Pliny the Elder, Natural History 6.96

6.96

Sed priusquam generatim haec persequamur, indicari convenit quae prodidit Onesicritus classe Alexandri circumvectus in mediterranea Persidis ex India, enarrata proxime a Iuba, deinde eam navigationem, quae his annis comperta servatur hodie.
Onesicriti et Nearchi navigatio nec nominaomnia habet mansionum nec spatia, primumque Xylinepolis ab Alexandro condita, unde ceperunt exordium, iuxta quod flumen aut ubi fuerit non satis explanatur.

CHAP. 26.—VOYAGES TO INDIA. But before we enter into any details respecting these countries, it will be as well to mention what Oncsicritus has stated, who commanded the fleet of Alexander, and sailed from India into the heart of Persia, and what has been more recently related by Juba; after which I shall speak of the route along these seas which has been discovered in later years, and is followed at the present day. The journal of the voyage of Onesicritus and Nearchus has neither the names of the stations, nor yet the distances set down in it; and first of all, it is not sufficiently explained where Xylenepolis was, and near what river, a place founded by Alexander, and from which, upon setting out, they took their departure. Still, however, the following places are mentioned by them, which are worthy of our notice. The town of Arbis, founded by Nearchus on the occasion of this voyage; the river Nabrus, navigable for vessels, and opposite to it an island, at a distance of seventy stadia; Alexandria, built by Leonnatus by order of Alexander in the territories of this people; Argenus, with a very convenient harbour; the river Tonberos, a navigable stream, around whose banks are the Pasiræ; then come the Ichthyophagi, who extend over so large a tract of coast that it took thirty days to sail past their territory; and an island known by the names of the "Island of the Sun" and the "Bed of the Nymphs," the earth of which is red, and in which every animal instantly dies;