It Appears From Strabo And Pliny, In Whose Time The
Surveys Drawn By Beton And Diognetus Were Extant, That They
Reduced the
provinces through which they passed, as well as the marches of the army, to
actual measurement; and thus,
The distances being accurately set down, and
journals faithfully kept, the principles of geographical science, next in
importance and utility to astronomical observations, were established. The
journals of Beton and Diognetus, the voyage of Nearchus, and the works of
Ptolemy, afterwards king of Egypt, and Aristobulus, who accompanied
Alexander in his expedition and wrote his life, all prove that the
authority or the example of the sovereign influenced the pursuits of his
officers and attendants; and it is highly to the credit of their diligence
and accuracy, that every increase of geographical knowledge tends to
confirm what they relate respecting the general appearance and features of
the countries they traversed, as well as the position of cities, rivers,
and mountains.
Alexander appears to have projected or anticipated an intercourse between
India and the western provinces of his dominions in Egypt, not only by land
but by sea: for this latter purpose he founded two cities on the Hydaspes
and one on the Axesimes, both navigable rivers, which fall into the Indus.
And this also, most probably, was one reason for his careful survey of the
navigation of the Indus itself. When he returned to Susa, he surveyed the
course of the Tigris and Euphrates. The navigation near the mouths of those
rivers was obstructed by cataracts, occasioned by walls built across them
by the ancient monarchs of Persia, in order to prevent their subjects from
defiling themselves by sailing on the ocean[4]: these obstructions he gave
directions to be removed. Had he lived, therefore, the commodites of India
would have been conveyed from the Persian Gulf into the interior provinces
of his Asiatic dominions, and to Alexandria by the Arabian Gulf.
To conclude in the words of Dr. Vincent: "The Macedonians obtained a
knowledge both of the Indus and the Ganges: they heard that the seat of
empire was, where it always has been, on the Ganges or Indus: they acquired
intelligence of all the grand and leading features of Indian manners,
policy, and religion [and he might have added, accurate information
respecting the geography of the western parts of that country]: they
discovered all this by penetrating through countries, where, possibly, no
Greek had previously set his foot; and they explored the passage by sea
which first opened the commercial intercourse with India to the Greeks and
Romans, through the medium of Egypt and the Red Sea, and finally to the
Europeans, by the Cape of Good Hope." When we reflect on the character and
state of the Macedonians, prior to the reign of Alexander, and the
condition into which they sunk after his death, we shall, perhaps, not
hesitate to acknowledge that Alexander infused his own soul into them; and
that history, ancient or modern, does not exhibit any similiar instance of
such powerful individual influence on the character and fate of a nation.
Alexander himself has always been honoured by conquerors, and is known to
mankind only, as the first of conquerors; but if military renown and
achievements had not, unfortunately for mankind, been more prized than they
deserved, and, on this account, the records of them been carefully
preserved, while the records of peaceful transactions were neglected and
lost, we should probably have received the full details of all that
Alexander did for geographical science and commerce; and in that case his
character would have been as highly prized by the philosopher and the
friend of humanity, civilization, and knowledge, as it is by the powerful
and ambitious.
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