BENJAMIN FRANKL /N. 1 5 



exploit, had taken care to give him such a character to all 

 those of his own profession in Boston, that nobody would 

 emqloy him there, he now resolved to make his way to New 

 York, the nearest place where there was a printer; and 

 accordingly, after selling his books to raise a little money, he 

 embarked on board a vessel for that city, without communi- 

 cating his intention to his friends, who he knew would oppose 

 it In three days he found himself at the end of his voyage, 

 near three hundred miles from his home, at the age of 

 seventeen, without the least recommendation, as he tells us, 

 or knowledge of any person in the place, and with very 

 little money in his pocket. Worst of all, upon applying 

 to the only printer likely to give him any employment, he 

 found that this person had nothing for him to do, and that 

 the only way in which he could serve him was by recom- 

 mending him to proceed to Philadelphia, a hundred miles 

 farther, where he had a son, who, he believed, might employ 

 him. We cannot follow our runaway through the disastrous 

 incidents of this second journey; but, for the reason whicli 

 he states himself, we shall allow him to give his own most 

 graphic description of his first appearance in Philadelphia. 



After concluding the account of his voyage, ' I have been 

 the more particular,' says he, ' in this description of my 

 journey, and shall be so of my first entry into that city, 

 that you may, in your mind, compare such unlikely beginnings 

 with the figure I have since made there. I was in my work- 

 ing dress, my best clothes coming round by sea. I was 

 dirty, from my being so long in the boat ; my pockets were 

 stuffed out with shirts and stockings; and I knew no one, 

 nor where to look for lodging. Fatigued with walking, 

 rowing, and the want of sleep, 1 was very hungry ; and my 



