returned to join the rest of his fleet and army at Patala, and to make
arrangements for his march to Babylon. He appointed Nearchus admiral of
his fleet, and having given him orders to ascend the Persian Gulf to the
Euphrates, he commenced his march through Beloochistan, leaving Nearchus
to follow him as soon as the season would permit. Alexander was more
than sixty days in reaching the frontiers of Persia, during which time
his army sufficed such dreadful privations from want of food, that the
soldiers were obliged to eat their own war-horses, and from the sickness
consequent upon such a state of distress, his army was reduced to less
than one-half of the number which left Patala. It is not necessary to
follow him to Babylon, or to describe the voyage of Nearchus, who,
having sailed up the Persian Gulf, united his forces to those of his
royal master in the river Pasi-Tigris, near Susa. Enough, however, may
be learned from this history to convince us that if such an army could
be conducted 2000 years ago from the Hellespont to the Jaxartes and
Indus, the march from the southern shores of the Caspian Sea to Cabool
would require comparatively but very slight exertion, if those who have
the means should have the desire also to accomplish it.

I can say little of my own knowledge of the political causes which gave
rise to the war, as I am unacquainted with the affairs of India and the
motives which actuated its governors; but a brief outline may be
collected from a book lately published by the Hon. Capt. Osborne,
military secretary to the Governor-General, to which I shall refer,
after making some observations upon the countries through which the
operations of the army were conducted, and particularly on the situation
of Afghanistan, in reference to those persons who had before been, is
well as those who were, its rulers, when Shah Shooja was restored by the
British Government to its throne. These observations I have chiefly
collected from the valuable work of that enterprising officer Lieut.