e just in time to avoid capture by a
British war vessel. He sold the sloop and cargo in Philadelphia, and
began business on the capital. Being a foreigner, unable to speak
English, short, stout, and with a repulsive face, blind in one eye, it
was hard for him to get a start. But he was not the man to give up.
He had begun as a cabin boy at thirteen, and for nine years sailed
between Bordeaux and the French West Indies. He improved every leisure
minute at sea, mastering the art of navigation.

At the age of eight he first discovered that he was blind in one eye.
His father, evidently thinking that he would never amount to anything,
would not help him to an education beyond that of mere reading and
writing, but sent his younger brothers to college. The discovery of
his blindness, the neglect of his father, and the chagrin of his
brothers' advancement, soured his whole life.

When he began business for himself in Philadelphia, there seemed to be
nothing he would not do for money. He bought and sold anything, from
groceries to old junk. He bottled wine and cider, from which he made a
good profit. Everything he touched prospered. In 1780, he resumed the
New Orleans and St. Domingo trade, in which he had been engaged at the
breaking out of the Revolution. Here great success again attended him.
He had two vessels lying in one of the St. Domingo ports when the great
insurrection on that island broke out. A number of the rich planters
fled to his vessels with their valuables, which they left for safe
keeping while they went back to their estates to secure more. They
probably fell victims to the cruel negroes, for they never returned,
and Girard was the lucky possessor of $50,000 which the goods brought
in Philadephia.

Everybody, especially his jealous brother merchants, attributed his
great success to his luck. While undoubtedly he was fortunate in
happening to be at the right place at the right time, yet he was
precision, method, accuracy, energy itself. He left nothing to chance.
His plans and schemes were worked out with mathematical care. His
letters, written to his captains in foreign ports, laying out their
routes and giving detailed instruction from which they were never
allowed to deviate under any circumstances, are models of foresight and
systematic planning. He never left anything of importance to others.
He was rigidly accurate in his instructions, and would not allow the
slightest departure from