Ἰνδική 38.1

38.1

μέχρι τοῦδε Καρμανίη· τὰ δὲ ἀπὸ τοῦδε Πέρσαι ἔχουσι. μῆκος τοῦ πλόου παρὰ τὴν Καρμανίων χώρην στάδιοι τρισχίλιοι καὶ ἑπτακόσιοι. ζώουσι δὲ κατάπερ Πέρσαι, ὅτι καὶ ὅμουροί εἰσι Πέρσῃσι· καὶ τὰ ἐς τὸν πόλεμον ὡσαύτως κοσμέονται.

Karmania extends as far as this island, but the parts beyond appertain to Persia. The extent of the Karmanian coast was 3,700 stadia.’ The people of this province live like the Persians, on whom they border, and they have similar weapons and a similar military system. When the fleet left the sacred island, its course lay along the coast of Persis, and it first drew to land at a place called Ila, where there is a harbour under cover of a small and desert island called Kaikander. The distance run was 400 stadia. Towards daybreak they came to another island which was inhabited, and anchored thereon. Nearkhos notices that there is here a fishery for pearl as there is in the Indian Sea. Having sailed along the shores of the promontory in which this island terminates, a distance of about 40 stadia, they came to an anchor upon its shores. The next anchorage was in the vicinity of a lofty hill called Okhos, where the harbour was well sheltered and the inhabitants were fishermen. Weighing thence they ran a course of 400 stadia, which brought them to Apostana, where they anchored. At this station they saw a great many boats, and learned that at a distance of 60 stadia from the shore there was a village. From Apostana they weighed at night, and proceeded 400 stadia to a bay, on the borders of which many villages were to be seen. Here the fleet anchored under the projection of a cape which rose to a considerable height. Palm-trees and other fruit-bearing trees similar to those of Greece, adorned the country round. On weighing thence they sailed in a line with the coast, and after a course of somewhere about 600 stadia reached Gogana, which was an inhabited place, where they anchored at the mouth of a winter torrent called the Areon. It was difficult to anchor, for the approach to the mouth of the river was by a narrow channel, since the ebbing of the tide had left shoals which lay all round in a circle. Weighing thence they gained, after running as many as 800 stadia, the mouth of another river called the Sitakos, where also it was troublesome to anchor. Indeed all along the coast of Persis the fleet had to be navigated through shoals and breakers and oozy channels.
At the Sitakos they took on board a large supply of provisions, which under orders from the king had been collected expressly for the fleet. They remained at this station one-and-twenty days in all, occupied in repairing and kareening the ships, which had been drawn on shore for the purpose.