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mountaineers, Alexander, meditating victory by surprise, led such a 

 body of light-armed cavalry and infantry as appeared sufficient to 

 compel their submission. The rest of the forces were left under the 

 command of Hephsestion. At the approach of the king, the Oritae 

 dispersed on every side, and fled into the desert: but flight was not 

 surrender; and Alexander, therefore, rapidly crossing the Arabis, a 

 river remarkable for neither its width nor depth, marched all night 

 through the desert, and in the morning found himself in the midst 

 of a fertile and well-inhabited country. Here, permitting his in- 

 fantry to take some repose, he divided his cavalry into small, but 

 numerous, parties, and ordered them to scour the country in all di- 

 rections ; which was effectually done, vast multitudes of the natives 

 being slain, and abundance of prisoners brought in. In this region 

 was placed the principal town of the Oritse, called Rambacia, to 

 which, after having been joined by Hephasstion with the heavy 

 armed troops, he directed his progress ; and, finding the situation 

 well adapted for purposes of defence and commerce, he committed 

 to Hephsestion the charge of erecting a city on the spot, with a 

 strong fort to protect it, which is supposed to be the Arian Alex- 

 andria ; tor, Gedrosia (as Pliny, confirming this fact, informs us) was 

 only a portion of the larger province of Ariana.* While this under- 

 taking was going on, Alexander, taking with him some selected 

 cavalry, marched towards the frontiers of Gedrosia, where, in a 

 certain narrow defile of the mountainous chain that intersects their 

 country, the Gedrosians and the Oritae had joined their forces with 

 an apparent determination to defend it against the farther progress 

 of the invading enemy. Notwithstanding, however, the decided ad- 

 vantage which their situation afforded them for that defence, on the 

 near approach of the Macedonians, they abandoned the station they 



* Arrian, lib. vi. cap. 21. IMiny, lib. vii. cap. 9. 



