CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA.

17

in the happy regions through which that greatriver flows, it is not wonderful that his eagernessto view and to take posseffion of them should haveprompted him to assemble his soldiers, and to pro-pose that they should resume their march towardsthat quarter where wealth, dominion, and fameawaited them. But they had already done so much,and had suffered so greatly, especially from inces-sant rains and extensive inundations, that theirpatience as well as strength was exhaustedandwith one voice they refused to advance farther.In this resolution they persisted with such sullenobstinacy, that Alexander, though possessed inthe highest degree of every quality that gains anascendant over the minds of military men, wasobliged to yield , and to issue orders for marchingback to Persia

The scene of this memorable transaction was onthe banks of the Hyphasis, the modern Beyah,which was the utmost limit of Alexander’s progressin India. From this it is manifest, that he did nottraverse the whole extent of the Panjab. Its south-west boundary is formed by a river anciently knownby the name pf Hysudrus, and now by that of theSetlege , to which Alexander never approachednearer than the southern bank of the Hyphasis,where he erected twelve stupendous altars, whichhe intended as a monument of his exploits, andwhich (if we may believe the biographer of Apollo-nius Tyanæus) were still remaining, with legible

35 See NOTE IV. " Artian, v. c. 24, 2;.

C

SECT.

I.