We took leave of our Smyrna friends on the 19th of January, and having passed Scio, Lesbos, and Ipsera, were off Scyros on the 21st. We wished to visit this island, because it contains the tomb of Theseus, who killed the monster of Crete, and carried off the beauteous Ariadne; but the wind not permitting us to fetch it, we continued our course by Negropont, Longa, and the Promontory of Sunium. But the next morning the wind blew so strong against us, that finding it in vain to oppose it, we crossed the Sinus Sironicus, and anchored among the little islands of Idra. The weather continued bad for three days; it drove all the wild fowl to the shore, and afforded us excellent shooting, which compensated our delay.
On the 25th we again got under way, and the day after entered the Pyræus, the port of this celebrated city. What emotion must one feel on entering the ruins of a capital, which, from a small [Sidenote: A. A. C. 1556.] village, first formed into a regular government by Cecrops, became so flourishing, and so populous a state, that its citizens alone, in the famous battle of Marathon, delivered all Greece from the yoke of the Persians.
Xerxes was so little discouraged by the misfortunes of his father, that the moment he ascended his throne, he determined to make a second attempt. His army is said to have exceeded a million of men; and the number of his fleet was in proportion to the multitude of his troops. On his entering Upper Greece, most of the states, intimidated by the immensity of his armament, submitted to the enemy. The Peloponnesians having the advantage of inhabiting a country almost an island, and only assailable at the narrow Isthmus of Corinth, etermined to defend themselves. Themistocles infused the same spirit into the Athenians, and promoted the recall of his rival, Aristides. Their allies thinking it in vain to oppose the Persians beyond the Peloponnesus, wished all their forces to retire within the Isthmus. But the Athenians, encouraged by their former victory, bravely resolved once more to become the champions of Greece, and oppose the enemy before he entered Attica. Having brought the allies into this resolution, a detachment under Leonidas, King of Sparta, took possession of the pass of Thermopylæ, and for some time supported themselves against all the efforts of Xerxes, and his innumerable host. But a secret path being treacherously discovered to the enemy, Leonidas was surprised in the morning by seeing the Persians in possession of the heights above him.