Page:History of India Vol 2.djvu/87

Rh army of Poros, fifty thousand strong, drawn up on the opposite bank. It was obvious that the horses of the cavalry, the arm upon which the Macedonian commander placed his reliance, could not be induced to clamber up the bank of a flooded river in the face of a host of elephants, and that some device for evading this difficulty must be sought.

Alexander, therefore, resolved, in the words of Arrian, to "steal a passage." The easiest plan would have been for the invader to wait patiently in his lines until October or November, when the waters would subside and the river might become fordable. Although such dilatory tactics did not commend themselves to the impetuous spirit of Alexander, he endeavoured to lull the vigilance of the enemy by the public announcement that he intended to await the change of season, and gave a colour of truth to the declaration by employing his troops in foraging expeditions and the collection of a great store of provisions. At the same time his flotilla of boats continually moved up and down the river, and frequent reconnaissances were made in search of a ford. "All this," as Arrian observes, "prevented Poros from resting and concentrating His preparations at any one point selected in preference to any other as the best for defending the passage."

Rafts, galleys, and smaller boats were secretly prepared and hidden away among the woods and islands in the upper reaches of the river where it escapes from the mountains. These preliminaries occupied six or seven weeks, during which time the rains had broken,