ve water, it has two sails, and looks just like a common
boat; when it is to dive, the mast and sails are struck.

"In making his experiments, Mr. Fulton not only remained a whole hour
under water, with three of his companions, but had the boat parallel to
the horizon at any given distance. He proved that the compass points as
correctly under water as on the surface, and that while under water the
boat made way at the rate of half a league an hour, by means contrived
for that purpose.

"It is not twenty years since all Europe was astonished at the first
ascension of men in balloons: perhaps in a few years they will not be
less surprised to see a flotilla of diving-boats, which, on a given
signal, shall, to avoid the pursuit of an enemy, plunge under water, and
rise again several leagues from the place where they descended!

"But if we have not succeeded in steering the balloon, and even were it
impossible to attain that object, the case is different with the
diving-boat, which can be conducted under water in the same manner as
upon the surface. It has the advantage of sailing like the common boat,
and also of diving when it is pursued. With these qualities, it is fit
for carrying secret orders, to succor a blockaded fort, and to examine
the force and position of an enemy in their harbors."

In connection with this boat, Fulton invented a torpedo, or infernal
machine, for the purpose of destroying vessels of war by approaching
them under water and breaking up their hulls by the explosion. He
offered his invention several times to the French Government, and once
to the Ambassador of Holland at Paris, without being able to induce them
to consider it. Somewhat later, he visited London, at the request of the
British Ministry, and explained his invention to them. Although he
succeeded in blowing up a vessel of two hundred tons with one hundred
and seventy pounds of powder, and in extorting from Mr. Pitt the
acknowledgment that, if introduced into practice, the torpedo would
annihilate all navies, his invention was rejected, through the influence
of Lord Melville, who feared that its adoption might injure England more
than it would benefit her. At the first, when it was thought that
England would purchase Fulton's invention, it was intimated to him that
he would be required to pledge himself not to dispose of it to any other
power. He replied promptly:

"Whatever may be your award, I never will consent to let these
invent