ONE morning in the month of August, 1854, a French gentleman was
engaged in superintending some masons, who were at work adding a story to his house at La
Chenaie---a house that had once been occupied by the famous Agnes Sorel. For the last two
years he had devoted himself to agriculture and country pursuits. His career would,
indeed, seem to have closed, for he had led a busy, stirring life in foreign countries,
having filled the various grades of consulship in Tunis, Egypt, Rotterdam, Malaga, and
Barcelona; had been minister at Madrid, and, finally, at Rome. He had shown himself a man
of energy and purpose, and for his successful exertions at Barcelona, in 1842, to avert a
bombardment, had been presented with a gold medal by the resident French, and an address
of thanks from the municipality. But his chief experience had been gained in the East,
where he had made friends and connections, and, with a Frenchman's sympathy, had
thoroughly identified himself with the politics and manners of Egypt. After some
five-and-twenty years' service, he found that his course at Rome was not approved by his
Government, on which, in 1849, he resolved, apparently in some disgust, to withdraw from
the service and claim his retirement. The name of this gentleman was Count Ferdinand de
Lesseps; and, as he was now about fifty years old, it might fairly be concluded that his
career was closed, and that, beyond an occasional cast at the game of politics,--open to a
Frenchman at any age---life did not offer space for any important undertaking. But his
eyes and ears were still turned fondly back to the picturesque land of Egypt; and he
entertained himself with what could be no more than a dream, or a fabric as baseless---of
"piercing" the Isthmus. At the moment almost of his retirement, this project
began once more to fill his thoughts; for, indeed, twenty years before, when in Egypt, he
had often turned over the scheme, and seen in imagination the waters flowing through the
canal, and the ships sailing along. In 1852 he had again recurred to the design, had drawn
up a programme which he had translated into Arabic, and took the step of writing to an old
friend, the Dutch consul-general, to know what chances there were of its acceptance by
Abbas Pasha, then viceroy. The answer was unfavorable. But already the mind of the
projector was beginning to be stimulated by obstacles, and to show that fertility of
resource which obstacles generated. One of the Fould family was then proposing to
establish a bank at Constantinople; and De Lesseps seized the opportunity to have the
proposal opened to the Sultan. It was coldly declined, on the ground of its interfering
with the prerogative of the viceroy. Seeing that it was hopeless, our projector laid the
whole aside for the present, and, as we have seen, turned his thoughts to agriculture. And
thus two years passed away.
On that morning, then, of August, 1854, when engaged with the masons,
and standing on the roof of Agnes Sorel's house, the post arrived, and the letters were
handed up from workman to workman till they reached the proprietor. In one of the
newspapers he read the news of the death of Abbas Pasha and of the accession of Mohammed
Said, a patron and friend of the old Egypt days. They had been, indeed, on affectionate
and confidential terms. Instantly the scheme was born again in his busy soul, and his
teeming brain saw the most momentous result from this change of authority. In a moment he
had hurried down the ladder, and was writing congratulations, and a proposal to hurry to
Egypt and renew their old acquaintance. In a few weeks came the answer, and the ardent
projector had written joyfully to his old friend the Dutch consul that he would be on his
way in November, expressing the delight he would have in meeting him again "in our
old land in Egypt," but " there was not to be so much as a whisper to any one of
the scheme for piercing the Isthmus."
On the 7th of November he landed at Alexandria, and was received with
the greatest welcome by the new ruler. The viceroy was on the point of starting on a sort
of military promenade to Cairo, and insisted on taking his friend with him. They started;
but the judicious Frenchman determined to choose his opportunity, and waited for more than
a week before opening his daring plan to his patron. It was when they had halted on their
march, on a fine evening, the 15th, that he at last saw the opportunity. The viceroy was
in spirits; he took his friend by the hand, which he detained for a moment in his own;
then made him sit down beside him in his tent. It was an anxious moment. He felt, as he
confessed, that all depended on the way the matter was put before the prince, and that he
must succeed in inspiring him with some of his own enthusiasm. He accordingly proceeded to
unfold his plan, which he did in a broad fashion, without insisting too much on petty
details. He had his Arabian memoir almost by heart, so all the facts were present to his
mind. The Eastern listened calmly to the end, made some difficulties, heard the answers,
and then addressed his eager listener in these words: "I am satisfied; and I accept
your scheme. We'll settle all the details during our journey. But understand that it is
settled, and you may count upon me." Delightful assurance for the projector, whose
dreams that night must have been of an enchanting kind! This was virtually the
"concession" of the great canal.
But already the fair prospect was to be clouded, and at starting,
opposition to so daring a scheme came from England, and from Turkey, moved by England. It
is certainly not to the credit of England that from the beginning she should have
persistently opposed it; not on the straightforward ground of disliking the scheme, but on
the more disingenuous one of its not being feasible. She had so industriously disseminated
this idea, that it was assumed that the canal was impracticable. Those wonderful French
savants who went with the expedition to Egypt had announced that there was a difference of
level amounting to thirty feet between the two seas, so that the communication would only
lead to an inundation or a sort of permanent waterfall. Captain Chesney, passing by in
1830, declared that this was not so; but the delusion was accepted popularly up to 1847,
when a commission of three engineers, English, French, and German, made precise levelings,
and ascertained that it was a scientific mistake. Robert Stephenson, the English member of
the party, pronounced the whole scheme impracticable. Articles in the Edinburgh Review demonstrated with minute and elaborate pains the falsity of the data on which the
promoters rested. And a more amusing half-hour's entertainment could not be desired than
the perusal of this Edinburgh Review article for January, 1856, in which it is
proved triumphantly that the canal must fill up, and that no harbor or pier could be made.
The article argued it all out with a formidable array of facts. Lord Palmerston's
opposition is well known, but the shower of articles in the leading journal which
ridiculed, prophesied, and confuted, are now well-nigh forgotten.
It was first proposed to follow a roundabout route, making two sides of
a triangle, with the existing line for the third. One portion of the waterway, from
Damietta to Cairo, was supplied by the Nile itself, so there remained a distance of twenty
miles to be dealt with. But the Nile was in itself a difficulty---the irrigation and other
works would be all interfered with, and there were enormous problems as to levels, etc.
The direct course was therefore adopted. A curious scientific party, known as the Mixed
Commission, formed of engineers from all the leading nations, proceeded, at the close of
1855, to make a close examination of the question on the spot; and nothing is more
creditable to science than the masterly style in which every point was investigated. The
result was satisfactory, and it was determined to commence the work. The route chosen was
favored by many advantages; the distance, though ninety miles in length, was already
canalized by various lakes, great and small, to the extent of about thirty miles or more.
Roughly, the course was as follows: Starting from the Mediterranean, the entrance is found
in a strip of sand, from four to five hundred feet wide, and which forms the rim, as it
were, of the bowl that holds Lake Menzaleh. Here is Port Said, the gate or doorway of the
canal; then, for about thirty miles, is found the great lake just named, where there rises
a slight hill, about twenty-five feet high; then a small lake, and then, for about thirty
miles, a series of gradually rising hills, culminating in a rather stiff plateau. Beyond
the plateau is Lake Timseh, about five miles long, where there is the halfway port,
Ismailia. Then succeeds another plateau, large basins, known as the Bitter Lakes,
extending about twenty miles, while the rest is land up to the Red Sea. These lakes were
in some places dry. There were to be no sluices or locks, though these lakes would be
greatly enlarged by the admission of the waters.
It would take long to set out the story of the opposition, coldness,
and rebuffs which this intrepid projector was now to encounter. His own sovereign was
indifferent; but in England the hostility was almost rancorous. It was repeated again, in
and out of Parliament, that even if the canal were ever made, it would be no more than a
"stagnant ditch"; and this phrase became a favorite one with the wiseacres, who
knew nothing and fancied that they understood. Stephenson, in the House of Commons,
renewed his condemnation of the whole scheme, and in contemptuous style repeated the
favorite phrase, "stagnant ditch." Never faltering, our projector brought out
his company, and, after untiring speechifyings, pamphlets, repasts, etc., opened the
subscription. Nearly eight millions were found. In 1859 he started with the work. His
faithful friend the Pasha stood by him gallantly, and supplied him with fellahs by
the thousand, according to the custom of forced labor in the country. Unfortunately,
within five years his patron died, and the present Pasha, who succeeded, had not the same
admiration and faith in the projector. He presently took up a hostile attitude, and
declined to supply any more forced labor. It is surprising that the blow did not at once
wreck the undertaking; for the forced labor was an all important element in the
calculations. But the indomitable De Lesseps was now a force in Europe, and many eyes were
following his proceedings with curiosity and sympathy. A man who had done so much against
so much was not likely to be repelled by such an obstacle.
He appealed to the Emperor Napoleon; and here we see, again, the good
fortune that attended the brave adventurer. He was a connection of the Empress---indeed,
it has been stated that he was grandson of one of the Scotch Kirkpatricks; and this
influence stood him in good stead. Further, he had wisely made the shares of his company
small enough to attract the humble investor, and, as they were held largely over the
kingdom, the whole country was interested in the scheme. The Emperor dared not disregard
such pressure, and, agreeing to act as umpire, made an equitable decision that satisfied
both: to the effect that the Pasha was to supply as much labor as was necessary, with a
rearrangement of the concession. On this, the enterprise was pursued with fresh energy.
The little canal, which was to convey fresh water for the workmen, had been completed; and
at last, by the year 1865, a channel had been scraped out about the depth of a respectable
duckpond, and sufficient to float a small boat through. A couple of years more, and it was
deep enough to carry a vessel of thirty or forty tons. It seems incredible, but this
progress only excited the derision of the leading English newspapers, who talked of
"cockle-shells," and who were dull enough not to see that the problem was
already solved. It was then insinuated that it was merely a coup de theatre---a
cleverly arranged trick to "raise the wind," and extract more money. The idea
seemed, indeed, to be generally entertained in England that it was no more than the
prophesied "stagnant ditch," in which it was contrived to keep some water for
show. More money, however, was wanting; and still this Cagliostro seems to have induced
his disciples to subscribe without difficulty; and then a system of dredging, carried out
on a magnificent and original scale, was introduced. Machines were contrived on the
"elevator" principle, which dredged the "stuff@ from the bottom, and landed it on the banks direct.
Finally, on August 15, the brilliant scene of the opening took place, in presence of the
Empress, who had traveled from Paris for the purpose. The waters were admitted, and the
Red and the Mediterranean Seas mingled together. A glorious day for our adventurer!
The cost of this scheme corresponded to its splendor, amounting to
nearly nineteen millions sterling, including the charge of interest during the
construction. It was a good deal more than double the estimate; but, as we have seen, the
expense of paid-for labor had not been included. The time spent had been about sixteen
years. Everything had come out as the projector had prophesied---even to the profits,
which, as the great Samuel said on another occasion, were "rich, beyond the dreams of
avarice." All the prophecies of the ill-wishers and the critics were falsified in the
most ludicrous degree. The "silting-up," the impossibility of keeping the mouths
open, the "washing" away of the banks; and, above all, the grave statement of
the Edinburgh Review, that goods could be unloaded at one side, dispatched across
the isthmus by rail, and shipped again at the other side, on just as convenient and rapid
a system---all these fine-spun scientific arguments have been confuted by the event. The
work remains a magnificent success.
Source
From: Eva March Tappan, ed., The World's Story: A History of the World in Story,
Song and Art, (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1914), Vol. III: Egypt, Africa, and Arabia,
pp. 229-237.
Scanned by Jerome S. Arkenberg, Cal. State Fullerton. The text has been modernized by
Prof. Arkenberg
Note: Many Western sources about Islamic countries exhibit what has
come to be known as orientalism. The terms used ("Mohammedan" for
instance rather than "Muslim"), and the attitudes exhibited by the writers need
to be questioned by modern readers.
This text is part of the Internet
Islamic History Sourcebook. The Sourcebook is a collection of public domain and
copy-permitted texts for introductory level classes in modern European and World history.
