any insurrection which the Indians might attempt, to introduce settled order among them, and then to join him at Patala. On the third day after Alexander had started on the voyage, he was informed that the Prince of Patala was fleeing from that city, taking with him most of its inhabitants, and leaving the country deserted. He accordingly accelerated his voyage down the river, and on reaching Patala found that both the city itself and the cultivated lands which lay around it had been deserted by the inhabitants. But he despatched his lightest troops in pursuit of the fugitives, and when some of these had been captured sent them on to their countrymen to bid them take courage and return, for they were free to inhabit their city and cultivate their lands as formerly; and so most of them did return.[181] _Chapter XVIII.—Alexander orders wells to be dug in the district round Patala, and sails down the western arm of the Indus_ After directing Hêphaistiôn to construct a citadel in Patala, he sent out men into the adjacent country, which was waterless, to dig wells[182] and make it habitable. Some of the barbarians in the neighbourhood attacked them, and, as they fell upon them quite unexpectedly, killed several of their number, but as the assailants lost many on their own side, they fled to the desert. The men were thus able to complete the work they were sent to execute, especially as Alexander, on learning that they had been attacked by the barbarians, had sent additional troops to take part in the work.