16 AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION'

SECT.

I.

or Chelum, he was opposed by Porus, a power-ful monarch of the country , at the head of anumerous army.. The war with Porus, and thehostilities in which he was successively engaged•with other Indian princes, led him to deviatefrom his original route, and to turn more towardsthe south-west. In carrying on these operations,Alexander marched through one of the richest andbest peopled countries of India, now called thePanjab, from the five great rivers by which it iswatered; and as we know that this march wasperformed in the rainy season, when even Indianarmies cannot keep the field, it gives a high ideaboth of Alexander’s persevering spirit, and of theextraordinary vigor and hardiness of constitutionwhich soldiers, in ancient times, derived from theunited effects of gymnastic exercise and militarydiscipline. In every step of his progress, objectsno less striking than new presented themselves toAlexander. The magnitude of the Indus, evenafter he had seen the Nile, the Euphrates, andthe Tigris, must have filled him with surprise".No country he had hitherto visited was so popu-lous and well cultivated, or abounded in so 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 description, how muchthe Indus was inferior to the Ganges, and howfar all that he had hitherto beheld was surpassed

" Strab, libt xv. P. 1027. C. & note Causab.

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