Page:History of India Vol 2.djvu/127

Rh strolled inland, and were astounded to meet a stranger wearing Greek clothes and speaking Greek. Tears came to their eyes as they heard the familiar sounds of home in that strange and distant land. Explanations having been exchanged, the stranger proved to be a straggler from Alexander's army, and gave the welcome information that the king was only five days' march distant.

Nearchos and Archias at once arranged to go inland to meet their sovereign, and, after many difficulties, made their way to his presence, but so ragged and unkempt were they, that Alexander at first could not recognize them. When at last he was convinced of his friends' identity, he assumed hastily that they must be the sole miserable survivors from his lost fleet, and was in despair at the imagined disaster. But he was soon reassured by Nearchos, who told him that the ships were safe and sound, hauled up at the mouth of the Anamis River for repairs.

The admiral, after volunteering to conduct the fleet up the gulf to Susa, returned to the coast, to which he was obliged to fight his way, and thence sailed on, with little adventure, to the mouth of the Euphrates. He then heard of Alexander's approach to Susa, and, turning back, entered the Tigris to meet him, and "it was thus that the expedition which had started from the mouths of the Indus was brought in safety to Alexander."

The difficulties encountered by the army under the command of Alexander were even greater than those