We Make Use Of Dr. Vincent's Translation, Or Rather Abstract:
-
"At the Tomerus the inhabitants were found living on the low ground near
the sea, in cabins which seemed calculated rather to suffocate their
inhabitants than to protect them from the weather; and yet these wretched
people were not without courage. Upon sight of the fleet approaching, they
collected in arms on the shore, and drew up in order to attack the
strangers on their landing. Their arms were spears, not headed with iron,
but hardened in the fire, nine feet long; and their number about 600.
Nearchus ordered his vessels to lay their heads towards the shore, within
the distance of bow-shot; for the enemy had no missile weapons but their
spears. He likewise brought his engines to bear upon them, (for such it
appears he had on board,) and then directed his light-armed troops, with
those who were the most active and the best swimmers, to be ready for
commencing the attack. On a signal given, they were to plunge into the sea:
the first man who touched ground was to be the point at which the line was
to be formed, and was not to advance till joined by the others, and the
file could be ranged three deep. These orders were exactly obeyed; the men
threw themselves out of the ships, swam forward, and formed themselves in
the water, under cover of the engines. As soon as they were in order, they
advanced upon the enemy with a shout, which was repeated from the ships.
Little opposition was experienced; for the natives, struck with the novelty
of the attack, and the glittering of the armour, fled without resistance.
Some escaped to the mountains, a few were killed, and a considerable number
made prisoners. They were a savage race, shaggy on the body as well as the
head, and with nails so long and of such strength, that they served them as
instruments to divide their food, (which consisted, indeed, almost wholly
of fish,) and to separate even wood of the softer kind. Whether this
circumstance originated from design, or want of implements to pare their
nails, did not appear; but if there was occasion, to divide harder
substances, they substituted stones sharpened, instead of iron, for iron
they had none. Their dress consisted of the skins of beasts, and some of
the larger kinds of fish."
Along the coast of the Icthyophagi, extending from Malan to Cape Jaser, a
distance, by the course of the fleet, of nearly 625 miles, Nearchus was so
much favoured by the winds and by the straightness of the coast, that his
progress was sometimes nearly 60 miles a day. In every other respect,
however, this portion of the voyage was very unfortunate and calamitous.
Alexander, aware that on this coast, which furnished nothing but fish, his
fleet would be in distress for provisions, and that this distress would be
greatly augmented by the scarcity of water which also prevailed here, had
endeavoured to advance into this desolate tract, to survey the harbours,
sink wells, and collect provisions. But the nature of the country rendered
this impracticable; and his army became so straightened for corn
themselves, that a supply of it, which he intended for the fleet, and on
which he had affixed his own seal, was seized by the men whom he had
ordered to protect and escort it to the coast. At last he was obliged to
give up all attempts of relieving Nearchus; and after struggling 60 days
with want of water, - during which period, if he himself had not, at the
head of a few horse, pushed on to the coast, and there obtained a supply,
by opening the sands, his whole army must have perished, - he with great
difficulty reached the capital of this desert country. Nearchus, thus left
to himself, was indebted to the natives for the means of discovering water,
by opening the sands, as the king had done; but to the Greeks, who regarded
the want of bread as famine, even when its place was supplied by meat, the
fish the natives offered them was no relief.
We have already remarked, that the real character of Alexander will be much
elevated in the opinion of men of humanity and philosophers, if the
particulars we possess of his endeavours to improve the condition of those
he conquered, and to advance the interests of science, scanty and imperfect
as they are, were more attentively considered, and had not been neglected
and overlooked in the glare of his military achievements. His march through
the deserts of Gadrosia has been ascribed solely to vanity; but this
imputation will be removed, and must give way to a more worthy impression
of his motives on this occasion, when it is stated, that it was part of the
great design which he had formed of opening a communication between his
European dominions and India by sea; and that as the accomplishment of this
design mainly depended on the success of the expedition committed to
Nearchus, it was a paramount object with him to assist the fleet, which he
thrice attempted, even in the midst of his own distress in the deserts.
On their arrival at the river Kalama, which is supposed to be the Churmut,
60 days after their departure from the Indus, they at length obtained from
the natives some sheep; but the flesh of it, as well as the fowls which
they obtained, had a very fishy taste - the sheep, fowls, and inhabitants,
all feeding on fish, there being no herbage or trees of any kind, except a
few palm-trees. On the next day, having doubled a cape, they anchored in a
harbour called Mosarna, where they found a pilot, who undertook to conduct
the fleet to the Gulf of Persia. It would appear from Arrian, that the
intercourse between this place and the Gulf was frequent, the voyage less
dangerous, and the harbours on the coast better known.
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