390 Conjectures on the march of Alexander. [July, 



Sultan Mahmud Ghaznavi. In this passage he had to penetrate 

 through heavy falls of snow before he could reach Bactria, the capital 

 of Bactriana, which they say must have been the same as Balkh. 



This country, according to Barbie' du Bocage, extended to the south 

 of the Oxus, a large river which stretched as far as the Paropamisus. 

 It compromises Bactriana, properly so called, and the country of Mar- 

 giana, of which I have already spoken. 



Oxyartes, the father of Roxana, was king of the whole of this 

 country. 



It was at Bactria that Alexander condemned Bessus to have his 

 nose and ears mutilated. Calisthenes was arrested at the place called 

 Cariata. Plutarch relates, that Alexander was on the banks or 

 confines of the Oxus when he first meditated the conquest of India. 



The route which he pursued is, I imagine, the one now adopted by 

 the caravans which pass from Balkh to Cdbul, and which appears to 

 be the only passable road through which this mountainous country 

 can be traversed. 



This road passes through the territory of Bamiana, a very ancient 

 town, not far from which are to be found the prodigious ruins named 

 Gulgula. Six kos further, we meet with others that are attributed to 

 Zohak Shah ; and at the place called Siggan, there are the remains of 

 a fortress, the building of which the inhabitants attribute to Alexan- 

 der. If this tradition be well founded, there is not a doubt that it must 

 have been in this spot that Alexander built the town in the country 

 of the Paropamissei, and from whence he proceeded to Cophenes. 



This starting point is a stumbling-stone for geographers, inasmuch 

 as none of them have been able to determine its exact position. For, 

 proceeding in their narration from thence, some state that he maixhed 

 to Cow, which they mistake for Cophenes ; and had he done so, he 

 must have quitted the Paropamisaei, gone through the defiles of Ghazni, 

 and have precipitated himself from thence to the cantons of Gerdiz 

 and Lougird ; then crossing the country of the Bangishs he would 

 have proceeded to Peucelaotis by the route of Kohdt. In this case 

 Borikrajan must be Arigceum, of which we find mention made in 

 history. But I would observe, that along this route no such impor- 

 tant river as the Cophenes is to be found ; and then again how im- 

 probable it appears that Alexander, who had such an immense 

 tract of land to explore, would have ordered his generals HEPHiES- 

 tion and Perdiccas to conduct a division through a track so dis- 

 tant as that through Peucelaotis. It is then more probable that 

 he must have taken the road to Cdbul, and from thence dismissed 

 his generals, with orders to proceed in their route to Jeldldbad, 



