The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c16.88

c16.88

The difficulties encountered by the army under the command of Alexander were even greater than those met and overcome by the fleet under Nearchos. The king seems to have been ignorant of the existence of the Hala range of mountains, which terminates in Cape Mālin. This great obstacle, which he was obliged to turn, deranged his plans, and compelled him to penetrate far into the interior, and for a time to lose touch with the fleet. The army suffered agonies from thirst, and the unfortunate followers perished by thousands. 'The blazing heat and want of water,' Arrian tells us, 'destroyed a great part of the army, and especially the beasts of burden, which perished from the great depth of the sand, and the heat which scorched like fire, while a great many died of thirst.' Ultimately, the remnant of the force worked its way back to the coast, emerging near the harbour of Pasni, almost on the line where the telegraph wire now runs, and its sufferings were at an end. But the soldiers had been obliged 'to burn the rich spoils taken from their enemies, for the sake of which they had marched to the utmost extremities of the East'. The success of the general was the ruin of the private.