"In 1854 De Lesseps sought and received from Said Pasha... a concession authorizing his scheme for the construction of a canal across the Isthmus of Suez. De Lesseps was not deterred by either political or practical objections to the project; but capital had to be raised to finance it. In this treatise of nearly three hundred pages, with maps -- 'The Piercing of the Isthmus od Suez' -- he set out the whole case for the canal and his proposed method of building it." -- PMM 339.