CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA.

*3

dix, which I purpofe to annex to this Difquifxtion; SECT,and hope they may contribute to throw fome addi- i.tional light upon the origin and nature of thecommerce with India .

Much as the Weftern world was indebted for itsknowledge of India to the expedition of Alexander,it was only a fmall portion of that vafk continentwhich he explored. His operations did not extendbeyond the modern province of Labor, and thecountries on the banks of the Indus from Moultanto the fea. Thefe , however, were furveyed with vthat degree of accuracy which I have alreadydefcribed; and it is a circumftance not unworthyof notice, that this diftricl of India which Euro-peans firft entered, and with which they werebed: acquainted in ancient times, is now Jefs knownthan any part of that continent neither commercenor war, to which, in every age, geography is vchiefly indebted for its improvement, having ledany nation of Europe to frequent or explore it.

If an untimely death had not put a period tothe reign of the Macedonian hero, India , we havereafon to think , would have been more fullyexplored by the ancients, and the European domi-nion would have been e flab ii Hied there two thoufandyears fooner. When Alexander invaded India , he hadfomething more in view than a tranfient incurfion.

It was his object to annex that extenfive and opu-lent country to his empire, and though the refradtoryfpirit of his army obliged him, at that time, to

Rennell, Mem. 114.