1842.] from the West and North-west. 571 



mediate necessity for Alexander's return. But preparation had ante- 

 cedently been made for it by arrangements to construct a large fleet of 

 boats on the Hydaspes or Jihlum. These were completed by the end 

 of the rains of 327 b. c, and Alexander then commenced a march 

 down the Punjab and banks of the Indus, in the hope of finding a ready 

 way back to Persia by land or sea from its mouths. 



On the way down, he was troubled by the spirited resistance of the 

 Malli and Oxydracse, the former supposed to be settled near Mooltan, 

 and the latter a race occupying Kuchchee. In the operations against 

 these, Alexander received a wound with an arrow in the right breast, 

 which very nearly proved mortal, and much alarmed his faithful troops. 

 He recovered, however, and having reduced the Sindians, made the fol- 

 lowing arrangements at Pattala, now Tatta, for return. Craterus he 

 sent by Kuchchee and the Bolan Pass with the bulk of his army, and the 

 heavy baggage. Nearchus with the fleet was to skirt the coast, and 

 so make for the Persian Gulf. Alexander himself with a lightly 

 equipped force took the route through Beloochistan, intending to keep in 

 communication with the fleet. 



This march proved the most disastrous operation in which Alex- 

 ander had yet engaged ; from first to last, he suffered extremely from 

 heat, and from the want of fresh water, and the distress his army en- 

 countered is represented as almost beyond endurance, and the morta- 

 lity in consequence was very great. 



Dr. Vincent states, the march down from Nicsea on the Jihlum, 

 where the battle with Porus was fought, to Pattala or Tatta, at the 

 head of the Indus Delta, to have occupied nine months ; if it was 

 commenced, therefore, in October 327, it will have been July 326, b. c. 

 before he reached that city : and so far Arrian bears out this date, for 

 he says the Etesian winds, that is the monsoon, prevented the voyage 

 by sea at the time of Alexander being in Sindh. Having made ar- 

 rangements for establishing depots near the sea-coast, and for digging 

 wells to supply the fleet and his own army with fresh water at the first 

 stages along the coast, Alexander set off on his march of return 

 in September 326, b. c, directing Nearchus to follow as soon 

 as the season was favorable. The circumstances of this voyage have 

 been so accurately developed by Dr. Vincent, that it is only neces- 

 sary to refer to them very shortly. Nearchus left the Indus a month 



