Chap. II 
bf the East I if d i e s. 
But there is better Authority ror a Fate of a gjeaier 
Weight, viz. that if the Macedonians had complied with 
the Requeft of their Kirxg, and had paffed the River 
Ganges , "they had very probably fucceeded in their Expedi- 
tion, 0 notwithstanding the Force of the Gandaridce , who 
preoared to oppofe him ; for their King Xandrames was 
hated and deipifed by his Subjects, for this Reafon : His 
Mother, who was the lawful Queen of that Country, had 
fallen in Love with a Barber, whom fhe firft raifed to great 
Employments, and then gave him an Opportunity of 
murdering the King her Husband, which made way for 
him to marry her, and to become the Guardian of the 
King’s only Son, who was a Child, ; and foon after put 
out ^of the Way, by the fame vile Elands that had been 
imbrued in his Father’s Blood, i his fuccelsful Iiaitoi 
had a Son by the Queen, who was the King before-mention- 
ed, whom fome Writers call Xandrames , and others Agram 
ms, who was hated and contemned for his mean Original, 
and for his low and vicious manner of Living : So that, 
notwithstanding his potent Army, he would have been 
fcarce able to have withftood Alexander , whofe Manners 
would probably have been more agreeable to the Indians \ 
At leaft, this was the Sentiment of a great Prince, who 
afterwards ruled in this Country, and held a fair Correfpond- 
ence with the Greeks. His Name was Andracottus *, and 
we may guefs at his Power, by the Prefent he made to 
Saleucns , of 500 Elephants. This Prince, at the Head of 
an Army of 600,000 Men, conquered the belt Part of In- 
dia ; and had a great Efteem for the Memory of Alexan- 
der, whom he hadfeen when a Boy b . 
The Eaftern Hiftories are full of the Exploits of our 
great Conqueror ; but very few of them, at leaft, that 
have reached us, in this Part of the World, are to be de- 
pended upon : For they are written in a poetical Strain, and 
are fo vifibly mixed with Eiteions, that they can be of no 
Ufe to fuch as defire to be acquainted with Fates, and not 
to be entertained with romantic Adventures. There may^ 
be, and doubtlefs there are, fome valuable Hiftories of 
thofe Times, in th t Arabic and Indian Tongues*, but we 
have hitherto had no Accounts of them, becaufe few Men 
of great Learning travel into the Indies and thofe of an- 
other Stamp are better fatisfied with thefe kind of Books, as 
fuller of marvellous Stories ; and confequently more en- 
tertaining. It is, however, clear, even from thefe fabu- 
lous Writings, that the Glory of this Monarch ftill fur- 
vives in thofe Parts : And, as we fnall fee hereafter, in the 
Works of our antient Travellers, the Tradition of his 
Viteories was very ftrong, when the Europeans firft vifited 
the Indies. And therefore, to avoid Repetitions, and to 
prevent this Sedtion from fwelling to any greater Length, to 
them we fhali refer our Readers. 
21. In order to apply what has been already faid, and 
to juftify our introducing the Hiftory of Alexander the 
Great here, it is neceffary to confider him as a Traveller, 
who, by his Expedition into this Country, made it much 
better known than, it had been before his Time. Xenophon 
confounded the Indies with a Province of that Name, be- 
tween the Euxine and Cafpian Seas *, from whence, very 
probably, thofe Embaffadors came, to whom Cyrus re- 
ferred certain Difputes between him and his Neighbours. 
But nothing was more common, than to confound Ethiopia 
with the Indies , and even with Egypt : So that, as Arrian 
tells us, Alexander himfelf, when he firft came to the River 
Indus , wrote a Letter to his Mother, in which he told 
her, that he had adtually difeovered the Sources of the 
Nile *, which fufficiently difeovers how little Acquaintance 
the Antients then had with thofe Countries c . 
It is to be obferved, that Alexander entered them from 
the Northern Provinces of Perjia, palling through the 
Country of Paropamijis, fo called from the neighbouring 
Mountains, which the Macedonians thought fit to call 
Caucasus \ and here he caufed a City to be built, which he 
named Alexandria. In this Country lay the Region of 
Capijfene, the Capital of which was Capijja, a City that, 
had been ruined by Cyrus. Buhacene, which was reduced 
by Polyperchon , lay not far from hence. The City of 
Nyjjd, from whence Acuphis came Embaffador, was featecl 
bn the Cophes , the firft River in the Indies paffed by the 
Macedonians ; tho* , fome do not reckon that, but the 
Choafpes, the firft Indian River. Between thefe,- lay the 
Aracofians and I’yrceans . Advancing ftill towards the Eaft^ 
he met with the Afpians and Afpagomans, the little River 
Evafpla terminating that Country. From whence he 
marched among the Dardians , a kery numerous Nation ° 
He like wife approached the City of Pucela ; and then, 
falling into the Country of the Ajfac'em, took their Capital 
Maffaca, where he was wounded. Turning then toward? 
the South, he reduced Ora, the Rock of Aornus, and 
Ecbolima, which lay near the River Indus. From that 
River to the Hydafpes , lay the Dominions of laxiks, the 
Countries inhabited by the Ariafpians , the Soheans , the 
Afenians, the Sibes, and the Mallians *, in whofe Terri- 
tory Alexander caufed the City of Nicea to be built, as a 
Monument of his many and rapid Viteories d . 
On the other Side of that River, he erected Bucephalis , 
in Memory of his Elorfe, which had ferved him many 
Years, and died of old Age, near this Place ; all the 
Country hereabouts being within the Dominions of the 
brave Porus, which extended as far as the River Acc fines. 
Between this laft-mentioned River, and the Hydraotes , the 
Country was barren and uncultivated, as being inhabited 
by Brachmans , who had, however, a large and flourifhing 
City on the other Side the Ilydraotes. Between that and 
the Ilyphafis, lay the Territories of the S ophites, Catheans , 
Pharafeans , Phegeleans, Oxydracians , and other Nations. 
This River Ilyphafis , which fome Authors call plypafes , 
and alfo Hypanis , was the Eaftern Boundary of the Mace- 
donian Empire ; for they never paffed that River, but in 
order to erete the Altars, and other Monuments of their 
having encamped there, which have been fo often men- 
tioned, and which were ereteed in Imitation of Hercules. 
It is intirely owing to Alexander’s Expedition, that we 
know any thing of the antient State of thefe Countries ; 
and, as to what lay between the Ilyphafis, and the Ganges, 
we know little of them, except that Arrian has mentioned 
two Cities, Minnagoria and Barygaxa, which, he fays, 
were very opulent, and Places of great Trade e . All 
that vaft Country, which is at this Day fo famous, and fo 
well known, from the Jundion of thofe Rivers, quite to 
the Indus , as v/ell as the lower Part of the Peninfula, were 
abfolutely unknown to them, except a few Nations, whofe 
Names the Reader will find in the Map : They called the 
reft of the Inhabitants by the general Name of Indo-Scythians . 
All this Country is what we now call India , on this Side the 
Ganges : It contained in the whole 1x8 Nations, or Pro- 
vinces *, fome of which were pretty large : As, for Inftance, 
the Kingdom of Porus, which contained 300 Towns ; but 
others, again, were very fmall, fome of the Indian Princes 
not having above two Towns belonging to them, ard 
thofe, probably, not very large. Within this Space, there 
we re not fewer than forty Pavers, moft of them navigable, 
and all running into the Indus ; which rnuft have been very 
large, fince the Hydafpes, which was only one of the 
Rivers that fell into it, is faid to have been twenty Stadia, 
which is a full League, in Breadth f . 
Let us now endeavour to fix the Bounds of the Indies , 
as they appear from this Defcription : On the North, they 
were feparated from the Country of the Scythians by a 
Ridge of Mountains, which the Macedonians called 
Caucafus , that Alexander might have the Honour of reach- 
ing them, as well as Hercules. On the Eaft lay the Ganges. 
As to the Weftern Bounds, one knows not well what to 
fay to them, fince the oldeft Writers certainly take in 
Arabia, with a View, no doubt, to give an Air of Proba- 
bility to what they relate of the Conquefts of Bacchus , 
Hercules, Ofiris , and Sefofiris •, but, with regard to the 
Expedition of Alexander, the Weftern Limits of the Indies 
ought certainly to be placed at the River Arbis, or Arabis. 
On the South, they were bounded by that Part of the 
Ocean, into which the Ganges , and the Indus , difeharged 
themfelves. 
As to the Cities that were built by Alexander, and on 
moft of which he beftowed his Name, there are fo many of 
them, that it is very difficult to deferibe them. That 
a Plutarch, in Alexandra. b Diodor. Sicul. JuJlin. 0 Arrian, lib. yi. d Strabo. Arrian- Plutarch, e Geog * 
lib. xv. f Arrian, lib. vi . Strabo. Plutarch . 
which 
a 
