rly a year. But he escaped at last, and got back to a
Pennsylvania settlement.

Fitch next lived for a year or two in and did approve of the
invention, he withheld any public endorsement of it.

Month after month went by, and no helping hand was extended. Fitch got
the reputation of being a crazy man. To save himself from starvation,
he made a map of the territory Northwest of the river Ohio, doing the
work of the engraving with his own hand, and printing the impressions
on a cider-press! Early in 1787 he succeeded in the formation of a
small company; and this company supplied, or agreed to supply, the
means requisite for the building of a steamboat sixty tons' burden.
The inventor also secured patents from New Jersey, New York,
Pennsylvania, Delaware and Virginia, granting to him the exclusive
right to use the waters of those States for fourteen years for
purposes of steam navigation.

Hereupon a boat was built and launched in the Delaware. It was
forty-five feet in length and twelve feet beam. There were six oars,
or paddles on each side. The engine had a twelve-inch cylinder, and
the route of service contemplated was between Philadelphia and
Burlington. The inventor agreed that his boat should make a rate of
eight miles an hour, and the charge for passage should be a shilling.

He who might have been in Philadelphia on the twenty-second of August,
1787, and did approve of the invention, he withheld any public
endorsement of it.

Month after month went by, and no helping hand was extended. Fitch got
the reputation of being a crazy man. To save himself from starvation,
he made a map of the territory Northwest of the river Ohio, doing the
work of the engraving with his own hand, and printing the impressions
on a cider-press! Early in 1787 he succeeded in the formation of a
small company; and this company supplied, or agreed to supply, the
means requisite for the building of a steamboat sixty tons' burden.
The inventor also secured patents from New Jersey, New York,
Pennsylvania, Delaware and Virginia, granting to him the exclusive
right to use the waters of those States for fourteen years for
purposes of steam navigation.

Hereupon a boat was built and launched in the Delaware. It was
forty-five feet in length and twelve feet beam. There were six oars,
or paddles on each side. The engine had a twelve-inch cylinder, and
the route of service contemplated was between Philadelphia and
Burlington. The inventor agreed