The sentiments thus officially expressed by Mr. Seward were responded to by all intelligent men, and the Russian line was the most popular of the enterprises of the period.
The proposition to construct the Russian American line was first formally submitted by Mr. Collins to the Western Union Telegraph Company, Sept. 28, 1863, and again at a meeting of the board of that company in Rochester, N.Y., March 16, 1864.
It was in the form of a letter from Mr. Collins, requesting the acceptance of his project to connect Europe and America by way of the Behring Strait, and offering, if accepted within twenty days, to transfer his rights and privileges under certain conditions.
The terms offered by him were accepted by the board of directors.
Soon after this construction commenced, beginning at New Westminster, B.C., the terminus of the California State Telegraph Company. The line in a few months was carried to the Skeena river. Meanwhile Mr. Serge Abasa, a Russian gentleman who had entered the service of the Western Union Company, was despatched to the Asiatic coast between the mouth of the Amoor and Behring Strait.
Mr. Abasa reported, January 18, 1866:—“Inform the directors, the entire extent between Anadyr and Okhotsk district has been surveyed, but the route of the line has been determined by me in person, and notwithstanding the scarcity of laborers in the country, I have commenced preparatory works in Anudirsk, Jijiginsk, Yamsk, Taousk and Okhotsk.”
In the midst of all this enthusiasm, however, the Great Eastern, at the docks of an English harbor was having a cable coiled in her immense hold for another attempt to lay a submarine line between Europe and America.
When it was announced that at last victory had come, and that the continents were speaking to each other with easy garrulity, the overland line was abandoned.
It was a question of two thousand miles of cable against sixteen thousand miles of land line, half of which was along an uninhabited coast. The advantage of the cable was too palpable; orders were, therefore, issued recalling the men.
Already some eight hundred and fifty miles of line had been built, and was in operation between New Westminster, B.C., and the Skeena River.