Journal of the Society of Arts : Volume XLIX, No. 2527 [‎693v] (12/36)

JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY OF ARTS.
[April 26, 1901.
424 .
their log. It must not be supposed that
Nearkhos was making a voyage of discovery.
He was probably following a track that had
often been followed before. It was clear that
Alexander knew the way by sea to the coasts of
Persia before he started his fleet, and it is a
matter of surprise rather than otherwise that
he did not find a pilot amongst the Malli who,
if they are to be identified with the Meds, were
one of the foremost sea-going peoples of Asia.
His Phoenician and Greek sailors evidently
were strangers to the coast, and some of his
mixed crew of soldiers and sailors had subse
quently to be changed for drafts from the land
forces.
We cannot now follow the voyage in detail,
nor could we, even if we would, indicate
the precise position of those islands of which
Arrian writes between Cape Monze and
Sonmiani; some of them may now be repre
sented by shoals known to the coasting vessels,
whilst others may be connected with the main
land. I have no doubt myself that Moronto-
bara (the “woman’s haven’’) is represented
by the great depression of the Sirondha lake, to
which I have already alluded. Between
Morontobara and Kokala (which about
answers to Ras Kachari) they touched at the
mouth of the Purali, or Arabius, not far from
Liari, having an island which sheltered them
from the sea, to windward, which is now r part
of the mainland. Near by the mouth of the
Arabius was another island “ high and bare ’’
with a channel between it and the mainland.
This, too, has been linked up with the shore
formation, and the channel no longer exists,
but there is ample evidence of the ancient
character of this corner of the coast. Between
the Arabius and Kokala (three days’ sail) very
bad weather was made, and two galleys and a
transport were lost. It was at Kokala that
they joined hands with the army again. Here
Nearkhos formed a camp, and it was “ in this
part of the country ” that Leonatus defeated
the Oritae and their allies in a great battle
wherein 6,000 were slain. Arrian adds that a
full account of the action and its sequel, the
crowning of Leonatus with a golden crown
by Alexander, is given in his other work,
but as a matter of fact the other account is
so entirely different (representing the Oritm as
submitting quietly) that we can only suppose
this to have been a separate and distinct action
from the cavalry skirmish mentioned before.
It must be noted that the coast hereabouts
has probably largely changed. A little further
west it is changing rapidly even now, and it is
idle to look for the names given by the Greeks
as marking any positive locality known at
present. Hereabouts at any rate was the spot
where Alexander with such difficulty had col
lected ten days’ supplies for the fleet. This
was now put on board, and the bad or indifferent
sailors exchanged for better seaman. From
Kokala, a course of 500 stadia (largely over
estimated) brought them to the estuary of the
Hingol river (which is described as a winter
torrent under the name of Tomeros), and from
this point all connection between the fleet and
the army appears to have been lost. It was at
the mouth of the Hingol that a skirmish took
place with the natives which is so vividly
described by Nearkhos, when the Greeks leapt
into the sea and charged home through the
surf. Of all the little episodes described in
the progress of the voyage this is one of the
most interesting; for there is a very close
description given of certain barbarians clothed
in the skins of fish or animals, covered with
long hair, and using their nails as we use fish
knives, armed with wooden pikes hardened in
the fire, and fighting more like monkeys than
men. Here we have the real aboriginal in
habitants of India. Not so very many years
ago, in the woods of Western India, a specimen
answering to the description of Nearkhos
almost literally was caught whilst we were in
the process of surveying those jungles, and
he furnished a useful contribution to ethno
graphical science at the time. Probably these
barbarians of Nearkhos were incomparably
older even than the Turanian races which we
can recognise, and which succeeded them,
and which, like them, have been gradually
driven south into the fastnesses of Central and
Southern India. Makran is full of Turanian
relics connecting it with the Dravidian races
of the south; but there is no time to follow
these interesting glimpses into prehistoric
ethnography opened up by the log of Nearkhos.
Nor indeed can we follow the voyage in detail
much further, for we have to take up the route
of Alexander, about which very much less has
hitherto been known than can be told about
the voyage of Nearkhos. We may, however,
trace the track of Nearkhos past the great
rocky headland of Malan, still bearing the
same name that the Greeks gave it, to the
commodious harbour of Bagisara, which is
likely enough the Damizar, or eastern bay, of
the Urmara headland. The Padizar, or
western bay, corresponds more nearly with the
name Bagisara, but as they doubled a head
land next day it is clear they were on the eastern