N ic o .e a , a n d
B u c e p h a l a .
R h in o c e r o s ,
&c. &c.
T h e B o a .
felf killed by Alexander, who found in his caftle of Canooge
immenfe treafures L
On the banks o f this river, oppolite to each other, he built-,
on the bloody fcene, two cities, Niccea and Bucephala. Nicoea fo
named from the victory, the laft in honor o f his celebrated
horfe, which died o f old age at the time of this aition. Alexander
gratefully paid it the higheft funeral honors, eredted a
magnificent fepulchre, and called the city after its name.
I s h a l l not trace the lieges, battles,, and flaughters of this
ambitious character; of his marches, and his paffages over the
rivers that form this part of the Panjab, but leave my readers
to, confult his original hiftorians, Arrian and Quintus Curtius.
It is very certain the hero did not, amidit his deeds o f arms,,
negledt the ftudy of natural hiftory. It is- well, known that he
caufed every fpecies, objedts of that fcience, to be colledted for
the ufe of his Tutor Arißotle. ^ Curt'ius relates fome few remarks
on the. zoology of the neighborhood. He met here with
the Rhinoceros, with the great Serpent Boa conßridlor, Gm..
Lin., iii. 1083, with parrots, or birds which could fpeak, and
with great flocks of wild- peacocks. Lilian, in his Hiß. An. lib. v.
c. 21. relates, that the conqueror was fo ftruck with their beauty,
that he forbad- his foldiers from killing them under the heavieft
penalties.
Pfittacus is a name derived from Sittace, the Indian word for a
parrot. Linn aus, Gm. Linn. i'. 321, gives to one fpecies, long
known, the trivial o f the 'Macedonian 1 ero, Pjit Oaf us Alexandria äs
i f in honor of the fpecies difcovered by his admiral Nearchus.
T h e fame great officer mentions alfo the vaft fpotted ferpents,
which he fays were about lixteen cubits long. Arrian, i. S3^>
Rev. Indie. His veracity has been called in queftion; but fince
the
the Arijlotelian cubit is little more than an Englijh foot and a half,,
we may give full credit to his having feen a ferpentof the length
he gives, or one of twenty-four feet. The antients are often
abufed for their credulity: but let me remark, that incredulity
1 more frequently the offspring of ignorance than the former U
At this time inftances may be adduced of fpecies from twenty
to thirty-fix feet in length, in Hindoojlan, Ceylon, Java, and feveral
other iflands. Bontius, p. 76. a moft refpeftable writer,,
bears witnefs to the exiftence of ibme of thirty-fix feet being
found in Java. ,
A m o n g the trees the Ficus Indica, the Varinga Lattfoha o f f «c w I«»»ca.
Rumphius, could not fail engaging his attention, which formed
a grove of itfelf, by the rooting, of its pendulous branches.
T he mountains-bordering on. the Hydafpes were part, o f the
Cachemerian chain, clothed with forefts of trees of vaft height
and fize. He committed- to the care of certain officers the falling
the timber, and floating it down the river to the place he
had appointed for the rendezvous of the1 veffels, which he had
ufed in his expeditions up the other rivers. At this place, which
was between the forks of the Indus and Acejines, he founded
another Alexandria, and there formed his docks and fhip yard.
He built feveral newfhips, rebuilt and repaired others, and with
a fleet which conflfted of eighty Triremes, or ihips with three
banks o f oars, and with leffer veffels, probably collefred from the
feveral rivers of the country, in all amounting to two thoufand
of different kinds, he fell down the Hydafpes.. On his arrival at the
jundtion of that river with the Acefines (which preferves its
name till it is loft in the greater river) his navy underwent the
utmoft danger by the violent collifion of the two waters. -Several