218 RECOLLECTIONS OF FORTY YEARS. 



crowd of spectators. All promised well for the pros- 

 perity of the enterprise, when a rival company in 

 turn obtained a patent, disputed Jouffroy's claim to 

 priority, and brought from England a boat fitted with 

 their engines. The competition in a mode of naviga- 

 tion against which prejudice was still so strong proved 

 disastrous to both companies. 



Jouffroy, whose faith in the future of steam naviga- 

 tion was not to be shaken, once more retired to his 

 native district to get together the means for starting 

 a fresh society, and, with the help of a few intelligent 

 friends, he succeeded in forming a capital of 960, 

 divided into twenty-four shares of 40 each. This 

 small capital was spent in the construction of a steamer 

 called the Per sever ant. Upon July 8th, 1819, the part- 

 ners agreed to constitute a capital of 8,000 for the 

 construction of several steamers, so as to organise a 

 regular service. The Perseverant plied for several 

 months between Lyons and Chalons. Prejudice and 

 conflicting interests prevented the creation of the re- 

 quired capital, not that anyone denied that this mode 

 of transport was speedy, but they urged that naviga- 

 tion was impossible on the Ehone and full of obstacles 

 on the Saone, owing to shallowness of the stream, and 

 that the powerful Compagnie Ge'nerale des Transports 

 would not stop at anything to put down competition. 

 So great were the obstacles in the way of steam naviga- 

 tion at Lyons, even twelve years after it was prospering 

 in America, and after Henry Bell had overcome the 



