These terms
were not rejected, for the gate was open, and Archias ready to enter: he
took charge of this post immediately with the force which attended him; and
Nearchus sent proper officers to examine such stores as were in the place,
promising the inhabitants that, if they acted ingenuously, they should
suffer no other injury. Their stores were immediately produced, consisting
of a kind of meal, or paste made of fish, in great plenty, with a small
quantity of wheat and barley. This, however insufficient for his wants,
Nearchus received: and abstaining from farther oppression, returned on
board with his supply."
The provisions he obtained here, notwithstanding the consumption of them
was protracted by occasionally landing and cutting off the tender shoots of
the head of the wild palm-tree, were so completely exhausted in the course
of a few days, that Nearchus was obliged to prevent his men from landing,
under the apprehension, that though the coast was barren, their distress on
board would have induced them not to return. At length, on the 14th of
December, on the seventy-fourth day of their departure, they reached a more
fertile and hospitable shore, and were enabled to procure a very small
supply of provisions, consisting principally of corn, dried dates, and the
flesh of seven camels. Nearchus mentions the latter evidently to point out
the extreme distress to which they were reduced.
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