" Alexander yielded to this just
request, and about the end of the year Nearchus rejoined his fleet.
By the 6th of January, B.C. 345, he reached the island of Kataia, which
forms the boundary between Karmania and Persis. The length of the former
coast is rather more than three hundred miles: the time occupied by
Nearchus in this part of his voyage was about twelve days. He arrived at
Badis, the first station in Karmania, on the 7th of December; at Anamis on
the 10th; here he remained three days. His journey to the camp, stay there,
return, and preparations for again sailing, may have occupied fifteen days.
Three hundred miles in twelve days is at the rate of twenty-five miles a
day.
Hitherto the voyage of Nearchus has afforded no information respecting the
commerce of the ancients. The coasts along which he sailed were either
barren and thinly inhabited by a miserable and ignorant people, or if more
fertile and better cultivated, Nearchus' attention and interest were too
keenly occupied about the safety of himself and his companions, to gather
much information of a commercial nature. The remainder of his voyage,
however, affords a few notices on this subject; and to these we shall
attend.
In the island of Schitwar, on the eastern side of the Gulf of Persia,
Nearchus found the inhabitants engaged in a pearl fishery: at present
pearls are not taken on this side of the Gulf.
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