mus of Panama in two years' time and to finish it within twelve years after the date of commencement. He secured a concession conditional upon his obtaining the consent of the Panama Railroad to it. At this time there was pending before the Legislature of Nicaragua a bill to authorize the construction of a canal in that territory by another French company. After carrying his point at Bogotá, Wyse went to Nicaragua and succeeded in defeating the efforts of his rivals to gain a concession. He then went on to New York and effected an agreement with the Panama Railroad Company. Whilst Wyse was engaged in these negotiations, Lieutenant Reclus made a perfunctory survey of the proposed route. On the return of these officers to Paris, they submitted a roseate report to their principals and the Societé Civile promptly adopted the route. The contract with the Colombian Government provided that whatever route the Societé might propose should have the endorsement of an international body of engineers and other scientists. In accordance with this requirement, De Lesseps convened at Paris in May, 1879, the "International Scientific Congress." It con sisted of one hundred and thirty-six members, of whom seventy-four were Frenchmen. The body was largely composed of men friendly to De Lesseps and his scheme. Fewer than fifty of them were engineers, or scientists, a greater number being speculators and politicians. De Lesseps presided over the gathering and dominated its proceedings. Fifty-four members were appointed by De Lesseps, who nominated all the committees to to consider the question of the route. At the outset considerable opposition to the line chosen by the promoters was shown. The San Blas route was advanced by one of the American delegates; the Darien route by another. The partisans of De Lesseps showed the deepest resentment at the opposition and a pronounced disinclination to submit the matter to open argument. They made it so plain that they intended to carry their point, regardless of every consideration but their own interests, that a number of the members of the committee declined to take further part in the proceedings. Immediately after their withdrawal, the remainder of the body cast a vote in favor of the Panama route and the Congress ratified it without debate, although in the final declaration not more than one hundred of the members went on record. The methods of the promoters in this Congress created the distrust of the foreign governments that had interested themselves in the project and even aroused unfavorable public opinion in France. De Lesseps was acutely alive to the bad impression that had been made and promptly set about counteracting it. In September, 1879, he went to the Isthmus and made an investigation. Although he was not an engineer, his opinion in the matter carried great weight, on account of the prestige attaching to him as the builder of the Suez Canal. He confirmed the favorable reports of Wyse and Reclus and published plans for a canal at sea level to be twenty-eight feet deep and to cost $132,000,000. In the meantime, adverse feeling against the French project had grown in official circles and amongst the business men of the United States. Prominent capitalists and engineers, including Admiral Ammen and Lieutenant Menocal, the official delegates to the International Congress, organized the Interoceanic Canal Company, with the design of constructing a waterway at Nicaragua. In the spring of 1880, the latter officer secured a concession from the Nicaragua government, on the condition that work should be commenced within two years. De Lesseps, realizing the great importance of propitiating the Government of the United States and securing the good will of its people, visited New York and Washington in March, 1880. He was treated as a distinguished guest and cordially received by President Hayes, but the latter shortly afterwards sent a message to the Senate in which he gave it as his opinion that an interoceanic canal by any route should properly be controlled by the United States, and that the United States could not consent to the surrender of the control of such a waterway to any European power. This was a direct slap at De Lesseps' programme, which involved a canal whose neutrality should be guaranteed by a concert of European nations. The Frenchman was shrewd enough to yield on this point with seeming cordiality, but he set about trying to secure his ends by less direct processes. An American board was created, with prominent men composing its personnel, and some of the leading banking houses of the United States were engaged as fiscal agents. Large sums of money were placed at the disposal of these agen |