150 RECOLLECTIONS OF FORTY YEARS. 



millions on the Suez Canal, and we have given back 

 to France (as I showed in a memorandum handed by 

 me to the Government) fifty millions. 



This is why I have so many backers among the 

 general public and common people. There is scarcely 

 a small tradesman or peasant who has not his share in 

 the Suez Canal Company. The other day I drove to 

 my office in a cab, and when I had given the driver 

 his thirty-five sous he took my hand and said, " M. de 

 Lesseps, I am one of your shareholders." These 

 are the men who made the Suez and will make the 

 Panama Canal, and Panama will be opened in 1889. 

 The example of Suez increases the number and confi- 

 dence of the Panama shareholders. The Suez Canal 

 was opened sixteen years ago,* and we are still at 

 work upon it. At Panama we have means at our 

 disposal which we did not possess at Suez, and accord- 

 ing to the estimate which has been made we have 

 57,000 horse-power, which at the rate of ten men 

 each represents an army of 570,000 men. Add to 

 them the 20,000 workmen on the ground, and it will 

 be seen that we shall be able, by 1889, to open a 

 passage sufficient for the purposes of navigation, while 

 after that we shall enlarge the canal, as we have done 

 for Suez, which yields such a magnificent return to 

 the shareholders, and upon which, nevertheless, we 

 are still at work. I have just returned from Panama, 

 where I went in the company of several distinguished 

 * This chapter was written in 1885. Note of the Translator. 



