(Hobhouse,
Travels in Albania
, etc., vol. ii. p. 195). In Hobhouse's journal, Byron made the following note:
"The whole distance E. and myself swam was more than four miles — the current very strong and cold — some large fish near us when half across — we were not fatigued, but a little chilled — did it with little difficulty. — May 26, 1810. Byron."
Of his feat Byron was always proud. See the "Lines Written after Swimming from Sestos to Abydos" ("by the by, from Abydos to Sestos would have been more correct"), and
Don Juan
, Canto II. stanza cv.:—
"A better swimmer you could scarce see ever;
He could, perhaps, have pass'd the Hellespont,
As once (a feat on which ourselves we prided)
Leander, Mr. Ekenhead, and I did."
In a note to the "Lines Written after Swimming from Sestos to Abydos," Byron writes,
"Chevalier says that a young Jew swam the same distance for his mistress; and Oliver mentions its having been done by a Neapolitan; but our consul, Tarragona, remembered neither of these circumstances, and tried to dissuade us from the attempt. A number of the Salsette's crew were known to have accomplished a greater distance; and the only thing that surprised me was that, as doubts had been entertained of the truth of Leander's story, no traveller had ever endeavoured to ascertain its practicability."