FERDINAND DE LESSEPS 337 business world to a practical interest in the scheme. De Lesseps had been from the start the chief mover in the enterprise, to which he had given many years of his time, and he was not a man to be discouraged by repeated failures to bring others to his own way of thinking. His long experience, besides, in the ways of diplomacy had prepared him for delays and obstructions ; but the time came, at last, when his enthusiasm, his confidence in himself, and his skill in dealing with men were to bring about the realization of his hopes. Five years, from 1849 to 1854, had been occupied by De Lesseps in negotia- tions with governments and bankers, but it was not until 1854 that the event occurred which insured the success of his great undertaking. In that year, Ma- homet Said Pasha became Viceroy of Egypt, and no sooner was he seated than he sent for De Lesseps to consult with him as to the possibility of carrying out the project of the canal. In November of the same year, a commission was signed at Cairo by the Viceroy charging De Lesseps with the formation of a company to be named the United Suez Canal Company, with a capital of two hundred million francs, afterward raised to three hundred million. From this time the affairs of the canal went on with comparative smoothness, and by 1858 the money necessary for the work had been pledged ; one-half the loan was placed on the continent, chiefly in Paris, the other half was taken by the Viceroy. Actual work on the canal was begun in 1858 and such rapid progress was made that it was completed in the autumn of 1 869, and opened to the commerce of the world with magnificent ceremonies, lasting for several days. Religious ceremonies, in which priests of the Catholic Church, the Greek Church, and the Moslem faith united, were followed by a naval parade representing the Euro- pean powers and the United States, and the whole concluded with a brilliant series of fetes and entertainments at Cairo. As the originator of the canal, De Lesseps, was a Frenchman, and as France had been the chief promoter of the enterprise, the place of honor at these ceremonies was naturally given to the Empress Eugenie, who went to Cairo as the representative of the French na- tion ; while to De Lesseps, as naturally, was given the next place, a position which he filled with equal dignity and modesty, winning " golden opinions from all sorts of people." The Suez Canal, though a vast and important undertaking, presented almost no engineering difficulties to be overcome. At Port Said, the Mediterranean entrance to the canal, two great piers, to serve as breakwaters, were built of arti- ficial stone, projecting into the sea ; the western, a distance of 6,940 feet, the eastern 6,020 feet, and enclosing an area of 450 acres ; thus providing a safe and commodious harbor. At Suez, the Red Sea terminus of the canal, a less for- midable defense was needed ; but the necessary docks and buildings called for a considerable outlay. From Port Said to Suez the land is almost a dead level ; the few sand-dunes that break the monotonous uniformity of the isthmus nowhere reach a greater height than fifty or sixty feet. Along the middle line of the isthmus there was a series of depressions ; some shallow, and others, the bottoms of which were 2a
