“My dear Mr. Field,—I am obliged, I am sorry to say, by the state of my health to deny myself the pleasure of accompanying you to-morrow to witness the process in connection with the great project for bringing the two worlds into instantaneous communication—a project with which your name will be always associated. I hope to have the pleasure of again shaking hands with you before you leave us. If not, I shall look forward to the gratification of welcoming you on the triumph of the Atlantic telegraph.
“With my best wishes for your welfare,
“I remain
“Sincerely yours,
“Richard Cobden.”
March 3d his name appears on the list of those who attended the meeting at the London Tavern, when an “organization was formed of Americans in the United Kingdom as an auxiliary to the United States Sanitary Commission. One of the contributions that he received was one thousand tons of coal from Mr. (now Sir George) Elliot. He sailed for home on May 7th, and on the 26th of the same month the New York, Newfoundland, and London Telegraph Company passed this resolution:
“That this company tender to Mr. Cyrus W. Field their sincere thanks for the untiring perseverance, industry, and skill with which he has labored gratuitously for over ten years to promote the interests of this company, and to secure the successful laying of a submarine cable from Newfoundland to Ireland. And we hereby express our conviction that to him is due the credit, and to him this company and the world will be indebted, for the successful laying of the same.”
August, 1864, was passed in Newfoundland, and it was at this time that he chose the landing-place for the new cable. “The little harbor in Newfoundland that bears the gentle name of Heart’s Content is a sheltered nook where ships may ride at anchor, safe from the storms of the ocean. It is but an inlet from that great arm of the sea known as Trinity Bay, which is sixty or seventy miles long and twenty miles broad. On the beach is a small village of some sixty houses, most of which are the humble dwellings of those hardy men who vex the northern seas with their fisheries. The place was never heard of outside of Newfoundland till 1864, when Mr. Field, sailing up Trinity Bay in the surveyors steamer Margaretta Stevenson, Captain Orlebar, R.N., in search of a place for the landing of the ocean cable, fixed upon this secluded spot. The old landing of 1858 was at the Bay of Bull’s Arm, at the head of Trinity Bay, twenty miles above. Heart’s Content was chosen now because its waters are still and deep, so that a cable skirting the north side of the banks of Newfoundland can be brought in deep water almost till it touches the shore. All around the land rises to pine-crested heights.”
This is from a letter written to Mr. Saward on October the 10th:
“Since my return home in May last I have been doing my utmost to carry out the wishes of the directors and yourself in regard to the control of the lines between Port Hood, New York, and Montreal, with separate offices at Port Hood, Halifax, St. John’s, N. B., Boston, Quebec, Montreal, and New York, for the Atlantic telegraph, and the best place for landing the cable in Newfoundland. To accomplish these two objects I have seen almost all of the persons who control the principal telegraph lines in America, and have visited Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, Poughkeepsie, Boston, and Portland in the United States; St. John’s and Fredericton in New Brunswick; Charlottetown in Prince Edward’s Island; Truro and Halifax in Nova Scotia; Port Hood and Sydney in Cape Breton; St. John’s and Trinity and Placentia bays in Newfoundland; Quebec and Montreal in Canada, and have travelled over sixty-three hundred miles, viz.:
“By railway, over 3280 miles.
“By steamers, over 2400 miles.
“By open wagon, over 500 miles.
“By stage-coach, over 150 miles.
“By fishing-boats, about 100 miles.”