Fortune is an obsequious jade, that favors the strong and turns her back upon the weak.  This exasperating delay of two months was the means of putting young Astor upon the shortest and easiest road to fortune that the continent of America then afforded to a poor man.  Among his fellow-passengers there was one German, with whom he made acquaintance on the voyage, and with whom he continually associated during the detention of the winter.  They told each other their past history, their present plans, their future hopes.  The stranger informed young Astor that he too had emigrated to America, a few years before, without friends or money; that he had soon managed to get into the business of buying furs of the Indians, and of the boatmen coming to New York from the river settlements; that at length he had embarked all his capital in skins, and had taken them himself to England in a returning transport, where he had sold them to great advantage, and had invested the proceeds in toys and trinkets, with which to continue his trade in the wilderness.  He strongly advised Astor to follow his example.  He told him the prices of the various skins in America, and the prices they commanded in London.  With German friendliness he imparted to him the secrets of the craft:  told him where to buy, how to pack, transport, and preserve the skins; the names of the principal dealers in New York, Montreal, and London; and the season of the year when the skins were most abundant.  All this was interesting to the young man; but he asked his friend how it was possible to begin such a business without capital.  The stranger told him that no great capital was required for a beginning.  With a basket of toys, or even of cakes, he said, a man could buy valuable skins on the wharves and in the markets of New York, which could be sold with some profit to New York furriers.  But the grand object was to establish a connection with a house in London, where furs brought four or five times their value in America.  In short, John Jacob Astor determined to lose no time after reaching New York, in trying his hand at this profitable traffic.

The ice broke up in March.  The ship made its way to Baltimore, and the two friends travelled together to New York.  The detention in the ice and the journey to New York almost exhausted Astor’s purse.  He arrived in this city, where now his estate is valued at forty millions, with little more than his seven German flutes, and a long German head full of available knowledge and quiet determination.  He went straight to the humble abode of his brother Henry, a kindly, generous, jovial soul, who gave him a truly fraternal welcome, and received with hospitable warmth the companion of his voyage.