The Gloiv Spreads West ^^ 



Megasthenes, writing of India at this time, states that the Emperor 

 Chandra Gupta, who reigned from 321 to 297 b.c, divided his gov- 

 ernment into six ministries and that the first of these was a Board 

 of Admiralty. Although we have no exact historical record, it ap- 

 pears that the seafaring prowess of India, which we glimpsed cen- 

 turies before, had continued to develop along its own Hues. We know 

 that by that time there were already Indian colonies in Pegu, Su- 

 matra, Java, Borneo, Cambodia, China, and perhaps even in Japan. 

 The sculptures on the Burubudur in Java show large vessels with 

 multiple sails, and although this monument was built some centuries 

 later and after the Kalingas of the east coast of India had colonized 

 that island, these vessels could not then have been a new invention 

 and must have been preceded by an old and vigorous seafaring tra- 

 dition. 



The voyage of Nearchus was notable as an historical accomplish- 

 ment. What is more, the accounts of it left by Arrian and by Strabo 

 contain some illuminating descriptions of whales. One of the most 

 interesting of these states, "What most alarmed them was the magni- 

 tude of the whales, which occasioned a great commotion in the sea 

 all at once, and raised so dense a mist by their blowing that the sail- 

 ors could not see where they stood. But when the pilots informed 

 the sailors that they were animals which would quickly take them- 

 selves off on hearing the sound of the trumpet and the clapping of 

 their hands, Nearchos thereupon impelled the vessels in the direction 

 of the surges which obstructed their course, and at the same time 

 frightened the animals with the sound of the trumpet. The whales 

 dived, and then rose again at the prows of the vessels, so as to furnish 

 the appearance of a sea-fight, but they very soon made off. Those 

 who now sail to India speak of the size of these animals and of their 

 appearances, but say they do not come either in shoals or frequently, 

 but are scared away by shouts and the sound of the trumpet. They 

 state also that they do not come near the shore, but that the bones of 

 those that die, bared of flesh, are readily cast ashore by the waves and 

 furnish the Icthyophagi with the material for the construction of 

 their huts. The length of these whales, according to Nearchos, is 

 '23 orgyiae.' " 



From this we infer that a school of large whales was a novel sight 

 to the Greeks, and this in turn bears out the oft-repeated contention 



