214 TRAVELS IN 
combined army ; but such knowledge would not have pre- 
vented them from making the experiment, the lives of their 
people being objects of little consideration with them. If, 
like the host of Xerxes, they should be compelled to feed on 
grass and the shrubs of the thicket, or, like the army of Cam- 
byses, in its march against the Ethiopians, be reduced to the 
still more dreadful necessity of killing every tenth man to 
feed the rest, what remorse would such calamities occasion 
in the breast of that man, who could deliberately put to death 
by poison the companions of his victories, for no other fault 
than the misfortune of being disabled by sickness ? 
Yet, although vast numbers would necessarily perish in 
such an enterprize, the result might, nevertheless^ be the 
means of shaking our security in India ; and this would be 
considered as a most ample compensation for any loss the 
enemy might sustain in the expedition. The obstacles that 
have been urged against it were, perhaps, equally great and 
numerous when the Macedonian hero undertook to march his 
army across the same countries ; yet he overcame them all. 
And if Alexander could succeed in penetrating into India, 
why not Buonaparte, since military skill and tactics are now 
so much superior among Europeans to what they were in his 
day, whilst they have remained nearly stationary in the na- 
tions of the East ? No sufficient reason can, perhaps, be 
assigned why the one, with the same or with increased means, 
and with talents, perhaps, not less suited to apply these 
means to the best advantage, should not be able to proceed 
to the same length that the other did. 
