Supposing each labourer to do 1 m., 50, on an average, per diem, it would only require 8000 labourers for five years to complete the earth-works; and not a year passes without a levy of between 30 and 40,000 men being commanded by the Viceroy, in several provinces at once, for the service of the canals alone.
As soon as the project of a ship canal across the Isthmus of Suez is ascertained to be useful and advantageous, no difficulties of execution, however great they may be (and we have proved them trifling), will be considered obstacles to its being carried out.
It would appear at first sight superfluous to demonstrate the utility of such an undertaking, for what especially strikes the imagination, is the magnitude of the results promised by the Canal, and the reiterated efforts made at several epochs, even in times of ignorance, to open this communication between the two Seas.
But since the publication of M. Lepère’s memorial, so many objections have been brought forward and so many doubts raised, that public opinion is undecided, and it becomes necessary to re-establish the question in all its integrity. We will therefore examine the principal objections raised against the direct communication between the two Seas.
It has been said that the navigation of the Red Sea is so dangerous, and that the monsoons cause such delays, that even if the Canal were established and freely traversed by ships, commerce would not follow that route, which would in fact, from these peculiar circumstances, be the longest and most perilous.
In the first place, there can be no question here about steam navigation, the circle of which extends daily more and more, for the projected Canal will be the triumph of steam; it will greatly increase the use of the screw, and give a new stimulus to British navigation, which will be charged with the delivery of English coal throughout the whole line from London to Australia. We will therefore only examine the case of navigation by sailing vessels. Now, we learn from history, that from the most distant ages, this navigation has flourished in the Red Sea, and that after the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope (in 1497), the Portuguese considered it necessary to have a fleet, which, in 1538, destroyed all the merchant vessels of the Turks and Venetians. If in later times commerce took the way of the Cape, we have only to thank the Turkish sovereignty of the period, which allowed the arts, sciences, and industry to perish, at the same time that it forbade the navigation of the Red Sea to the European nations. How can this navigation be considered full of danger at the present day, when nautical science and the art of ship-building have made such great progress, and when everything relating to the winds, the currents, and the coasts of the Red Sea, is perfectly well known?
To leave no doubt on the subject, we will repeat the most important observations which have been made on the Red Sea and Indian Ocean.
This is what the English traveller, Bruce, says in 1769:—
“Those who are at all acquainted with the history of Egypt, are aware that the north wind, there called the Etesian wind, prevails during the six hottest months of the year. The two chains of mountains, which confine Egypt to the east and west, compel this wind to follow precisely this northerly direction. It is reasonable to suppose that it would be the same for the Arabian Gulf, if the course of that narrow sea were parallel to the land of Egypt. But the Red Sea extends nearly from north-west to south-east, from Suez to Mocha; there it alters its course, and proceeds nearly from east to west, as far as its junction with the Indian Ocean at the straits of Bab-el-Mandeb.
“Thus the Etesian wind, which is due north in Egypt, follows the course of the gulf, and blows with force in that direction all the summer; that is to say, that from the month of April till the month of October, the north-east wind prevails over the whole extent of the Red Sea, descending as far as the straits; and that from November to March, the wind has quite a contrary direction, and ascends the gulf from the straits of Bab-el-Mandeb, up to the Isthmus of Suez.