Page:Works of the Late Doctor Benjamin Franklin (1793).djvu/55

45 offer. I had hitherto kept the project, with which Sir William had inſpired me, of ſettling in buſineſs, a ſecret at Philadelphia, and I ſtill continued to do ſo. Had my reliance on the governor been known, ſome friend, better acquainted with his character than myſelf, would doubtleſs have adviſed me not to truſt him; for I afterwards learned that he was univerſally known to be liberal of promiſes, which he had no intention to perform. But having never ſolicited him, how could I ſuppoſe his offers to be deceitful? On the contrary, I believed him to be the beſt man in the world.

I gave him an inventory of a ſmall printing-office; the expence of which I had calculated at about a hundred pounds ſterling. He expreſſed his approbation; but aſked, if my preſence in England, that I might chooſe the characters myſelf, and ſee that every article was good in its kind, would not be an advantage? You will alſo be able, ſaid he, to form ſome acquaintance there, and eſtabliſh a correſpondence with ſtationers and bookfellers. This I acknowledged was deſirable. That being the caſe, added he, hold yourſelf in readineſs to go with the Annis. This was the annual veſſel, and the only one, at that time, which made regular voyages between the ports of London and Philadelphia. But the Annis was not to ſail for ſome months. I therefore continued to work with Keimer, unhappy reſpecting the ſum which Collins had drawn from me, and almoſt in continual agony at the thoughts of Vernon, who fortunately made no demand of his money till ſeveral years after.

In the account of my firſt voyage from Boſton to Philadelphia, I omitted I believe a trifling circumſtance, which will not perhaps be out of place here. During a calm which ſtopped us above