1848.] The Battle Field of Alexander and Porus. 623 



with clay, bounded on the S. west by the Hydaspes, and by a range of 

 low hills and ravines on the N. east, the interval being about 5 miles. 



Had Porus but been aware, wherein consisted the peculiar strength 

 of his adversary, wherein the peculiar feebleness of his own array, 

 the narrowness of this battle field might have been turned by him to 

 good account ; his right resting upon the quicksands of the Sookaytur 

 opposite Alibeg, and his left upon the Jelum. But it was the encounter 

 of military genius practised in the tactics of eastern foes, with the 

 valor which knew but of one mode of combat. 



As I rode upon an elephant over the whole of this haunted ground, 

 splashing across the numberless channels of the crystal Hydaspes, the 

 whole tragedy seemed once more to be enacting around me. The 

 perilous transit of the cavalry, across the swollen and turbid gulf, in the 

 ponderous boats of the country amid the darkness and the thunders of 

 an equinoctial storm. Their formation in the stern silence of perfect 

 discipline. Their sudden mortifying check, as they found a wide, deep 

 and tumultuous current still separating them from the eastern bank ; 

 the galloping of horsemen hither and thither to ascertain at once the 

 length of the island and the practicability of fording ; their dismay 

 when they found the island almost interminable ; their sudden dis- 

 covery of a ford breast-deep through a current of portentous power, 

 the plunge of the iron clad Companion cavalry and steady stride of 

 the Macedonian Phalanx, hand linked in hand, through the foaming 

 torrent ; the splash, the scramble up the farther bank and instant 

 reconstruction of their veteran Battalia ; the stern joy of the young 

 conqueror, as he finds thst nature ceases to oppose him, and that there 

 remains but the encounter with fellow-men. 



Meanwhile, fiery with haste the horsemen of the Powarr are dashing 

 toward the camp of their Raja, and suddenly drawing rein before the 

 guarded enclosure, exclaim breathless, " The men, — the iron-men have 

 crost." 



Then the mighty camp is one scene of confusion and of life : war- 

 riors snatching up their arms ; horsemen saddling their war-steeds or 

 yoking the courser to the chariot of battle ; the elephant caparisoned 

 in his iron panoply, surmounted by the castle, filled with bowmen or 

 hurlers of the winged dart ; the half drest food relinquished, the half 

 formed lustration abandoned, the half-breathed prayer cut short ; whilst 



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