WESTERN HINDOOSTAN. 29 



can be given to the hiftorians of a perfon, the time of whofe 

 life cannot be fettled within 1,535 years ? 



LoxG after this dubious expedition, Darius Hyjlafpes^ induced Darius 



H YSX ASPES 



through the curiolity of afcertaining the place where the Indus 

 met the ocean, built, fays Herodotus^ in his Me'pomene^ fedl. xliv. 

 a large fleet at Cajpatyrus^ in the Pa^yan territories, on the 

 borders of Scythia, high up the river, and gave the command 

 of it to Scylax, a Grecian of Caryandra, a mod able failor. He 

 was directed to be attentive to difcoveries on both fides ; and 

 when he reached the mouth, to fail weftward, and that way to 

 return home. He executed his commiflion, palTed the Streights 

 of Babel Mandely and in thirty months from the time he failed 

 from Cafpatyrus, landed fafely in Egypt, at the place from 

 whence it is faid that Necbo fent his Phoenicians to circumnavi- 

 gate Africa, by its now well known promontory the Cape of 

 Good Hope, This expedition took place in the twelfth year of 

 Darius, and in the year 509 before the Chrijlian aera. 



REVIEW OF THE INDUS. 



I SHALL now give a fliort topographical review of the ce- 

 lebrated river, from the ocean to its moft remote part, and alfo 

 of the rivers which fwell its ftream. That which receives this 

 mighty river is the Mare Erythroeuin, or modern Arabian fea. 



I have given fome account of the Delta ; let me add that it is. Delta of the 



Indus. 

 as it was in the time of the antients, unhealthy, and hot to the 



extreme: all its fertility cannot compenfate thofe inconvenien- 



cies. There is a greater and lefler Delta ; the greater begins a 



few 



