NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

lous expeditions Strabo is aftonifhed that lie fhould havegiven any credit, lib. xv. p. 1007. D.) Alexander wasthe firft who had invaded India ; Arrian , Hift. Indie, c.We are informed by Arrian , that the AfTacani, and otherpeople who poffeflVd that country, which is now called theJfii gdom ofCandahar, paid tribute , firft to the AfTyrians,•and afterwards, to the Aledes and Perfians; Hift. Indie,c i. As all the fertile provinces on the north. weft ofthe Indus were anciently reckoned to be part of India ,it is probable that what was levied from them is the fummentioned in the tribute - roll, from which Herodotus drewhis account of the annual revenue of the Perlian empire,and that none of the provinces to the fouth of the Induswere ever fubjedt to the kings of Perfia.—2. This voyageof Nearchus affords fome ftriking inftances of the imperfedtknowledge which the ancients had of any navigation differ,ent from that to which they were accuftr.med in the Me-diterranean. Though the enrerprifing genius and enlarged■views of Alexander prompted him to attempt opening anintercourfe by fea between India and his Perlian dominions,yet both he and Nearchus knew fo little of the ocean whichthey wifhed to explore, as to be appreher.five chat it mightbe found impoflible to navigate it, on account of imper-vious ftraits, or other obftacles. Hift. Indie, c. 20. Q_. Curt,lib. ix. c. 9. "W hen the fleet arrived near the mouth ofthe Indus, the aftonifliment excited by the extraordinaryflow and ebb of ride in the Indian ocean , a phenomenon(according to Arrian ) with which Alexander and his foldierswere unacquainted, lib. vi. c. 19 is another proof of theirignorance in maritime fcience. Nor is there any reafon tobe fnrprifed at their aftonifliment, as the tides are hardlyperceptible in the .Mediterranean, beyond which the know-ledge of the Greeks and Macedonians did not extend. Forthe fame reafon, when the Romans carried their victoriousarms into the countries fituated on the Atlantic Ocean , oron the Teas that communicate with it, this new phenomenonof the tides was an objedt of wonder and terror to them.Caefar deferibes che amazement of his foldicts at a fpring-tide;