The route home was not to be through the conquered territories of the eastern empire but southwards on a flotilla down the Indus to the Southern Ocean, which Alexander was determined to explore. Even though the waters of the Indus were falling when the expedition set out in November 326, it still remained a hazardous journey. The tribes along the river were uniformly hostile and their cities had to be stormed. Alexander himself almost lost his life when an Indian arrow penetrated his chest when he was isolated on a city wall during one siege. He never properly recovered from the wound. Meanwhile, the frightened and exhausted army survived only by using terror. Such hatred was raised against the intruders that every Macedonian garrison left in the area was later wiped out.
The army reached the mouth of the Indus in July 325. A long march westward across the wind-scoured and dusty wilderness of the Makran desert lay ahead. Whole armies had been swallowed up in the desert in the past, and it may have been Alexander’s obsession with surpassing all his forebears that drove him on. The crossing of the Makran took sixty days. It was a shattered and thoroughly demoralized force that finally reached the satrapy of Carmania, north of the straits of Hormuz. From here it was a relatively short march back to Persepolis and the heartland of the Persian empire. The fleet returned separately under its Cretan commander Nearchus, a boyhood friend of Alexander. This was a more notable achievement. Nearchus scavenged his way along the coast and reached the Tigris without the loss of a single ship. Alexander was so impressed he began dreaming of great future voyages—a circumnavigation of Africa and perhaps even the conquest of the western Mediterranean.
World History
