Ἰνδική 21.1

21.1

ὡς δὲ τὰ ἐτήσια πνεύματα ἐκοιμήθη, ἃ δὴ τοῦ θέρεος2τὴν ὥρην πᾶσαν κατέχει ἐκ τοῦ πελάγεος ἐπιπνέοντα ὡς ἐπὶ τὴν γῆν, καὶ ταύτῃ ἄπορον τὸν πλόον ποιέοντα, τότε δὴ ὥρμηντο ἐπὶ ἄρχοντος Ἀθήνησι Κηφισοδώρου, εἰκάδι τοῦ Βοηδρομιῶνος μηνός, κατʼ ὅτι Ἀθηναῖοι ἄγουσιν· ὡς δὲ Μακεδόνες τε καὶ Ἀσιανοὶ ἦγον, %2%2 τὸ ἑνδέκατον βασιλεύοντος Ἀλεξάνδρου.

XXI. When the Etesian winds, which continue all the hot season blowing landward from the sea, making navigation on that coast impracticable, had subsided, then the expedition started on the voyage in the year when Kephisidôros was Archon at Athens, on the 20th day of the month Boëdromion according to the Athenian Kalendar, but as the Makedonians and Asiatics reckon * * in the 11th year of the reign of Alexander. Nearkhos, before putting to
sea sacrifices to Zeus the Preserver, and celebrates, as Alexander had done, gymnastic games. Then clearing out of harbour they end the first day’s voyage by anchoring in the Indus at a creek called Stoura, where they remain for two days. The distance of this place from the station they had just left was 100 stadia. On the third day they resumed the voyage, but proceeded no further than 30 stadia, coming to an anchor at another creek, where the water was now salt, for the sea when filled with the tide ran up the creek, and its waters even when the tide receded commingled with the river. The name of this place was Kaumana. The next day’s course, which was of 20 stadia only, brought them to Koreitis, where they once more anchored in the river. When again under weigh their progress was soon interrupted, for a bar was visible which there obstructed the mouth of the Indus; and the waves were heard breaking with furious roar upon its strand which was wild and rugged. Observing, however, that the bar at a particular part was soft, they made a cutting through this, 5 stadia long, at low water, and on the return of the flood-tide carried the ships through by the passage thus formed into the open sea.” Then following the winding of the coast, they ran a course of 120 stadia, and reach Krokala, a a sandy island where they anchored and remained all next day. The country adjoining was inhabited by an Indian race called the Arabies, whom I have mentioned in my longer work, where it is stated that they derive their name from the River Arabis, which flows through their country to the sea, and parts them from the Oreitai. Weighing from Krokala they had on their right hand a mountain which the natives called Eiros, and on their left a flat island almost level with the sea, and so near the mainland to which it runs parallel that the intervening channel is extremely narrow. Having quite cleared this passage they come to anchor in a well-sheltered harbour, which Nearkhos, finding large and commodious, designated Alexander’s Haven. This harbour is protected by an island lying about 2 stadia off from its entrance. It is called Bibakta, and all the country round about Sangada. The existence of the harbour is due altogether to the island which opposes a barrier to the violence of the sea. Here heavy gales blew from seaward for many days without intermission, and Nearkhos fearing lest the barbarians might, some of them, combine to attack and plunder the camp, fortified his position with an enclosure of stones. Here they were obliged to remain for 24 days. The soldiers, we learn from Nearkhos, caught mussels and oysters, and what is called the razor-fish, these being all of an extraordinary size as compared with the sorts found in our own sea. He adds that they had no water to drink but what was brackish.