Journal of the Society of Arts : Volume XLIX, No. 2527 [‎695r] (15/36)

April 26, tq'Ji.]
JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY OF ARTS.
4 Z 7
force would be little less than a month.
Working backward again from that same point
(which may be regarded as an obligatory one
in his route) the seven days’ weary drag through
the sand of the coast would carry him no
further than from the neighbourhood of Pasni,
and that is why I have selected that point for
the historic episode of his guiding his army
by chance and emerging on to the shore
unexpectedly, rather than the neighbourhood
of the Basol river, to which the Parkan route
should naturally have led him. He clearly
lost his way, as Arrian says he did, or else the
estimated number of marches is wrong. We
are told by Arrian that he reached Pura, the
capital of Gadrosia, on the sixtieth day after
leaving the country of the Oritae. This is a
little indefinite, as he may be considered to
have left the country of the Oritae when he
started to collect supplies from the northern
district, and we do not know how long he was
on this reconnaissance. Probably, however,
the date of leaving the coast and striking
inland up the Hingol river is the date referred
to by Arrian, in which case we may estimate
that he spent about twenty-four days negotiat
ing the fearfnl country opened up to him on
the Parkan route ere he touched the sea shore
again. This is by no means an exaggerated
estimate if we consider the distance (something
short of 200 miles) and the nature of his army.
A half-armed mob, which included women and
children, and of which the transport consisted
of horses and mules and wooden carts dragged
by men, cannot move with the facilities of a
modern brigade. Nor would a modern brigade
move along that line with the rapidity that has
distinguished some of our late manoeuvres in
South Africa. On the whole, I think the
estimate a probable one, and it brings us to a
consideration of Bampur as the ancient capital
of Gadrosia.
I am well aware that another place, Fahraj,
halfway between Bampur and Kirman and on
the edge of the Kirman desert, has been
accepted by scholars as the ancient capital of
Gadrosia ever since the late Sir O. St. John
discovered it during the progress of the Sistan
Commission. The name Fahraj is indifferently
Fahraj, Purag, or Pura, and the ruins of it are
extensive and undeniably most ancient. St.
John points out that it is the probable place of
junction between the forces of Alexander and
of Krateros, who joined before reaching Kir
man, and could only have joined about this
point; and that it is about 60 days’ march
from the country of the Oritae as then under
stood. Against this I have to urge that it is
improbable that the country of Gadrosia
extended so far to the north-west. Fahraj is
well within the natural Kirman division of
Khorasan now, and probably was always so.
Although I agree that it was by the caravan,
route across the desert from the great bend of
the Helmund to this point that Krateros with
his elephants and heavy baggage must have
joined Alexander, I do not find it stated any
where that he joined at Pura—but that he
joined when Alexander was on his way from
Pura to Kirman. Again I cannot agree that
St. John’s estimate allows sufficiently for the
slow progress of the Greek force in face of such
difficulties as we know of, and there is finally
this great objection to Fahraj which I think is
conclusive. In order to reach Fahraj Alex
ander must have passed Bampur. There is no
other way consistent with Arrian’s account.
Bampur is, however, a city as ancient as
Fahraj, and not far to the east of Bampur is
the site of a still more ancient, though now
reoccupied, city called by the very names that
Fahraj is known by—viz., Purag or Pura; and
Pura is the modern appellation. Thus there are
two places with identically the same name,
Fahraj and Pura, and as no mention is made
of Alexander’s passing the latter, and as the
latter is within the limits of what we believe to
be Gadrosia, I have, myself, no hesitation in
assigning that position to the acient capital of
the Gadrosians. We have now followed
Alexander out of India into Persia. Thence
forward there are no great geographical ques
tions to decipher, or knots to be untied. His
progress was a progress of triumph, and the
story of his retreat well ends with the thrilling
tale of his meeting again with Nearkhos, after
the latter had harboured his fleet at the mouth
of the Minab river and set out on the search
for Alexander, guided by a Greek who had
strayed from Alexander’s army. Blackened
by exposure and clothed in rags, Nearkhos was
unrecognised till he announced himself to the
messenger sent to look for him. Even
Alexander himself at first failed to recognise
his admiral in the extraordinary apparition
that was presented to him in his camp, and
could only at first believe that his fleet must
have perished and Nearkhos and Arkias were
sole survivors. We can imagine what followed.
Those were days of ready recognition of service,
and no dispatches, and all Persia was open to
the conquerors to choose their reward. But
all history has its moral, and the moral of the
story of Alexander’s retreat might easily be