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The immediate destination of this vast horde was Abydos; for it was between Sestos, on the European shore, and Abydos, on the Asiatic, that the bridge had been built. To reach Abydos, the route was north, through the province of Mysia.
They asked of vs what Portugals wee had seene, we answered, none but Fishermen: then they told vs that there were certaine Portugall ships gone to the Mina to defend it, and that they met with another at the riuer de Sestos, which was a ship of two hundred which they had burned, and had saued none but the master and two or three Negroes, and certaine others which were sore burned which they left a shoare there.
By following the course of Alexander's expedition upon the map at the commencement of chapter iii., it will be seen that his route lay first along the northern coasts of the Ægean Sea. He was to pass from Europe into Asia by crossing the Hellespont between Sestos and Abydos.
Then hauing a prosperous winde we departed from thence, and sailed on our voyage vntill we arriued at Cauo verde the 20 of March, making no abode there, but sailed along the coast to our first appointed port Rio de Sestos, at which port we arriued the third of Aprill in the morning, hauing the sight of a Frenchman, who assoone as he perceiued vs, set saile and made to the sea: in the meane time we came to an anker in the rode: and after that he had espied our flag, perceiuing vs to be Englishman, he bare with the shore, and hailed our ships with his ordinance, at which time we the merchants of both the ships were in the riuer in traffike, and had vnderstanding of the Negroes that he had bene there three dayes before our comming: so we concluded together, that if he sent his pinnesse to traffike, we would not suffer him, vntill we had taken further order with their captaine and marchants.
Xerxes had raised his forces to that amount by sending Artabazus back from Sestos at the head of a corps d'armee numbering 40,000 men. The whole army of 300,000 wintered in Thessaly; and Mardonius, when spring came, having vainly endeavored to detach the Athenians from the Grecian ranks, marched through Boeotia in Attica, and occupied Athens for the second time.
After having surveyed me with a curious eye, she broke out into, "O! ay, thou wast shipwrecked, I remember. Whether didst thou come on shore on the back of a whale or a dolphin?" To this I answered, I had swam ashore without any assistance. Then she demanded to know if I had ever been at the Hellespont, and swam from Sestos to Abydos.
They had to cross the rivers which flow into the Ægean Sea on the northern side; but as these rivers were in Macedon, and no opposition was encountered upon the banks of them, there was no serious difficulty in effecting the passage. When they reached Sestos, they found the fleet ready there, awaiting their arrival.
Thus we ran vntil 12. of the clocke, and then they tooke the Sunne and after iudged themselues to be 24. leagues past the riuer de Sestos to the Eastwards, by reason whereof we halled into the shoare within two English miles, and there ancred and found fifteene fadom water, and all off from the shoare the sea so smooth, that we might wel haue rid by an Hawser.
This indeed was the first of his acts which was cancelled by the Lacedæmonians, who restored Sestos to its inhabitants. Yet his proceedings were viewed with satisfaction by the Greeks, when he restored the Æginetans, who had for a long time been banished from their island, and also refounded Melos and Skione, the Athenians being driven away and forced to give up the cities.
At this time Alkibiades, who was living in his own forts in the Chersonese, rode over to the Athenian camp and blamed the generals for having in the first place encamped in a bad position, on an exposed sea-beach without any harbour, and pointed out their mistake in having to fetch all their provisions from Sestos, which was so far off, whereas they ought to have proceeded to the harbour and city of Sestos, where they would also be farther away from a watchful enemy, commanded by one general only, and so well disciplined as to be able to carry out his orders with great rapidity.
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