John Jacob was then nearly twenty years of age.

The ship sailed in November, but did not reach Baltimore
until the middle of March, having to put back to sea on account
of storms when within sight of the Chesapeake. Then a
month was spent later hunting for the Chesapeake. There
was plenty of time for flute-playing and making of plans.

On board ship he met a German, twenty years older than
himself, who was a fur trader and had been home on a visit.

John Jacob played the flute and the German friend told
stories of fur trading among the Indians.

Young Astor's curiosity was excited. The Waldorf-Astoria
plan of flute-playing was forgotten. He fed on fur trading.

The habits of the animals, the value of their pelts, the
curing of the furs, their final market, was all gone over again
and again. The two extra months at sea gave him an insight
into a great business and he had the time to fletcherize his
ideas. He thought about it--wrote about it in his diary, for
he was at the journal-age. Wolves, bears badgers, minks,
and muskrats, filled his dreams.

Arriving in Baltimore he was disappointed to learn that there
were no fur traders there. He started for New York.

Here he found work with a certain Robert Bowne, a Quaker,