Historic anticipation of the Suez Canal—The considerations that deterred the ancient Pharaoh, Necho, and the modern Pharaoh, Mehemet—Lesseps's first conception of the canal—A project forty years in hatching—Saïd's enthusiastic acceptance of the scheme—Ismail comes into power saddled with Saïd's pledges and a heavy debt—The corvé or forced labor system and its abolition at the instance of England—Ismail accepts the retrocession of the sweet-water canal and its adjacent lands—Extraordinary claims for indemnity—Napoleon III. as arbitrator gives a judgment of 84,000,000 francs against the Viceroy—The magnificent fêtes on the completion of the canal—England as a factor in the present status of the Suez Canal.
THE connection of the Mediterranean and the Red Sea has interested the world in all ages. As early as the time of the great Pharaohs of the nineteenth dynasty a canal connected Lake Timsah and the Pelusium branch of the Nile, there being evidence of it engraved upon the walls of the great banquet-hall in the temple of Karnak at Thebes. About 650 years before the Christian era the Pharaoh Necho attempted the connection, and after expending vast sums and causing the death of many thousands of his people he abandoned it, giving as a reason that he had consulted the oracle, which sagely told him that if he pursued his progressive ideas too far the Phoenicians, those famous old mariners, would be precipitated upon him and swallow up his country as in a vast maelstrom. His counsellor added that Egypt with her dense population had originated her own prosperity, and was marvellously gifted for duration, having stood the shock of time for thousands of years, and it was best that he should turn his progressive ideas in another direction. The result was that his surplus energy was expended in circumnavigating the continent of Africa.
These undertakings were followed by similar schemes of the Persians, Greeks, Romans, and Arabians, all being limited to the connection of the Nile with the basin of the Red Sea, to facilitate the traffic between Egypt and Arabia. In supplying the only requirements of the age in this simple manner they opened a navigable route between the seas. That which antiquity did not need—a short and direct communication—became a paramount necessity in the present century. At an early day, after all traces of former canals had disappeared, Mehemet Ali, an illiterate Greek Mahometan, then Viceroy of Egypt, was besought to expend the life and money of his people to construct a ship canal, one commensurate in magnitude with the enormous navigation and commerce of the world. Without knowing history, but possessed of strong sense, the modern Pharaoh adopted the sensible policy of the old one, and he too consulted the oracle, which informed him that it was best not to precipitate the barbarians upon him by any such act of folly, and he wisely resisted the speculators and Consuls-General. Time passed, and Saïd Pacha, when a prince, came under the magic influence of De Lesseps and was beguiled into promising him the authority to connect the two seas through the Isthmus of Suez—a promise which was faithfully kept upon ascending the throne. M. de Lesseps has received great credit for his astute diplomacy in forcing the Egyptian to violate a sacred tradition of his family, and still more for carrying it through to a successful result in defiance of the powerful influence of England. De Lesseps, coming to Egypt in 1831 as an attaché of the consulate of France, studied the scheme, and satisfied of its practicability, he soon met with Linant Bey, a distinguished French engineer, then residing in Egypt. The latter, through many years of reconnoissance, was prepared to demonstrate that the two seas were on the same level, and that there was no difficulty in cutting through the sands of the desert. This settled it in the mind of the young diplomat that he had a theme worthy of profound consideration. Laboring for nearly forty years, his enthusiastic advocacy won the support of Napoleon and his government, the sympathy of scientific men, and the promises of the capitalists of the world. It is not to be wondered at that, witnessing the fulfilment of his prodigious work, he should come to consider it as his individual property, and set himself up as a dictator, and to dispute with nations any interference with his vested rights. The monuments of Egypt declare the isthmus to have been always the highway to Asia, the larger area of which was lakes separated by strips of land, upon which were famous fortifications during the reigns of the Pharaohs of the eighteenth and nineteenth dynasties. Near where Port Saïd is now situated, at the mouth of the canal on a small island at the eastern end of Lake Menzaleh, is the track of the great road over which all the travel, traffic, and military expeditions entered Egypt in passing the narrow neck of land lying between the Serbonian Lake and the Mediterranean. It will be recollected that it is over this strip of land that Brugsch Bey thinks the Israelites made their successful journey when the hosts of Pharaoh were overwhelmed by the waters of the Mediterranean. The distance across the isthmus is one hundred miles, and the immense basins of the numerous lakes saved much labor in cutting, those known as the Bitter Lakes being 24 feet below the sea. With the exception of two heights, one of which, El Gisr, is 52 feet above the level of the sea and five miles wide, requiring an excavation of 18,767,000 cubic yards, and another hill of 40,000 cubic yards, there was no obstacle in the shape of great elevations. Some soft limestone, shells, and crocodile teeth were excavated, but the cutting was mostly through sand. As it is sunk to the depth of 26 feet, the breadth of surface varies from 50 to 150 yards, and the width at the bottom 24 yards. There was a basin of 570 acres, a prodigious work, excavated 26 feet deep, for the harbor of Port Saïd. The estimate of M. de Lesseps was that the cost would be 200,000,000 francs ; in this he was greatly mistaken. Failing in the estimate at the outset, he certainly was equal to the emergency in devising ways and means to raise not only the amount originally proposed, but the many millions besides that the canal required for its completion—in the aggregate over 450,000,000 francs. By this success he added to his reputation as a diplomat wonderful ability as a financier. When Saïd granted the concession the canal was to be excavated by an organized company, four fifths of the labor to be Egyptian. Egypt was not to contribute any money, but to receive fifteen per cent of the net profits. Subsequently there was a further concession of the right to cut a sweet-water canal from the Nile to Ismailia, and branches to Suez and Port Saïd, and the land bordering it becoming fertile by irrigation was to belong to the company. These concessions were for ninety-nine years, at the end of which time everything was to revert to Egypt upon paying the value. These concessions, like all other schemes for public improvements when yielded to foreigners, were made nominally subject to the approval of the Sultan. A project of such portent as the separation of Egypt from the Asiatic possessions of the Porte became a matter of more serious consideration, and therefore great effort was made to get the Imperial sanction. There was no question that in person and through his Grand Vizier the Sultan favored the scheme in principle. The support in Constantinople was of such a character as to warrant De Lesseps and European capital, always sensitive, in embarking in the scheme. The Viceroy, when once fully enlisted, became, like De Lesseps, enthusiastic, being thoroughly persuaded that Egypt would by force of circumstances hold the key of the world, affect the equilibrium of Europe, and thus play a grand rôle among the powers. The canal becoming as important as the Dardanelles, Egypt must necessarily become what she had been in the past, the leading power of the East. When De Lesseps presented his matured plans in 1854, they were at once accepted, and Saïd professed himself ready to give the labor and, if necessary, to advance money to carry it on. Fixing the shares at 400,000, at £20 sterling each, it was found difficult to dispose of them all so as to obtain the requisite amount of capital. Saïd was only too willing to subscribe for 177,662 shares of the company, particularly as he had only to give the bonds of Egypt in payment. These liberal negotiations, made in 1860, were of great importance, and the work begun in 1858 was pushed with great vigor, not only on the isthmus but on the sweet-water canal which connected it with the Nile. Saïd Pacha died in 1863, and left as a legacy to Ismail not only vast complications, but a debt of £8,000,000, most of it arising from this canal. This was a crisis in the interests of the canal, and the new Viceroy, a liberal and progressive prince like his predecessor, was anxious to be noted as one of the founders of so great a work, and he too became a willing instrument in furthering the plans of De Lesseps. The canal had progressed so far that machinery became necessary to continue excavations, besides there was the labor question to meet. This was easily disposed of, and the happy expedient of a grievance presented itself. The fellaheen, who hated the work, for it did not compensate them, were driven in hordes from their rural homes under the corvée (forced labor) system ; change of diet and climate brought on disease, and thousands perished in the sands of the desert. England, always hostile, saw in this treatment of the fellah an outrage upon humanity, and protested to the Sultan, who really was in no way concerned, and cared little to put a stop to the practice ; but other considerations, so often made influential in the East, probably had their effect. An order came to Egypt against this forced labor system, and the dredges of the company went at once into successful operation. Ismail, appreciating the extraordinary grant already made to the company to cut the sweet-water canal, and Saïd's cession of over a hundred miles of desert land on each side of it, which must become fertile, in addition to the many rights which in his ignorance he had conferred, became at an early moment alive to the vast political and financial questions growing out of this immense tract of his country in the power of the foreigner. So he agreed to the retrocession of the sweet-water canal and the fertilized lands, promising to complete the canal and to leave many of the rights in the water and isolated spots of land to the company. These negotiations were no sooner arranged than indemnity claims and demands unexpected and unheard of connected with this and other concessions were brought to the consideration of Ismail. Startled at their dimensions and believing them unjust, he protested and refused to accede to them. There were several important matters pending before the Sultan at this time in which Ismail felt a deep interest ; among other things he was desirous of the approval of a large loan ; the title of Khedive, which he had set his heart upon ; and the firman fixing in his own family the right of descent. These induced him to moderate his tone and listen to the appointment of his much-attached friend, Louis Napoleon, as an arbitrator. The business had not proceeded far before Ismail realized that a great calamity had befallen him. Upon the ground that he had deprived the company of the forced labor by order of the Sultan, that he had secured the retrocession of the canal and the land bordering it, and that a compensation was due for the work of the company upon a portion of the canal, his great friend Napoleon mulcted him in the round sum of 84,000,000 francs. Without going into circumstantial detail, such were the reasons assigned for this enormous extortion. A small portion of the claim was probably just, but the rest was manufactured to meet immediate demands, and finally enabled De Lesseps to consummate the magnificent work of his life. But this is only one of the many evidences of the so-called humane policy meted out to Ismail by the enlightened nations of Europe. This is part of the sum of £16,000,000 which Mr. Cave in his report states was expended for the public improvement of the country, and for which Ismail had given the bonds of Egypt.
Notwithstanding the oppression to which Ismail, now Khedive of Egypt, was subjected by extraordinary exactions, that helped to lay the foundation of his ruin, he opened wide the door of Egypt and paid with a liberal hand for the inauguration of the Suez Canal, which took place on the 16th of November, 1869.
The Empress of the French, the Prince of Wales, and other dignitaries of the North paid court to Ismail on the occasion, and right royally did he diffuse his hospitality. The magnificent festivities, elsewhere referred to in this work, are authoritatively stated to have cost no less than £4,200,000 or $21,000,000.
The final success of the scheme so greatly anticipated has surpassed the most sanguine expectations, and England, which so strenuously opposed it, has become one of its chief owners. Owning more than three fourths of the enormous amount of shipping which navigates the canal, she finds it, vast as are its dimensions, unequal to her necessities. When she proposed another on the same isthmus, M. de Lesseps disputed her right to interfere with his franchise, but finally agreed to enlarge the present one on such a scale as to meet any contingency that may arise in the future.