plunge more deeply into the interior, he would probably have been unable to maintain the communication with his European base, on which his safety depended, and his small, isolated force might have been overwhelmed by the mere numbers of his adversaries. Koinos and his fellow remonstrants may be credited with having prevented the annihilation of the Macedonian army.
The triumphant progress of Alexander from the Himalaya to the sea demonstrated the inherent weakness of the greatest Asiatic armies when confronted with European skill and discipline. The dreaded elephants lost their terrors, and proved to be a poor defence against the Macedonian cavalry. The unopposed march of Krateros from Sind to Persia through Sistan opened up an alternative land route and solved the problem of easy overland communication with Europe. The circumnavigation of the coast by Nearchos gave Alexander a third line of communication by sea, and, if he had lived, there is no reason to suppose that he would have experienced serious difficulty in retaining his hold upon the Panjab and Sind.
All his proceedings prove conclusively that he intended the permanent annexation of those provinces to his empire, and the measures which he took for the purpose were apparently adequate to ensure success. But Alexander's premature death destroyed the fruits of his well-planned and successful enterprise. Within three years of his departure, his officers had been ousted, his garrisons destroyed, and all trace of his rule had disappeared. The colonies which he founded in India,
