For This
Purpose He Built And Fitted Out A Fleet At Cespatyrus, A City On The Indus,
Towards The Upper Part Of The Navigable Course Of That River.
The ships, of
course, first sailed to the mouth of the Indus, and during their passage
the country on each side was explored.
The directions given to Scylax were,
after he entered the ocean, to steer to the westward, and thus return to
Persia. Accordingly, he is said to have coasted from the mouth of the Indus
to the Straits of Babelmandel, where he entered the Red Sea; and on the
30th month from his first embarking he landed at Egypt, at the same place
from which Necho, king of that country, had despatched the Phoenicians to
circumnavigate Africa. From Egypt, Scylax returned to Susa, where he gave
Darius a full account of his expedition.
The reality of this voyage, or at least the accuracy of some of the
particulars it records, has been doubted. Scylax describes the course of
the Indus to the east; whereas it runs to the south-west. It is also worthy
of remark, that as Darius, before the voyage of Scylax, was master of the
Attock, Peukeli, and Multan, he needed no information respecting the route
to India, as every conqueror has followed this very obvious and easy route.
Dr. Vincent also objects to the authority of this voyage, or rather to the
track assigned to it: "I cannot believe," he observes, "from the state of
navigation in that age, that Scylax could perform a voyage round India,
from which the bravest of Alexander's navigators shrunk, or that men who
had explored the desert coast of Gadrosia, should be less daring than an
experienced native of Caryandria. They returned with amazement from the
sight of Mussenden and Ras-al-had, while Scylax succeeded without a
difficulty upon record. But the obstacles to such a voyage are numerous;
first, whether Pactzia be Peukeli, and Caspatyrus, Multan: secondly, if
Darius were master of Multan, whether he could send a ship or a fleet down
the sea, through tribes, where Alexander fought his way at every step:
thirdly, whether Scylax had any knowledge of the Indian Ocean, the coast,
or the monsoon: fourthly, if the coast of Gadrosia were friendly, which is
doubtful, whether he could proceed along the coast of Arabia, which must be
hostile from port to port: these and a variety of other difficulties which
Nearchus experienced, from famine, from want of water, from the
construction of his ships, and from the manners of the natives, must induce
an incredulity in regard to the Persian account, whatever respect we may
have to the fidelity of Herodotus."
Such are the objections urged by Dr. Vincent to the authority of this
voyage. In some of the particular objections there may be considerable
force; but with respect to the general ones, from the manners or hostility
of the natives inhabiting the coasts along which the voyage was performed,
they apply equally to the voyages of the Carthaginians along the western
coasts of Africa and Europe, and indeed to all the voyages of discovery, or
distant voyages of the ancients.
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