our present lieutenant-governor, who will be a sufferer (I fear, at best) by undertaking the charge ; and, if any thing fall of course in the way, I wish he would not quite forget an old trusty servant of his, who has been drudging for him these ten years ; (but that is not the business.) This I thought necessary to advise thee of, considering thee as one of his best and heartiest friends, and desire thee to communicate the matter to such others as may be most serviceable, but by no means expose this letter, for I would have that kept very private.
I have wrote to the same purpose to the proprietary himself very fully; but finding, by long experience, how little it avails to write to himself alone of matters relating to his own interest, I now choose this method, and give this early notice before the addresses from hence shall come to hand, which, with the address already gone from the lower counties, will certainly do our business, whether the proprietor will agree to it or not, and therefore best take time while it offers. I shall commit this to thy prudence and discretion, and conclude,
Benjamin Franklin, Works (edited by Jared Sparks, Boston, 1836), III, 573- 57 passim.
28. Philadelphia, "a Noble, Large, and Populous City" (1710)
BY "RICHARD CASTELMAN, GENT."
This account is appended to the early editions of The Voyages and Adventures of Captain Robert Boyle, the authorship of which is variously attributed to W. R. Chetwood, Benjamin Victor, and Daniel Defoe. Castelman's account, however, bears marks of authenticity. — Bibliography : Winsor, Narrative and Critical History, V, 249. — For previous accounts of Philadelphia, see Contemporaries, I, Nos. 161, 163.
THERE are many large, beautiful, well-built Towns in the Province of Pensylvania, of which, as I said before, Philadelphia is the chief. It is a noble, large, and populous City, standing on as much Ground as our English City of Bristol, seated upon a Neck of Land form d by the Rivers Delaware and the Schuylkill, both navigable many Leagues above the City. It is built square in Form of a Chess-Board, with each Front facing one of the Rivers.
There are several Streets near two Mile long, as wide as Holborn, and
