"_My dear Sir_,--In all our disappointment at the temporary check of the cable, our first thought has been about you. But I was very glad to hear yesterday from the officers of the _Cyclops_ that you were, as indeed I might have judged from your character, plucky and well. It is a great comfort to think that the experience that has been obtained in this, the first attempt, must immensely improve the chances of success on the next occasion. All here desire to be affectionately remembered to you. "Ever yours, very sincerely, "FITZGERALD, Knight of Kerry." It was not proposed to abandon the enterprise, but to postpone work for a year. The ships discharged their freight of cable, and the _Niagara_ returned to America, and before Mr. Field left England the directors voted to increase the capital of the company and to order seven hundred miles of new cable. The news that met him upon his arrival at New York was most depressing. The panic of 1857 had just swept over the country, and while he was at sea his firm suspended, owing over six hundred thousand dollars, and with debts due to it, from firms which had already suspended, of between three and four hundred thousand dollars. He settled at once with his creditors, by giving them goods from his store, or notes for the amount in full at twelve, eighteen, or twenty-four months, with seven per cent. interest added. The first notes were paid at maturity and the other two some months before they were due, the holders discounting the interest. On the 21st of November, 1857, Professor Francis Lieber wrote: "I wish to possess all the materials I can procure regarding the history and statistics of the subatlantic telegraph. It will be the most striking illustration of the increasing tendency of all civilization, that of uniting what was separate, and of the pervading principle in the household of humanity, that of mutual dependence. May Heaven bless your undertaking, and may the next months of June or July bring us the first message from old England, outrunning the sun by five hours and a half." The Secretary of the Navy said to him in parting on the 30th of December, "There, I have given you all you asked." This was that the _Niagara_ and the _Susquehanna_ might form part of the cable expedition of 1858, and that Mr. William E. Everett might again fill the position of chief engineer. On the evening of December 31st Professor Lieber wrote: "This may be the last letter or note I write in the old year, and I cannot conclude it without wishing from all my heart that MDCCCLVIII may be called in the future school chronologies the telegraph year." CHAPTER VII A FLEETING TRIUMPH (1858)