Study, however, to one of his restless and adventurous temperament, became irksome, and at the age of sixteen, his father having secured for him a position with the internationally known English insurance house of Lloyd's, he left school and was sent to the St. Petersburg agency of the firm.
Once the novelty of a strange environment wore off, life in the Russian Empire palled on the youth and his roving nature again asserting itself, after two years he quit his employment and returned to British North America in 1853.
Departure from his home after the opening of Navigation on Lake Huron would have allowed plenty of time to reach the Sault, however, the desire of making a start toward the promised land was too strong for his patience and he left the East during the next month.
For five dollars the two carriers agreed to take Moberly and his outfit, as far as Fort La Cloche, a Hudson's Bay Company post situated on the north-shore mainland of Lake Huron, opposite Manitoulin Island.
From Red River carts, horses, draught oxen, dog trains, York Boats, canoes and pack mules, Moberly witnessed the change to the conveniences of modern civilization, wagon roads, railroads, steamboats, telegraphs, telephones and electric lights.