IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Overland to India : vol.2 |
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Citation Information
198 OVERLAND TO INDIA
CHAP.
mission to Dipkhor (14 miles), was on raised artificial platforms, on the river banks, irrigated by artificial channels.
The mango, orange tree, and mulberry abounded and flourished. Beans and barley appeared to be the main
crops, and were nearly ripe for the sickle. There was a continuous succession of small villages, of which the inhabitants, who lined the banks as we passed, were almost entirely engaged in cultivation."
After more villages, gardens, and date groves an open plateau was reached, which continued unbroken to the
frontier of Sind ; " and the Persians, should they think fit, may march a large army across it in the direction of, and up to, the Sind frontier, without any material obstacle, and finding water and provisions the whole way. The advance of Persia in this direction would seem, therefore, to present a question of grave consideration."
Baftån is another village in a grove of palms. On the J
remaining seven days' journey the populous village of Pishin is spoken of, date palms, grass and water, good grazing, desolate country, the river Desht, which in the wet
season is so full that it stops the traffic for weeks, and bad p
water at the last stage, and lastly Gwadar. e
If we now compare the old accounts of Gedrosia with the new we must perceive that the differences are very
slight ; indeed, for my part, the only difference I can find is s
that the modern reports speak of a country less destitute 1
than the old. Or in what respects has it changed its character ? If the coast of Baluchistan in our days is a waste, Gedrosia was " everywhere desert towards the sea." The same sandhills stud the coast, the same Ichthyophagi still live on fish and dates and drink from briny wells or rain-water, just as in the age of Alexander. According to his chroniclers, they lived in huts of shells and whales' bones ; now they live in huts of poles and matting of palm
leaves, a circumstance which does not tell in favour of 1
a deterioration of the climate. Almost all Alexander's 1
baggage animals seem to have died of thirst, and at any rate a large part of his men perished. Thirst is constantly
spoken of, which loosed the bonds of discipline and caused the king to shut his eyes to outbursts of insubordination.
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