sent to you and you will forward it to me. Try and let the whole matter be determined within a week as I am impatient.” We may be sure that Fulton welcomed the questions of these learned men, and sent them “an invitation to see the experiment of a boat ascending the stream by means of a steam engine,” as their records show. He had previously made an offer to Napoleon to convey his troops to England for an attack, saying: “The sea which separates you from your enemy gives him an immense advantage over you. Aided in turn by the winds and the tempests he defies you from his inaccessible island. I have it in my power to cause this obstacle which protects him to disappear. In spite of all his fleets and in any weather I can transport your armies to his territory in a few hours, without fear of the tempests and without depending upon the winds. I am prepared to submit my plans.” No wonder Napoleon was impatient to learn more about Fulton and willingly admitted that his invention might “change the face of the world.” Bignon, the French historian, wrote in 1829 that had Napoleon listened to Fulton this important letter might have changed the history of Europe. He supposes that had there existed a single steamboat in France at that time, the workshops would have immediately been busied in ‘multiplying the original.’ In a few years one or two hundred steamships, towing behind them transports filled with soldiers, would have been ready w
