14
AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION
SECT, the military operations to which Alexander wasI. foon obliged to turn his attention, the defire ofacquiring the lucrative commerce which the Tyrianshad carried on with India , was not relinqiulhed.Events foon occurred that not only confirmed andadded ftrength to his defire, but opened to hima profped of obtaining the fovereignty of thoferegions which fupplied the reft of mankind withfo many precious commodities.
After his final vidory over the Perfians, he wasled in purfuit of the laft Darius, and of Beflus,the murderer of that unfortunate monarch, to tra-verfe that part of Afia which ftretches from theCafpian fea beyond the river Oxus . He advancedtowards the eaft as far as Maracanda 18 , then acity of fome note, and deftined, in a future peri-od , under the modern name of Samarcand , to bethe capital of an empire not inferior to his ownin extent or power. In a progrefs of feveral months,through provinces hitherto unknown to the Greeks,in a line of march often approaching near to India ,and among people accuftomed to much intercourfewith it, he learned many things concerning theftate of a country Jr that had been long the objedof his thoughts and wifhes 11 , which increafed hisdcfire of invading it. Decifive and prompt in allhis refolutions, he fet out from Badria, and crof-fed that ridge of mountains which , under variousdenominations, forms the Stony Girdle (if I may