He was seeking a considerable river, for the smaller
streams, as he probably found, could not suffice after a long drought
for so great a force as he had landed.
He himself asserts that he advanced "by night" across that roadless and
unknown country a distance of twelve miles. We know of course of what
the armies of Caesar were capable in the way of marching; there have
never been troops carrying anything like their weight of equipment
which have done better than they; but to march something like fifteen
thousand men and seventeen hundred horse twelve miles in about three
hours into the unknown and the dark, is an impossible proceeding. That
march of "about twelve miles" cannot have occupied less than from six
to eight hours, one would think, and the greater part of it must have
been accomplished by daylight, which would break about half-past three
o'clock. As we have good reason to think, Caesar's march, however long
a time it may have occupied, was in search of fresh water, and it is
significant that when the Britons were at last seen, they "were
advancing to the river with their cavalry and chariots from the higher
ground.
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