ROME SUEZ PANAMA. 141 



the question. As I rode out with them on horseback, 

 and as they were inclined to think more of a man who 

 could jump a fence than of a savant and a bookworm, 

 they were well disposed towards me ; and when the 

 Viceroy showed them the memorandum I had drawn 

 up, they were unanimous in my favour. So I got my 

 concession, and this was the origin of the Suez Canal. 

 Once in possession of it, I said to the Yiceroy, " I 

 am not a financier, or a man of business. "What do 

 you think I had best do ? " I had many colleagues 

 and friends who were rich. I got a hundred of them 

 to join me, and proposed to found a company with 

 them. We each of us put in a share of 200, and 

 this share is now worth over 40,000. This sum 

 served for the preliminary investigations which I had 

 made by engineers whom I had brought from Europe 

 to examine the ground, which had never before been 

 done, as no one had ever dreamt that the canal could 

 be made except with the water of the Nile. But I 

 had always been of opinion that as the two seas were 

 on the same level stoutly as this was denied the 

 work to be undertaken must be a purely maritime 

 one. I stuck to my text in spite of all opposition, and 

 my obstinacy has had its reward. I intend to act just 

 in the same way at Panama, though many engineers 

 would prefer, on account of the difference in level, 

 not of the seas, but of the tides, to construct a lock. 

 I would not have one at Suez, and I do not intend to 

 at Panama, as thus I effect a saving of more than a 



