them fit for the purpose, and ordered them to build vessels, that might be taken asunder, and conveyed from place to place whenever she pleased. For the river Indus bordering upon that kingdom, being the greatest in those parts, she stood in need of many river-boats to pass it, in order to repress the Indians. But being there was no timber near that river, she was necessitated to convey the boats thither by land from Bactria. She further considered, that she was much inferior to the Indians in elephants (which were absolutely necessary for her to make use of): she therefore contrived to have beasts that should resemble them, hoping by this means to strike a terror into the Indians, who believed that there were no elephants in any place but in India. To this end, she provided three hundred thousand black oxen, and distributed the flesh amongst a company of ordinary mechanics, and such fellows as she had to play the cobblers for her, and ordered them, by stitching the skins together, and stuffing them with straw, to imitate the shape of an elephant; and in every one of them she put a man to govern them, and a camel to carry them, so that at a distance they appeared to all that saw them, as if they were really such beasts. “They that were employed in this work, wrought at it night and day, in a place which was walled round for the purpose, and guards set at every gate, that none might be admitted either to go in or out, to the end that none might see what they were doing, lest it should be noised abroad, and come to the ears of the Indians. “Having therefore provided shipping and elephants in the space of two years, in the third she rendezvoused all her forces in Bactria. Her army consisted (as Ctesias says) of three millions of foot, two hundred thousand horse, a hundred thousand chariots, and a hundred thousand men, mounted upon camels, with swords four cubits long. The boats that might be taken asunder, were two thousand; which the camels carried by land as they did the mock-elephants, as we have before declared. The soldiers made their horses familiar with these feigned beasts, by bringing them often to them, lest they should be terrified at the sight of them; which Perseus imitated many ages after, when he was to fight with the Romans, who had elephants in their army out of Africa. However, this contrivance proved to be of no advantage, either to him or her, as will appear in issue herein a little after related. “When Stabrobates, the Indian king, heard of these great armies, and the mighty preparations made against him, he did all he could to excel Semiramis in every thing. And first, he built of great canes four thousand river-boats, for abundance of these canes grow in India about the rivers; and ferns, so thick as a man can scarce fathom; and vessels made of these reeds (they say) are exceeding useful, because they will never rot or be worm-eaten.