ance of the original estimate, but made necessary by the addition
of several important items of expenditure that were not foreseen.
One of these was the substitution of paid labor for the forced labor
promised by the Pasha, but which was made impossible by public
clamor. The Egyptian ruler discovered that he was not living in the
times of the pyramid-building Pharaohs, when men were made
beasts-of-burden. Another item not provided for was the necessity of
supplying the 30,000 workmen employed on the canal with fresh water.
For this purpose, a branch canal had to be dug, by which water could
be brought from the Nile.

[Illustration: Cutting the Canal at Panama.]

The enterprise thus brought to a happy ending, has already proved of
great service to the world. It must be looked upon not merely as a
benefit to commerce, but as one of the many powerful agents now
at work binding the nations closer together. It is indissolubly
connected with the name of De Lesseps, and had he been contented
with the fortune and the reputation gained by his work in forwarding
the canal, few names would have shone brighter in the list of those
who have helped on man's material well-being. But in an evil hour he
was persuaded to lend his support to the Panama Canal scheme, and
along with the ruined fortunes and ruined reputations sunk in that
abyss, the name and fortune of De Lesseps and his family have
suffered irretrievable blight.

The Panama Canal was not first proposed in our day; the scheme is as
old as the discovery of the isthmus. "The early navigators," says J.
C. Rodrigues, "could not help noticing how near to each other were
the two oceans, and how comparatively easy would be (they thought)
the cutting of a canal through that narrow strip of land between
them. The celebrated Portuguese navigator Antonio Galvaeo, as early
as 1550, wrote an essay on the subject wherein he suggested four
different lines, one of which was through the Lake of Nicaragua, and
another by the Isthmus of Panama." England, in 1779, was the first
to make an attempt to control the river and lake communications, but
her forces sent under Nelson to begin the work were driven away by
the terrible fever that has thus far been the best defence of the
isthmus from attack. Various schemes were entertained by other
nations, but, although the United States kept a jealous eye upon its
own interests in the enterprise, it was not until the discovery of
gold in California