r enterprise of his own countrymen. However, on this point he
was doomed to bitter disappointment, and the next few years were destined
to be the darkest through which he was to pass.

On the day after his arrival in New York he wrote to Mr. F.O.J. Smith:--

"I take the first moment of rest from the fatigues of my boisterous
voyage to apprise you of my arrival yesterday in the Great Western.... I
am quite disappointed in finding nothing done by Congress, and nothing
accomplished in the way of company. I had hoped to find on my return some
funds ready for prosecuting with vigor the enterprise, which I fear will
suffer for the want.

"Think a moment of my situation. I left New York for Europe to be gone
three months, but have been gone eleven months. My only means of support
are in my profession, which I have been compelled to abandon entirely for
the present, giving my undivided time and efforts to this enterprise. I
return with not a farthing in my pocket, and have to borrow even for my
meals, and even worse than this, I have incurred a debt of rent by my
absence which I should have avoided if I had been at home, or rather if I
had been aware that I should have been obliged to stay so long abroad. I
do not mention this in the way of complaint, but merely to show that I
also have been compelled to make great sacrifices for the common good,
and am willing to make more yet if necessary. If the enterprise is to be
pursued, we must all in our various ways put the shoulder to the wheel.

"I wish much to see you and talk over all matters, for it seems to me
that the present state of the enterprise in regard to Russia affects
vitally the whole concern."

Thus gently did he chide one of his partners, who should have been
exerting himself to forward their joint interests in America while he
himself was doing what he could in Europe. The other partners, Alfred
Vail and Dr. Leonard Gale, were equally lax and seem to have lost
interest in the enterprise, as we learn from the following letter to Mr.
Smith, of May 24, 1839:--

"You will think it strange, perhaps, that I have not answered yours of
the 28th ult. sooner, but various causes have prevented an earlier
attention to it. My affairs, in consequence of my protracted absence and
the stagnant state of the Telegraph here at home, have caused me great
embarrassment, and my whole energies have been called upon to extricate
myself from the confusion in which I have been unhappily