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.
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