"
This, however, rests only on the authority of the historian
Oneskritus, for Alexander himself relates that they abandoned their
rafts, and waded through this second torrent under arms, with the
water up to their breasts. After crossing, he himself rode on some
twenty furlongs in advance of the infantry, thinking that if the enemy
met him with their cavalry alone, he would be able to rout them
easily, and that, if they advanced their entire force, before a battle
could be begun, he would be joined by his own infantry. And indeed he
soon fell in with a thousand horse and sixty war chariots of the
enemy, which he routed, capturing all the chariots, and slaying four
hundred of the horsemen. Porus now perceived that Alexander himself
had crossed the river, and advanced to attack him with all his army,
except only a detachment which he left to prevent the Macedonians from
crossing the river at their camp. Alexander, alarmed at the great
numbers of the enemy, and at their elephants, did not attack their
centre, but charged them on the left wing, ordering Koinus to attack
them on the right. The enemy on each wing were routed, but retired
towards their main body, where the elephants stood. Here an obstinate
and bloody contest took place, insomuch that it was the eighth hour of
the day before the Indians were finally overcome. These particulars we
are told by the chief actor in the battle himself, in his letters.
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