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on this, sent orders to Eudemus and Taxiles conjointly to administer 

 the affairs of that province till he could send another governor, 

 properly qualified, to succeed him in that important portion of his 

 Indian conquests. He also dismissed Apollophanes for neglect of 

 orders, probably relating to the march through Gedrosia, and 

 possibly intended to facilitate it, from his lieutenancy over the 

 Orita?. 



After halting some days at this capital, he proceeded towards Car- 

 mania, (Kerman,) a province which exhibited in its appearance a per- 

 fect contrast to that of Gedrosia ; being rich in pasturage and abound- 

 ing with fruits and grain of every kind. On the first intelligence of 

 his arrival in this province, the governors of Aria arid Drangiana, 

 together with those of the more northern provinces, hastened to the 

 relief of the army with the choicest productions of their respective 

 prefectures. They were also accommodated with an immense num- 

 ber of horses, camels, and other beasts of burthen, to replace those 

 that had perished in the deserts, and the army now pursued its pro- 

 gress towards Babylon with festive joy, but doubtless not with that 

 frantic Bacchanalian spirit of intemperance imputed to them by 

 Curtius, who gravely tells his readers, that a thousand brave bar- 

 barians, rushing upon them, might easily have put to death the 

 whole of the Macedonian army ; and even Plutarch, the professed 

 apologist of Alexander, has deviated so far from that character as 

 to suppose so great a general would sanction, by his authority and 

 example, so absurd an inconsistency*. Solemn sacrifices offered to 

 heaven for an army rescued from the jaws of famine, the customary 

 athletic sports celebrated on those occasions of public thanksgiving 

 by the Greeks, and possibly some more than usually splendid rites 

 pel-formed in honour of Dionysius Thriambos, or the Triumphant, 



* Curtius, lib. ix. cap. ult. Plutarch iu Vita Alexand. 



