and not desiring that any there should know where I resided,
except my friend Collins, who was in my secret, and kept it when I
wrote to him. At length, an incident happened that sent me back
again much sooner than I had intended. I had a brother-in-law,
Robert Holmes, master of a sloop that traded between Boston
and Delaware. He being at Newcastle, forty miles below Philadelphia,
heard there of me, and wrote me a letter mentioning the concern
of my friends in Boston at my abrupt departure, assuring me of their
good will to me, and that every thing would be accommodated to my
mind if I would return, to which he exhorted me very earnestly.
I wrote an answer to his letter, thank'd him for his advice,
but stated my reasons for quitting Boston fully and in such a light
as to convince him I was not so wrong as he had apprehended.

Sir William Keith, governor of the province, was then at Newcastle,
and Captain Holmes, happening to be in company with him when my
letter came to hand, spoke to him of me, and show'd him the letter.
The governor read it, and seem'd surpris'd when he was told my age.
He said I appear'd a young man of promising parts, and therefore
should be encouraged; the printers at Philadelphia were wretched ones;
and, if I would set up there, he made no doubt I should succeed;
for his part, he would procure me the public business, and do me
every other service in his power. This my brother-in-law afterwards
told me in Boston, but I knew as yet nothing of it; when, one day,
Keimer and I being at work together near the window, we saw the
governor and another gentleman (which proved to be Colonel French,
of Newcastle), finely dress'd, come directly across the street to
our house, and heard them at the door.

Keimer ran down immediately, thinking it a visit to him;