16 AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION

SECT.

I.

or Chelum, he was oppofed by Porus , a power-ful monarch of the country , at the head of anumerous army. The war with Porus , and thehoftiiities in which he was fucceffively engagedwith other Indian princes, led him to deviatefrom his original route, and to turn more towardsthe fouth-weft. In carrying on thefe operations,Alexander marched through one of the richeft andbeft peopled countries of India , now called the vPanjab , from the five great rivers by which it iswatered; and as we know that this march wasperformed in the rainy feafon, when even Indianarmies'cannot keep the field, it gives a high ideaboth of Alexander’s perfevering fpirit, and of theextraordinary vigor and hardinefs of conflitutionwhich foldiers, in ancient times, derived from theunited effects of gymnaftic exercife and militarydifcipline. In every ftep of his progrefs, objectsno lefs ftriking than new prefented themfelves toAlexander. The magnitude of the Indus, evenafter he had feen the Nile, the Fuphrates, andthe Tigris, muft have filled him with furprife 1 *.No country he had hitherto vifited was fo popu-lous and well cultivated, or abounded in fo manyvaluable productions of nature and of art, as thatpart of India through which he had led his army.But when he was informed in every place, andprobably with exaggerated defcription, how muchthe Indus was inferior to the Ganges, and bowfar all that he had hitherto beheld was furpafled

Strab. libi xv. p. 1027. C. & note Caufab.

in