Page:Works of the Late Doctor Benjamin Franklin (1793).djvu/97

87 You will doubtleſs find friends who will aſſiſt you. If you will take upon yourſelf the debts of the partnerſhip, return my father the hundred pounds he has advanced, pay my little perſonal debts, and give me thirty pounds and a new ſaddle, I will renounce the partnerſhip, and conſign over the whole ſtock to you."

I accepted this propoſal without heſitation. It was committed to paper, and ſigned and ſealed without delay. I gave him what he demanded, and he departed ſoon after for Carolina, from whence he ſent me, in the following year, two letters, containing the beſt accounts that had yet been given of that country, as to climate, ſoil, agriculture, &c.; for he was well verſed in theſe matters. I publiſhed them in my newſpaper, and they were received with great ſatisfaction. As ſoon as he was gone I applied to my two friends, and not wiſhing to give a diſobliging preference to either of them, I accepted from each half of what he offered me, and which it was neceſſary I ſhould have. I paid the partnerſhip debts, and continued the buſineſs on my own account; taking care to inform the public, by advertiſement, of the partnership being diſſolved. This was, think, in the year 1729, or thereabout.

Nearly at the ſame period the people demanded a new emiſſion of paper money; the exiſting and only one that had taken place in the province, and which amounted to fifteen thouſand pounds, being ſoon to expire. The wealthy inhabitants, prejudiced againſt every ſort of paper currency, from the fear of its depreciation, of which there had been an inſtance in the province of New-England, to the injury of its holders, ſtrongly oppoſed the meaſure. We had diſcuſſed this affair in our junto, in which I was on the