How Alexander set out in pursuit of Porus who had retreated into the desert.

At this point our history says that after the queen of the Amazons had gone, Alexander learned that Porus of India had fled with a large company into the Indian desert, where he was gathering all his forces to do battle with him again. So Alexander took forty knights of the region to act as guides in the desert, and set out with his whole army.

They marched on until, at the beginning of August, when the sun is extremely hot, they entered a sandy, barren land where they found the going very tough, especially with the blazing heat of the sun and the fact that they found no water. What they did find was a multitude of scorpions, snakes and other vile and venomous creatures; and because of their vicious, tormenting attacks they had to ride fully armed. Plagued by the heat, made all the worse by having to ride in armour, many were so tortured by thirst that they were driven to drink their own urine, and some even sucked on pieces of iron in an attempt to slake their dreadful thirst.

Amid this trial and tribulation the king and his army came upon the bank of a river. They followed it till they saw a little island in the middle; it was fortified by a castle – or at least, a kind of bulwark built of oaks – and surrounded by the river which was four stages wide, which is to say a quarter of a league.