S t a b r o b a t e s .
greatly have exaggerated the preparations; they make her
army confift o f three millions of foot, and two hundred thou-
land horfe, and a hundred thoufand chariots, and multitudes o f
fhips, ready framed, and carried in pieces by land, to be put
together in order to crofs the Indus. 1 fufpeft that thefe veflels
were no more than fo many coracles, or vitilia navigia, made o f
bamboos, like thofe ufed by Ayder Alii in our days, on the waters
of Malabar. In order to fupply her wants o f real elephants,
lhe caufed a multitude of fictitious ones to be made, out o f
the lkins o f three hundred thoufand black oxen, which were
placed on camels backs, guided by a man within this ftrahge
machine'. Stabrobates, king o f India, received advice o f her
preparations, and, by a prudent embafly, endeavoured to divert
her from her intentions. The Queen rejected his remonftrances,
crofted the river, and defeated the fleet o f the Indian monarch;
that perhaps was not difficult, notwithilanding it conlifted o f
four thoufand boats; but as they were formed only o f the
bamboo cane, they never could relift the ihock of timber Ihips.
The victory proved fatal to h e r ; lhe fiicceeded in crofting the
river, but was deceived' by the pretended flight o f Stabrobates
lhe purfued, and- overtook him; the battle was fought: T h e
Indian monarch difcovered- the fictitious elephants, and Semira~
mis. was totally defeated. She re-palled the river with precipitation
; lhe loft great part of her troops, and returned covered
with ihame into her own country. So many fabulous circum-
ftances attend this expedition, that we may well doubt the
veracity o f the hiftorian, and poflibly of the very exiftence of the
heroine. What credit,, as the learned Bryant jnftly obferves,
4 can
can be given to the hiftorians of a perfon, the time of whofe
life cannot be fettled within 1,535 years ?
L o n g after this dubious expedition, Darius Hyjlafpes, induced
through the curiolity of afcertaining the place where the Indus
met the ocean, built, fays Herodotus, in his Melpomene, feCt. xliv.
a large fleet at Cafpatyrus, in the PaByan territories, on the
borders of Scythia, high up the river, and gave the command
o f it to Scylax, a Grecian of Caryandra, a molt able failor. He
was direded to be attentive to difcoveries on both lides; and
when he reached the mouth, to fail weftward, and that way to
return home. He executed his commiflion, palled the Streights
o f Babel Mandel, and in thirty months from the time he failed
from Cafpatyrus, landed fafely in Egypt, at the place from
whence it is faid that Necho fent his Phoenicians to circumnavigate
Africa, by its now well known promontory the Cape of
Good Hope. This expedition took place in the twelfth year of
Darius, and in the year 509 before the Chrijlian sera.
R E V I E W OF T H E I N D U S .
I SHALL now give a ihort topographical review o f the celebrated
river, from the ocean to its moft remote part, and alio
o f the rivers which fwell its ftream. That which receives this
mighty river is the Mare Erythrceum, or modern Arabian fea.
I have given fome account of the D elta; let me add that it is,
as it was in the time of the antients, unhealthy, and hot to the
extreme: all its fertility cannot compenfate thofe inconvenien-
cies. There is a greater and lefler D elta; the greater begins a
few
D a r i i ^s
H y s t a s p e s .
D e l t a o f t h e
I n d u s .-