“All well. Thank God the cable has been successfully laid and is in perfect working order. I am sure that no one will be as thankful to God as you and our dear children. Now we shall be a united family. We leave in about a week to recover the cable of last year. Please telegraph at once and write in full, and I shall receive your letters on my return here.
“On the 15th inst. I received through the cable from Valentia your message from Newport and Grace’s telegram from Newburg, and on the 22d inst. your telegraphic despatch of the 10th inst., and this moment your letter of the 12th inst.
“Cyrus W. Field.”
It was on the 28th of July that these resolutions were passed:
“Resolved, The directors of the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company and the directors of the Anglo-American Telegraph Company wish in some substantial manner to express their high appreciation of the good conduct and admirable way in which all engaged in the work of laying the Atlantic cable have performed their duties.
“It has given them great pleasure to order that a gratuity of a month’s pay be presented to each man on his return to England.
“The directors, while thanking the men for the past, feel confident that in the more difficult task yet before them they will display the same hearty zeal in the performance of the work.”
Mr. Willoughby Smith mentioned this incident at a dinner given in London:
“I remember well, in 1866, during the laying of the Atlantic cable, as we went on day by day, Mr. Field used to say to me: ‘Thank goodness, we are over another day; only let us get safely across with the cable, and I will retire on the largest farm in America and keep the largest cows and fowls, and receive my dividend daily in the shape of eggs and milk.’ ”
The account of these days is contained in this letter: