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cultural pursuits, set off to meet and appease Alexander with mag- 

 nificent presents. Alexander, who was anxious to leave no enemy 

 behind him unsubdued by arms or kindness, received him with the 

 same affability he had shewn to Sophites, abode two days in his 

 territories, and, on the third, prepared to cross the river. The 

 name of this river, the fourth of the Panjab, was doubtless formed 

 by the Greeks from Beypassa, its ancient Sanscreet appellative in the 

 geography of the Ayeen Akbery. The modern name of Beyah is 

 probably also a contraction of the Sanscreet term. It was not less 

 broad and violent than the Hydraotes, nor the channel less rocky 

 and interrupted. Before he attempted the passage, Alexander in- 

 quired anxiously of Phegelas concerning the distance between his 

 present position and the Ganges, and the military strength and popu- 

 lation of the nations who inhabited the banks of that river. In 

 answer to these inquiries, he was informed, that, when he had 

 crossed the Hyphasis, his direct line of march lay through a 

 dreary desert of eleven days journey, at the end of which he 

 would reach the river in question ; a river, the broadest and deepest 

 in India, and to which all those he had already passed might 

 be considered as rivulets; that its eastern banks were inhabited by 

 two numerous and warlike nations, denominated, from the situation 

 of the one and the capital of the other, Gangarides and Prasii, 

 whose king, by the Greeks called Agrammes, was prepared to meet 

 him on the frontiers of his dominion, with an army far more 

 numerous than any he had yet encountered. The soul of Alex- 

 ander was fired with this intelligence ; every moment seemed lost 

 till he had passed the bounds of that inhospitable desert ; till he 

 had braved the billows of that mighty river ; till he should be able 

 to bring to action that formidable enemy ; and erect the triumphant 

 banners of Macedon on the shore of the ocean that formed the 

 eastern boundary of Asia. 



