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.

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