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THE

MONTHLY REVIEW,

For SEPTEMBER 1791.

ART. I. An Hiftorical Difquifition concerning the Knowledge which the Ancients had of India; and the Progrefs of Trade with that Country. prior to the Discovery of the Paffage to it by the Cape of Good Hope. With an Appendix, containing Obfervations on the Civil Policy, the Laws and Judicial Proceedings, the Arts, the Sciences, and Religious Inftitutions, of the Indians. By William Robertfon, D. D. F. R. S. Ed. Principal of the University, and Hiftoriographer to his Majefty for Scotland. 4to. pp. 363. 155. Boards. Cadell. 1791.

IT is with much pleasure that, after fo long an interval of

time, our attention is recalled to the labours of this eminent hiftorian; concerning whom it is not easy to determine, whether his judgment be most admirable in choofing the best fubjects, or his genius moft eminent in explaining them. The perufal of Major Rennel's Memoir for illuftrating his map of Hindoftan fuggefted to Dr. Robertfon the defign of examining, more fully than he had done, in his Hiftory of America, into the knowlege which the Ancients had of India, and of confidering what is certain, what is obfcure, and what is fabulous, in their accounts of that remote country. This hiftorical difquifition is divided into four fections. The firft defcribes the intercourse with India from the earliest times, until the conqueft of Egypt by the Romans; the fecond deduces the history of the India trade, from the establishment of the Roman dominion in Egypt, to the conqueft of that kingdom by the Mohammedans; and the third continues the fame fubject, to the difcovery of the paffage by the Cape of Good Hope, and the eftablishment of the Portuguese dominion in the east. The fourth fection.confifts of fuch general obfervations as naturally refult from the preceding narrative.

Dr. R. takes a rapid view of the connection that early subfifted between the Eaft Indies on the one hand, and Egypt VOL. VI.

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and

and Phenicia on the other. By their vicinity to the Phenicians, the Jews were enabled to fit out fleets, that failed to Tarshish and Ophir, which were long fuppofed to be fituated in some part of India: but Dr. R. obferves that the researches of a learned traveller, Mr. Bruce, have now rendered it certain

that Solomon's fleets, after paffing the Straits of Babelmandeb, held their courfe along the fouth-weft (read south-east) coast of Africa, as far as the kingdom of Sofala, a country denominated the Golden Sofala by oriental writers, and abounding with all the other articles which compofed the cargoes of the Jewish fhips." In our account of Mr. Bruce's travels, (fee Review for July 1790, p. 283. & feq.) we cited the paffage to which Dr. R. refers; which, notwithstanding our animadverfions on feveral other parts of Mr. B.'s work, we commended as the best combined and most fatisfactory explanation of the trade to Tarfhifh and Ophir, that we had anywhere feen. The Jews, therefore, have no title to be reckoned among the nations which maintained an intercourfe by fea with India; and if, as Dr. R. obferves, from deference to the fentiments of fome refpectable authors, their claim were to be admitted, we know with certainty that their commercial effort in the reign of Solomon was merely a tranfient one, and that they quickly returned to their former ftate of unfocial feclufion from the rest of mankind.'

Dr. R. paffes flightly over the doubtful voyage of Scylax, and the obfcure expedition of Darius, to which it is faid to have given rife, and haftens to the memorable conquefts of Alexander, which first opened to Europe the knowlege of the Eaftern world. He thinks that the pre-eminence of this extraordinary man as a conqueror, a politician, and a legiflator, has feldom been justly estimated. In explaining his tranfactions in India, with the circumftances which preceded and followed them, the hiftorian exhibits a striking view of the grandeur and extent of his plans. In this part of his fubject, Dr. R.'s ideas entirely coincide with thofe of Dr. Gillies in his history of Ancient Greece; where the reign of the Macedonian hero is described in terms not lefs honourable to his policy than to his prowess. The great importance of this reign, in the hiftory of the world, will juftify the following extract; which may ferve to prove that Dr. R.'s vigour, as an hiftorian, has not forfaken him, and that he knows how to gild his subject with the rays of the fetting fun.

If an untimely death had not put a period to the reign of the Macedonian hero, India, we have reafon to think, would have been more fully explored by the ancients, and the European dominion would have been established there two thoufand years fooner.

When

When Alexander invaded India, he had fomething more in view than a tranfient incurfion. It was his object to annex that extensive and opulent country to his empire, and though the refractory spirit of his army obliged him, at that time, to fufpend the profecution of his plan, he was far from relinquishing it. To exhibit a genetal view of the measures which he adopted for this purpose, and to point out their propriety and probable fuccefs, is not foreign from the fubject of this Difquifition, and will convey a more juft idea than is ufually entertained, of the original genius and extent of political wisdom which distinguished this illuftrious man.

• When Alexander became mafter of the Perfian empire, he early perceived, that with all the power of his hereditary dominions, reinforced by the troops which the afcendant he had acquired over the various states of Greece might enable him to raise there, he could not hope to retain in fubjection territories fo extenfive and popu lous; that to render his authority fecure and permanent, it must be established in the affection of the nations which he had fubdued, and maintained by their arms; and that in order to acquire this advantage, all diftinctions between the victors and vanquished muft be abolished, and his European and Afiatic fubjects must be incorporated, and become one people, by obeying the fame laws, and by adopting the fame manners, inftitutions, and difcipline.

Liberal as this plan of policy was, and well adapted to accomplish what he had in view, nothing could be more repugnant to the ideas and prejudices of his countrymen. The Greeks had fuch an high opinion of the pre-eminence to which they were raised by civilization and fcience, that they feem hardly to have acknowledged the rest of mankind to be of the fame fpecies with themselves. To every other people they gave the degrading appellation of Barbarians, and, in confequence of their own boafted fuperiority, they afferted a right of dominion over them, in the fame manner as the foul has over the body, and men have over irrational animals. Extravagant as this pretenfion may now appear, it found admiffion, to the difgrace of ancient philofophy, into all the fchools. Ariftotle, full of this opinion, in fupport of which he employs arguments more fubtle than folid *, advised Alexander to govern the Greeks like fubjects, and the Barbarians as flaves; to confider the former as companions, the latter as creatures of an inferior nature +. But the fentiments of the pupil were more enlarged than those of his master, and his experience in governing men taught the monarch what the fpeculative fcience of the philofopher did not difcover. Soon after the victory at Arbela, Alexander himself, and by his perfuafion many of his officers, affumed the Perfian dress, and conformed to several of their customs. At the fame time he encouraged the Perfian nobles to imitate the manners of the Macedonians, to learn the Greek language, and to acquire a relish for the beauties of the elegant writers in that tongue, which were then univerfally

* Ariftot. Polit. i. c. 3-7.

Plut. de Fortuna Alex. Orat.i. p. 302. vol. vii. edit. Reike. Strab. lib. i. p. 116. A.'

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ftudied and admired. In order to render the union more complete, he refolved to marry one of the daughters of Darius, and chose wives for a hundred of his principal officers in the molt illuftrious Perfian families. Their nuptials were celebrated with great pomp and feftivity, and with high exultation of the conquered people In imitation of them, above ten thousand Macedonians of inferior rank married Perfian women, to each of whom Alexander gave nuptial prefents, as a teftimony of his approbation to their conduct.

But affiduoufly as Alexander laboured to unite his European and Afiatic fubjects by the moft indiffoluble ties, he did not truft entirely to the fuccefs of that measure for the fecurity of his new conquefts. In every province which he fubdued, he made choice of proper ftations, where he built and fortified cities, in which he placed garrifons, compofed partly of fuch of the natives as conformed to the Grecian manners and difcipline, and partly of fuch of his European fabjects, as were worn out with the fatigues of fervice, and wished for repofe, and a permanent establishment. These cities were numerous, and served not only as a chain of posts to keep open the communication between the different provinces of his dominions, but as places of ftrength to over-awe and curb the conquered people. Thirty thousand of his new fubjects who had been difciplined in thefe cities, and armed after the European fashion, appeared before Alexander in Sufa, and were formed by him into that compact folid body of infantry, known by the name of the Phalanx, which conftituted the strength of a Macedonian army. But in order to fecure entire authority over this new corps, as well as to render it more effective, he appointed that every officer in it entrusted with command, either fuperior or fubaltern, fhould be European. As the ingenuity of mankind naturally has recourse in fimilar fituations to the fame expedients, the European powers, who now in their Indian territories employ numerous bodies of the natives in their fervice, have, in forming the establishment of these troops, adopted the fame maxims; and, probably without knowing it, have modelled their battalions of Seapoys upon the fame principles as Alexander did his Phalanx of Perfians.

The farther Alexander pushed his conquests from the banks of the Euphrates, which may be confidered as the center of his dominions, he found it neceffary to build and to fortify a greater number of cities. Several of thefe to the Eaft and South of the Cafpian fea are mentioned by ancient authors; and in India itself, he founded two cities on the banks of the Hydafpes, and a third on the Acefines, both navigable rivers, which, after uniting their streams, fall into the Indus. From the choice of fuch fituations, it is obvious that he intended, by means of thefe cities, to keep open a communication with India, not only by land, but by fea. It was chiefly with a view to the latter of thefe objects, (as I have already obferved,) that he examined the navigation of the Indus with fo much attention. With the fame view, on his return to Sufa, he, in perfon, furveyed the courfe of the Euphrates and Tigris, and gave Plut. de Fort. Alex. p. 304.'

Arrian, lib. vii. c. 4.

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directions to remove the cataracts or dams, which the ancient monarchs of Perfia, induced by a peculiar precept of their religion, which enjoined them to guard with the utmost care against defiling any of the elemen.s, had conftructed near the mouths of thefe rivers, in order to shut out their subjects from any access to the ocean *. By opening the navigation in this manner, he propofed, that the valuable commodities of India fhould be conveyed from the Perfian Gulf into the interior parts of nis Afiatic dominions, while by the Arabian Gulf they fhould be carried to Alexandria, and diftributed to the rest of the world.

Grand and extenfive as thefe fchemes were, the precautions employed, and the arrangements made for carrying them into execution, were so various and fo proper, that Alexander had good reafon to entertain fanguine hopes of their proving fuccefsful. At the time when the mutinous fpirit of his foldiers obliged him to relinquish his operations in India, he was not thirty years of age complete. At this enterprizing period of life, a prince, of a fpirit fo active, perfevering, and indefatigable, muft have foon found means to refume a favourite measure on which he had been long intent. If he had invaded India a second time, he would not, as formerly, have been obl ged to force his way through hoftile and unexplored regions, oppofed at every step by nations and tribes of Barbarians, whofe names had never reached Greece. All Afia,

from the fhores of the lonian fea to the banks of the Hyphafis, would then have been subject to his dominion; and through that immenfe ftretch of country he had established fuch a chain of cities, or fortified ftations, that his armies might have continued their march with fafety, and have found a regular fucceffion of magazines provided for their fubfiftence. Nor would it have been difficult for him to bring into the field forces fufficient to have atchieved the conquest of a country fo populous and extenfive as India. Having armed and difciplined his fubjects in the Eaft like Europeans, they would have been ambitious to imitate and to equal their inftructors, and Alexander might have drawn recruits, not from his fcanty domains in Macedonia and Greece, but from the vast regions of Afia, which, in every age, has covered the earth, and aftonished mankind with its numerous armies. When at the head of fuch a formidable power he had reached the confines of India, he might have entered it under circumstances very different from those in his firft expedition. He had secured a firm footing there, partly by means of the garrifons which he left in the three cities which he had built and fortified, and partly by his alliance with Taxiles and Porus. These two Indian princes, won by Alexander's humanity and beneficence, which, as they were virtues feldom difplayed in the ancient mode of carrying on war, excited of course an higher degree of admiration and gratitude, had continued fteady in their attachment to the Macedonians. Re-inforced by their troops, and guided by their information as well as by the experience which he had acquired in his former campaigns, Alexander must have made

Arrian, lib. vi. c. 7. Strab. lib. xvi. p. 1074, &c.'

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