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370 GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS
Such an assault was enough to undermine the patience of Job, even
had the assailants confined themselves to prose; but, good-naturedly
reminding his critics that his time to laugh would soon come, he con
tinued to prosecute his labors with grim earnestness. However, if energy
refused to lag, money sometimes gave out. Now and then he would have
to turn his hand to other lines of work in order to replenish his funds.
At one time he applied to Governor Telfair for state aid, and the letter,
dated September 26, 1790, is still preserved in the executive archives.
But the chief magistrate shared the prevailing infidelity and returned
an answer in the negative.
More than fifteen years now elapsed, but at last the time came when
Longstreet could face his critics with an exultant smile of satisfaction.
The triumph was belated, but none the less complete. Taking on board
such of his' friends as could be prevailed upon to make the venture, he
pointed his odd-looking little vessel toward the deep water, and the
experiment now worked like a charm. First he moved with the current,
and then, reversing the lever, he moved against the current, but in either
case with equal ease ; and, after traveling several miles with his delighted
passengers, he brought the craft safely to shore. The movement of the
boat evoked the lustiest shouts from the spectators who now crowded
about the dock to vote the returning hero a Roman triumph. Those
who, fearing the boilers might explode, had gone out in skiffs to gather
up the remnants, now came back soundly converted to the true faith.
"William Longstreet had won.
But the heralds were most too slow in proclaiming the news to
Christendom. For, while the Georgia inventor was meeting with every
kind of discouragement as he toiled away upon his rude engine in
Augusta, another mechanical genius was in Paris experimenting with his
submarine diver. It was Robert Fulton. He had been invited over to
the French capital by the United States minister, Robert Livingston, and
instead of being hampered by slender means or contemptuous slurs, he
was warmly encouraged by the far-sighted Napoleon, who was then
first consul of France. Fulton possessed what Longstreet lacked:
influential friends at court, and unlimited resources. The favoring
gales wafted him on to early success, and he was soon engaged in devis
ing the famous steamboat with which his name has ever since been uni
versally associated. Nevertheless the credit of the first real demonstra
tion belongs to William Longstreet, for it was as early as 1806 that he
successfully applied steam to navigation. But the fleet-footed Mercury
was on the side of Robert Fulton.
Too intent upon perfecting the invention to give any thought to the
patent office in Washington, William Longstreet slept over his rights,
but some of his friends in the year following were about to set out for
the seat of government on his behalf, when the news came from New
York that the trial trip of the Clermont on the waters of the Hudson
had been successfully accomplished. Thus William Longstreet was
thwarted of his well-earned reward; but, derided and belittled though
he was, he barely missed being celebrated in song and story as the author
of the colossal achievement which changed the whole method of ocean
travel and which fairly illuminated the giant portals of the most won
derful of all the centuries.