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He then returned to Paris and elated by the success of his experiments, which certainly justified elation, he again drew up new proposals in which he offered to accept whatever remuneration the government would give, so great was his confidence. These proposals his friend Monge laid before the First Consul with whom Monge was on terms of intimacy and whose interest Fulton had so long desired to obtain. The First Consul forwarded Fulton’s letter to the Minister of Marine on 27 November, 1800, with the following marginal note:

Je prie le Ministre de la Marine de me faire connaître ce qu’il sait sur les projets du capitaine Fulton.

Bonaparte.

A few days later Monge and Laplace presented Fulton to Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul, urging the latter to make an allowance of 60,000 francs for further experiments.

What a dramatic moment when the two men of science presented the young American to the still younger Frenchman! A moment heavy with destiny, because the fates of nations were trembling in the balance, awaiting the decision. But no one of the four understood the importance of the conference, not even he who had most at stake. The central figure was the young Corsican artillery officer whose guns had swept the remnants of the French Revolution from the streets of Paris only five years before, then a man almost unknown, but now First Consul and Dictator of France. The successes of Lodi, the Pyramids and Marengo were still fresh in his mind and were beckoning him on to other conquests. Almost within his grasp was the crown of empire, plans to seize which he was even then maturing. In his eyes there stretched before him a path through conquest and glory,—but leading where? As he then saw the path in his imagination it led to absolute world domination with the great and little powers of Europe vassals of France.