Chap. II. 
of the East 
Indies. 
4 habitants to govern by their own Laws 5 for, Dionyfius , 
4 after he had conquered the Indians , and was about to 
4 return to the Grecian Sea, built this City for thofe Sol- 
4 diers who were unferviceable for War, as a perpetual 
4 Monument to Pofterity, of his Expedition and Victory, 
4 as your Majefty has built Alexandria at Mount Caucafus , 
4 and another in Egypt-, and many others, fome finilhed, 
4 and others in Building, having now performed much 
4 more than our Biony/Ms did : And he called the City Nyfa, 
4 from his Nurfe, fo named, and the Country Nyfea and 
4 the Mountain, which hangs over the City, he was pleafed 
4 to call Meros , becaufe, according to the Fable, he was 
4 cherifhed in Jupiter's Thigh. Since that Time we have 
4 dwelt in Nyfa, as a free City, and have lived at Eafe 
4 under our own Laws. And that this Place was built 
4 by Bacchus , this one thing may be a Demonftration ; 
4 That Ivy grows no-where in India , but in this City V 
This may, indeed, as at firft Sight it does, look like a con- 
clufive Proof ; but, I prefume, when clofely examined, it 
will have a quite different Appearance : For, in Anfwer to 
this, I obferve, that, inhead of proving the Conqueft of 
Ofiris , this really proves the dired contrary ; viz. the 
Conqueft of the Grecian Bacchus exploded, as abfurd and 
unfuftainable, even by the wifeft of the Greeks themfelves. 
But whoever confiders the Character of the Indians , the 
Turn of this Speech, and the Prayer of Acuphis , at the 
Clofe of this Addrefs, mult eafily difcover, that the whole 
is no more than an artful and well-turned Compliment, 
calculated to lay hold of the Conqueror’s Vanity, and 
thereby procure a Confirmation of the City’s Liberties, as 
accordingly it did. All, therefore, that this Fad abfo- 
luteiy proves, is no more than this, that in the Time of 
Alexander , the Indians were excefiively tenacious of their 
Liberties, paffionately fond of their own Country and 
Cuftoms, and very adroit in contriving the Means to avoid 
the Change of them. On the Whole, the Story of Ofiris 
is unfuftainable, and the pure Effects of Egyptian Vanity ; 
that of the Grecian Bacchus ridiculoufly abfurd : But, if 
we admit the Reports of the Indians , as to their own 
Bacchus , or Hercules , mixed, no doubt, with Fables alfo, 
to have given Occafion to the Egyptian Story, as that did 
to the Fidion of the Greeks , we fhall free ourfelves from 
all Difficulties, and open a Paffage to the true Hiftory of 
this Period, fhort and obfeure indeed, but, however, 
worthy of Notice. Thus it runs. 
8. The Country of India was very early peopled after 
the Difperfion of Mankind •, and, being in itfelf exceedingly 
fruitful and pleafant, it foon began to grow populous, after 
a certain great Prince had introduced Religion, and Civil 
Policy, by which the People, who before lived like Sa- 
vages, were formed into Societies, and taught to improve, 
and be content with, the happy Country they poffeffed. 
The Situation of mo ft of their great Cities upon Rivers, 
and the Property of moft of thofe Rivers to overflow at 
certain Seafons of the Year, obliged them to contrive, 
improve, and add-id themfelves, in an extraordinary de- 
gree, to Boat-building, and the Art of Navigation ; which, 
as it enabled them to carry on a great Commerce amongft 
themfelves, in a Country very extenfive, and every-where 
very plentiful, fo it furnifhed them alfo with a very con- 
fiderable maritime Force, efpecially for thofe Times, ca- 
pable of refilling the whole Force of the AJjyrian Empire. 
This fteady Refiftance proceeded chiefly from their gene- 
rous Notions of Liberty, concerning which, the belt 
Writers of Antiquity tell us, that as the Indians had Laws 
peculiar to themfelves, widely different from thofe of all 
other Nations : So this was the Foundation of all their 
Laws, being the fundamental Maxim of their Policy, laid 
down by their firft Legiflators, and from which they never 
departed ; viz. That none among them ftiould be a Ser- 
vant, but that every one, being free, and equally intitled to 
the Benefit of the Laws, ffiould, from that Confideration, 
be the ; more ready to venture their Lives in Defence of 
thefe Laws, and lor the Prefervation of their common 
Liberty 
It was the Knowledge the World had of this, that pro- 
duced io violent a Paflion in all the great Conquerors of 
Antiquity, to pretend to fome Conqueft over the Indians ; 
as will be fully fbewn^ when we come to treat of the Mo- 
tives which induced Alexander the Great to undertake his 
Expedition into that Country. In thefe early Times, the 
Egyptians were aim oft the only Nation that had any Com- 
merce with the Indians , which they carried on by Sea 1 
and this it was that gave them an Opportunity of impofing, 
for many Ages, upon the reft of their World* by their Fic- 
tions, in relation to the Conqueft: of Ofiris : But when the 
Greeks came to be better acquainted with the Indians „ 
they difeovered the Falfhood of thefe Egyptian Fables, 
and brought to Light, in fome meafure, the true Hiftory 
of thefe People, as derived frpm their own Traditions. 
And it is for this Reafon, that I efteem the Accounts 
given us by the Greek Hiftorians, as more antient in 
themfelves, tho’ later known to the World, than the 
Stories delivered by fuch Writers as copied the Egyptian 
Records. 
9. The looking back fo far into thefe fabulous Hiftories, 
is, indeed, very laborious, and at firft Sight appears a little 
unneceffary ; but when we confider how many great Men 
have employed their Thoughts upon this Suhjed, we 
ought, in Juftice to their Abilities, to fuppofe they faw 
fome Reafon for taking fo much Pains. It is, indeed, no 
difficult Thing to difeern that Reafon, which was the De- 
Are of coming at Truth, or, at leaft, as near it as poffible, 
by putting Things into a proper Method. Such as have 
negleded thefe antient Accounts, and have begun their 
Hiftories of the Indies much lov/er, have been obliged to 
infert many Things, neceffary to explain the Tranfadions 
they record, quite out of the Order of Time ; and in fuch 
a manner, that they have rather perplexed than enlightened 
their Relations : For that the antient Indians were a very 
wife and powerful People, whofe Hiftory therefore deferved 
to be recovered as much as any other, appears from very 
different Quarters. 
For Inftance, when the Chinefe Antiquities came to be 
looked into narrowly, it appeared that their Learning, which 
has made' fo much Noife in the World, was really derived 
to them from the Indians •, their great Philofopher Confix 
cius owning, in his Writings, that he had been affifted by 
the Lights he drew from the Philofophy of the Brach- 
tnans m . The Truth of this is alfo manifeft, by comparing 
what the Greek Writers have left us, in relation to the 
Dcdrines of thefe Indian Philofophers, with what the Je- 
fuits have been pleafed to publifh from the Works of that 
great Author of Chinefe Learning. It was from the Indi- 
ans alfo, that the Chinefe derived what they knew of the 
Art of Navigation ; and if they improved that Art to a 
greater Degree than the Indians , and made longer Voyages, 
this ought to be attributed to the different Genii of the 
People. ' Amongft the Indians , Liberty was the ruling 
Paflion, They fought the Conveniencies of Life, it is 
true, by the Affiftance of their Maritime Force •, but they 
fought them among themfelves, and' never affeded Con- 
quefts or Commerce without the Limits of India which, 
in this Period of Time, ought to be confined within the 
Rivers Indus and Ganges. The Name of India is certainly 
derived from the firft of thefe Rivers, which, being near 
Perfia, was thereby firft known to the Weftern Nations. 
But the ruling Paflion among the Chinefe , I mean amongft 
the People in general, feems to have been always the Love 
of Gain which naturally led them to foreign Commerce, 
and foreign Conquefts. It is true, that the wifeft Men, 
and greateft Politicians, of that Empire, have been always 
of a different Sentiment • and have frequently remonftrated 
to their Emperors, the Folly and Danger of affeding to 
inlarge their Dominions by offenfive Wars. This is plainly 
the Confequence of their having derived the fundamental 
Maxims of their Learning from the Indians , who went up- 
on that equitable Principle of being free themfelves, and, 
leaving others free alfo. 
Hence arofe that great Number of Republics mentioned 
by the Greek Writers, as lubjfifting in India , when. Alexander 
invaded it ; and hence the many Reftridions of Regal Pow- 
er, in fuch Places as were Hill governed by Kings ; of which 
we fliall find, a Multitude of Inftances in the iucceeding 
Sedion. If the Appearance of India at prefent differs fo 
widely from what ip was rep re fented ' formerly, we fhall 
^ De E -pedil. Alexc nd. lit. iv. 
Diadcr. Sicul. lib. xi. p. 88. Straus. Gtejias . ■ m Jttijioire du Commerce des Ancitns , p, 373. 
difeern 
