sogdians and Scythians, reluctant to bear Ma- 
 
 * Sir William Jones's Description of Asia, p. 23. 
 
[ 239 ] 
 
 cedonian tetters ; a race among whom Freedom had taken up her 
 ancient abode, and Virtue delighted to reside. 
 
 Alexander, in his pursuit, arriving at the Oxus, called by the Ori- 
 entals Gihon, that vast river (now lost in the sands) which formed the 
 ancient barrier between the empires of Iran and Turan, was astonished 
 at the magnitude of the river, which was three quarters of a mile in 
 breadth, of proportionable depth, and extremely turbulent and rapid. 
 All the timber in the neighbourhood had been designedly cut down 
 by Bessus, so that there existed no possibility of constructing rafts ; 
 and every fragment of a vessel had been destroyed. Thus cir- 
 cumstanced, the bravest and most experienced generals of his army 
 despaired of prosecuting farther the pursuit of Bessus and the con- 
 quest of Northern Asia. It is on occasions arduous and momentous 
 as these, that true Genius displays the genuine stamp of its celestial 
 descent, and rises superior to the dictates of fear and the pressure of 
 danger. Alexander, after some reflection, having read that the first 
 boats were made of wicker, covered with hides, (as in fact those of 
 the old Britons were,) determined upon trying the experiment ; and 
 ordered all the skins, used by the army for the covering of their tents 
 and baggage, to be stuffed with straw and other light materials, 
 and so strongly sewed together, as to resist the entrance of the 
 water. On these, firmly compacted in the short space of five days, 
 he safely transported his whole army to the opposite banks, and 
 immediately commenced his march for Nautaca, whither he had 
 been informed Bessus had retired. In his Avay thither, he received 
 intelligence, by deserters, that the greater part of the Bactrian horse 
 had left Bessus and dispersed, and, shortly after, heralds arrived from 
 Spitamenes and other Persian officers, most in his confidence, with 
 intelligence that they had risen upon the bloody usurper, had bound 
 him in chains, and were ready, on certain conditions, to surrender 
 him in that state to Alexander. With those conditions the king 
 
[ 240 ] 
 
 readily complied ; and Bessus was brought, manacled in the fetters 
 with which he had insulted his sovereign, to the Macedonian camp. 
 Like a furious savage, unworthy to wear the garb of a man, Spita- 
 menes himself, according to Curtius, led him, stark naked, by a 
 chain that encircled his neck, into the presence of Alexander, 
 who, ordering his nose and ears to be cut off, delivered him over to 
 Oxyartes, the brother of Darius, that, after suffering all the refined 
 Before ciirist, tortures due to his unprovoked cruelty, he might be shot to death 
 with arrows, in the same manner as he had dispatched Darius*. 
 
 Had Alexander's sole object been the capture and punishment of 
 Bessus, now that object was accomplished, he probably would have 
 yielded to the wishes of a harassed army, and have returned to 
 Babylon, or, at least, to Candahar and the provinces adjoining India, 
 the invasion of which country he seems early to have meditated. 
 But it was his intention not to be the nominal sovereign over any 
 part of Asia ; he meant to found his claim to the title of sovereign on 
 actual conquest. Animated by this hope, he determined to march 
 to Maracanda, the capital; and having procured, from the hardy 
 breed of the country, a considerable addition of horses to supply the 
 place of those that had perished in crossing the snows of Paropamisus 
 and at the passage of the Oxus, he now pursued his progress into the 
 heart of Sogdia, and even to the laxartes, (the modern Sihon, or 
 Sir,) that bounds it northward. The same species of vanity that 
 led the Macedonians to term Paropamisus the Caucasus, induced 
 them to denominate this river the Tanais, whereas that river (now 
 the Don) rolls at a great distance to the north, separating Asiatic Scy- 
 thia from Europe. Near the banks of the laxartes, a body of thirty 
 thousand natives having assembled, had greatly annoyed the advanced 
 detachments, and cut off the foraging parties. Elated with this tem- 
 
 * Curtius, lib. vii. cap. 2Q. Anian, lib. iii. cap. 30. 
 
porary success, the barbarians retired to a rocky eminence in the 
 neighbourhood, exceedingly steep and rugged, whence it required 
 no small exertions of Alexander to dislodge them ; a great number of 
 his troops being killed in the difficult ascent and assault, and himself 
 shot through the leg with an arrow, which shattered the fibula, or 
 smaller bone*. This bold but successless effort of the Sogdians and 
 Scythians seemed but as a signal for the revolt of the whole adjoining- 
 country; and, effectually to crush it, it became necessary to besiege 
 and carry by storm no less than seven considerable cities, of which 
 Cyropolis, built by Cyrus, was the strongest, and taken not without 
 a violent conflict, in which Alexander was again wounded. He 
 received intelligence, also, that the dispersed Bactrians, who had 
 followed Bessus, had rallied in great force, with Spitamenes at 
 their head, and were besieging Maracanda. Alexander immediately 
 sent off a strong reinforcement to the Macedonian garrison in that 
 city ; but, having commenced the erection of a strong fortress on 
 the laxartes, for the purpose of overawing the country and prevent- 
 ing a second revolt, as well as for its defence against the future 
 incursions of the Scythians, he would not personally relinquish, till 
 it was finished, so necessary and important an undertaking. But 
 the Scythians, pouring down to the river-side in great bodies of 
 horse, were determined that no fortress should be erected either to 
 repel their incursions or effect the conquest of them. They boasted, 
 (however falsely, as the reader has seen above,) that they were a 
 people hitherto not only unsubdued, but, in ancient times, themselves 
 the conquerors of Asia ; and, with loud and insulting reproaches from 
 the opposite shore, at once derided and defied the Macedonians. 
 They invited the attack, and, relying on their numerous cavalry that 
 lined the shore and covered all the adjacent country, they dared 
 
 * Arrian, lib. iii. cap. ult. 
 
[ 242 ] 
 
 them to cross the river and attempt their subjugation; calling on 
 Alexander by name, and desiring 'that he would forbear to enroll the 
 Scythians among his new subjects, or consider them as of the same 
 dastardly and effeminate character with the nations inhabiting the 
 Southern Asia. 
 
 Irritated to the last degree by these invectives, Alexander having, 
 in twenty days, by the labour of the whole army, completed the 
 Sogdian Alexandria, prepared to cross the river on the kind of floats 
 used at the Oxus. The skins, stuffed as before, with light materials, 
 being expeditiously prepared, the army once more embarked, to the 
 sound of trumpets, on those buoyant machines ; and, at the instant of 
 their embarkation, a torrent of darts and other missile weapons, 
 hurled from the engines, was poured against the foe, who, having 
 formed no conception of the jaculatory strength of those engines, 
 and seeing many of their comrades wounded by them, retired in 
 confusion and dismay to some little distance from the shore. The 
 archers and slingers, also, who advanced in the first line, so inces- 
 santly galled them with showers of stones and arrows, as greatly to 
 check the vigour of their attack upon the phalanx that came next, 
 and the other troops who brought up the rear. By this means, a 
 landing was effected without any serious loss on the part of the 
 Macedonians, and the forces, forming in close order as they arrived, 
 presented a formidable front to the retreating Scythians. Their 
 principal strength consisted in their numerous and excellent cavalry ; 
 and, unfortunately, the first division dispatched against them by 
 Alexander was so far inferior in that respect, that they were quickly 
 surrounded, and would have been cut to pieces, had not the king 
 immediately ordered the whole body of his horse, with all the 
 light-armed troops and the archers, to advance upon them. He 
 himself, at the head of one half of that body, fell on them in flank, 
 while the other half, commanded by Balaorus, attacked them in. 
 
[ 243 ] 
 
 front ; by which skilful manoeuvre the surrounded bands were 
 again at liberty to act, and the enemy, still fighting with undaunted 
 courage, were vigorously assailed on every quarter. In this situation, 
 the contest of barbarian with veteran and disciplined troops, how- 
 ever violent, could not be lasting ; and accordingly, after having a 
 thousand Scythians slain on the spot, and among them Satraces, 
 their general, the remainder sought their safety in that rapid flight 
 for which their excellent horses were so well calculated. The 
 Macedonians pursued ; but, such was the celerity of the retreating 
 foe, that, after suffering severely from the excessive heat and from 
 ardent thirst, (for it was now the height of summer,) they were com- 
 pelled to return in possession of only one hundred and fifty prisoners. 
 A thousand also of the Macedonians, according to Curtius, were, 
 on this occasion, wounded ; and sixty horse and one hundred foot 
 were slain : a number far greater than is recorded to have fallen in 
 the battle of the Granicus*. The boast of the Scythians, therefore, 
 of superior fortitude and experience in war to the inhabitants of 
 Southern Asia was not entirely without foundation ; and Alexander, 
 after this fatal day, seemed to have no inclination for prolonging the 
 war with them, at least for the present. 
 
 I do not mean to accompany Alexander farther through the 
 Northern Asia, though there still remains a vast field to be beaten by 
 the general historian and the geographer. I have attended him 
 thus far principally to give consistency to the character of this inde- 
 fatigable hero, with which I commenced the narration of his asto- 
 nishing exploits in Asia, and, with some farther remarks on which, 
 I shall conclude the history of his Indian campaign. 
 
 During Alexander's abode, or rather migration, in these remote 
 northern regions, there arrived at his camp ambassadors from various 
 
 * Arrian, lib. iv. cap. 4, and Curtius, lib. vii. cap. 9. 
 
 Vol. in. 2 I 
 
[ 244 ] 
 
 nations, attracted by his renown or compelled by motives of terror, 
 to seek his friendship. Among these, Arrian particularly enumerates 
 the Abian Scythians, celebrated by Homer for their inflexible love 
 of justice and their honest poverty; and the Scythians of Europe, 
 who were received with kindness and treated with respect. Thus, 
 by his generosity or his valour, all the circumjacent nations being- 
 brought under the Macedonian yoke, Alexander returned to Sogdia, 
 fully determined, in the ensuing spring, to commence his long- 
 meditated Indian expedition. Maracanda remained still besieged 
 by the Sogdian and other forces under Spitamenes, but, on the 
 approach of the army, that restless chief fled into Bactria, where 
 he was afterwards massacred by his own troops*. 
 
 The lofty, craggy, and scarcely accessible fortress, denominated 
 by classical writers Petra Oxiana, or the Rock of- Oxus, whither a 
 body of thirty thousand Sogdians had retired, with ammunition and 
 provisions sufficient to support them for two years, and in the firm 
 determination of defending it to the last extremity, was the next 
 important object of this campaign. Like many similar fortresses 
 in India, it arose from a broad base to a vast height, and had only 
 one ascent to its summit, by a steep narrow winding path, strongly 
 guarded at proper distances ; the whole rendered still more diffi- 
 cult of approach by the deep snow and ice, (for the winter was now 
 far advanced,) which had incrusted its surface. The Barbarians, 
 from the eminences, insultingly told Alexander that he must not 
 expect to take that fortress without winged soldiers, which so irri- 
 tated him, that he offered a reward of no less than twelve talents to 
 the first man who should gain the summit of the rock, and in pro- 
 portion to others ; appointing three hundred picked men, among 
 those most accustomed to scale walls, to that arduous and hazardous 
 
 * Arriao, lib. iv. cap, 17. 
 
[ 245 ] 
 
 service. After immense toil and the destruction of great numbers, 
 who, in the attempt, were precipitated down the abrupt cliffs, by 
 means of iron pins, used by the army in pitching their tents, forcibly 
 driven into the sides of the rock, and of ropes fastened to them, by 
 which they elevated and supported each other, the greater part of 
 this daring band, in the dead of the night, reached the top ; and, 
 at the break of day, displayed to their delighted comrades the 
 promised signals of success. Alexander immediately summoned the 
 garrison to surrender, shewing them aloft the winged soldiers, who 
 had conquered every difficulty of both art and nature. The asto- 
 nished garrison, ignorant of their numbers and the slender arms they 
 possessed, while their imagination, through terror, greatly magnified 
 both, immediately surrendered to the shouting foe ; and Oxyartes, Befor | 2 J l ' ri * t ' 
 the governor of Bactria, and many grandees of that province, were 
 taken prisoners. But the greatest prize that fell into the victor's 
 hands, on this occasion, was the beautiful Roxana, the daughter of 
 Oxyartes, whom Alexander, deeply smitten with her transcendent 
 charms, afterwards exalted to be the partner of his throne. 
 
 We must pass over, as not sufficiently illustrative of our principal 
 subject, various military occurrences that took place in the course of 
 the present year, the conflicts with the Daha3, the Massagetae, whose 
 names yet survive in the modern Dahistan and the Indian Getes, 
 or Jauts, and other tribes of Barbarians inhabiting the Northern 
 Asia ; the disputable adventure of the Amazonian queen, and the 
 horrid catastrophe that befel Cly tus and Calisthenes ; the former the 
 result of physical, the latter of mental, intoxication. Filled as we 
 must be with high and just indignation at these repeated outrages 
 committed by a character, in other respects so elevated, against 
 decency and virtue, let us still in candor consider the jarring and 
 contradictory accounts delivered down to posterity concerning these 
 disgraceful events and the causes that led to them ; the turbulent 
 
 2 I 2 
 
[ 246 ] 
 
 spirit of the factious Greeks ; the insolence of the veteran soldier ; 
 the arrogance of the unbending philosopher; the spirit of com- 
 petition that pervades a camp, and of jealousies that distract a 
 court. Let it be remembered, that, in requiring the ceremony of 
 prostration in salutation, however abhorrent it might be, from Gre- 
 cian customs and prejudices, Alexander demanded no more than the 
 peformance of an ancient civil custom, a reverential distinction 
 which the kings of Persia had always enjoyed, as the presumed 
 vicegerents of deity, equally the dispensers of its benevolence and its 
 vengeance ; impregnated with a portion of the sacred fire that came 
 down from heaven, and was constantly carried before them in the 
 camp and in the temple. It might have been attended with danger 
 to have, on a sudden, dispensed with a homage thus immemorially 
 paid to them ; a homage which the law prescribed and religion 
 sanctioned. I am far from meaning to become an apologist for the 
 vices of Alexander, but so obscurely and confusedly have many of 
 the leading events in his life been handed down to us by varying 
 biographers, that, where there is room for the mitigation of error in a 
 distinguished personage of antiquity, it is consistent with benevo- 
 lence and justice to attempt it. 
 
 The spring, so impatiently expected, of that auspicious year 
 which was to add India to the conquests of Alexander, at length 
 began to dawn. A seasonable supply of sixteen thousand fresh re- 
 cruits from Greece had also recently arrived ; and the king had pre- 
 viously ordered a body of thirty thousand young men, of the first 
 families, the most brave, the most comely, and in the flower of their 
 age, to be collected from every province of the Persian empire, to be 
 trained in the Macedonian way of fighting, and to attend the army 
 during his absence from his Persian dominions, both as hostages and 
 soldiers. It is also asserted by Plutarch, though the circumstance is 
 not mentioned by Arrian, that, at this period, Alexander, finding his 
 
[ 247 ] 
 
 troops heavily encumbered with their baggage and the rich spoils 
 they had taken in Asia, to which they seemed more cordially at- 
 tached than to his favourite project of the Indian war, ordered all 
 the royal property of that species, to an immense amount, to be 
 brought into a large plain, and then set fire to the pile with his 
 own hands. Afterwards he commanded the baggage and spoils of 
 the whole army to be brought into the same plain, and, promising 
 to compensate their loss after the Indian campaign, ordered each 
 individual to set fire to his own, which, however reluctantly, was 
 obeyed ; since the king himself had submitted to share the lot of 
 the meanest soldier. Curtius has asserted, probably from the same 
 sources with Plutarch, a similar relation, only with the difference of 
 referring the fact to a prior period, that is, during the ardour of the 
 pursuit of Bessus*. 
 
 Thus anxiously impatient the general, and thus happily free from 
 every incumbrance the army which he commanded, the march 
 commenced for India with the first dawn of the infant year. Before Christ, 
 Leaving Bactria, Alexander returned to the Paropamisus by the 
 same route which he had taken in his pursuit of Bessus, and again 
 crossing that mountain, in ten days reached Alexandria, which 
 he had with so much judgement erected as a grand dep6t of arms, 
 and for the purpose of facilitating his intended expedition. Its 
 situation, also, on the confines of India, Persia, and Bactria, might 
 have recommended it as a proper place for an emporium of that 
 extended commerce which was an object ever uppermost in his 
 mind. Having displaced the governor for misconduct, and appointed 
 another on whom he could place the firmest confidence, he ad- 
 vanced by a north-east route to the Cophenes, a river that formed 
 the boundary of the province to which Paropamisus gave its name, 
 
 * Plutarch in Vita Alexand. Curtius, lib. vi. cap. 0. 
 
 327- 
 
[ 248 ] 
 
 and, in D'Anville's Geography, is recognized in the Cots:. Hence, 
 Hephaestion and Perdiccas were sent on before with a considerable 
 detachment, to scour the country and prepare the bridge of boats 
 which would be necessary for the transportation of the army across 
 the Indus. Alexander, with the main body of the army, advanced 
 in the north-east direction towards the territories of a considerable 
 Indian nation, called the Aspii. In his progress thither, he passed 
 two other rivers, the Choe and Euaspla, and subdued the petty 
 tribes that inhabited their banks. In the vigorous opposition of the 
 Aspii, he had a specimen of the formidable resistance which he was 
 afterwards to meet with from their countrymen beyond the Indus ; 
 for, this brave people, setting fire to their principal city, which they 
 despaired of defending, resolutely opposed his army on the moun- 
 tains and the plain, nor gave over the conflict till their general was 
 slain, and forty thousand men lay dead on the field of battle*. 
 After this hard-fought contest, Alexander marched through the terri- 
 tories of the Guraei, who, terrified at the fate of the Aspii, readily 
 submitted. He here found great difficulty in crossing the river of 
 the same name, which was very rapid and dangerous ; and is, in fact, 
 the modern Attack, a word which implies forbidden ; for, the great 
 Indian law-giver fixed this stream as the ancient boundary of the 
 empire, and forbade it to be passed. TheGuraei inhabited the country 
 of Gazna, the celebrated empire formerly of Mahmud, and, in later 
 times, of Timur Shah. 
 
 The next considerable nation, subdued on the west of the Indus, 
 were the Assaceni, answering, in the modern geography of India, to 
 Ash-Nagar. The A ssaceni, finding resistance on the open plains of 
 no effect against invaders so well disciplined in the science of war, 
 pursued a conduct exactly the reverse of that pursued by the Aspii ; 
 
 * Arrian, lib. iv. cap. 25. 
 
[ 249 ] 
 
 they entirely deserted the open country, and fled for protection 
 within the walls of Massaga, their principal city, of which, already 
 strongly fortified, they laboured to increase the security by addi- 
 tional works. Massaga was washed towards the east by a rapid 
 river, whose precipitous banks forbade access on that quarter. It 
 was sheltered towards the west and south by rocks of prodigious 
 height, with deep ravines at their base, and round the eastern 
 limits extended a fosse of great breadth. A wall of vast height and 
 thickness surrounded the whole. On attentively viewing the for- 
 tifications, Alexander saw its reduction would be a work of great 
 labour, and to him there seemed no more certain method of effect- 
 ing it than by wholly filling up the fosse, and planting his en- 
 gines of attack on the ground elevated artificially thereon to such 
 a height as would command the town. This minutely particular 
 account of Massaga is taken principally from Quintus Curtius*. 
 Arrian, however, records the siege and capture of this strongly-for- 
 tified city as one of the most difficult and prolonged of any in the 
 Indian expedition, and, on that account, I have paid more than 
 usual attention to the relation of this writer, ever to be suspected 
 where an opportunity for eloquent exaggeration occurs. On a nearer 
 inspection of the fortifications for this purpose, the king was wounded 
 in the leg by an arrow, shot from the wall, which put him to such 
 exquisite torture that he could not avoid exclaiming, " While I am 
 hailed as a deity and the son of Jupiter, the agony of this wound too 
 plainly demonstrates to me that I am still but a mortal !" Notwith- 
 standing that agony, however, he would not retire to his tent till he 
 had given all the necessary orders for filling up the ditch with the 
 wreck of demolished edifices that formed the suburbs, with fallen 
 trees of great magnitude and with massy stones and dirt, collected 
 
 * Curtius, lib. vi. cap. 10. 
 
[ 250 ] 
 
 together in great heaps, and thrown in for the purpose. That 
 arduous task was immediately undertaken, and, by the united efforts 
 of the troops, was accomplished in nine days, during which Alex- 
 ander recovered of his wound. The king of the Assaceni was 
 recently dead, and the queen-mother, by name Cleophes, had taken 
 into her pay, for the better defence of the city, seven thousand stout 
 Indians from the interior districts, (a proof, that, in those as well as 
 in later periods, the war-tribe of India let out its services for hire,) 
 and these seemed determined to. fulfil the duty of faithful merce- 
 naries. The besieged, astonished as they were at the new species of 
 military engine brought against them, and that from a quarter which 
 they conceived utterly inaccessible, yet exerted themselves vigo- 
 rously in repelling the assault, and stood firm at their posts amidst 
 the torrent of darts, arrows, and other missile weapons, hurled from 
 the towers, which did infinite execution among them. For four 
 successive days did Alexander ineffectually bring his engines against 
 the walls, and, though a breach had been early made in them, yet, 
 from the united skill and valour of the enemy, they attempted in 
 vain to take it by storm, and the trumpets sounded more than once 
 that retreat which was so unusual and so degrading to Macedonian 
 soldiers. In ancient as in modern times, the death of the com- 
 mander-in-chief, in Indian warfare, has ever been the forerunner 
 of the defeat of his troops, and thus it happened at Massaga; for, 
 while their general survived, the mercenaries were invincible ; but 
 the chief, on this occasion, being slain by an arrow, and the greater 
 part of the troops themselves wounded or exhausted by incessant 
 fatigue, they at length surrendered on honourable conditions ; the 
 queen herself, issuing forth from the gates, at the head of a train of 
 noble females, all bearing golden goblets, full of wine, by way of 
 oblation to Alexander as a god. The queen, according to Curtius, 
 was equally beautiful and brave, and presented her infant son to 
 
[ 251 ] 
 
 Alexander with so much attractive grace, that another son was, 
 afterwards, the result of that meeting, who bore the name of Alex- 
 ander, and became the head of the tribe of SULTANI, (so called 
 from Sultan Escander Zul Carnein, his Asiatic appellation,) who 
 are said, by Abul Fazil, to have flourished down to his time, and 
 scrupulously to have preserved the genealogical records of their 
 illustrious descent*. With respect to the resolute band of soldiers 
 that remained after the capitulation, Alexander offered to take them 
 into his own pay, and enroll them among the Macedonians, to 
 which they at first readily consented ; but, afterwards, reflecting how 
 deeply dishonourable it would be for Indians to fight against 
 Indians, they formed a secret plan to march off in a body by night 
 to their own country. On the discovery of that plan by Alexander, 
 they were surrounded by his army, and cut to pieces before they 
 could effectuate their escape. Plutarch brands this act as a scan- 
 dalous breach of faith in the king, but I think with great injustice ; 
 since their return must have spread a general alarm through the 
 country, and the result might have been fatal to his views -J*. 
 
 Alexander, reserving to himself the main body of his army for the 
 subjugation of the greater cities and more formidable tribes, dispatched 
 detachments, under various commanders, for the reduction of those 
 of inferior note. Among these were the neighbouring cities of Ora 
 and Bazira : against the former were sent Attalus and other generals ; 
 and against the latter Ccenus : but neither of these officers was at 
 first successful in his attack, and the king was obliged to bring 
 succours in person before they could be reduced. Of these two, 
 Bazira was by far the strongest and most difficult to be subdued ; 
 for it was the capital of a small district, known by situation, and the 
 remarkable correspondence of its name, to be the modern province 
 
 * See Ayeen Akbery, vol. ii. p. 194. f Plutarch in Vit. Alexaml. 
 
 Vol. in. 2 K 
 
[ 252 ] 
 
 ofBijore ; a province exceedingly rugged and mountainous, and in- 
 habited by a fierce and warlike tribe. The Bazireans, by no means 
 intimidated at the fate of the Assaceni, defended themselves against 
 the troops under Coenus with obstinate bravery, rushing down from 
 the heights on which their city stood, and demolishing the works 
 attempted to be raised against it. As no hopes were entertained by 
 Alexander of the speedy surrender of that city by such a martial 
 race, and it was become necessary first to reduce Ora, into which 
 Abissarus, a powerful Indian prince in those quarters, had thrown a 
 considerable body of mercenary soldiers, Coenus had orders to erect a 
 fort opposite the gates of the city, and, leaving a strong garrison in it, 
 for the purpose of checking the impetuous sallies of the enemy, to 
 join himself with the remainder of his forces. Ora, which had 
 defied Attains, soon yielded to the superior might of Alexander. 
 The rampart, intended to surround it, being at length finished, and 
 escape impossible, the inhabitants were summoned to deliver up the 
 city. On their refusal, the walls were scaled, and, the place being 
 taken by storm, every soul within it perished. In Ora were found 
 many elephants, which were of great use to Alexander, who was 
 now constantly opposed in battle by that formidable train of animals. 
 The citizens of Bazira, in the mean time, were not inactive ; but, 
 despising the small number of troops left to overawe them, made 
 frequent excursions into the open country. In one of these excur- 
 sions, they were pursued and attacked with great fury by the garri- 
 son, who killed five hundred of them, took seventy prisoners, and 
 beat the rest back again into the city. And now Alexander himself, 
 with the main army, bearing certain destruction to all opposers, 
 rapidly approached. Before his arrival, however, having heard of 
 the miserable fate of Ora, in which they read their own, if conquered, 
 and mistrustful of the strength of the fortifications of the city against 
 the terrible Macedonian engines of war, the Bazireans contrived to 
 
[ 253 ] 
 
 baffle the vigilance of the garrison, and, at the dead of the night, 
 issuing forth on the side less closely blockaded, fled to a stupendous 
 rock adjoining, named Aornus. To the same rock, as to an impreg- 
 nable bulwark, and the lofty castle erected on its almost insuperable 
 summit, from every surrounding district already had flocked, in in- 
 numerable multitudes, all those brave Indians who yet felt the ardent 
 throb for liberty and independence, and disdained the fetters of a 
 new and sanguinary foe, that had spread desolation through their 
 whole frontier. 
 
 This celebrated rock, according to the nearest calculation of 
 modern geography, is situated about fifty-five German miles north- 
 east from Peishore, and eighty-five from Cabul ; and D'Anville has 
 satisfactorily recognized its ancient name in the Indian appellative of 
 Renas. According to Arrian, the circumference of its base is two 
 hundred furlongs, or nearly twenty-five English miles ; its altitude, 
 where lowest, is eleven : but that description is indefinite, and leaves 
 too much to the operations of imagination. Formed like the Petra 
 Sogdiana, before described, and many others at this day used as 
 places of secure defence by the Indian rajahs, it rose from this 
 broad base, in a direction nearly perpendicular, to its very summit, 
 which was a wide and fertile plain, presenting the appearance of an 
 immense cone, and to that summit there was only one steep, rugged, 
 winding, path, cut out by human toil. The deep and rapid Suvat, 
 a branch of the Indus, foamed at its foot on one side, and together 
 with the steep and craggy banks, which confined the struggling cur- 
 rent, prohibited all attack. On the other side, deep cavities, ar- 
 tificially sunk, like yawning abysses, threatened to ingulph who- 
 soever had the temerity to approach it. Near the top gushed forth 
 a beautiful spring of the purest water, which flowed plentifully down 
 the rock ; its sides were clothed with lofty and dark woods, and as 
 
 2 K 2 
 
[ 254 ] 
 
 much arable land was cultivated upon its summit as would furnish 
 provisions for a thousand men. 
 
 Alexander, on finding Bazira deserted, immediately pursued the 
 fugitives to Aornus, and nothing could equal his astonishment on 
 beholding its vast elevation and great natural strength, except the 
 ardour of his resolve to become the master of it. Besides, every 
 secret spring of glory and emulation was awakened afresh in his soul 
 on the contemplation of that renowned fortress ; for, either tradition, 
 or Greek adulation, had circulated a report, that Hercules, on his 
 invasion of India, was baffled in every attempt to make himself 
 master of this rock. This story may possibly have been founded on 
 some military exploits carried on in these regions by Rostam, the Per- 
 sian, or Rama, the Indian, Hercules, during the conquests that ren- 
 dered them so famous in their respective countries. Fired with the 
 hope of succeeding where Hercules himself had failed, Alexander was 
 determined to take Aornus, or perish before it. He, therefore, or- 
 dered the most active preparations to be immediately commenced 
 for a regular siege; but, knowing that these and the siege itself 
 would take up much time, he, in the interim, employed that part of 
 the army, which was not thus engaged, in more permanently se- 
 curing the countries which he had left behind, as well as in adding 
 to his conquests a city in those parts, called Ecbolina, which ca- 
 pitulated without much opposition. The preparations for the attack 
 upon Aornus being completed, and the cavities that rendered it in- 
 accessible on one side being filled up, in the same manner as the 
 fosse of Massaga, by felling the timber of an adjacent forest, he 
 selected thirty young men, the bravest and most alert among those 
 who formed his body-guard, as leaders of the determined band, 
 which had orders to make the first attempt at scaling the rock. 
 The king seemed to his officers so ardent in the affair, that they 
 
[ 255 ] 
 
 united their requests that he would not engage personally in an 
 attack, which would, probably, be attended with inevitable destruc- 
 tion to the first assailants. The instant, however, the trumpets 
 sounded, as a signal for that attack, Alexander flew like lightning 
 to the spot, and, bidding his valiant guards follow their sovereign's 
 steps, began laboriously to climb the rock. The whole army, ani- 
 mated by his example, in a transport of enthusiasm, encouraging 
 one another with shouts and songs, pressed eagerly forward to the 
 steep ascent, and every instrument used in escalade was diligently em- 
 ployed to facilitate their progress. That diligence, however, was, in 
 the first instance, utterly fruitless ; for, the besieged rolled down upon 
 them, from above, stones of a vast magnitude, rendered irresistible by 
 the velocity of their descent, which bore them violently back again, 
 and, while some fell, dreadfully bruised and mangled, to the ground, 
 others were precipitated into the Suvat, where they were ingulphed. 
 This novel mode of fighting, added to this resolute opposition, struck 
 no dismay into the mind of Alexander, nor annihilated the hopes he 
 had formed of finally reducing Aornus. Deriving only additional 
 vigour from the increase of danger, the army redoubled its efforts to 
 ascend the rock ; but, from its steepness and the smoothness of its 
 surface, they could gain no firm hold nor footing ; while the hard- 
 ness of its substance resisted, like adamant, the edge of the tools 
 with which they in vain endeavoured to pierce its sides and fix the 
 scaling-ladders. Still, however, they undauntedly persevered. Again 
 and again baffled, they as repeatedly renewed their attacks ; but 
 Alexander, seeing no prospect of success by open assault, and being 
 filled with commiseration for the brave men, who were perishing in 
 multitudes around him, at length ordered a retreat to be sounded. 
 A close and prolonged blockade might be productive of famine 
 among the innumerable throng who had shut themselves up in the 
 
[ 256 ] 
 
 castle of Aornus ; and famine would do the work of destruction more 
 rapidly than all the warlike engines of Alexander. 
 
 That blockade, therefore, for which ample preparations had been 
 already made, now commenced with vigour. The former lines of 
 investment were contracted, the ramparts strengthened, the wooden 
 towers advanced close to the rock, and on them other works were 
 constructed, which brought them still nearer the besieged. While 
 these things were going on, an old man, who had long passed the life 
 of a hermit, in a cavern of the rock, came to Alexander, and offered, 
 for a considerable reward, to guide a small band of soldiers, by a 
 secret path, to the plain on the summit, where they might conceal 
 themselves in the wood that grew there till they could be reinforced 
 by others. The terms demanded were immediately agreed to, and 
 Ptolemy, the son of Lagus, with a detachment of light-armed sol- 
 diers was sent with him, receiving orders, when they should reach the 
 summit, strongly to intrench themselves in that wood, and display on 
 high a burning torch, as the signal of their success. With immense toil 
 and hazard, Ptolemy successfully reached the top, displayed the 
 signal, and intrenched himself till the treacherous Indian conducted 
 others to the same spot. These carried the farther command of 
 Alexander to Ptolemy, that the following day, when he should again 
 storm the rock by the ordinary path of ascent, the troops with him 
 should rush with fury on the rear of the astonished enemy. The 
 command was punctually obeyed ; but so great was the number of 
 the enemy and so ardent their courage, that, though they saw 
 themselves betrayed, and attacked at once both in front and rear, 
 they manifested neither confusion nor terror, but vigorously repelled 
 the attack of each party, again driving the Macedonians, who en- 
 gaged them from below, down the rugged precipices, and com- 
 pelling Ptolemy to retreat for security to his intrenchment, which 
 
[ 257 ] 
 
 was constructed with too much military skill to be easily forced by 
 barbarian prowess. Thus victorious, the besieged made the rock 
 resound with acclamations of triumph, and mingled the scoff of 
 derision with the extravagancies of mirth. Alexander, equally 
 enraged and surprised at this two-fold discomfiture, determined 
 to advance his works still higher up the rock, cutting down more 
 trees, filling up more interstices, and erecting, of earth and stone, an 
 enormous counter-agger, whose height he intended should, in time, 
 rival that of Aornus. In the mean time, the Indians affected to 
 behold these uncommon efforts of a great general with contempt, 
 and continued for two days and nights their Bacchanalian revels. 
 On the third night, the noise of the cymbals ceased, and the rock 
 appeared, through its whole extent, illuminated with torches, which 
 the king observing, instantly conjectured the enemy were attempting 
 an escape from the rock; and, as more than enough of Macedonian 
 blood had been shed at Aornus, he felt no inclination to obstruct 
 their purpose. On the contrary, he withdrew his forces from the 
 blockaded avenues, that they might have a free passage ; but, in 
 revenge of their obstinacy and insults, the instant they had descend- 
 ed, he directed his forces to pursue the fugitives, and cut to pieces as 
 many as they could overtake. Alexander now took possession of 
 the deserted rock ; offered magnificent sacrifices upon it, and erected 
 altars to Minerva and Victory. He then placed a strong garrison in 
 it, and consigned the charge of that important station to Sisicottus, 
 an Indian chief, on whose attachment and fidelity he knew he 
 might depend. The above account of the siege and capture of 
 Aornus is what we find in Arrian and Curtius, whose relations, in 
 this as in many other cases, are not easily to be reconciled ; but as 
 the latter probably composed his work from materials to which 
 Arrian might not have access, however guilty he may be of frequent 
 
[ 258 ] 
 
 exaggeration, his florid narration is not wholly undeserving of atten- 
 tion*. 
 
 After the capture of Aornus, Alexander marched, in a north-east 
 direction, to Pucela, or Peucelaotis, the capital of a province, known 
 in Indian geography, as detailed in the Ayeen Akbery, by the name 
 ofPuhkely, to which the Greek term UevxeXaurif corresponds as nearly 
 as the idiom of the two languages would admit of. The province is 
 situated among the western sources of the Indus, and the city itself 
 is washed by the main stream of the Sinde. Hither, as was before 
 observed, Hephaestion and Perdiccas had been dispatched, on the 
 commencement of the march from Paropamisus, to provide a 
 bridge of boats, and make other preparations for crossing the Indus 
 at this point. Here he found those generals engaged in the siege of 
 this capital, which had employed their whole force, during thirty 
 days ; but, on the king's arrival, it surrendered ; and the princes of 
 the country, which had not yet submitted, now hastened to pay their 
 homage to Alexander, and be enrolled among his allies and friends. 
 Among these, the earliest and the most distinguished for riches and 
 power, was Taxiles, sovereign of the whole country extending be- 
 tween the Sinde and the Hydaspes, who not only brought from 
 beyond the Sinde very handsome presents in money, elephants, and 
 provision, but was also actively serviceable in promoting and securing 
 the future conquests of Alexander. 
 
 The bridge of boats was already prepared ; but this being not 
 deemed the properest point for the easy and secure transportation of 
 the forces, Alexander sent forward the heavy-armed troops and the 
 gross of the army to a place on the Sinde, sixteen days march 
 distant below that position. At this place the mountainous range of 
 
 * Arrian, lib. iv. cap. 30, and Curtius, lib. viii. cap. 11. 
 
[ 259 ] 
 
 country terminated, and the level plain of the Panjab commenced, 
 so much better adapted to the purpose of crossing on a bridge 
 of boats than where the stream flowed turbulent on a rapid descent*. 
 With the light-armed troops he himself marched back into the 
 territories of the Assaceni, where he was informed the brother of the 
 late king had revolted, and, with a great body of barbarians, had fled 
 to the mountains. Alexander, however, anxious to penetrate into 
 the interior of India, did not think proper to pursue him to this re- 
 treat ; and employed his troops, with the assistance of the natives, in 
 catching the elephants which abound in that province, and are taken 
 by the natives with singular dexterity, for the purpose of acting 
 against the numerous train of those animals, which he expected would 
 be opposed to him by the princes reigning beyond the eastern shore 
 of the Indus. It seems to have been during this second expedition to 
 the Assaceni and Cophenes, or Cow-River, which bounded their ter- 
 ritories on the west, that Alexander paid his memorable visit to the 
 city of Nysa, denominated Dionysopolis, in Ptolemy, from the tra- 
 dition of its having been founded by Dionysius, or Bacchus, in his 
 invasion of India, and known, in Sanscreet, by the resembling appel- 
 lation of Naishada-\-. Concerning that invasion, and the curious 
 fragment of both Indian and Greek history that regards Nysa, as 
 well as its supposed founder, and the adjacent mountain Meros, 
 (the Meru, or north-pole, of the Brahmins,) the reader has already, 
 in the former part of this work, been presented with very circum- 
 stantial details, and every thing added in this place would be 
 tautology, except that, on taking possession of the city and the moun- 
 tain, the triumphant host resigned itself, for six days together, to the 
 transports of impetuous joy and the extravagance of Bacchanalian 
 
 * See Kennel's Memoir, p. 121. t Sir William Jones in Asiatic Researches, vol. i. p. 259, 
 
 Vol. in. 2 L 
 
[ 260 ] 
 
 revels*. After this imprudent, and, in fact, scarcely credible, re- 
 laxation in a hostile country, Alexander, induced either by curiosity 
 or vanity to navigate the Indus, returned to that river, and, finding 
 near its banks a thick wood, ordered sufficient timber to be cut 
 down for the construction of rafts, to carry down himself and the 
 troops with him to that more convenient point of transportation 
 where Hephaestion and Perdiccas had prepared the bridge of boats, 
 and whither the main body of the army had marched some time 
 before from Peucelaotis. On their safe arrival there, the em- 
 May, barkation took place; and, so excellently had every previous mea- 
 
 Beforc Christ, 
 
 sure been arranged, the transportation of the whole army was effect- 
 ed, equally without loss and without opposition. 
 
 In the Indian Antiquities, whatever concerns the geography of 
 this part of India, as well as most things that have relation to the 
 religion and the singular manners and customs of this ancient and 
 secluded race, have been extensively discussed. The narration, 
 therefore, of the farther progress of Alexander into the interior of 
 India, will flow on uninterruptedly, except in those cases where 
 information, more recently obtained, may render occasional addition 
 necessary. 
 
 The great river, properly called the Indus, is formed, according to 
 the most accurate geographer of India, of ten principal streams 
 descending from the Persian and Tartarian mountains, of which 
 Alexander had previously crossed the Cophenes, the Choaspes, and 
 the other branches on the west of the Sinde. Five more, rushing 
 down on the eastern side of the Sinde, and giving to that country 
 the name of Punjab, were yet to be crossed ere he could complete 
 the original intention of reaching the distant Ganges. They were 
 to be crossed too at a season when the periodical rains, already 
 
 * Arrian, lib. v. cap. 2. Curtius, lib. viii. cap. 10. 
 
[ 261 ] 
 
 commenced in the northern mountains, had swollen them to an 
 uncommon magnitude, and greatly increased their rapidity. The 
 Sincle, as we are informed from Sauscreet authority, in its early 
 course was anciently called NILAB, or the Blue River, from the 
 dark hue of its waters ; and this native appellation, added to the 
 crocodiles and the Egyptian beans that grew on its banks, will, in 
 some degree, account for the strange mistake of Alexander, that he 
 had discovered the sources of the Nile in this region of Northern 
 India. Indian traditions mention, also, a city of the same name, 
 situated near the present Attock, which a variety of circumstances 
 combines to prove must have stood on or near the scite of the 
 ancient Taxila, and to have been the point at which Alexander 
 effected the transportation of his army ; because the same geographer 
 observes, " this appears to have been, in all ages, the pass on the 
 Indus leading from the countries of Cabul and Candahar into 
 India*;" which induced the politic Akber, in after-ages, to build, 
 on this spot, the castle of Attock, commanding that passage. 
 
 The total number of forces which this first invader, from so remote 
 a western clime, landed on the eastern banks of the Indus, is stated 
 by Curtius to have amounted to one hundred and twenty thousand 
 men-f-; a statement which must be supposed to include the thirty 
 thousand Persian youths whom he had caused to be trained up 
 in the Macedonian discipline, and constantly carried with him in his 
 army, partly to serve as hostages and partly to act as soldiers. 
 On the safe debarkation of the troops on the opposite shore, Alex- 
 ander's first care, as usual, was to offer solemn sacrifices to the gods ; 
 after which he exhibited gymnastic sports, according to the ancient 
 custom of the Greeks. The importance of the friendship of his new 
 
 * Kennel's Memoir, p. 92. t Curtius, lib. viii. cap. 4. 
 
 2 L 2 
 
[ 262 ] 
 
 ally, Taxiles, (called Omphis by Curtius, with the addition of a 
 story not confirmed by any thing in Arrian,) now became evident ; 
 for, he not only refreshed his army during thirty days in his rich 
 and flourishing capital of Taxila, but experienced from his liberality 
 a repetition of such presents as would be most useful to him in 
 passing the probably hostile countries beyond the Hydaspes. He 
 also personally joined his army with a body of seven hundred horse 
 and five thousand foot, besides thirty elephants ; and to this step he 
 was induced not less by the. friendship which he had conceived for 
 Alexander, than the rooted antipathy which he is said to have 
 harboured against two rival princes, his neighbours, named by the 
 Greeks Abissares and Porus, whose dominions lay beyond the river 
 that bounded his dominion eastward. Abissares, however, by far the 
 weakest of the two, hastened to make his peace with his now for- 
 midable enemy, while Alexander yet abode at Taxila, and his sub- 
 mission was benignantly received ; the ambassadors sent by him 
 being treated with respect, and the presents transmitted honoured with 
 the return of others. Another chieftain, also, named by the Greeks 
 Doxareas, and said to have reigned in these districts, made submissive 
 tenders to Alexander, and added considerable presents to purchase 
 his favour and protection. But Porus, or as, on Sanscreet authority, we 
 should more correctly denominate him, PAURAVA, sovereign of the 
 region beyond the Hjdaspes, resolutely refused tamely to yield up to 
 a foreign invader the independance of his warlike nation and the 
 throne of his illustrious progenitors. To the heralds sent to demand 
 the payment of tribute, in proof of his obedience, and that he 
 Avould meet the Macedonian conqueror on the confines of his 
 dominion, the high-minded monarch exclaimed, " that he ac- 
 knowledged no victor, and would transmit no tribute ; that, indeed, 
 he would meet Alexander on his frontier, but that it should not be 
 as a suppliant or as a vassal ; it should be in arms, in arms, 
 
[ 263 ] 
 
 the most proper mode of deciding the rights of contending 
 kings*!" 
 
 Alexander, rather delighted at the spirit than alarmed by the 
 menace of this reply, lost no time in accepting the challenge of the 
 Indian monarch. Having, therefore, placed a Macedonian garrison 
 in the castle of Taxila, and appointed Philip to be the governor of it, 
 he moved forwards towards the Hydaspes, in Sanscreet called Be- 
 dusta, and, in the modern geography of India, the Chelum ; being 
 the first of the five rivers that give name to the province. Coenus, 
 one of the generals most in his favour, had been previously com- 
 missioned to transport, on carriages, the vessels, of which the bridge 
 of boats had been composed, from the Indus to the Hydaspes ; those 
 vessels having been so contrived as easily to be taken to pieces ; the 
 smaller vessels in two parts, and those of thirty oars in three. The 
 space between Taxila and that river, a distance of one hundred and 
 twenty English miles, was passed with a celerity proportioned to the 
 impatience of the Macedonian hero to combat a prince, the con- 
 quest of whom, he conceived, would secure to him the uncontrolled 
 dominion of the Indian empire ; and, on his arrival at its banks, the 
 formidable appearance of Porus, at the head of a numerous and 
 well-disciplined army, strengthened with avast train of elephants of 
 uncommon magnitude, that lined the shore to a great extent, was 
 well calculated to justify that conception. The fact, however, is, 
 and every retrospect on either the Classical or Sanscreet History of 
 India tends to establish it, that, at this aera, a system, very much re- 
 sembling the feudal government of ancient Europe, prevailed over 
 the whole region of India; that it contained a number of petty 
 kingdoms governed by distinct sovereigns, independent of each 
 other, but, by the constitution of the government, subordinate to the 
 
 * Curtius, lib. viii. cap, 13. 
 
[ 264 ] 
 
 supreme Maha-Raja, whose residence was either at Canouge or 
 Palibothra, (Patna,) on the Ganges. Ferishta's Indian History, in- 
 deed, of this period, records Poor, or Foor, to be of the imperial 
 dynasty of Delhi, in consonance with our former supposition that 
 Hindostan was anciently divided into two great empires, situated on 
 or near the two great rivers that wash their country, the Indus and 
 the Ganges ; but, from the entire silence of the Greeks on the subject 
 of so celebrated a capital, affirmed, too, to have been built by the 
 father of this very Foor, and the occurrence of no name in the least 
 resembling Delhi or any of its ancient synonyms, the statement of 
 the Persian historian is probably unfounded. The reigning mo- 
 narch on the Ganges, we are now certain, was CHANDRAGUPTA, 
 the Sandra-Coitus, or Cotta, of the Greeks, to whom Megasthenes 
 was afterwards sent ambassador by Seleucus, and who, as we have 
 seen above, had daringly usurped the throne after the murder of 
 the pious Rajah Nanda. It is unfortunate that more ample ma- 
 terials have not hitherto arrived from India for composing the do- 
 mestic history of this period, in defect of which we are compelled 
 to return to the farther consideration of what has descended to us 
 from classical writers concerning this invasion of the Panjab by 
 Alexander. 
 
 According to them, the proper dominion of Porus extended no 
 farther than the district confined by the Hydaspes on the western, 
 and by the Acesines on the eastern, quarter. Strabo represents it as 
 extensive, opulent, and containing nearly three hundred cities*; 
 but many of these reported cities were probably mere villages, since 
 the whole extent of the tract, thus described, does not exceed, 
 according to modern admeasurement, forty miles in width and a 
 hundred and fifty in length. The Hydaspes, or Chelum, is stated to 
 
 * Strabo, lib. xv. p. 603. 
 
[ 265 ] 
 
 have been four furlongs, or nearly half an English mile, in width ; 
 proportionably deep, and exceedingly turbid and impetuous, from 
 the same cause that rendered the main stream of the Indus so dan- 
 gerous to the army, the floods, occasioned equally by the rains and 
 the melted snows, rushing down from the mountains in still more ac- 
 cumulated torrents; for, it was now the height of the summer solstice. 
 It was in no place fordable ; and, added to this, the white surges, 
 that every where broke furiously upon its ruffled surface, proved that 
 the river rolled on a bed of rock and massy stones ; threatening those 
 who should attempt to cross it, in barks of such slight fabric as those 
 used at the Indus, with inevitable destruction. From this formidable 
 foe, the Macedonians turned their eyes to another still more me- 
 nacing, an army of thirty thousand foot, seven thousand horse, three 
 hundred armed chariots, and two hundred elephants, drawn up in 
 dreadful array of battle, resolved resolutely to dispute their landing, 
 should they be able to effect a safe passage over that rapid stream. 
 This army, too, was by no means composed of men enervated and 
 spiritless, like their Persian foes ; they were a hardy and fearless race, 
 tall in stature, and of a robust make ; a race, trained from their in- 
 fancy to war under an intrepid monarch. A train of selected 
 elephants, of the largest size, sumptuously arrayed in all the gor- 
 geous trappings of Eastern magnificence, in appearance like so 
 many lofty towers, stood ranged along the banks, prepared with 
 their ponderous feet either to trample down the assailing host, or 
 dash them to pieces with their enormous probosces. Porus him- 
 self, mounted on the most majestic of those animals, and as well in 
 stature as in valour and wisdom exceeding the subjects he com- 
 manded, shone above all, conspicuous by the glittering of his golden 
 armour and the chains of precious stones suspended from his neck, 
 or sparkling in the plumes of his tiara. 
 
 The stake on either side was great, and the efforts of the con- 
 
[ 266 ] 
 
 tending princes were proportionate to its magnitude. In fortitude 
 and ardour of glory they were equal : in military talents Porus was 
 inferior; but it was only to Atexander. The former trusted for 
 success to heroic valour and physical strength ; the latter plainly 
 perceived, that, in this instance, at least, he could conquer only by 
 judicious manoeuvre. 
 
 The two armies, thus arranged in view of each other on the op- 
 posite shores of the Hydaspes, had full leisure to weigh and deter- 
 mine on the plans of attack and defence which they meant 
 respectively to pursue. An attempt to pass a river so impetuous, 
 and effect a landing on a shore so steep and so well defended, in 
 open day, seemed to Alexander a hopeless task. It was only under 
 the cover of night, and in the confusion attendant on darkness, that 
 such an attempt was at all likely to prove successful ; at the same 
 time the king's great experience in the art of war, added to the 
 desire of preserving the lives of soldiers, so valuable and so necessary 
 to his future views, in a country where every rood of ground would 
 probably be disputed, taught him that the place of his encampment 
 was not the exact spot from which it should be made. But though 
 not proper for the real attempt, a feigned effort might be made there 
 with advantage, to cover and assist other efforts made elsewhere. 
 Fortunately for the accomplishment of this latter design, about one 
 hundred and fifty stadia, or nineteen miles, below that part of the 
 river where the channel takes a mighty sweep, there projected from 
 the shore a rocky promontory, overgrown with wood ; and, in a line 
 with this promontory, in the middle of the river, stood an uninhabited 
 island, also thickly interspersed with trees, in whose deep umbrage 
 the army, after landing, might lie concealed from the view of the 
 enemy. Having accurately surveyed this spot and formed his reso- 
 lution, Alexander returned to his camp. And now, in execution of 
 his concerted scheme, night after night, the trumpets were sounded, 
 
[ 267 ] 
 
 and the shouts, as of cavalry attempting to ford the river in the face 
 of the enemy, were every where heard, and not only kept the 
 enemy in a perpetual state of alarm and suspense, but exhausted 
 them by incessant vigils. Porus perceiving, at length, that these, 
 were only feints intended to deceive and harass him, ceased to pay 
 an} r particular attention to these nightly alarms ; yet still he relaxed 
 not from the general vigilance which should pervade a well-ordered 
 camp. The Indian monarch being, by this stratagem, lulled into a 
 kind of partial security, Alexander proceeded to the accomplishment 
 of his project. He selected, for the purpose, a strong body of 
 cavalry, in which he knew the inferiority of his enemy, together 
 with the foreign mercenaries and some light-armed battalions, best 
 calculated to act with the celerity and vigour requisite on this occa- 
 sion. Craterus was left on the spot in command of the remaining 
 cavalry, the Macedonian phalanx and the Indian auxiliaries under 
 Taxiles, with orders to continue at night the usual noises, but not to 
 move till he himself, by engaging the enemy on the opposite shore, 
 had drawn off the elephants that lined it, in which case, the cavalry 
 and the whole remainder of the army were immediately, and at 
 every hazard, to force the passage. 
 
 Alexander having taken these precautions, and ordered the impe- 
 rial tent, conspicuous from its loftiness and splendor, to remain 
 standing, surrounded with his guards, as if he himself were still 
 present, marched off, at the dusk of eve, by a circuitous route at 
 some distance from the bank, to the rocky eminence in question. 
 When arrived at about nine miles, or half the distance from the 
 camp to the rock, he stationed there Meleager, Attains, and Gorgias, 
 with the foreign mercenaries, ordering them the instant, that, on the 
 following morning, they observed the hostile armies on the opposite 
 side in motion, they should embark in the vessels, which, silently 
 gliding under cover of the night, had attended their progress down 
 
 Vol. in. 2 M 
 
[ 268 ] 
 
 the stream, and join him. The king himself, with the troops 
 accompanying him, having arrived safely at the rock, lost no time in 
 crossing over to the island on rafts and vessels, which had been 
 previously brought to the rock, and put together in its concealing 
 woods. While they were thus employed, there fell a tremendous 
 storm of thunder and lightning, with torrents of rain, sufficient to 
 terrify and obstruct the progress of any soldiers but those of Alex- 
 ander. Those determined warriors, so far from being dismayed by 
 the conflicting elements, heard with joy the dreadful solstitial 
 thunders which concealed from the ears of the enemy the rattling of 
 their armour and the dashing of the oars. Alexander himself, 
 with Ptolemy, Perdiccas, Lysimachus, Seleucus, and others, his 
 most experienced generals and beloved friends, braved the storm in 
 a vessel of thirty banks of oars, and landed in safety on the island 
 just as the day which was to decide the fate of Porus began to dawn ; 
 at which period the roar of the thunder ceased and the tempestuous 
 sky became suddenly serene. The island was rapidly traversed by 
 the army, and the vessels, coming round to the opposite side, again 
 received the troops, and landed them in the face of the advanced 
 guard of Porus, which instantly galloped off at full speed to acquaint 
 the Indian sovereign of the approach of the enemy in that un- 
 expected quarter. As the corps of infantry successively arrived, and 
 the horse landed out of the boats in which they had been ferried 
 over, on the eastern shore of the Hydaspes, Alexander, who, still 
 foremost in every station of more imminent danger, had first ascend- 
 ed the bank, in person attended to form the debarking troops, and 
 draw them up in order of battle. When the whole number, amount- 
 ing to six thousand foot and five thousand horse, was completely 
 landed, he placed himself at their head, and marched forward in 
 quest of the foe. It unfortunately happened, however, and was 
 speedily discovered, that they had, from their ignorance of the 
 
[ 269 ] 
 
 country, disembarked on a part of the shore, so separated by a deep 
 stream formed by the violence of the floods from the main land, that 
 it appeared like another island. So high had risen the waters 
 which filled it, they had the utmost difficulty in finding any place 
 fordable either for the cavalry or infantry. At length, however, 
 they waded through it ; the former, with the water reaching up to 
 the necks of their horses ; the latter, buried breast-high in the waves. 
 Again formed in order of battle, and with equal celerity by the king 
 himself, as the troops successively ascended the bank, the horse, with 
 Alexander at their head, pressed on with rapidity to meet the foe ; 
 the foot being ordered to follow them leisurely, that their strength 
 might not be exhausted before they could get into action ; an 
 action, which, from every appearance, would be, in an extreme 
 degree, obstinate and bloody. 
 
 In the mean time, the advanced guard of the enemy, arriving at 
 the camp of Porus, spread the alarm of Alexander's attempt to pass 
 the river near their post ; but the cautious Indian monarch, either 
 not believing their report or considering this as one of those in- 
 genious feints by which he had been so often imposed upon, con- 
 tented himself with sending his sou, at the head of two thousand 
 horse and one hundred and twenty armed chariots, to prevent his 
 landing. On approaching that part of the river, the young prince 
 was not a little astonished to find a landing already effected, and a 
 considerable detachment of the Macedonian army advancing to 
 give him battle ; for, Alexander retained the main body of the horse 
 with him for the greater and more decisive contest which he saw 
 must soon take place between himself and Porus, and he repressed 
 their ardour to engage, in order to give the infantry time to join him. 
 To this line of conduct he was induced by the supposition that 
 Porus, with his whole army, was following close in the rear of his 
 son's detachment; but being undeceived in that respect by the 
 
 2 M 2 
 
[ 270 ] 
 
 parties sent out to reconnoitre, he determined to strike terror by an 
 act of necessary rigour; and, rushing with his whole force upon the 
 unsupported foe, cut the greater part of them lo pieces ; while the 
 whole of the chariots, unable to proceed through the swampy 
 ground, inundated by the torrents of rain that had fallen in the 
 night, became the easy spoil of the victor. The troops, that escaped 
 the undistinguishing slaughter of that day, fled back to the Hydaspes, 
 and bore to the unhappy monarch the disastrous tidings of his routed 
 forces, and of his son slain while bravely fighting at the head of his 
 detachment. 
 
 Porus, who, during the whole of Alexander's absence from his 
 camp, had been unusually harassed Avith the clamorous din of the 
 Macedonians and pretended preparations for passing the river, was 
 for some time in the deepest perplexity, whether he should wait the 
 threatening or seek the advancing foe. His magnanimity and valour 
 led him to prefer the latter of these alternatives; and, therefore, 
 leaving on the spot a certain proportion of his elephants and his army, 
 to awe and keep in check the Macedonians on the opposite shore, 
 he immediately led from their encampment an army consisting of 
 thirty thousand foot, four thousand horse, three hundred chariots, 
 and two hundred elephants, to dispute the palm of glory with the 
 conqueror of Darius. " The mighty Foor," says Ferishta, " issued 
 from Sirhind, with an army numerous as the locusts, against the 
 great Secander*." That this vast host, especially the elephants and 
 the chariots, might act without obstruction, a wide and even plain, 
 with a surface of firm sand, was judiciously sought for, and fortu- 
 nately found. Here the intrepid Indian drew up his army in the fol- 
 lowing order : The elephants were ranged in the front of all, at the 
 distance of one hundred feet from each other, forming a line of vast 
 
 * Ferishta's Indian History, vol. i. p. 180. 
 
 
[ 271 ] 
 
 extent, and terrible to behold ! Behind this presumed impregnable 
 bulwark were placed the numerous battalions of infantry, that, when 
 the goaded elephants had commenced the work of havoc and de- 
 struction, the former might rush impetuously on, and complete the 
 dreadful tragedy. Such were the maxims of Indian warfare, which, 
 in ancient times, placed its principal dependance on the number and 
 vigour of this species of animal brought into the field. The horse 
 he divided into two bodies, which he constituted the wings of his 
 army ; before which he placed the chariots, most probably them- 
 selves armed with scythes and other offensive weapons, but certainly 
 crowded with those who were dexterous in the use of the bow and 
 skilled in hurling the javelin. 
 
 The Indian order of battle was scarcely thus completely arranged, 
 when Alexander, at the head of his cavalry, arrived in sight. As it 
 was in horse that he was by far superior to Porus, he was determined 
 that they should bear the chief burthen of the action. His infantry 
 was not yet come up, and he had full leisure, therefore, as well to 
 reconnoitre the ground as to examine every point of the position 
 taken by the enemy, who confided principally on the order of battle 
 which he had adopted, and who seemed to await the attack in all that 
 dreadful serenity, which, in the physical world, often precedes the 
 most violent tempests. The infantry, which had pressed on with 
 uncommon eagerness, that they might share in the glory of this 
 memorable day, at length arrived ; and, it being necessary that they 
 should take some rest and refreshment before they could engage in 
 fight, Alexander so completely surrounded them with his horse, as to 
 shield them from any danger of attack, which, however, seemed the 
 last thing the enemy had in contemplation. That portion of the 
 army having recovered from its fatigue, he formed of it his centre, 
 heading himself the right wing, and appointing Ccenus to the com- 
 mand of the left, both consisting of cavalry. The Macedonian 
 
[ 272 ] 
 
 horses, though during their engagements with Darius not wholly 
 estranged to elephants, yet never approached that animal with- 
 out reluctance and terror, and as it was upon this part of his 
 army, and his knowledge of this circumstance, that Porus prin- 
 cipally relied for success, Alexander determined to avoid them 
 altogether; and, while Coenus with his division wheeled round to 
 attack the enemy's right wing, the king fell furiously upon their left ; 
 having previously ordered Seleucus, with the foot, to remain sta- 
 tionary till he saw that confusion in the army of the enemy which 
 his measures were calculated to produce. The Indian horse, ac- 
 customed as they were to conquer on Indian plains, for a long time 
 resisted valiantly the superior numbers and impetuous attack of the 
 Macedonian ; but, being overcome at length by the masterly ma- 
 noeuvres and correct discipline of their assailants, were driven from 
 their station ; and, by that means, left the infantry, whose flank they 
 had covered, exposed to their fury. While, therefore, they were 
 thus assailed in flank and rear by Alexander and Coenus, the Mace- 
 donian infantry advanced with rapidity, and, with their long pikes 
 and lances, attacked both the elephants and their drivers ; at the 
 same time that the equestrian archers, in number a thousand, 
 whom Alexander had purposely selected to attend this expedition, 
 overwhelmed those who fought in the chariots, as well as the horses 
 that drew them, with showers of arrows and javelins. The enraged 
 elephants, almost frantic with the pain they endured, rushed for- 
 wards on the Macedonians with irresistible impetuosity, breaking 
 through the embodied phalanx, and trampling multitudes to death. 
 The Indian horse, observing this check given to the enemy's in- 
 fantry by the elephants, quickly rallied again, and made repeated 
 and vigorous attacks upon Alexander and Coenus : but those com- 
 manders, having now united their formidable squadrons, repulsed 
 them with great slaughter, and compelled them to seek protection 
 
[ 273 ] 
 
 among the elephants, which, after all, proved very little ; for, the 
 drivers of those animals being for the most part slain, and themselves 
 covered with wounds, carried havoc and destruction with un- 
 distinguishing fury through every part of the field, and proved 
 equally fatal to friends as foes. The Indian horse and infantry, 
 therefore, whom they were principally intended to shield, being 
 crowded together in a confined compass around them, suffered more 
 severely from them than from the Macedonians themselves. The 
 latter, less straitened for room, every where opened their ranks to let 
 them pass, and escaped the danger. As to those of that unwieldy 
 tribe that were more mischievously furious, and still remained on 
 the field, the Greeks, at the risk of their lives, approaching them 
 with axes, clove asunder the sinews of their legs ; and, with long 
 and sharp instruments, curved like scythes, which they had pre- 
 pared beforehand, cut off their trunks, and thus rendered impotent 
 their savage ferocity. 
 
 The Indians, though surrounded by perils from every quarter, 
 on one side trodden down by the elephants and on the other 
 slaughtered by the Macedonians, yet disdained to yield to inferior 
 numbers the palm of victory, and, for a long time, fought, especially 
 the horse, with all that heroic bravery which distinguished their 
 countrymen at Arbela, when the Indian cavalry pierced through 
 the centre of Alexander's line, and plundered the Macedonian 
 baggage. Amidst this mutual and eager contest for glory, Craterus, 
 attentive to the orders of the king to pass the river, when he should 
 see him engaged with Porus, with little obstruction effected a landing 
 on the eastern shore of the Hydaspes at the head of the remainder of 
 the army, which, impatient for action and unexhausted by fatigue, 
 hurried to the field of battle, and, falling on the Indians, em- 
 barrassed by their situation and weakened by their exertions, com- 
 pleted the rout which had already partially began. The tumult and 
 
[ 274 ] 
 
 confusion that now took place cannot be conceived or described : 
 the wounded elephants, without riders, raging through the field, and 
 spreading dismay and death wherever they came ; horses and men 
 tolled over each other on the bloody plain, and struggling in the 
 agonies of death ; the crash of chariots, the shouts of the victor, and 
 the shrieks of the expiring. Those, that had an opportunity, sought, 
 safety in precipitate flight, but by far the greater part of that vast 
 army was cut to pieces ; the numbers killed that day, on the side of 
 Porus, amounting, according to Arrian, to near twenty thousand 
 infantry and three thousand horse ; with the loss of all the chariots 
 and elephants ! The loss on the side of Alexander was very low in 
 proportion, but still higher than in any battle with Darius, being 
 eighty of the infantry and two hundred and thirty of the cavalry *. 
 Diodorus, with greater probability, states that loss to have been seven 
 hundred infantry : in the number of cavalry slain he agrees with our 
 author -J-. 
 
 With respect to the Indian monarch himself, he was con- 
 spicuously seen, during the whole of the engagement, mounted on 
 an elephant of uncommon magnitude and courage, issuing orders to 
 his generals with the utmost coolness, and exposing himself, with 
 the most daring intrepidity, in whatever quarter the rage of battle 
 was most violent. Foiled in one part of the field, Porus and the 
 veteran bands that ever attended and guarded his person, renewed 
 the contest with fiercer fury in another. While a troop could be 
 kept together, or a battalion rallied, Porus was at the head of that 
 troop and of that battalion. Majestic in person and on a majestic 
 animal, he was the admiration of every eye, and, at the same time, 
 the object of every hostile dart. But his coat of mail was of excellent 
 fabrication, and of a texture so firm, that the arrow and the javelin 
 
 * Arrian, lib. v. cap. 18. t Died. Sic. lib. xvii. p. 469. 
 
[ 275 ] 
 
 fell equally shattered to the ground. At length a dart, from some 
 unknown hand, struck him on the only part where his armour could 
 be penetrated, the compages that thinly guarded the right shoulder; 
 and the wounded monarch, anxiously looking round, and observing 
 himself, of all his mighty host, almost the only survivor amidst a 
 waste of death, ordered the driver of his elephant to conduct him 
 from the fatal field, strewed with his most beloved friends and sub- 
 jects. Alexander, extremely solicitous to preserve the life of so 
 brave a man, dispatched Taxiles after him, ordering him to use 
 every argument to induce him to surrender himself; assuring him 
 of such a reception from his conqueror as a valiant man and a great 
 prince merited. On the approach, however, of Taxiles, his ancient 
 foe, the indignant monarch launched a javelin which had nearly 
 transfixed him ; calling him aloud a traitor to his country and a 
 pusillanimous deserter of the rights of kings. Undiscouraged by this 
 rude repulse, Alexander immediately sent other messengers to recall 
 the flying prince, and, among others, Meroe, his bosom-friend, who 
 at length succeeded in effecting his return. Having thus determined 
 to submit himself to the generosity of Alexander, he caused his ele- 
 phant to be stopped ; and, the docile animal kneeling down, he was 
 assisted to descend from it by his attendants, and had the wound, 
 which proved not to be dangerous, dressed. He then suffered him- 
 self to be conducted by Meroe towards the tent of Alexander. 
 On his approaching the royal pavillion, Alexander, with his friends, 
 advanced to meet him, and pausing, as he drew nearer him, was 
 forcibly impressed with the grandeur and nobleness of his appear- 
 ance ; for, he was five cubits, or above seven foot, in height, yet 
 exactly proportioned, and of a majestic, yet pleasing, countenance. 
 The relation of what passed at this conference would fill a very 
 interesting page of history, but I have no room for the detail ; and 
 having now exhibited Alexander triumphant over his most powerful 
 Vol. in. 2 N 
 
[ 276 ] 
 
 Indian foe, though by no means, as is generally understood, the 
 supreme sovereign of India, I find myself compelled to hasten 
 to the conclusion of a work, which has already exceeded every 
 prudent limit. The result was, that Alexander, equally won by his 
 talents and his valour, ever afterwards numbered Porus among his in- 
 timate friends, and not only honourably replaced him on the throne 
 of his ancestors, but added many extensive provinces to his former 
 empire. Alexander, after this, performed magnificent obsequies to 
 the manes of those brave men who had perished in the engagement ; 
 offered the most costly sacrifices to the gods ; and solemnized the 
 athletic and equestrian games usual among the Greeks, on the 
 banks of the Hydaspes. In memory, also, of this important victory, 
 the king erected two cities, one on the spot where the battle was 
 fought, which he thence called NICVEA; the other on the scite of 
 his camp on the western bank of the Hydaspes, where his favourite 
 horse Bucephalus, which he had broke in, when a youth, at the 
 hazard of his life, which had attended him in all his campaigns, 
 and shared every danger with his affectionate master, died, according 
 to Arrian, at the advanced age of nearly thirty years*. But this must 
 certainly be a mistake ; for, at that rate of computation, Bucephalus 
 would have been a year older than Alexander himself, who is said 
 to have broken him in, when nobody else could accomplish the 
 arduous task, at the age of sixteen years ; and it is not credible 
 that a horse, for which Philip, as Plutarch informs us, paid thirteen 
 talents, (or 2500 1. sterling,) could be worth that sum when the 
 prime of his youth Avas so long past-)-. The age of Bucephalus, 
 however, even according to this mode of calculation, must have been 
 considerable, and his memory was intended to be perpetuated in the 
 name of Bucephala, conferred on the city built on the spot where 
 
 * Arrian, lib. v. cap. 18. t Plutarch in Vita Alexand. 
 
[ 277 ] 
 
 his death took place. Modern geography enumerates no city near 
 that spot at all corresponding to either of these Greek appel- 
 latives. 
 
 After staying a short time to refresh his army in the kingdom of 
 Porus, Alexander marched, with a considerable part of his army, 
 into the adjacent territory of the Glausae, situated north-east of that 
 kingdom ; and in this march we find a striking proof of the astonish- 
 ing wealth and population of India, when undisturbed by foreign in- 
 vasion, and its inhabitants are left to be cherished and protected by 
 their own mild laws and the liberal spirit of their native princes ; 
 for, those territories are said by Arrian to have contained thirty- 
 seven large cities, many of them having ten thousand inhabitants, 
 with a vast number of villages, proportionably populous. These 
 were taken possession of without the least resistance from the peace- 
 able inhabitants ; (for, how should a race, absorbed in agriculture 
 and commerce, cope with the armed veterans of Greece ?) and the 
 sovereignty of the whole region conferred on Porus. Abissares, 
 also, king of a northern tribe of mountaineers, called in the language 
 of modern India Gehkers, or Kakares*, an ally of Porus, sent 
 ambassadors, offering ample presents of elephants and money, and 
 the unconditional surrender of his kingdom. The king, perhaps 
 mistrustful of his real intentions, commanded that Abissares should 
 attend him in person, or he should pay him a visit in his native 
 mountains. On the mountains in the neighbourhood of the Hy- 
 daspes were lofty woods, which Alexander ordered to be cut down, 
 and, of the timber, a great number of vessels to be formed, with 
 which it was his intention, on his return, to sail down the Indus into 
 the ocean. The Assaceni, having again revolted, Philip was dis- 
 patched to reduce them, and Craterus being appointed to super- 
 
 * Kennel's Memoir, p. 93. 
 
 2 N 2 
 
[.278 ] 
 
 intend the erection of the two cities which he had ordered to be 
 built, as well as the fleet preparing^ Alexander advanced to the 
 Acesines, or modern Jenaub, the next river of the Panjab. Before 
 he commenced his march, however, he took an opportunity of 
 reconciling to each other the princes Taxiles and Porus ; granting 
 the former permission to return to his hereditary domain, and giving 
 the latter the most solemn pledges of lasting friendship. 
 
 Broad, turbulent, and rapid, as was the Hydaspes, the Acesines is 
 represented to have exceeded that river in all these points ; its 
 breadth being fifteen furlongs, or nearly two miles ; whereas that of 
 the Hydaspes was only four furlongs, or about half a mile over ; and 
 its surface, in particular, being wrought into such violent agitation 
 by the numerous and prominent rocks which every where choaked 
 up the channel, that the waters of it seemed to boil, and threaten 
 immediately to ingulph whomsoever a fatal temerity might lead to 
 attempt the passage. But the Macedonian army, which had already 
 triumphantly crossed so many rivers and mountains, disdained to 
 have its progress impeded by the terrific appearance of the Acesines, 
 and, partly on the vessels brought from the Hydaspes and partly 
 on skins stuffed as before, were ferried over the formidable stream. 
 Many of the vessels, however, struck against the prominent rocks in 
 the river, and were dashed to pieces; but the floats, formed of 
 lighter materials, rebounded uninjured, and deposited their burthen 
 safely on the opposite shore. Of the country on the eastern side of 
 the Acesines, a second Porus is said to have been the sovereign. 
 This Porus, too, was at enmity with the first conquered of that 
 name ; and, led by his antipathy to that Porus, had, previously to the 
 battle of Nicaea, sent ambassadors with the offer of his kingdom, 
 and a voluntary surrender of his army, to subjugate his rival. The 
 moment, however, he learned that Alexander had obtained a signal 
 victory over his antagonist, had admitted him to his friendship, 
 
[ 2?9 ] 
 
 had again placed the crown upon his head, and had greatly in- 
 creased his power for offensive operation, by the addition of a large 
 adjoining territory, the wary, but dastardly, Indian, conceiving 
 himself doomed to be the victim, fled from his dominions, at the 
 head of all the brave young men capable of bearing arms, whose 
 business it should have been, and whose inclination it probably was, 
 to defend them against an invader. In the eager pursuit of him, 
 Alexander arrived on the banks of the Hydraotes,or modern Rauvee, 
 the third river of the Panjab; and, having hence dispatched He- 
 phaestion and Coenus completely to scour and reduce the whole 
 country, he also added to the kingdom of his friend Porus these 
 dominions of his ungenerous enemy. 
 
 The passage of the Hydraotes, or Rauvee, is not mentioned by 
 Arrian as having been attended with any peculiar circumstances 
 of danger or difficulty; and it is Major Rennet's opinion, confirmed 
 by many strong local considerations, that Alexander crossed this 
 river " near the place where the city of Lahore now stands*." 
 Arrived on its eastern banks, he found a most formidable enemy 
 prepared to dispute his farther progress through the Panjab, in three 
 great confederated tribes, the Cathaei, the Malli, and the Oxydracae, 
 concerning whom it is necessary to state some particulars supplied by 
 the laborious diligence of the respectable geographer just cited. 
 By the Cathaei, or Catheri, as Diodorus writes the word, he contends 
 is meant the Kattri, or war-tribe of India, a supposition which their 
 martial character justifies. Their capital of Sarigala he places in a 
 direction south-west of Lahore, at the distance of a three days' 
 inarch, and consequently so far out of the direct line of Alexander's 
 route to the Ganges. This south-western progress of the army led 
 the Macedonians near the confines of the province of Multan, and 
 
 * Memoir, p. 93. 
 
[ 280 ] 
 
 therefore the Malli must necessarily mean the people of Multan, 
 or Malli-sthan, the region of the Malli. The district of Outch is 
 not far distant, and the Greeks, fond of softening the Indian words 
 by any resembling term expressive of the physical appearance of 
 the people, called these people Oxydracae, from their sharp sighted- 
 ness*. Against these three tribes of warlike Indians, whose union of 
 numbers and courage rendered them, in a high degree, formidable, 
 Alexander thought it prudent to lead the concentrated force of a 
 Grecian army. 
 
 These people, Arrian informs us, had already resisted, on a former 
 occasion, the combined armies of Porus and Abissares, and the city 
 of Sangala, to which they had now retired, was strong by na- 
 ture, and rendered still stronger by all the skill in fortification 
 known to a barbarous people. It seems to have been situated on one 
 of those eminences, though not of the loftiest kind, with which this 
 part of Asia abounds, and on the summit of which the Indians de- 
 light to erect their laboured forts. An extensive lake secured it 
 from assault on one quarter, and on all others it was defended by 
 high walls, flanked with strong bastions. Before the gates of this 
 city, the three great tribes above-mentioned, combining their strength 
 against the common foe, had encamped, and intrenched themselves 
 within the centre of a range of carriages, strongly fastened together, 
 and drawn round them, as an impregnable rampart, in three circular 
 lines of considerable depth. Mounting on the carriages that formed 
 the outermost of these lines, they perpetually darted thence their 
 missive weapons, and, with their unerring javelins, struck with death 
 all that came within a certain distance. As the city lay immediately 
 behind them, it was their intention, if unsuccessful in this mode of 
 defensive combat, to retreat within its walls, and defend it to the last 
 
 * Sir W. Jones in Asiatic Researches, vol. i. p. 2. 
 
[ 281 ] 
 
 extremity ; all which circumstances prove the proud spirit and obsti- 
 nate valour of these northern Indians, when their independence and 
 every thing dear to freemen were attacked by unprovoked ag- 
 gression. Alexander, ho w ever, was greatly irritated by this ap- 
 pearance of determined opposition, which threw such immediate 
 obstruction in the way of his project of advancing to the Ganges, 
 and, taking a near view of both their intrenched lines and their 
 fortified city, saw that the reduction of these tribes would occasion 
 him a considerable loss of time as well as of men. To delay, how- 
 ever, the attack, was only to give new strength and courage to the 
 enemy ; he, therefore, immediately, with his whole force, attacked 
 the first line of their intrenchment, which, though very bravely 
 defended by the Indians, was too weak to resist the fury of the 
 Macedonian phalanx ; who, rushing forward through a storm of 
 darts, drove away the defenders, and broke to pieces the carriages. 
 The second line was constructed with greater skill, was stronger, 
 deeper, and still more valiantly defended. It was carried, however, 
 after the loss of a great many lives on both sides, and preparations 
 were making tor attacking the innermost, when the enemy, justly 
 dreading the event, deserted their camp, and retired within the walls 
 of their capital. Alexander immediately began to invest the city 
 with his troops, but found he had not a body of foot sufficient 
 with him completely to surround the vast extent of its walls ; 
 and, therefore, made his cavalry, on this occasion, do the duty of 
 infantry : at the same time he advanced his works close to the 
 ramparts and to the very edge of the lake. On the borders of that 
 lake he stationed also large parties of horse, to prevent every 
 possibility of escape by the enemy, on whom he meditated a severer 
 punishment than their brave opposition merited. Sensible of the 
 hazard of delay to his future schemes of aggrandizement and 
 glory, the king now hurried on the siege with unremitting vigour ; 
 
[ 282 ] 
 
 the battering engines shook the walls above, and the miners sapped 
 their foundations below. Alarmed at length by these violent and 
 terrific movements, and seeing the utter impossibility of maintaining 
 an equal contest with troops so well disciplined in the science of 
 war, the Cathasans and their allies began to think of securing their 
 present safety by flight; trusting, if that could be effected, that 
 they should be able, by other modes of offensive operation, to 
 harass his troops and retard his farther progress on Indian ground. 
 The lake that partly environed their city was, in some places, 
 fordable ; by this way, therefore, they hoped to effect their escape 
 into the adjacent country ; and, in consequence, at the dead of 
 night, throwing open the gates in that quarter, the whole body of 
 the besieged attempted to force a passage through the surrounding 
 enemy. This they would in all probability have effected, had only 
 the ordinary guard been on duty there; but Alexander, having 
 cause to suspect their intention, had that very evening strengthened 
 the force on that station by a numerous squadron of horse, giving 
 orders to Ptolemy Lagos, who commanded that squadron, that, 
 the instant any such attempt should be made, all the trumpets 
 should sound to arms, when he himself, with the whole army not 
 immediately occupied in the defence of the lines, would repair to 
 the spot. Alexander had given orders that additional redoubts 
 should be thrown upon the side nearest the lake, and that the 
 roads should be blocked up by the carriages taken from the enemy 
 in the late engagement, laid across them, to obstruct the progress 
 of those who might escape the vigilance of the troops. These 
 orders were all punctually executed, and the fugitive troops found 
 that they had no sooner escaped the danger of being ingulphed in 
 the lake, than they were surrounded by great bodies of cavalry, to 
 whom resistance was unavailing, and who slaughtered them without 
 mercy. The first ranks being thus unexpectedly cut off, and the 
 
[ 283 ] 
 
 whole army, roused by the clangor of the trumpets, being in 
 motion to oppose their flight, the rest hurried precipitately back 
 into the city, resolved either by one desperate effort to raise the siege 
 or sell their lives in this last extremity as dear as possible. Each 
 party now, returning to the contest, fought with redoubled fury ; 
 but the miners, being at length successful in sapping the walls, a 
 breach was made in them, through which the Macedonians poured 
 with an impetuosity that bore down all opposition. Others, apply r 
 ing the scaling-ladders, mounted the wall in places where no breach 
 was effected, on which and the bastions a desperate conflict was 
 for a long time sustained ; but perseverance on the part of the 
 besiegers rendered them finally triumphant. The works being thus 
 carried by storm, and the city in possession of the Greeks, a 
 dreadful and undistinguishing massacre commenced, and Sangala 
 was deluged with the blood of its unfortunate citizens. When about 
 seventeen thousand Indians were put to death, Alexander ordered 
 the slaughter to cease, and the rest, to the enormous amount of 
 seventy thousand, who had pressed into that city, were taken pri- 
 soners, together with a vast booty, including three hundred chariots 
 of war and five hundred horse. The loss of the Macedonians, 
 killed at this important siege, was comparatively small, not exceed- 
 ing one hundred men ; but the number of wounded was greater than 
 on any former occasion, for Arrian states it at twelve hundred, 
 among Avhom were Lysimachus and other commanders of the first 
 distinction for talents and valour*. 
 
 * Arrian, lib. v. cap. 25. Curtius, lib. ix. cap. 1. But Curtius gives a very confused and 
 imperfect account of this affair, and mentions not even the name of the city, for which, not- 
 withstanding the marked circumstances of the hill and the lake, no particular scite is assigned 
 in the Modern Geography of India, nor has any corresponding name been found in the 
 Sanscreet Vocabulary. 
 
 Vol. in. 2 O 
 
[ 284 ] 
 
 Sangala thus reduced, Alexander was in hopes that the terror of 
 their punishment would induce the inhabitants of all the adjacent 
 cities to submit, and dispatched Eumenes, with three hundred horse, 
 to inform them of its fate, and to demand the surrender of them- 
 selves and their cities. But Eumenes found those cities a desert ; 
 the inhabitants of that whole district, who had already learned the 
 fate of Sangala, under the impulse of terror and dismay, having 
 precipitately fled, and concealed themselves in the iorests and 
 mountains. Alexander, fearful of a new hydra erecting its head in 
 that region, immediately ordered numerous squadrons of cavalry to 
 scour the country in every direction, and himself also joined warmly 
 in the pursuit: many were overtaken and slain, but they were 
 principally those whose age or infirmities had retarded their flight; 
 the rest escaped : and the king, returning to Sangala, rased it to the 
 foundations, lest it should a second time prove a harbour ibr his 
 enemies. The other cities, reduced in this excursion, as well as the 
 entire region subjugated between the Hydraotes and Hyphasis, he 
 gave to Porus and those tribes of Indians who had voluntarily joined 
 his standard, and then marched back to the point on the Hyphasis, 
 at which he intended to cross that fourth river of the Panjab. 
 Arrian does not notice, but Curtius particularly mentions, as resident 
 in this quarter of India, a nation, remarkable for the superior 
 beauty of their persons, to which great attention was, by the order 
 of the state, paid in their infancy : but not only for their corporeal 
 qualifications are they praised by this writer, he bestows equal 
 commendation on the sublime wisdom of their legislative code 
 and the unsullied purity of their morals. They were governed by a 
 king, named Sophites, who, on Alexander's approach to his capital, 
 had ordered the gates to be closed, and not a soul to appear on the 
 walls, either to repel or to invite the enemy. The Macedonians, in 
 consequence, concluded that this also was a city that had been 
 
[ 285 ] 
 
 deserted by the terrified inhabitants, and were advancing to take 
 possession of it, when, to their great astonishment, the gates were 
 suddenly thrown wide open, and discovered Sophites himself, who, 
 in comeliness, exceeded all his subjects, accompanied by two 
 beautiful youths, his sons, and a long train of nobles, coming forth 
 in procession to meet the victor, and lay at his feet the royal in- 
 signia, formed of the purest gold, and glittering with a profusion of 
 diamonds. The description of the ornaments that decorated this 
 prince is elaborately eloquent, but, what is more to the purpose, it is 
 also correct, and exactly corresponds with the habits worn by the 
 great rajahs of the present day. A long embroidered vest of a purple 
 ground, interwoven with gold, enfolded his elegant form, and 
 descended gracefully down to his feet ; but not so as to conceal his 
 sandals, which were of a rich gold brocade, sprinkled with pearls 
 and rubies. He was splendidly adorned with rich necklaces and 
 bracelets of various coloured stones. Two pendant jewels, of un- 
 common magnitude, and of the purest water, glittered in his ears. 
 His sceptre, of wrought gold, was studded with beryls; and this, 
 with the other insignia, he submissively presented to Alexander; 
 at the same time earnestly soliciting his royal protection for himself, 
 his children, and his subjects*. Alexander received this courteous 
 prince with great benignity, returned to him the insignia of royalty, 
 and, after visiting his capital and refreshing his army there, pursued 
 his march to the Hyphasis. On his way thither, he was met by 
 another prince, whose country bordered on its banks, and whom 
 Diodorus distinguishes by the appellation of Phegeus, but whom 
 Curtius, generally his copyist, terms Phegelas-f-. The subjects of'this 
 prince would willingly have flown to arms, but Phegelas forbade 
 them, and, commanding them peaceably to return to their agri- 
 
 * Curtius, book ix. cap. 1. t Diodorus Siculus, lib. xvii. p. 603. Curtius, in loco citat. 
 
 2 O 2 
 
[ 286 J 
 
 cultural pursuits, set off to meet and appease Alexander with mag- 
 nificent presents. Alexander, who was anxious to leave no enemy 
 behind him unsubdued by arms or kindness, received him with the 
 same affability he had shewn to Sophites, abode two days in his 
 territories, and, on the third, prepared to cross the river. The 
 name of this river, the fourth of the Panjab, was doubtless formed 
 by the Greeks from Beypassa, its ancient Sanscreet appellative in the 
 geography of the Ayeen Akbery. The modern name of Beyah is 
 probably also a contraction of the Sanscreet term. It was not less 
 broad and violent than the Hydraotes, nor the channel less rocky 
 and interrupted. Before he attempted the passage, Alexander in- 
 quired anxiously of Phegelas concerning the distance between his 
 present position and the Ganges, and the military strength and popu- 
 lation of the nations who inhabited the banks of that river. In 
 answer to these inquiries, he was informed, that, when he had 
 crossed the Hyphasis, his direct line of march lay through a 
 dreary desert of eleven days journey, at the end of which he 
 would reach the river in question ; a river, the broadest and deepest 
 in India, and to which all those he had already passed might 
 be considered as rivulets; that its eastern banks were inhabited by 
 two numerous and warlike nations, denominated, from the situation 
 of the one and the capital of the other, Gangarides and Prasii, 
 whose king, by the Greeks called Agrammes, was prepared to meet 
 him on the frontiers of his dominion, with an army far more 
 numerous than any he had yet encountered. The soul of Alex- 
 ander was fired with this intelligence ; every moment seemed lost 
 till he had passed the bounds of that inhospitable desert ; till he 
 had braved the billows of that mighty river ; till he should be able 
 to bring to action that formidable enemy ; and erect the triumphant 
 banners of Macedon on the shore of the ocean that formed the 
 eastern boundary of Asia. 
 
[ 287 ] 
 
 While he was meditating the full accomplishment of these 
 designs, and preparing to lead his harassed soldiers to new hardships, 
 the Avhole camp was filled with seditious murmurings, and re- 
 monstrated with one voice against engaging deeper in projects of so 
 hazardous and precarious an issue. Reduced in their numbers by 
 frequent and long-fought battles, covered with honourable wounds, 
 and crowned, as they imagined, with sufficient glory, they de- 
 manded to be led back into their native country, to share that repose 
 which their long services required, and to spend the remainder of 
 life in the enjoyment of the fortunes which they had so dearly 
 earned. In Porus they had already found a formidable and resolute 
 enemy ; and a report was spread generally throughout the camp, 
 that, beyond the Ganges, a river reported to be a hundred fathoms 
 deep and four miles in breadth*, the kings of the Gangarides and 
 Prasians had assembled an army of eighty thousand horse, two 
 hundred thousand foot, two thousand armed chariots, and three 
 thousand fighting elephants -if. However exaggerated this account 
 might have been, it filled the bravest among them with dismay ; 
 they supposed themselves conducting to slaughter rather than to 
 victory, and many of them loudly exclaimed, that they would not 
 submit to be sacrificed to gratify the boundless ambition of their 
 commander. 
 
 Alexander, who was totally absorbed in his darling project of 
 reaching the Ganges, and thence pressing on to the farthest limits 
 of Asia, on hearing the rumour of these murmurings, was filled with 
 inexpressible anguish, mingled with rage and indignation, to which 
 he dared not, at this momentous crisis, give vent. He was con- 
 vinced, however, that there was no time for hesitation. With that 
 decisive vigour which always characterized the actions of this great 
 
 * Plutarch iu Vila Alexaud. t Curtius, lib. ix. cap. 2. 
 
[ 288 ] 
 
 prince, he immediately ordered a general assembly of the army to 
 be summoned, and, by the most affable and condescending be- 
 haviour, endeavoured to allay the ferment, to tranquillize their 
 minds, and win them over to his purpose. His august presence at 
 once awed them to respectful silence, and his assumed benignity 
 revived all their affection for him ; but still they were inflexible in 
 their purpose of not proceeding beyond the Hyphasis. In a speech 
 of great subtilty and varied eloquence, he touched every chord of 
 passion that strongly vibrates on the human heart. He aimed princi- 
 pally to work upon that high sense of honour which the Greeks ever 
 cherished both individually and nationally; to wake in their minds 
 the dormant spark of expiring ambition ; to provoke the emulation 
 of generous youth, and stimulate the avarice of frozen age. He 
 strove, by recounting all their past glories, to animate them to 
 attempt the acquisition of still nobler and more substantial renown; 
 to exceed the boasted exploits of Hercules and Bacchus ; and reach 
 the limits of the habitable world . He painted, in the most glowing 
 colours, the immense magnitude of the spoil that awaited them 
 beyond the Ganges; kingdoms overflowing with wealth, the ac- 
 cumulated wealth of ages, the concentrated treasures of Asia. 
 He ridiculed the idea of the innumerable force in infantry, in 
 cavalry, and elephants, which the Gangaridae could bring into the 
 field, and with the magnified details of which their enemies aimed 
 to terrify them and arrest their progress. " Have you forgotten," 
 exclaimed this prince, " the still greater armies of Darius ; the 
 uncounted multitudes who perished, oppressed by their own numbers, 
 at Issus and in the defiles of Cilicia; and the myriads, in vain op- 
 posed to Macedonian valour, on the plains of Arbela ? Are the Gan- 
 garidae a braver or hardier race than those whom you conquered on 
 the Bactrian hills ; those who drenched with blood the Sogdian plains ; 
 or those who, in terror of your vengeance, precipitated themselves 
 
[ 289 ] 
 
 down the rocky steeps of Aornus ? Can the number of elephants, 
 however great, alarm Grecian soldiers, after the recent proof, 
 exhibited in the battle with Porus, of their utter inutility in the field, 
 or, rather, of the certain destruction, of which they may be made the 
 terrible instruments, against their own party ? Does the broad, the 
 deep, the rapid, Ganges fill you with dismay ? Have you not, then, 
 in your progress hither, crossed the unfathomable deep itself? Or, is 
 it less safe to pass a wide and majestic river, flowing on with an even, 
 though rapid, course, than an impetuous current, confined by steep 
 banks within a narrow channel, like the Hydaspes; or foaming along, 
 over a rocky bed, like the Acesines? Will you desert a general 
 who has shared all your toils, and braved with you every danger, 
 in the full career of glory ; or, rather, when our triumphant warfare 
 is nearly accomplished ; for, we already verge on the Eastern 
 Ocean, and have nearly reached the point whence the sun pours its 
 first beam on the illumined earth? Behold your prince, who could 
 command your obedience, condescends humbly to solicit your con- 
 currence with his ardent wishes ; and conjures you, by every thing 
 sacred, that you will not rend the palm from him in the moment of 
 victory ; nor suffer the laurel, to whose lustre you have so largely 
 contributed, to be tarnished by an untimely and disgraceful re- 
 treat!" After pausing some moments, and observing both officers 
 and men to remain entirely silent, with their eyes stedfastly fixed 
 on the ground, and absorbed in profound melancholy, Alexander 
 again exclaimed, " Where is that burst of applause that formerly 
 used to follow the addresses of your sovereign ? Where is that loyal 
 zeal for my safety, that unbounded attachment to my person, which 
 led you to contend for the distinction of bearing my wounded body 
 from the field ? Where, at this important moment, are the spirit, 
 the ardour, of Macedonian soldiers ? Return, ungenerous men ! to 
 the inglorious pursuits of peace basely purchased by the sacrifice of 
 
[ 290 ] 
 
 your prince. For, know, that thus far advanced towards the goal, I 
 will not relinquish the dazzling prize. I will march on at the head 
 of the more faithful Scythian and Bactrian forces in my train, and 
 lead them triumphantly over the rivers which you dread, and against 
 the armies and elephants which fill you with so much horror. 
 Those despised barbarians shall hereafter be the braver comrades of 
 Alexander. Return, ungenerous men ! and tell astonished, tell in- 
 dignant, Greece, that you have left your king surrounded with 
 dangers, and in the midst of his enemies." 
 
 The soldiery were deeply agitated by this address, and felt the 
 keenness of these reproaches ; yet they were so exhausted with 
 recent fatigue, they were so impatient to return to their beloved 
 native soil, and were so terrified by the exaggerated accounts of the 
 Ganges and Gangaridae, that it was far from having the effect in- 
 tended. The whole assembly, therefore, still observed that pro- 
 found silence which is so much more expressive than any words. 
 Even the veteran officers of highest distinction and most in favour 
 with Alexander, though entirely agreeing in opinion with the great 
 body of the army, deterred by the dreadful fate of Clytus and 
 Calisthenes,whohad atoned for their unrestrained freedom of speech, 
 with their lives, for a long time refrained from expressing the senti- 
 ments of their hearts. The venerable Ccenus, at length, respectfully 
 rising in the midst of the assembly, addressed Alexander in substance 
 as follows : " It is with extreme reluctance, O king! that I rise to 
 return an answer not consonant to the wish of your address, because 
 I am one of those favoured officers most devoted to your service, 
 and who have shared most largely of your munificence. At my ad- 
 vanced age, men are indifferent to life ; I plead not for myself, but 
 for the army in general, whose united voice I am bound, by honour, 
 faithfully to declare. Of the numerous forces that originally march- 
 ed from Macedon on the Asiatic expedition, very few indeed remain 
 
[ 291 ] 
 
 with us ; fewer still of those, who, like myself, passed the vigour of 
 youth in the service of Philip, your illustrious father! Broken down 
 with incessant fatigue, or utterly disabled by wounds, how many 
 reluctantly repose their weary limbs far from their native country, 
 their relatives and friends, in the numerous cities thou hast erected 
 to secure thy conquests ; how many have been cut off by disease and 
 pestilence in these eastern climes ; how many perished amidst the 
 snows of Paropamisus ; how many feed the famished vulture on the 
 plains of Bactria, glut the tigers of Hyrcanian deserts, or, ingulphed 
 in the great rivers of Asia, have become the prey of the voracious 
 alligator! Behold, Alexander, in the course of this long and ar- 
 duous campaign, every head grown bald and every face furrowed 
 with wrinkles and scars ! Are these miserable remains of what were 
 Macedonians, of what were the pride and flower of Greece, are 
 these fit persons to explore new worlds beyond the Ganges, or roll 
 the thunder of battle round the distant shores of the Eastern Ocean ? 
 When the Thessalian auxiliaries were wearied with the length of the 
 campaign, they were permitted to return from Bactria, laden with 
 spoils and costly presents, into their own country ; but we, thy more 
 faithful Macedonians, are only reserved for severer toils and renewed 
 slaughter. The desire in their minds to revisit their native country 
 is ardent, is insuperable; indulge, Alexander, their just claims, and 
 once more lead these grateful and enraptured subjects back to 
 Greece, which loudly demands thy presence, to allay the intestine 
 divisions that distract it. There shall these aged veterans find repose 
 from their toils, and peaceably enjoy the rewards of many a 
 hard-fought day, while a new race, risen since our departure, in the 
 vigour of their youth, and with all the zeal of their fathers, shall 
 eagerly crowd around thy standard, and burn to follow thee to the 
 remotest regions of the earth, against the Indians beyond the Ganges ; 
 the Scythians, who tenant the borders of the Euxine; the undaunted 
 Vol. m. 2 P 
 
[ 2.92 ] 
 
 progeny of Carthage; or the untamed savages of the Lybian deserts. 
 At present, thou art at the pinnacle of human glory, and terrible at 
 the head of a brave, though reduced, army. But who can say what 
 dreadful reverses the Fates may ordain for thee among the Gangetic 
 Indians? Remember, prince, that moderation in prosperity is a 
 virtue, above all others, transcendently bright and eminent; and 
 that vicissitude is the inevitable doom of mortality*." 
 
 The other generals afterwards joined in the representations of 
 Cosnus, and the whole army confirmed the truth of them by renew- 
 ed sighs and murmurs. Alexander, more irritated than convinced by 
 all the arguments used to persuade him to retreat, abruptly broke up 
 the assembly, and retired into his tent, where he shut himself up for 
 three days in sullen reserve ; refusing to see even his most intimate 
 friends. He did this, as well to avoid farther solicitation, as in 
 hopes, that, seeing him so fixed in his determination, the army might 
 be induced to recede from their own. At the end of that period 
 he again appeared in public, but found the troops still obstinately 
 bent not to proceed, and the general murmur greatly increased. 
 Matters were now growing too serious for Alexander longer to 
 persist in his rash resolve. He disdained, however, the appear- 
 ance of a forced compliance with the wishes of his army ; and, 
 therefore, ordered sacrifices to be offered for their safe passage and 
 future progress. But the omens being represented by Aristander 
 (probably at his own instigation) as utterly inauspicious, the king 
 affected to pay that submission to the decrees of the gods which he 
 refused to yield to the remonstrances of man. Upon the professed 
 ground of Heaven being inimical to his farther progress, he issued 
 orders for the return of the army, which were no sooner proclaimed, 
 than the sky was rent with the loudest acclamations of joy ; the 
 
 * Arrian, lib. v. cap. 27. Curtius, lib. ix. cap. 3. 
 
[ 293 ] 
 
 whole array rushing in a transport of affectionate gratitude to the 
 royal pavilion, and calling down blessings without number and 
 without bound on the head of their relenting sovereign. 
 
 Having thus fixed the Hyphasis (its eastern bank, according to 
 Pliny) as the extreme limit of his progress, Alexander ordered 
 twelve magnificent altars of hewn stone, fifty cubits in height*, to 
 be erected on the spot, to the twelve greater deities of Greece, and 
 consecrated them as lasting monuments of his labours and expedition. 
 Plutarch informs us, that these altars remained standing in his time, 
 and that the Indians from beyond the Ganges used to come and_sa- 
 crifice upon thenrf-; (to their native deities, we must presume, in 
 memory of their deliverance from the terrible scourge of an army 
 that had desolated the rest of Asia.) We are informed by Curtius, 
 that, previous to his return, he caused the lines of intrenchment 
 around his camp to be extended to three times their usual circuit, 
 ordered beds of a vast size to be prepared, as for soldiers of gigantic 
 stature, and mangers and bits of bridles of proportionate magnitude 
 for horses, to be deposited there, with a view of imposing on posterity 
 the belief that he had invaded India with an army above the com- 
 mon standard of men J. Arrian, however, is silent in respect to this 
 puerile effort of deception, so unworthy of Alexander, and it is pro- 
 bably not fact. The erection of these altars took place, it should 
 appear, below the conflux of the Beyah with the Zaradrus, or Sut- 
 tuluz, the last of the five rivers of the Panjab, because modern geo- 
 graphy confirms the truth of the statement made to Alexander, that 
 there actually exists a desert between the lower parts of the latter river 
 and the Ganges. Its name of Bey-Passa, whence the Greek Hyphasis 
 was formed, is indeed lost, below the conflux intimated, in that of 
 
 * It is Diodorus Siculus who is thus particular in regard to their altitude, lib. xvii. p. 663. 
 t Plutarch in Vita Alexaiid. j Curtius, in loco supra citat. 
 
[ 294 ] 
 
 Shetooder; but the natural aspect of a country is a far better criterion 
 for decision in these matters than the fluctuating names of rivers, 
 of which how abundant and how varied are those of the Panjab may 
 be known from the laboured enumeration of them by a RECENT 
 WRITER, whose indefatigable industry and whose profound erudition, 
 exerted on a barren, but important, subject of Eastern inquiry, 
 will excite admiration when perhaps those rivers shall cease to 
 flow *. On this ground of argument, Major Rennel conjectures their 
 position mighthave been between Ardone and Debalpour, the Dsedalla 
 of Ptolemy. After the above solemn and decisive testimony from the 
 page of Grecian history, that Alexander advanced no farther east- 
 ward than the Hyphasis, it would be an useless expenditure of my 
 own and my readers' time, to examine the details of Oriental writers, 
 (although sanctioned by a solitary passage in Justin-f ,) respecting the 
 conquest, by Secander, of the remotest eastern regions of Asia, thus 
 realizing his own ambitious dreams, and enumerating the immense 
 presents which were paid as the price of peace by Keid, the potent 
 sovereign of ulterior India, and by Kha-Khan, an unheard-of em- 
 peror of China, in bars of gold, in rich silks, in costly furs, in bags of 
 musk, and in aroma tic woods |.. If the SHAH NAMEH and SKANDER 
 NAM EH contain nothing on this subject more consonant to pro- 
 
 * I cannot omit this opportunity of acknowledging my private as well as public obliga- 
 tions, during the progress of my two Works, now rapidly approaching to completion, to the 
 respectable author of The Voyage of Nearchus; and I most cordially join with another cele- 
 brated, but unknown, writer of the day, to whom also I am under the deepest obligation for 
 well-meant, but, I fear, ill-merited, applause, in opinion that " it is impossible to name such 
 another work as DR. VINCENT'S, with all the learned illustrations, produced under the labour 
 and constant pressure of so important an occupation as the conduct of a great public school." 
 Shade of Pope, p. 74, second edition. 
 
 t Justin positively asserts that the Gangaridae were among the nations conquered by the 
 Macedonians. Lib. xii. cap. 8. 
 
 J See Mirkhond apud Tcxeira, p. 105. 
 
[ 295 ] 
 
 bability than such accounts as these in Mirkhond, it were better, for 
 the cause of genuine historic truth, that they should remain for 
 ever untranslated. Had such events really taken place, it would 
 have been impossible for the vanity of Alexander, and the Greeks 
 who accompanied him, to have concealed them ; or of historians, 
 like Curtius, to have blazoned them with all the pomp of declama- 
 tion and all the splendor of panegyric. 
 
 The unbounded joy resulting from the gratification of their wishes, 
 that pervaded the whole army, gave to the retrogressive march 
 through the Panjab the air of a triumphal procession, as for a world 
 already subdued. Every eye sparkled with hope, and every heart 
 beat with transport, at the thought of revisiting their dear country, 
 kindred, and friends. Returning, therefore, with all the celerity with 
 which an army, so encumbered with spoil, could move, they soon 
 reached the Hydraotes ; and, passing it as rapidly as its obstructed 
 current Avould permit, arrived at the Acesines, the current of which, 
 though still impetuous, from the torrents rushing from the mountains 
 and the incessant rains, ceased to appear formidable*. Here, finding 
 the city, which he had ordered Hepheestion to erect on its banks, 
 completed, he invited the friendly inhabitants of the adjacent districts 
 
 * In another valuable work of Arrian, he acquaints us, that Alexander having pitched his 
 camp on the banks of this river, he was afterwards compelled, by the inundations, which were 
 widely diffused over all the circumjacent level territory, to break it up, and remove to a great 
 distance higher in the country : all which proves the innumerable obstacles with which the 
 Macedonians had to contend during this their summer campaign in the Pnnjab. The 
 periodical rains are known to begin in May and end in October: now it was in May that he 
 first crossed the Hydaspes, and it was the 23d of October, according to Dr. Vincent's most 
 accurate investigation, when he again embarked on that river for the ocean. Thus Alexander 
 remained in the field during the whole period of their continuance. Timur and Nadir Shah 
 acted more wisely, by carrying on in that country a winter campaign. The former entered 
 Delhi in triumph on the 4th of January, 1300 ; the latter fought the battle of Carnaul, not 
 remote from that capital, on the 15th of February, 1739. 
 
[ 296 ] 
 
 to take up their residence in it ; and he farther contributed to its 
 population, by permitting such of the foreign mercenaries in his 
 army as were unable or unwilling to proceed, to make it their future 
 abode. Hither, also, Abissares, king of the barbarous tribes of moun- 
 taineers, excusing his personal attendance by the plea of illness, a 
 second time sent ambassadors, bearing presents and the tribute 
 recently imposed by Alexander, who was pacified by his obedience ; 
 but, not yet wholly free from suspicion, to overawe that Indian, 
 joined Arsaces with him in the government of those northern districts. 
 About this period the brave and veteran Ccenus paid the debt of 
 nature ; and Alexander, though sincerely afflicted at the death of so 
 valuable an officer, could not avoid sarcastically remarking, that he 
 had made a speech disproportionably long for the few days of his 
 remaining life. Having again offered sacrifices on the banks of the 
 Acesines, he recrossed that river, and pressed on to the Hydaspes, 
 where he found the fleet which he had ordered to be built with the 
 timber cut down in the noble forests in its neighbourhood, which 
 Strabo expressly says abounded with fir, with pine, and cedar*, in a 
 state of great forwardness, he commenced the most active prepara- 
 tions for accomplishing his grand project of sailing down the Indus 
 into the ocean. While these were vigorously going on, he received a 
 seasonable supply of fresh troops, consisting of six thousand Thracian 
 horse, headed by Memnon, and seven thousand foot, which Harpalus 
 had sent him under the command of that general. Such expedition 
 was used by the artificers, chiefly Phoenician and Carian Greeks, 
 appointed to get ready this exploring fleet, that, in a few days, a 
 navy, amounting in number to eighty triremes and near two thou- 
 sand vessels of smaller burthen, was launched on the Hydaspes. 
 As we have advanced with Alexander through the progress of 
 
 * Strabonis Geograph. lib. xvi. p. 654- 
 
[ 297 ] 
 
 this arduous campaign, a variety of circumstances has successively 
 occurred, that unanswerably confirm whatever arguments may 
 have been previously urged concerning the grandeur and extent 
 of his views, and demonstrate, that, though the geographical know- 
 ledge which this great conqueror had of Asia was incorrect, yet 
 that he meant to have reached its most distant limits on the north 
 and east. The obstinate opposition which he met with from the 
 hardy Scythians checked his progress towards the Hyrcanian, or 
 Caspian, Sea, which he idly supposed constituted its northern boun- 
 dary; and the seditious murmurs of the soldiers prevented (at least 
 according to the Greeks) his reaching the ocean eastward. His 
 design of sailing down the Indus into the southern main was 
 formed before he had penetrated into the Panjab, and in the 
 apparent certainty of his being able to accomplish the latter ob- 
 ject, though, for the present, foiled in executing the former. He 
 intended, probably, that this vast river, rolling from the centre of 
 the Higher Asia, should waft its wealth to its southern extremity, 
 and, by the confining ocean, to Egypt itself; while a vigorous 
 commerce, flourishing along the whole line of its extent, should 
 cement a firm bond of interest and amity between the various 
 nations who inhabited the regions near its source and those who 
 cultivated its banks. The navigation of the Indus and the Persian 
 Gulph is only a counterpart of the voyage down the Nile and 
 round the coast of Egypt, where, to promote the same object, 
 he laid the foundations of that great and opulent city, which, for 
 eighteen centuries, excited the admiration and concentrated the 
 commerce of that world of which Alexander's aspiring mind had 
 planned the total subjugation. The king himself had already an- 
 nounced, and the papers found after his decease, among other still 
 more important projects, confirmed, his future intention of sailing 
 from the Persian Gulph, and coasting round Africa to the pillars 
 
[ 298 ] 
 
 of Hercules. His anxious wish was to leave no enemy behind 
 sufficiently powerful to interrupt that amity and impede that com- 
 merce. With these introductory observations, from necessity sum- 
 mary, the voyage down the Indus, and the perpetual conflicts with 
 the nations on its banks and those on the desert shores of Gedrosia, 
 will be rendered at once more interesting and intelligible. 
 
 Every tiling being at length ready, and the protection of the gods 
 having previously been implored, by oblations more than usually 
 magnificent, on the 23d of October, at break of day, Alexander, with 
 a considerable part of his army, consisting of the archers, Agrians, 
 the light-armed infantry, and some cavalry, went on board. Taking 
 his station conspicuously on the prow of his ship, the king then 
 poured out libations from a golden goblet, and solemnly invocated the 
 three great rivers, the Hydaspes, the Acesines, and the Sinde, down 
 whose streams he was successively to descend to the ocean : Her- 
 cules, also, and Jupiter Hammon, he endeavoured to render pro- 
 pitious by renewed sacrifice. Immediately after, all the trumpets 
 sounding, which was the appointed signal, the fleet unmoored, and, 
 under the guidance of those experienced mariners who assisted in its 
 fabrication, glided leisurely and majestically down the tranquillized 
 current*. Imagination can scarcely conceive a grander or more 
 picturesque scene than was now presented to the view of the natives, 
 who anxiously flocked to the river-side in immense multitudes, and 
 beheld with astonishment the number and magnitude of the vessels ; 
 while the sound of martial music, the clash of arms, the dashing of 
 the oars, and the acclamations of the rowers, reverberated at intervals 
 from the lofty overhanging shores on each side, contributed highly 
 
 * Arrian, lib. vi. cap. 4. Curtius, lib. ix. cap. 4. According to the latter of these authors, 
 the embarkation took place at the Acesines; but Arrian's is the more connected and probable 
 account, and that is what I have adopted in the text. 
 
[ 299 ] 
 
 to increase the splendor and variety of this interesting scene. That 
 part of* the army, not on board with Alexander, had inarched 
 some days before, in two divisions, along the banks on each side of 
 the Hydaspes ; the one consisting of a considerable body of horse 
 and foot, under the command of Craterus, occupied that on the 
 right ; the other, under Hcphaestion, and comprising the major part 
 of the army, paraded on the left. Over the whole fleet Near- 
 chus presided as admiral, and Onesicritus commanded the royal 
 galley. 
 
 The respectable author, mentioned above, with such deserved ap- 
 plause, having so recently gone over this scene of Alexander's exploits 
 in India, there is the less occasion for my entering with minuteness 
 into this portion of the Indian campaign; except, indeed, such parts 
 as more particularly concern his excursions from the river into the 
 country adjacent to it. Upon these, Dr. Vincent has but lightly 
 touched, confining himself more generally to the avowed object of 
 his learned discussion, the navigation of the fleet. I shall, how- 
 ever, omit no circumstance of importance; nor, though straitened for 
 room, aim to be concise at the expense of perspicuity. 
 
 On the third day after the embarkation, the fleet arrived at the 
 point where Craterus and Hephacstion had received previous orders 
 to encamp on each side of the river, and at this point both fleet and 
 army waited two days for the arrival of Philip, governor of the pro- 
 vinces on the west of the Indus. On the arrival of his detachment, 
 Alexander immediately ordered him to march with that division of 
 the army to the Acesines, and, descending down the banks of that 
 river, to trace its progress and explore its windings. He likewise 
 dispatched Craterus and Hephaestion on other expeditions, and, con- 
 tinuing the navigation for five days longer, arrived at the confluence 
 of the Hydaspes and the Acesines. The resistless impetuosity and 
 terrific noise, with which these two great rivers rushed together in a 
 
 Vol. in. 2 Q 
 
[ 300 ] 
 
 rocky and contracted channel, so astonished and intimidated the 
 rowers, that they dropped their oars, and the vessels for a time be- 
 came the sport of the agitated waters. Many of them were nearly 
 absorbed in the vortex of the furious eddies that covered its whole 
 surface; others were with the utmost difficulty prevented from 
 striking against the rocks ; many were dreadfully shattered by being 
 borne violently against each other; and two, in particular, were 
 dashed to pieces by this concussion ; while nearly all the soldiers on 
 board of them perished. The officers of the fleet had been fore- 
 warned of this danger, but the suddenness and magnitude of the 
 alarm induced a momentary dread that suspended exertion. They 
 soon, however, recovered from their astonishment, and, as nothing 
 but the most vigorous efforts could now save them, every arm was 
 extended with redoubled energy, and the ships were soon propelled 
 beyond the confluence into a wider channel and smoother current. 
 Alexander perceiving, on the right side of the river, a kind of bay 
 sheltered by a rocky eminence protruding into the stream, imme- 
 diately steered into it, and there refitted his shattered vessels. While 
 these repairs were going on, he was by no means inactive. The 
 obstinate opposition of the M alii had roused his resentment ; and 
 he was determined completely to bend the neck of that high-spirited 
 people beneath the Macedonian yoke. The Oxydracse also had again 
 leagued with them to obstruct the progress of his army in the 
 southern provinces, and he now meditated against both nations the 
 severest vengeance. Before, however, he formed his grand attack 
 upon these confederated people, he landed with a strong force, and 
 penetrated to a considerable distance into the adjacent country, in 
 order to overawe the inhabitants and prevent their sending any 
 succours to his enemies. After widely ravaging that territory, the 
 king returned to his fleet, where Craterus, Hephrestion, and Philip, 
 had already arrived with the detachments they commanded. 
 
[ 301 ] 
 
 Effectually to accomplish what he resolutely designed, Alexander 
 having first ordered the forces under Philip, together with the 
 elephants, to be transported across the Hydaspes, now made a four- 
 fold division of his army. He commanded Hephaestion, with the 
 first of those divisions, to proceed five days march before the others. 
 Ptolemy, the son of Lagos, with the second, was ordered to follow, 
 at the distance of three days march, in the rear. He sent Craterus 
 and Philip towards the point of junction of the two rivers ; and lie 
 himself, with the third and greatest body of the army, pressed on 
 into the centre of the enemy's country, who, thus urged and sur- 
 rounded from every quarter, must submit either to unconditional 
 surrender or inevitable slaughter. The fleet, in the mean time, 
 received orders to sail down the river to the confluence of the 
 Acesines and Hydraotes, and there to await the arrival of these 
 respective divisions. 
 
 Alexander himself, taking with him the auxiliary foot, the eques- 
 trian archers, and half of the auxiliary horse, immediately ad- 
 vanced rapidly, but silently, through a desert of considerable extent, 
 into the very heart of the enemy's country; and, after marching 
 the greater part of that night, the next morning arrived at the pre- 
 cincts of a fortified city of the Malli, near the shore of the Ace- 
 sines, in which, for security, they had placed their wives and chil- 
 dren ; but, not conceiving that an enemy would march through that 
 desert to attack them, were loitering unarmed in the adjacent fields, 
 and were slaughtered in multitudes. The rest flocked for refuge to 
 the city itself, and shut the gates upon their assailants. It was 
 immediately invested by squadrons of horse ; for, they had advanced 
 with such celerity, that the infantry were yet at some distance 
 behind. When at length they arrived, he did not employ them on 
 this siege, but dispatched them, with Perdiccas at their head, and 
 such horse as could be spared, to besiege another city in the neigh- 
 
 2 Q 2 
 
[ 302 ] 
 
 bourhood, into which great bodies of the Malli had fled, with 
 positive orders to blockade it only, and not to storm the works till his 
 arrival. He hoped by these vigorous measures to prevent the junc- 
 tion of any very formidable numbers in the field, and he took an 
 effectual method to prevent any future opposition of those blockaded, 
 by exterminating them without mercy, as their strong holds suc- 
 cessively fell before the resistless energy of his own attacks. The 
 ramparts of the first of these cities were carried without any very 
 severe loss of time or men ; but the enemy retiring into the castle, 
 which was very lofty and difficult of access, for some time resisted 
 their utmost efforts. Alexander, however, exerting his utmost activity 
 and vigour to take it befo.re the country around should be roused 
 or the Oxydracse come to their aid, it was, after an obstinate re- 
 sistance, taken by storm, and its valiant defenders, about two thou- 
 sand in number, put to the sword. With respect to the other city, 
 commanded to be invested, Perdiccas, on his arrival there, found its 
 walls dismantled, and the city itself entirely deserted by its inhabi- 
 tants. The light cavalry were ordered to pursue the fugitives, and 
 very many were slain in their precipitate retreat ; but many also were 
 preserved from destruction, by seeking shelter in the marshes and 
 swamps, caused by the recent inundations, whither the horse dared 
 not follow them. These cities are both without a name in any clas- 
 sical author, but their position Mr. Rennel determines to have been 
 to the south, or south-east, of the part of the river from which he 
 landed*. 
 
 After a few hours of necessary repose from such continued toil, 
 Alexander, pursuing his plan of secrecy and dispatch in subjugating 
 the Malli, when night approached, set off at the first watch, and, 
 matching incessantly all that night, about the break of day reached 
 
 * Memoir, p. 07. 
 
[ 303 ] 
 
 the southern bank of the Hydraotes, a considerable distance above 
 the confluence. He immediately forded that river, now considerably 
 fallen, with all the horse, in pursuit of a large body of Malli, who 
 were just then discovered crossing it. Many of them were overtaken 
 and slain, and some made prisoners ; but by far the greater part 
 reached in safety a town of that district, strongly fortified by nature 
 and art. Alexander waited the arrival of his foot to invest it, and 
 at last took it by assault. In this instance he relaxed in his san- 
 guinary conduct towards the Malli, and spared the prisoners who 
 had made but little resistance. But he displayed no similar cle- 
 mency on taking a city hard by, almost wholly inhabited by Brach- 
 mans, against which he next planted his engines of attack for daring 
 to give shelter to their brave countrymen, and perhaps animating 
 them strenuously to defend their religion and liberty. The Brach- 
 mans, seeing their case hopeless, after an ancient custom of their 
 nation, collected together their wives and children, and, setting fire 
 to their houses and furniture, perished together with them in the 
 consecrated flame of sacrifice to the gods of India*. 
 
 Unconditional surrender being the easy terms of life offered to the 
 Malli by Alexander, their hardihood in persisting to resist impresses 
 the mind with high ideas of the intrepidity of that ancient tribe of 
 Indians, who, probably, in after-periods, travelling southward, con- 
 ferred their name on the coast of Malabar; at least a considerable 
 district of the peninsula at this day goes by the name of Malleam. 
 Rather than submit to that disgrace, they every where fled to the 
 desert, and buried themselves in the deep recesses of the forest. 
 They were pursued, they were massacred by thousands ; and Python 
 and Demetrius, two resolute captains of horse, were dispatched with 
 their troops to execute his vengeance. But all was ineffectual ; the 
 
 * Arriau, lib. \i. caj). 7. 
 
[ 304 ] 
 
 spirit of the nation remained still unsubdued. At length, Alexander 
 determined to march to their capital, in which, report informed him, 
 the inhabitants of most of the smaller cities had taken refuge, and he 
 hoped, by one decisive stroke, to end the contest. On approaching 
 the walls, however, he found them dismantled, and the people re- 
 tired beyond the Hydraotes, on whose steep banks they had drawn 
 up their forces, to the amount of fifty thousand men, and seemed 
 determined to contest the passage should he again attempt it. Alex- 
 ander instantly plunged with his cavalry, exceedingly dispropor- 
 tionate in point of number, into the stream, while the Indians, 
 astonished at his undaunted conduct, gradually and in good order 
 retreated to some distance from the shore. The enemy, observing 
 that the horse alone had crossed the stream, resolved to make an 
 immediate attack upon him ; but Alexander, seeing them drawn 
 up with more than usual military skill, and in regular order of 
 battle, and thinking it not prudent to come to close engagement 
 without his infantry, contented himself with riding round them at a 
 distance, while the equestrian archers galled them with their arrows. 
 The choicest of the light-armed foot, and part of the phalanx, soon 
 effected a passage ; and the enemy now becoming diffident of their 
 strength, fled to a fortified town that lay behind them, whither they 
 were immediately pursued by Alexander, and closely besieged. 
 That evening the remainder of the troops joined him ; and, having 
 reposed during the night, the whole, at day-break, made a furious 
 attack on the walls, burst open the gates, and compelled the enemy to 
 take refuge in the citadel. This circumstance, which occurs so often, 
 may be elucidated, by observing, that the ancient cities of India are, 
 for the most part, surrounded with walls of mud baked to a solid 
 consistency by the intense beams of a sun, nearly vertical, while the 
 fort, built of brick or stone, is the only defensible part ; often highly 
 so against a very superior enemy. The king, without a moment's 
 
[ 305 ] 
 
 delay, gave orders that the walls should be scaled ; and those orders 
 not being put in execution with all the rapidity that marked his own 
 ardent mind, he snatched a scaling-ladder out of the hand of a 
 soldier, and, applying it himself to the wall, began first to mount the 
 parapet, covering himself with his shield as he ascended. Peucestas, 
 bearing the sacred shield of Pallas, mounted next on the same 
 ladder. He was closely followed by Leonnatus and Abreas, an 
 officer of such distinguished valour, that he received on that ac- 
 count, as well as for other essential services in former battles, a double 
 stipend. Alexander had no sooner reached the summit of this 
 battlement, than he began a dreadful contest with those who de- 
 fended it, killing some with his sword, and driving others headlong 
 down into the castle. The sight of the king thus conspicuously 
 fighting, assisted only by the three brave warriors who had mounted 
 the parapet with him, excited the utmost alarm for his safety in the 
 minds of his soldiers ; and the royal battalion of targeteers, climbing 
 the ladders in haste to second him, with their weight broke them 
 doAvn, and thus the king, who was known by his brilliant armour and 
 the terror of his aspect, was left exposed to a shower of arrows levelled 
 at him by the archers stationed on all the adjoining battlements. 
 Alexander, observing this, and knowing that he could not long re- 
 tain this perilous situation, gallantly leaped down among the thickest 
 of the enemy, resolving to conquer or perish. His example was 
 instantly followed by his comrades in glory, and all four renewed the 
 combat with desperate fury, especially the king, on whom the 
 Indian general rushing sword in hand, was himself run through the 
 body ; and many others, who followed him, shared the same fate. 
 Alexander, fixing himself against the wall, in that situation repelled 
 every assault ; and such was the fire that shot from his eyes, that 
 nobody, at length, dared approach within the reach of his arm. 
 The dauntless Abreas, while fighting for his sovereign with his usual 
 
[ 306 ] 
 
 heroism, was struck through the temples with an arrow, and fell 
 breathless at that sovereign's feet ; at the same time another arrow, 
 three feet in length, aimed from the same quarter, pierced through 
 the breast-plate, and entered the body of Alexander. A vast effusion 
 of blood ensued, which greatly alarmed his two remaining friends ; 
 the king, however, retained his equanimity, and valiantly defended 
 himself against a host of foes who assailed him at a distance. At 
 length his strength began to fail him through the great loss of blood ; 
 a dizziness came over his eyes ; a chilly damp bedewed his limbs ; 
 and the conqueror of Asia fell prostrate upon his shield. Peucestas 
 immediately covered his body on one side with the sacred shield of 
 Pallas, and Leonnatus, with his own shield, guarded it on the other. 
 Both Avere dreadfully wounded, but both forgot their own sufferings 
 in those of their master. The Macedonians, without the castle, in the 
 mean time, were not idle. Impatient to succour their prince, they 
 supplied the want of scaling-ladders by large iron pins forcibly 
 driven into the wall, which was of brick; and, by means of these, 
 with mutual assistance and strenuous exertion, they, with great diffi- 
 culty, ascended to the top. On observing the king prostrate and 
 bleeding, they set up an outcry of horror, and, rushing down from 
 the heights, formed themselves around his body into an impreg- 
 nable rampart. Others, following them over the wall, attacked the 
 terrified enemy with redoubled fury; and, at length, by the exer- 
 tions of others, a gate between two towers being forced open, and a 
 part of the wall thrown down, admitted the body of the army, who 
 now inflicted a tremendous vengeance upon the inhabitants for the 
 (supposed) murder of their prince. Every soul found in the city and 
 citadel was put to death ; and the acclamations of loyal grief were 
 soon drowned amidst the more piercing cries of pregnant women 
 and infant children, devoted to promiscuous slaughter. Of this 
 nameless city Mr. Rennel, in his small map, has pointed out the 
 
[ 307 .] 
 
 probable situation about ten miles above the conflux, and " some, 
 what below the scite of Toulomba, a famous pass on the Rauvee 1 - 
 between Lahore and Moultan*." 
 
 After this merciless slaughter of the inhabitants of that unfortunate 
 city, the attention of the soldiers was anxiously turned to the safety 
 and recovery of the king. They bore him on their shields to the 
 camp, and the utmost solicitude was visible on every countenance. 
 When arrived at his tent, the arrow, which proved to be a bearded 
 one, was extracted with the greatest tenderness and skill by Cri- 
 todemus, a physician of Coos ; but, from that circumstance, it being 
 necessary to make a wide incision, a new and far more considerable 
 effusion of btood took place, with which lie fainted away, and life 
 seemed at the last gasp. The effusion, however, being expeditiously 
 stopped, he gradually recovered, and recollected his surrounding 
 friends. The whole of that day and the following night the army 
 remained under arms round his tent, and never quitted their posts 
 till they heard he was entirely out of danger. In the mean time 
 tidings of this disaster had reached the camp at the confluence of the 
 Hydraotes and Acesines, where the fleet had arrived, and been met 
 by Hephaestion with his division. These tidings were presently 
 followed by a rumour of his death, which struck the whole camp 
 with consternation and dismay, and was likely to be productive of 
 the most fatal consequences. To prevent these, Alexander finding 
 messengers and letters, contradicting the report, of no effect, and that 
 a general insurrection would probably take place, ordered a vessel to 
 be got ready to convey him, ill as he was, down the Hydraotes. 
 On the poop of that vessel was hoisted aloft the dome of the royal 
 pavilion, so as to be conspicuously seen by the whole army, and as, 
 in descending, he passed along the crowded shore and the fleet, 
 
 * Arrian, lib. vi. cap. 40, 11, and Kennel's Memoir, p. 98. 
 
 Vol. in. 2 R 
 
[ 308 ] 
 
 whose decks were covered with enraptured spectators, he con- 
 descendingly waved his hand to them, and smiled, while the high 
 banks and the neighbouring woods resounded with the loudest 
 acclamations of " Long live Alexander ; health and prosperity to the 
 conqueror of Asia ! " When he was sufficiently recovered to mount 
 his horse, these bursts of transport were repeated ; and every one 
 flocked impatiently round him ; some eagerly embracing his knees 
 and his feet, and others happy to touch even the garments of their 
 beloved sovereign ; bearing before him triumphal garlands, and 
 strewing the way with the gaudy flowers that shoot up so luxuriantly 
 after the rains in that delightful region of Asia. At the same time 
 
 o o 
 
 the officers besought him never more to expose himself to similar 
 perils, but to remember, that the duties incumbent on the general 
 and the private soldier are essentially different. Alexander is report- 
 ed, by Arrian, to have been offended by the freedom of these ad- 
 monitions ; but it is impossible to conceive that he had a heart so 
 depraved and callous to the noblest sensibilities of human nature. 
 
 The Malli, defeated in every engagement, and half exterminated, 
 now began to think seriously of making their peace with an enemy, 
 at once so vigorous in his attacks and so superior in the science of 
 war. They, therefore, dispatched heralds to Alexander with offers of 
 that unconditional submission which they had so long and so re- 
 solutely refused. The Oxydracae, or people of Outch, also, finding 
 their efforts to form a junction with their old allies frustrated by the 
 rapid march of the king through that dreary desert, and, in short, 
 that opposition to a power which swept the whole country before 
 it would be utterly ineffectual, reluctantly submitted to their fate, 
 and sent ambassadors to purchase peace with the surrender of those 
 liberties which they so highly prized. Alexander, anxious to ac- 
 complish the greater objects to which war was only subservient, 
 readily accepted the submission of both. The territories of the 
 
[ 309 3 
 
 former he added to the prefecture of Philip, charging him to keep 
 over them a vigilant eye and a strong arm : of the Oxydracae he 
 demanded, by way of security for their future fidelity, no less than a 
 thousand of their principal citizens at once to serve as hostages, 
 and add to his triumphs, by being enrolled in his army. With these 
 terms they complied, and with the thousand hostages required, 
 gratuitously sent him, in proof of their sincerity, five hundred cha- 
 riots of war, with their horses and drivers, completely equipped for 
 action. With this mark of attention, Alexander was so well pleased 
 that he returned the hostages, declaring, that a nation so generous 
 could never be stained with the base crime of perfidy. While 
 he continued at this place waiting the full restoration of his health, 
 he enlarged his fleet by the addition of several vessels which he caused 
 to be built; and, thinking the point of the confluence a proper 
 position for erecting a city and fort, (a city for the purposes of 
 commerce and a fort to overawe the turbulent nations around,) he 
 added another Alexandria to the number of those already founded 
 on Indian ground ; but of this city no vestige remains. 
 
 At length, Craterus, with the forces and elephants, being again 
 transported over the stream, Alexander embarked with seventeen 
 hundred auxiliary, an equal number of light Macedonian, horse, and 
 ten thousand foot ; the other divisons of the army marching, as be- 
 fore, along the two opposite shores. He soon reached the point 
 at which the Acesines, swollen with all the rivers of the Panjab, 
 discharges itself into the main stream of the Sinde, and at this 
 confluence he waited some time for Perdiccas, who had been en- 
 gaged in reducing the neighbouring tribe of Abastani. While he 
 remained here, he was visited by Oxyartes, the Bactrian, and father 
 of Roxana, whom, in commission with Python, he constituted 
 governor of all the country south of the confluence of the Acesines 
 and Sinde, as far as the ocean ; having already fixed on that conflu- 
 
 2 R2 
 
[ 310 ] 
 
 cnce as the termination of the government of Philip. At this Con- 
 fluence, also, invited by the situation and induced by similar mo- 
 tives, he erected another Alexandria; and, leaving with Philip the 
 Thracians and such other troops as could be best spared, for its de* 
 fence, he proceeded down the river till he arrived at the territory of 
 the Sogdi,(the Sabracae of Curtius and Sodrae of Diodorus,) who seem 
 to have submitted without any opposition. At this station, also, he 
 built a city and fort, and constructed dock-yards, in which he both 
 repaired his fleet and built additional vessels. Dr. Vincent has pro- 
 duced very forcible reasons for fixing the modern Bhakor, a circar of 
 the ancient soobah of Multan, as the scite of the Sogdi*; and 
 Mr. Rennel, in a corrected account of the Sinde navigation, has 
 placed Bhakor in 27 32' north latitude-}-; with this difference, that 
 he assigns the tract in question to the Musicani, to whose domains, 
 after a short delay,. the fleet descended. 
 
 The reigning sovereign of this people, one of the most poAvcrful 
 and wealthy in this region of India, had neglected to send either' 
 ambassadors to solicit, or presents to purchase, peace of Alexander, 
 and had consequently incurred his extreme displeasure. The king, 
 on arriving at his frontier, lost not a moment in disembarking a 
 large portion of his army, and marched to his capital with intent to 
 surprise him. The suddenness of the attack prevented all efforts of 
 resistance on the part of Musicanus, and Alexander, on approaching 
 his capital, was met by the Indian sovereign, at the head of a vast 
 train of elephants, and accompanied with presents of immense 
 value, which, with his whole kingdom, he submissively proffered as 
 the price of pardon for the capital offence of not having previously 
 prostrated himself before the conqueror of Asia. Alexander was 
 easily prevailed upon, by his apparent frankness and generosity, to 
 
 * Voyage of Nearchus, p. 1 25. t Kennel's Memoir, p. 292. 
 
[ 311 ] 
 
 grant that pardon : he entered and staid some time in his splendid 
 capital, the beauty and magnificence of which he greatly admired ; 
 and then returned the government of it into his own hands. Before 
 he left it, however, as it was his intention to establish a chain of forts 
 along the whole descent of the Indus, to secure the future safe navi- 
 gation of that river at once for commercial and political purposes, he 
 erected there a strong citadel, in which, to prevent revolt or innova- 
 tion during a projected excursion into certain of the neighbouring 
 kingdoms not yet subjugated, he left Craterus with a powerful force. 
 In pursuance of this project, the king marched, with all the re- 
 maining forces which he had embarked on board his navy, into the 
 adjacent territory of the Oxycani, plainly recognized in the name 
 and scite of the modern Hajycan, a circar or division of the province 
 of Sindy. The sovereign, or rajah, as we should more properly 
 call him, of that territory had been guilty of the same heinous 
 crime with the king of the Musicani, in delaying to send ambassa- 
 dors or presents to pacify the unprovoked invader of their country ; 
 and, before he could have time to retrieve the fatal error, Alexander, 
 whose constant aim was to intimidate by the vigour and rapidity 
 of his motions, carried by assault two of his principal cities, in one of 
 which the unfortunate prince himself was. found in arms, taken pri- 
 soner, and, as we hear nothing farther concerning him, probably fell 
 the victim of his temerity. Of these cities, Alexander gave to his 
 soldiers the unlimited plunder, securing to himself the elephants of 
 the deceased prince. The terror of this example operated with the 
 inhabitants of all the cities of that district to make that immediate 
 submission, which could alone obtain safely to their persons and 
 security to their property. The Oxycani, thus completely subju- 
 gated, he marched against Sambus, sovereign of the region of Sindo- 
 mana, in which appellation we immediately recognize the province 
 of Sindy, or that through which the river Sinde rlows in the lower 
 
[ 512 ] 
 
 part of its course*. On this point, however, a wide difference also 
 subsists in the geographical decisions of Dr. Vincent and Major 
 Rennel, with which I shall not interfere, but continue the narration 
 principally according to the text of A man. Sambus was the sove- 
 reign of a mountainous tract of country situated near the territory of 
 Musicanus, had previously submitted to Alexander, and been re- 
 stored by him to his dominions ; but, being at open hostility with 
 Musicanus, on finding that prince honoured with the confidence 
 and friendship of the conqueror, he dreaded this additional weight 
 thrown into the scale of his authority, and had taken the precaution 
 of flight. If, however, Sambus could bring into the field such a 
 numerous army as is assigned to him in C urtius, there was no very 
 urgent necessity for so rapid a retreat. According to that historian, 
 Sindomana, the capital city of Sambus, was forcibly entered through 
 a subterraneous passage Avhich the Macedonian miners had carried 
 quite into the heart of the town; and, in the invasion of that country, 
 no less than eighty thousand people were slain, independent of mul- 
 titudes of prisoners. Dreadful devastation is also stated to have been 
 made among the troops of Alexander by the poisoned lances of these 
 savage mountaineers, and, among other brave men, Ptolemy is said 
 to have nearly perished the victim of the deadly venom. The 
 account of Arrian, however, is widely different, who records, that, at 
 Alexander's approach, the gates of that city were spontaneously 
 thrown open, and that the friends and domestics of the absent 
 prince came forth to meet him with magnificent presents and 
 elephants ; and that, on explaining the real motives of the flight of 
 Sambus, the dread of the increased power of his ancient enemy 
 Musicanus, the king was pacified -f-. 
 
 Hence Alexander is stated to have marched against another name- 
 
 * Kennel's Memoir, p. 99. f Arrian, lib. vi. cap. 10. Curtius, lib. ix. cap. 8. 
 
[ 313 ] 
 
 less city in the same province, inhabited principally by Brachmans, 
 and these, on the precipitate flight of Sambus, had instigated the lead- 
 ing citi2ens, who had already submitted and been pardoned, to erect 
 again the standard of rebellion. It was speedily retaken, and exem- 
 plary vengeance inflicted on the Brachmans who advised the measure. 
 While the king was thus incessantly employed in subduing some 
 nations and recovering others, intelligence was brought that Mu- 
 sicanus himself had taken advantage, of his absence to break into 
 
 o 
 
 open revolt. Alexander was enraged at this outrageous breach of 
 faith, and immediately dispatched against him Python, the son of 
 Agenor, with an adequate force for the reduction of his whole king- 
 dom. This service he effectually accomplished, utterly destroying 
 some of his cities, erecting castles in all the others, and, at the same 
 time, leaving in them strong garrisons to prevent similar accidents in 
 future. After a diligent search, Musicanus was also discovered, and 
 brought in chains to Alexander, who ordered him to be carried back 
 into his own territories, and there publicly crucified, together with 
 those turbulent Brachmans, who, in this instance, not less than the 
 former, had essentially contributed to the public disquiet. About 
 this period, Mreris, the sovereign of Pattala, a noble island formed 
 by the current of the river, arrived in the camp, and made a vo- 
 luntary offer of his treasures and kingdom. Alexander received 
 him with marks of great respect and kindness, restored to him 
 the sceptre which he offered to surrender, and sent him back 
 to his capital, Avith orders to provide every thing necessary for 
 the entertainment of the fleet and army against their arrival in his 
 territories. 
 
 Preparations were now made for continuing the navigation down 
 the Indus ; but, previously to the embarkation of the troops, Alexander 
 dispatched Craterus, with a considerable body of horse and foot, 
 as an escort to such of the auxiliary and Macedonian troops as were 
 
[ 314 ] 
 
 invalids, and might probably sink under the difficulties of the more 
 arduous march which he secretly intended to take through Gedrosia 
 to Babylon. These were to advance by the way of Arachosia and 
 Drangiana into Carmania, and thence to proceed to Macedon. To 
 his charge he also entrusted the elephants ; those elephants which he 
 plainly perceived must perish in the dreary deserts of Gedrosia, 
 which he was resolved to encounter with the least incumbrance 
 possible. Another important object, too, as Dr. Vincent has ju- 
 diciously observed, the king had in view in planning this expedition, 
 viz. more accurately to " survey and explore the extensive pro- 
 vinces of his empire*." The preparations for the departure of the 
 fleet being at length completed, Alexander, with that division of the 
 army which had usually embarked with him, went on board ; the 
 other divisions marched, the greater, under Hephtestion, on the one 
 side -j- of the Indus; the inferior, under P3 r thon, on the opposite 
 bank : the latter had orders to colonize the cities newly erected on 
 the coast with all the inhabitants that could be procured from the 
 adjacent districts, and, having performed this service, to meet the 
 kino- at Pattala. On the third day of his progress down the river, 
 Alexander received the unwelcome intelligence that Moeris had 
 assembled his Pattalans, and, with the whole body of them, had fled 
 into the deserts, leaving all the towns deserted and the fields destitute 
 of husbandmen. On this intelligence, the fleet proceeded with 
 greater dispatch, and soon reached Pattala, discovered in the name 
 
 * Voyage of Nearchus, p. 1 37. 
 
 t Arrian docs not specify on which bankHephaestion marched; Dr. Vincent, in consequence 
 of his prior hypothesis supported in reluctant opposition to Major Rennel, determines it to 
 be the eastern bank; and yet, from the orders given to Python to collect the Indians for 
 colonizing the garrisons, one would incline to think the eastern as the more populous and 
 properly the Indian, shore would be the one better adapted to the professed purpose of the 
 march of the latter commander. 
 
[ 315 ] 
 
 and nearly in the scite of the modern Tatta, the capital of the Delta, 
 formed by the waters of the Indus. This tract, the gift of that 
 great river, during the immense period which it has continued to 
 roll, extends in length about one hundred and fifty miles along the 
 sea-coast ; and its greatest depth from the most prominent part of the 
 base to its apex is one hundred and fifteen miles. The lower region 
 of this Delta is throughout intersected by numerous creeks and 
 rivers ; towards the middle it is a desert of burning sands ; and is 
 every where totally destitute of trees. The upper parts of the 
 Delta, however, are said to be well cultivated, and to yield 
 abundance of rice. 
 
 On the arrival of the fleet at Pattala, the light infantry were first August. 
 disembarked, and ordered to pursue the fugitives with the utmost 327. 
 celerity, and invite them, by every possible argument, to return to 
 their habitations and the cultivation of their lands ; promising them 
 liberty unrestrained and property uninjured. On this many of them 
 returned ; but, when Hephaestion was shortly after dispatched to erect 
 a fort in the city, and other detachments were sent into the country 
 to dig wells and render the barren tract habitable, the perfidious 
 Pattalans fell furiously upon them, and wounded and killed many : 
 they were, however, finally defeated with great slaughter, and 
 driven back to their deserts. Alexander, determined in his views in 
 regard to Pattala, on receiving this intelligence, reinforced those de- 
 tachments, and gave orders for the immediate construction of a 
 spacious harbour and a naval arsenal, at the point at which the Indus 
 divides itself into two great branches, and rolls in two impetuous 
 currents into the ocean. He came also himself on shore, and in 
 person assiduously superintended the carrying on of works of the 
 highest importance to his future projects. After staying some time 
 on shore, and taking an accurate survey of the country and the 
 coast, Alexander re-embarked with the same number of forces as he 
 
 Vol. in. 2 S 
 
[ 316 ] 
 
 had usually taken on board ; and, being resolved to sail out of the 
 mouth of the Indus into the ocean, he ordered Leonnatus, with a 
 thousand horse and about eight thousand infantry, to march quite 
 through the Delta, with a view more fully to explore it, and after- 
 wards join the fleet on the opposite side. He then selected the 
 stoutest and best sailing vessels of the fleet, and descended down the 
 right channel ; but, not being able to procure a native pilot, and a 
 violent storm arising on the following day, from their ignorance of that 
 channel, it received great damage, some vessels being dashed against 
 each other, and others driven violently on the bank. A sheltering 
 bay being fortunately found near at hand, the injury done the fleet 
 was soon repaired, and Pattalan pilots being at length, though with 
 great difficulty, obtained, owing to the terror their Grecian visitants 
 inspired, the voyage was continued down to a point in the river 
 where it expands two hundred stadia in breadth (twelve miles) near 
 the mouth : and here a new and unexpected calamity befel them ; a 
 calamity that had nearly proved fatal to every hope of navigating the 
 Indian Ocean. The tides at the mouth of the Indus are said to rise 
 higher than in any part of the world : Alexander and his Greeks 
 could not have been ignorant of the ebbing and flowing of the sea, 
 which they must have witnessed in the Mediterranean ; but there it 
 is gentle, gradual, and scarcely perceptible, to what it is on the shore 
 of the vast Indian Ocean, and especially on the Bay of Cutch and 
 the Guzzurat coast, where, what is called the BORE comes rushing 
 on with a sudden and impetuous influx, rising many feet above the 
 surface of the sea, and bearing a most terrific appearance. The 
 great obstructions, also, accumulated in the course of ages at the 
 mouth of the Indus, and which at the present day are far more 
 considerable than in Alexander's time, must have greatly contributed 
 to the sudden swell of the waters; and these circumstances, well 
 considered, effectually vindicate the Macedonians from the censures 
 
[ 317 ] 
 
 of petulant criticism, when they are represented as in the highest 
 degree astonished and alarmed at such an uncommon phenomenon. 
 The violence of the bore was so great, aided by tempestuous gales 
 from the ocean, as to overset some of the vessels and drive others on 
 shore ; which, on the retreat of the waters, were left a-ground. At 
 the return of the tide, however, those that stuck in the mud were 
 again elevated and floated off, while most of those that lay inclined 
 on the sand were swept away or dashed to pieces by its fury. 
 This second misfortune being repaired as well as circumstances 
 would permit, Alexander dispatched two of the transports before the 
 fleet, with orders to explore a certain island at the mouth of the 
 river, which, he was informed, contained commodious harbours and 
 abounded with fresh water ; and, this intelligence being confirmed at 
 their return, he commanded the fleet to anchor there, while he him- 
 self, with a few select vessels, sailed out of its mouth to a second 
 island, which lay about two hundred stadia beyond the former, 
 and, boldly launching out into the vast ocean itself, enjoyed the 
 sublime gratification for which he had so long and so ardently 
 panted, and for the attainment of which he had cheerfully borne so 
 many toils. Here he sacrificed bulls to Neptune, imploring the 
 protection of that deity for his future enterprizes on his domain, 
 and threw the slaughtered animals into the sea. Then, in a trans- 
 port of delight, he poured out libations from golden goblets, 
 which, with all the other sacred vessels used in the oblation, he 
 committed to the bosom of the deep ; and, having thus successfully 
 explored the southern extremity of Asia, he rejoined his fleet, 
 which was now fully repaired, and returned triumphantly to 
 Pattala. 
 
 On his arrival at Pattala, he found Python, with his forces, return- 
 ed, after having effectually executed their commission. The harbour 
 and arsenal were also in great forwardness, under the continued care 
 
 2 S2 
 
[ 318 ] 
 
 of Hephaestion, whom he now commanded to fortify them, and pre- 
 pare for the reception of his whole fleet till the time of navigating 
 the Persian Gulph should arrive. After issuing these orders, being 
 determined to explore the other great branch of the Indus, and see 
 if through it a more easy and secure passage to the ocean might not 
 be found, he sailed down the eastern current, denominated Nala- 
 Sunkra, in the modern geography of India, till he arrived at a 
 vast lake formed by the river itself and other confluent waters near 
 its mouth. Into a creek, or small bay, of this lake, the pilots were 
 ordered to steer the long galleys, and land Leonnatus with the greater 
 part of the forces, while the king himself, witli some biremes and 
 triremes, pressed forward with eagerness a second time to view the 
 great Indian Ocean. He found this passage more commodious 
 than the former, and, going on shore with a few battalions of 
 horse, into the country of Sangania, which from Alexander's to 
 Hamilton's time has been infamous for nourishing a brood of 
 pirates, he proceeded for three days along the coast in search 
 of some commodious bay for the security of his fleet from future 
 storms, and employed his soldiers in digging wells as they ad- 
 vanced, in order to open an easier communication through the desert 
 to Guzzurat*, and forward those commercial purposes, which, 
 wheresoever he moved, his conduct proved he had deeply at heart. 
 He then re-embarked, and, arriving at the part of the lake where 
 Leonnatus had landed, the station appearing to his discriminating 
 eye an important one, he ordered a dock-yard to be built, fixed a 
 sufficient garrison there for its defence, and left them provisioned for 
 
 * Dr. Vincent, p. 155. Consult his subsequent judicious remarks on the grand political 
 projects of Alexander; for, of all his various historians and biographers, Plutarch and himself 
 have alone done full justice to his public character; though it would be absurd to deny that 
 his private one was obscured by infinite defects. 
 
[ 319 ] 
 
 four months. The fleet then steered back to Pattala, where he im- 
 mediately commenced the preparations for his arduous, but not 
 frantic, march through the Gedrosian deserts. 
 
 It was, we have seen, in May of the year 327 before Christ that 
 Alexander passed the Hydaspes : towards the end of October follow- 
 ing, he embarked at Nicaea on the Indus ; he spent nine months in 
 sailing down to Pattala, where, according to the most accurate com- 
 putation of Dr. Vincent*, he arrived about the end of July or be- 
 ginning of August in the following year. By the same authority, he 
 passed a complete month in navigating the two branches of the 
 Indus below Pattala, and, early in September of the same year, he 
 set off on his return, by land, to Persia. 
 
 Although to mark the gradual progress of policy and war, by 
 which a nation so remote, and comparatively in every respect so 
 inferior, as the Greeks, became, however short their reign, the con- 
 querors of India, it was necessary to take a very extended review of 
 the previous transactions of that nation with the Persian sovereigns, 
 the lords of Western India ; yet that conquest having been achieved 
 and the particulars largely detailed, there exists no necessity for any 
 but the most concise and summary account of subsequent Grecian 
 events till the death of the conqueror, and its consequence, the termi- 
 nation of their sovereignty . For, very bounded indeed was the au- 
 thority of his successor, Seleucus, in that region, and the compact 
 entered into by this monarch with Sandracotta (Chandragupta) put a 
 final period to the Greek dominion beyond the Sinde. But the con- 
 sideration of those matters must be left to some future historian who 
 will exert on the subject the same unwearied industry, which, under 
 a cloud of almost insurmountable difficulties, I have employed in 
 investigating the dark and intricate mazes of its most early history. 
 
 * Vojage of Nearchus, p. 158. 
 
[ 320 ] 
 
 May he commence the task under better auspices, and be provided 
 with ampler materials than it has fallen to my lot to enjoy! 
 
 For the important purposes already intimated, viz. the permanent 
 security of his eastern conquests and the firm establishment of a 
 vigorous commerce on the Sinde, Alexander, having long determined 
 to open a communication with India by the way of the Persian 
 Gulph, continued Nearchus in his station of admiral of the fleet 
 appointed to explore that coast, with orders to meet himself and the 
 army in Mesopotamia. As the season was unfavourable for its imme- 
 diate sailing, and the Etesian winds, or, to speak in language more 
 intelligible to an English navigator of the Indian Seas, the monsoon, 
 that blows regularly six months, during winter, from the north-east 
 quarter, and six months, during summer, from the south-west, having 
 not yet shifted, the king set out nearly a month before the departure 
 of the fleet, in order to facilitate its progress by exploring the country 
 inland, reducing the savage inhabitants, digging wells, and pro- 
 curing such provisions as could be obtained in a sterile country for 
 its refreshment. It is the circumstance of his having failed in fully 
 accomplishing these purposes, from ignorance of the utter barrenness 
 of the country, that has prevented the real views of Alexander in 
 exploring maritime Gedrosia from being more distinctly visible, and 
 has been the occasion of branding with the character of insane te- 
 merity an expedition founded in consummate wisdom, and perse- 
 vered in with the kindest attention to the welfare of his comrades in 
 peril and in glory. 
 
 The Oritee, a hardy independent tribe, if not absolutely of Indian 
 origin, yet using Indian customs and manners, who inhabited the 
 mountainous tract near the river Arabis, and known to the mo- 
 derns by the name of Belootches, were among those delinquent na- 
 tions who had neither sent ambassadors to the Macedonian camp nor 
 offers of surrender. Against these, as against all the other Indian 
 
[ 321 ] 
 
 mountaineers, Alexander, meditating victory by surprise, led such a 
 body of light-armed cavalry and infantry as appeared sufficient to 
 compel their submission. The rest of the forces were left under the 
 command of Hephsestion. At the approach of the king, the Oritae 
 dispersed on every side, and fled into the desert: but flight was not 
 surrender; and Alexander, therefore, rapidly crossing the Arabis, a 
 river remarkable for neither its width nor depth, marched all night 
 through the desert, and in the morning found himself in the midst 
 of a fertile and well-inhabited country. Here, permitting his in- 
 fantry to take some repose, he divided his cavalry into small, but 
 numerous, parties, and ordered them to scour the country in all di- 
 rections ; which was effectually done, vast multitudes of the natives 
 being slain, and abundance of prisoners brought in. In this region 
 was placed the principal town of the Oritse, called Rambacia, to 
 which, after having been joined by Hephasstion with the heavy 
 armed troops, he directed his progress ; and, finding the situation 
 well adapted for purposes of defence and commerce, he committed 
 to Hephsestion the charge of erecting a city on the spot, with a 
 strong fort to protect it, which is supposed to be the Arian Alex- 
 andria ; tor, Gedrosia (as Pliny, confirming this fact, informs us) was 
 only a portion of the larger province of Ariana.* While this under- 
 taking was going on, Alexander, taking with him some selected 
 cavalry, marched towards the frontiers of Gedrosia, where, in a 
 certain narrow defile of the mountainous chain that intersects their 
 country, the Gedrosians and the Oritae had joined their forces with 
 an apparent determination to defend it against the farther progress 
 of the invading enemy. Notwithstanding, however, the decided ad- 
 vantage which their situation afforded them for that defence, on the 
 near approach of the Macedonians, they abandoned the station they 
 
 * Arrian, lib. vi. cap. 21. IMiny, lib. vii. cap. 9. 
 
[ 322 ] 
 
 had taken, and, soon after, the latter of these confederated people, 
 finding farther opposition hopeless, sent a deputation of their chiefs, 
 offering the well-known price of peace with Alexander, the un- 
 conditional surrender of themselves and their country. The terms 
 were accepted, and those chiefs directed to collect their scattered 
 inhabitants, and induce them to return to the deserted villages, under 
 the positive assurances that obedience should secure them safety 
 and protection. He appointed Apollophanes governor of the 
 country of the Oritae, and ordered Leonnatus, with a large division 
 of the army, both horse and foot, to remain with him till the 
 arrival of the fleet under Nearchus, for which he was directed to 
 provide every possible accommodation ; in short, to do what Alex- 
 ander himself had personally intended to have done, had circum- 
 stances proved more auspicious, and had there not existed a neces- 
 sity for entirely subjugating the turbulent savage tribes of Gedrosia. 
 He was also directed to superintend the building of the new Alex- 
 andria, and invite the people of Arachosia and all the neighbouring 
 districts northward to come and reside in it, under the protection 
 of the Greeks. 
 
 Having thus left with those commanders his final instructions, 
 with the remainder of the army he commenced that toilsome march 
 through Gedrosia, on which some observations have already oc- 
 curred, and with a few additional strictures on which this volume 
 will terminate. As we have now wholly left Indian ground, and as 
 the progress of the fleet to Mesopotamia has been so ably and mi- 
 nutely detailed by the author often cited above, a very summary 
 narration of the principal events that befel the army and the fleet 
 on their return can alone be inserted in these concluding pages. 
 With whatever stigma of imprudence the preceding historians of 
 Alexander have branded this march through Gedrosia, they all unite 
 in affirming, that, amidst every dreadful accumulation of human 
 
[ 323 ] 
 
 suffering experienced in a region wholly trackless and unexplored, 
 from high drifted sands, scorching heat, corroding hunger, and ardent 
 thirst, Alexander sustained the character of a great man and a 
 consummate general, being ever the first to encounter difficulties 
 and trample on danger ; in labour indefatigable, by fatigue in- 
 vincible; disdaining food while his troops were dying of hunger 
 around him, and dashing from his parched lips the helmet of prof- 
 fered water. Amidst the urgent perils of the army, he forgot not 
 those of his fleet, and, on the presumption that they were arrived on 
 the same desolate coast, made several strenuous efforts to succour 
 them, by collecting grain where it could be found, and piercing the 
 sands along the shore for water. But all his efforts proved ineffec- 
 tual : the distresses of the army were too great to allow of any of the 
 articles of life being spared for their comrades at sea ; the seals fixed 
 on the bags of corn, at best a scanty store, were burst open ; and the 
 wells, as soon as dug, emptied of all the water they contained ; 
 nor could Alexander punish a species of plunder too evidently 
 dictated by the strong command of expiring nature. After struggling 
 with famine and the pestilential winds of that burning clime during 
 sixty days, with the loss of a third part of his army and nearly all 
 the horses and camels, Alexander at length reached Pura, recognized 
 in its ancient Arabian name of Phoreg, the capital of the Gedrosii, 
 whither his fame and the terror of his arms had previously reached, 
 and obtained from the princes and chiefs, who governed in the more 
 fertile districts of that country, as abundant supplies as they could 
 procure for his exhausted forces. About this time, intelligence ar- 
 rived that Philip, whom, it has been observed, he had appointed 
 governor of all the country north of the confluence of the Acesines 
 with the Sinde, had been murdered in an insurrection of the mer- 
 cenaries left with him to defend his station; but that the native 
 Macedonians had revenged his death upon the assassins. The king, 
 Vol. in. 2 T 
 
[ 324 ] 
 
 on this, sent orders to Eudemus and Taxiles conjointly to administer 
 the affairs of that province till he could send another governor, 
 properly qualified, to succeed him in that important portion of his 
 Indian conquests. He also dismissed Apollophanes for neglect of 
 orders, probably relating to the march through Gedrosia, and 
 possibly intended to facilitate it, from his lieutenancy over the 
 Orita?. 
 
 After halting some days at this capital, he proceeded towards Car- 
 mania, (Kerman,) a province which exhibited in its appearance a per- 
 fect contrast to that of Gedrosia ; being rich in pasturage and abound- 
 ing with fruits and grain of every kind. On the first intelligence of 
 his arrival in this province, the governors of Aria arid Drangiana, 
 together with those of the more northern provinces, hastened to the 
 relief of the army with the choicest productions of their respective 
 prefectures. They were also accommodated with an immense num- 
 ber of horses, camels, and other beasts of burthen, to replace those 
 that had perished in the deserts, and the army now pursued its pro- 
 gress towards Babylon with festive joy, but doubtless not with that 
 frantic Bacchanalian spirit of intemperance imputed to them by 
 Curtius, who gravely tells his readers, that a thousand brave bar- 
 barians, rushing upon them, might easily have put to death the 
 whole of the Macedonian army ; and even Plutarch, the professed 
 apologist of Alexander, has deviated so far from that character as 
 to suppose so great a general would sanction, by his authority and 
 example, so absurd an inconsistency*. Solemn sacrifices offered to 
 heaven for an army rescued from the jaws of famine, the customary 
 athletic sports celebrated on those occasions of public thanksgiving 
 by the Greeks, and possibly some more than usually splendid rites 
 pel-formed in honour of Dionysius Thriambos, or the Triumphant, 
 
 * Curtius, lib. ix. cap. ult. Plutarch iu Vita Alexand. 
 
[ 325 ] 
 
 and in memory of his Indian expedition, have probably been the 
 foundation of this gross calumny on the memory of Alexander, 
 which is expressly contradicted by Arrian, who, in diametrical op- 
 position to all this licentious buffoonery, represents him, on his very 
 entrance into this frontier-province of Persia, as assuming the stern 
 aspect of a severe judge, punishing with death the extortions of cer- 
 tain tyrannical governors in the remoter provinces, and acting the 
 part of a wise and beneficent prince, in redressing the grievances of 
 his new subjects. Still, however, his anxious thoughts were in- 
 cessantly turned towards Nearchus and the fleet ; and, fortunately, 
 about this period, an interesting incident took place which proved 
 the means of acquainting him with its fate, and once more intro- 
 ducing Nearchus to his affectionate sovereign. But, before we relate 
 it, it will be necessary to attend generally, for the reasons above 
 specified, to the operations of that fleet, and of the army left on the 
 coast of Gedrosia under the command of Leonnatus for its assistance 
 and protection. 
 
 On the ceasing of the Etesian winds, or south-west monsoon, ac- October, 
 cording to Arrian*, though he was mistaken in that supposition, or, "" ' 
 according to Strabo's more correct account, on the evening rising of 
 the Pleiades t, which is fixed, by Dr. Vincent and his learned 
 astronomical friends, to have taken place on the 2d of October, 
 A. C. 326, about a month after the departure of the king himself, 
 Nearchus commenced his hazardous expedition to the Persian Gulph. 
 As it was in the face of the monsoon, he was most probably com- 
 pelled to do so, by the hostility of the natives, no longer awed by 
 the presence of Alexander, and, sailing down the Indus to its mouth, 
 after doubling the rocky promontory of Eirus, now Cape Monze, in 
 a few days he arrived at an island near that mouth, called Bibacta, 
 
 * Arrian in Indicis, cap. 2). t Strabouis Geograph. lib. xv. p. 721. 
 
 2 T 2 
 
[ 326 ] 
 
 where, finding the wind exceedingly boisterous, and a spacious and 
 commodious harbour upon it, he took the prudent resolution of re- 
 maining at that station till the entire ceasing of the adverse monsoon. 
 The troops were, therefore, disembarked, a camp was immediately 
 formed, and fortified with a wall of stone, by way of security against 
 the attacks and depredations of the savage inhabitants. Nearchus was 
 so pleased with this sheltered retreat from the tempestuous gales, that 
 he honoured the haven with the distinguished title of the Port of 
 Alexander; and the English editor of his Voyage has discovered its 
 exact scite in the Chilney Isle of modern charts of the coast. How- 
 ever secure from the storm and the barbarous natives, the fleet was 
 by no means so from the assaults of a more dreadful foe, FAMINE, 
 and with difficulty supported life with the various species of shell-fish 
 which they found scattered on the shore. To add to this calamity, 
 they could obtain no water on the whole coast but what was 
 brackish, and all this not only shews how little they were provided 
 with stores for such a tedious voyage, but demonstrates that they must 
 have been compelled to undertake it before they were fully prepared. 
 After staying at Bibacta twenty-four days, the monsoon having at 
 length become favourable, they continued their progress close along 
 the shore till they arrived at the mouth of the river Arabis, a name 
 still preserved in Araba and Cape Arrubah adjoining*. The Arabis 
 is stated, by Arrian, to be distant from the Indus a thousand stadia, 
 little more than sixty miles ; and on this navigation near forty days 
 had already been consumed. After a short stay at the Arabis, the 
 fleet again sailed, and, soon after, the monsoon being yet wavering, 
 owing to a violent and sudden change of the wind, two galleys and a 
 transport foundered ; but, the Greek vessels ever keeping close to the 
 shore, the crews saved themselves by swimming to land. They were 
 
 i 
 
 * Voyage of Nearchus, p. 182. 
 
[ 327 ] 
 
 now on the coast of the Oritae, and had the happiness to meet with 
 Leonnatus, bearing a seasonable supply often days provisions, which 
 his vigilance had collected in that barren region. That officer, after 
 the departure of .Alexander, had been attacked by the barbarians and 
 their allies, but had repulsed them with great slaughter. This for- 
 tunate congress with their countrymen, together with the supply, re- 
 vived the spirits of the fleet. Such of the crews, however, as were 
 dispirited or worn out with their past fatigues, were permitted to 
 rejoin the army ; and others, fresh and vigorous, were drafted from it, 
 who cheerfully supplied their place on board the ships. Thus re- 
 freshed and recruited, the fleet continued its progress with little 
 worthy of notice along the dreary Gedrosian coast to the next im- 
 portant station, Malana, (Cape Moran,) distant above sixteen hun- 
 dred stadia, or about one hundred miles, from the Arabis. They next 
 combated the horrors of a coast inhabited by none but savage Icthyo- 
 phagi, (or fish-eaters,) and extending seven thousand four hundred 
 stadia, or four hundred and fifty miles, in a right line : a coast where 
 they suffered every dreadful variety of human misery, from hunger, 
 which they found nothing but fish and a scanty supply of meat, dis- 
 gusting from its strong fishy flavour, to appease ; and from thirst, 
 which they could only slake with muddy or brackish water. They 
 met, however, at Mosarna, on this coast, with one invaluable blessing, 
 a Gedrosian pilot of gocyi experience in these seas, whose skill and 
 attention diminished the perils of the future voyage, as well as 
 quickened its progress. The termination of this forlorn region and 
 of their miseries they found at Badis, the Cape Jask of our maps, 
 and they now with rapture began to coast along the beautiful and fer- 
 tile shores ot'Carmania, where they found abundance of grain and 
 fruits, and that still greater luxury, the purest water. At length the 
 fleet arrived at the river Anamis, at the mouth of which stood a town, 
 called by the Greeks Harmuzeia, synonymous with the modern 
 
[ 328 ] 
 
 Ormus, which has since conferred its name on the whole Persian 
 Gulph, and is justly deduced by our learned geographer from the 
 radical word Hormuzd, or Oromasdes, the beneficent deity of the 
 ancient Persians. At Harmuzeia the harrassed crews of the whole 
 fleet exultingly went on shore, and reflected with pleasure on their 
 final escape from so many and such urgent perils. A camp was 
 formed on the spot, and strongly fortified with a rampart and ditch ; 
 the vessels were also hauled on shore, as well for security as that 
 they might undergo such repairs as appeared necessary after their 
 late tedious voyage.* 
 
 An idea was at this time forcibly impressed on the mind of 
 Nearchus, that the army of Alexander was still in Carmania, and he 
 determined to explore the interior of that province, and gain, if 
 possible, some intelligence concerning the progress of the army and 
 its distance from the shore. In the mean time, some more curious 
 individuals of the fleet, happening to wander farther into the 
 country than their comrades, by accident met a person clothed in a 
 Grecian vest, and speaking fluently their native language. Their 
 astonishment was extreme, mingled with inexpressible delight at 
 meeting with an inhabitant of their own country on so distant a 
 shore, and after such severe suffering. A variety of anxious questions 
 was immediately addressed to the equally-surprised stranger, who 
 confessed himself to be a Greek, and informed them that he had 
 strayed down thither from the camp of Alexander, who, with his 
 whole army, had some time before entered Carmania, and at that 
 moment was at no great distance. He was immediately conducted to 
 the admiral amidst the loudest acclamations of joy. On confirming 
 to Nearchus the welcome tidings, and informing him that in five 
 days he might reach the Macedonian camp, the delighted admiral 
 
 * Arriani Hist. Indie, cap. 33. 
 
[ 329 ] 
 
 lost not a moment in preparing for his journey thither. Alexander, 
 by the zeal of the Greek governor of the province, who hurried to 
 him by the nearest roads, was speedily informed of the safe arrival 
 of the fleet on the Carmanian coast and the approach of Near- 
 chus ; and detatchments, with carriages, for his accommodation, 
 were sent out on every quarter ; but these, not returning with the 
 celerity his impatience expected, his mind was alternately agitated 
 with the extremes of hope and despair ; and the latter predomi- 
 nating, the prefect was ordered into confinement for being the 
 bearer of false intelligence. In fact, so totally altered by their 
 continued sufferings \vere the countenances of the Greek admiral 
 and his comrades, their skin was so parched by the scorching sun 
 and wind, the hair of their heads and beards was grown to such an 
 enormous length, their whole bodies w r ere so emaciated, and the 
 vestments that coveied them were so worn and tattered, that the 
 messengers dispatched did not at first know them. Mutual inquiries 
 however, making them acquainted with each other, the wearied 
 travellers mounted the carriages sent for them, and were driven to 
 the tent of Alexander. At a distance, that prince was so struck with 
 horror at their squalid appearance, as immediately to conceive the 
 idea that the fleet had been cast away on the Gedrosian coast, and 
 that these were a part of the miserable remains of the shipwrecked 
 crew. On their nearer approach, he soon recognized and eagerly ran 
 to embrace Nearchus ; and, on being assured by him of the satety of 
 the fleet and army, no rapture could exceed Alexander's. The tears 
 streamed from his eyes ; he swore by the Greek and Lybian Jove, 
 that the preservation of his fleet was an object dearer to his heart 
 than the conquest of Asia ; and that, had it been lest, the dominion 
 of the whole earth could not have made him amends tor it.* 
 
 * Arrian. Hist. Ind. cap. 34, 35. 
 
[ 330 ] 
 
 The Carmanian governor was now liberated and amply rewarded ; 
 the most magnificent sacrifices were gratefully offered to Jupiter, 
 Hercules, and other celestial deities, as well as to Neptune and the 
 inferior gods who reign in the region of waters ; splendid sports were 
 exhibited, at which the king himself assisted, and joyfully led the 
 triumphal train ; and Nearchus, after being publicly crowned with 
 chaplets of flowers, and having received the ardent thanks of his 
 sovereign for his zeal and perseverance, was dispatched to the sea- 
 shore, with orders to prosecute his voyage, and again to join his 
 enraptured sovereign in the province of Susa. 
 
 On Alexander's first entrance into Carmania, he was joined by 
 Craterus with the invalids and the elephants, whom, we before ob- 
 served, he had dispatched westward from the Indus through the 
 more practicable country of Arachosia and Drangiana. These, with 
 the greater part of the army, the elephants, camels, and other beasts 
 of burthen, Avere now ordered to proceed, under the command of 
 Hephaestion, to Susa, by the way of the sea-coast, not only because 
 that region of Carmania was the most favourable for a winter-march, 
 but that they might be at hand to render every possible assistance 
 to the fleet, and occasionally be assisted by them. The king himself, 
 with a considerable body of light troops, infantry and cavalry, took 
 the road to Pasargadse, in Persia, to visit the tomb of Cyrus, which 
 had 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 
 proposed. 
 
 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 offered sacrifices to Jupiter Soter for 
 
[ 331 ] 
 
 his preservation, and exhibited gymnastic exercises on the shore, he 
 ordered the ships to be unmoored, and joyfully 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 
 Katai, (Keish,) where it terminates, is stated by Arrian to be three 
 thousand seven hundred stadia ; the Carmanians are represented as 
 living after the Persian manner, as using the same arms, and ob- 
 serving the same martial dicipline. 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 
 three 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 mouth of the river Sitacus, (now Sita-Reghian,) down whose 
 stream Alexander, ever vigilant for the preservation and comfort of his 
 fleet, had contrived to send a large supply of corn from the interior 
 parts of the province. At this station, too, they drew on shore, and re- 
 paired such vessels as had received injury along a coast, recorded by 
 Arrian to be remarkably crowded with rocks and shallows. That coast 
 however, terminated at the river Arosis, the modern Endian. The 
 division of the coast of the Persian Gulph, along which the fleet bent 
 its final course, was the maritime part of the province of Susiana ; 
 and this last was the shortest portion of the voyage, being stated by 
 Arrian to extend from its eastern limit, the Arosis, to its western, the 
 Pasitigris, no more than two thousand stadia, or one hundred and 
 twenty-five miles. Every minute particular of this long and adven- 
 turous voyage, in those days of nautical inexperience, and on that 
 perilous untried coast, is investigated in such a masterly manner by 
 the author just referred to, that any more extended detail concerning 
 it, than what is here given, would be an unpardonable intrusion on 
 Vol. in. 2 U 
 
[ 332 ] 
 
 his learned labours ; and to those pages, therefore, the curious reader 
 and geographical enquirer are referred. It is sufficient for me to add, 
 that, sailing up the Pasitigris, through a rich and populous country, 
 to a village situated about nine miles up that river, the fleet there 
 cast anchor, and waited for intelligence of the army's approach. 
 The interval was filled up with the celebration of sacrifices to the gods, 
 in gratitude for their protection during so hazardous a navigation, 
 and with the festive games usual on such joyful occasions. That 
 February, intelligence at length arriving, they again, for the last time, spread 
 
 Before Christ, _ 1-1 
 
 325. their sails, and proceeded triumphantly up the river to a bridge 
 newly built over the stream, for the passage of the army. There 
 they met with renovated transports of mutual joy ; new sacrifi- 
 ces blazed to the gods ; new games, of unparalleled magnificence, 
 were instituted, at which Alexander solemnly placed, with his own 
 hands, on the head of Nearchus, a crown of the purest gold, while 
 before him were again borne triumphal garlands, and his path was 
 once more strewed with the loveliest flowers that grow in the gardens 
 of Asia*. 
 
 The subsequent events that took place, till the untimely period of 
 the decease of Alexander, in less than two years after, are entirely 
 unconnected with this history ; and, were they not so, could not be 
 detailed in it, for want of room. From this splendid scene, therefore, 
 of festive triumph, of unbounded exultation for Asia subjugated and 
 the Ocean explored, we must reluctantly turn the deploring eye to 
 the dark chamber of death, and view this great prince, the conqueror 
 of the East, in the full career of unrivalled glory, expiring at his 
 palace in Babylon, the victim of continued and frantic intem- 
 perance, in the thirty-third year of his age, in the thirteenth of his 
 
 * Arriani Hist. Ind. cap. 42. 
 
[ 333 ] 
 reign, and in July of the year before Christ three hundred and J ul > 
 
 lit tore ClirUl, 
 
 twenty-four. It is, indeed, a sudden and terrible reverse of fortune ; 
 and the fact itself of his premature death, as well as the circum- 
 stances that led to it, afford an apportunity for those awful reflec- 
 tions which will properly terminate the final page of a history, 
 devoted, through its whole extent, to uphold the great cause of 
 REVEALED RELIGION, and vindicate the proceedings of PROVI- 
 DENCE : a history, which, on that account, will not fail to give 
 pleasure to the expiring moments of the Author himself, and atone, 
 it is hoped, for a multitude of juvenile errors. 
 
 Something more, however, has been promised, and will be expect- 
 ed, previously to be said, concerning the wonderful man, whose ex- 
 ploits in the field and whose wisdom in the council have so long and 
 with such peculiar interest engaged our attention. Those remarks will 
 be concise, and, as usual, chiefly point to his political character. 
 
 Plutarch, the most intelligent and philosophical of his ancient 
 biographers, and the only one who seems to have entered into the 
 plans of Alexander in all the extent of the projector, has informed 
 us, that, when in his earliest youth, ambassadors arrived at Macedon 
 from Persia, the prince discovered a profundity of observation and a 
 political sagacity far beyond his years. Instead of indulging the 
 inquiries of puerile curiosity concerning the splendor and mag- 
 nificence of the Persian court, the numerous and superb palaces of 
 Darius, the hanging gardens of Babylon, and other general topics of 
 admiration in Asia, he was assiduous to learn the state of the public 
 roads in the Higher Asia, the number and discipline of the troops 
 which that monarch could bring into the field, and the peculiar sta- 
 tion of the Persian monarch in the army when the line of battle 
 was formed. Plutarch justly records this fact as a proof of the early 
 maturity of his understanding and the extent of his designs. Let us 
 
 2 U 2 
 
[ 334 ] 
 
 now observe Alexander in the vigorous prosecution of those designs, 
 stopping after the battle of Issus in the full career of victory, and, with 
 high apparent impolicy, giving Darius an opportunity to recover his 
 severe loss, and arm all Asia against him, for the purpose of reducing 
 the maritime regions of Syria, of exploring Egypt, navigating the 
 Nile, and erecting Alexandria on the spot best adapted to effectuate 
 his purposes. After the battle of Arbela, in the pursuit of Bessus, 
 let us again observe him unnecessarily, as it should appear, traversing 
 the Northern Asia in every direction, warring on the Sogdians, 
 and advancing to the very deserts of Scythia, to make himself per- 
 sonally acquainted with the Avhole theatre of his glory, and realize 
 his views. That this, and not a wild thirst of conquest, was the prin- 
 ciple on which he acted, may be collected from his conduct, when 
 in those regions, in regard to the European Scythians, who sent 
 an embassy to request his alliance, and which I purposely omitted 
 to notice in any particular manner, till this concluding retrospect on 
 the life and exploits of Alexander. Arrian informs us, that, when 
 the ambassadors returned home, he sent back with them a select 
 band of his friends, apparently to do them honour, and as a mark of 
 respect and friendship for their nation, but in reality " to explore 
 the exact situation of their country, the extent of their population, 
 whether the people were robust and warlike, their mode of fighting, 
 and the arms used by them*." This circumstance is of a very im- 
 pressive nature, and connects a mode of thinking and a plan of 
 action at two very remote periods of life. 
 
 At every commanding point throughout the whole of this exten- 
 sive march, he erects cities and fortresses, which he peoples with 
 Greeks, and makes immense dep6ts of arms in regions remote as 
 
 * Anian, lib. iv. cap. 1. 
 
[ 335 ] 
 
 Gaza and Candahar ; on the banks of the laxartes and the shore of 
 the Hydaspes ; and constructs stupendous docks and havens at the 
 mouth of the Nile and in the Gulph of Cambay. The part of his 
 conduct more generally objected to by his accusers seems to be by 
 no means the least praise-worthy ; his march through Gedrosia. 
 That march, indeed, has afforded to some of his biographers an 
 ample field for eloquent declamation, and to others an opportunity 
 of unmerited censure. I have added my humble efforts to those of 
 the Editor of the Voyage of Nearchus, to rescue so great a general 
 from the charge of precipitation and temerity. The preservation of 
 his fleet, and, in consequence, the exploring of the country border- 
 ing on the coast of the Persian Gulph, were the objects nearest his 
 heart ; for these much was to be dared, but prudently dared. If the 
 sufferings of the army were great, great also was the stake and 
 urgent the necessity. The event proved that Alexander had not 
 formed a rash, though a bold, resolution ; for, that event was pros- 
 perous ; and, had he lived to have established his empire and com- 
 pleted the vast projects of his mind, there is no saying what un- 
 numbered benefits might not have resulted from it, not only to Asia, 
 but to the whole extent of the civilized world. 
 
 But the King of kings, who, from his higher throne, beholds, and, 
 by his providence, regulates, the course of human events, in his 
 eternal, but inscrutable, councils, had determined that Alexander 
 should not accomplish the mighty designs his ambition had formed. 
 One of these, which was to enlarge and beautify BABYLON, and 
 make that interdicted city the emporium of the world, was re- 
 solved on in express opposition to a solemn decree which had gone 
 forth against it three hundred years before; the tremendous ana- 
 thema that Jehovah would make it an habitation for the bittern 
 and pools of water, and that he would sweep it with the besom of 
 
[ 336 ] 
 
 destruction*. In vain, therefore, did the conqueror of land and sea 
 attempt to repair the bank of the Euphrates, which, obedient to HIS 
 voice, who first bade its waters roll, had burst its ancient mounds, 
 and widely inundated the country. With equal probability of 
 success he might have essayed to tear the centred sun from its orbit, 
 or drain the bed of the ocean of the volume of its Avaters. By the 
 divine fiat, and to promote its wonderful, but unfathomable, pur- 
 poses, Alexander had already far exceeded the usual limits assigned 
 to terrestrial power and human glory. He had also abused the 
 exalted talents intrusted to him, by impiously arrogating divine 
 honours both for himself and Hephajstion ; by the grossest in- 
 temperance; and, amidst its excesses, by the foul murder of more 
 than one friend ! A conspicuous and terrible example of the divine 
 displeasure, therefore, was in Alexander to be holden up to future 
 conquerors and to distant ages. He had now finished the splendid 
 but arduous task appointed him by the eternal decrees of Pro- 
 vidence. The spotted leopard-^-, with rapid wings and ravening 
 talons, or, as it has already been observed, he is elsewhere still more 
 emphatically depicted, the furious he-goat, from the west, with one 
 horn, (the DULCARNEIN of the Orientals:]:,) who is represented by 
 Daniel as bounding over the earth with such velocity as scarcely 
 to touch its surface , had finished his impetuous, his sanguinary 
 career. The subverter, by the permission of heaven, of the second 
 great empire of the world, is now to descend into the same grave 
 
 * Isaiah xiii. 20. t Dan. vii. 5. J See page 591 preceding. 
 
 And as I was considering, behold an he-goat came FROM THE WEST, on the face of the 
 whole earth, and TOUCHED NOT THE GROUND; and the goat had a NOTABLE HORN 
 between his eyes. Dan. viii. 5. 
 
[ 337 ] 
 
 which held the vanquished Darius. The commissioned angel, that 
 presided over a life pregnant with such important events ; that, un- 
 known to himself, guarded him at the Granicus; and spread over 
 him, when prostrate among the Malli, a more powerful shield of 
 protection than that of Pallas ; was now commanded to elevate the 
 destroying arm. At the banquet of Medias he presented to his lips 
 the empoisoned chalice, and the infatuated victim drank it off to the 
 very dregs. 
 
 END OP THE THIRD AND LAST VOLUME. 
 
 
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