ROMAN SARCOPHAGI, SALONA.
CHAPTER XVIII
ZARA
From Spalato to Zara—Chief Objects of Interest in the Capital of Dalmatia—The Story of St. Simeon—The Five Fountains—Fragments of Roman Occupation.
It was twelve o’clock of a soft summer night when the sharp, hooded prow of the Graf Wurmbrand backed away from the molo at Spalato, swung around in the darkness and headed out into the black beyond, on her five hour run along the coast to Zara. Her cabins and after decks were ablaze with electric bulbs, but forward of the bridge all was inky darkness, for the pilot of this, the fastest boat of the Adriatic coast service, took the matter more seriously than the passengers and allowed no glare to dim the sharpness of his vision while his charge sped northward between the islands, responding gracefully to the twirl of the wheel.
When our eyes had become accustomed to peering out into the darkness, for it is almost as beautiful to ride at night through these channels as it is in the daytime and for that reason we eschewed our berths, those of us who had remained on deck could distinguish, as we passed, the silhouette of the island of Kraglievaz, or King’s Seat, upon which Bela IV secluded himself from the pursuit of the Tartars. Then we plowed through a veritable shoal of islands and passed an isolated rock, formerly crowned by the Benedictine monastery of St. Arcangelo. Farther along, near the famous headland of La Planca (the Promontorium Diomedis of the Romans), we passed a little chapel, built by a thankful mariner who, while sailing up the coast with a cargo of Malvasia wine, suffered shipwreck on the rocks and made ingenious use of his cargo to mix the mortar with which to bind the stones of this little monument of appreciation of his rescue.
At this point we also crossed an arm of the open sea, and then sped on between the island of Zlarin and the mainland. Beyond Zlarin lies the town of Sebenico, founded by pirates who, from their caves in the surrounding mountains, scanned the sea for ships. Waxing in boldness they founded a colony on the shore, which they surrounded with a fortification or palisade. From the Croatian name for “palisade” (“Sibne”) is derived the name of the town, Sebenico.