and the Ganges: they heard that the seat of
empire was, where it always has been, on the Ganges or Indus: they acquired
intelligence of all the grand and leading features of Indian manners,
policy, and religion [and he might have added, accurate information
respecting the geography of the western parts of that country]: they
discovered all this by penetrating through countries, where, possibly, no
Greek had previously set his foot; and they explored the passage by sea
which first opened the commercial intercourse with India to the Greeks and
Romans, through the medium of Egypt and the Red Sea, and finally to the
Europeans, by the Cape of Good Hope." When we reflect on the character and
state of the Macedonians, prior to the reign of Alexander, and the
condition into which they sunk after his death, we shall, perhaps, not
hesitate to acknowledge that Alexander infused his own soul into them; and
that history, ancient or modern, does not exhibit any similiar instance of
such powerful individual influence on the character and fate of a nation.
Alexander himself has always been honoured by conquerors, and is known to
mankind only, as the first of conquerors; but if military renown and
achievements had not, unfortunately for mankind, been more prized than they
deserved, and, on this account, the records of them been carefully
preserved, while the records of peaceful transactions were neglected and
lost, we should probably have received the full details of all that
Alexander did for geographical science and commerce; and in that case his
character would have been as highly prized by the philosopher and the
friend of humanity, civilization, and knowledge, as it is by the powerful
and ambitious.

Fortunately the details of one of the geographical and commercial
expeditions undertaken by order of Alexander are still extant; we allude to
the voyage of Nearchus. Of this voyage we are now to speak; and as it is
curious and important, not merely on account of the geographical knowledge
it conveys, but also from the insight it gives us into the commercial
transactions of the countries which he visited, we shall give rather a full
abstract of it, availing ourselves of the light which has been thrown upon
it by the learned and judicious researches of Dr. Vincent.

It was on the banks of the Hyphasis, the modern Beyah, that Alexander's
army mutinied, and refused to proceed any farther eastward. In consequence
of this insurmountable obs