later in his letters evidence that for many years she was not satisfied that he should be in such a country. A journey to the Cape was in those days a very serious undertaking, the voyage extending over a period of from three to four months. The arrival of the Cape Packet was an event in Cape Town, and those who remember Mr. Molteno at this early period describe him as a handsome young man of very prepossessing appearance, his regular features being set off by a remarkably clear complexion, the envy of the Cape young ladies.

His family was a particularly handsome one, and the portraits of several members engraved by Bartolozzi are still in existence. He was of slight build at this time, and a little above the medium height.

His occupation in the Library gave him an opportunity of becoming acquainted with the country, and it soon proved to be too narrow and restricted an opening. An occasion at length arose of embracing a career more in accord with his active character, and he took the place of a young Ebden, who had just started for Australia, in the office of John Bardwell Ebden, a leading citizen of Cape Town. He improved his commercial knowledge in this way, and, acting upon the advice of Mr. Richardson, he threw himself heart and soul into the business on which he was engaged. He soon saw an opportunity of venturing in business on his own account.

After conducting some commercial adventures on a small scale, he started a business under the style of Molteno and Co. This was in 1837, when twenty-three years of age. In this year he directs Mr. Richard Witherby, of 29 Nicholas Lane, his London correspondent, to transfer his balance with him to the new firm. This firm carried on a mercantile business for some years. Wine was the chief export at the Cape— indeed, almost the only export at that date—and the business was therefore dependent upon the prices realised for this article in London. Mr. Molteno showed his enterprise and activity in the conduct of this business. He immediately opened up a connection with Grahamstown, at that time the extreme frontier town of the colony. Mr. G. Southey, brother of Sir Richard Southey, was his agent there. He carried on business with Mauritius, shipping wine and wheat and receiving sugar in return, his correspondents being Messrs. Edward Francis and Co., to whom he had been introduced by Messrs. Home, Edgar, and Co. In the history of the development of the products of the Cape it is interesting to note that some small shipments of wool from Algoa Bay are first mentioned in March 1838 and January 1839, while in the same year Cape aloes are mentioned as an export of the country. In this year he purchased a block of land in Roeland Street, Cape Town, where he constructed very considerable warehouses of a most substantial and enduring character. They are still to be seen, a monument to the thoroughness of his work.

In 1839 he writes: "We have had a deficient harvest and large importations of wheat and flour from all parts of the world, consequently money is exceedingly scarce and business generally depressed. There has lately been much excitement in consequence of proposed alterations in the Usury Laws. You may perhaps find amusement in perusing some of our late papers, which are quite taken up with the subject;' and in 1840 he writes to Mr. Witherby to say that the results of the sales are very disastrous, that he can ship no more white wine, but would send a small quantity of Pontac.

Another opening was now sought for, a trade in a new direction. He chartered the brig Comet to load in Table Bay and to proceed to the ports of Adelaide, Port Philip, and Swan River, in Australia. She was to dispose of her cargo in these ports and proceed to Java, returning to the Cape with a cargo of sugar. Her cargo, put on board in Table Bay, consisted of wine, raisins, brandy, and a few other articles. This venture did not turn out to be of a profitable character, as the condition of trade in the Australian ports was very depressed, and the disposal of the cargo there was a matter of extreme difficulty. In 1841 he writes : 'As the quantity of wool grown in the colony has greatly increased of late, and bids fair to be very considerable in the ensuing season, we shall feel obliged by your giving the article some attention.' The condition of the wine market had now become extremely unfavourable. The new treaty with France was being mooted, and a public meeting was held in Cape Town urging the Home Government not to lose sight of the colony's interests entirely. As an evidence of the extended character of his operations we may mention that in this year he loaded, in conjunction with Messrs. Hudson, Donaldson, Dixon, and Co., the leading merchants of Cape Town, in half shares, the schooner Joshua Carral with a full cargo of wine.

In 1842 he describes one of the disastrous storms which visit Table Bay from time to time. There was then no breakwater, which now gives security to the harbour. He says: “As you will see by the papers, we have had some bad weather, seven vessels were driven ashore in Table Bay. The Waterloo was a convict ship bound to Van Diemen's Land, and, being very old and quite rotten, she went entirely to pieces immediately on taking the beach, so that it was only with the greatest difficulty that about one-third of the people on board were saved. About 190 convicts, seamen, and soldiers perished close to the shore. It was an awful sight. It is extraordinary that the Government should take up such unseaworthy ships.' His concluding remarks give us an interesting indication of his attitude of mind towards public abuses, of which he was to give further evidence in his parliamentary career when he criticised the shortcomings of the Government with so much vigour and power.

The price of wine continued to fall in the European market. In a business where the purchases of wine from the producer must necessarily be made a considerable time

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before shipment, and where the delays interposed by the length of the voyage before it could reach the market were so considerable, a great fall in values led to changes in price disastrous to the exporter. In November 1842 his firm write that they will make no further shipments of wine, owing to the ruinous price of 81. per pipe. In 1842 they write, in acknowledging the sales of wine: “White wines per Martha Jane at 81. per pipe, less brokerage, and 44 hogsheads per Deborah at 71. 10s. This is miserable indeed.' In consequence of these continued losses we find that he determines to abandon mercantile affairs for a time.

He had embarked his capital and his energy in this business; he had attempted to open up new markets both in England and on the Continent and in the East, but all to no purpose; the business had not the elements of success in it, and he saw this in time. He writes : ‘In consequence of the continued depression in the wine trade we have determined to abandon it, and have now taken the necessary steps to bring our business to a close at the end of this year; after which time any outstanding transactions will be settled by our chief, Mr. J. C. Molteno, to whom be good enough to address after the receipt of this letter.'

He finally closed his relations with Mr. Witherby on the 8th of March, 1843. “As before said, it is my intention to give up, at any rate for the present, all mercantile pursuits. As I leave town in a few days and shall not return for some time, you will not perhaps hear from me so regularly as you otherwise might have done. Regretting, as I most sincerely do, that our long and pleasant correspondence should be brought to a close under circumstances so painful and, to me, I might add, so disastrous.'

Mr. Molteno found that the principal export of the Cape Colony was failing it; some new product must be developed, and the land must be made to yield some return in articles of exportable value to Europe, if business were to be carried

on at all.

He now believed that in wool such an article was to be found. In the early part of August, 1840, he had, in company with other gentlemen from Cape Town, paid a visit to the district of Beaufort West, where a considerable sale of land by the Beaufort Grazing Company was to take place. At that time there were no roads into the interior, the mountain ranges had not yet been pierced, the rivers were all unbridged. Twenty days by ox waggon were passed on a journey which is now accomplished in as many hours by the railway subsequently authorised under Mr. Molteno's Government.

But before we proceed to this new chapter in his career we must say a few words as to the life in Cape Town which he was about to abandon. Englishmen were comparatively few in the Cape Colony, and were in consequence drawn together and formed a little community to some extent by themselves. Martin, who had visited the Cape on several occasions about this time, describes the Englishmen he met there as being shrewd, generally intelligent, solicitous for political liberty, careful of its preservation, hospitable to strangers, and enterprising in their commercial pursuits.'' Quinn, Grissold, Fredrickson, Ebden, and Prince were men with whom Mr. Molteno was associated, and whose names were well known at the Cape. Some of them formed a society in the same house together.

Mr. Molteno wrote home to his mother about this time :

1

The seasons do indeed come fast round; I have now been upwards of eleven years away from you. I did think that in this time I should so far have succeeded as to be able to see you all again, if still alive, but in this I have been greatly disappointed. The chance of my returning home seems now more distant than ever. Although I have not succeeded in pecuniary matters, I have gained what is of infinitely more value-sound views on religion and a firm conviction of the vain and transitory nature of

See Martin's British Colonies, vol. iv.