The “Descriptions” given above were written just prior to August 10th, 1806, and recite the course of events from the autumn of 1803. At the time they were signed, Fulton was arranging to return to America, and actually sailed about ten weeks later. His negotiations with the Government had not been satisfactory in that his devices had not been accepted and he had not received in money what he felt was due. The contract shows that Fulton, profiting perhaps by his French experiences not to put trust in princes, foresaw this contingency and provided against it in the Fourth article, that should any circumstance arise to prevent carrying the plan into execution commissioners should be appointed to determine whether the stipulated compensation had been earned. The “Descriptions” were prepared for submission to the arbitrators and were actually read to them, as is shown by a note attached to a copy of the manuscript reading as follows: These papers I read to Sir Charles Blagden, Capt. Hamilton, the Rev. Dr. Cartwright and Alexander Davison, Esq., on the 18th of August 1806 these gentlemen being named Arbitrators to settle my Claims on Government under a contract which I made with Mr. Pitt and Lord Melville—the two last named acting for me. The words “two last” refer, of course, to Dr. Cartwright and Mr. Davison. The “Descriptions,” therefore, give Fulton’s case as he saw it, and consequently are of intense interest and historical importance. His vision for the United States that the population would increase from 5,500,000, as it then was, to 120,000,000 has already been almost realized, sooner, of course, than he expected, but the absence of colonies and lack of desire for them have hardly met an equally successful prophetic fate. Certainly he never foresaw Porto Rico, Panama, Samoa, Hawaii, Guam, the Philippines and other outlying possessions. What a delightful picture Fulton unconsciously presents of the skillful and diplomatic way in which the British Ministry handled him from the beginning to the end! When the emissary, known only as “Mr. Smith,” stated to Fulton that the Government wished to use the submarine against the French fleet, Fulton pointed out that it was not the part of wisdom so to do, that the British with their superiority in sea power had more to lose than to gain by developing such a weapon. In so doing, he but anticipated Earl St. Vincent who, bluff old sea-dog like so many of his profession to whom innovations in naval warfare were anathema, exclaimed that “Pitt was the greatest fool that ever existed to encourage a mode of war which they who commanded the seas did not want, and which, if successful, would deprive them of it.”