Chap. II 
r *T " y 
of the East Indies. 
■** r 
As he had now conquered his Apprehenfions in refped to 
the Fatality of the Place, he began to be extremely pleafed 
with the convenient Situation of this City, and to think 
of making it, at lead for the prefen t, the Seat of his 
Empire 5 for which Reafon, he gave Directions for repair- 
ing fome, and ereding other, public Buildings. While 
his Thoughts were thus occupied, he fpent the Evenings 
in feafting ; and, having fat up one Night till it was late, 
he was invited, as he was going to Bed, to pafs another 
Hour with one Medius , a Yheffalian ; which he unluckily 
complied with ; and there drank fo hard the remaining 
Part of the Night, that it threw him into a Fever. The 
next Day he bathed, and remained in the Bath-chamber 
all Night. The Day following, which was the 19th of the 
Macedonian Month Defius , he thought himfelf better, and 
cat heartily at Supper •, but had a reftlefs Night. On the 
20th he facrificed, and, in the Bath, heard Nearchus read 
the journal of his Voyage; and heard him finifli it the 
next Day : But then, his Fever prevailing, he grew ex- 
tremely ill, and continued fo till the 28th in the Evening, 
when he expired. Thefe, and fome other Paffages relating 
to his laft Illnefs, are taken from his Diary, written with 
his own Hand ; for in this he was extremely exad, fetting 
down every thing of Moment that happened till within a 
Day or two before his Death. Thefe Paffages we find 
tranfcribed in Arrian and Plutarch \ 
One thing, however, was fo remarkable in his Condud, 
even in his laft Moments, that it ought not to be omitted. 
When he was very near his End, he afked fome who were 
about him, Whether they thought they Jhould have fuch an- 
other King ? As they remained all filent, and made him no 
manner of Anfwer, he proceeded. You are ignorant of 
this , faid he, and fo am I ; hut this I can foretef nay , 1 
almofl fee it with my Eyes , that Macedon will overflow with 
Blood before this Controverfy can be decided , and that my 
Funeral will be celebrated by fanguinary Difputes. When 
he was afked to whom he bequeathed the Kingdom, he 
anfwered, Yo the moft worthy ; and, when Per dice as de- 
manded, At what time he would have divine Honours -paid him, 
he replied, Whenever you are all happy b . 
At the Time of his Deceafe, he was in the thirty-third 
i Year of his Age, in the thirteenth Year of his Reign over 
: Macedon , and in the eighth of his Empire ; and this great 
Event, according to the beft Chronologers, fell out in the 
323d Year before the coming of Jefus Chrifl. 
1 8. It has been already obferved, that this great Prince 
was exceedingly exad in committing to Writing whatever 
occurred to him of Importance, and this to the very laft. 
When he was dead they examined his Table-book, or, as 
the Antients called them, his Commentaries c ; and therein 
they found thefe five Schemes mentioned, as neceffary to 
be put into Execution, for eftablifhing and fecuring the 
Empire. I. That a thoufand long Ships, of a larger 
Size than any that were then in Ufe, fhould be built in Phoe- 
nicia^ Syria , Cilicia , and Cyprus , in order to fubdue the 
Carthaginians , and others inhabiting the Sea Coafts of 
.Africa and Spain , together with the adjacent Elands, as 
par as Sicily. On this Head, it is natural to obferve, that 
\ Alexander had chiefly in View, in the bringing this Project to 
bear, the eftablifhing a maritime Power not to be difputed 
with; which was, in Truth, the Thing, of all others, he 
[moft affeded, as well knowing, that, without maritime 
Power, the wideft Empire is a Prifon, the Keys of which 
are in the Hands of whatever State is Miftrefs of the 
Sea. 
II. That a plain and dired high Road fhould be made 
all through the Coaft of Africa to the Pillars of Hercules. 
This was properly added to the former, as conducive to 
the fame Defign ; for, without fuch a Road, neither the 
Dominion of thofe Coafts could be fecured, or the Com- 
munication neceffary for a free and univerfal Commerce be 
kept open. Such a Road would, he forefaw, prove fo 
ufeful, and, in a fhort Space of Time, be found fo con- 
venient, efpecially in the Hands of fo wife a People as the 
Greeks, that it would prevent the Country, through which 
it palTed, from failing under the Yoke of barbarous Mailers, 
and thereby preferve the Empire, into whole Hands' fbever 
it fell, in a great meafure, intire, as affording the Means 
of keeping regular Ganfons in convenient Stations! and 
facilitating the March of fuch Bodies of Troops as might 
be neceffary for fuppreffing Rebellions, fo as to reacli any 
Part of that great Space of Country in a very fhort 
time. . ... 
III. That fix magnificent Temples fhould be built, and 
the Sum of fifteen hundred Talents be laid but on each of 
them ; another Stroke of the fame Policy! in order that 
the Concourfe of People to thefe Temples fhould maintain 
Society and Acquaintance, prevent the Revival of Bar- 
barifm, and inure all Nations to the Love of a free and 
general Correfpondence, by the mingling frequently in the 
Celebration of the fame facred Rites. This was very 
confonant to his own conftant Practice of keeping up a 
great Spirit of Religion in his Army ; in which he found 
his Account, and had the Prielts, in every Part of his 
Dominions, intirely devoted to his Service, which was the 
fureft Means of keeping the People quiet : Yet it does 
not appear, that he was a Bigot, or aimed at obliging all 
Nations to follow his Sentiments in Religion, but rather 
the_contrary ; for he left the Jews, Perfians , Indians , and 
Egyptians , the free Excrcife of their refpedive Forms of 
Worlhip, though they were all diredly repugnant to his 
own. 
IV. That, in convenient Places, Arfenals and Havens 
fhould be conftruded for the Reception and Security of 
the Royal Navy. It is clear from hence, that he intended 
his Empire fhould be proteded and defended by a Naval 
Force. It was exactly conformable to his Behaviour in the 
Indies , and a t Babylon, where he negleded nothing, fpared 
no Pains, either of his own, or of his Army, to difeover 
every Corner where he came, to examine the Rife and 
Courfe of Rivers, their Mouths, and the Means of rendering 
them ferviceable by theConftrudion of proper Harbours and 
Fortreffes to protect them. This appeared fatiguing and 
ufelefs to his Macedonians , who had always an Eye to their 
own Country, and confidered all their Conquefts as Acqui- 
fitions to that little contemptible State. But Alexander 
had other Thoughts, and other Views, as his Intent was 
not only to conquer the beft Part of the Univerfe, and to 
keep it when conquered, but to reduce it under a regular 
Form of Government, fo beneficial to all his Subjects, that 
they might find their private Interefts deeply concerned in 
maintaining the public Regulations he meant to have 
eftablifhed. 
V. That all the new Cities he had founded, fhould be 
planted with Colonies ; and that People fhould be for that 
Purpofe tranfported out of Europe into Afia , and out of 
Afia into Europe , to the end that, by reciprocal Mar- 
riages and Intermixtures, Peace and Concord might be 
eftablifhed between the two great Continents of the 
World. This was the Point to which the other Projects 
tended ; this was the Centre of his Defigns, and the grand 
Qbjed of all his Contrivances. The Confideration of this 
Propofidon explains his whole Condud, and ferves as a 
Key to every one of his particular Schemes. It was in 
order to this, that he was fo careful in fubduing all the 
barbarous Nations in his Return from India ; that he took 
fo much Pains to have the Coafts of Perfia , and the Per- 
fian Gulph, fo accurately examined ; that he determined to 
reduce Arabia , that all the Sea Coafts on that Side might 
be in his Poffeffion ; that he thought of difeovering and 
furrounding Africa ; and, in fine, that he framed, on the 
other hand;, a Refolution of examining the Coafts, and 
fubduing the Nations that bordered on the Hyrcanian 
Sea. 
He was not of the narrow Spirit of his Countrymen, 
who would have fubjeded all the World to Macedonia, 
but had a Soul as capacious as the World he fought to con- 
quer. He did not, as many have imagined, rufh on from 
Vidory to Vidory, from Conqueft to Conqueft, without 
knowing what he would be at, or when he would be con- 
tented ; but proceeded unifory, a nd on a regular Plan, 
which he laid down early, as we ilia 11 fliew when we come 
Plutarch, m Alexandra. He died, according to the beft Calculation that can be made, about the latter End of May. b Diodor. Sicul. 
.xvii. man. lib. Vu. Qgint. Curt . lib. X. cap. 7. Ju/lin ex frogs Pompeio, lib. xii. Corn. Nepos in Eumene. « Diodor. Sicul. tib.x\ ii. 
Numb, 28. ' 5 I tQ 
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