60 
plint's natural history. 
[Book VI. 
longer on fish. Next after these the writers have placed ex- 
tensive deserts, and then Carmania, Persia, and Arabia. 
CHAP. 26. VOYAGES TO INDIA. 
But before we enter into any details respecting these 
countries, it will be as well to mention what Onesicritus** 
has stated, who commanded the fleet of Alexander, and sailed 
from India*^ into the heart of Persia, and what has been 
more recently related by Juba ; after which I shall speak of the 
route along these seas which has been discovered in later years, 
and is followed at the present day. The journal of the voyage 
of Onesicritus and Nearchus has neither the names of the 
stations, nor yet the distances set down in it ; and, first of all, 
it is not sufficiently explained where Xylenepolis was, and 
near what river, a place founded by Alexander, and from 
which, upon setting out, they took their departure. Still, how- 
ever, the following places are mentioned by them, which are 
worthy of our notice. The town of Arbis, founded by Ne- 
archus on the occasion of this voyage; the river !N'abrus,*^ 
navigable for vessels, and opposite to it an island, at a distance 
of seventy stadia ; Alexandria, built by Leonnatus*^ by order 
of Alexander in the territories of this people ; Argenus, with 
a very convenient harbour ; the river Tonberos,^^ a navigable 
stream, around whose banks are the Pasirae ; then come the Ich- 
thyophagi, who extend over so large a tract of coast that it 
took thirty days*^ to sail past their territory ; and an island 
known by the names of the " Island of the Sun"^° and the " Eed 
See the Notes at the end of this Book. 
*5 By descending the Indus, and going up the Persian Gulf. 
Near the mouth of the Indus, Hardouin says. 
^"^ One of Alexander's most distinguished officers, and a native of Pella. 
He commanded the division of cavalry and light-armed troops which ac- 
companied the fleet of Alexander down the Indus, along the right bank of 
the river. The Alexandria here mentioned does not appear to have been 
identified. It is not to be confounded with Alexandria in Arachosia, nor 
yet with a place of the same name in Carmania, the modern Kerman. 
A river Tomerus is spoken of by Arrian as lying between the Indus 
and the river Arabis or Arbis. 
*3 They seem to have dwelt along the shores of the modern Mukran, I 
south t)f ieloochistan, and probably part of Kerman. | 
5^ Called Nosala by Arrian. Ansart suggests that it is the island now j 
known by the name of Sengadip. It lay probably off the promontory or J 
headland of the Sun, on the eastern coast of Arabia. J 
