A l e x a n d e r
w o u n d e d .
G old.
They are fuppofed to have been the fame with the valiant caft the
Kbatre, to this day renowned for their defperate valour. Alexander
befieged them in their city : their defence was brave and
obftinate: but they fell before the fortune of the Macedonian
hero, who deilroyed the nation, and levelled their city with the
ground. A namelefs city, as Mr. Rennel ftyles it, was to be
found higher up the river, on the oppofite fide. This deferved
to have been immortalized, as having been the place where
that hero endangered his life by one of the raih a ¿lions he was
. very fubjebt to fall into. He leaped into the city, was befet by
enemies, and received a defperate wound in his fide by an arrow,
Which had transfixed his breaftplate. He fainted, but recovered
the moment he felt an Indian going to ftrip him, and drawing a
dagger pierced his affailant to the heart. I leave the reader to
tonfult Arrian, Exped. Alex. i. 396, about the event; and Mr.
Rennel, p. 128, as to reafons for fixing the fite o f the momentous
affair in the place he does, about ten miles above the conflux of
the two rivers.
G o l d is found in fome o f the rivers of Panjab. In refpebt
to gold, we are informed by Herodotus, T h a l i a , c . 95, that the
Indians paid their tribute to Darius in that pretious metal; and
tells us, that it is procured out of the rivers, and alfo dug out
of the earth, and fmelted by them into ingots before they make
with it their donative. One of the epithets the Poets beftow oil
the Hydajpes & Aurifir, poffibly as being peculiarly'rich in gold.
Herodotus, Thalia, c. 102, relates, and feems to credit, the ftrange
ftory of its particles being thrown up with the fand of the vaft
defert, probably that o f Regifian, by ants as big as foxes, and that
the Indians went with three camels to colleit the grains which
4 they
they found in the hillocks. As foon as they had filled their
bags, they returned with all poflible expedition to avoid the fury
o f the ants, which purfued them with incredible fwiftnefs. It is
reafonable to fuppofe, that the hiftorian had heard of the mon-
ftrous nefts of the Termites, or white Ants, which his informants
thought proper to flock with moft monftrous inhabitants.
On the banks o f the Hydafpes was fought the decifive battle B a t t l e w i t h
between Alexander and the Indian monarch Porus, both equal FoEUS’
in valour; hut the former, by his great fuperiority in the art of
war, obtained a complete vibtory with a handful of men. Porus
employed not fewer than two hundred elephants, which, terrific
as they might have been to the Macedonian horfes, were, with
their garrifoned towers, totally deftroyed by the vibtorious army.
I c a n n o t refift the introdubfion into this place o f the fol- P e r s i a n h i s -
lowing curious anecdotes of the two famous Monarchs, as communicated
to me by Major Oufeley, the ingenious author o f the
Perfian mifcellanies. He informs me, that two Perfian writers
mention the invafion of Hindoojian by Alexander the great. Fer-
dufi in his Sbab Nameh, or Chronicle of Kings, written about
the latter end of the 10th century and beginning of the n th ;
and Nezami, another celebrated poet, who flourifhed in the
12th. The firft enumerates the various troops o f Perjia, Greece,
and India, and the camel loads of prefents which Alexander received
from Keid, the Indian Prince. Nezami, ill his Slander ,
Nameh, or Hiftory o f Alexander, fays, that forty elephants
were loaden with the various produbtions of the country, among
which feveral carried Indian fteel. Porus is mentioned under
the name o f Four. The poet adds, he brought two thoufand
elephants into the field; which, by a contrivance o f Arijlptle
(Alexander’s Secretary) were completely routed, and Four him-
D 2 felf