Page:History of India Vol 2.djvu/72

44 placing his services at the disposal of the invader. Other chiefs on the western side of the Indus adopted the same course, and, with the help of these native potentates, the Macedonian generals were enabled to make satisfactory progress in the task of bridging the Indus, which had been committed to them by their sovereign.

Alexander in person assumed the command of the second corps, or division, consisting of the infantry known as hypaspists, the foot-guards, the Agrianian or Thracian light infantry, the archers, the mounted lancers, and the rest of the horse-guards. With this force he undertook a flanking movement through the difficult hill country north of the Kabul River, in order to subdue the fierce tribes which inhabited, as they still inhabit, that region, and thus to secure his communications, and protect his army from attacks on the flank and rear. The difficulties of the operation due to the ruggedness of the country, the fierce heat of summer, the bitter cold of winter, and the martial spirit of the hill-men, were enormous, but no difficulties could daunt the courage or defeat the skill of Alexander.

Although it is absolutely impossible to trace his movements with precision, or to identify with even approximate certainty the tribes which he encountered, or the strongholds which he captured and destroyed in the course of some five months' laborious marching, it is certain that he ascended the valley of the Kunar River for a considerable distance. At a nameless town in the hills, Alexander was wounded in the shoulder