1 276 HISTORY OF THE SIKHS.
2 and traffic; the Indus, rising in a wild and desolate
3 region, among the unexplored fastnesses of the
4 Himalayan range, and winding its rapid course
5 through mountains and defiles, reaches the plains
6 of the Punjab in a rapid current, and in its course
7 towards the ocean receives the tributary streams of
8 the five rivers. Its banks, in many places, are
9 peopled by a fierce and lawless race who inhabit
10 the almost inaccessible countries in its neighbour-
11 hood, and instead of following the peaceful arts of
12 agriculture and commerce, wage continual war with
13 their neighbours, and not unfrequently turn their
14 arms against each other. Such was the river which
15 bore the fleet of the great conqueror Alexander to
16 the ocean, when his veteran troops, tired and worn
17 out with conquest, refused to advance further in
18 ‘their victorious career towards the east, and such
19 is the river which now. bears the steamers of
20 the British nation through regions which only a
21 few years ago were possessed by the bigoted
22 and insolent Amcers of Scinde, who ventured to
23 arrest. the progress of another Alexander, Sir
24 Alexander Burnes, not attended by a numerous
25 army like the first of his name, but the peaceful
26 bearer of a noble present for the great ruler of the
27 Punjab.
28 The army of the Indus crossed this great river,
29 threaded the Bolan pass, reached Candahar,: and
30 pursued its victorious progress to -Cabul after
31 seizing Ghuzni, the stronghold of the Affghans.
32 This was a great achievement, and the nation