"Nantes to St. Thomas, thence to Guadalupe, and thence to Martinique, with the following branch lines:
"No. 1. St. Thomas to St. Martha or Carthagena, and thence to Aspinwall.
"No. 2. St. Thomas to Porto Rico, thence to Havana, Vera Cruz, and Tampico.
"No. 3. From Martinique to Cayenne.
"The subvention offered is fr.6,200,000, or $1,400,000.
"The total amount of subvention offered for the 3 lines is therefore 14 millions of francs per annum, or $2,800,000.
"The Messageries Impériales have given a tender for the Brazil lines.
"William Iselin of Havre, in connection with Mr. Calley St. Paul, for the Havre and New-York line; the necessary capital of $3,200,000 is subscribed; their intention is to have a weekly departure from Havre to New-York, by making the fortnightly departures of the French boats alternate with American Havre and Bremen boats.
"For the line from Nantes to the West-Indies the Company Gautier is said to have given a tender; but it is doubtful if they can make up their capital."
The Messageries Impériales is one of the largest and strongest companies in all Europe. They have the following different lines: the Italian, the Constantinople direct, the Levant, the Egyptian, the Syrian, that of the Archipelago, the Anatolia, the Thessalian, the Danubian, the Trebizond, the Algiers, the Oran, and the Tunis lines, and forty-seven sea-steamers. They have already obtained the Brazilian service.