224 A SAGA OF THE SEAS 
Pacific cable. The officials at Washington were not inclined 
to incur large financial responsibilities for a cable to Asia. 
They inquired about costs. Field asked British contractors 
to estimate on manufacturing and laying a cable to Hawaii, 
thence one to Japan and one to Australia by way of the Fiji 
Islands and New Caledonia. 
His position was that of adviser rather than active pro- 
moter, as he had already experienced enough worry over one 
such enterprise. In the summer of 1880, he sent a list of sug- 
gestions to those favorable to the project in Washington. 
These suggestions were as follows: 
1. That the United States government obtain from some emi- 
nent electrician specifications for the best description of cable 
suitable for the great depths and the great lengths required to 
connect the western with the eastern coasts of the Pacific. 
2. That the government advertise for tenders to manufacture 
and lay such description of cable, one-fourth the amount to be 
paid when the cables are all manufactured, one-fourth when they 
are on board the steamers and the steamers ready to sail, one- 
fourth when the cables have been successfully laid, and the re- 
maining fourth when they have been worked successfully and 
without interruption for thirty days. 
By adopting this course I think you would obtain a good cable 
at the lowest price. 
The government could pay for such a cable by selling its four 
per cent. bonds, having a long time to run, at a considerable 
premium; and the revenue from such a cable would, in my opin- 
ion, steadily increase from year to year, and at no distant day be 
a source of revenue to the country. 
Have you ever written to the American ministers in Japan and 
China on the subject? If the United States government desired it, 
and took the proper steps, I think that England, Russia, France, 
Japan, and China would each do something towards encouraging 
the enterprise. 
Apparently the heavy losses that the nation had suffered 
in the financial depression, and the uncertainties of the polit- 
ical outlook both at Washington and Honolulu, combined 
