Within One
Hundred Years After This Historian Flourished, Geography Derived Great
Advantages And Improvement From A Circumstance Which, At First View, Would
Have Been Deemed Adverse To The Extension Of Any Branch Of Science:
We
allude to the conquests of Alexander the Great.
This monarch seems to have
been actuated by a desire to be honoured as the patron of science, nearly
as strong as the desire to be known to posterity as the conquerer of the
world: the facilities he afforded to Aristotle in drawing up his natural
history, by sending him all the uncommon animals with which his travels and
his conquests supplied him, is a striking proof of this. With respect to
his endeavours to extend geographical knowledge, - this was so intimately
connected with his plans of conquest, that it may appear to be ascribing to
him a more honourable motive than influenced him, if we consider the
improvement that geography received through his means as wholly unconnected
with his character as a conquerer: that it was so, in some measure, however
is certain; for along with him he took several geographers, who were
directed and enabled to make observations both on the coasts and the
interior of the countries through which they passed; and from their
observations and discoveries, a new and improved geography of Asia was
framed. Besides, the books that till his time were shut up in the archives
of Babylon and Tyre were transferred to Alexandria; and thus the
astronomical and hydrographical observations of the Phoenicians and
Chaldeans, becoming accessible to the Greek philosophers, supplied them
with the means of founding their geographical knowledge on the sure basis
of mathematical science, of which it had hitherto been destitute.
The grand maxim of Alexander in his conquests was, to regard them as
permanent, and as annexing to his empire provinces which were to form as
essential parts of it as Macedonia itself. Influenced by this consideration
and design, he did not lay waste the countries he conquered, as had been
done in the invasions of Persia, by Cimon the Athenian and the
Lacedemonians: on the contrary, the people, and their religion, manners,
and laws were protected. The utmost order and regularity were observed; and
it is a striking fact, "that his measures were taken with such prudence,
that during eight years' absence at the extremity of the East, no revolt of
consequence occurred; and his settlement of Egypt was so judicious, as to
serve as a model to the Romans in the administration of that province at
the distance of three centuries."
The voyage of Nearchus from Nicea on the Hydaspes, till he arrived in the
vicinity of Susa (which we shall afterwards more particularly describe);
the projected voyage, the object of which was to attempt the
circumnavigation of Arabia; the survey of the western side of the Gulf of
Persia, by Archias, Androsthenes, and Hiero, of which unfortunately we do
not possess the details; the projected establishment of a direct commercial
intercourse between India and Alexandria; and the foundation of this city,
which gave a new turn and a strong impulse to commerce, as will be more
particularly shown afterwards; - are but a few of the benefits geography and
commerce received from Alexander, or would have received, had not his plans
been frustrated by his sudden and early death at the age of 33.
We have the direct testimony of Patrocles, that Alexander was not content
with vague and general information, nor relied on the testimony of others
where he could observe and judge for himself; and in all cases in which he
derived his information from others, he was particularly careful to select
those who knew the country best, and to make them commit their intelligence
to writing. By these means, united to the reports of those whom he employed
to survey his conquests, "all the native commodities which to this day form
the staple of the East Indian commerce, were fully known to the
Macedonians." The principal castes in India, the principles of the Bramins,
the devotion of widows to the flames, the description of the banyan-tree,
and a great variety of other particulars, sufficiently prove that the
Macedonians were actuated by a thirst after knowledge, as well as a spirit
of conquest; and illustrate as well as justify the observation made to
Alexander by the Bramin mandarin, "You are the only man whom I ever found
curious in the investigation of philosophy at the head of an army."
When Alexander invaded India, he found commerce flourishing greatly in many
parts of it, particularly in what are supposed to be the present Multan,
Attock, and the Panjob. He every where took advantage of this commerce, not
by plundering and thus destroying it for the purpose of filling his
coffers, but by nourishing and increasing it, and thus at once benefitting
himself and the inhabitants who wore engaged in it. By means of the
commerce in which the natives of the Panjob were engaged on the Indus,
Alexander procured the fleet with which he sailed down that river. This
fleet is supposed to have consisted of eight hundred vessels, only thirty
of which were ships of war, the remainder being such as were usually
employed in the commerce of the Indus. Even before he reached this river,
he had built vessels which he had sent down the Kophenes to Taxila. By the
completion of his campaign at the sources of the Indus, and by his march
and voyage down the course of that river, he had traced and defined the
eastern boundary of his conquests: the line of his march from the
Hellespont till the final defeat of Darius, and his pursuit of that
monarch, had put him in possession of tolerably accurate knowledge of the
northern and western boundaries; the southern provinces alone remained to
be explored: they had indeed submitted to his arms; but they were still,
for all the purposes of government and commerce, unknown.
"To obtain the information necessary for the objects they had in view, he
ordered Craterus, with the elephants and heavy baggage, to penetrate
through the centre of the empire, while he personally undertook the more
arduous task of penetrating the desert of Gadrosia, and providing for the
preservation of the fleet.
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