The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c16.63

c16.63

Alexander, considering Patala to be a position of high strategical importance, caused Hephaistion to construct a citadel there and to dig wells in the adjoining region. He proposed to make a great naval station at the point where the river divided, and remained sufficiently long on the spot to see some progress made in the construction of a roadstead and dockyard. He then resolved to explore personally both arms of the river down to the sea, and first sailed down the western or right branch, which probably debouched near or below Dēbal, the ancient port of Sind, distant about 15 miles from Thatha (Tatta). His sailors, accustomed to the tideless waters of the Mediterranean, were thrown into a state of great alarm and confusion by the ebb and flow of the tide, but ultimately Alexander succeeded in pushing on with some of the fastest vessels, and reaching the open sea. He sailed out a few miles into the deep, sacrificed bulls to Poseidon, and followed up the sacrifice by a libation, casting the golden vessels used in the ceremony into the ocean as a thank-offering.¹