We sailed through the barren Archipelago, and into the narrow channel

they sometimes call the Dardanelles and sometimes the Hellespont. This

part of the country is rich in historic reminiscences, and poor as Sahara

in every thing else. For instance, as we approached the Dardanelles, we

coasted along the Plains of Troy and past the mouth of the Scamander; we

saw where Troy had stood (in the distance,) and where it does not stand

now--a city that perished when the world was young. The poor Trojans are

all dead, now. They were born too late to see Noah's ark, and died too

soon to see our menagerie. We saw where Agamemnon's fleets

rendezvoused,

and away inland a mountain which the map said was Mount Ida. Within

the

Hellespont we saw where the original first shoddy contract mentioned in

history was carried out, and the "parties of the second part" gently

rebuked by Xerxes. I speak of the famous bridge of boats which Xerxes

ordered to be built over the narrowest part of the Hellespont (where it

is only two or three miles wide.) A moderate gale destroyed the flimsy

structure, and the King, thinking that to publicly rebuke the contractors

might have a good effect on the next set, called them out before the army

and had them beheaded. In the next ten minutes he let a new contract for

the bridge. It has been observed by ancient writers that the second

bridge was a very good bridge. Xerxes crossed his host of five millions

of men on it, and if it had not been purposely destroyed, it would

probably have been there yet. If our Government would rebuke some of our

shoddy contractors occasionally, it might work much good. In the

Hellespont we saw where Leander and Lord Byron swam across, the one to

see her upon whom his soul's affections were fixed with a devotion that

404

The Innocents Abroad