Chap. II. of the E a s 
rifons, and to awe fo vaft a Country, it was neceffary to 
have a Fleet : And he likewife very well knew, that he 
could make no Ufe of this Fleet, without being perfectly 
acquainted with the Coaft upon which it was to aCt. And 
this was the foie fubftantial Reafon, why he made fuch a 
Point of this Expedition. Moft of the Hiftorians, and 
even Arrian himfelf, fuggefts that he made that ruinous 
March through Gedrofia , that he might furpafs Semiramis 
and Cyrus : But I think they were miftaken ; and that the 
true Caufe of his marching through that Country was, that 
he might not be at too great a Diftance from his Fleet. 
It muft, at leaft, be allowed, that this was a better Rea- 
fon ; and the Care he took in fending Provifions to the 
Coaft, as foon as he had any, is, I think, a clear Proof, 
that this was his Reafon. I do not depend, however, on 
that alone, but on a Multitude of Circumftances, that, 
when colle&ed together, and coolly confidered, put it be- 
yond Difpute. He was no fooner informed by Nearchus , 
of the Difcoveries he. had made, than he immediately took 
the neceffary Meafures for having a potent Fleet in the In - 
dian Ocean. It was for this Reafon, that he ordered a 
great Number of Ships to be built by the Phoenicians , and 
brought by Land to Thapfacus. This was a City that flood 
on the River Euphrates ; from whence they were to fall 
down to Babylon , where he likewife caufed a Haven to be 
made for their Reception, and went in Perfon from that 
City, down the Paliocopa , that he might fee every thing 
difpofed, for rendering their Paflage fafe and eafy, into 
the Perfian Gulph. At the fame time, he projected the 
Circum-navigation of Arabia ; and, very probably, the 
Brit Service he intended to have put this Fleet upon, was the 
failing round into the Arabian Gulph, while he marched 
with an Army by Land, from Chaldea into that Country. 
When he had fubdued Arabia , he might, and certainly 
would, have transferred all the Trade of that Country, and 
of the Eafi Indies , to his new City of Alexandria : And it 
appears alfo, that he had taken the moft effectual Meafures 
for making it the Centre, alfo, of the African Trade. This 
Scheme of his was afterwards purfued, and, in fome mea- 
fure, perfected, by the Ptolemies , Kings of Egypt. So 
much at prefent for this Part of his ProjeCt : Let us turn 
our Eyes now to fome other of his Defigns. There was 
actually preparing, at the time of his Death, a large Fleet, 
which was to have been employed in the Ilyrcanian , or 
Cafyian Sea ; and there needs but a little Attention to dif- 
cern, that when he had perfected thefe two Defigns, all 
that vaft Country which he had fubdued would have been 
effectually in his Power, becaufe thofe Provinces are bound- 
ed on the South by one Sea, and on the North by the other. 
But this was not at all : He had formed another Defign, 
which would have united them to his other Dominions ; for 
he was extremely inquifitive as to the Pontus Euxinus , or 
Euxine Sea ; and in Time would have had a Fleet there 
too : So that we need but caff our Eyes upon any Map of 
t Indies. 405? 
thefe Countries, to be fit is fed, that he had framed and di- 
. gelled, in his own Mind, the eafieft and moil probable 
Method for maintaining all his Conquefts. We can hence, 
alfo, perfectly well account for his being'fo fuddenly charmed 
with the Situation of Babylon , the City in the W orld the belt 
feated for becoming the Hea$ of fuch an Empire. It is 
true, that they are vaft and prodigious Defigns ; but then 
we are to confider, that they were the Defigns of a Man* 
who had made himfelf Lord of the beft Part of the known 
World, before he was Thirty ; which puts me in mind of 
what Lorenzo Gracian , a Spanifh Writer, tells us of this 
Conqueror, c The Heart of Alexander , fays he, was an 
£ Arch-Heart, in a Corner of which the World lay, and 
4 left Room for many more,* It is a bold and extravagant 
Thought ; but it is not eafy to avoid Sentiments of this 
Sort, when one has long and attentively confidered the 
Adlions of this Man. After all, tho’ his Empire perilhed 
with himfelf, or, at leaft, was fplit into a Multitude of 
Pieces, foon after he expired ; tho’ he did not live to per- 
feCt his Schemes ; and tho’ hardly any of his Succeffors un- 
derftood them; yet it has fo 'fallen out, that from the 
Wifdom he fhewed in contriving, and the right Methods 
he took for perfecting them, all the Projects of Trade, 
and all the Difcoveries that have been made fince, are, 
in Truth, owing : For the Ptolemies firft fixed the In- 
dian Trade to Alexandria ; the Romans , when they be- 
came Matters of Egypt, purfued it the fame Way ; when 
the Subjects of the Conjlantinopolitan Empire found a Way 
to comeat a Part of this Trade, by the Euxine , or, as we 
now call it, the Black Sea , it was no more than a Branch 
of one of his Projects ; and the fame thing may be faid of 
the new Trade by Afiracan. It is true, indeed, that he 
knew of no fuch Place ; but it is as true, that he meditated 
a Defign for eftablifhing a Commerce, by the means of the 
Cafpian Sea, with the Northern Part of the Indies , thro* 
the Country of the XJsbeck T artars , whofe Capital Samar- 
cand, how little foever known to us, was once his Win- 
ter Quarters. All this will be more plainly made out in 
the Sequel of this Work: In the mean time, what has 
been already faid, will fufficiently fhew, that as the Study 
of Hiftory anfwers many other Purpofes, fo it may be 
made to anfwer the noble Purpofe of promoting extenfive 
Commerce, which is the greateft Benefit that can accrue to 
Mankind. This, I think, is a fufficient Apology for the 
Pains I have taken to explain and vindicate the Character 
of this great Prince: For, fure it cannot be better vindi- 
cated, than by fliewing, that, in the midft of his Conquefts 
and Victories, he did not, as fome Writers would perfuade 
us he did, forget that he was a Man ; but, on the con- 
trary, kept conftantly in View a Character much fuperior 
to that of the Conqueror of the World ; I mean that of 
being a Friend and Father to Mankind ; a Title which, 
whoever will weigh the Nature and End of all his Defigns, 
can never fee any Reafon to refufe him. 
SECTION VII. 
The Hiftory of the Seleucidae, Kings of Syria, who were the immediate Pojfejfors of Alexander’.? 
Indian Conquefts . 
1. The Dif urban ces which happened on Alexander’.? Death , and the Divifion of his Empire. 2. The Eft a - 
blijbment of Seleucus Nicator, in Syria, and the Rife of a new Monarchy in India, under Sandracottus. 
3. The absolute Lofts of the Indian Provinces , and the new Policy of the Syrian Princes. 4,, Of the Sue- 
ceftors of Seleucus, and the Declenfion of their Affairs in the Eaft. 5, The Attempt made by Antiochtis 
the Great to recover India, and his Treaty with Saphagafenus. 6. A View of the probable Caujes of this 
ill Management , in the Monarchs of Syria. 7 The Wifdom and Magnanimity of the Indian Princes , and 
the Manner in which they preferved the Correfpondence, after throwing off the Dominion , of the Greeks. 
1 * * I 1 Hh Death of Alexander was fucceeded, as he 
rorefaw it would, by Seditions among his prin- 
JiL cipal Commanders; and, in confequence of 
that, the Diviiion of his Dominions ; in fharing of which 
they were fo much taken up, that for feveral Days his 
Body lay negleCted. At laft it was agreed they ftiould be 
parted, in the foliowing manner : Caff under, the Son of 
Antipater , had Macedon and Greece ; Lyfvmachus had 
Thrace , and the adjacent Countries ; Ptolemy , the Son of 
Lagus, Egypt , Lybia, Arabia , and Ceele-Syria ; and Seleu- 
cus all the reft a . 
fDiodor. Steal. Jjfa. xviii. Arrian, lib . vii. Strabo, lib. xv. JuJlin. lib, xiil. 
Numb. XXIX. 
Plutarch, in Alexandra. 
5 M 
