gardens of pleasure were always crowded with eager inquirers after their friends and lovers," may have furnished an exaggerated description of its wealth, but far from a fabulous one, as the fame of that great city seems to rest on satisfactory evidence.
The conquests of Darius,
and of Alexander.
Of the actual commercial resources of India we have,
however, no reliable accounts previous to the conquests
of Darius and to the successful navigation of the Indus
by his fleets. In his time, the country through which
he passed was represented to be very populous and
highly cultivated; and though his conquests did not
extend beyond the district watered by the Indus,
below Peucela, we cannot but form a high opinion of
its opulence in ancient times, as well as of the number
of its inhabitants, when we learn from Herodotus
that the tribute Darius levied upon it was nearly
one-third of the whole revenue of the Persian
monarchy.[1] But it was only when Alexander, two
hundred years later, undertook his celebrated expedition,
that sufficient knowledge of India was
obtained to enable us fully to realize the real
amount of its wealth, and some of the actual conditions
of its civilization and commerce. Up to
that period the more valuable commerce between
Europe and India was conducted mainly by caravans
passing through Bactra[2] (Balkh), "the mother of
cities," as it has been called from its great antiquity.
From this important seat of inland Asiatic trade, the
Oxus on the N.W., the Indus on the E. and S., and
the Ganges to the S.E., stretched long branching-arms,
and thus afforded ready means for the distribu-*
