Occupations > Historical disquisition concerning the knowledge which the ancients had of India; and the progress of trade with that country

1 S. r. CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. 1$
i capital of the ancient Malli, now Moultan, to
Patala, the modern Tatta, is distinguished for
; its fertility and population *.
Soon after he reached the ocean, Alexander,
satisfied with having accomplished this arduous
[ undertaking, led his army by land back to Pei-
! sia. The command of the fleet, with a consider-
■ able body of troops on board of it, he left to
Nearchus, who, after a coasting voyage of se-
^ ven months, conducted it safely up the Persian
Gulf into the Euphrates f.
? In this manner did Alexander first open the
knowledge of India to the people of Europe,
and an extensive district of it was surveyed with
‘ greater accuracy than could have been expected
, from the short time he remained in that country.
Fortunately an exact account, not only of his
military operations, but of every thing worthy
i of notice in the countries where they were car-
\ ried on, was recorded in the Memoirs or Jour-
| nals of three of his principal officers, Ptolemy,
the son of Lagus, Aristobulus, and Nearchus.
"i The two former have not, indeed, reached our
; times, but it is probable that the most important
i facts which they contained are preserved, as
I Arrian professes to have followed them as his
guides in his History of the Expedition of Alex¬
ander a work which, though composed long
after Greece had lost its liberty, and in an age
| when genius and taste were on the decline, is not
| Unworthy the purest times of Attic literature.
* * Rennell Mem. 68, &.C.
f Plm. Nat. Hist. lib. ti. c. sj, See Note VII.
- | Arrian,, lib. t. irrpraemi*i