110 THE SEA. 



days previously. After examining the plans and investigating the subject, the ruler of 

 Egypt said, " I accept your plan. We will talk about the means of its execution during 

 the rest of the journey. Consider the matter settled. You may rely on me." He sent 

 immediately fqr his generals, and made them sit down, repeating the previous conver- 

 sation, and inviting them to give their opinion of the proposals of his friend. The 

 impromptu counsellors were better able to pronounce on equestrian evolutions than on a 

 vast enterprise. But Lesseps, a good horseman, had just before cleared a wall with his 

 charger, and they, seeing how he stood with the Viceroy, gave their assent by raising 

 their hands to their foreheads. The dinner-tray then appeared, and with one accord all 

 plunged their spoons into the same bowl, which contained some first-class soup. Lesseps 

 considered it, very naturally, as the most important negotiation he had ever made. 



Results speak for themselves. In 1854, there was not a fly in that hideous desert^ 

 Water, sheep, fowls, and provisions of all kinds had to be carried by the explorers. When 

 at night they opened the coops of fowls, and let the sheep run loose, they did it with 

 confidence. They were sure that next morning, in that desolate place, the animals dare not 

 desert the party. " When/' says Lesseps, " we struck our camp of a morning, if at the 

 moment of departure a hen had lurked behind, pecking at the foot of a tamarisk shrub, 

 quickly she would jump up on the back of a camel, to regain her cage." That desert is 

 now peopled. There are three important towns. Port Said had not existed before : there 

 is now what would be called a " city," in America, on a much smaller basis of truth : it 

 has 12,000 people. Suez, with 15,000 people, was not much more than a village previously. 

 Ismailia, half-way on the route, has 5,000 or 6,000 of population. There are other towns 

 or villages. 



A canal actually effecting a junction between the two seas via the Nile was made in 

 the period of the Egyptian dynasties. It doubtless fulfilled its purpose for the passage 

 of galleys and smaller vessels ; history hardly tells us when it was rendered useless. 

 Napoleon the First knew the importance of the undertaking, and appointed a commission 

 of engineers to report on it. M. Lepere presented him a report on its feasibility, and 

 Napoleon observed on it, " It is a grand work ; and though I cannot execute it now, the 

 day may come when the Turkish Government will glory in accomplishing it." Other 

 schemes, including those of eminent Turkish engineers, had been proposed. It remained 

 to be accomplished in this century. The advantages gained by its construction can hardly 

 be enumerated here. Suffice it to say that a vessel going by the Cape of Good Hope 

 from London to Bombay travels nearly 6,000 miles over the ocean; by the Suez Canal 

 the distance is 3,100, barely more than half the distance. 



To tell the history of the financial troubles which obstructed the scheme would be 

 tedious to the reader. At last there was an International Commission appointed, which 

 cost the Viceroy of Egypt 12,000, and yet no single member took a farthing for his 

 services.. The names are sufficient to prove with what care it had been selected. On the 

 part of England, Messrs. Rendel and MacClean, both eminent engineers, with, for a 

 sufficiently good reason, Commander Hewet of the East India Company's service, who 

 for twenty-seven years had been making surveys in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean. 

 France gave two of her greatest engineers, Messrs. Renaud and Liessou : Austria, one 



