as soon as possible, stopping in England on his
return, to order an engine for his boat from Watt and Boulton. He gave
an exact description of the engine, which was built in strict accordance
with his plan, but declined to state the use to which he intended
putting it.

Very soon after his arrival in New York, he commenced building his first
American boat, and finding that her cost would greatly exceed his
estimate, he offered for sale a third interest in the monopoly of the
navigation of the waters of New York, held by Livingston and himself, in
order to raise money to build the boat, and thus lighten the burdens of
himself and his partner, but he could find no one willing to risk money
in such a scheme. Indeed, steam navigation was universally regarded in
America as a mere chimera, and Fulton and Livingston were ridiculed for
their faith in it. The bill granting the monopoly held by Livingston was
regarded as so utterly absurd by the Legislature of New York, that that
wise body could with difficulty be induced to consider it seriously.
Even among scientific men the project was considered impracticable. A
society in Rotterdam had, several years before Fulton's return home,
applied to the American Philosophical Society to be informed whether any
and what improvements had been made in the construction of steam-engines
in America. A reply to this inquiry was prepared, at the request of the
Society, by Mr. Benjamin H. Latrobe, a distinguished engineer. The
following extracts from this paper will show the reader how Fulton's
scheme was regarded by one who was confessedly one of the most brilliant
engineers of his day, and who has since accomplished so much for the
improvement of steam travel:

During the general lassitude of mechanical exertion which succeeded
the American Revolution, We utility of steam-engines appears to
have been forgotten; but the subject afterward started into very
general notice in a form in which it could not possibly be attended
with success. A sort of mania began to prevail, which, indeed, has
not yet entirely subsided, for impelling boats by steam-engines.
Dr. Franklin proposed to force forward the boat by the immediate
application of the steam upon the water. Many attempts to simplify
the working of the engine, and more to employ a means of dispensing
with the beam in converting the _libratory_ into a rotatory motion,
were made. For a sho