" Mr. Williams was convinced that this country possessed within itself the means of employment for all its inhabitants, and that nothing more was neces- sary than to cultivate those lands which at present were waste. "The motion was agreed to." - Hansard's Parliamentary Debates, vol. from 3rd May to 13th July, 18 19, p. 1549, et seq. SETTLEMENT OF THE ZUNSVELD 3 In June, 1817, Mr. Benjamin MOODIE, Laird of Milsetter, Orkney Islands, at two different periods brought 200 settlers to the Colony. They were of the common sort, who placed themselves under his guidance, and entered into regular indentures, by which, in return for the expense of their exportation and outfit, they bound themselves to work for Mr. MOODIE on a certain fixed rate of wages, during a certain number of years after their arrival ; or to buy up their indentures at a reasonable rate, also fixed and determined beforehand. The people selected were from the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, closely allied to each other, over whom he had no special influence. They had not long been in the Colony when the great majority of his people broke all their contracts, abandoned him for ever, and scattered themselves over the country wherever they could get good wages, without the least regard to his interests, and in such a manner as to baffle him and his agents most completely. To the success which many of them individually met with, may, in a great measure, be attri- buted the attention and interest which the British public gave to the capabilities of the Cape. Many of Mr. Moodie's people were established in Cape Town and throughout the Colony in respectable trades. They were principally mechanics of the most valuable description. They were to have been settled upon a grant of land promised to Mr. MOODIE by Government. Ever since his arrival the country bordering on Kafirland, where only he could expect a suit- able grant, had been so much disturbed by the incursions of the Kafirs, that it would have been injurious to the interests of the public, as well as inconsistent with his duty to his followers, to have exposed their lives to danger by settling them on the borders at that period. He preferred purchasing, on account of the locality, in the district of Swellendam, near the confluence of the Buffalo- hunt (Buffeljagt) and Broad (Breed) Rivers. Mr. MOODIE was induced to relinquish his intention of claiming a grant of land for the moment by the dis- covery that the demand for labour was so great in the Colony that his people were employed much more profitably to the public in the service of others than they could have been in his own, with the limited colonial experience he then possessed. He was the first person who attempted to direct emigration from the mother country to the Colony. When grants were being given to settlers in the Zunsveld, Mr. MOODIE memorialized the Acting-Governor, representing the loss it had been to him not being able to occupy the grant originally in- tended for him owing to the disturbed state of the country, that twenty of his people had deserted from him, and that out of the remaining 180 in the country, he could now only carry to the Zunsveld seventy-one persons, the others being more usefully employed to the community than they could be on the Frontier. The Acting-Governor, Sir R. S. Donkin, recognised the value of the introduc- tion by Mr. Moodie of British-born subjects, and recommended his memorial to the favourable consideration of the home Government, who directed that on his conveying himself and the specified number of able-bodied individuals to the Zuurveld, he should receive a grant of land in the proportion of 100 acres to each individual who should be located on such land, the grant itself to be made out at the expiration of three years from the date of location in the form and on the conditions directed by Her Majesty's Government for persons emi- grating to the Colony. Unfortunately for Mr. MOODIE, the grant which he obtained was on the Gualana River, near Fredericksburg, in a part which Lord Charles SOMERSET, on his return to the Colony, found was within the neutral territory, and that it was a breach of treaty-faith to occupy it. Mr. Moodie's and all other grants were consequently cancelled. Disgusted and disheartened by his ill-success in South Africa, he sold out all he had and migrated to Upper Canada, where he died at Belleville in 1868. In 181 7 an addition to the 200 introduced by Mr. MOODIE was made to the British population of the settlement by allowing the discharge of 700 or 800 time-expired soldiers and sailors, who also found ready employment. In 1819 another Scotch gentleman, Mr. Peter Tait, endeavoured to follow Mr. Moodie's plan of introducing settlers ; but he was not so fortunate, as it was not till April, 1820, that he sent out sixteen men, three women, and six children : viz., Andrew Marshall, Robert Robson, Edward Wake, George Harvey, Henry Aitchison, Thomas Hill, John Douglas, James Donaldson, James Stevenson, James Grier, Joseph McDougall, James Foord, George Ogilvie, Isaac Tait, his wife and four children, William Tait (aged fourteen years j, William Foord, his wife and two children, and Margaret Harvey, No time was lost after the House of Commons had passed the Vote for emigration appUed for by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in issuing circulars stating the terms and conditions upon which passages would be given to those applicants who were approved. They are dated eight days after the Vote had been taken, and were sent to the Governor at Cape Town. These circulars were as follows, being also the only official documents published on the subject : - Government Circular. "Downing Street, London, 1819. " I have to acquaint you, in reply to your letter of the , that the following are the conditions under which it is proposed to give encouragement to emi- gration to the Cape of Good Hope. "The sufferings to which many individuals have been exposed, who have emigrated to his Majesty's foreign possessions, unconnected and unprovided with any capital or even the means of support, having been very afflicting to themselves, and equally burdensome to the Colonies to which they have pro- ceeded, the Government have determined to confine the application of the money recently voted by Address in the House of Commons to those persons who, possessing the means, will engage to carry out, at the least, ten able- bodied individuals above eighteen years of age, with or without families, the Government always reserving to itself the right of selecting from the several offers made to them, those which may prove, upon examination, to be most eligible. " In order to give some security to the Government that the persons under- taking to make these establishments have the means of doing so, every person engaging to take out the above-mentioned number of persons or families shall deposit at the rate of ten pounds (to be repaid as hereinafter mentioned) for every family so taken out, provided that the family does not consist of more than one man, one woman, and two children under fourteen years of age. All children above the number of two will have to be paid for, in addition to the deposit above mentioned, in the proportion of five pounds for every two chil- dren under fourteen years of age, and five pounds for every person between the ages of fourteen and eighteen. " In consideration of this deposit, a passage shall be provided at the expense of the Government for the settlers, who shall also be victualled fron> the time of their embarkation until the time of their landing in the Colony. Etc Etc