he might be suffered to please himself a little and enjoy
his vanity."

Arrived at the modern boundary between Persia, Afghanistan, and Russia,
he and his men pushed on across Afghanistan, by the caravan route that
had long existed from the shores of the Caspian, by modern Herat,
Kandahar,[1] which still bears the conqueror's name, and Kabul to
India. Their way lay through deep snow, deeper than they had ever seen
before; and by the time they had reached the mountains of Kabul it
was midwinter.

[Footnote 1: Kandahar = Alexandria in a modern form.]

Between Alexander and India still lay the lofty range of the Hindu
Koosh or Indian Caucasus. But before going south toward India, he
turned northwards to explore the unknown country which lay about the
river Oxus. They found the Oxus, a mighty stream, swollen with melting
snows. There were no boats and no wood to build them, so Alexander
pioneered his men across in "life-preservers" made out of their
leather tent coverings and stuffed with straw. This river impressed
the Greeks even more than the Euphrates and Tigris, as it impressed
many an explorer and poet since these early days. Let us recall Matthew
Arnold's famous description of the Oxus, now seen for the first time
by the Greeks.

"But the majestic river floated on,
Out of the mist and hum of that low land,
Into the frosty starlight, and there moved

* * * * *

Brimming, and bright, and large; then sands begin
To hem his watery march and dam his streams,
And split his currents; that for many a league
The shorn and parcell'd Oxus strains along
Through beds of sand and matted rushy isles--
Oxus, forgetting the bright speed he had,
In his high mountain-cradle in Pamere,
A foil'd circuitous wanderer--till at last
The long'd for dash of waves is heard, and wide
His luminous home of waters opens, bright
And tranquil, from whose floor the new-bathed stars
Emerge, and shine upon the Aral Sea."

Here in this valley the Greeks met more determined opposition than
they had yet encountered since entering Asia, and over two years were
occupied in reducing this single district (now Bokhara and Turkestan)
to submission, though it was only some three hundred and fifty miles
square, and in one single year Alexander had conquered a kingdom over
one thousand miles in width.

It was not till the spring of 327 B.C. that he was ready