[291] “Steam Lines of Liverpool,” page 37.
[292] See [Appendix No. 21, p. 637].
CHAPTER IX.
Steam to India and overland routes—East India Company establish a Tátar post between Constantinople and Baghdad—First public meeting in London to promote steam communication with India, 1822—Captain Johnston—Calcutta meetings, 1823—The Enterprize, first steamer to India by Cape, 1825—Sold in Calcutta to East India Company—Other steamers follow—Pioneers of overland route viâ Egypt—Sir Miles Nightingall in 1819 and Mount-Stuart Elphinstone in 1823 return home by this route—Mr. Thomas Waghorn visits England to promote the Cape route, 1829-30—Returns to India by way of Trieste and the Red Sea—Still advocates Cape route, 1830—Mr. Taylor’s proposal—Reply of Bombay Government and discussion of the question—Supineness of the Court of Directors—Their views—Official report of the first voyage of the Hugh Lindsay, 1830—Report of the Committee of 1834—Decision of the House of Commons Committee influenced by political considerations—Admiralty packets extended from Malta to Alexandria—Steamers of the Indian navy—Modes of transport across the Isthmus of Suez—Great exertions of Waghorn in the establishment of this route—Suez Canal—Popular errors on this subject—M. de Lesseps—His great scheme—Not fairly considered in England—Commencement of M. de Lesseps’ works in 1857—General details—Partial opening of Canal, April 18th, 1869—Finally opened by Empress Eugénie, November 17th, 1869.
Steam to India, and overland routes.
Having in the early portions of this work endeavoured to trace the various commercial routes to the East by land and sea in the most remote periods as well as in the Middle Ages, I now invite my readers to accompany me while I attempt to furnish an outline of the modes by which commercial intercourse is maintained with India and China at the present time, and of the transport service employed in conveying this commerce.
Although nearly the whole of the European trade with the East has, since the time of Vasco de Gama, been conducted by sea round the Cape of Good Hope, caravans through Arabia and Asia Minor and along the shores of the Red Sea, as well as by the more frequented route of the valley of Mesopotamia and the River Euphrates to the Persian Gulf, have never, since the days of Herodotus, altogether ceased. Indeed, during the reign of Elizabeth, and for sometime afterwards, many English merchants preferred the Euphrates route to the sea voyage, the course they then adopted, being apparently through Syria or Asia Minor to Bir, where a fleet of boats or barges, resembling those described by the Father of History, was at all seasons ready to convey them and their merchandise down the Euphrates to Hillah, near the site of Ancient Babylon, or by Mosul to Baghdad, the chief Eastern centre of commerce during the early part of the Middle Ages. From Baghdad their course was down the Tigris to Bussorah, where they embarked in native sailing-vessels for various parts of India.
East India Company establish a Tátar post between Constantinople and Baghdad.
An overland route between Europe and India had thus from time immemorial been sustained; and, though there was no established service between England and the East until a comparatively recent period, the East India Company, from the time they first became possessors of land in India, frequently sent despatches by the way of the Persian Gulf, thus creating at length a regular monthly communication between Constantinople and Baghdad, by Tátars, maintained at the cost of the Indian Government. Thus, at last, private letters as well as official despatches, were transmitted by these means, while, on important occasions, special despatches were forwarded by the same route at other than the monthly periods. This, so far as the East India Company was concerned, was the original, and the only official overland line of communication; and so it continued to be till it was superseded by the route through Egypt. Another generation may see it resumed by an iron highway.[293]
First public meeting in London to promote steam communication with India, 1822.