i8' WESTERN H I N D O O S T A N. 



They are fuppofed to have been the fame with the vahant caft the 

 Kbatre^ to this day renowned for their defperate valour. Alex- 

 ander befieged them in their city : their defence was brave and 

 obftinate : but they fell before the fortune of the Macedonian 

 hero, who deftroyed the nation, and levelled their city with the 

 ground. A namelefs city, as Mr. Rennel ftyles it, was to be 

 found higher up the river, on the oppofite fide. This deferved 

 to have been immortalized, as having been the place where 



Alexander that hero endangered his life by one of the rafli adions he was 

 very fubje6l to fall into. He leaped into the city, was befet by 

 enemies, and received a defperate wound in his fide by an arrow, 

 which had transfixed his breaftplate. He fainted, but recovered 

 the moment he felt an Indian going to ftrip him, and drawing a 

 dagger pierced his aflTailant to the heart. I leave the reader to 

 confult Arriany Exped. Alex. i. 396, about the event ; and Mr. 

 Rennel, p. 128, as to reafons for fixing the fixteof the momentous 

 affair in the place he does, about ten miles above the confl.ux of 

 the two rivers. 



Gold, Gold is found in fome of the rivers of Tanjab. In refpeil 



to gold, we are informed by Herodotus, Thalia, c. 95, that the 

 Indians paid their tribute to Darius in that pretious metal; and 

 tells us, that it is procured out of the rivers, and alfo dup- ont 

 of the earth, and fmelted by them into ingots before they make 

 with it their donative. One of the epithets the Poets beftow on 

 the Hydafpes is Aurifer, poflibly as being peculiarly rich in gold. 

 Herodotus, Thalia, c. 102, relates, and feems to credit, the ftrange 

 ftory of its particles being thrown up with the land of the vaft 

 defert, probably that of Regijlan, by ants as big as foxes, and that 

 the Indians went with three camels to colle<ft the grains which 

 4 they 



