ey must select their masters, and then
make an engagement for twelve months; or it might be after a month
on approval. Good laborers could get fifteen shillings per month,
and as their services increased in value they would get twenty
shillings, and their allowance of food, which is always abundant.

I have thought that some might work their passage down to the Cape
of Good Hope in some of Her Majesty's Men-of-War, and from there
they might work their passage in some of the coasting vessels that
are continually plying backwards and forwards. My farm is only five
miles from the Port. Should any ever come from your
representations, direct them to me, and should I not require them
myself I will give them such information as may lead them to find
good masters. I have always said that Natal is the key to the
civilization of South Africa; but, however, there are sometimes two
keys to a door, and yours on the West, though a little north of the
Line, may be the other; and, by God's blessing, I trust that the
nations of the East and West may, before long, meet in Central
Africa, not in hostile array, as African nations always have done,
but in the bonds of Christian fellowship. Wishing you every success
in your enterprize.

Believe me, dear Sir, yours most sincerely,
RALPH CLARENCE

NOTE--Mr. Clarence is requesting to be sent some of our industrious
natives from Western Africa, as he informed me that those in the
East think it disreputable to work. The term "master" is simply
English; it means employer. The "fifteen" and "twenty" referred to,
means shillings sterling.

FOOTNOTES:

[8] Now 8 Adolphi Terrace, Strand.

XV

COMMERCIAL RELATIONS IN SCOTLAND

Commercial Relations

I have only to add, as a finality of my doings and mission in Great
Britain, that in Scotland I fully succeeded in establishing commercial
relations for traffic in all kinds of native African produce, especially
cotton, which businesses are to be done directly and immediately between
us and them, without the intervention or agencies of any society or
association whatever. The only agencies in the case are to be the
producers, sellers, and buyers--the Scottish house dealing with us as
men, and not children. These arrangements are made to facilitate, and
give us the assurance of the