THE SUEZ CANAL. 107 



seen struggling in the waves. Ropes were thrown to, or rather towards him, an empty 

 barrel and a coop pitched overboard, but it was hopeless 



' ' That cry is ' Help ! ' where no help can come, 

 For the White Squall rides on the surging wave," 



and he disappeared in an " ocean grave/' amid the mingled foam and driving spray. No more 

 songs then ; all gaiety was quenched, and many a tear-drop clouded eyes so bright before. 

 The vessel, under one small sail only (the jib), drove on, and in half an hour broke 

 out of obscurity and mist, and was off the wharfs and lights of San Francisco in calm 

 water. The same distance had occupied over four hours in the morning. 



In the Mediterranean every wind has its special name. There is the searching north 

 wind, the Grippe or Mistral, said to be one of the scourges of gay Provence 



" La Cour de Parlement, le Mistral et la Durance, 

 Sont les trois fleaux de la Provence." 



The north blast, a sudden wind, is called Boras, and hundreds of sailors have practically 



prayed, with the song, 



"Cease, rude Boreas." 



The north-east biting wind is the Gregale, while the south-east, often a violent wind, is 

 the dreaded Sirocco, bad either on sea or shore. The last which need be mentioned here, 

 is the stifling south-west wind, the Siffante. But now we have reached the Suez Canal. 



This gigantic work, so successfully completed by M. Lesseps, for ever solved impossibility 

 of a work which up to that time had been so emphatically declared to be an impossibility. 

 In effect, he is a conqueror. " Impossible," said the first Napoleon, " n'est pas Franqais," 

 and the motto is a good one for any man or any nation, although the author of the 

 sentence found many things impossible, including that of which we speak. M. de 

 Lesseps has done more for peace than ever the Disturber of Europe did with war. 



When M. de Lesseps* commenced with, not the Canal, but the grand conception thereof, 

 he had pursued twenty-nine years of first-class diplomatic service : it would have been an 

 honourable career for most people. He gave it up from punctilios of honour ; lost, at least 

 possibly, the opportunity of great political power. He was required to endorse that which 

 he could not possibly endorse. Lesseps had lost his chance, said many. Let us see. The 

 man who has conquered the usually unconquerable English prejudice would certainly 

 surmount most troubles ! He has only carried out the ideas of Sesostris, Alexander, Caesar, 

 Amrou, the Arabian conqueror, Napoleon the Great, and Mehemet Ali. These are 

 simply matters of history. But history, in this case, has only repeated itself in the 

 failures, not in the successes. Lesseps has made the success ; they were the failures ! Let 

 us review history, amid which you may possibly find many truths. The truth alone, as 

 far as it may be reached, appears in this work. The Peace Society ought to endorse 

 Lesseps. As it stands, the Peace party well-intentioned people ought to raise a statue 

 to the man who has made it almost impossible for England to be involved in war, 

 so far as the great East is concerned, for many a century to come. 



* The Suez Canal, and all appertaining thereto, is well described in the following works : ' The Suez Canal," 

 by F. M. de Lesseps; "The History of the Suez Canal," by F. M. de Lesseps, translated by Sir H. D. Wolff; 

 "My Trip to the Suez Canal," &c. 



