CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA

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a favorite meafure on which he had been long secintent. If he had invaded India a fecond time, i.he would not, as formerly, have been obliged toforce his way through hoftile and unexplored re-gions , oppofed at every ftep by nations and tribesof Barbarians, whofe names had never reachedGreece . All Alia, from the fhores of the Ionianfea to the banks of the Hyphafis, would then havebeen fubject to his dominion; and through thatimmenfe ftretch of country he had cltablilhed fucha chain of cities, or fortified ftations* 1 . that hisarmies might have continued their march withfafety, and have found a regular fucceffion ofmagazines provided for their fubfiftence. Norwould it have been difficult for him to bring intothe field forces fufficient to have achieved theconqueft of a country fo populous and extenfiveas India . Having armed and difciplined his fub-jects in the Eaft like Europeans , they wouldhave been ambitious to imitate and to equal theirinffrudors, and Alexander might have drawn re-cruits , not from his fcanty domains in Macedoniaand Greece , but from the vaft regions of Afia,which, in every age, has covered the earth, andaftonilhed mankind with its numerous armies.When at the head of fuch a formidable power hehad reached the confines of India , he might haveentered it under circualliances very different fromthofe in his firfl expedition. Ele had fecured a firmfooting there, partly by means of the garrifons

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See NOTE X.