"Allow me to introduce to you my esteemed friend, E. M. Archibald, Esq., H.M. consul for New York. Mr. Archibald was one of the earliest, and has proved himself one of the best friends of the Atlantic telegraph.... Mr. Archibald can give you much valuable information in regard to Newfoundland and all the British North American provinces, and be of great service to you in your negotiations with the English government. "Mr. Jesse Hoyt telegraphs me from Halifax that fifty memorials to Lord Palmerston in favor of government giving aid to the Atlantic Telegraph Company have already been forwarded from Nova Scotia, and that more will go. I have been writing yesterday and to-day to my friends in Canada, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland, urging them to get up and send petitions to the English government in our favor.... We can and we will succeed in connecting Ireland and Newfoundland by means of a good submarine telegraph cable." Shortly after the United States frigate _Niagara_ sailed for England a New York paper published this short notice: "She goes not to assist in the assertion of resisted claims, in the vindication of outraged rights. Her task is a more peaceful and a more glorious one. She leaves our shores on a mission of fraternity and good-will--the harbinger of union and brotherhood amongst nations, and one of the chief agents in an enterprise which is destined to do more towards the realization of a millennium of love amongst men than the efforts of all the diplomatists and missionaries are ever likely to accomplish." April and part of May were spent in preparation and putting the cable on board the two ships. On May 29th the fleet left for a trial trip in the Bay of Biscay, and on the 10th of June set sail from Plymouth to meet again in mid-ocean. On November 1, 1856, Mr. Field had suggested: "The two ends of the cable having been carefully joined together, the vessels will start in opposite directions, one towards Ireland and the other towards Newfoundland, uncoiling the cable and exchanging signals through it from ship to ship as they proceed. By this means the period ordinarily required for traversing the distance between the two coasts will be lessened by one-half, each vessel having only to cover eight hundred and twenty nautical miles in order to finish the task assigned to it. It is expected that the operation of laying the cable will be completed in about eight days from the time of its commencement."