During the first three years the company devoted its time to getting ready for the real work. By 1885 the profligate use of the money subscribed by the French people brought the funds of the canal company to a very low ebb. M. de Lesseps asked for permission to establish a lottery, by which he hoped to provide additional funds for carrying on the work. The French Government held up the matter and finally sent an eminent engineer to investigate. This engineer, Armand Rosseau, reported that the completion of a sea-level canal was not possible with the means in sight, and recommended a lock canal, plans for which he submitted. The summit level of this canal was to be 160 feet, reached by a series of seven or eight locks. After this plan was adopted, to which de Lesseps reluctantly consented, lottery bonds of a face value of $160,000,000 were issued which were to bear 4 per cent interest. But the people failed to subscribe. At the outset of the work de Lesseps established a bulletin for the dissemination of information concerning the canal; during the entire period of his connection with the project this bulletin was filled with the most exaggerated reports, and the most reckless mis-statements in favor of a successful prosecution of the work. By 1888 the confidence of the French people in de Lesseps waned. Unable to raise more money, and now popularly dubbed the "Great Undertaker," he found himself in such straits that he saw the French Government take over the wrecked organization by appointing a receiver with the power to dispose of its assets. This proved a terrible blow to the people on the Isthmus. Untold hardships befell the small army of laborers and clerks. The Government of Jamaica repatriated over 6,000 negroes. The Chilean Government granted 40,000 free passages to Chile, open to all classes except negroes and Chinese, and for several months every mail steamer south took away from 600 to 800 stranded people from the canal region. Where good times and the utmost plenty had prevailed for years, the Isthmus was now face to face with a period of want and privation, its glory departed and its hope almost gone.