after the Pirates to be commanded by Captain Peter Papillon and it is thought he will fail fometime this month, Wind and Weather permitting."

Shortly after the publication of the number containing this extremely offensive paragraph, the Council, with the Governor presiding, met and resolved "that the said Paragraph is a high affront to this Government."

Further, resolved, "That the Sheriff of the County of Suffolk do forthwith commit to the gaol in Boston the body of James Franklyn, Printer, for the grofs offence offered to this Government in the Courant of Monday last."

A week's close confinement in the stone prison brought a change of mind, temporarily, at least, to James Franklin, as is witnessed in the following humble petition:

"A Petition of James Franklyn Printer, Humbly Shewing that he is Truely Senfible & Heartily Sorry for the offence he has Given to this Court, in the late Courant, relating to the fitting out a Ship By the Government, & Truly Acknowledges his Inadvertency & Folly therein in affronting the Government, as alfo his Indifcretion & Indecency, when before the Court, for all which he Entreats the Courts forgiveness, & praying a discharge from the Stone Prifon, where he is Confined, by Order of the Court, and that he may have the Liberty

of the Yard, He being much Indisposed & Suffering in his health, by the Said Confinement."

Released from his uncomfortable quarters in the jail, however, Franklin's "impudence" returned. Soon after, a single number of the "Courant" contained three articles, all of them objectionable to the government, and as a result a joint committee of three from the Council and four from the House was appointed to investigate his case. Its recommendation was that the General Court should forbid James Franklin to "print or publish the New England Courant or any Pamphlet or Paper of a like nature, except it be first supervised by the fecretary of this Province," and that bonds should be exacted from him for his good behavior.

Young Benjamin Franklin in the meantime had been making progress in his elder brother's esteem. Desiring to try his hand at writing but believing that James would be prejudiced against him because of his youth, he made a practice of writing short pieces and slipping them at night under the printing office door where they were found by his brother the next morning. The pieces were read and approved and it was gratifying to their youthful author to hear names of well-known persons in the community suggested as possibly responsible for them. Finally Benjamin, having written about all that he felt able to write, revealed his deception

to his brother and his friends, much to their surprise.

A crisis having been reached by James in his publishing affairs, he turned now to Benjamin as affording a way out of his difficulties. He proposed that since he was unwilling to continue to publish the "Courant" under the supervision of the secretary as ordered by the Court, the paper thereafter be issued in Benjamin's name. The proposition was accepted. In order not to have the master still legally liable, the apprenticeship indentures were publicly cancelled, but, unwilling to surrender what he believed to be a good bargain, James secretly executed new indentures preserving the conditions of the old.

James Franklin was a hard task master. Also he was ill-natured, suspicious, taciturn, and his high-spirited young brother found it difficult to get on with him, particularly when arguments were supplemented with blows. Finally Benjamin notified James that he considered their relations at an end, knowing that James would not dare to produce the secret apprentice agreement. James accepted the resignation but as a means of retaliation for what he considered to be the injustice done him, visited the other printing offices in Boston and induced the owners to refuse to give work to his brother should he apply to them for

it.

CHAP. III.

66

The First Tourist" Printer.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN was in a quandary.

He had devoted five years to an effort to learn the printing business and had attained a considerable proficiency in it. Aside from the printing establishments in Boston and Cambridge there were only four in the Colonies: one in New London, one in New York, and two in Philadelphia. Because of his brother's ill-natured activity all of those at hand were closed to him, save only that individual's own which he had just quitted and to which he was resolved he would not

return.

To reach the other towns where printing offices were located meant either long, exhausting, and dangerous walks through trackless forests or a journey by boat. To go by boat required the expenditure of passage money, of which he had none. His sole possessions were the books he had been able to purchase with the scanty savings from his brother's allowance, and from the precious books he was most reluctant to part. Besides, there was parental opposition to be encountered. The father sided with the elder brother in the dispute and the seventeen-year-old son knew that, should he ask his father's consent to his plan to go away from home, not only would the consent be refused but

steps would be taken to prevent the carrying out of the project.

However, Benjamin resolved to go away and to go secretly. He sold some of his books and with the connivance of his friend Collins and the captain of a New York sloop, he went aboard a vessel bound for Manhattan Island. Three days of good weather and fair winds brought the vessel into New York Bay. The landing was made probably at the wharf at the foot of what is now known as Maiden Lane. A small stream ran down it at the time and entered the Bay at what was called the "V'lei Market," v'lei being old Dutch for valley. The one printing office of the town was conducted by William Bradford, “at the Sign of the Bible,' on Hanover Square, not far away, and to it the youthful runaway apprentice immediately repaired.

Bradford had no employment to give to the boy and he suggested that the journey be extended to Philadelphia, where his son conducted one of the two printing offices of the town and who, through the recent death of a workman, was in need of help. Upon this advice Benjamin immediately proceeded to act.

There were three ways to go from New York to Philadelphia. One was over the Hudson River and by trail through the forest all the way across New Jersey to Camden, usually followed by those