CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME 
 OF THE SAGE ENDOWMENT 
 FUND GIVEN IN 189I BY 
 
 HENRY WILLIAMS SAGE 
 
Cornell University Library 
 DT 776.R47W72 
 
 Cecil Rhodes, 
 
 3 1924 028 697 062 
 
The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924028697062 
 
CECIL 
 RHODES 
 
MAKERS • OF ■ THE 
 NINETEENTH CENTURY 
 
 DELANE OF " THE TIMES " 
 By Sir E. T. Cook. 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 By Lord Charnwood. 
 
 HERBERT SPENCER 
 By Hugh S. Elliott. 
 
 ABDUL HAMID 
 By Sir Edwin Pears. 
 
 DIAZ 
 
 By David Hannay. 
 
 LI HUNG CHANG 
 By J. O. P. Bland. 
 
 BISMARCK 
 By C. Grant Robertson. 
 
 VICTOR HUGO 
 
 By Madame Duclaux. 
 
 Each Volume in this Series, which is edited by 
 Basil Williams, contains a Frontispiece, Biblio- 
 graphy, and Index. 
 
 Br THE SAME AUTHOR 
 
 THE LIFE OF WILLIAM PITT 
 
 (Earl of Chatham) 
 
 2nd Impression, 19 14. Re -issue, 1915. 2 Vols. 
 (Longmans, 12s.) 
 
' - '^■:mii. 
 
 BUST OF CECIL JOHN RHODES 
 BY J. M. SWAN 
 
 IN THK MKHOHIAL ON TABLR MOUNTAIN DESIGNKD BY HERBERT BAKER. 
 
MAKERS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 
 Edited by Basil Williams 
 
 CECIL RHODES 
 
 BY 
 
 BASIL WILLIAMS 
 
 LONDON 
 
 CONSTABLE AND COMPANY LTD. 
 
 192 I 
 
PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
TO 
 The Right Hon. J. X. MERRIMAN 
 
 Forsan et haec olim meminisse juvabit. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 This book, first planned in 1 9 1 4, was interrupted by the 
 war. The delay has enabled me to see many papers 
 previously inaccessible. In the Bibliography at the end of 
 the book I acknowledge my obligations to those who have 
 been good enough to talk to me about Rhodes, and to the 
 books that have been helpful. To Lord Charnwood I am 
 grateful for some valuable suggestions on the proofs. My 
 wife has helped me at every stage. I should also like to 
 mention my special debt of gratitude to Lord Milner, a 
 Trustee, to Mr. Geoffrey Dawson, Acting Secretary, and to 
 the Staff of the Rhodes Trust ; to Mr. Wilson Fox, M.P., 
 and Mr. D. Malcolm, Directors of the British South Africa 
 Company ; and to Colonel Amery, M.P., for their readiness to 
 let me see papers in their charge and the interest they have 
 taken in my attempt to portray Rhodes. 
 
 Even if I have failed in this attempt, I trust that some- 
 thing of the love I have for the South African land and 
 people may be found to breathe through these pages. 
 
 B. W. 
 
 Chelsea, 
 Michaelmas Day, 1920. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I. Introductory . . . . i 
 II. Early Years ..... 7 
 
 III. The Opening of the Diamond Fields . -15 
 
 IV. The Young Digger . . . . -25 
 V. Oxford and Kimberley . . . -35 
 
 VI. Dreams . . . . . .48 
 
 VII. The Plunge into Cape Politics . . .58 
 
 VIII. The First Step Northwards — Bechuanaland . 69 
 
 IX. Gold and Diamonds . . . .91 
 
 X. The Charter . . . . .116 
 
 XI. The Pioneers . . . . .140 
 
 XII. Rhodesia . . . . . .163 
 
 XIII. Prime Minister of the Cape . . .183 
 
 XIV. Groote Schuur and the Burlington . .219 
 XV. The Raid . " . . . . .242 
 
 XVI. The New Beginning .... 276 
 
 XVII. The St. Martin's Summer . . . . 298 
 
 XVIII. Last Days . . . . . .315 
 
 Bibliography. . . . . -331 
 
 Chronological Table . . . -339 
 
 Index . . . . . .343 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Bust of Cecil John Rhodes. By J. M. Swan, in Herbert Baker's 
 Memorial on Table Mountain, {From a photograph lent by 
 Mrs. J. M. Swan) ..... Frontispiece 
 On the original pedestal were inscribed Kipling's lines : 
 
 The immense and brooding spirit still shall quicken and control. 
 Living he was the land and dead his soul shall be her soul. 
 
 Map of South and Central Africa . . At end of volume 
 
CHAPTER I 
 
 INTRODUCTORY 
 
 During the sittings of the South African Convention at 
 Cape Town, some seven years after Rhodes's death, an 
 Englishwoman, recently landed, the daughter of an Enghsh 
 statesman, was describing to some of us her first impressions 
 of the Cape Peninsula. The charm of Cape Town and its 
 surroundings, Rondebosch, Wjmberg, Sea Point, Muizen- 
 berg, lovely even in their names ; the Mountain dominating 
 them all ; the clear, clean South African air and its wonder- 
 ful light — ^these she felt and saw as all must who have 
 ever touched there ; but there was something more, a 
 haunting sense of some dominating personahty present but 
 unseen everywhere. (Table Mountain with the town and 
 villages nestling in its kloofs seemed to have some great 
 spirit brooding over it, and in men's talk there was always 
 a reserve as of some idea too familiar yet too impressive to 
 be much talked about. Then it had dawned upon her that/ 
 the haimting personality was that of Rhodes ; (and the 
 mystery was explained. For everything appeared to call 
 up associations with Rhodes. The statue of the old Dutch 
 governor. Van Riebeeck, on the quay, to greet the stranger 
 on his arrival in South Africa, was his gift ; the road round 
 the Mountain was planned by him with the loving thought 
 that " human beings would walk that road long after he 
 had gone " ; the old Dutch block-house on the Mountain 
 was preserved from destruction by him ; Groote Schuur at 
 Rondebosch, with its ample grounds and its masses of 
 hydrangeas, was his home, left for the public service of 
 a united South Africa ; in the tiny cottage by the sea 
 at Muizenberg he breathed his last painful breath ; the 
 
2 CECIL RHODES 
 
 monument on the Momitain side marks the seat where he 
 used to sit musing and staring at the view of both oceans, or 
 gazing towards his own country in the north, 
 
 Like stout Cortez . . . 
 Silent upon a peak in Darien. 
 
 The very work of Union, for which the chosen men of 
 every state in South Africa were then assembled at Cape 
 Town, was his constant preoccupation, and was now 
 recalhng him at every turn. " Oh, if we only had Rhodes 
 here ! " exclaimed a Dutchman from the Transvaal, when 
 some almost fatal obstacle had presented itself in the 
 Convention — a Dutchman, who in Rhodes's hfetime had 
 been fighting him and his coimtrymen. " Let us not 
 bother about these details, we are out for the big thing," 
 said another delegate, this one a dear friend of Rhodes, 
 unconsciously echoing almost the very words of his chief. 
 
 Nor were these experiences singular or confined to the 
 period of the National Convention, when men's minds 
 were all intent on one of Rhodes's great ideas. The German 
 Colonial Secretary, Dernburg, who visited South Africa a 
 Httle later, had the same vivid sense of his personality ; 
 for what, he said, impressed him most in the coimtry was 
 the omnipresent glamour of Rhodes. Later still, on the 
 eve of the war, the feehng of his presence is as fresh and 
 Mving. 1' The spirit of the man permeates the place,'- 
 writes a visitor to Groote Schuur in 1914, an ancient 
 opponent of Rhodes, not merely because of the books, 
 the old Dutch objects and furniture he collected there, 
 the rare trees he planted and the animals he acchmatized 
 in the grounds, and his favourite view from the stoep, still 
 remembered, butlfor the passions he aroused and the ideas 
 he stimulated.! 
 
 This vivid remembrance of Rhodes was not confined to 
 the Cape Peninsula, his home, if he can be said ever to 
 have had one, for the last ten years of his Mfe. For many 
 years after his death it was the same throughout South 
 Africa. In Natal, where he was least known, the few men 
 who knew or worked with Rhodes are pointed out to the 
 stranger at the Club as among those specially to be noted 
 
INTRODUCTORY 3 
 
 and talked to ; and sooner or later the visitor is bound 
 to hear the story of Rhodes winning over their Prime 
 Minister, Escombe, till then somewhat suspicious, by the 
 invitation to Groote Schuur, to discuss South African 
 Union, with its postscript : " besides, the hydrangeas are 
 in full beauty : it would be a pity to miss them." In the 
 Transvaal and the Free State, where he was once regarded 
 by many besides old President Kruger as " ApoUyon, a 
 financier, and the foul fiend himself ... if Rhodes had 
 not been bom . . . South Africa would have been httle 
 less than a paradise," his death has mellowed men's judge- 
 ments, and it is remembered that with all his faults and 
 in spite of the Raid he was a great South African, while 
 in Johannesburg it is not forgotten that he was one of the 
 founders of its prosperity. In the native territories of the 
 Cape his creation, the Glen Grey system, has profoundly 
 modified the condition and outlook of the black community. 
 Among the Dutch of the Cape he is not only remembered 
 for the betrayal of the Raid but as a farmer such as them- 
 selves, who loved the land as they do and felt with them in 
 all their troubles. I The Kimberley of to-day, for good or V 
 evil, is merely what he made it by the De Beers amalgama- 
 tion ; and Bechuanaland, " the Suez Canal to the interior," 
 might never have been British, but for Rhodes. For 
 Rhodesia he is the one man ; Jameson indeed is remembered 
 with affection ; Grey and Milton and all the directors of 
 the Chartered Company had their good qualities ; but since 
 he died it has never been quite the same there for white 
 men or natives. The lame dogs among the whites he helped 
 materially or cheered with brave words ; the stalwart felt 
 that his curt approval was worth working for ; and all 
 knew that, whatever might- be the difficulties, he would , 
 surely be there to see the country through. By the v 
 natives he was trusted blindly for his just dealings and the 
 respect he showed them ; to him alone ampng white men 
 they gave the royal salute of their tribe. Here above all 
 his memory is cherished, in the country he won and loved ; 
 and here he rests on the hill called the View of the World, 
 amid the grandeur and loveliness of the Matoppos. — 
 
 Even South Africa's wide expanses were too narrow a 
 
4 CECIL RHODES 
 
 field for Rhodes. He is the only colonial statesman who 
 has to such extent struck the imagination and affected 
 the thoughts of Englishmen at home and throughout the 
 world. The very suddenness with which he loomed upon 
 the outer world helped to concentrate attention upon him. 
 A few years before he became Prime Minister of the Cape 
 he had hardly been heard of in England. During a debate 
 of 1884 Lord Randolph Churchill spoke scornfully of " some 
 cypher " appointed to supersede the missionary Mackenzie 
 in' Bechuanaland, a "cypher" whose appointment the 
 Minister was hard put to it to defend as of "a gentleman 
 of some distinction, who had always shown himself to be 
 a great sympathizer with the native races." Less than six 
 years later the " C5T)her's " name was on every tongue as 
 the autocrat of one of the greatest industrial undertakings 
 in the world, as Prime Minister of his colony and as the 
 founder of what promised to be a vast new dominion for 
 the Empire. At home, indeed, the quality of his eminence 
 was never so incontestable as at one time it was in South 
 Africa. To many he was a bugbear — the type of the 
 dishonest and unscrupulous poHtician, who uses poHtics to 
 rig the market and the wealth thus acquired to corrupt 
 politics, a man who filched away an empire and slaughtered 
 innocent savages or plotted against a friendly state to put 
 money into his own and his fellow-CQnspirators' pockets. 
 " Rank selfishness and an inextinguishable love of power 
 and renown, of adulation and of praise are the prevalent 
 characteristics which distinguish this eminent statesman 
 and conqueror from the small fry," such is another, perhaps 
 extreme, instance of the form of obloquy to which he was 
 exposed. On the other hand, to many more he had soon 
 become a national hero, on a par with a Clive or a Warren 
 Hastings, and by the few who consorted familiarly with 
 him he was treated as httle short of infallible and impecc- 
 able. Since his death Oxford and its Rhodes scholars 
 have helped to keep his memory green and to further his 
 ideals even beyond the shores of England. At Oxford his 
 statue looks proudly down upon The High, taking rank 
 above the sovereigns of his day, as a Founder no less than 
 WiUiam of Wykeham, Chichele, Waynflete or Wolsey. 
 
INTRODUCTORY 5 
 
 In our law courts Rhodes's words of some thirty years ago 
 still have weight in a decision on the fate of a vast territory 
 in the heart of Africa ; and for long ardent young 
 missionaries of Empire have been devoting themselves to 
 the problems of Imperial government on principles which 
 he initiated. 
 
 To-day, except in his own Rhodesia, the glamour 
 of his great name is somewhat dulled. Many of the 
 faithful friends, men hke Jameson and Grey, jealous 
 guardians of the reputation and tradition of Rhodes, which 
 they themselves had helped to form, have passed away. 
 The war, which raised so many new problems and brought 
 forward so many new men, has for the time being obscured 
 Rhodes and the Rhodes ideas. South Africa itself, where 
 he played his chief part, no longer holds that prominent 
 place in the world's eye which it held for ten years and 
 more before his death and during the decade which 
 succeeded it. Perhaps by very reason of this partial eclipse 
 it is opportune to attempt another judgement on Rhodes. 
 Hitherto most of the hves or sketches of him have been 
 written under the attractive magnetism of his living 
 personaUty. To-day it may be possible to take a more 
 dispassionate view. Most of the written material ever 
 likely to be available for his Ufe is now accessible, and so 
 much has happened in the last eighteen years that his 
 career can be judged not only by the passions which it 
 raised but by the test of the effects which it has produced. 
 On the other hand, it has still not been too late to gather 
 living impressions of the man from those who saw him 
 plain, who knew him and listened to his actual words, 
 who can describe his gestures, the tone of his voice, and 
 some of his unguarded moments. Such evidence is especi- 
 ally valuable in the case of a man hke Rhodes, who wrote 
 very few intimate letters and received few. For the 
 account of such a man depends for its value not so much 
 on what he did as on why and how he did it ; and that can 
 only be obtained by close acquaintance with the man 
 himself. 
 
 This book is not intended to be an unreheved panegyric 
 of Rhodes or a tract for the imperialism he preached and 
 
6 CECIL RHODES 
 
 worked for. But it frankly sets forth with the belief that 
 he was, with all his grievous faults, a great man, and that 
 at the root of his imperialism were qualities that have 
 done good service to mankind. His character was cast in 
 a large mould, with enormous defects corresponding with 
 his eminent virtues. But, from the recital of these short- 
 comings no less than that of his achievements, help, we 
 think, may be gained by those moved by the same spirit 
 of devotion to what they believe best for England and the 
 
 — world. As to his creed of imperialism, a worthy spirit will 
 be engendered if we look, not to the blatant and exaggerated 
 manifestations of national arrogance it contained, but to its 
 deep sense of public duty, the tenacity of purpose it implied, 
 and above all to the underl5dng sympathy and desire for 
 co-operation even with opponents, without which it was 
 
 - meaningless. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 EARLY YEARS 
 
 Cecil John Rhodes, the fifth son of the Rev. F. W. 
 Rhodes, Vicar of Bishop Stortford, was bom on July 5, 
 1853. Sinfce the seventeenth century his paternal ancestors 
 had been farmers, first in the Midlands and in Cheshire, then 
 on the outskirts of London near the Gray's Inn Road. 
 His great-grandfather Samuel besides his farm had large 
 brick and tile works at Dalston, on a property now built 
 over and still owned by the Rhodes trustees. His grand- 
 father William was a cowkeeper in a large way at Islington 
 and also had property at Leyton Grange in Essex. Rhodes, 
 therefore, had good reason in after Mfe for his boast to the 
 Dutch farmers that he was one with them, as he also came 
 of farming stock. The father, F. W. Rhodes, who was 
 bom in 1806, and educated at Harrow and Trinity, held 
 the vicarage of Bishop Stortford for twenty-seven years, 
 until two years before his death in 1878. HimseK one of 
 a large family, he also had many children, a daughter by 
 a first wife and nine sons and two daughters by his second 
 wife, Louisa Peacock, one of a Lincolnshire family, whom 
 he married in 1844. Two of the nine sons died in infancy, 
 leaving, besides the daughter of the first marriage, Edith 
 and Louisa, Herbert, Frank, Cecil John, Emest, Elmhirst, 
 Arthur and Bernard, to be sent out into the world by the 
 vicar and his wife Louisa. 
 
 The vicar, tall and spare in appearance, was a man of 
 system and of strong prejudices. To his parishioners he 
 gave good sound doctrine in his sermons, which always 
 lasted ten minutes, no more and no less ; he saw to the 
 education of their children, being a generous benefactor to 
 
 7 
 
8 CECIL RHODES 
 
 the old grammar school of the place and establishing a 
 training school for mistresses in elementary schools ; he 
 was also noted for his charity and his courteous bearing to 
 all, and is said to have had a horror of lawyers. He kept 
 his large family in due respect of him and brought them 
 up on strictly religious principles. They were all expected 
 to take their turn teaching in the Sunday school, and 
 received pious books as a reward for their pains. His 
 hope was that all his sons should follow his own example 
 by taking Orders and become, as he was wont to say, " the 
 angels of the Seven Churches," a hope doomed to complete 
 disappointment. The mother, who died when Cecil was 
 twenty, is said to have been a woman of great charm and 
 ease of manner, whose sympathy and tenderness gave 
 some rehef from the vicar's Spartan principles. Thanks 
 to her sympathy, perhaps quite as much as to the father's 
 pungent originality, many of the children developed on 
 unconventional lines. It was not the custom for this 
 crowd of brothers and sisters, so one of them records, to 
 confide much in one another, and each grew up on his 
 own lines ; but at least they learned not only to hold their 
 own with one another but also, in spite of passing quarrels, 
 to stick together and face the world as no mean clan. 
 Throughout Ufe Cecil, though he may have passed dis- 
 paraging remarks on the pursuits of some of his brothers 
 and sisters, never left any of them in the lurch, but saw that 
 they had the opportimities he was able to give them. The 
 favourite brother of the clan was the second son, Frank, 
 who inherited all his mother's charm but, though a gallant 
 soldier, little of the father's force. 
 
 Herbert, the eldest son, went to Winchester and Frank 
 to Eton, but when it came to Cecil, at the age of nine, he 
 was put as a day-boy to the local grammar school. Here 
 he gave no signs of great distinction. A school-feUow 
 writing to him when he had become famous recalls that he 
 gained the silver medal for elocution, an art in which he 
 afterwards showed but Uttle proficiency, and he is stated 
 to have taken interest in history, geography and classics ; 
 but he must have been a good cricketer, for he attained the 
 glory of the school XI. at the age of thirteen. He was 
 
EARLY YEARS 9 
 
 always rather a shy, reserved boy, with a delicate appear- 
 ance, though never wanting in spirit and power of concen- 
 tration. The motto he chose at the age of thirteen for 
 one of those quaint confessional albums, so dear to the 
 Middle Victorians, was "to do or to die " ; even then 
 he had decided that a single Ufe was better than to be 
 married ; and in one of Frank's early letters home he is 
 already spoken of as " long-headed Cecil," as if this were 
 a well-recognized treat in his character. 
 
 Though reserved at home, he appears to have blossomed 
 out more in what was a second home to several of the 
 Rhodes children in Lincolnshire. Mrs. Rhodes's sister, 
 Sophia Peacock, Uved at Sleaford Manor in the Belvoir 
 country, where she often had one or more of the vicar's 
 children to stay, her special favourite being Frank, whom 
 she practically adopted. Cecil was often there for the 
 hoUdaj^, and foimd himself in a circle of relations and 
 acquaintances. His aunt Sophy was always a good friend 
 to him, and she was one of the few to whom in those early 
 days he confided his plans and aspirations. Some Willson 
 cousins lived two miles away at Ranceby ; the Finch 
 Hattons at Haverholm close by, and the family of Mr. 
 Yerburgh, rector of Sleaford, were close friends ; and 
 Frank had Eton companions to stay there. In those days 
 Cecil could put up a good fight with his fists, as one of 
 his friends, a much bigger boy, whom Cecil had thought 
 too " cheeky," had ruefuUy to admit. One of those who 
 remembered him best at Sleaford was the rector's son, 
 Robert, a Hfelong friend. The two used to go riding 
 about the country together, Cecil fond of the exercise but 
 even then remarkable for his bad seat in the saddle, a fault 
 of which practice in the Belvoir country itself never cured 
 him. Though quite a young lad at the time, Cecil, Yerburgh 
 used to say, showed a most precocious power of observation ; "^ 
 instead of gazing at the pretty girl looking over a gate, he 
 was all eyes for the country he passed through, and always 
 remembered which farm was well cxiltivated and which 
 slackly managed. These early Lincolnshire friendships 
 completed the good grounding for life which he got from 
 the give and take of the large family at the Vicarage and 
 
10 CECIL RHODES 
 
 the rough and tumble of the Grammar School. Unconven- 
 tional and original he always was, and his unconventionaUty 
 was no doubt accentuated by the turbulent life on the 
 Diamond Fields ; but he also always kept an air of good 
 breeding and a dignity of bearing, sure passports to the 
 most exclusive as to the roughest society ; and he very 
 early learned the gift of appraising men at their true value 
 to himself To this atmosphere of squire and parson in 
 which he was reared at Bishop Stortford and Sleaford he 
 owed, too, his reverence for the feudal traditions of the old 
 squirearchy, with its high if Umited sense of pubUc duty, 
 and his lifelong respect for the profession of a land- 
 owner. 
 
 In 1869, at the age of sixteen, Cecil left the Grammar 
 School and continued his studies under his father's eye. 
 Herbert and Frank had already disappointed the vicar's 
 hope that they should take orders, Frank being bent on 
 Sandhurst and Herbert having already taken to a roving 
 life abroad. Ultimately four of the brothers joined the 
 army. " My father," afterwards said Rhodes, " was anxious 
 that they should enter the Church as a preUminary step 
 to becoming angels : they prefer being angels through the 
 Army and I don't blame them " ; the other three all went to 
 the Colonies. But at sixteen Cecil had not entirely rejected 
 the idea of the Church as a profession, although his first 
 choice lay elsewhere. " I cannot deny," he wrote to his 
 Aunt Sophy, '•' for it would only be hypocrisy to say other- 
 wise, that I still above everything would like to be a 
 barrister ; but I agree with you it is a very precarious 
 profession. Next to that I think a clergyman's life is the 
 nicest ; and therefore I shall most earnestly try to go to 
 College, because I have fully determined to be one of these 
 two, and a College education is necessary for both. I 
 think that as a barrister a man may be just as good a 
 Christian as in any other profession " ; nor should the 
 jolly ending of the letter be omitted, if only to show that 
 even in those early years he was not too much of a prig : 
 " How proud you must have been of Frankie's success [in 
 the Eton and Harrow match] ! I can assure you we were 
 in the highest state of excitement ... a great cricketer . . . 
 
EARLY YEARS ii 
 
 said he preferred Frank's play to any on the field, because 
 he had never seen an5rthing equal to his defence." 
 
 However, neither College nor the Bar were yet to be 
 approached by this determined young man. His health 
 was weakly, and there were even fears that he might be 
 consumptive, a disease of which several of the family 
 showed symptoms. His father, therefore, determined to 
 send him abroad to try the effect of a sea voyage and 
 a better climate. Herbert had already set up as a 
 planter in Natal, so to join Herbert in Natal Cecil was 
 despatched on a saihng vessel. The voyage to Durban 
 took him seventy days, and on September i, 1870, he 
 first set foot on African soil, a tall, lanky, anaemic, fair- 
 haired boy, shy and reserved in bearing. Nelson boarding 
 a man-of-war for the first time, when " nobody had been 
 apprised of the boy's coming," could hardly have felt more 
 solitary and forlorn than this seventeen-year-old boy on 
 landing upon the scene of his hfe's work. For Herbert, 
 the only soul he knew in South Africa, was away upon 
 some expedition ; he had, however, left a message with 
 his friend Dr. Sutherland, the Surveyor-General of the 
 Colony, to befriend his brother. So to Dr. Sutherland's 
 house at Pietermaritzburg Cecil found his way. There he 
 was kindly entertained until his brother's return. He is 
 said to have spent most of his time there reading, and still 
 apparently used to talk of taking Orders to his host, who 
 used to prophesy that he would end his days as a village 
 parson in England. 
 
 Towards the end of the year Herbert returned from his 
 expedition, and the two brothers started off for the 
 Umkomanzi Valley, south of Pietermaritzburg, where the 
 elder had already taken a farm. It was in a settlement 
 where a first attempt was being made to start cotton- 
 planting in Natal ; their friends in town all warned them 
 that the attempt would prove a dismal failure. However, 
 they found that the pioneer of the settlement, one 
 Con37ngham, and Powys, the owner of a neighbouring farm 
 specially noted for its beauty, had had some success. Their 
 own farm had first to be cleared of the dense bush which 
 grew luxuriantly in the hot steamy valley ; this they did 
 
12 CECIL RHODES 
 
 with the help of their Kaifir labourers in time for a first 
 year's crop. The crop proved a failure, as their friends 
 had predicted; the cotton, planted too closely in rows, 
 had become tangled and matted, and fell a prey to the 
 caterpillar and bore -worm. A few bales were picked, 
 but not enough to pay expenses. Nothing daunted, they 
 cleared off more bush for the second year's crop and planted 
 the forty-five acres they now had for cotton on a new 
 system, with much greater intervals between the plants, 
 and at every 80 feet a small patch of mealies, which attracted 
 the grub from the cotton ; the numerous monkeys in the 
 district were also attracted by the meahes, but the brothers 
 had no objection to their visits as long as they confined 
 their depredations to the com cobs. On this second year's 
 crop they made a good profit, and obtained a prize for their 
 cotton at a local agricultural show. By the end of 1872 
 the Rhodes brothers expected to have 100 acres cleared 
 for planting, and were already regarded as among the most 
 successful planters of the settlement ; ^ their method of 
 ploughing instead of hoeing between the rows being looked 
 on as a specially commendable innovation. 
 
 The Ufe on the settlement was hard and simple, but had 
 its attractions. Herbert and Cecil had built themselves 
 two Httle huts, one for sleeping, the other as a store and 
 Hving room ; here they lived, waited on by a Kaffir servant. 
 They had pleasant neighbours within riding distance, one, 
 with whom Cecil formed a close friendship, being H. C. 
 Hawkins, the son of a Natal magistrate, and a relation of 
 the Provost of Oriel. With him Cecil kept up his classics, 
 and formed plans for saving up enough money to go to 
 Oxford, an ambition which only one of them fulfilled. 
 Cecil, it is also recorded, no doubt as the scholar and the 
 yoimgest member of the settlement, was chosen to respond 
 to the toast of The Ladies at the banquet of the agricultural 
 show at which his cotton samples were exhibited. Herbert, 
 a restless and adventurous fellow, was more noted for his 
 feats of daring, especially for an exploit in swimming into 
 the Umkomanzi, when in raging flood, and cutting the 
 traces of a team of oxen which were being helplessly swept 
 
 ^ See Notes on Natal, by John Robinson. 1872. 
 
EARLY YEARS 13 
 
 down with their wagon, and so enabling them to swim 
 ashore. 
 
 Though Cecil in the intervals of bush clearing and cotton 
 planting studied his classics and dreamed of Oxford, he also 
 gave early evidence of his practical eye for a business 
 bargain, keeping a shrewd look out for investments and 
 openings in the colony. At this stage he had no capital 
 to spare, but during the year after he had left Natal, when 
 he had scraped some together, he put his previous observa- 
 tion to good use. To his friend, Dr. Sutherland, who acted 
 as his agent, he wrote several anxious letters on the placing 
 of the few pounds he had available. Farms had been 
 suggested to him, but he would have nothing to say to 
 farms, unless he had seen them for himself and was assured 
 of their accessibiUty and good water-supply; and finally, 
 after much consideration, he pitches on the new railway 
 under construction between Durban and The Point at the 
 landing-stage, which this wise yoimg man of nineteen quite 
 rightly judged to be a profitable investment. 
 
 The little settlement on the Umkomanzi was short- 
 lived. By the end of 1871 one neighbour of the Rhodes's, 
 finding that the sluit, on which he depended for water, 
 had dried up, was forced to leave ; Powys, the owner of the 
 lovely farm, had all his cotton dried up and was burned 
 out of his house. Others went to try their luck at the 
 newly discovered diamond diggings, whither Herbert also 
 went to prospect in May 1871. Cecil looked after the 
 cotton by himself till October, when he followed Herbert 
 to Griqualand West ; but the Natal plantation was not 
 finally abandoned till the end of 1872, after Herbert 
 had returned to put in one more crop. " It really seems 
 an ill-fated valley," was Cecil's parting verdict, and he 
 thought his brother wise not to drop any more money on 
 it. " You would be surprised," he wrote to Dr. Sutherland, 
 " if I told you what a sink it has been. I beheve if one 
 only kept on, it has a capacity to absorb any amount 
 of capital." But though an expensive experiment, this 
 plantation was a good training-ground for Rhodes. He 
 learned here to understand something of the difficulties of 
 South African farming and how to overcome them ; he 
 
 / 
 
14 CECIL RHODES 
 
 gained his first experience of natives, improved in health, 
 developed business capacity, and was enabled, before he 
 was of age, to be self-reliant and fend for himself as few 
 young Enghshmen of his class are quahfied to do. Above 
 aU, he acquired those habits of work, and that loathing of 
 a loafer which he kept to the end. It is indeed amusing 
 to find him writing home at this tender age to urge that his 
 elder brother Frank should " come out here before he gets 
 his commission, as it wiU be very good for him, so much 
 better than the do-nothing hfe he is leading now." 
 
 " Ah yes," he would say in later days to the critics who 
 told him a thing was impossible, " they told me I couldn't 
 grow cotton." 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 THE OPENING OF THE DIAMOND FIELDS 
 
 In the year 1867 Schalk van Niekerk, a Dutch fanner, was 
 calling at his friend Jacobs's house near the Orange River. 
 The Jacobs children were playing at marbles, and Van 
 Niekerk's eye was attracted by the extraordinary brilhancy 
 of one of the stones they were using. " Take it away with 
 you, by all means," said Jacobs, " if you fancy it," and 
 accordingly Van Niekerk, who regarded it merely as a 
 curiosity, pocketed it. Shortly afterwards he met the trader 
 John O'Reilly and pulled it out to show him. O'Reilly 
 thought it might be valuable and took it off to get the 
 opinion of some diamond merchants ; they told him it was 
 worth nothing ; but when it was passed on to the Colesberg 
 magistrate, Lorenzo Boyes, he was so convinced of its 
 value that he sent it to the Cape mineralogist. Dr. 
 Atherstone, who pronounced it to be a diamond worth 
 £500. At this price it was bought by the Governor, Sir 
 Philip Wodehouse. The next important find was two years 
 later, when a native witch-doctor brought the same van 
 Niekerk a large and brilliant stone he had found near the 
 Orange River, and was using as a charm in the course of 
 his calling ; the Dutchman, now awake to the value of 
 such stones, at once offered the witch-doctor all he stood 
 possessed of, namely 500 sheep, 10 oxen, and one horse, 
 for his charm. Van Niekerk did well by his bargain, for 
 he sold the diamond, an exceptionally fine one that turned 
 83 carats, for over £11,000 to a Hopetown trader, who sold 
 it again to Lord Dudley for £25,000. This diamond became 
 famous as " The Star of South Africa." 
 
 At first it was imagined by many people that these 
 
 15 
 
i6 CECIL RHODES 
 
 discoveries were mere freaks ; in fact, a Mr. Gregory, the 
 expert agent of a London jeweller, reported that there 
 were no signs of diamond-bearing soil in South Africa.^ 
 But many colonists /)n the look out for adventure and an 
 easy fortune were less incredulous, and began to search on 
 the banks of the Orange River and along the Vaal, near its 
 junction with the Hart River. In the latter half of 1869 
 diamonds were found in the bed of the Vaal, near the mission 
 station of Hebron, and parties of diggers flocked to that 
 neighbourhood. Among the first were J. B. Robinson and 
 Stafford Parker, long well-known names in the Diamond 
 Fields, and a party from Natal under Captain RoUeston. 
 Within a short space of time the bend of the Vaal for eighty 
 miles from Hebron to the junction with the Hart River was 
 dotted all along with Uttle mining camps designated Gong 
 Gong, Forlorn Hope, Blue Jacket, Larkin's Flat, etc., 
 outlandish names to our ears but familiar enough among 
 the red sands and the white ants of KalgoorUe, the snows 
 of' the Yukon, the scrub and sand-storms of the veld, or 
 wherever the strange wild brotherhood of prospector and 
 digger may chance to be gathered together. Large settle- 
 ments sprang up at Pniel, on the south bank of the river, 
 and at Klipdrift, now Barkly West, on the opposite bank, 
 which by 1870 already had brick buildings and shops, and 
 boasted of a newspaper of its own. The soil from the 
 river-bed was sifted in rough hand-cradles by the diggers, 
 and so successful were they that within a few months 
 some 10,000 prospectors had been attracted to a district 
 hitherto inhabited only by a few missionaries and wander- 
 ing natives. 
 
 Soon, however, the river diggings were entirely thrown 
 into the shade by a new discovery on the open veld. In 
 September 1870, diamonds were found on the farm Dutoits- 
 pan, only twenty miles from KUpdrift. Speculators, 
 scenting a profit, soon appeared on the scene and offered 
 what seemed fabulous prices to the simple farmers of the 
 district. Dutoitspan was sold for £2600, Bultfontein near 
 by for £2000, and Voruitzicht for ^6000, the purchasers of 
 
 ^ Hence the Diamond Fields euphemism for any outrageous mis- 
 statement as " a Gregory." 
 
THE OPENING OF THE DIAMOND FIELDS 17 
 
 the last being the Port Elizabeth firm of D. A. & N. J. 
 de Beers. AH these farms could have been contained 
 within a ring fence of fifteen miles. The new owners, 
 however, were unable to stem the rush of prospectors on 
 to their property, and the most they could do was to exact 
 a monthly licence fee of 7s. 6d. or los. for each claim of 
 thirty feet square. Dutoitspan was rushed at the end of 
 1870, Bultfontein a few months later ; part of the De 
 Beers farm in May ; in the following July Rawstome, a 
 prospector from Colesberg in Cape Colony, discovered the 
 first diamond on the kopje, under the roots of an old thorn 
 tree which crowned its grassy knoll. The original claims 
 on Voruitzicht were then christened Old De Beers ; the 
 kopje ground, some ten acres in extent, Colesberg JKopje 
 or De Beers New Rush and later Kimberley, after the 
 Colonial Secretary of the day. The river diggings were 
 soon deserted for these dry diggings, where the diamonds 
 were more plentiful and easier to find ; for along the Vaal 
 pits had to be sunk in the heavy gravel, thick with boulders, 
 whereas here the diamonds could be picked out of the light 
 surface soil like plums out of a cake. As the fame of the 
 new Diamond Fields near the Vaal spread, prospectors kept 
 arriving thither not only from every part of South Africa, 
 but from Europe, Australia and America, and within their 
 radius of five miles a huge canvas city sprang up where 
 there had hitherto been nothing but bare veld, an even 
 more marvellous transformation than that of the eighty 
 mile bend in the Vaal River. 
 
 The discovery of the Diamond Fields opened a new 
 chapter in South African history, in which the eighteen- 
 year-old cotton planter of the Umkomanzi valley was 
 destined to play a principal part. Hitherto South Africa, 
 with its two colonies of the Cape and Natal and its two 
 Boer republics named after the Orange River and the 
 Vaal, had been a poor and rather unhappy land, troubled 
 with internal dissensions among the whites and with 
 constant danger from the natives. In 1871 Cape Colony 
 was bounded on the east by the Great Kei River and on the 
 north by the Orange River. On its eastern borders it was 
 subject to constant alarms of raids from the large native 
 
 C 
 
i8 CECIL RHODES 
 
 territory of Kaffraria, extending from the Great Kei to 
 the Natal borders, over which the Imperial government 
 exercised a shadowy protectorate. In that year it had 
 added to its difficulties by taking over from the Imperial 
 authorities the administration of Basutoland, a native 
 state nowhere touching its own borders. It stiU had that 
 
 J unhappy form of government, an executive directly ap- 
 pointed by the governor, and an elected parHament 
 responsible for legislation and finance but with no authority 
 over the executive : the controversies to which this system 
 gave rise were accentuated by the cleavage between the 
 original Dutch colonists, who predominated in the western 
 province, and the Enghsh settlers of 1820 in the eastern 
 province, the Dutch in the aggregate being in the majority. 
 Except for the merchants, forwarding agents and shop- 
 keepers in the ports and towns, the population was almost 
 entirely agricultural and pastoral, pursuits to which the 
 Dutch took more kindly than the Enghsh. It could, it is 
 true, boast of the only completed railway in South Africa, 
 a fine sixty miles long from Cape Town to Wellington, but 
 financially it was at a low ebb, with a Budget showing 
 a revenue of only ^^543,583 to meet an expenditure of 
 ;£6o4,926. Natal was happier in having a more homo- 
 geneous population, for most of the original Boer emigrants, 
 who had borne the brunt of the fighting against the Zulu 
 invaders, had retired in disgust to the Transvaal when 
 Natal was finally proclaimed a British colony in 1843. 
 The chief difficulty there was the enormous preponderance 
 of the native over the white population and the proximity 
 of the ferocious Zulu race ; but the Enghsh and Scottish 
 settlers were an independent, self-rehant people, who were 
 not averse to the isolation from other parts of South Africa 
 which their geographical position imposed upon them. 
 Besides these two colonies there were the two Boer 
 repubhcs. The Free State had first been settled in 1828 ; 
 in 1848 it was annexed by Sir Harry Smith and the Boer 
 leader Pretorius defeated at Boomplaats ; six years later, 
 much against its will, its independence was restored because 
 
 V the Imperial government had changed its mind and decided 
 to have no responsibihties north of the Orange River. 
 
THE OPENING OF THE DIAMOND FIELDS 19 
 
 Since then its people had been ruled wisely and successfully 
 by their President, John Brand, though with occasional 
 wars against their neighbours, the Basutos, who could not 
 be controlled either by the Imperial authorities or the Cape. 
 The Transvaal to the north of the Free State had not had a 
 happy history since its first invasion by the Cape Boers of 
 1835, who were anxious to escape from British interference. 
 Its independence was not recognized by Great Britain till 
 1852, and for eight years longer it contained four separate 
 republics. Its unification in i860 did not much mend 
 matters, for it had constant fights with the native tribes 
 in the north and west and was always on the verge of 
 bankruptcy. 
 
 One important result of the large influx of strangers, 
 chiefly of the EngHsh race, to the Diamond Fields was to 
 redress somewhat the balance between the Dutch and 
 English races in South Africa. It also for the first time 
 introduced an industrial element into the country ; for not 
 only diamond digging itself soon developed into a regular 
 industry, but it stimulated others required to supply the 
 needs of the diggers. Again, agriculture throughout South 
 Africa was in time encouraged to increased production by 
 the wants of the large and extravagant new population. 
 AU this additional prosperity affected for the better the 
 public as well as the private finances of South Africans, 
 not only in Cape Colony, the state most concerned, but 
 elsewhere also. The state of the natives was even more 
 profoundly influenced. Hitherto they had for the most 
 part lived isolated in their tribes, comparatively Uttle 
 changed by the advent of the Europeans : some indeed did 
 agricultural work for neighbouring farmers and a few were 
 employed as house servants or grooms. But soon the 
 diggers required an almost inexhaustible supply of natives 
 to help them with the drudgery of their labour, and the 
 supply in the neighbourhood of the fields was extremely 
 limited. They offered high wages for natives, and in an 
 incredibly short time the rumour of these good wages and 
 the good food offered, and of the chance of buying European 
 firearms and ammunition, spread to every native kraal 
 throughout South Africa. Natives came trudging hundreds 
 
J 
 
 20 CECIL RHODES 
 
 of miles from Kaffraria beyond the eastern province, from 
 Zululand, from the northern fastnesses of the Transvaal, 
 from the far distant regions of the Zambesi and even beyond 
 to take up the new work. And they never came to stay. 
 They remained long enough to earn their good wages, and 
 to buy their gims and ammunition, and then trudged back 
 to their far-away homes, bringing news to their own tribes 
 of other tribesmen they had met and of the ways of the 
 white men. Thus the sohdarity and isolation of the tribes 
 was gradually modified, and the natives themselves acquired 
 new wants and became more ready to secure their satisfac- 
 tion by closer association with Europeans. In a word, the 
 influence of the Diamond Fields proved a first and most 
 important step to the penetration by Europeans of vast 
 native districts, where they had hitherto been almost 
 unknown or dreaded as a terrible danger. 
 
 Unfortunately another result of the discovery of the 
 Diamond Fields was to add one more to the many causes 
 of grievance of the Dutch, and to reveal one more change 
 in the kaleidoscopic policy of the Imperial government 
 in South Africa. Great Britain, which since the cession of 
 1806 had paid heavily in warfare and expense for its South 
 African possessions, had chopped and changed its frontier 
 policy with successive secretaries of state and governors of 
 the Cape, sometimes aggressive, sometimes taking a long 
 step backwards. By 1871 nearly everybody at home was 
 tired of South Africa : the onerous charge of Basutoland 
 had been shuffled off on to the Cape and it had been laid 
 down as a definite instruction that the Orange River was 
 to be the northern hmit of our responsibilities. It so 
 happened, however, that both the river diggings and the 
 dry diggings were discovered in Griqualand West, virtually 
 a no-man's land north of the Orange River, west of the Free 
 State and south-west of the Transvaal, over which a small 
 tribe of Griquas, ruled by the chief Waterboer, roved at 
 will. It was obvious that this large infli^x of adventurers, 
 many of them lawless and turbulent, could not be left 
 without a government or be subjected to the whims of a 
 semi-savage chieftain. The question arose who should 
 govern them. The Transvaal Boers had never been dis- 
 
THE OPENING OF THE DIAMOND FIELDS 21 
 
 posed to abide by any arbitrary limits to their roaming 
 disposition, and had for some time cast a covetous eye on 
 the pasture grounds of the Griquas along the Vaal and 
 Hart Rivers and the neighbouring settlements of the 
 Batlapins and Barolongs farther north on the edge 
 of Bechuanaland. 
 
 Accordingly when the river diggings were opened 
 President Pretorius claimed the right of keeping order 
 there with his Transvaal poHce and magistrates, and even 
 had the happy thought of giving an exclusive concession 
 for diamonds to three of his countrymen. The Diggers - 
 Committee, elected by the diggers to maintain order, 
 riposted by proclaiming themselves an independent re- 
 public, and though the President withdrew the obnoxious 
 concession and tried the effect of a personal visit to the 
 diggings, he made no impression on the headstrong com- 
 munity on his borders. The dry diggings in their turn 
 were claimed as coming within the jurisdiction of the 
 Free State ; and it must be admitted that the claim 
 seemed reasonable. It was hardly disputed that Water- 
 boer's country had been treated as part of the Orange River 
 Sovereignty until that territory was returned to the Free 
 State Boers in 1854 > ^-^d, though Waterboer had disputed 
 their authority, the Boers had never abandoned their 
 claim. Accordingly Brand sent his magistrates and police 
 to Pniel and the dry diggings. He failed, it is true, in his 
 attempt to stop a rush at Bultfontein, for the miners refused 
 to regard the Free State commando sent to maintain order 
 otherwise than as a huge joke and invited its members to 
 dismount and have a drink with them. But on the whole 
 he managed to estabhsh some sort of order in a very unruly 
 community : a school, a courthouse and a prison were built, 
 and the Free State magistrate became popular and respected. 
 
 But the Colonial Secretary in the Cape Executive had 
 from the outset made up his mind that the Diamond Fields 
 must be brought within the British dominions. Robert ' 
 Southey was a remarkable man. When quite young he 
 had come out with the hardy settlers of 1820 and by this 
 tim^ had become the most efficient and powerful Minister in 
 the Government of Cape Colony. Some of his ideas were 
 
22 CECIL RHODES 
 
 not unlike those with which Rhodes after him was inspired. 
 Apart from any question of financial advantage to the 
 Cape, he was convinced that a bankrupt state Uke the 
 Transvaal or a small pastoral community such as the Free 
 State were quite incapable of governing the turbulent 
 crowd on the Diamond Fields ; he also had taken a longer 
 view in being the first, perhaps, of his generation to realize 
 the importance of securing the territory north of the Orange 
 River and west of the two republics as a corridor for Great 
 Britain into the interior of Africa. If Griqualand West 
 were given over to the Free State and the rest of 
 Waterboer's territory with the Batlapin and Barolong lands 
 in Bechuanaland to the Transvaal, he saw that this " Suez 
 Canal into the interior," as Rhodes described it later, might 
 be closed for ever to English enterprise. 
 
 To carry out his designs Southey got into communication 
 with Waterboer, or rather with his agent, David Amot. 
 Both Waterboer, the head of the Griqua tribe, and the 
 chieftains of the Barolongs and Batlapins, reahzing that 
 they could not hope to carry on unaided intricate boundary 
 disputes with the Boers, had appointed agents to conduct 
 their case. Amot and the successive agents for the Bat- 
 lapins and Barolongs, Theodor Doms and the Rev. Joseph 
 Ludorf , were troubled with few scruples and were suspected 
 with some reason of turning to good account their authority 
 to make grants of land for their principals. Amot at any 
 rate was also an extremely able man of business and proved 
 more than a match for his Boer opponents. At Southey's 
 instigation he persuaded the chieftain to ask that his 
 territory should be incorporated in the British dominions, 
 thus making the British Government responsible for his 
 claims. Lord Kimberley's assent to the incorporation was 
 obtained, subject to proof of Waterboer*s case and on 
 condition the Cape agreed to annex the territory. A 
 magistrate from the Cape was sent to take over the 
 administration of justice at the river diggings ; and the 
 new High Commissioner, Sir Henry Barkly, at an interview 
 with President Pretorius at KMpdrift, then re-named 
 Barkly West, persuaded him to submit all the frontier 
 disputes with Waterboer and the Bechuana chieftains to 
 
THE OPENING OF THE DIAMOND FIELDS 23 
 
 arbitration. The Transvaal Government, unlike Amot and 
 Ludorf for the natives, presented its case very badly, and 
 when Governor Keate of Natal, with whom the decision 
 rested, made his award in October 1871, it entirely set 
 aside the Transvaal claims. Thus the river diggings were 
 adjudged to Waterboer, or in other words the British 
 Government, and the Batlapin and Barolong pasture lands 
 declared outside the Transvaal boundaries. Pretorius and 
 his advisers had themselves largely to blame for this decision 
 and were forced to resign office, but none the less the Keate 
 award long rankled with the Transvaal Boers as a fresh 
 grievance against the British, and more than ten years later 
 Rhodes foimd them still attempting to evade it. 
 
 Keate's decision against the Transvaal was well founded 
 on the evidence available, but there is no such justification 
 for Barkly's and Southey's high-handed proceedings in 
 regard to the Free State claims to the rest of Waterboer's 
 territory. Four days after the Keate award the High 
 Commissioner proclaimed the whole of Griqualand West 
 to be part of the British dominions, and sent up British 
 magistrates and officials to take over the administration of 
 the dry diggings : this in spite of the fact that Lord 
 Kimberley's condition of annexation to the Cape could not 
 be fulfilled ; for the feeling against Southey and the 
 Government among the Dutch colonists was so bitter 
 that they did not venture even to introduce a bill for that 
 purpose. There is no doubt that, had diamonds never 
 been discovered, Waterboer would have been left to his 
 fate with the Free State, and the poUcy of the British 
 Government not to advance beyond the Orange River, 
 laid down in 1854 and since reiterated, would have been 
 observed. The only excuse for the British Government 
 and Southey is that Enghsh authority was more likely 
 to ensure respect among the 40,000-50,000 turbulent 
 emigrants, chiefly of English race, in the new Crown colony 
 than that of the petty republic. 
 
 Brand was indeed given the offer of arbitration on his 
 claims to Waterboer's territory, but not on terms that he 
 could accept. Recognizing, however, that resistance was 
 hopeless he withdrew his magistrates and calmed the 
 
24 CECIL RHODES 
 
 hot-heads among his burghers who were eager for a fight. 
 But he never ceased protesting and appeaUng to the British 
 sense of justice, while Southey was employed in drawing 
 up the best answer he could to his detailed statements of 
 claim. Finally, in 1876, Lord Carnarvon, the Conservative 
 Secretary of State, who for reasons of his own wished to 
 allay ill-feeling in South Africa, tacitly admitted the wrong 
 done by pa3dng over £90,000 to the Free State as a solatium 
 for the loss of Griqualand West. Southey had won in his 
 duels with the Transvaal and the Free State ; for he had 
 secured the Diamond Fields and taken the first step in the 
 road to the north. But it was at a heavy cost. Not only 
 were the two republics given a grievance, which the Trans- 
 vaal at any rate never forgot, but the Dutch in Cape Colony 
 were once more estranged from us and their English fellow- 
 colonists and drawn closer to their brothers in the republics. 
 Carnarvon within the next few years came up against this 
 stubborn opposition in attempting to carry through his 
 scheme for a confederation of South Africa ; and after him 
 Rhodes found the same obstacle, rendered more formidable 
 by fresh blunders of Downing Street, in his endeavours to 
 proceed along Southey's line into the interior. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE YOUNG DIGGER 
 
 In October 1871 Rhodes left his Natal farm, never to 
 return. His luggage comprised a few digger's tools, some 
 volumes of the classics and a Greek lexicon ; heaping these 
 into a Scotch cart drawn by oxen he started on his 400- 
 mile journey to the Diamond Fields. In those days this 
 journey was at best a long and tiresome business ; J. W. 
 Matthews, traveUing about the same time as Rhodes, took 
 seven days and nights in Walsh's post cart ; another 
 prospector, who enjoyed the comparative ease and leisure 
 of a conveyance drawn by six mules and two horses, took 
 eleven days ; Rhodes in his ox-cart must have taken over 
 a month. In that month he had plenty of time for 
 solitary meditation, an occupation which never came amiss 
 to him, while his oxen crawled through a country of 
 singular beauty and grandeur. From Pietermaritzburg the 
 road climbs steadily past the Mooi River to Blaauwkrantz 
 and Colenso ; it crosses Natal's chief river, the Tugela, 
 and thence steeply rises to Van Reenen's Pass over the 
 Drakensberg range. From this point Rhodes could see 
 the great Basuto mountains on his left and in front the 
 broad plains of the Free State stretching into the distance. 
 Across these he journeyed slowly through the Boer villages 
 of Harrismith, Bethlehem, and Winburg to Bloemfontein, 
 the capital, meeting few creatures by the way except the 
 great herds of buck that still abounded in the country. 
 
 Here he had his first experience of the high veld, the 
 real South Africa. The part of Natal where he had hitherto 
 lived, with its deep valleys, its rushing rivers, its steamy 
 heat and its luxuriant, semi-tropical vegetation, is charac- 
 
 25 
 
26 CECIL RHODES 
 
 teristic of a mere fringe of South Africa. It has a beauty 
 and a charm of its own, but it is not a soul-expanding 
 country. Perhaps for that reason the men of Natal with 
 all their industry and perseverance, their courage and 
 their local patriotism, have remained somewhat parochial 
 and have never as a community had the same wide outlook 
 on South African affairs as men from the other colonies. 
 For the great unconfined spaces of the world one must 
 go to Cape Colony, the Free State, the Transvaal or 
 Bechuanaland and the country beyond: Here are the vast 
 plains, unending to the view : 
 
 Mile upon mile 
 Of ridge and kopje, bush and candid waste 
 Sun-dried and empty, tacit as the sea ; 
 
 their level uniformity broken only by some clear-cut, flat- 
 topped kopje rising plumb out of the veld, or by some 
 tiny clump of green trees, the sign of water and of a Boer 
 farmer's homestead. There is no monotony in this wide 
 level expanse. The hght of the sim by day is always 
 changing, like the Mght upon the sea ; the whole country 
 is bathed in a glory of hght. At night the stars look down 
 with eyes more shining than in our confined spaces ; or a 
 sudden bush-fire sweeping over the distance with lightning 
 speed and strength Ughts up the darkness with its glowing 
 radiance. And there is no such air as that of the veld, 
 an exhilarating air, an uphfting air that gives a man hope 
 and courage. In these vast plains of the veld that he saw 
 for the first time on his journey to the diggings and on 
 which he spent most of his remaining years, Rhodes must 
 have gained that clear direct gaze characteristic of those 
 who have dwelt long in those sun-washed spaces, 9, gaze 
 that seemed to be straining out to a far distant horizon and 
 never finding the goal of his visions. 
 
 A day's farther ride from Bloemfontein brought Rhodes 
 to Dutoitspan, which he thus describes in a letter written 
 to his mother shortly after his arrival. " Fancy an immense 
 plain with right in its centre a great mass of white tents 
 and iron stores, and on one side of it, all mixed up with 
 the camp, mounds of hme hke ant-hills ; the coimtry 
 
THE YOUNG DIGGER 27 
 
 round is all flat with just thorn trees here and there : and 
 you have some idea of Dutoitspan, the first spot where 
 dry diggings for Diamonds was begun." Here were the 
 principal hotels of the place, all in the Market Square : 
 Benning and Martin's, which floated the Union Jack, 
 Parker's opposite with the Stars and Stripes, and next door 
 a hotel with the Prussian Eagle. Martin, the friendly host 
 of the Union Jack hotel, generally managed to find a bed 
 for the Enghsh new-comer, even if it were only a shake- 
 down on the table, where a noisy party was playing loo till 
 dawn. Staying here, no doubt, on the night of his arrival, 
 Cecil went on next day to Colesberg Kopje or New Rush, 
 where Herbert had already secured three claims " in the 
 richest diamond mine the world ever produced. . . . 
 Imagine," he continues to his mother, " a small round hill 
 at its very highest part only 30 feet above the level of the 
 surrounding country, about 180 yards broad and 220 long ; 
 aU round it a mass of white tents, and then beyond them 
 a flat level country for miles and miles, with here and there 
 a gentle rise. ... I should like you," he says, " to have a 
 peep at the kopje from my tent door at the present moment. 
 It is like an immense number of ant-heaps covered with 
 black ants, as thick as can be, the latter represented by 
 human beings ; when you imderstand there are about 
 600 claims on the kopje and each claim is generally split 
 into 4, and on each bit there are about 6 blacks and 
 whites working, it gives a total of about ten thousand 
 working every day on a piece of ground 180 yards by 220." 
 He then describes how the kopje is divided off into claims. 
 " Take your garden, for instance," he tells his mother, 
 " and peg the whole off into squares or claims 31 ft. by 
 31 ft., and then the question is how to take all the earth 
 out and sort and sieve it. All through the kopje roads 
 have been left to carry the stuff off in carts like the follow- 
 ing [here comes a rough diagram] ; that is of every claim 
 of 31 ft., 7 ft. 6 inches are not allowed to be worked, 
 but is' left for a road . , . the roads are the only ground 
 that remain of the original level. . . . The carting on the 
 kopje is done chiefly by mules, as they are so very hardy, 
 and have so few diseases. There are constantly mules. 
 
28 CECIL RHODES 
 
 carts and all going head over heels into the mines below 
 as there are no rails or anything on either side of the roads, 
 nothing but one great broad chasm below. Here and there 
 where the roads have fallen in, bridges have been put, and 
 they are now the safest part of the kopje. ... On each 
 side of every road there is now a continuous chasm from top 
 to bottom of the kopje varying in depth from 30 to 60 ft." 
 
 He then explains the rough system of digging and sifting 
 then used on the Fields, and some of the difficulties to be 
 overcome. " To begin with the ground is first picked, 
 then the lumps mashed up and you put the stuff through 
 a very coarse wire sieving, this lets the fine stuff pass 
 through and keeps all th6 stones, which are thrown on one 
 side ; it is then hoisted out of the claim, and either carried 
 or carted to the sorting table, where it is first put through 
 fine wire sieving, which sieves all the lime dust away ; 
 what remains is put on the sorting table, and then one sorts 
 away with a small scrapper, spreading the stuff out on the 
 table with one scoop and then off with the next. The 
 diamonds are found in all ways ; the big ones generally 
 in the hole by the caffre, or else in the sieving ; and the 
 small ones on the table. . . . They are only found on these 
 kopjes, and along the river, where they very hkely have 
 been carried by water. There are reefs all round these 
 diamond mines, inside which the diamonds are found. 
 The reef is the usual soil of the country round, red sand 
 just at the top and then a black and white stony shale 
 below. Inside the reef is the diamondiferous soil. It works 
 just hke Stilton cheese, and is as hke the composition of 
 Stilton cheese as anything I can compare it to. . . . They 
 have been able to find no bottom yet, and keep on finding 
 steadily at 70 ft. You will understand how enormously 
 rich it is, when I say that a good claim would certainly 
 average a diamond to every load of stuff that was sorted— 
 a load being about 50 buckets. . . . The question now of 
 course is, how are the roads to be worked ? Every claim- 
 holder has an interest in them, as a portion of every man's 
 claim is the road, and one has no idea of leaving ground, 
 every load of which stands a fair chance of holding a 
 diamond. . . . Some day I expect to see the kopje one 
 
THE YOUNG DIGGER 29 
 
 big basin where once there was a large hill." In this 
 prediction Rhodes showed himself a true prophet ; for in 
 the place of Colesberg Kopje now stands a huge crater, 
 from the edge of which men working at the bottom look no 
 bigger than ants. 
 
 He concludes the letter with a business-hke statement of 
 his own and his brother's prospects. " Have you ever 
 read those tales," he asks his mother, " where they find some 
 wonderfully big diamonds ? Well ! on this kopje I should 
 think nearly every day they find a diamond over 50 carats. 
 The only misfortune is, that they almost all have a slightly 
 yeUow tinge, and are getting quite unsaleable. Diamond 
 buyers now give only £/[ per carat for yellow stones of any 
 size or shape, that is a 70 carat would not fetch more than 
 ^280. I foimd a 17! carat on Saturday, it was very slightly 
 off, and I hope to get ;fioo for it ; does it not seem an absurd 
 price ? Yesterday I found a 3I perfect stone, but glassy, 
 which I sold for ;f30 as they are rather dangerous stones 
 to keep, having a nasty habit of suddenly sphtting all over. 
 . . . You must not however think that every diamond 
 one finds is a beauty, the great proportion are nothing but 
 splints — ^but still even of these you Very seldom find one 
 that is not worth 5s. Rough diamonds are of all shapes, 
 sizes and colour under the sun, some are flat, some round, 
 some like two pyramids with their bases joined, some have 
 black spots in the centre, others are yellow, and in fact they 
 take every form you can think of . ... I find on an average 
 30 carats a week and am working one of the few whole 
 claims in the kopje : a claim in fact that will take me 4 
 years to work out at the present rate. Diamonds have 
 only to continue a fair price and I think Herbert's fortune 
 is made. When I teU you at the present moment he owns 
 in all 3 whole claims on this kopje : the one I am working, 
 I whole claim, Beecher's i quarter, Chadwick a half, another 
 whole claim at the top of the kopje and another J I bought. 
 Mine and Beecher's however jdeld far the most. I average 
 about ;fioo per week. — Yrs., C. Rhodes." 
 
 Rhodes was once more left to his own resources when he 
 wrote this letter home, for soon after he arrived at the Fields 
 Herbert had gone back to Natal to see to the last cotton 
 
30 CECIL RHODES 
 
 crop, leaving his brother to look after the claims by himself. 
 Within the last year and a half he had had pretty severe 
 training in self-reliance. At seventeen he arrives in Natal 
 friendless and alone, at eighteen he takes sole charge of 
 a farm of 250 acres and a gang of native labourers, and 
 now at eighteen and a half he has claims valued at £5000 
 to look after, more raw natives to keep in order and to 
 hold his own in a rough undisciplined crowd, consisting, as 
 Froude saw it two years later, of " diggers from America 
 and Australia, German speculators, Fenian head-centres, 
 traders, saloon keepers, professional gamblers, barristers, 
 ex-ofl&cers of the Army and Navy, yoimger sons of good 
 family who have not taken to a profession or have been 
 obUged to leave ; a marvellous motley assemblage, among 
 whom money flows like water from the amazing productive- 
 ness of the mine ; and in the midst of them a hundred or 
 so keen-eyed Jewish merchants, who have gathered like 
 eagles over their prey, and a few thousand natives who have 
 come to work for wages, to steal diamonds and to lay their 
 earnings out in rifles and powder." In such a crowd a 
 man had to depend on his own resources if he was to keep 
 his head above water. And he shows signs of the severe 
 training. This letter, abrupt and to the point without a 
 word in it of family gossip or home allusions, is a precocious 
 production for such a youth, and, when Frank, following 
 Cecil's advice, comes out a few months later, " Nobody," 
 he says, " believes I am older than Cecil " ; in fact, one 
 who knew the brothers well out there speaks categorically 
 of Cecil as the elder. Within a few months of his arrival 
 Mr. Merriman, another of his Kimberley friends) speaking 
 to Frank, " praises Cecil up to the skies. He says he is 
 such an excellent man of business " ; Frank continues in 
 his letter home, " that he has managed aU the business in 
 Herbert's absence wonderfully well and that they were all 
 so very fond of him. ... He says most young fellows when 
 they get up there and do well get so very bumptious, but 
 that Cecil was just the contrary. Cecil seems to have done 
 wonderfully well as regards the diamonds. ... I have not 
 repeated half the nice things he said about Cecil." 
 
 Frank went from Cape Town to join Herbert at the 
 
THE YOUNG DIGGER 31 
 
 Natal cotton plantation, and then both came over to join 
 Cecil at Kimberley. " We found Cecil," writes Frank, 
 " down in the claim, measuring his ground with his lawyer 
 and in a tremendous rage with another man in the next 
 claim to him, who has encroached on his ground. ... I know 
 the Father will be horrified at the idea of Cecil going to law." 
 Here the three brothers, with a hideous tailless cur picked 
 up by Cecil, lived in a tent, 16 by 18 feet, stretched over a 
 rough skeleton framework and shared a mess with four or 
 five other young fellows. Housekeeping must have taxed 
 Cecil's powers of organization to the full, for most necessaries 
 and all luxuries were hard to come by. Beef and mutton 
 at 6d. a lb. and meal at 7s. to los. a bushel, the produce of 
 the few Boer farmers of the district, were cheap enough : 
 but water cost 3d. a bucket, firewood, brought from long 
 distances, £3 to £4 a load, and vegetables were almost as 
 valuable as small diamonds. Ever57thing else had to be 
 brought up 400 miles from Port Elizabeth or 700 from Cape 
 Town by ox-transport, so that the prices for building 
 material, mining gear, clothes, blankets, groceries, liquor 
 and any kind of luxury were correspondingly enormous. 
 But the men who had come for a fife of adventure and free- 
 dom to the diggings cared httle about discomfort, Cecil 
 least of all. From the motley crowd gathered from the 
 ends of the earth the brothers picked out for their mess 
 and their special friends some of the best of the yoimg 
 men. Among these were C. D. Rudd of Harrow and 
 Trinity, Cambridge, George Paton, Becher, and Dr. Thome, 
 who all made their mark in business ; Seppings Wright, 
 the Graphic artist, was one of them ; Scully, then a lad of 
 sixteen and later notable for his gift of interpreting the 
 fascination of South African life and scenery, another ; 
 Norman Garstin, who soon abandoned the Fields for the 
 studios of Paris and finally settled down as an artist at 
 Newlyn, always retained a Uvely memory of his early 
 friendship here with Rhodes. Above all, there was John 
 X. Merriman, son of the Dean of Grahamstown, keen and 
 hot-headed like his father, who was a very firebrand in 
 ecclesiastical circles. We have seen what he thought of 
 Cecil Rhodes, who in his turn wrote home of Merriman 
 
33 CECIL RHODES 
 
 as " a pleasant young fellow." These two used to go out 
 riding together, Rhodes on his rusty black pony. Bander- 
 snatch, discussing the affairs of the Fields and of South 
 Africa, the classics and universal history. Mr. Merriman 
 still recalls his companion's remarkable interest in politics 
 and the compact they both made to take a part in pubHc 
 affairs, the only intellectual pursuit, so they agreed, open 
 to a colonist. Rhodes on his side must have gained greatly 
 in general knowledge and in breadth of outlook from his 
 association with the best read man and the best talker in 
 South Africa. 
 
 For the time being, however, Rhodes, busied with his 
 claims, took no very active part in the pohtics of Griqualand 
 West, as the new Crown Colony was called. Sir Robert 
 Southey had, appropriately enough, been sent up as the 
 first Lieutenant-Governor, with J. B. Currey as Government 
 Secretary. Politics there were apt to be volcanic in those 
 early days, for the turbulent diggers had many real or 
 fancied grievances, which they were inclined to redress 
 by rioting and rough attempts at mob justice ; ^ and at 
 one time the mihtary had to be called in to quell them. 
 Southey's ideas of northern expansion, however, must have 
 found a ready S57mpathiser in the young digger, who also 
 formed a lasting friendship with Currey and his family. 
 It is even recorded that Rhodes and Merriman between 
 them concocted for Southey's benefit a draft of the anti- 
 gambling law, which was enacted in 1873 ; but that is his 
 only excursus into pohtics before 1880. 
 
 His strenuous hf e as a digger did not prevent his having 
 his jokes at times. Scully describes a party of Rhodes and 
 four others returning late one night from a mild spree at 
 Dutoitspan and sending him as the smallest of the party 
 on to the roof of the httle tin church to ring the bell, much 
 to the alarm of the diggers, who all came rushing out of 
 their tents to see what was up. There is also a pleasant 
 jf 
 
 1 Diamond thieves and illicit diamond buyers (I.D.B.) were the 
 chief causes of grievance. But the mob sometimes showed some sense 
 of fairness. The house of a butcher suspected of diamond thefts was 
 burned to the ground, but when the mob discovered that he was innocent 
 the hat was sent round and ample means collected to restore the butcher's 
 property. 
 
THE YOUNG DIGGER 33 
 
 picture by Scully of himself and Rhodes sitting down on 
 the ground with a meal-bag as card-table between them to 
 decide in three rounds of euchre whether Rhodes should 
 pay £25 or ^^30 for Scully's wagon, brought back in parlous 
 condition after the eight months' trek to the Transvaal. 
 The luck was against Rhodes, who paid up cheerfully. 
 He even danced on occasion, though he generally was 
 content to choose the ugUest partners in the room, asserting 
 that he enjoyed it chiefly for the exercise : his more 
 susceptible brother Frank found it " quite a mistake to 
 suppose that there are no nice girls out here." But Cecil 
 had no more eye for a pretty face at Kimberley than he had 
 in Lincolnshire : " I do not beheve," says one contemporary, 
 " if a flock of the most adorable women passed through the 
 street, he would go across the road to see them." But what 
 struck aU his contemporaries at this time was his faculty of 
 silent concentration on his own thoughts. There is a vision 
 of him " silent and self-contained, dressed in white flannels 
 and leaning moodily with hands in his pockets against a 
 street wall. He hardly ever had a companion and seem- 
 ingly took no interest but in his own thoughts." On the 
 sorting ground he is described as a tall, fair boy with a 
 ruddy complexion and aquiMne features, " wearing flannels 
 of the school pla3dng field, somewhat shrunken with 
 strenuous rather than effectual washings that still left the 
 colour of red dust ... his tall figure crumpled up on an 
 inverted bucket, as he sat scraping his gravel surrounded 
 by his dusky Zulus," ..." moody and deaf to the chatter 
 around him, his blue eyes fixed intently on his work or on 
 some fabric of his brain " ; and one of his mess-mates 
 used to chaff him on his absent-mindedness after dinner, 
 when he would lean forward on both elbows, his mouth 
 slightly open, rubbing his chin with his forefinger — yet not 
 so entirely abstracted but that he would suddenly wake up 
 and join in the talk. For with all his absent-mindedness he 
 had a shrewd idea of what was going on about him. The 
 letter to his mother already quoted shows a precocious 
 power of observation and that uncanny capacity for business 
 which stands out so clearly as the main element of his 
 success in after life. Nobody who presumed on his casual 
 
34 CECIL RHODES 
 
 manner remained in error long, or failed to discover in this 
 dreamer a practical acumen most dangerous to anybody 
 who tried to get the advantage of him. As Lord Rosebery 
 said of him, he was that most formidable of all men of 
 action, the practical visionary. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 OXFORD AND KIMBERLEY 
 
 A SERIOUS illness, when he was alone in Kimberley, had 
 warned Rhodes that he must not presume on his delicate 
 constitution. He had found kind friends in the Curreys to 
 nurse him back to health ; but he was still weak when the 
 brothers arrived. To complete his recovery he went off 
 with Herbert some time in 1872 for a long trek into the 
 Transvaal, Frank being left to look after the claims. 
 Herbert, an unquiet, roving spirit, had heard of gold 
 discoveries in the Transvaal and wanted to investigate 
 the new diggings. Borrowing young Scully's wagon, the 
 two brothers travelled along the missionaries' road into 
 Bechuanaland as far as Mafeking, then turning eastwards 
 into the South African RepubUc past Pretoria to Mara- 
 bastad in the Low Country and eastwards to the Murchison 
 Range, both districts where gold had been found. Thence 
 by slow stages they turned back, striking the high veld 
 again at Middleburg, and reached Kimberley after several 
 months' absence. During that long trek the great love he 
 bore to the country, the people and even the animals of 
 South Africa became rooted in his being. It is a love 
 that breathes in every speech of his and often gives him 
 quaint and apposite illustrations of his meaning. Talking, 
 for example, many years later, of his own isolation, he 
 found an analogy to his case in the hfe he had observed 
 on the veld. " It has been my lot in hfe," he said, " to 
 travel through many regions of this country, and it has 
 been my fortune to see a soUtary springbok separated from 
 the herd. I have often pitied his feelings and wondered 
 how he works out the day ; but I have a sort of idea that 
 
 35 
 
36 CECIL RHODES 
 
 the time comes when he returns to his old associates, and 
 perhaps the temporary dissocia?ft»'wiU 1^ve strengthened 
 the original ties." He bought a farm of 3000 acres, when 
 he was up in the Transvaal, but it proved, so he told his 
 friend Dr. Sutherland, a mere sink for money and of no 
 
 ' earthly good ; however, his experience gave him the right 
 to boast to the South Africa Committee of 1897 that he had 
 known the Transvaal for twenty-five years, and he never 
 forgot the hospitaUty and other sterling qualities that he 
 found among his Boer fellow-beings. 
 
 What he saw of the country he passed through and of 
 its problems and his long meditations during this almost 
 solitary trek made a lasting impression on him and turned 
 his thoughts definitely to schemes of greater moment than 
 diamond digging. For the immediate present the trek 
 seems to have confirmed him in his cherished design of 
 going to Oxford, " to help himself in his career," a career 
 which he always intended to be something more than that 
 of amassing money. Not that he objected to money : on 
 that he was quite frank. He desired it partly to pay for 
 Oxford and for other ambitions, but also because he Hked 
 and was amused by the game of winning it. But before 
 leaving Kimberley he had to settle his affairs. Herbert, 
 tired of diamond raining, sold his claims in De Beers New 
 Rush and disappeared into the wilds and out of Cecil's 
 life.^ Rhodes then went into partnership with C. D. Rudd, 
 who was to stay out to look after their properties : at this 
 
 ; time, probably, he deserted the New Rush and began to 
 buy up claims in Old De Beers, which he used to speak of 
 as " a nice little mine," and which soon became the main- 
 stay of his fortunes. 
 
 ^ In 1875 Herbert is heard of as a gold miner at Pilgrim's Rest in the 
 Transvaal and he became a representative for that place in the Volksraad. 
 He is heard of in prison at Lourenjo Marques for an unsuccessful attempt 
 at smuggling through Portuguese territory an old cannon destined for 
 Sekukuni, a rebel chief in the Transvaal, and lastly in Nyassaland, where 
 he was burnt to death in his hut in 1879. Cecil took great pains to have 
 a gravestone erected to his memory and carefully preserved ; and among 
 his papers are several photographs of it sent to him a year before his 
 own death. 
 
OXFORD AND KIMBERLEY 37 
 
 I 
 
 Cecil and Frank returned to England together in 1873, 
 Frank to take up his commission in the cavalry and Cecil 
 to matriculate at Oxford in the Michaelmas term. He tried 
 to get into University College, where his old friend Robert 
 Yerburgh was ; but that foundation, having already sent 
 down Shelley for distributing revolutionary pamphlets, 
 now with better excuse refused to take this other more 
 Philistine dreamer, because he failed to ..qualify in Latin 
 prose. So Rhodes went to Oriel as a passman. He never 
 had rooms in college but lived in lodgings with Yerburgh 
 and other friends, mostly Christchurch or University 
 undergraduates, in King Edward Street or The High. In 
 fact he seems to have gone very Mttle into Oriel ; and it is 
 known what he thought of the quality of its dinners. 
 
 Certainly few undergraduates had so chequered and 
 broken a sojourn at Oxford as Cecil Rhodes, and no man 
 with less determination would, in face of all his difficulties, 
 have carried out his purpose of obtaining his degree. Almost 
 at the outset not only his Oxford career but even his Hfe 
 seemed in jeopardy. He had not yet thrown off his youthful 
 delicacy and found the dampness of Oxford very trjdng to 
 his lungs : in his second term he caught a chill rowing, 
 which so affected his constitution that his doctor gave him 
 only six months to live, even if he went back at once to the 
 clear invigorating air of South Africa.^ Two years, however, 
 of the climate of Kimberley, more treks and the care of his 
 friends the Curreys set him up again and he was back at 
 Oxford for the Easter term of 1876. For the next two 
 years he kept every term and found time for a visit to 
 Kimberley during a long vacation, but he did not keep his 
 last term or take his degree till 1881, when he )vas twenty- 
 eight, had earned a large fortune for himself and was a rising 
 member of the Cape ParUament. 
 
 Although he had become a rich man when he took his 
 degree, as a freshman and even later he was sometimes 
 embarrassed for money. Writing to Rudd in his first term 
 
 1 Rhodes himself at a later date saw the entry " only six months to 
 live " in the doctor's case-book. 
 
38 CECIL RHODES 
 
 he says : "I wake up fancying myself meeting various 
 little bits of paper ranging over four or five months with 
 my blessed signature at the bottom," and he admits having 
 been obliged to borrow money on credit from Rudd's 
 brother : " It is very unpleasant being imder an obUgatiori 
 to any one . . . but I had not a sixpence and do not like 
 to bother my father. People in England are so blastedly 
 suspicious : they also charge 4 % for drafts." Two years 
 later a pas^nent of £50 leaves him so straitened that 
 he determines to economize by reading at home in the 
 Long Vacation. But such money difficulties were purely 
 temporary ; the claims of his Kimberley business were a 
 more permanent and distralcting call on his attention at 
 Oxford. For, besides the fls^ng visit to Kimberley on 
 business during one long vacation, even in term time this 
 •singular undergraduate rarely loses sight of his growing 
 interests in South Africa. In his letters to his partner 
 Rudd he discusses the pros and cons of bujdng new claims, 
 and is very strong against abandoning old ones because of 
 bad times, for a rally is bound to come ; he describes his 
 interviews with the secretaries of rival companies or his 
 visits to the diamond merchants of Hatton Garden, and 
 sends his views on the state of foreign poHtics and their 
 influence on the diamond market. He discusses ice 
 machines and pumping engines, required for contracts 
 imdertaken by the partners, and asks Rudd to note his 
 < precise instructions to the makers about special winding 
 drums and clutch gears to suit the conditions at Kimberley. 
 He is also lavish in his instructions to his partner to 
 " accumulate the ready " even more industriously than 
 pumping engines. One letter, for instance, has an interest- 
 ing apologia for his decision to eat dinners at the Temple 
 while he is completing his terms at Oxford : " on a cahn 
 review of the preceding year," he writes, " I find that ^£3000 
 had been lost, because, owing to my having no profession, 
 I lacked pluck on three occasions, through fearing that one 
 might lose ; and I had nothing to fall back on in the shape 
 of a profession. ... I am sHghtly too cautious now " : 
 besides the profession for himself, as a second string to their 
 bow, he proposes a " nest-egg " in the form of a " marvel- 
 
OXFORD AND KIMBERLEY 39 
 
 iously solvent property " at Hampstead, which he has 
 bought for ;^620o and in which he offers to go halves with 
 Rudd ; " it is prettily situated and from all accounts is 
 hkely to increase in value . . . owing to a railway about three 
 minutes which discharges in the centre of the city." With 
 this nest-egg in reserve they would feel much safer as all 
 Diamond Field securities are necessarily very risky.^ " By 
 all means," he concludes, " try and spare me for two years : 
 you wiU find I shall be twice as good a speculator with a 
 profession at my back. I will be reading hard all the 
 summer." 
 
 In spite of this distracting background of business and 
 speculation Rhodes took his Mfe at the imiversity more 
 seriously than most passmen. It is true he read in his 
 own way and rarely attended lectures : " Now, Mr. Butler," 
 he said to his Dean, " you let me alone and I shall pull 
 through somehow " ; and he was quite right, for though 
 his reading was spasmodic he took real interest in books 
 he thought useful and made them part of his own life. 
 He had his own ideas, too, of college discipline. " My 
 dons and I have had some tremendous skirmishes," he wrote 
 to Rudd, " I was nearly caught going to Epsom, but still 
 do not think I shall be sent down. The change [from Kim- 
 berley] was at first rather odd." He also belonged to clubs 
 more celebrated for good fellowship than for study, such as 
 the BuUingdon, Vincent's and the Freemasons. At the 
 banquet following his initiation as a Mason he created some 
 scandal by his levity in revealing the secrets of the craft in 
 spite of the president's reproofs and attempts by his friends 
 to puU him down by the coat tails. For a time, too, he 
 was master of the drag. His friends were most of them 
 quiet men who kept to themselves, and many of whom 
 afterwards took a more or less prominent part in pohtics 
 or business. Robert Yerburgh was one of the leaders of 
 the set, others were Dunbar Barton, afterwards a judge in 
 Ireland ; Maguire, who became a Fellow of All Souls and is 
 now a director of the Chartered Company, and Sir Charles 
 
 ^ Rudd does not seem to have availed himself of Rhodes's offer, and 
 Rhodes was obliged to realize and be Content with ;£8oo profit on his 
 Hampstead speculation. 
 
40 CECIL RHODES 
 
 Metcalfe. Among less intimate acquaintances were Bodley, 
 the historian of modern France, the present Lords 
 Desborough and Downham, Arnold Forster, Tennyson 
 d'Eyncourt, and G. W. E. Russell. Rhodes is noted in 
 this set as one who was always talking, and some rather 
 objected to the low views of human nature he at times 
 expressed, derived no doubt from Kimberley acquaintances. 
 He had rather a naive habit, too, of bringing up some well- 
 known phrase he had just read in Plato or Aristotle and 
 insisting that aU present should discuss it from his own 
 and every other point of view. This habit of starting a 
 debate, even with the most uns5anpathetic audience, on 
 a subject or phrase, which happened to seize his attention 
 for the moment, persisted throughout his life : it often 
 wearied those who could not see his drift, but he found it 
 most useful in clearing his own mind and making certain 
 that he had grasped an idea in all its bearings before he 
 acted upon it. He was indeed somewhat apart even from 
 men in his own set. He was older than most of them, 
 had not been to one of the regular pubhc schools as they 
 generally had, possessed far more acquaintance with life 
 than any of them ; and had queer unconventional ways. He 
 would suddenly bring out a pocketful of diamonds to induce 
 a man to join him in Kimberley, and he had a disconcerting 
 way of impressing his creed of hard work on people. 
 " Shouldn't do that," he said to a friend who expressed a 
 desire to make his hving by writing, " it is not a man's 
 work — ^mere loafing. Every man should have active work 
 in life." 
 
 But though he was so different from most of his under- 
 graduate contemporaries, the Oxford spirit, so hard to 
 define and yet so easy to recognize, sank into his nature. 
 Aristotle's Ethics, the groundwork and the special glory 
 of the Oxford system, with its virile appeal to young men 
 to exercise their best faculties to the full, in order to attain 
 a hfe of happiness and virtue, became to him a lasting 
 source of inspiration : Gibbon, too, most characteristic, if 
 most ungrateful, of Oxford's sons, gave him a basis for his 
 political creed, that Rome's burden of governing the world 
 had now fallen on England's shoulders. There, too, during 
 
OXFORD AND KIMBERLEY 41 
 
 Rhodes's years at Oxford, was John Ruskin, preaching a 
 new gospel of beauty and of public service to an age wearied 
 of ugliness and commercial self-interest ; the whole uni- 
 versity thronged to his lectures ; at his bidding dons and 
 undergraduates went out daily to Hinksey and .took off 
 their coats to labour at Ruskin's road and learn the meaning 
 of hard, unselfish toil ; in language rarely surpassed for 
 eloquence and burning conviction he was setting before 
 them their duty as citizens of no mean city. " There is 
 a destiny now possible to us," so spake the prophet in words 
 yet ringing in the ears of young Oxford, when Rhodes 
 came up, " the highest ever set before a nation to be 
 accepted or refused. We are still undegenerate in race ; 
 a race mingled of the best northern blood. We are not 
 yet dissolute in temper, but still have the firmness to 
 govern and the grace to obey. . . . Will you youths of 
 England make your country again a royal throne of kings ; 
 a sceptred isle, for all the world a source of hght, a centre 
 of peace ; mistress of learning and of the Arts, faithful 
 guardian of time-tried principles, under temptation from 
 fond experiments and licentious desires ; and amidst the 
 cruel and clamorous jealousies of the nations, worshipped 
 in her strange valour, of goodwill towards men ? . . . This 
 is what England must either do, or perish : she must found 
 colonies as fast and as far as she is able, formed of her most 
 energetic and worthiest men ; seizing every piece of fruitful 
 waste ground she can set her foot on, and there teaching 
 these her colonists that their chief virtue is to be fidehty 
 to their country, and that their first aim is to be to advance 
 the power of England by land and sea : and that, though 
 they live on a distant plot of ground, they are no more 
 to consider themselves therefore disfranchised from their 
 native land than the sailors of her fleets do, because they 
 float on distant seas. ... If we can get men, for little 
 pay, to cast themselves against cannon-mouths for love 
 of England, we may find men also who will plough and 
 sow for her, who will behave kindly and righteously for 
 her, and who will bring up their children to love her, and 
 who will gladden themselves in the brightness of her glory, 
 more than in all the light of tropical skies. . . . You think 
 
42 CECIL RHODES 
 
 that an impossible ideal. Be it so ; refuse to accept it, 
 if you will ; but see that you form your own in its stead. 
 All that I ask of you is to have a fixed purpose of some 
 kind for your country and for yourselves, no matter how 
 restricted, so that it be fixed and unselfish." 
 
 It is for words such as these that Rhodes ever after- 
 wards held the Inaugural Lecture as one of his greatest 
 possessions. Among his papers there is a rough jotting 
 in his handwriting : " You have many instincts, religion, 
 love, money-making, ambition, art and creation, which 
 from a human point of view I think the best, but if you 
 differ from me, think it over and work with aU your soul 
 for that instinct you deem the best. C. J. Rhodes " — a 
 jotting clearly suggested by these words of Ruskin. They 
 were words that gave form and direction to the vague 
 and troubled thoughts which, in the wide expanses of 
 South Africa, had already been simmering in his brain. 
 
 But to Rhodes, as to most university men, teachers 
 however inspired and lectures however sublime were not 
 the most valuable part of Oxford life. The freedom and 
 unconventionality of the undergraduate, untrammelled as 
 he is by pompous precedents, yet insensibly moulded by 
 a tradition of fastidious scholarship and exact research of 
 truth, the interminable discussions wherein generation after 
 generation of Oxford men renew the investigation of common 
 beliefs in poUtics, rehgion and morals, and constantly bring 
 currents of fresh air into the nation's creeds — aU this 
 delighted and impressed him. At Oxford he lost something 
 of the hardness and cynicism which some of his friends 
 there had deplored ; and he never lost his sense of what he 
 owed to those years. On his return to South Africa he 
 showed a touching beUef in the power of Oxford to give 
 others what he owed her himself. " Bishop," he once 
 said to his friend Dr. Alexander, " have you ever thought 
 how it is that Oxford men figure so largely in all depart- 
 ments of pubhc hfe ? The Oxford system in its most 
 finished form looks very unpractical, yet, wherever you 
 turn your eye — except in science — an Oxford man is at 
 the top of the tree." So, whenever he wanted a young 
 man to carry on his work, he was always on the look 
 
OXFORD AND KIMBERLEY 43 
 
 out for one from his old university ; he always gave a 
 specially warm welcome to young Oxford men on a visit 
 to South Africa ; and it is related that in the last year of 
 his life, when he was sad, suffering and desolate, his whole 
 face lighted up when a chance visitor began quoting to 
 him the first Hnes of Matthew Arnold's tribute to the 
 " Beautiful city, so venerable, so lovely. . . ." " Go on," 
 he said, " quote the whole passage," and as he Ustened 
 he seemed to forget his pain. Finally, he could think of 
 no better gift to the Empire he loved than to bring its 
 young men to Oxford to draw from her the inspiration 
 which had helped him so powerfully in his own career. 
 
 II 
 
 The ship carr5dng Rhodes home to England in 1873 \ 
 crossed in mid-Atlantic an outgoing ship that had among 
 its steerage passengers one Bamett Isaacs, the grandson of 
 a rabbi and son of a httle shopkeeper tti Whitechapel. 
 He was eighteen years old, and his sole capital consisted of 
 sixty boxes of cigars, the result of many years' savings, 
 but he had been so attracted by glowing reports from his 
 brother Harry of the opportunities for profitable specula- 
 tion to be found on the Fields that he had determined 
 to try his luck there. Making his way up to Kimberley, 
 he sold his cigars at an enormous profit and then turned 
 his talents to the business known as that of a kopje- 
 waUoper. This was to go roimd the sorting-tables and 
 buy up the diamonds as they were turned out of the gravel 
 for prices which would ensure a large profit on their resale. 
 He changed his name to the more arresting nom de guerre 
 of Barney Bamato, hired a shanty as an office for a guinea 
 a day — " worth it," he explained, " if you can make 30s. 
 a day" — and as stock-in-trade bought up an old lame 
 yellow pony from a retiring kopje- walloper ; for he h^d 
 observed this pony stopping of its own accord at the best 
 sorting-tables and dealers' shanties and calculated that 
 he would thereby obtain his business connection. Barney 
 Barnato prospered in all his deahngs, and in 1876, the year '- 
 Rhodes returned to Oxford, found his capital increased to 
 
44 CECIL RHODES 
 
 £3000, which he expended on the purchase of the four best 
 sections in the Kimberley mine. This shrewd purchase 
 enabled him gradually to buy up more claims and sections 
 in this mine, which Rhodes had now deserted for his " nice 
 Httle mine," Old De Beers, and seven years after his steerage 
 passage to South Africa with his five dozen boxes of cigars 
 he was rich enough to found the firm of Bamato Brothers, 
 dealers in diamonds and brokers in mining property. 
 Rhodes had also been buying up claims in other mines, 
 and in the course of the eighties the two men were brought 
 face to face in a rivalry for supremacy on the Diamond 
 Fields. Leave we now Barnato and return to Rhodes, still, 
 even as an Oxford imdergraduate, the Kimberley digger. 
 
 After the first feverish excitement on the discovery of 
 the dry diggings, the diamond industry had passed through 
 a period of serious depression. The causes for this depres- 
 sion were various. The diamond-bearing " yellow ground," 
 though found to a depth of fifty or sixty feet, was worked 
 with such energy that it soon showed signs of giving out. 
 Below it, but still enclosed in the oval-shaped funnel of 
 shale, known as " the reef," was a layer of bluish breccia 
 composite, called the " blue ground," which extended to an 
 unknown depth. The quahties of this blue ground were 
 not much known, but most diggers thought that with the 
 exhaustion of the yellow ground diamonds would cease to 
 be found. Continual disputes with farm owners about 
 licence fees also hampered the industry and were not abated 
 until in 1875 the Crown bought up the farm Voruitzicht, 
 containing both De Beers and the Kimberley mine, through 
 the agency of Mr. Merriman. The roads between each 
 claim were another source of trouble and dispute between 
 the adjoining owners ; and, as they were undermined and 
 fell in, the diificulty of working by a separate system of 
 haulage for each claim created terrible confusion, each mine 
 assuming the appearance of some vast spider's web of 
 chains and ropes, along which buckets were constantly 
 passing from the rim to the interior. Then the encirchng 
 reef began to cause serious difficulty,* for, as the yellow 
 ground supporting it was scooped out, it fell in, burying 
 large tracts of diamond-bearing soil. Water also oozed 
 
OXFORD AND KIMBERLEY 45 
 
 through and flooded the mines. Lastly, with the trade 
 depression of 1875 and the succeeding years the market 
 for diamonds became poor and the prices to be obtained 
 were barely remunerative. In consequence of all these 
 difficulties many diggers gave up the business in despair 
 and sold their claims for anything they would fetch. 
 
 Rhodes, however, was one of those who never despaired, 
 because he was long-sighted enough to see remedies for all 
 these difficulties. Both he and Bamato were convinced 
 that the prosperity of the Fields would not cease with the 
 exhaustion of the " yellow ground " ; without any scientific 
 knowledge to guide them, they believed that the blue 
 ground also contained diamonds, and they were confirmed 
 in their instinct by the Cape mineralogist. With regard 
 to the other difficulties, fall of reef, flooding and the 
 haulage of ground from the mines he had one panacea, 
 economy of working by an amalgamation of interests. 
 Froude, when he visited Kimberley in 1874, had seen the 
 need of this amalgamation of interests to secure the use 
 of the best and cheapest mechanical devices and to regulate 
 the output of diamonds, and Barnato saw it as clearly as 
 Rhodes. It could be effected in two ways : by a combina- 
 tion of claim-holders in a mine to work for objects of common 
 interest, such as pumping out the water or removing blocks 
 of reef ; or by an absorption of all claims in a mine or even 
 of the various mines into as few hands as possible. 
 
 Rhodes took his share in promoting both methods of 
 united action. When the Mining Boards were established, 
 with his partners Rudd and Alderson he tendered in 1874 
 for the contract to pump out the Kimberley, De Beers and 
 Dutoitspan mines. By cutting the price very fine they 
 got the contract over the head of some formidable rivals, 
 and then nearly lost it for want of the pumping machinery. 
 However, by dint of shameless importunity and by paying 
 the exorbitant price of £1000 Rhodes obtained his engine 
 from an imwiUing seller at Victoria West ; he had to pay 
 another £120 to get it transported to Kimberley, and, as 
 he had no more ready money, to persuade the Boer trans- 
 port rider, who had never seen him before, to accept his 
 cheque. He never forgot this old Boer's readiness to trust 
 
46 CECIL RHODES 
 
 him and used to date his increased respect for the Boer 
 race from this circumstance. The pumping contract did 
 not prove all gain : engine and gear were often out of order, 
 and once, when Rhodes was in charge, the boiler burst 
 because he had forgotten to fill it ; penalties incurred and 
 incidental expenses also proved costly. But it was useful 
 for the prominence it gave Rhodes on the Fields and was 
 held by the partners for many years. While at Oxford 
 Rhodes used to buy engines for the pumping at ^^115 to 
 £140, a considerable reduction on the £1000 engine with 
 which it started ; and finally assigned the contract as a 
 stock-in-trade to the first company he and Rudd started. 
 
 But Rhodes's warning to Rudd to accumulate " the 
 ready " even more than pumping engines was dictated by 
 his policy of purchasing all the claims he could lay hand on 
 and thus doing away with the need of cumbersome mining 
 boards. He and Rudd stuck to their Old De Beers mine 
 and rapidly extended their holding in it, either by buying 
 claims outright or by bringing other claim-holders into 
 partnership with them. They acquired the valuable block 
 known as Baxter's Gully and might once have bought the 
 whole mine for a mere song, some £6000 ; but after discuss- 
 ing the offer for a whole day they reluctantly decided 
 that they could not afford the capital as well as the licence 
 fees, no doubt one of the occasions missed by Rhodes for 
 " want of pluck." But he could not often blame himself 
 on this score ; his more usual tendency was to an invincible 
 optimism. " I suppose our affair at De Beers looks bad 
 now," he writes from his father's vicarage in 1876 ^ ; " don't 
 be low-spirited. If ever you were in a good thing that will 
 give you a good income, that will. ... I suppose you, like 
 the rest, are in a happy state of bills, short cash, and 
 prospective insolvency. All I can say is I envy you. I 
 never was so happy as when in bills up to my neck and 
 pump breaking down." And though he did not buy up 
 the mine for ;£6ooo he was gradually working to that end 
 by more expensive methods. By 1880 R. Graham, 
 Dunsmure, Alderson, Stow and EngUsh and other less 
 
 1 Not 1879 as the Diamond Fields Advertiser, where the letter was 
 published at Christmas 1906, surmises. 
 
OXFORD AND KIMBERLEY 47 
 
 known De Beers claim-holders had joined the Rhodes-Rudd 
 partnership, which on April i was floated as a company 
 with the modest capital of £200,000. Some important 
 groups were stiU outstanding at De Beers, but Rhodes's 
 company already held the chief place. Meanwhile Bamato, 
 who also formed his company in that year, was in much the 
 same position at the Kimberley mine. For some years longer 
 these two long-headed young men were content to work on 
 parallel lines without meeting as rivals. But this was after 
 Rhodes had taken his degree at Oxford, where, it must be 
 remembered, he was stiU an undergraduate in residence 
 during a considerable portion of the time he was thus carry- 
 ing on his business as a pumping contractor and consolidating 
 his interests in De Beers. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 DREAMS 
 
 Rhodes had many sides to his character and a rare faculty 
 for keeping all his interests distinct and becoming absorbed 
 in the business of the moment. Within the five years from 
 1876 to 1881 he was by turns the Oxford passman interested 
 in his Aristotle and in the talk and pastimes of the average 
 undergraduate, the diamond digger immersed in the work 
 of acquiring wealth, the South African politician, and, 
 lastly, the dreamer of dreams. To most of his friends 
 j and contemporaries he showed only one side of his activities, 
 and to each of them in turn that seemed the one purpose 
 !of his life: hence a strange diversity in his friendships. 
 He had Oxford friends, friends coarsened by the rough 
 and boisterous hfe of Kimberley, political friends, and a 
 very few to whom he imparted his dreams and his most 
 secret ambitions. Naturally such diverse friends did not 
 always harmonize with one another : the budding states- 
 man or the man of university education could not be 
 expected to appreciate the merits Rhodes found in some of 
 his Jewish financiers and unscrupulous adventurers of the 
 diggings. But Rhodes did not care : once, a Harrow and 
 Cambridge friend relates, he met him coming out of the 
 train with one of his more disreputable acquaintances ; 
 while greeting Rhodes he studiously ignored his companion. 
 " You know So-and-so," said Rhodes, but as the coolness 
 was still obvious, " Oh, yes," he continued in the other 
 man's hearing, " I remember, you think him a thorough- 
 paced scoundrel," chuckhng as, with a familiar gesture, 
 he rubbed his two hands along his left side. Rhodes 
 himself had the co-ordinating principle which harmonized 
 
 48 
 
DREAMS 49 
 
 and united all these interests, though as a natural con- 
 sequence of his habit of concentration on the work of the 
 naoment, the interests of the diamond digger or the Cape 
 politician sometimes seemed to loom too largely in the 
 eyes of the world, and even in his own, and to give a dis- 
 proportionate bias to the sum total of his activities. But 
 to a few intimates he gave glimpses of his central ideas. -^^ 
 
 One of the few to whom Rhodes spoke without reserve\ 
 of his innermost feelings was W. T. Stead, who published 
 during Rhodes's hfe an article ^ giving his impression of 
 these confidences. Here we get Rhodes's musings on life, 
 on the destiny of the human race and on his own part in 
 that destiny, — ^jerky musings, much like his jerky speeches 
 and jerky conversations, with the logic implied rather 
 than clearly expressed. Brought up in an orthodox house- 
 hold, he appears during his solitary meditations on the 
 Natal plantation and at Kimberley to have found that 
 his bo5dsh creeds rested on no secure foundation. Soon 
 after its publication in 1872 a book entitled The Martyrdom 
 of Man seems to have fallen into his hands and made 
 a lasting impression on his mind. The author, Winwood 
 Reade, was a strange Ishmael, who travelled much in 
 Central Africa studying the native and imported Moham- 
 medan forms of religion he found there; basing his 
 theories on these studies and on conclusions he derived 
 from Buckle and Darwin, after a brilhant, if somewhat 
 prejudiced, survey of the origin and development of all 
 religions, he preaches, with all the passionate zeal of a 
 religious enthusiast, that the only hope for man was in 
 the exercise of his own faculties and energies unaided 
 by appeals to non-existing supernatural powers. Rhodes 
 in his turn, musing on destiny and influenced, no doubt, 
 by this book, came to the conclusion that the . Darwinian 
 theory of evolution was the most hkely explanation of the 
 world. But this explanation did not lead him far, for he 
 was faced by the further question : Is this evolution merely 
 the result of blind forces or is it the law of some Supreme 
 Being, some God ? To this question Rhodes admitted to 
 
 ' Republished by Stead in his little volume on the Last Will and 
 Testament of CecitlJ. Rhodes. 
 
 E 
 
50 CECIL RHODES 
 
 himself that he neither knew nor was ever likely to know 
 the answer for certain : nevertheless — and here comes the 
 contrast between the practical miner and the more scholarly 
 theorist, Reade — he felt bound to adopt one or other 
 alternative as a working proposition. After weighing all 
 the pros and cons in his own mind, he concluded on a fifty 
 per cent chance that there was a God,' and on that fifty per 
 cent chance resolved to base his beliefs and his actions. 
 On this assumption his next step was to determine the end 
 set before Himself by God for the evolution of the world ; 
 for, said he to himself, the proper business of man is to 
 forward the end proposed by God. Running through 
 various possible ends, wealth, worldly success and so on, 
 he found that none of these were satisfactory, wheiipas 
 on the broadest view of life and history, he argued, [God 
 was obviously tr57ing to produce a type of humanity 
 most fitted to bring peace, hberty and justice to the world 
 and to make that type predominant. Only one race, so 
 it seemed to him, approached God's ideal type, his own 
 Anglo-Saxon raceT| God's purpose then was to make the 
 Anglo-Saxon race predominant, and the best way to help on 
 God's work and fulfil His purpose in the world was to 
 contribute to the predominance of the Anglo-Saxon race 
 and so bring nearer the reign of justice, liberty and peace. 
 
 It was a clumsy philosophy, Mke the man : a strange 
 jumble of Darwin, Winwood Reade, and Gibbon, with an 
 admixture of Aristotle and a distinct flavour of Ruskin's 
 Inaugural Lecture, but real and personal to Rhodes by 
 years of more or less disjointed and laborious thought of 
 his own. In these clumsy thoughts we get glimpses of 
 what was passing in his mind as he gazed over the veld 
 in his long treks with the ox-wagon or sat moody and 
 abstracted on his overturned bucket. Pringle, the South 
 African poet, came to a more definite conclusion on the 
 divine ordering of the world, but he sought for guidance 
 from the same sky and the same earth as Rhodes : 
 
 Where the barren earth and the burning sky. 
 And the blank horizon, round and round. 
 Spreads, void of Uving sight and sound — • 
 And here, while the night winds round me sigh, 
 And the stars bum bright in the midnight sky, 
 
DREAMS 51 
 
 As I sit apart by the desert stone. 
 
 Like Elijah at Horeb's cave alone, 
 
 " A still small voice " comes through the wild 
 
 (Like a father consoling a fretful child), 
 
 Which banishes bitterness, wrath and fear — 
 
 Saying, " Man is distant, but God is near I " 
 
 Many, too, have vaguely held the same creed of the divinely 
 appointed mission of the British race ; but few, like Rhodes, 
 have made it a direct spur to action throughout their Uves 
 and regarded themselves as the agents of the divine purpose 
 in so doing. 
 
 The first known result of these reflections wears a 
 pathetically naive aspect. During his Long Vacation at 
 Kimberley in 1877 he drew up his will. His wealth was 
 stiU to make, but he felt assured that he would make it, 
 and was determined that his prospective millions should 
 serve his ultimate purpose, whether he lived or died. With 
 that curious mixture of child and prophet so often found 
 in great men, this boyish document directed that a Secret 
 Society should be endowed with the following objects : 
 " The extension of British rule throughout the world, . . . 
 the colonization by British subjects of all lands where the 
 means of hveUhood are attainable by energy, labour and 
 enterprise, and especially the occupation by British settlers 
 of the entire continent of Africa, the Holy Land, the Valley 
 of the Euphrates, the islands of Cyprus and Candia, the 
 whole of South America, the islands of the Pacific not 
 heretofore possessed by Great Britain, the whole of the 
 Malay Archipelago, the sea-board of China and Japan, 
 the ultimate recovery of the United States of America as 
 an integral part of the' British Empire, . . . colonial re- 
 presentation in the Imperial Parliament, which may tend 
 to weld together the disjointed members of the Empire, 
 and finally, the foundation of so great a Power as to here- 
 after render wars impossible and promote the best interests 
 of humanity." Sidney Shippard, the Attorney-General of 
 Griqualand West, and Lord Carnarvon, or the Colonial 
 Secretary for the time being, were appointed by this 
 twenty-four-year-old enthusiast as trustees to carry out 
 his wishes. There is something pathetic in the crudeness 
 
52 CECIL RHODES 
 
 of the idea and the grandiose completeness with which the 
 details are filled in. But the scheme appears less absurd 
 if it is considered merely as the first sketch of a plan which 
 Rhodes never lost sight of, and on which, gradually shedding 
 some of the more extravagant details, he worked consistently 
 through Hfe. In 1882, 1888, 1891 and 1893 he made 
 further wills, all with the same intention, less formally 
 expressed perhaps, of forming a society to advance the 
 interests of the British Empire, the only important changes 
 being in the personality of the trustees. He found it difiicult 
 to get men who grasped and sympathized with his idea, and 
 was glad to secure Stead as a trustee in 1891 ; but even he 
 gave dissatisfaction and was expunged by a codicil to the 
 last will of 1899. This will, to be referred to later, con- 
 tained the final and most explicit directions for a scheme 
 to carry out the purpose already outlined in more ambitious 
 language twenty-two years earlier. 
 
 Rhodes was not content to leave what he counted as 
 his main object in life, " the foundation of so great a Power 
 as to hereafter render wars impossible and promote the 
 best interests of humanity," to be attained merely by his 
 heirs. He devoted his own life to it, even when he seemed 
 absorbed by other schemes. To attain his purpose he had 
 come to the conclusion that he needed wealth and that he 
 needed friends. Without wealth he beheved that little 
 could be attained in the world. Speaking to Colquhoun 
 about railway schemes in China he said, " You'll never do 
 anything with it, Colquhoun ; you've got no money " ; 
 and when Gordon told him that he had refused a room-full 
 of treasure offered him by the Chinese Government, Rhodes, 
 in no wise impressed by his magnanimity, replied : "I 
 should have taken it and as many more rooms-full as they 
 offered me : it is no use having big ideas if you have not 
 the cash to carry them out." This conception of wealth 
 as the chief motive power in the world obsessed him, and, 
 in spite of his unselfish aims, was apt to distort his views 
 and debase his standards. Such phrases as " philanthropy 
 + 5 per cent," which he coined to illustrate his view of a 
 guiding principle in British poHcy, and his belief that men 
 could generally be won over by self-interest are the outcome 
 
DREAMS 53 
 
 of this obsession. The pursuit of wealth seemed at times 
 the primary object of a man who cared little for its benefits 
 to himself and had a soul above it. He even came to believe 
 that with the material power wealth gave him he could 
 achieve anjd:hing and thus in the end brought on his own 
 imdoing. 
 
 When it came to the choice of friends to help him 
 in his great object it was far otherwise. He recognized 
 that the men influenced chiefly by money considerations 
 were not the confidants and partners needed for his 
 life-work. Such men had their uses and he employed 
 many of them in his subsidiary schemes for acquiring 
 wealth or in working out the details of his main scheme. 
 Those he trusted with his ideals and to whom he spoke 
 openly were men of the type he sought for his Secret 
 Society. They were not easy to come by, especially in 
 Kimberley. Rhodes told Stead that after the death of 
 the dear friend whom he had at one time named as his 
 trustee, the only man he could then think of to take his 
 place was a financier, to whom he endeavoured to explain 
 his ideas : " but," he added, "I could see by the look on 
 his face that it made no impression, that the ideas did not 
 enter his mind and that I was simply wasting my time." 
 Yet he found a few, and these he trusted whole-heartedly. 
 Pickering, the trustee who died, was one : for him Rhodes 
 had a romantic affection ; he probably never loved any 
 one so well : he sat day and night nursing him on his 
 deathbed in 1888, neglecting all business for weeks at one 
 of the most critical times in his fortunes : to him he had 
 written that " the curious conditions of my will can only 
 be carried out by a trustworthy person and I consider you 
 one." With some of his friends of Oxford days he talked 
 freely and tried, with more or less success, to impress them 
 into the service of his great ideas. Among these was 
 Maguire, whom later he brought out to South Africa, and 
 Sir Charles Metcalfe, who came to construct railways. He 
 gradually, too, acquired an extraordinary influence over 
 some of his Kimberley friends and induced the most unUkely 
 people to take up his causes and interests. One rough 
 fellow, who had faithfully served Rhodes in strange comers 
 
54 CECIL RHODES 
 
 of South Africa, hearing him once quote an incident of 
 Roman history in a speech, was so abashed by his own 
 ignorance that he forthwith followed his example and 
 became an Oxford undergraduate. Another very different 
 man, Alfred Beit, a Jew from Hamburg and the shrewdest 
 financier of his time in South Africa, having made his 
 fortune at Kimberley, stayed, under the spell of Rhodes's 
 enthusiasm, to put his rare gifts at his command with a 
 generosity and self-effacement rarely equalled. 
 
 One, however, of Rhodes's friends stands out as most 
 especially identified with his schemes and fortunes. On 
 his return from Oxford to Kimberley in the autmnn of 1878, 
 Rhodes first met a young Scottish doctor, bom in the same 
 year as himself, who had come out to share a practice 
 with Dr. Prince, then the best-known doctor of the place. 
 Leander Starr Jameson after taking a briUiant degree had 
 originally come out to South Africa for the same reason 
 as Rhodes and many others, to cure a weak lung. He 
 soon made his mark professionally for his quickness of 
 decision, and for the skilful and successful treatment of 
 his cases. The acquaintance formed between Rhodes and 
 Jameson quickly ripened into a close friendship. Jameson 
 became one of the Twelve Apostles, as the mess presided 
 over by Rhodes was called, and later, after Pickering's 
 death, shared Rhodes's cottage opposite the club. Super- 
 ficially the two men were a great contrast. Whereas Rhodes 
 was a slow and laborious thinker on fines of his own, 
 Jameson was sharp as a needle and quick at seeing another 
 man's drift. Rhodes to the end retained many of the 
 characteristics of a child : he was constantly surprised by 
 his own thoughts and always anxious in any society to 
 discuss fundamentals long accepted or ignored by his 
 contemporaries ; Jameson was brilliant in conversation 
 and too sophisticated a man of the world to talk about 
 fundamentals unless he was very sure of his audience; 
 the one took long views and prepared his plans with infinite 
 labour, the other was impetuous and impulsive ; in curious 
 contrast with the lofty idealism of his aims, Rhodes had a 
 strong vein of calculated cynicism in his methods, whereas 
 Jameson's cjmical manner was a mere defensive crust 
 
DREAMS 55 
 
 assumed in the vain attempt to conceal his natural rashness. 
 Probably these very differences helped to attract the two 
 men to one another. Rhodes may well have felt that his 
 solid, deUberate nature found its right complement in 
 Jameson's sympathy and lightness of touch and that his 
 ambitious plans might be forwarded by the Doctor's readi- 
 ness in finding ingenious expedients to overcome difficulties. 
 But these bonds would have been slight indeed had it not 
 been for Jameson's whole-hearted devotion to Rhodes 
 and what Rhodes confided to him of his schemes. Merri- 
 man had then left Kimberley ; Pickering was dead ; so , 
 Jameson gradually fell into their place as the comrade '^ 
 who cared not, as so many others did, chiefly for the / 
 money-making capacity of his friend, but was moved by 
 the same pubhc spirit. During their early morning rides on 
 the veld or in long-drawn-out talks at the club or in their 
 lodgings, he and Rhodes used to discuss plans for a definite 
 policy in South Africa, the first practical outcome of even 
 more ambitious projects. Rhodes came to love Jameson, 
 but it is characteristic of him that, with all his love and 
 genuine admiration for the Doctor's qualities, he was not 
 bliaded to his defects of judgement : at any rate, he never 
 made him a trustee for any of his wills until on his deathbed 
 he added his name in a codicil. 
 
 In those days Rhodes, when discussing his plans, used 
 to pull out the map of South Africa and, laying a large 
 hand on all the tracts up to the central lakes, say, " All 
 this to be painted red ; that is my dream." The idea 
 thus expressed was not so crude as its statement. The 
 political creed he gradually evolved from his musings on 
 destiny and final causes has been conveniently summarized, 
 by one who had several opportunities . of talking to him 
 opejjly,^ under the following heads : 
 
 ii;, The world is made for the service of men, especially 
 for divihzed European men most capable of utilizing the 
 crude resources of nature for the promotion of wealth and 
 prosperity (i.e. the Anglo-Saxon race). 
 
 i 2j England is unable to protect herself without overseas 
 dommions. 
 
 Sir Sidney Low, Nineteenth Century and After, May 1902. 
 
56 CECIL RHODES 
 
 3. The British constitution is an absurd anachronism 
 and should be re-modelled on the lines of the Ariierican 
 Union with federal self-governing colonies as the constituent 
 states. 
 
 f'4) The first aim of British statesmanship should be to 
 fin^^new areas of settlement and new markets to avoid 
 penalizing tariffs from foreign rivals. 
 
 (5) The largest tracts of unoccupied land are in Africa, 
 wliMi should be kept open for British colonization and 
 commerce. 
 
 ,6; As the key of South Africa hes in the Anglo-Dutch 
 states, the federation of these states should be aimed at 
 under the British flag, but without any meddling by the 
 "home authorities. 
 
 To carry out this comprehensive policy Rhodes was 
 biding his time. For ten years he was content to amass 
 wealth, to make such converts as he could at the Kimberley 
 Club and to gain a sound foundation for pohtical power 
 by the authority he was acquiring as one of the leading 
 men of the diamond industry. He still took little part 
 in local politics, but when occasion offered, such as Sir 
 Bartle Frere's visit to the Fields, had shown a greater 
 power of logic and more eloquence than anybody on the 
 subject of the mining interests. He had shouldered his 
 rifle in 1879 in a punitive expedition against some native 
 marauders, during which he had come under fire near 
 Christiania on the Vaal, and had first attracted the amused 
 interest of the Lieutenant-Governor, Colonel Warren, by 
 his absorption in a divinity cram-book for an Oxford 
 examination during a railway journey. But in 1880, 
 when he had formed his De Beers Mining Company, he felt 
 that the time had come to make his views known to a wider 
 audience. The Home Government had been meddling, with 
 very serious results : so far from any prospect of the South 
 African federation desired by Rhodes, Carnarvon's clumsy 
 efforts to impose it had ended in a fiasco ; the Transvaal 
 had been annexed and was on the eve of revolt. As Rhodes 
 remarked bitterly years afterwards, the Transvaal would 
 have been quite happy under British rule had it not been 
 shockingly misgoverned by the Imperial Commissioner, Sir 
 
DREAMS 57 
 
 Owen Lanyon, " who conducted the business on the Unes 
 of a second-rate line regiment." The Dutch and English 
 at the Cape, whom Rhodes wished to see united as a 
 preliminary to all his plans for expansion, had been driven 
 farther apart than ever before. The English still regarded 
 the Dutch as a conquered and uncivilized race, the Dutch 
 stood aloof in sullen obstinacy. Rhodes saw that this 
 would not do ; he was one of the few Englishmen to respect 
 the Boers and recognize that they were to be reckoned with. 
 The Boer farmer in his eyes was as much a " producer " 
 as the Kimberley miner, and no more to be classed with 
 mere " loafers " ; and in his scheme of life he had a use 
 for all " producers." Long before Majuba he used to say 
 to Jameson : " The Dutch are the coming race in South 
 Africa and they must have their share in running the 
 country." All this he felt needed saying, and that he was 
 the man to say it. 
 
 His opportunity came at the right moment. In 1880 
 GuquaJand West was at last incorpofated with the Cape, 
 pa.rtly_owing:to the strong-representations made by Merriman 
 and JEh,Qdes .Jmnself , and thereby became entitled to send 
 representatives Jjo... the Cape Parliament. Rhodes did not 
 stand for Kimberley, as might have been expected, but 
 chose a rural constituency, the district of Barkly West. 
 Here had been the headquarters of the old river-diggings, 
 but it was now deserted by nearly aU save the Dutch farmers 
 who had seen the diggers come and go. This choice of 
 a constituency where there was a large Dutch vote was 
 significant of Rhodes's considered policy and proved ^a 
 great strength to him. \ He could speak not only for ' 
 Kimberley miners with wKbm his business lay, but also for 
 the Boer farmers who were his constituents ; and Barkly. 
 ^yest remained faithful to him, through good report and ill, i 
 to the end of his Mfe. ^ 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE PLUNGE INTO CAPE POLITICS 
 
 Rhodes took his seat in the House of Assembly in April 
 i88f 'and very soon made himself known to the political 
 world of the Cape. He was still a digger in appearance 
 and in his free and easy manners, and so he remained to 
 the end. Thus he scandalized Hofmeyr and other members 
 of the more formal school by refusing to wear the 
 conventional black coat and top hat : " I am still in 
 Oxford tweeds," he said in one of his speeches, " and I 
 think I can legislate as well in them as in sable clothing." 
 But he had a keen eye for business. To make certain of 
 a paper that would always print his speeches and any 
 information he might give it, he 'bought a share in the Cape 
 Argus, at the same time assuring the editor he should never 
 attempt to interfere with the opinions expressed in its 
 columns,; a promise he appears to have kept with this ' 
 paper, as well as with others in which he was afterwards 
 interested. He made useful friends at Government House. 
 The new Ggyemor and Higk, Commissioner,-Sir_EIercules 
 Robinson, chosen by Lord Kimberley to inaugurate a less 
 adventurous and more conciUatory policy than his 
 predecessor Sir Bartle Frere, was attracted by the 
 unconventional young digger, sympathized with his views 
 on co-operation with the Dutch and was gradually led on 
 to approve of his more ambitious schemes. The ImpeiiaL 
 Secretary, Captain Graham Bower, R.N., proved an even 
 more useful ally : for his knowledge of Cape politics and his 
 fertility of resource gave him great influence over the High 
 Commissioner as well as over the Cape pohticians. Another 
 friend at court was the GfOvemor's^Hwatesecr^taxyJfcwtflU, 
 
 58 
 
THE PLUNGE INTO CAPE POLITICS 59 
 
 (; 
 
 who had been a friend of Rhodes at Oxford. , iSir Richard 
 Southey and J. B. Currey, early friends at 'TCimberley,' 
 made him welcome ; and very soon he was accepted by 
 the rough and ready society of Cape Town in the genial 
 colonial fashion which suited him well. He struck up a 
 great friendship with ^Penfold, the port-captaiiD and under 
 his tuition became aiT enthusiastic yachtsman in Table 
 Bay. As usual with things that interested him, this sport 
 gave him a happy analogy for one of his speeches. " It 
 is as if," he said, " I were a little sailing boat in Table Bay 
 and knew exactly what I am starting for. There are 
 honourable members opposite who have racing boats, but 
 I dare to challenge them and to say that they do not know 
 what ports they are saihng for ; and though they may be 
 manned with a smarter crew, what with their backing and 
 filling I am not sure they will not scuttle and go to the 
 bottom." Once, too, when he was Prime Minister, he put 
 his nautical experience to more practical use. During one 
 of those tremendous storms which sometimes sweep over 
 the Bay he heard that two lighters had got adrift and were 
 in deadly peril ; he not only saw to it that the port tug 
 should put out to their rescue but insisted in going out with 
 her himself, and for a whole night was buffeted and tossed 
 about by the angry seas in very serious danger. 
 
 Above all, he revelled in the talk and arguments of the 
 politicians and civil servants who foregathered at the 
 Civil Service Club or at Poole's for lunch, or at odd times 
 invaded the rooms he shared with Captain Penfold in 
 Adderley Street. In those days there were some good 
 talkers and thinkers among them : Molteno, the first 
 Prime Minister of the Cape ; Upington, the wild Irishman, 
 witty and perennially in debt ; Sauer, shrewd and caustic; 
 Saul Solomon, the friend of the natives, who, in spite of his 
 physical insignificance, had by his eloquence and passionate 
 conviction won for himself a place apart in the House of 
 Assembly; Schreiner, the briUiant young advocate, in- 
 corruptible and conscientious, ready to split a hair or 
 prolong an argument to any hour of the night, who, with 
 his brilHant sister Olive, was enormously attracted by 
 Rhodes's personality. There, too, he found his old friend 
 
6o CECIL RHODES 
 
 Merriman, sparkling with wit, and ever ready with the 
 pungent phrase that clung to his victims for hfe ; full 
 of strange lore, culled from every source, ancient or modern ; 
 caustic without maUce to his opponents but generous to a 
 fault with friends, such as Rhodes, in whom he beheved ; 
 and always bubbling over with enthusiasm for some great 
 cause or principle. 
 
 But the man with whom, more than any in the Cape 
 ParUament, Rhodes had for long the closest political 
 affinity was not usually to be found in these jovial parties. 
 Jan .Ho-foaeyiv Qnze Jan as he became known throughout 
 South Africa, was some eight years older than Rhodes, 
 having been bom in 1845 at Welgemeend, a farm on the 
 slopes of Table Mountain. The ancestor who founded the 
 Cape branch of the family landed at Table Bay a century 
 earlier and lies buried in the grounds of Groote Schuur, the 
 Dutch Company's great barn at Rondebosch. By ancestry 
 and birth rooted to the soil of the Cape Peninsula, Hofmeyr 
 had all his education there too, and at sixteen took to 
 journalism in Cape Town ; at twenty-six he was editoji^d 
 the Zuid A/rikacinf-the leading Dutch newspaper. He had 
 become member for Stellenbosch two years before Rhodes 
 took his seat, and was already one of the most powerful 
 forces in Cape politics, for by his paper he had made himself 
 the mentor of the Dutch party not only at the Cape but 
 throughout South Africa. He had two great political 
 objects in hfe : to awaken his Dutch fellow-countrjmien to 
 a sense of their own importance and, secondly, to form a 
 federation of all South African states. ' With the first object 
 he founded a union of Boer farmers, afterwards m.erged_int9 
 the better known Afrikander Bond ; he /urged Dutchmen to 
 stand for parliament and encouraged the revival of the 
 Dutch language, " I am a little bit of an EngUshman," 
 he once said, " as far as language is concerned. The 
 Enghshman loves his language and I mine. . . . The 
 language question is a question of hfe and death. Despise 
 the language and you despise your nationality ; honour 
 your language and you honour your nationaUty." South 
 African union he advbcated as early as 1865 and even 
 supported Carnarvon's and Froude's crazy scheme of 
 
THE PLUNGE INTO CAPE POLITICS 6i 
 
 federation, speaking at a banquet in Froude's honour in 
 1874 : in 1880, it is true, he voted against it, but only as a 
 protest against the annexation of the Transvaal. Though 
 a reformer in these respects he had all the conservative 
 instincts of his own Dutch landowners. He supported 
 protection and privilege for the farmer, wrote and spoke 
 against responsible government in 1872, upheld strict 
 orthodoxy in the Church and resisted Saul Solomon's 
 progressive views on native policy. When Rhodes came to 
 Capetown, he found Hofmeyr the unchallenged leader of 
 the Dutch contingent in parhament, enlarged and brought 
 to discipline by his exertions ; and, though his supremacy 
 in the coimtry districts was challenged by Du Toit's actively 
 disloyal Afrikander Bond, he was on the eve of capturing 
 that body and forcing it to abandon some of its extreme 
 tenets. For his cautious and secret methods of political 
 intrigue Merriman gave him the nickname of " The Mole." 
 This had some justification. He was always inclined to 
 overcome opposition by conciliatory methods and, hke 
 Rhodes himself, preferred to deal with a man by finding 
 some common basis of agreement than to fight him. By 
 nature he was cautious and averse to undertaking personal 
 responsibiUty. Thus he only once held office in a ministry, 
 and that for a very brief spell, preferring to be the Warwick 
 of ministries that displeased him and the secret counsellor 
 of those that supported his views. He several times gave 
 considerable umbrage to his Transvaal cousins by his 
 timidity : recently, for example, he had disapproved of the 
 republicans' revolt because he feared they would be beaten 
 by England, and even after Majuba urged them at once to 
 desist from further hostilities. But, though economical of 
 his dogmatic assertions, on questions of principle he never 
 had any hesitation in coming out into the open and express- 
 ing his views, however unpopular they might be. He had 
 protested vehemently against the annexation of the Trans- 
 vaal, and supported that country in its efforts to regain 
 freedom, while as a political organizer he did more than 
 any man to make the Dutch a force in South Africa. 
 
 Both in appreciation of the Dutch element in South 
 Africa and in a desire for federation Rhodes had points in 
 
62 CECIL RHODES 
 
 common with Hofmeyr. But in April 1881 the divergence 
 between them seemed more marked than the agreement. 
 Majuba had just been fought and negotiations for the 
 retrocession of the Transvaal opened. Nearly every EngUsh- 
 man in South Africa had a sense of bitter humiUation, 
 and Rhodes would hardly have been human had he not 
 shared in this feeUng. An acquaintance speaks of the 
 " unspeakable anger of the mihtant young Enghshman " 
 at Gladstone's surrender and his determination " not 
 to be trampled on by these Dutchmen." Hofmeyr he 
 regarded as a dangerous man full of machinations against 
 England. Hofmeyr for his part had been told that Rhodes 
 was " a regular beefsteak, John Bull Enghshman," and 
 what was perhaps worse, " a young Oxford Enghshman, 
 full, some said, of the exclusive traditions of Oxford." 
 But these feeHngs did not last : in the same conversation in 
 which he expressed his indignation Rhodes admitted that 
 he did not dishke the Dutch and that the best plan would 
 be to work with Hofmeyr : and when the two men were 
 brought together by a friend their distrust of one another 
 vanished. Fourteen years later, at a banquet to Hofmeyr, 
 each gave his account of this first meeting. While still 
 finding many points of disagreement, Rhodes said of 
 Hofmeyr that he was the fairest opponent he had ever met, 
 and Hofmeyr declared that this talk had laid the foundation 
 of a lasting friendship ; " the secret," he added, " of this 
 friendship was this : I found in Mr. Rhodes the true 
 Englishman but at the same time the man who could make 
 allowances for true nationaUsm existing in other people. 
 Also, I remember, about the time we were introduced, the 
 Transvaal War broke out, and Mr. Rhodes — perhaps as it 
 behoved him as an Englishman ^ — ^was all against the 
 Boers and Transvaal independence. I was on the other 
 side. But when the war was over we had a talk with one 
 another, and I said to Mr. Rhodes, ' It is an awful pity that 
 the war broke out.' I was surprised when Mr. Rhodes 
 
 1 This is a characteristic instance of the Dutchman's high standard 
 of honour even for an enemy. Louis Botha had the same standard. 
 The story is told that shortly after the Boer War he met an Englishman in 
 London who said to him effusively : " I always hoped you would win," 
 whereupon Botha turned his back on him. 
 
THE PLUNGE INTO CAPE POLITICS 63 
 
 said : ' No, it is not. I have quite changed my opinion. 
 It is a good thing. It has made Enghshmen respect 
 Dutchmen and made them respect one another.' Well, 
 when an EngUshman could speak like that to a Dutchman, 
 they are not far from making common cause with one 
 another." They thus found that they had aims in common, 
 the one, as it has been well said, with his British point of 
 view, which he looked at from the colonial angle, the other 
 with his colonial point of view, which he tried to broaden 
 from the standpoint of Britain and the Empire as a whole. 
 Misimderstandings as to important details and methods 
 were not entirely removed at first, but with growing acquaint- 
 ance the two men found it possible to work as allies. 
 
 Rhodes's first three sessions were chiefly taken up with 
 discussions on the Basuto War, which had been brought 
 on by the decision of the Prime Minister, Sir Gordon Sprigg, 
 to disarm the Basutos under some forgotten statute. 
 Rhodes and the Kimberley people disliked the war, because 
 they had many Basutos working for them in the mines, 
 and as one man said, " After all, we sold them the guns ; 
 they bought them out of their hard-earned wages, and it 
 is hard lines to make them give them up again." Early 
 in the first session Sprigg fell, partly for his mismanagement 
 of this business, partly owing to the general dissatisfaction 
 with his government : the Diamond Fields members, for 
 example, headed by Rhodes, bluntly told him they must 
 withdraw their support because of his failtire to extend 
 the railway to Kimberley ; he had also ahenated Hofmeyr 
 and the Bond, who had originally helped him to office and 
 who now transferred their support to his successor, Scanlen. 
 The Basutoland question itself has no great interest to-day 
 except as an illustration of the Home government's unfor- 
 tunate indecision in South African affairs. In 1854, when 
 the Orange River sovereignty had been given back to the 
 Free State Boers, Basutoland, the native state on its eastern 
 border, had been left in the air : fifteen years later, after a 
 succession of wars between the Boers and the Basutos, it 
 had been proclaimed under British protection, then two 
 years afterwards given over to the Cape. Finally, in 1883, 
 when the inability of the Cape to deal with the problem 
 
,y 
 
 64 CECIL RHODES 
 
 had been proved by three years of desultory and incon- 
 clusive fighting, the Imperial Government agreed to take 
 back the country under its protection, in which condition 
 it has fortunately remained ever since. 
 
 From the outset Rhodes had advocated this solution, 
 not from any love of " meddhng by the Home Government," 
 but simply on the ground that the Cape was not in a position 
 to deal effectively with a country so far removed from its 
 natural interests ; and on the score of expense. "Are we a 
 great and independent South Africa ? " he asked : " No, 
 we are only the population of a third-rate EngHsh city 
 spread over a great country," and in these circumstances he 
 declared that it was the duty of the Imperial Government 
 to bear the burden. But Scanlen did not dare to call in 
 the Imperial Government, such was its unpopularity in 
 South Africa, till every other means had been tried. But 
 while rejecting Rhodes's advice for the time being he 
 persuaded him to accept a seat on a commission to decide 
 on claims for compensation by loyal Basutos ; he also 
 sent for Colonel Gordon from his " barracks and drains " 
 at Mauritius to reorganize the colonial forces and in the 
 hope that he would finish the business without bloodshed 
 or heavy expense. 
 
 Rhodes, for his part, was quite willing to go to Basuto- 
 land to study the problem at first hand and did his work 
 on the commission thoroughly. Five months were spent 
 in taking evidence at Maseru, Leribe, Mafeteng and other 
 places ; Rhodes made a special report dissenting from 
 his colleagues, who wished to extend the compensation to 
 two white traders, on the ground that such a claim had 
 never been recognized by any government. " Even 
 England," he argued, " with all her wealth, did not 
 compensate her loyal subjects in India for the losses 
 sustained in the recent mutiny," and he protested " against 
 this recommendation for compensation to be paid out of 
 the public funds of a poor and embarrassed Colony on 
 principles which are not founded on the practice and 
 precedent of the older and richer countries of the world." 
 Though he was in a minority of one, his arguments on this 
 point prevailed. 
 
THE PLUNGE INTO CAPE POLITICS 65 
 
 While he was in Basutoland one of those rare meetings, 
 of which the scanty records are so tantahzing to the 
 historian, took place ; when two outstanding men of a 
 generation come face to face and then pass on. Rhodes 
 and Gordon had longer and more interesting talk than 
 Wellington and Nelson on that one historic occasion in the 
 Secretary of State's waiting-room ; but afterwards they 
 went their ways never to meet again. Characteristic too 
 of the British Empire was this meeting of two such men, 
 called from the ends of the earth and thrown together for 
 a brief space in a barbarous corner of South Africa — 
 Gordon, who had taken it all in the day's work, as a major 
 in the Engineers, to organize and command the forces of 
 the great Chinese Empire, to rule with absolute sway the 
 Soudan and equatorial Africa, to make a Sying trip to 
 Ireland, between two terms of duty, to ascertain the merits 
 of the Irish question, to build barracks in Mauritius or to 
 bring hope and a prospect in life to the boys of the ragged 
 schools of Woolwich ; and Rhodes, the rough diamond- 
 digger, with all his yet unreaUzed dreams for the advance 
 of the British race in Africa and throughout the world. 
 To Gordon, the practical mystic convinced of his mission 
 humbly to work out the will of God, Rhodes in these 
 communings tmder the African sky may well have 
 unbosomed himself of his clumsy philosophy and his fifty 
 per cent God and all his dreams ; for the older man, though 
 surer in his convictions, would have imderstood. Strange 
 as it may seem, Rhodes, the younger by twenty years, 
 appears in practical matters to have taken the mentor's part. 
 He it was who explained to Gordon how foohsh he was 
 not to accept the Chinese treasure, and told him not to talk 
 to the Basutos as if he were their supreme lord, but to 
 remember that he was only the servant of Sauer, the 
 Minister for native affairs ; and Gordon took the reproof 
 meekly and went next day to explain this to the natives, 
 adding, in an aside to Rhodes, " I did it because it was the 
 right thing, but it was hard, very hard." At any rate 
 Gordon beUeved in the young man, and on parting begged 
 him to stay and work with him ; but Rhodes had to be 
 about his own -business and must needs go. " There are 
 
 F 
 
66 CECIL RHODES 
 
 few men in the world," replied Gordon, " to whom I would 
 make such an offer, but of course you will have your own 
 way. I never met a man so strong for his own opinion ; 
 you think your views are always right." So they parted. 
 Once more Rhodes heard from him ; when Gordon was 
 starting on his last journey, he telegraphed to Rhodes to 
 join him ; and Rhodes once more had to refuse, for he 
 was just about to join the Cape Ministry. But when, 
 little more than two years after these meetings in Basuto- 
 land, he heard of the tragedy of Khartoum, he was deeply 
 moved and kept on repeating sadly : "I am sorry I was 
 not with him ; I am sorry I was not with him." 
 
 By 1883 the Imperial solution for the Basuto imbroglio, 
 which Rhodes had seen to be inevitable, was at last 
 accepted. His friend Merriman, a member of Scanlen's 
 Ministry, arranged the terms in London, and Scanlen 
 ^ proposed in the Cape Parliament the re-transfer of the 
 country to the Home Government. The only opponents 
 left to the proposal were Hofmeyr and his followers ; so 
 great was the Dutchman's distrust of the Imperial factor 
 in South African affairs that he had a plan for joint action 
 with the Free State to bring the Basutos to submission. 
 Unfortunately for him, President Brand was quite content 
 that the Imperial power alone should do the police work 
 on his eastern border, and rejected Hofmeyr's scheme. In 
 the debate in the House, Rhodes took a leading part on 
 behalf of the Government. He had already won a consider- 
 able position for himself as a pohtician. At first his rather 
 nervous, excitable manner of speaking, his squeaky voice, 
 his jerky utterance, and his imcouth gestures had told 
 against him ; but as the hearers of Chatham had felt, so 
 men had begun to feel, in a lesser degree, about, Rhodes 
 that " the man was infinitely greater than his words." 
 In his second session he was already recognized as the 
 leader of the powerful contingent from the Diamond Fields, 
 though he had always proclaimed his indifference to party 
 ties or local prejudices, because, in his own words, " localism 
 is the curse of South Africa." He had made approaches to 
 Hofmeyr by a sympathetic attitude to his proposal to 
 allow the Dutch language to be used in debate, and a well- 
 
THE PLUNGE INTO CAPE POLITICS 67 
 
 turned compliment to him on the terms of the loyal address 
 he had drawn up on the conclusion of peace with the 
 Transvaal. But in this debate on Basutoland he took 
 occasion to make plain where he differed from Hofmeyr on 
 methods of securing South African tmion. 
 
 Hofmejn- during this and the preceding year had been 
 carrying on his great fight to capture the Afrikander Bond. 
 Its founder, the Rev. S. J. du Toit, who afterwards became 
 one of Rhodes's most devoted adherents, had frankly 
 stated in his paper that " the one hindrance to Confederation 
 is the English flag. Let them take that away, and within 
 a year the Confederation under the free African flag would 
 be estabhshed." Hofmeyr was alarmed at such a doctrine, 
 for he, like Rhodes, believed the only hope of union to lie 
 in full co-operation between EngHsh and Dutch, and, as 
 he said, " five Enghshmen in the Bond would help South 
 African unity more than a hundred Boers " ; but such a 
 doctrine would naturally keep off any Englishman. On 
 the advice, therefore, of a friend, he himself joined the 
 Bond, and by ceaseless negotiation and persuasive talk, 
 of which he was a past-master, brought roimd the majority 
 to drop the disloyal part of their programme ; still, to secure 
 that end, he thought it prudent to admit that South Africa 
 might one day be independent, though he never regarded 
 the eventuality as within the practical pohtics of the next 
 fifty years. At any rate, Hofmeyr, by joining a body which 
 had once expressed such sentiments about the British flag, 
 had become suspect to Rhodes ; and in this speech he 
 determined to have it out with him. 
 
 At the outset he easily disposed of Hofme5T's plan for 
 joint action with the Free State in Basutoland by pointing 
 out that the Free State itself did not welcome the sugges- 
 tion : " that people are surely the best judges of the 
 question, and they say they want to be protected by the 
 Imperial Government." Then turning to the wider ques- 
 tion of union, " I would like to hear," he added, " what 
 Mr. Hofmeyr is reported to have said about a United States 
 of South Africa under its own flag. ... I have my own 
 views as to the future of South Africa, and I believe in a 
 United States of South Africa, but as a portion of the 
 
68 CECIL RHODES 
 
 British Empire. I believe that confederated states in a 
 colony tinder responsible government would each be practi- 
 cally an independent republic, but I think we should also 
 have all the privileges of the tie with the Empire. Possibly 
 there is not a very great divergence between myself and 
 the honourable member for Stellenbosch, excepting always 
 the question of the flag." In a later speech Rhodes 
 crystallized his view in the phrase : " the government of 
 South Africa by the people of South Africa with the Imperial 
 Flag for defence." 
 
 Hofmejn: was able to answer this question satisfactorily, 
 for Rhodes's formula exactly corresponded with his own 
 view of South African tmion ; of which he gave ample 
 proofs, when later he attended two colonial conferences 
 as a delegate for the Cape. In the following month Rhodes 
 welcomed his assurances and praised the " high aim . . . 
 of the honourable member for SteUenbosch. His aspirations 
 are for the union of South Africa." Thus early in his 
 parliamentary career Rhodes laid down the guiding principle 
 of his South African policy, and found, as he had hoped, 
 that for this policy he could work in hearty co-operation 
 with the leader of his Dutch fellow-colonists. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE FIRST STEP NORTHWARDS — BECHUANALAND 
 
 Rhodes was the more willing to admit the " meddlesome 
 Home Government " into Basutoland, because he felt that 
 a call would soon be made on all the colony's resources to 
 deal with the more vital problem of Bechuanaland. [In 
 this territory^ he beheved, the future not only of the Cape 
 but of all South Africa was involved.? 
 
 Bechuanaland, bounded on the east by the Transvaal 
 and by Damaraland and Namaqualand on the west, forms 
 the isthmus leading from Griqualand West to the interior 
 of Africa. The trackless Kalahari desert makes a great 
 part of it uninhabitable, except by a few wandering 
 Bushmen, but on the east, close to the Transvaal border, 
 there is a strip of good land where the Bechuana tribes 
 congregated in their villages, Taungs, Mafeking, Kanye 
 and Shoshong. Along this strip, always hugging the 
 Transvaal , border, was the well-marked track by which 
 explorers, hunters, missionaries and traders travelled into 
 the interior, and which was the main approach to the 
 Tati Gold Fields, opened in 1869, Matabeleland and the 
 hunting grounds of the Zambesi.^ Made famous by men 
 like Livingstone and Moffat, Baines, Mauch, Gordon 
 Gumming and Selous, the track was known as the English 
 road or the Missionaries' road. Its proximity, however, 
 to the Transvaal border had not been without its dangers. 
 During the 'fifties the Boers used to raid the border villages 
 
 * A petition from Kimberley in 1884, which shows the inspiration of 
 Rhodes, describes it as " the great trade route to the interior, well known 
 to the English people through the narratives of Livingstone and Moffat . . . 
 along it the trade and commerce of the interior have for years passed 
 unmolested." 
 
 69 
 
 I./ 
 
70 CECIL RHODES 
 
 of the natives and interfere with European travellers on 
 the road. Thus in 1852 they sacked Livingstone's mission 
 station at Shoshong and later told Moffat that he must 
 obtain leave from their Government to travel to his own 
 headquarters in Bechuanaland. Sir George Grey and other 
 governors protested against these aggressions ; the Keate 
 award of 1871 and the Pretoria Convention ten years 
 later definitely excluded the republic from interfering in 
 Bechuanaland. But the Boers never ceased to regard this 
 borderland as coming naturally within their sphere, and 
 were Ukely to continue doing so until it had been placed 
 under some more powerful government than that of the 
 native chiefs. 
 
 Several Englishmen before Rhodes had come to the 
 conclusion that the only way of safeguarding this approach 
 to the interior was to bring it within the British dominions. 
 In 1871 the missionary Mackenzie had advocated this ; 
 Southey had always contemplated an advance beyond 
 Griqualand West ; in 1878 Sir Bartle Frere had urged 
 the Colonial Secretary to proclaim a protectorate over 
 Bechuanaland as far north as Lake Ngami, not far short 
 of the Zambesi ; and long before these Livingstone had 
 boasted — ^not idly : " The Boers resolved to shut up the 
 interior and I determined to open the coimtry ; and we 
 shall see who have been most successful in resolution, 
 they or I." Rhodes had come to the problem afresh, with 
 special opportunities for understanding its importance. 
 Living at Kimberley, the starting-point of the up-country 
 trade, he knew well the value of this trade to Cape Colony ; 
 in one year alone, he told the House, a single Kimberley 
 firm had done business in Bechuanaland of the value of 
 £100,000. At Kimberley he was constantly seeing hunters 
 or missionaries setting forth along the road or returning 
 with the booty of the chase, and with tales of the country 
 and natives of the far interior. He himself had travelled 
 along part of the road in his trek with Herbert and again 
 with Warren's expedition against the Korannas. As a 
 result of endless talks with Merriman, Pickering, Jameson 
 and other friends, and no doubt with Warren and his staff 
 in 1879, he had long formed the conviction that Bechuana- 
 
THE FIRST STEP NORTHWARDS 71 
 
 land, the key to the interior, must be secured. But he 
 differed in two points from others who had previously 
 held this view. First, he beUeved that the Cape itself, as 
 the dominant state in South Africa, should undertake the , 
 task, instead of calling upon the Imperial Government to 
 proclaim a protectorate. Secondly, he beUeved that the 
 question could be raised above a contention on racial lines, 
 and that EngUsh and Dutch might be induced to co-operate 
 in forwarding a South African pohcy. In a word, he believed 
 that the extension of British influence could only be worked 
 in accordance with the sentiment of South Africans and 
 with the help of the Cape politicians, English and Dutch. 
 
 In his second session, when for the first time he called 
 attention publicly to the question, the southern part of 
 Bechuanaland was in a hopeless state of confusion and 
 anarchy. Native troubles on the border had given the 
 usual opportunity for the designs of needy European 
 adventurers. Mankoroane, the Batlapin chieftain at 
 Taungs, just beyond the Griqualand West border, had a 
 feud with Massouw, his neighbour within Transvaal terri- 
 tory ; and farther north, at Mafeking, Montsioa was at 
 war with Moshette, a rival chief of the Barolongs. 
 Mankoroane and Montsioa were regarded as friendly by 
 the Enghsh ; the cause of their antagonists was favoured 
 by the Boers. Both sides in the two disputes made large 
 promises of land to any white volimteers who should come 
 to their help, and it may be imagined what a disorderly 
 crew of shady adventurers, cattle and horse thieves and 
 land sharks had been attracted to the four camps by this 
 bait ; in fact, the whole borderland of Griqualand West 
 and the south-west Transvaal had become a veritable 
 Alsatia. Both Mankoroane and Montsioa, the chiefs with 
 English leanings, got the worst of it, and by the end of 
 1882 had been obUged to cede considerable portions of 
 their territory to satisfy the claims of their rivals' white 
 mercenaries, mostly Boers. These Boer volunteers, as 
 they were called, proclaimed independent republics over 
 the territory they had thus acquired. Stellaland was the 
 name given to the republic formed on Mankoroane's lands, 
 with its capital at Vryburg, and Van Niekerk, a Transvaal 
 
72 CECIL RHODES 
 
 farmer, as the administrator; the other, in Montsioa's 
 country, was called Land of Goshen, and was administered 
 by one Gey Van Pittius, with his seat of government at 
 Rooigrond, close to Mafeking. But the establishment of 
 these republics brought no peace ; the defeated chieftains 
 were always on the look out for their revenge ; cattle and 
 horse thefts, raids and reprisals went on as before. The 
 Transvaal Government, naturally disturbed at the unsettled 
 state of their border, urged the Imperial Government to 
 make some arrangement by which peace could be main- 
 tained. But the Imperial Government would not hear of 
 accepting any further responsibility north of the present 
 border, nor would they allow the Transvaal to encroach 
 beyond the boundaries laid down by the London Convention. 
 The danger, as it appeared to Rhodes, in this chaotic 
 state of affairs lay chiefly in these new republics of Stella- 
 land and Goshen, both of which lay right athwart the road 
 into the interior. Whether they remained independent or, 
 as seemed more probable, were absorbed by their neighbour 
 the Transvaal, they were a standing menace to communica- 
 tions with all the country up to the Zambesi. Already 
 there were reports of natives returning home from the 
 Kimberley mines being robbed and impeded on their way 
 through the new republics, and the fear of high tariffs and 
 other obstacles to trade and travel through them was, to 
 judge by the example of the Transvaal customs duties, no 
 visionary danger. So, after uttering his preliminary warn- 
 ing in 1882, in the following year he got himself appointed 
 on a commission to investigate some dispute about the 
 boundaries of Griqualand West. Interpreting his instruc- 
 tions largely, he took occasion to visit Mankoroane at 
 Taungs as well as Van Niekerk at Vryburg. From the 
 former he obtained a 16ng catalogue of his grievances 
 against the Stellaland volunteers and an offer to cede his 
 country to the Cape. At Vryburg he foimd intrigues afoot 
 for the annexation of the new repubUc by the Transvaal, 
 but secured a petition from a considerable minority of the 
 settlers, requesting annexation by the Cape Government. 
 He found nobody who wanted to be taken over by the 
 Imperial Government. 
 
THE FIRST STEP NORTHWARDS 73 
 
 The occasion was critical, for the Transvaal deputation 
 was soon starting on its way to London to press for modifica- 
 tions of the Pretoria Convention, especially in relation to 
 the republic's south-western boundary, and Merriman was 
 already there to discuss preliminaries with the Colonial 
 Office. So impressed was Rhodes with the need for 
 immediate action that he at once got into commimication 
 over the telegraph wires with the Prime Minister, Scanlen. 
 For the next month animated conversations between the 
 two were carried on by this means, Rhodes pointing out that 
 unless prompt action were taken hostihties would break out 
 afresh, urging that Merriman should be instructed to 
 protest against " an inch more territory " being handed 
 over to the Transvaal ; " part with the interior road," he 
 added, " and you are driven into the desert " ; and that the 
 only statesmanhke course was to meet the Cape ParUament 
 with a proposal to accept Mankoroane's offer and the 
 petition he had obtained in Stellaland for annexation to 
 the Cape. " For goodness' sake," he implored, " meet 
 Parliament with some policy. ... I put it to you, if you 
 have to go out, is it not better to go out on what is a real 
 policy ? " 
 
 But Rhodes's prayers and taunts were, unavailing. 
 Scanlen was too much afraid of the Dutch vote to propose 
 annexation and would give only non-committal answers. 
 So on his return to Cape Town Rhodes himself proposed in 
 Parliament that a resident commissioner should be sent 
 to Mankoroane, as a preliminary to the annexation of 
 Stellaland, and tried to arouse the House " to the 
 supreme importance of this question of Bechuanaland . . . 
 a question upon the proper treatment of which depends 
 the whole future of this colony. ... I look upon this 
 Bechuanaland territory," he continued, " as the Suez 
 Canal of the trade of this country, the key of its road to the 
 interior. . . . The question before us really is this, whether 
 this colony is to be confined to its present borders, or 
 whether it is to become the dominant state in South Africa 
 — ^whether, in fact, it is to spread its civilization over the 
 interior." Some said, he went on, turning with a compli- 
 ment to Hofmeyr and his followers, that it would be just 
 
74 CECIL RHODES 
 
 as good for their purposes if Bechuanaland fell to the 
 Transvaal ; but would it be so ? Already the Transvaal 
 was making it dii35cult for Cape traders by high tariffs ; if 
 then the Transvaal was allowed to close the only door to 
 the interior by similar tariffs it would mean ruin to the 
 Cape trade. He said that from no animus against the 
 Dutch as a race ; on the contrary, he would confirm the 
 titles of the Dutch settlers in Stellaland, only they should 
 be brought under the jurisdiction of the dominant state in 
 South Africa. 
 
 This appeal fell unheeded from his hps. Hofmeyr, with 
 the recollection of the annexation of the Transvaal fresh - 
 in his mind, thought then that the only way of maintaining 
 the Dutch cause was to support the Transvaal through 
 thick and thin ; he also felt with some reason that these 
 border quarrels concerned the Transvaal more intimately 
 than Cape Colony, and that the Imperial Government's 
 pohcy of refusing to intervene, while not allowing the 
 Transvaal to do so, was like that of the dog in the manger. 
 Apart from the Dutch, the question at that time interested 
 very few of the Cape colonists. It required pressure from 
 an unexpected quarter to arouse the feeling which Rhodes 
 and his Kimberley friends had been unable to stimulate. 
 The action of Germany now, and not for the last time, 
 helped him in a difficulty. 
 
 The scramble for Africa had just begun when Rhodes 
 entered pubhc Ufe. In 1879 Stanley inaugurated King 
 Leopold's Congo Association and began to mark out 
 territory for that philanthropic society ; M. de Brazza 
 soon followed suit for the French in the same region ; 
 other French explorers started annexing territory farther 
 up on the west coast ; and the RepubUc obtained a free 
 hand in Tunis. Italy turned longing eyes on Tripoli and 
 on the Red Sea littoral. Portugal began to revive claims 
 on the east and west coasts of Africa that had lain dormant 
 for nearly three centuries. Germany also determined to 
 have her share. Hitherto, under Bismarck's influence, she 
 had confined herself to Europe and planted no colonies ; 
 " for us," said the great chancellor, when pressed to expand 
 overseas, " it would be just hke the silken sables in the noble 
 
THE FIRST STEP NORTHWARDS 75 
 
 families of Poland, who have no shirts to their backs " ; 
 and he had no desire to compete on this score with France 
 and England, then the chief colonizing powers. England's 
 fleet rendered rivalry hopeless there, while France was 
 encouraged by him to devote her energies to Tunis and 
 Tonkin to divert her from Alsace-Lorraine and other un- 
 pleasant memories of 1870. But even before 1870 there 
 had been a colonial party in Germany ; and the success 
 of that war had strengthened it. German missionaries 
 and traders and a few explorers had long been active in 
 South and East Africa ; the great merchants and shippers 
 of Bremen and Hamburg had foimded colonization societies ; 
 a widely read article by E. von Weber in 1879, advocating 
 the establishment of German influence in Delagoa Bay, the 
 Transvaal and Matabeleland, " to pave the way for the 
 foundation of a German African empire of the future," 
 had stimulated the popular imagination. In I882 Bismarck 
 ■himself pelded to the growing feeling and began to take 
 a hand in the scramble. He went warily to work, leaving 
 France and other countries to their own devices, and 
 picking out those parts of Africa in which England alone 
 was interested, because at that time England had become 
 involved in the Egyptian morass, whereby she had ahenated 
 France, and was prepared to pay a heavy price in other 
 quarters for Germany's support. Besides, it was thought 
 that her opposition could be discounted, for though she 
 had long enjoyed free scope for her trade and political 
 influence on the Zanzibar coast, in South Africa and on the 
 Gold Coast, and though most of the discoveries in Central 
 Africa had been made by her explorers, she had hitherto 
 been averse to declaring protectorates or annexing territory, 
 even when pressed to do so by the native chiefs. Gladstone, 
 too, was in power, and he had already expressed his appre- 
 hensions of African adventure. " Our first site acquired in 
 Egypt," he had written in 1877,^ "... will be the ahnost 
 certain egg of a North African Empire that wiU grow 
 and grow . . . tiU we finally join hands across the Equator 
 with Natal and Cape Town, to say nothing of the Transvaal 
 and Orange River on the south, or of Abyssinia or Zanzibar 
 1 Nineteenth Century for August 1877. 
 
76 CECIL RHODES 
 
 to be swallowed by way of viaticum on our journey": a 
 curious forecast of Rhodes's own projects and of the opposi- 
 tion which he would have to meet. 
 
 The first point of German attack, in south-west Africa, 
 was well chosen. The native territories of Damaraland and 
 Namaqualand, extending from the Orange River to the 
 Portuguese claims in Angola and from the Atlantic to 
 Bechuanaland on the east, had always been regarded as 
 within the Cape sphere of interest, but had never been 
 formally annexed. Ever since 1867 various suggestions 
 for the annexation of the country had been put before the 
 Home Government by the Cape Ministries, by Sir Bartle 
 Frere and even by the German Government, who desired 
 protection for the Rhenish missionaries established among 
 the natives. In 1878 Lord Carnarvon had grudgingly 
 agreed to take over Walfisch Bay, the only good harbour 
 on the coast ; but this was the limit of concession ; and in 
 1880 Sir Hercules Robinson had been explicitly instructed 
 by Lord Kimberley that " the Government will not give 
 its support to plans for extending British jurisdiction over 
 Great Namaqua and Damaraland." When, therefore, on 
 May I, 1883, the German flag was hoisted at Angra Pequena 
 on the coast of Namaqualand, the EngUsh had only them- 
 selves to blame. Bismarck even went so far as to enquire 
 whether England would protect the factory to be set up 
 there by the Bremen merchant Liideritz, before he declared 
 a Gerinan protectorate ; and added that he had " not the 
 least design to estabhsh any footing in South Africa." 
 But when the German flag had once been hoisted he 
 insisted on his rights, and a British ship sent from the 
 Cape to Angra Pequeiia was warned off by a German 
 gun-boat. 
 
 For some months afterwards animated discussions went 
 on between the EngHsh and German Foreign Offices about 
 the German claim to this territory. Too late, our Foreign 
 Minister, Lord Granville, and Lord Derby, his colleague 
 at the Colonial Office, saw the danger of this intrusion by 
 a foreign power into South Africa. Derby sent urgent 
 messages to the Cape Ministry for arguments to rebut the 
 German contention that we had no rights there. Un- 
 
THE FIRST STEP NORTHWARDS 77 
 
 fortunately Scanlen's Ministry was then preoccupied with 
 its own precarious position and apparently did not realize 
 the importance of haste. Lord Derby's telegrams were 
 left unanswered, and the proof, for what it was worth, of 
 a virtual administration of the territory in Sir Bartle Frere's 
 time was never produced. Rhodes himself is not exempt 
 from blame in this matter, for during the seven weeks 
 before Scanlen's fall he was occup5dng the post of Treasurer- 
 General in the Ministry. Apparently he and Merriman 
 knew the danger of delay, for, as Rhodes himself related 
 afterwards, they used to say daily to one another, " We 
 must have Damaraland," but they were unable to impress 
 their zeal upon the rest of the Cabinet, before it went out 
 ingloriously " on the question of a bug," in other words, 
 on some trivial agricultural matter. On April 24, 1884, 
 Bismarck had formally announced a German protectorate 
 over Damaraland and Namaqualand, which, in spite of the 
 belated protest of Scanlen's successor, was recognized by 
 Lord GranviUe on June 22. 
 
 This move by Germany had one good result, however, 
 in reinforcing Rhodes's arguments for keeping a way 
 open through Bechuanaland. The position in South Africa 
 was now somewhat similar to that of the English and 
 French in America at the beginning of the Seven Years' 
 War. The English on the American sea-board were then 
 in danger of being cut off from the interior by the efforts 
 of the French to connect their colonies of Canada and 
 Louisiana by a series of posts immediately behind the 
 English settlements. Once more the English appeared to 
 be in danger of losing their chance of expansion into the 
 interior by an imderstanding between Germany and the 
 Transvaal about closing the way through Bechuanaland, 
 or even, as Rhodes suggested, by further aggression on 
 Germany's part. " Do you think," he asked, " that if 
 the Transvaal had Bechuanaland, it would be allowed to 
 keep it ? Would not Bismarck have some quarrel with 
 the Transvaal, and without resources, without men, what 
 could they do ? Germany would come across from her 
 colony of Angra Pequefia. There would be some excuse 
 to pick a quarrel — some question of brandy or guns or 
 
78 CECIL RHODES 
 
 something — and then Germany would stretch from Angra 
 Pequena to Delagoa Bay. I was never more satisfied 
 with my own views than when I saw the recent develop- 
 ment of the poUcy of Germany. What was the bar in 
 Germany's way ? Bechuanaland. ... If we were to stop 
 at Griqualand West, the ambitious projects of Germany 
 would be attained." These fears of Rhodes were not 
 lessened by the extraordinary marks of favour with which 
 the Transvaal delegation, then in Europe, was received in 
 Berlin. 
 
 Fortunately for Rhodes's views, the Imperial Govern- 
 ment had left the question of Bechuanaland open by the 
 London Convention of February 1884. The Transvaal 
 delegation had urged strongly their claims for a rectification 
 of the border which would put the republics of Stellaland 
 and Goshen and the southern part of the missionaries' 
 road under their control. But feeling in England, as well 
 as in the Cape, had been awakened to this question of 
 Bechuanaland, partly by the German advance, partly 
 owing to the reaction from Gladstone's surrender of 1881. 
 The missionary Mackenzie had been stirring up interest 
 at home by pubhc meetings and newspaper articles, and 
 by his tales of Boer oppression of the natives had enlisted 
 the support of powerful bodies hke the Aborigines Protec- 
 tion Society, ^nd such men as Sir T. Fowell Buxton and 
 W. E. Forster. Sir Hercules Robinson, called home to 
 advise the Colonial Office, was strongly against the Boer 
 claims, and though Scanlen, representing the Cape Ministry, 
 was weak, he was kept up to the mark by his colleague 
 Merriman's messages from Cape Town, as well as by Rhodes. 
 In the end. Lord Derby had excluded Stellaland and Goshen 
 as well as the trade route from the Transvaal, and had 
 received from Scanlen a promise to contribute to the 
 expenses of a protectorate over Bechuanaland. 
 
 But even so, the Imperial Government did not grasp 
 the nettle firmly and declare a protectorate at once. 
 Various agents were sent up to investigate affairs and 
 exercise an ill-defined authority without clear instructions 
 as to their proceedings. First came Captain Graham 
 Bower to report ; he reported that the Stellalanders were 
 
THE FIRST STEP NORTHWARDS 79 
 
 an orderly community and was favourably impressed by 
 Van Niekerk. Next, in April 1884, the Rev. John Mackenzie 
 was sent as deputy-commissioner. No worse choice could 
 have been made, for though he had done good work in 
 directing pubhc attention to the country, and during his 
 twenty years as a missionary there had won the confidence 
 of the natives, he was singularly wanting in tact and was 
 hated by every Dutchman in South Africa for his virulent 
 attacks on that race. He went up with the fixed ideas 
 that the settlers in Goshen and Stellaland were rascals and 
 freebooters who must be dislodged, that the imperial might 
 of England must be displayed, and that annexation by the 
 Cape was a solution to be avoided at all costs, owing to the 
 large Dutch element in that colony. His actions were in 
 keeping with his prejudices. In Land Goshen he made no 
 attempt to conciliate the settlers and made no protest 
 against a surprise attack by Montsioa on their capital 
 Rooigrond ; in SteUaland he quarrelled with Van Niekerk 
 and attempted to divide his followers ; he raised the British 
 standard there without any authority to do so, demanded 
 a large force of police to overawe all malcontents, and 
 countenanced some of the worst rascals at Mankoroane's 
 headquarters. In fact, as Rhodes, who from Kimberley 
 was keeping an eye on his proceedings, telegraphed to the 
 High Commissioner, he seemed to be working for " a split 
 on race hnes : if true, this certainly means trouble." 
 
 While Mackenzie was acting in this high-handed way 
 in Bechuanaland, Rhodes had an opportunity of again 
 defining his policy. It was on the introduction of a bill 
 for annexing southern Bechuanaland to the Cape by the 
 new Prime Minister, Upington. Opinion had thus advanced 
 considerably since the preceding year ; now, not only the 
 Ministry but the leading members of the late Government 
 were in favour of the proposal ; then Rhodes had stood 
 almost alone. Again he took a leading part in the debate, 
 with the delicate task of steering a middle course between 
 those who, like Mackenzie, demanded the intervention of 
 the Imperial Government, and the followers of Hofmeyr, 
 who wished the country to fall into the hands of the Trans- 
 vaal. Turning first to the latter, " Was this House," he 
 
8o CECIL RHODES 
 
 asked, " prepared to say after the debt we had incurred, 
 that we should allow these repubhcs to form a wall across 
 our trade route ? The railways had been constructed with 
 a view to the trade of the interior. He was not exactly 
 a follower of Sir Bartle Erere, who wanted to jump 
 immediately to the Zambesi, but he believed that the 
 colony would gradually extend in that direction, and that 
 the civilization of Africa would be from the colony of the 
 Catpe of Good Hope. Were we to allow a neighbouring 
 state to acquire the whole of the interior ... a state 
 which imposed a hostile tariff of 33 per cent against our 
 goods ? We must look to the development of the north, 
 not only in the interest of the merchants, but also in the 
 interest of our farmers. Bechuanaland was the neck of 
 the whole territories up to the Zambesi, and we must secure 
 it, unless we were prepared to see the whole of the north 
 pass out of our hands." He was equally severe on 
 Mackenzie and his school. Mackenzie with all his sympathy 
 for the natives had little for the whites of South Africa, 
 and had already estranged the settlers who had petitioned 
 for annexation to the Cape. Eor this was the true solution ; 
 the responsibility was the Cape's, the chief interest was the 
 Cape's, and the Cape alone without interference from the 
 Imperial Government could settle the matter amicably 
 with the Transvaal. " If the Cipe did not act," he con- 
 tinued, " the Imperial Government would interfere ; and 
 possibly the interference of the Imperial Government 
 might lead to a repetition of those unfortunate occurrences 
 which they had had in connection with the Transvaal. . . . 
 We must not have the Imperial factor in Bechuanaland. 
 , . . They should at once negotiate with the Imperial 
 Government and with the people of the Transvaal [with a 
 view to annexation to the Cape], and foremost they should 
 try and remove the Imperial factor from the situation." 
 
 The motion, which was also supported by Scanlen and 
 Merriman, was carried ; and Rhodes, the real protagonist, 
 leapt into sudden notoriety by his attack on the " Imperial 
 factor." He was no great speaker, but he had a happy 
 knack of coining phrases, often in the form of blazing 
 indiscretions, which curtly expressed a popular opinion. 
 
THE FIRST STEP NORTHWARDS 8i 
 
 His claim to dispense with the Imperial factor in the j^ 
 situation caught the fancy of Englishmen as well as Dutch- 
 men in South Africa, tired of the meddling of Exeter Hall 
 and Downing Street. It was received with the same 
 rapturous applause as, five years later, the cautious 
 Governor's sudden indiscretion in attacking " the amateur 
 meddling of irresponsible and ill - advised persons in 
 England, which makes every resident in the Republics, 
 English as well as Dutch, rejoice in their independence 
 and converts many a Colonist from an Imperialist into a 
 Republican." Rhodes's phrase meant no more than what 
 he expressed in a later speech : " Gentlemen, I have ever 
 held one view : i.e. the government of South Africa by the 
 people of South Africa, with the Imperial flag for defence " ; 
 and so it was understood in South Africa. But in England 
 it was regarded as an attack on the Imperial connection 
 generally : he was spoken of as a dangerous politician 
 prepared to " cut the painter " ; and it was many years 
 before he completely lived down the reputation he had 
 acquired in the English press for disloyalty to the Mother 
 Country. 
 
 Less than a fortnight after this speech he was called 
 upon to act on his professions. Mackenzie had set the 
 whole country by the ears ; and both the Transvaal and 
 the Cape Ministry represented that he was a danger to 
 peace, Rhodes and a considerable section of the opposition 
 agreeing with them. So Robinson recalled him and in 
 August sent up, the third agent in succession since March, 
 Rhodes himself, with the title of Deputy-Commissioner, to 
 try another line. He had no more definite instructions 
 than his predecessor, so he framed his own programme. 
 He found that Van Niekerk and his party in Stellaland, 
 though preferring to come under the Transvaal, were quite- 
 willing to accept the dominion of the Cape if their land- 
 titles were not interfered with ; but that in Goshen Van 
 Pittius, a regular swashbuckler, had no intention of coming 
 to terms ; on the contrary was preparing fresh attacks on 
 Montsioa. " My policy, if it can be called one," he there- 
 upon telegraphed to Sir Hercules, " is contained in a few 
 words, viz. to try and effect a reconciUation with the 
 
 G 
 
82 CECIL RHODES 
 
 Niekerk party and obtain their co-operation in dealing 
 with Rooigrond. ... I know exactly the object I am 
 working for ; to stop, if possible, a collision between our 
 police and the Boers and to prevent a general war, which 
 must necessitate British troops, and the revival in an 
 intensified form of the old race feelings, which I am still 
 in hopes are dying out." He first went to see Van Niekerk 
 and his chief lieutenant, " Groot " Adriaan De la Rey, a 
 huge imcouth Boer from the backveld with a sinister 
 reputation for violence. " I shall never forget our meet- 
 ing," said Rhodes, describing it some years later. " When 
 I spoke to De la Rey, his answer was, ' Blood must flow,' 
 to which I remember making the retort : ' No, give me my 
 breakfast, and then we can talk about blood.' Well, I 
 stayed with him a week. I became godfather to his grand- 
 child and we made a settlement." This settlement, ratified 
 by Rhodes and Van Niekerk in September, stipulated that 
 the settlers should recognize a British protectorate before 
 the end of the year, but that they might administer the 
 government of SteUaland, subject to the British Commis- 
 sioner's approval ; that their land-titles should be recognized, 
 and that all Mackenzie's proceedings should be declared 
 void. The visit to Rooigrond was not so successful. Here 
 he found the Transvaal border Commissioner, General 
 Joubert, and characteristically plunged into a discussion 
 with him on South African federation over their first 
 luncheon. But Van Pittius was surly and insolent and 
 actually pressed forward an attack on Montsioa at Mafe- 
 king in Rhodes's presence, an attack in which the British 
 agent BetheU was killed. Rhodes was powerless to restrain 
 him, as he had not even an escort with him ; he therefore 
 returned forthwith to SteUaland. Montsioa was compelled 
 to sign a treaty giving up most of his territory to the 
 Goshenites, and much to Rhodes's indignation the treaty 
 was confirmed by Joubert. A few weeks later Kruger, 
 prompted by Du Toit, the founder of the Bond, who had 
 accepted office in the Transvaal, violated the London 
 Convention he had recently signed by proclaiming 
 Montsioa's territory under his Government's protection. 
 This was too much for all but the most bigoted supporters 
 
THE FIRST STEP NORTHWARDS 83 
 
 of the Transvaal in Cape Colony and for English public 
 opinion. It was felt that this was a good opportunity to 
 show Germany as well as the Transvaal that England was 
 not yet a negligible factor in South Africa. Lord Derby 
 instructed Robinson to make stem representations to 
 Kruger ; and resolutions of protest came from all parts 
 of the colony. Kruger saw he had gone too far, and 
 within a month recalled the obnoxious proclamation. 
 
 Rhodes himself was now one of the first to propose the 
 introduction of the Imperial factor. Upington's Ministry, 
 dependent on the support of the Bond, were still hagghng 
 over the terms of annexation with the Home Government 
 and it looked as if the country would be lost unless that 
 authority stepped in : moreover, a salutary lesson was 
 needed to Van Pittius and the Transvaal Government, 
 and indirectly to Germany. He therefore urged that an 
 expeditionary force should be sent from England to enforce 
 the Convention and establish a protectorate over Bechuana- 
 land ; and suggested that Sir Charles Warren, whom he had 
 known in Griqualand West, should take command. Both 
 Sir Hercules and Lord Derby agreed. The expedition was 
 sent out with remarkable despatch, and by Christmas 1884 
 Sir Charles Warren had 4000 well-equipped troops on the 
 borders of Stellaland. Before that a fourth set of emissaries 
 from Cape Town, no less than the Prime Minister Upington 
 and his Treasurer, Sprigg, had gone to Goshen to attempt 
 one more settlement : their settlement practically yielded 
 all Van Pittius's demands and was promptly repudiated by 
 Robinson ; while Sprigg and Upington were burned in effigy 
 at Cape Town. Thus the coast was clear for Warren, 
 the fifth within a year to attempt a settlement of the 
 Bechuanaland question. 
 
 Warren settled it after a fashion, but not to Rhodes's 
 satisfaction and not without creating as much bad blood 
 as Mackenzie himself. He began well, shortly after landing 
 at Cape Town, by confirming Rhodes's agreement with Van 
 Niekerk ; but soon repented of that concession. For he 
 evidently came out with the determination to ride rough- 
 shod over the country and to make the most of his imposing 
 military force. He gave 'an early taste of his quahty by 
 
84 CECIL RHODES 
 
 insisting that Mackenzie should accompany him as adviser, 
 in spite of the High Commissioner's representations that 
 Mackenzie was distrusted by the Cape as well as the Trans- 
 vaal Governments and had done no good in Stellaland. 
 He consented to see Rhodes also, on Robinson's re- 
 commendation of him as " clear-headed, honest and quite 
 disinterested, as well as fresh from Stellaland," but from 
 the outset neglected his advice. 
 
 One of Warren's first acts was to arrange a meeting with 
 President Kruger at Fourteen Streams on the Vaal, to 
 discuss the beaconing off of the Transvaal border and other 
 points of difference. This very meeting was made the 
 excuse for an imposing display of miUtary strength, which 
 gave great offence. Whereas Kruger came with a few 
 artillerymen as a guard of honour, Warren, professing to 
 fear a hostile ambush, sent forward two hundred dragoons 
 and yeomanry to scour the country beforehand. He also 
 came attended by the obnoxious Mackenzie, as well as 
 Rhodes. The occasion, however, is chiefly interesting as 
 the first meeting between Rhodes and the only opponent 
 worthy of his steel that he was destined to encounter. 
 
 Paul Kruger was then sixty, nearly twice Rhodes's age, 
 and had memories extending back to the Boers' first move- 
 ment of revolt against British domination. As a boy of 
 ten he had accompanied his parents on the great trek from 
 Cape Colony to the then unknown country beyond the Vaal. 
 A rough rude upbringing he had amongst savages and wild 
 beasts and was soon depending for his livelihood on his own 
 exertions. " I have not had much schooling," he once 
 confided to a Bloemfontein audience, " in the ordinary 
 acceptation of the term. When I was ten years old I had 
 to begin fighting for my hfe in my coimtry and since then 
 I have always been busy with few intervals. That has been' 
 my only schooling. But I have learned one thing, to dis- 
 tinguish friends from foes." One book, however, he did know 
 well, his Bible, and from its teaching and the teaching of his 
 own experiences had culled his cunning in statecraft and his 
 philosophy of life. He knew personally every burgher in. his 
 republic and had known most of their parents, and among 
 them had acquired a legendary reputation for courage and 
 
THE FIRST STEP NORTHWARDS 85 
 
 slimness. Tales were told of many a feat : how he had 
 
 hacked off his own thiimb when he found it mortifying from a 
 
 wound ; how he went alone to beard a rebel chieftain in his 
 
 kraal with all his savage warriors ; how in one memorable day 
 
 he had started nmning at dawn, gone home to drink a cup 
 
 of coffee at mid-day and been soimdly thrashed there by 
 
 his father for disobedience, then resimiing his race had shot 
 
 a lion by the way, and finally at sunset had out-distanced 
 
 the fleetest Kaffir runners, against whom he had been 
 
 running for a wager : these were household tales in the 
 
 Transvaal. Added to these his more solid achievements 
 
 in negotiating his coimtry's independence in 1881 and in 
 
 obtaining still better terms for her in the recent London 
 
 Convention account for his wonderful prestige with his 
 
 burghers. He regarded himself more as a prophet than a 
 
 statesman, a prophet chosen by God to guide a chosen 
 
 people into the ways of righteousness and safety. He never 
 
 forgot his early trek, when he had been taught that he and 
 
 his people were fleeing from bondage to the ungodly Enghsh ; 
 
 and his recent experiences did but confirm his behef that 
 
 his chief duty was to circumvent that ungodly race. Some 
 
 of the ungodly race had already invaded his land, to 
 
 prospect for gold at Barberton in the low veld and the 
 
 De Kaap goldfields in the moimtains ; but they had been 
 
 few and comparatively unsuccessful, so did not seem Hkely 
 
 to bring many more in their train or interfere with his 
 
 burghers' secluded existence : for his strength and his 
 
 trust lay in his coimtry's isolation. It was a broad and 
 
 pleasant land with plenty of healthy high veld for the 
 
 summer grazing and of well-watered low veld for the winter 
 
 pastures and the lazy form of agriculture affected by his 
 
 people ; broad enough for every burgher to have his own 
 
 farm - house, remote, as he loved it, from every other 
 
 dwelling-place, and with aU the land within sight for his 
 
 own domain. Even so there was a fly in his ointment. 
 
 With all their present elbow-room his Boers never felt 
 
 quite happy without illimitable spaces into which to roam 
 
 when the trek fever was upon them. But the south was 
 
 already taken up by their cousins of the Free State, in the 
 
 east the Portuguese and Swaziland cut off their access to 
 
86 CECIL RHODES 
 
 the sea, in tHe north the savage Matabeles forbade further 
 access towards the Zambesi, and now in the west the 
 ungodly race and that newly arisen adventurer of theirs, 
 Rhodes, were seeking to confine them strictly within their 
 allotted borders. A stiff-necked old gentleman Kruger 
 aliready was when he first met Rhodes in January 1885, 
 and he became more stubborn with increasing age ; im- 
 movable in his old traditions and prejudices, giving way 
 on details only as a last resort, but never yielding in his 
 determination to keep his country inviolate and his people 
 untouched by any change in the plan of hfe which they had 
 brought into the country fifty years before. 
 
 In the interview at Fourteen Streams Rhodes was 
 over-shadowed by the martial Warren and took little part 
 in the proceedings, confining himself to a discussion on 
 the land-titles and cattle-thefts in Stellaland and complaints 
 of Joubert's conduct at Rooigrond. Kruger in his own 
 Memoirs, dictated long afterwards, says that he reproved 
 Rhodes for abusing an absent man ; but the statement of 
 Mackenzie, who had no love for Rhodes, seems more 
 probable, that the President did not seem altogether dis- 
 pleased at the attack on his own rival for the presidency. 
 Rhodes at least went away from this first interview with 
 a great respect for the sturdy old President. If he was a 
 fanatic on the subject of his own country, well, so was 
 Rhodes himself on Engla nd's mission to civilize the rest of 
 the world. ~He^poke of Tiim afterwards as" ""OTieT)fThe 
 most remarkable men in South Africa," and expressed a 
 fellow-feeling for " that extraordinary man," whose one 
 dream, when he had not a sixpence in his treasury, was 
 the same as his own, " to extend his country over the 
 whole of the northern interior." He certainly realized 
 now and henceforward that he was an opponent to be 
 dealt, with warily. Kruger, on his side, returned the 
 compliment by admitting the capacity of his youthful 
 antagonist to make himself impleasant : it was not for 
 nothing that he had " learned one thing, to distinguish 
 friends from foes " ; and he is reported to have said to 
 his friends : " That young man wiU cause me trouble if 
 he does not leave poUtics alone and turn to something 
 
THE FIRST STEP NORTHWARDS 87 
 
 else. Well, the race-horse is swifter than the ox, but the 
 ox can draw the greater loads. We shall see." 
 
 It became apparent by this interview that no further 
 danger was to be apprehended from the Transvaal. But 
 both Rhodes and Warren were still nervous about Germany's 
 iatentions, and were supported by the Home Government and 
 the Cape in their determination to prove England's intention 
 of retaining the corridor to the interior through Bechuana- 
 land.^ But the two men differed fundamentally as to 
 method. Rhodes's idea was to secure the co-operation of 
 Van Niekerk and the SteUaland burghers, avoid all further 
 friction with the Dutch, and make it easy for the Bond 
 party to agree to aimexation by the Cape of the southern 
 part of Bechuanaland, with a loose Imperial protectorate 
 of the northern part : in this way the Cape colonists, who 
 were chiefly concerned, would have an interest in main- 
 taining the open door to the interior. Warren for his part, 
 influenced by Mackenzie, was opposed to extending the 
 Cape borders : he desired to establish the Imperial authority 
 throughout Bechuanaland, and by his provocative conduct 
 succeeded in making it impossible for any Cape Ministry 
 to assume responsibihty for any part of the country. 
 Rhodes was plainly given to imderstand that his occupation 
 as Deputy-Commissioner was gone. His advice was un- 
 heeded and he was left with nothing to do but to sit in his 
 hut at headquarters and discuss with young Currey and 
 Ralph Williams, a friend on Warren's staff, day-dreams 
 about the advance of British power to the great Central 
 Lakes and the confusion of Germany. Finally, after a 
 month of this, when Warren disowned Rhodes's arrange- 
 ment with Kruger's Attorney-General about compensation 
 for cattle-thefts, repudiated his agreement with Van Niekerk 
 about the status of Stellaland and the recognition of land- 
 titles, an agreement which he himself had confirmed at 
 Cape Town, and even arrested Van Niekerk on an utterly 
 untenable charge of murder, Rhodes felt himself in honour 
 bound, to resign and leave the country. Warren, after a 
 
 ' Germany had expressed some alarm at Warren's expedition, but 
 had been reassured by Granville, who disclaimed any intention of interfer- 
 ing with Namaqualand and Damaraland (Transvaal, 1885, C. 4310). 
 
88 CECIL RHODES 
 
 parting insult to him as a " danger to the peace," then felt 
 free to act as he chose. He proclaimed martial law in 
 southern Bechuanaland, visited Land Goshen, whence he 
 found that Van Pittius and all his volunteers had fled, and 
 then proceeded with his army on progress with Mackenzie 
 through northern Bechuanaland. Here he did his best 
 to stimulate a native war by accepting from Khama, chief 
 of the Bamangwatos, a concession over country which 
 really belonged not to Khama but to his neighbour Lo 
 Bengula, king of the Matabeles, and to arouse all the bitterest 
 feelings of race hatred in South Africa by proposing that 
 only settlers of pure British origin, to the exclusion of the 
 Dutch, should be admitted into Bechuanaland. In all 
 these proceedings he disregarded not only the advice of 
 Rhodes and the Cape Ministry, whom he insulted, but also 
 the High Commissioner himself. In August 1885 he was 
 hastily recalled ; but the harm was then done. In one 
 respect his mission had been successful, in making plain 
 both to the Transvaal and to Germany that England had 
 no intention of abdicating her position as the paramount 
 power in South Africa. But he had made co-opefation 
 with the Cape impossible for the time being. The Dutch 
 party, after seeing the Governor ignored, the Rhodes agree- 
 ment with Van Niekerk repudiated, and Mackenzie allowed 
 to dictate an anti-Dutch policy, washed their hands of the 
 whole business. The Cape Government, dependent on the 
 Dutch, refused to relieve the Imperial Government of any 
 part of its burden in Bechuanaland ; consequently in 
 September it was decided to establish Crown Colony 
 government over the country as far north as the Molopo 
 River, so as to include Montsioa's and Mankoroane's terri- 
 tory, as well as Stellaland and Goshen. The Crown Colony 
 was given the name of British Bechuanaland, to distinguish 
 it from the Protectorate established over the northern part 
 up to Lo Bengula's borders. 
 
 When the Cape Parliament met in June Rhodes took 
 occasion to express the bitter humiliation he felt, as an 
 Englishman, at Warren's proceedings. " I remember," he 
 said, " when a youngster, reading in my English history 
 of the supremacy of my country and its annexations and 
 
THE FIRST STEP NORTHWARDS 89 
 
 that there were two cardinal axioms : that the word of 
 the ijation when once pledged was never broken, and that 
 when a man accepted the citizenship of the British Empire, 
 there was no distinction of races. It has been my mis- 
 fortune in one year to meet with the breach of the one 
 and the proposed breach of the other. The result will be 
 that when the troops are gone we shall have to deal with 
 sullen feeling, discontent and hostiUty. . . . The breach of 
 solemn pledges and the introduction of race distinctions 
 must result in bringing calamity on this country, and if 
 such a policy is pursued it will endanger the whole of our 
 social relationships with colonists of Dutch descent and 
 endanger the supremacy of Her Majesty in this country." 
 
 He was naturally sore for public and personal reasons 
 at the outcome of his endeavours.^ He had been personally 
 insulted by Warren and practically driven out of the 
 country ; and he had seen all his efforts to draw English 
 and Dutch together for the first step northwards made 
 imavailing ; while in return he had only reaped abuse 
 and insinuations from his fellow-countrymen for daring to 
 say a good word for the. Dutch. But he could at least 
 have consoled himself with the reflection that his exertions 
 and his influence had played no smaU part in the Imperial 
 Government's decision to checkmate any designs by the 
 Transvaal or Germany on Bechuanaland ; and within ten 
 years he was to persuade the Cape to annex the Crown 
 Colony with the Crown's full consent. Above all his efforts 
 to unite Dutch and EngUsh in one poUcy, though unsuccess- 
 ful for the moment, stood him in good stead afterwards, for 
 they were not forgotten. It was felt that he was justified 
 when he said in the same speech in which he attacked 
 Warren : "I can at least appeal to the House from the fact 
 that I have for the last three years been trying to deal with 
 the question, not with the idea of stirring up difficulties 
 with neighbouring South African states, not with any 
 desire to embroil ourselves with colonists of Dutch descent, 
 
 1 For his work as Deputy-Commissioner Rhodes was offered some small 
 decoration. This he refused, but said he would appreciate a formal letter 
 of thanks from the Secretary of State. Such a request was unprecedented 
 and caused some fluttering in the Colonial Of&ce dove-cotes ; however, it was 
 eventually sent. 
 
go CECIL RHODES 
 
 but with a real feeling that in Bechuanaland lies the future 
 of South Africa, and that with our right deaUng with this 
 question will depend the union in the future of South 
 Africa." 1 
 
 ' The controversy between Rhodes and Warren died hard. In 1885 
 (Sir) Ralph Williams published The British Lion in Bechuanaland, defend- 
 ing Rhodes and attacking Warren and Mackenzie. Both sides of the 
 dispute were put forward in the " Trawiuaa/ " bluebooks of the same year, 
 Warren's by himself and Rhodes's, with evident approbation, by Sir 
 Hercules Robinson. Austral Africa, a long-winded pamphlet in two 
 volumes, appeared from Mackenzie's pen in 1887, in defence of Warren 
 and himself, and against Rhodes and Sir Hercules. The two main 
 disputants also engaged in a long controversy in The Times during 
 November and December 1885. Rhodes's letter, which opens the ball 
 on November 11, probably constitutes a record for length in the corre- 
 spondence columns of that paper, for it occupies close on four columns 
 of small print. On November 17 and 26 Warren rejoins in large print. 
 On December 2 Rhodes comes out with another letter nearly two columns 
 in length (small print again) ; on December 14 Warren concludes with a 
 final letter in large print. The comparative value then attached by The 
 Times to the two men, by the fount assigned to their letters, is interesting. 
 
 For his first letter Rhodes had gone to an hotel in Chester, where he 
 thought he should be quiet, and he was helped to concoct it by his friend 
 Ralph Williams : the finished production was then shown to Mr. R. 
 Maguire for further suggestions. According to Sir R. Williams, he was 
 the scribe, While Rhodes stalked up and down the room without a coat, 
 rubbing his hands together or rufOing his hair and ejaculating suggestions 
 which WilUams would put into consecutive English. At intervals Rhodes 
 would call a halt, " to look at it from Warren's point of view," and state 
 what he imagined to be Warren's case, in order to be certain that his 
 own arguments covered the whole ground. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 GOLD AND DIAMONDS 
 
 " Put money in thy purse. . . . Put money in thy purse. 
 . . . Make all the money thou canst " : this seems to have 
 been the chief lesson learned by Rhodes after the compara- 
 tive failure of his first great adventure in politics. He had 
 tried the Cape Government, he had tried the Imperial 
 factor, and they had both failed him, or at any rate he 
 had not got what he wanted done as he wanted. For the 
 future he felt that he must take his own course. Most 
 men with original ideas have had to make a similar resolu- 
 tion and have sought to attain their objects by their 
 eloquence in the Senate, by conquests on the battlefield, 
 or by their power of imparting sparks from their own 
 burning convictions to their feUows. Rhodes did not 
 neglect these means, but he was singular in this that he 
 attached enormous importance to the influence of wealth 
 in securing pubhc objects. If one has ideas, as he told 
 General Gordon, one cannot carry them out without wealth 
 to back them : " I have therefore tried," he added in 
 narrating this incident, " to combine the commercial with 
 the imaginative." He did not, as so many others have 
 done, regard wealth as an end in itself, but as a prehminary 
 to success he believed it to be essential, and was unflinching 
 in putting his theory into practice. For three years after 
 the Bechuanaland episode he gave himself up almost 
 entirely to the pursuit of wfealth. He ke^t in touch with 
 politics, but only took part in them incidentally when a 
 question directly affecting his interests cropped up : on 
 his main conception of a further advance northwards he 
 
 91 
 
92 CECIL RHODES 
 
 was biding his time silently tiU the day when he could 
 come forward to crush all opposition by his financial power. 
 
 During the five years that he had been devoting his 
 energies chiefly to affairs of state in Basutoland and 
 Bechuanaland or at Cape Town, he had not lost sight of 
 his De Beers Mining Company. Since its incorporation in 
 1880 with a capital of only ;(200,ooo it had prospered 
 exceedingly, largely owing to the vigilance of Rhodes 
 himself, who was secretary of the Company till 1883 and 
 then chairman. He was always on the look out for 
 improved and more economical methods of working. In 
 the middle of his election campaign he writes to his friend 
 Rudd that " the expenses are simply damnable " and that 
 the extravagance of the new engineer must be curbed, and 
 two years later is quite ready to have a committee of the 
 directors to consider further economies. He also seized 
 every opportunity of buying up and incorporating other 
 claims and companies. By 1885 the De Beers Company 
 was already the chief owner in that mine, and its capital 
 had increased from the original £200,000 to £841,550. 
 But this was not enough : he was (determined to clear out 
 all rivals and make his company the sole proprietor of his 
 " nice httle mine." Before starting operations at Kim- 
 berley, and soon after his final fling at Warren in the Cape 
 -Parliament, he went home to England to raise funds and 
 concihate interests and then returned to devote himself to 
 the process of amalgamation. 
 
 But if Rhodes was bent on amalgamation at De Beers, 
 so were others in the other mines. In fact a closer amal- 
 gamation of interests had become a necessity if the diamond 
 industry was to survive at all. Owing to the conditions 
 of mining at Kimberley, the smaU digger of the early days, 
 content to work for what he could find on one claim or 
 even a quarter or an eighth of a claim 31 feet by 31 feet, 
 had long found it impossible to make a living. The cost of 
 pumping out the water from the mines had been the first 
 serious tax on these men's resources and had driven most of 
 
GOLD AND DIAMONDS 93 
 
 them away : their claims had been bought up by various 
 companies, but in their turn only the strongest of the com- 
 panies could survive the next and more serious disaster to 
 the industry. The reef, which formed a casing round the 
 " yellow " and " blue " ground, began gradually to fall 
 in, as its support was cut away, and finally, early in the 
 'eighties, millions of cubic feet of reef collapsed, burying 
 in some mines half the diamond claims that were being 
 worked. Futile efforts by mining boards and the richer 
 companies were at first made to remove the reef and expose 
 the claims again, but that was soon found to be a hopeless 
 method : the only resource left, and that an expensive 
 one, was to sink shafts beneath the fallen reef and start 
 underground mining on the buried claims. These success- 
 ive calamities, the increased cost of production, and the 
 reduction in the price of diamonds had been hastening on 
 in the other mines the same process of amalgamation to 
 which Rhodes was devoting himself at De Beers ; for only 
 the strongest companies found it possible to survive. Thus 
 by the end of 1885 the original 3600 claims, into which the 
 four Kimberley mines had been divided, had aU been 
 concentrated into the hands of ninety-eight owners ; of 
 these, there were thirty and thirty-seven respectively in 
 th?Bultfontein and Dutoitspan, which had hitherto suffered 
 least from landshdes, but only ten in De Beers, and nine- 
 teen in the Kimberley Mine, the original New Rush, 
 where Rhodes had worked his first claim. But even this 
 reduction in the number of claim-holders did not solve 
 all difficulties. There was still a great deal of waste 
 involved in the attempt by ninety-eight separate owners 
 to exploit an area of only seventy acres in the aggregate ; 
 and the new system of underground working introduced 
 another element of confusion. Instead of one main shaft 
 for each mine, each company had to have its own, and the 
 tunnelling gave^ rise to constant disputes about encroach- 
 ments between rival claim-holders. Bamato afterwards 
 described the resulting confusion at De Beers. " Why," 
 Ije asked, " was the underground system not a success in 
 this case ? Because one company was working against 
 another; that is to say, if one company was on the five 
 
94 CECIL RHODES 
 
 hundred feet level, the opposing company could go and 
 eat into each other's boundary walls and pillars to such a 
 dangerous extent that the entire mine was in a condition 
 which threatened coUapse at any moment." Similar con- 
 siderations in the other mines were making the need of 
 amalgamation self-evident. 
 ^ Rhodes, however, was the first to succeed. By 1887 
 he had bought up all the remaining claims at De Beers 
 and thus made his company the sole owner of the mine. 
 This amalgamation of interests helped him considerably in 
 cutting the costs of working. He chose his engineers and 
 officials well, and could afford to pay them good salaries, 
 finding his profit in this pbhcy. They introduced the beat 
 engines and labour-saving appliances, which amply repaid 
 the heavy initial outlay. Between 1882 and 1888 the cost 
 of winning a carat had been reduced from i6s. 6d. to 7s. 2d., 
 while the reserve of "blue" on the drying . grounds had 
 increased from 3000 to 300,000 loads. Great savings, too, 
 had been effected by the introduction, largely on Rhodes's 
 initiative, of compounds for the native workers. Hitherto 
 it had been very difficult to prevent thefts of diamonds 
 by these natives, who abstracted them from the workings 
 and secretly sold them to illicit diamond buyers (I.D.B.) : 
 in one year alone, it was estimated, claim-holders had lost 
 diamonds to the value of £725,000 by these thefts. But 
 when the natives were confined, during the whole of their 
 term of service, in compounds, they could be properly 
 watched and searched and had no means of communicating 
 with unlicensed dealers ; thus by this system the losses by 
 thefts became almost negligible. These compounds were 
 also of advantage to the natives themselves, for they were 
 well cared for in them, well fed at a low cost, and prevented 
 from touching liquor, on which they used previously to 
 waste most of their earnings. Thus in spite of the great 
 reduction in the price of diamonds from 30s. to i8s. 5^d. 
 per carat within six years and the great increase in capital 
 by all the accretions of claims and companies, the De Beers 
 Mining Company, which had paid only 3 per cent on the 
 original £200,000 in 1882, in 1888 paid 25 per cent on a 
 capital of no less than £2,332,170. 
 
GOLD AND DIAMONDS 95 
 
 Meanwhile Bamato, at the Kimberley Mine, had been 
 pursuing much the same policy. He also had been acquir- 
 ing all the claims he could lay his hands on, and by the 
 time Rhodes had amalgamated the De Beers Mine had 
 made his own Central Company the strongest in the 
 Kimberley Mine. But he still had some competitors, the 
 most considerable of which was the French Company ; in 
 time he had hopes of absorbing that and then he would be 
 in a better position than Rhodes, for his mine was the most 
 productive and the richest on the Diamond Fields. Rhodes 
 saw the danger. It was brought home to him in this way. 
 In 1887 he sunk a shaft in his mine, whereby 2500 loads a 
 day could be raised and the total output of the mine had 
 increased to 1,000,000 carats a year : at the same time 
 he found that the Kimberley Mine could do as well if not 
 better, for in an incredibly short time the Central Company 
 had sunk a similar shaft, and another company in the same 
 mine was following its example. Already, owing to over- 
 production, the price of diamonds had sunk and was still 
 sinking ; if it came to a cut-throat competition between the 
 two mines, profits would disappear altogether, and then the 
 weaker mine would have to succumb. Now Rhodes used 
 to calculate that, taking one year with another, young 
 men engaged to be married and others were prepared to 
 spend ;f4,ooo,ooo a year, no more and no less, in the 
 purchase of diamonds for their siAfeethearts and wives : if 
 the price of diamonds was high, they bought fewer stones, 
 if low, they bought more, but never, on an average, more 
 than were worth the £4,000,000. The problem to his 
 mind, therefore, was how to limit the annual output of 
 diamonds for the market that the £4,000,000 they fetched 
 should show a clear profit to the diamond mining companies : 
 the amalgamation of interests in one mine only was no 
 remedy for this state of things as long as there were rival 
 companies elsewhere. The only solution he saw was to 
 amalgamate all the diamond mines under one control, and 
 so regulate production and prices to suit the interests of 
 the industry. Others before him, his friend Merriman 
 for one, had conceived this idea of one gigantic 
 diamond corporation, but had failed to bring it off. 
 
96 CECIL RHODES 
 
 But this did not daunt Rhodes, he remembered the 
 Umkomanzi valley and the cotton : so he resolved to make 
 one more attempt. This resolution brought him into direct 
 antagonism with Barney Bamato. 
 
 Before 1887 there had been no such rivahy ; each had 
 been too busy looking after his own mine. But on this 
 question of fixing prices and eUminating competition the 
 two kings of the diamond industry took diametrically 
 opposite views. Rhodes's idea of a huge corporation, of 
 which he would naturally be the guiding spirit, to control 
 the four mines and regulate prices, did not suit Bamato at 
 all. He was equallyi, convinced that over-production must 
 be checked, but he proposed to secure that end either by 
 a working agreement between equals, or by breaking all 
 his competitors, including De Beers, and so making the 
 Kimberley Mine supreme. On one thing he was quite' 
 determined, not to allow his holdings to be sunk in the 
 gulf of De Beers : and, if it came to a fight, he was quite 
 prepared for it, for he had an immense behef in the 
 Kimberley Mine as capable of producing diamonds of 
 better quality, in larger numbers, and more cheaply than 
 De Beers. When, therefore, in May 1887 Rhodes opened 
 the offensive, he readily took up the challenge. 
 
 The two champions in the great contest for the autocracy 
 of the Diamond Fields were fairly matched. If anything, 
 the opinion of Kimberley inclined shghtly in favour of 
 Bamato's chances. Both were rich ; Rhodes told a friend 
 in 1885 that he was worth about ;^5o,ooo a year, but Bamato 
 was richer and seemed the more adventurous of the two. 
 Besides his large holding in his own mine, he had spread 
 his net over every other undertaking in Kimberley which 
 seemed to him at all promising. His London house, 
 Bamato Brothers, gave him a footing in the city and 
 enabled him to float and finance new companies more 
 readily than Rhodes ; and as a buyer he was in close touch 
 with the diamond market. One characteristic the two 
 men had in common, a knowledge of the diamond mines 
 unrivalled in the fields : in other respects the contrast 
 between the two men was striking. Even in their method 
 of acquiring this knowledge the contrast was apparent. 
 
GOLD AND DIAMONDS 97 
 
 Rhodes, slow and methodical, trusted mainly to his 
 own great power of observation and his familiarity with 
 every practical detail of the Kimberley workings, but 
 ^he did not disdain the learning of others. " Please send 
 me all books dealing with the custom of other countries, 
 especially colonies, as to minerals. . . . the Colonial Insti- 
 tute might help you. . . . Please attend to this ; you know 
 exactly what I require," he writes to Rudd on the eve of 
 his election ; and, though not normally a great reader, 
 when he wanted to get up a subject he read voraciously 
 and had a retentive memory for what he noted as valuable. 
 Bamato, on the other hand, never read books and only 
 occasionally skimmed newspapers, finding it, as he said, 
 " cheaper to pay a man to pick out what I want than 
 to waste time myself in looking for it " ; but he made up 
 for this by his extraordinary nimbleness of mind. Unlike 
 Rhodes, who was reserved and difificult of approach except 
 to his intimates, Bamato was like a piece of quicksilver, 
 darting about with irrepressible good humour in bars and 
 on racecourses, at the street comer or on the boards of 
 the theatre, where he was the most popular amateur actor 
 of Kimberley, never taking a rebuff, but always with an 
 eye to business and ready to pick up any hint that would 
 put him on the track of a " good thing." His wild specula- 
 tions were a byword, but they were not so wild as they 
 appeared ; for his rashness was always tempered with a 
 strong element of Jewish caution. As in his first venture, 
 so always, he was ready to stake his last guinea, but always 
 with the expectation that it would bring him in thirty 
 shillings. Indeed his quickness and acumen in financial 
 calculations amounted to genius : he boasted, and with 
 reason, that he had never engaged in a speculation which 
 proved a failure. 
 
 But against Bamato's briUiaht gifts and his rapid 
 success Rhodes had certain soUd advantages. Bamato's 
 was in a sense a bubble reputation, depending solely on 
 his financial acumen : had this failed him, he would have 
 sunk, hardly regretted. Though admired, he was not 
 respected in Kimberley, where strange stories, probably 
 untrae, were hinted about the origin of his wealth : at any 
 
 H 
 
98 CECIL RHODES 
 
 rate, owing perhaps to his inveterate habit of combining 
 business with pleasure, he could not obtain admission to 
 the not very exclusive Kimberley Club. But Rhodes was 
 respected even where he was not hked. He always had a 
 purpose, which he pursued with persistence, sometimes 
 even with ruthlessness ; for he was not tender with those 
 who came across his path and he rarely forgot an injury ; ^ 
 thus he was a dangerous enemy. On the other hand, and 
 in this lay his principal strength, he was noted for straight- 
 forward deahng. In a .community where crooked and 
 imderhand methods were not uncommon, Rhodes, taking 
 a leaf from the Enghsh diplomatist's notebook, always 
 played with his cards on the table : "I find in hfe it is far 
 better to teU the town-crier exactly what you are going to 
 do and then you have no trouble," he once declared in a 
 telegram to Beit. When he dealt with a man he told him 
 frankly what he wanted and what he was prepared to give, 
 and he was never a defaulter. Besides the respect of the 
 community, he had firm friends, who loved him for himself 
 alone and would have stuck to him had all his financial 
 schemes gone awry. They loved him for a bojdsh and uncalcu- 
 lating enthusiasm for better things than money-making, the 
 kind of enthusiasm which led Iran, while on a visit to London 
 in 1885, impetuously to jump into a hansom and drive to 
 HoUoway Gaol, just to see Stead. " Here is the man I 
 want," he exclaimed, when he heard of Stead's imprison- 
 ment for the Maiden Tribute to Modern Babylon, " one who 
 has not only the right principles, but is more anxious to 
 promote them than to save his own skin " ; and being 
 denied admission to the prison, he went to Exeter Hall, 
 for the first and only time in his Hfe, to protest against the 
 treatment given to Stead. Then, apart altogether from 
 his position at Kimberley, he had already gained a stand- 
 ing by his poHtical work, at home as well as in South 
 Africa ; and this was useful even in financial transactions. 
 During that same visit to England he found himself no 
 longer the " cypher " that Lord Randolph Churchill had 
 
 1 He long retained a curious prejudice against banks and bankers, 
 because he had not found them accommodating when he was struggling 
 for funds. 
 
GOLD AND DIAMONDS 99 
 
 spoken of only the year before. His speech about the 
 " Imperial factor " had given him notoriety and his action 
 in Bechuanaland had fixed the more serious attention of 
 persons interested in South Africa ; even The Times had 
 opened its columns to him. His Oxford friends brought 
 him forward, and, at the suggestion of one of them, the 
 Conservative Whips asked him to stand as a candidate 
 for Bristol, an offer which he refused, partly because he was 
 not sure that he was a Conservative, partly because he felt 
 that his work lay in South Africa. In this decision Rhodes 
 was undoubtedly right. His genius for financial organisa- 
 tion, for which Kimberley and Johannesburg gave him full 
 scope, would have been comparatively wasted in England ; 
 as for his bluff methods and crude ideas of statesmanship, 
 they were more suited to a new country, where problems 
 and politics are simpler, than to the comphcated machinery 
 of European affairs.^ 
 
 Bamato had a weak spot in his armour, the presence of 
 rivals in the Kimberley mine itself ; and Rhodes was quick 
 to take advantage of this weakness. His policy was to 
 obtain such a control over the Kimberley Mine that 
 Bamato, no longer master in his own house, would have 
 to yield at discretion. His first move, in May 1887, was to 
 bid for a large block of claims in the Kimberley Mine 
 known as W. A. HaU's, but in this he failed, being overbid 
 by a syndicate headed by Sir Donald Currie, who also had 
 schemes of his own for amalgamation. Thereupon he sent 
 off two friends to join the ship which was carrying Sir 
 Donald home, in the hope of persuading him to re-sell. Sir 
 Donald, half-tempted by Rhodes's offer, called at Lisbon 
 to learn the market value of the shares, and, finding it 
 was higher than Rhodes's price, turned on the emissaries : 
 " You young thieves, had I listened to you, I should have 
 sold at a loss," and would have nothing more to say to 
 them. But they had also taken advantage of the call at 
 Lisbon to telegraph Currie's decision to Rhodes, who 
 thereupon beared the market so successfully that when the 
 
 ^ Sir Charles Dilke said of him acutely that " he had none of the 
 knowledge or the mode of concealing want of knowledge, one or other 
 of which is required for English pubUc work." 
 
100 CECIL RHODES 
 
 ship reached Plymouth Currie's shares were no longer 
 worth what Rhodes had offered. Currie had his lesson : 
 he recognized that he had come up against an antagonist 
 whom it would be dangerous to cross and dropped out of 
 the competition. Rhodes then flew at higher game. His 
 plan was no less than to buy up the French Company, 
 Bamato's chief rivals in the mine, lock, stock and barrel. 
 For this ambitious project he required more capital than he 
 could himself command, so in July he sailed for England 
 to see if help was to be had from the Rothschilds. Mr. 
 Gardner Williams, the new general manager of De Beers, 
 had connections with that firm, and when Rhodes came to 
 discuss the matter with Lord Rothschild, he found him 
 favourably disposed ; indeed so good an impression did 
 Rhodes make on this pillar of British credit, that for the 
 rest of his career Lord Rothschild remained his friend and ■ 
 a staunch if sometimes puzzled and anxious ally. If, 
 said the cautious financier, as they parted, the French 
 Company were wiUing to seU, the firm would " see if they 
 could raise " the £1,000,000 required. This was good 
 enough for Rhodes, who that same evening went off to Paris 
 to negotiate with the French directors. Their price was 
 ;f 1,400,000. To meet this Rhodes took up a loan of £750,000 
 from Rothschilds, and issued 50,000 De Beers shares at 
 £15 through a Hamburg syndicate, on the understanding 
 that De Beers and the syndicate should share equally in 
 any profit from the rise in value of these shares. As they 
 soon rose to £22, each party made the handsome profit of 
 £100,000 on the transaction. 
 
 So far all had gone well, but Bamato was not the man 
 to allow such an invasion of his mine without a fight. The 
 agreement with the directors of the French Company had 
 still to be confirmed by the shareholders, and before the 
 general meeting Bamato had bettered Rhodes's offer by 
 £300,000. Then came Rhodes's most surprising move in 
 the game. To all appearance he retired from the contest, 
 went to Bamato and said it would be a pity to waste money 
 in cutting one another's throats, and offered to let him 
 have the French Company for the price he had himself 
 agreed to pay for it : nor did he require cash ; all he asked 
 
GOLD AND DIAMONDS loi 
 
 was the equivalent of the purchase price in newly-issued 
 shares of Bamato's Kimberley Central. Bamato, dehghted, 
 closed with the offer, perhaps not seeing the trap into which 
 he was falhng, or, more probably, confident that his control 
 of his own mine would remain unimpaired. There he 
 miscalculated : though the shares in the Kimberley Central 
 to be handed to his rival amounted to only one-fifth of the 
 increased capital, this fifth gave Rhodes the footing he 
 required in the mine ; and once estabHshed in a position 
 he was a dif&cult man tobudge. 
 
 For the moment, however, the victory appeared to be 
 Bamato's. He was still able to out-vote Rhodes at the 
 Kimberley Central, and he never relaxed his pohcy of 
 crushing the coinpetition of De Beers. He went on produc- 
 ing diamonds at a greater rate than his rival and put them 
 on the market at such a price that it hardly covered the 
 cost of working. Rhodes then reaUzed there was nothing 
 for it but war to the knife : " W^ saw this," he told his 
 De Beers shareholders, "that you 'could never deal with 
 obstinate people imtil you get the whip-hand of them, 
 and that the only thing we had to do to secure the success 
 of our industry was to get the control of the Kimberley 
 Mine." To do this, however, some £2,000,000 was required 
 and he anxiously inquired of his friend Beit where the 
 money was to come from. " Oh," answered Beit, no less 
 eager than himself, " we shall get the money, if we can 
 only get the shares " ; and the money somehow was forth- 
 coming. Then began a rare game of beggar-my-neighbour. 
 Rhodes, supported by Beit, bought Kimberley Central 
 shares right and left, with the natural result of forcing 
 up the price. Bamato in his tum bought up shares with 
 equal recklessness, and prices soared still higher with the 
 competition. Bamato did not mind, for he was convinced 
 his mine was worth two of De Beers, and he still went on 
 buying. So did De Beers, and prices leapt up further. 
 But then Bamato foimd that he had traitors in the camp. 
 While Rhodes's supporters generally stuck to their shares,^ 
 
 ^ This was not universally the case. The story goes that Beit, who 
 had been buying Kimberley shares recklessly, went in some trepidation 
 to confess himself to Wernher, the cautious head of the firm. " Oh, 
 
102 CECIL RHODES 
 
 many of Bamato's shareholders, tempted by the huge 
 profits, parted with theirs. At last, when diamonds were 
 selling almost at a loss and Central shares were fetching 
 a higher price than even Bamato thought them worth, he 
 saw that the game was up. He had fought well and 
 gallantly and, when he saw himself beaten, surrendered 
 in a generous spirit. In March 1888 he loyally accepted 
 terms which gave Rhodes complete control of the Kimber- 
 ley Mine : he himself gave up Central in exchange for De 
 Beers shares, and the De Beers holding in Kimberley 
 Centrals was raised to 11,000 out of a total of 17,000 shares. 
 After this settlement the two rivals exchanged courtesies. 
 At Bamato's request Rhodes took him to lunch at the 
 Kimberley Club, which he had never before entered, and 
 then, turning to him, said, " Well, you've had your whim ; 
 I should like to have mine, which you alone in Kimberley 
 can satisfy. I have always wanted to see a bucketful of 
 diamonds ; will you produce one .? " Bamato, much 
 flattered, shovelled all his available diamonds into a bucket 
 into which Rhodes plunged his hands, hfted out handfuls 
 of the guttering gems and luxuriously let them stream back 
 through his fingers like water. 
 
 Rhodes could be ruthless and unscrupulous f oF ah' 
 object7l3ut no doubt he excused the means to himself by 
 ±he_importance he attached to the object. As soon as he 
 had secured his victory for amalgamation, he reverted, 
 in the deed of association, to his underlying purpose 
 of securing means to carry out his Imperial poUcy. A 
 corporation entitled the De Beers Consolidated Mines 
 was formed with the modest capital of £100,000 in £$ 
 shares. All these shares, except twenty-five, were held by 
 four men, Rhodes, Bamato, Beit, and Philipson Stow, who 
 constituted themselves Ufe-govemors of the Corporation 
 and reserved to themselves the power of issuing further 
 shares, to be exchanged in the first instance for those of 
 the Old De Beers Company and of the Kimberley Central 
 on amalgamation. But the critical meeting to decide on 
 the terms of the Corporation's trust deed was put off by 
 
 that's all right," said Wernher, " I found the firm was getting more 
 Kimberley shares than I liked, so I have sold a lot at excellent prices." 
 
GOLD AND DIAMONDS 103 
 
 Rhodes from time to time, while he gave up everything to 
 watch by the bedside of his dearest friend, Pickering, who 
 lay djdng. On this trust deed all depended, for with it 
 he designed to forge the instrument for his political ends. 
 At last the meeting was held in Jameson's Httle cottage at 
 Kimberley, the parties present being Rhodes and Beit on 
 the one side, and on the other Bamato and his nephew 
 Woolf.Joel. Bamato wanted a company concerned solely 
 with diamonds, Rhodes a company so constituted that its 
 profits could be devoted to his scheme of northern expan- 
 sion or other projects for the benefit of the Empire. All 
 day they argued and through the night, Rhodes bringing 
 out his maps and discoursing on his plans, Beit alone 
 showing sympathy, Bamato and Joel caring only for 
 the strictly business aspect and left cold by Rhodes's 
 enthusiasm. At last, as the light of dawn was beginning 
 to show, wearied and overborne by his persistence, influenced 
 too, maybe, by Rhodes's cynical promise that he should 
 become member for Kimberley, Bamato yielded. " Some 
 people," he said with a shrug, " have a fancy for one thing, 
 some for another. You want the means to go north, if 
 possible, so I suppose we must give it you." No wonder 
 Bamato used in after days to avoid meeting Rhodes when 
 he differed from him, " for," he declared, " when you have 
 been with him half an hour you not only agree with him, 
 but come to beheve you have always held his opinion. 
 ... No one else in the world could have induced me to go 
 into this partnership. But Rhodes has an extraordinary 
 ascendancy over men : TieTiedTne up, as he ties up every- 
 body. It is his way. You can't resist him : you must be 
 with him." 
 
 How different the new trust deed was from the pro- 
 spectus of an ordinary company and how wide -spread 
 were its objects became apparent from a singular law-suit 
 caused by its provisions. At the general meeting of the 
 Kimberley Central Company, held to ratify the amalgama- 
 tion with De Beers, an overwhelming majority were 
 for the agreement. But a few shareholders stood out and 
 brought an action to prevent amalgamation on the ground 
 that under their deed of association they could only unite 
 
V 
 
 104 CECIL RHODES 
 
 with " a similar company." Their counsel had light work 
 in showing that the De Beers ConsoHdated Mines was not 
 " similar " to the Central Company, of which the sole 
 business was " to dig for diamonds in the Kimberley 
 Mine," whereas the new corporation could " take steps for 
 the good government of any territory . . . they would be 
 empowered to annex a portion of territory in Central Africa, 
 raise and maintain a standing -army and undertake warlike 
 operations " ; and he compared its powers with those of 
 the old East India Company. The Court took the same 
 view and declared for the recalcitrant shareholders. 
 " Diamond mining," said Sir Henry de ViUiers in delivering 
 judgement, " forms an insignificant portion of the powers 
 which may be exercised by the Company. The Company 
 can undertake financial obligations for foreign governments, 
 and may carry on diamond mining, coal mining or gold 
 mining in any part of the world. It can carry on banking 
 in Africa or elsewhere, and can become a water-company 
 in this colony or elsewhere. . . . The powers of the 
 Company are as extensive as those of any Company that 
 ever existed." 
 
 This judgement did not seriously interfere with Rhodes's 
 plans. Acting on a hint conveyed by the judge, he and 
 Bamato used their majority in the Kimberley Central 
 Company to put it into liquidation and then bought up 
 its assets on behalf of the De Beers Consohdated Mines, 
 paying in a cheque for £5,338,650 to the Uquidators. Thus 
 before the end of 1888 the amalgamation of the two most 
 powerful mines in Kimberley was consummated. Dutoits- 
 pan and Bultfontein stiU stood out, but " being poorer 
 mines on the margin of cultivation they would have to 
 accept our offers," said Rhodes, " or fight us on two grounds, 
 larger output and lower rates." The inevitable fall of reef 
 occurred in both mines in 1888. Rhodes was lunching at 
 the club when one of the chief owners of Bultfontein came 
 in to announce the disaster to his mine : the party 
 immediately rushed off in a cab to view the scene. For an 
 hour Rhodes sat brooding on the edge of the mine, un- 
 disturbed by the crowd of sight-seers, and then had his 
 proposal for amalgamation ready. De Beers bought up 
 
GOLD AND DIAMONDS 105 
 
 the chief interests in both mines and was able to regulate 
 their output by securing a perpetual lease of the workings. 
 A nfew mine, the Wesselton or Premier, discovered in 1891, 
 also fell into the clutches of De Beers, in spite of the clamour 
 raised at the time that it should be thrown open by the 
 Government for small diggers : the Corporation also had 
 a large interest in the solitary Free State Mine at Jagers- 
 fontein. Hence until the discovery of the other Premier 
 Mine, in the Transvaal, after Rhodes's death, his company 
 had complete control of all South African diamonds, ninety \ 
 per cent of the whole world's production. 
 
 From the shareholders' point of view this consolidation 
 was a great advantage. Competition being abolished, 
 attention could be concentrated on economy in administra- 
 tion and working. Development was chiefly confined to 
 the richer mines, and large reserves of " blue " could be 
 maintained. Mr. Gardner Williams, writing in 1902, says 
 that four million truck-loads of " blue " are sometimes 
 washed in one year alone, a mass which would form a cube 
 of 430 feet, higher than St. Paul's, while the diamonds 
 extracted from it would be contained in a box two feet 
 nine inches square. Working expenses were kept at los. 
 a carat and the price of diamonds maintained at 30s., 
 by restricting the output and by an agreement between the 
 Company and a syndicate of buyers, to whom the whole 
 output was allotted. The value of the De Beers properties 
 was estimated at £14,500,000 in 1890, but the capital was 
 kept down to ^£3,950,000, the rest being paid for by deben- 
 tures. Owing to the conservative system of finance, 
 introduced by Rhodes and his colleagues, these debentures 
 have been rapidly paid off and a large reserve in Consols 
 and other gilt-edged securities built up, without interfering 
 with the payment of good dividends to the shareholders. 
 The employees of the Company also gained by the 
 amalgamation. The 2000 white miners were paid wages 
 var5dng from i6s. 8d. to £1 a day. They were well and 
 cheaply housed in the model village of Kenilworth, carefully 
 planned by Rhodes, with houses rented at £2 : los. to £5 a 
 month, and a club-house, where single men could get their 
 meals for 25s. a week ; its streets were planted with avenues 
 
io6 CECIL RHODES 
 
 of trees, a refreshing sight in that dusty, wind-swept 
 country, and the Company kept up a great orchard filled 
 with vines and all manner of fruit trees. Rhodes took no 
 less interest in the 20,000 natives housed in the De Beers 
 compounds : he frequently visited them and looked to 
 their comfort ; and he loved to have long gossips with them 
 as to their affairs. One Christmas Eve, however, he had 
 a more turbulent experience with them : he was suddenly 
 summoned to deal with a serious strike in the compound, 
 which the managers were unable to quell. In spite of the 
 natives' threatening attitude, he parleyed with them for 
 an hour, and only called in fifteen pohcemen to arrest the 
 ringleaders when every other means of pacification had 
 been tried. 
 
 There was, however, another side to amalgamation. 
 The business of the private digger, who light-heartedly took 
 the sporting chance of a fortune or bankruptcy, was 
 extinguished ; even the old taiUngs, in which finds were 
 occasionally made, were successfully claimed by the all- 
 absorbing Corporation ; and the hope of open diggings, 
 temporarily aroused for the adventurous prospector by the 
 discovery of the Wesselton Mine, was soon extinguished 
 by the refusal of the Cape Parliament to interfere with the 
 De Beers monopoly. Working economies threw many men 
 out of their jobs; the diamond buyer outside the ring 
 patronized by the Company had no occupation left ; and 
 the shopkeeper lost his most lucrative trade by the ring 
 fence established round the compounds and the directors' 
 practice of selhng all goods direct to their native workmen. 
 It is true that after prolonged agitation and a debate in 
 the House De Beers was compelled to earmark profits from 
 these sales for a fund administered by Rhodes himself in 
 the interests of the community, but this brought small 
 comfort to the individual tradesmen. Although Kimberley 
 has since adjusted itself to the huge monopoly which now 
 dominates it, the immediate result of the amalgamation 
 was great hardship and distress in the town. Discontent 
 led to violence and outrages, encouraged by the Knights of 
 Labour, a revolutionary organization, who in their manifesto 
 attributed the universal stagnation of business to the 
 
GOLD AND DIAMONDS 107 
 
 " existence and domination of one great Monopoly, one 
 giant Corporation, as well as to the overweening greed 
 and ambition of one wealthy, overestimated, disappoint- 
 ing politician." The wealthy, overestimated, disappointing 
 politician was Prime Minister at the time of this outburst, 
 and the committee appointed to investigate the causes of 
 distress in Kimberley suggested no heroic measures of relief. 
 But Rhodes himself personally helped to alleviate the hard- 
 ship inevitable in the period of transition and he had a good 
 answer to complaints about the monopoly. Without it the 
 whole diamond industry would soon have been ruined by 
 cut-throat competition, and in this ruin not only the actual 
 sufferers but all the Europeans and natives stiU employed 
 by De Beers would have been involved. 
 
 II 
 
 Diamonds alone did not occupy Rhodes's attention 
 during the years spent in estabhshing his fortune ; he 
 was also one of the pioneers of the gold industry of the 
 Witwatersrand, an enterprise which proved as profitable 
 and very much easier than his amalgamation at Kimberley. 
 
 Long before the great discovery of reefs on the Wit- 
 watersrand in 1886 it had been known, through reports of 
 the explorers Baines, Mauch and Hartley, that South 
 Africa contained gold. As far back as 1867 an English 
 company had been formed to exploit the Tati goldfields 
 in Matabeleland, and a few years later the report of gold 
 discoveries in the Lydenburg district of the Transvaal had 
 led Herbert and Cecil Rhodes thither during their long trek 
 northwards. The opening of the Pioneer reef in 1883, and 
 later of the Sheba, had brought a rush to the De Kaap 
 district, where Barberton was founded in 1885. But this 
 district was soon thrown completely into the shade by 
 wonderful tales of the wealth to be found on the Witwaters- 
 rand, the lofty ridge south of Pretoria, which divides the 
 waters of the Vaal flowing south and the Limpopo flowing 
 north. Here since 1883 the brothers Struben had been 
 carrying on exhaustive experiments, first with the quartz 
 rock, then with some pecuUar layers of conglomerate 
 
io8 CECIL RHODES 
 
 occurring at intervals in the rock formation and composed 
 of pebbles embedded in a cement matrix, not unlike 
 almond rock in appearance, and since famous under the 
 name of Banket. For three years the results were dis- 
 appointing, but at length, in the spring of 1886, Walker, 
 one of the workmen, struck the layer, afterwards known as 
 the Main Reef Leader, on the farm Langlaagte. A sample 
 of the reef was sent for assay to Kimberley, its extraordinary 
 richness in gold was soon bruited abroad and aU the 
 prominent men of the diamond fields were suddenly seized 
 with a gold fever. The first to go were J. B. Robinson, one 
 of the pioneers of the old river-diggings, and Hans Sauer, a 
 friend of Rhodes ; the regular Barberton coach took them 
 only as far as Potchefstroon ; thence they travelled in a 
 country cart to the Witwatersrand. On arriving at the 
 spot where the city of Johannesburg with its great buildings 
 and vast population now stands, the centre of a line of mine 
 chimneys many miles in length, the travellers saw nothing 
 but bleak undulating veld with a few Boer home-steads in 
 the dips and a small group of prospectors' tents on the ridge. 
 But Hans Sauer saw that it was good and returned to fetch 
 Rhodes and his partner Rudd ; Alfred Beit and his partner 
 Porges, Knight and many others followed. 
 
 The gold-bearing reefs on the Witwatersrand are quite 
 pecuhar. Whereas in other parts of South Africa the gold 
 occurs in massive beds of quartzite or thin bands of quartz, 
 here the best gold is contained in reefs of the Banket 
 conglomerate. These reefs are found in layers of varying 
 thickness and at varying distances apart. The Main Reef, 
 for example, has six main layers, one of them being the 
 Main Reef Leader, which vary in thickness from one to 
 forty inches : some are only a few inches, others as much 
 as eight or nine feet apart. The outcrop of the Main Reef 
 is found in a continuous line for thirty miles along the 
 summit of the ridge and can be traced at intervals for a 
 much longer distance. From their outcrop the reefs dip 
 into the ground towards the south at different angles, 
 sometimes almost vertically, but, as they extend south- 
 wards, the dip invariably becomes flatter. Naturally 
 mining operations were first carried on where the outcrop 
 
GOLD AND DIAMONDS 109 
 
 appeared, but had they been confined to this area the 
 results would have been comparatively poor : owing, 
 however, to this fortunate tendency of the dip to flatten, 
 shafts could be sunk at considerable distances from the 
 outcrop with a prospect of picking up the reef again for 
 deep-level workings. Those, therefore, who were wise in 
 the early days took up claims over a considerable distance 
 south of the outcrop. Another peculiarity of the gold 
 present in the Banket formation is its close chemical 
 association with the cement of the conglomerate, so close 
 indeed that it does not readily yield itself to the ordinary 
 process of passing the crushed ore over plates coated with 
 mercury. But by a fortunate coincidence the remedy for 
 this was discovered almost as soon as mining operations 
 began. In 1887 the McArthur Forrest process of treating 
 tailings by the cyanide process was perfected ; and thereby 
 most of the gold stiU in solution could be easily extracted. 
 Coal, too, an absolute necessity for gold mining, was dis- 
 covered in abundance at Boksburg on the Rand itself : had 
 it not been so the industry might have been brought to a 
 standstill by the prohibitive cost of importing coal from 
 overseas or from Cape Colony. Thus Robinson, Rhodes 
 and the other pioneers, who beUeved in the marvellous 
 wealth to be obtained from the Strubens' discovery, were 
 soon justified. Within a year the mining camp had been 
 turned into the beginnings of Johannesburg ; and by 1892 
 the gold production of South Africa, which was valued at 
 less than half a million for the three years 1885-87, had risen 
 in value to four and a half millions for one year, all but a 
 sixth of it coming from the Witwatersrand. 
 
 But in the early stages considerable faith was needed 
 to invest heavily in the Rand, for there was then no 
 certainty that the reefs would prove so prohfic. Of the 
 optimists Rhodes and Robinson were the foremost : 
 Bamato, deterred by an agent's adverse report, htmg back. 
 Robinson, being first in the field, picked up some of the 
 best properties. Between the July when he came up and 
 the following November he bought the farms Langlaagte, 
 where Walker had struck gold, and Turffontein, where the 
 famous Robinson Mine was opened, for £26,000. People 
 
no CECIL RHODES 
 
 talked derisively of " Robinson's cabbage patch," bought 
 at such an extravagant price, but they no longer laughed 
 when these same properties were valued at eighteen millions 
 and in five years' time had paid over a million in dividends 
 to the shareholders. Rhodes did not do badly either, 
 though, owing to mistaken advice given to him about the 
 value of East Rand properties, he missed some good things. 
 He and Rudd took their bearings in the August of 1886 ; 
 then Rudd went to En^and to raise capital and Rhodes 
 began bu3dng on a large scale in December. " The opinion 
 is steadily growing," he writes, " that the Rand is the 
 biggest thing the world has seen," owing to its " wonderful 
 climate, its facilities for work and its enormous auriferous 
 deposits : [it has] plenty of good things awaiting hard 
 work and development." He is constantly josthng up 
 with Robinson, Porges, Beit and other speculators ; he 
 offers to go shares with Robinson, but Robinson thinks he 
 can do better alone ; as he can sometimes. For once, 
 while Rhodes was in the orchard trying to bargain in bad 
 Dutch with the farmer for his property, Robinson came 
 round into the kitchen and bought it out of hand from the 
 farmer's wife by his readier arguments in fluent Dutch and 
 a display of golden sovereigns. The simple Dutch farmers 
 soon began to realize the value of their barren lands and to 
 ask prices which made Kruger think the EngUsh purchasers 
 were mad. Rhodes had to pay ;^40,ooo in cash and ^30,000 
 in scrip to farmer Van Wyk for a block called Botha's 
 Reef, of which he had great hopes, and when he wanted 
 the farmer to throw in as pit-props some poplar poles he 
 saw on the ground, " Ik zal nit verkoopne " (I will not sell 
 them) was the only answer he could get. Most of his 
 purchases were made on the West Rand, with a few on the 
 East ; he also went farther afield and bought gold-bearing 
 properties at Klerksdorp and Malmani near the western 
 border of the Transvaal. It is perhaps hardly surprising 
 that with his shght experience of gold-mining his judgement 
 was sometimes at fault in these purchases : indeed one 
 enhghtened critic wondered whether " this clever speculator 
 had not ventured too much on surface indications." After 
 purchase Rudd and he floated companies to work most of . 
 
GOLD AND DIAMONDS iii 
 
 the properties : one of these companies he called after his 
 old college, Oriel ; others were the Banket, Botha's Reef, 
 May, Aurora, and Witkopje Estate. 
 
 But his principal venture was The Gold Fields of South 
 Africa, Limited, founded in 1887 with a capital of £125,000. 
 He handed over to it aU his gold interests and shares in 
 other companies at cost price, reserving, however, for 
 himself and Rudd three-fifteenths of the net profits in 
 respect of founders' ■ shares, besides two - fifteenths as 
 managing directors. The capital was eagerly taken up and 
 had been increased to £1,250,000 by 1892, when it was 
 renamed The Consolidated Gold Fields of South Africa. 
 By that time it had given up the direct working of nearly 
 all its properties and become a huge share trust company 
 in Rand mines, especially deep-levels, to which Rhodes, 
 at first incredulous, had become thoroughly converted. 
 Its shareholders' interests were guarded by the full control 
 it exercised over the gold-mining companies subsidiary 
 to it ; and the management, for which Rhodes was largely 
 responsible, gave excellent results. In 1892 the dividend 
 was 10 per cent, in 1893-94 15 per cent, and in 1894-95 no 
 less than 50 per cent. Rhodes himself made enormous profits 
 from the Gold Fields : for several years he drew £300,000 
 to £400,000 from it annually, and when, in concession to the 
 outcry against his percentage rights on founders' shares 
 he gave them up, he received in exchange ordinary shares 
 valued at £1,300,000 to £1,400,000. Thus he secured his 
 own interests ; but he also thought of his wider schemes. 
 As in the case of De Beers, so with the Gold Fields, he 
 took power by the trust deed to be able to invest in other 
 enterprises besides Rand mines, a provision from which he 
 derived much support for his political designs. 
 
 During his visits to the Transvaal in 1886 and 1887 
 Rhodes had two more meetings with Kruger. Once he 
 went on a deputation to the President and made a speech 
 representing grievances of the miners : it was apparently 
 not a very tactful speech, and at the end Kruger, pointing 
 the stem of his pipe towards Rhodes, said in Dutch : " Tell 
 him I have heard all these stories before. I am here to 
 protect my burghers as well as the Rand people. I know 
 
112 CECIL RHODES 
 
 what I have to do and I will do what I consider is right." 
 On the second occasion he proposed Kruger's health at a 
 luncheon given to him at Johannesbinrg. Kruger, in spite 
 of the wealth brought into an almost bankrupt country 
 by the new adventurers, was by no means happy at their 
 sudden invasion in such large numbers. He foresaw the 
 danger to the independence of the Transvaal from the 
 population of ahens, who would demand rights and 
 responsibihty. Had it rested with him, he would no doubt 
 have refrained from proclaiming the goldfields ; but at 
 any rate he meant to resist any further demands from the 
 strangers. In his diflSculty he consulted wise old President 
 Brand of the Free State, who advised him to make friends 
 with the miners by offering them every possible conces- 
 sion : but this was not Kruger's way. His pohcy, decided 
 upon in 1886, was to restrict their power to the utmost, to 
 allow them no freehold interest in any land, and to maintain 
 the ruhng aristocracy of Boer landowners, with himself 
 as supreme arbiter. At the luncheon in Johannesburg in 
 February 1887 he showed that he fuUy understood the 
 diggers' position, explaining their grievances about the 
 gold regulation better than they could themselves, and 
 promising certain reforms ; but on the subject of political 
 rights he was adamant. Commenting afterwards on the 
 newcomers' claim to the franchise, he denied that they 
 had any right to it, and continued characteristically: 
 " Wealth cannot break laws. Though a man has a million 
 pounds he cannot alter the law. ... Is it a good man who 
 wants to be master of the country, when others have been 
 suffering for twenty years to conduct its affairs ? . . . 
 It is the unthankful people to whom I have given protection 
 that are always dissatisfied, and, what is more, they would 
 actually want me to alter my laws to suit them." There 
 was sound common sense in Kruger's apprehensions, for 
 within a few years the " Uitlanders," as they were called, 
 outnumbered his burghers, and it is easy to understand his 
 desire to prevent the " cursed Enghsh " regaining political 
 control over his beloved country. Rhodes to some extent 
 sympathized with Kruger's alarm. In his speech at the 
 luncheon he admitted that it could not be a matter of 
 
GOLD AND DIAMONDS 113 
 
 complaint if the Transvaal viewed the new population with 
 some suspicion. But Kruger's methods were less prudent 
 than his fears were justified. By his obstinate opposition 
 even to such reasonable demands as municipal freedom for 
 Johannesburg, by his hardly veiled contempt for the Uit- 
 landers, and by the encouragement he gave to disreputable 
 concession-hunters, of every nationality except the English, 
 to make profits from the diggers' needs, he himself helped 
 to bring the cataclysm on his country. At any rate there 
 was no mistaking his policy, for though crafty in his methods 
 he was open as to his aims ; and Rhodes at these meetings 
 had full warning of the long struggle before him with the 
 obstinate old representative of a past order. 
 
 By the enterprises he had thus set going, both at Kim- 
 berley and at Johannesburg, during the three years 1885 
 to 1888, Rhodes was now master of the financial resources 
 he thought necessary for his political aims. How rich 
 he actually was it is impossible to teU and, probably, he 
 himself hardly knew. He used to keep running accounts 
 with various firms, Wemher Beit's principally, but also in 
 later days with the Chartered Company, at the Standard 
 Bank and elsewhere. ■ These firms used to buy and sell 
 shares for him, crediting or debiting him with the balances, 
 besides acting for him as paymasters of current accounts, 
 and periodically sent him in statements showing his finan- 
 cial position. He was Constantly changing his investments, 
 and had complicated' arrangements with many individuals 
 and firms as to the division of the proceeds of shares. The 
 marvel is that he appears to have had such a good grasp 
 of his most important transactions on the money market 
 and in company promoting, and a very clear memory of 
 his chief commitments. For months he gave public and 
 frequent expression to his resentment against a prominent 
 financier, who had not allotted him scrip to which he 
 thought himself entitled, and he carried on long con- 
 troversies with De Beers and the Gold Fields about his 
 
 I 
 
114 CECIL RHODES 
 
 percentage rights in the profits of those corporations. His 
 income was derived principally from those two undertakings. 
 He admitted to Labouchere in 1897 that he got between 
 three and four himdred thousand a year from the Gold 
 Fields. In De Beers he had the profits of two life- 
 governorships, for he had bought out one of the original 
 four in 1892 ; and when Barnato died the proceeds of his 
 went to the two survivors Rhodes and Beit ; at any rate 
 he received close on £200,000 a year from this source. 
 From the numerous other companies in which he was 
 interested, he must every year, either by dividends or by 
 sales of shares at a profit, have obtained enough to bring 
 his total income at least up to the miUion. 
 
 Nor can the value to him of all these undertakings be 
 measured only or even principally in money. They also 
 gave him enormous and almost uncontrolled power, if he 
 chose to use it. At first, when he was in his full vigour, 
 he was the absolute dictator of De Beers and the Gold Fields, 
 with all their ramifications throughout South Africa, even, 
 one may say, throughout the world. He could and did 
 make them spend their money on such various objects as 
 securing large tracts of Africa for the Empire, promoting 
 fruit farms, breeding horses or encoiuraging education. His 
 position at the head of the diamond industry gave him 
 even the excuse for interfering in the pohtics of the United 
 States. At the time of the McKinley tariff he appears to 
 have kept an agent in America to lobby against excessive 
 duties on imported diamonds, and a suggestion was put 
 about that diamonds should be admitted free " in return 
 for some support of the silver cause in the U.S.A." He 
 was also enabled, with more justification, to promote his 
 pohtical views in home pohtics by contributions to the 
 party chests of the Liberals and the Home Rulers ; and in 
 one general election at the Cape he spent very large suras 
 on organizing his party. 
 
 The power given to a few men by such a huge 
 monopoly as De Beers or such a wealthy corporation 
 as the Gold Fields is not good for any country, even when 
 the power is wielded by a man with such pubhc-spirited 
 views as Rhodes. It tends to destroy pubhc spirit in others, 
 
GOLD AND DIAMONDS 115 
 
 and to introduce low and mercenary motives for political 
 action even in the lifetime of the great man ; and when he 
 is gone the canker remains without his alleviating influence. 
 Nor was such power an immixed blessing for Rhodes him- 
 self. In his involved transactions in company promoting 
 and diamond amalgamation he was forced to add to his 
 band of old and tried friends a horde of satelUtes, whose 
 fortime he made by judicious hints as to the probable issue 
 of his negotiations. Such followers, not too nice in their 
 methods, he came to regard as necessary for some of the 
 work he had in hand, and though he never respected them 
 or gave them the confidence he gave to the true friends, 
 and though he always kept a chamber in his mind swept 
 and garnished for ideas they could never understand, he 
 became insensibly tainted by their constant presence. 
 
 Still, for good or ill, the Great Amalgamator, as he was 
 now called, had in these three years won for himself the 
 kind of power which he thought essential for his greater 
 projects. To these he could now devote himself. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 THE CHARTER 
 
 At Christmas time in the year 1887 the High Commissioner, 
 Sir Hercules Robinson, was quietly occupied at Grahams- 
 town with ceremonial duties and entertainments on the 
 occasion of an Exhibition held in that loyal town to cele- 
 brate the jubilee of Her late Majesty Queen Victoria. The 
 festivities followed the usual course ; dances, banquets, 
 and pony racing : the pony racing is remembered for the 
 mild excitement over the change of ownership of a promis- 
 ing pony, and the importance of the celebration was marked 
 by the due quota of innocuous speeches. An expert staff 
 of polite aide-de-camps and secretaries was in attendance 
 to hghten the Governor's labours, to ensure that no jarring 
 note should mar the smoothness of the proceedings and to 
 provide for the comfort of the vice-regal party. Suddenly 
 Cecil Rhodes, hot foot from Kimberley, burst in upon this 
 pleasant assembly, bringing with him Sir Sidney Shippard, 
 administrator of the new Crown Colony of British 
 Bechuanaland. Rhodes had not come to hsten to speeches 
 or attend dances and pony races ; he was too busy for that 
 with his gold companies and his diamond amalgamation ; 
 but he had just heard news from the north which gave him 
 such serious concern that he felt it necessary to interrupt 
 his own occupations and the Governor's jimketings for a 
 serious talk on the situation. For nothing short of 
 immediate action would, he believed, preserve England's 
 power of advancing into the interior. Now Sir Hercules 
 was a man of patriotic feeling and of sound common sense, 
 who sympathized sincerely with Rhodes's views ; he had 
 indeed risked much by his support of the unconventional 
 
 116 
 
THE CHARTER 117 
 
 young diamond - digger against Mackenzie, the idol of 
 Exeter Hall, Warren, the chosen agent of the British 
 Government, and his own Cape Ministry. But after all he 
 was merely a governor dependent on a Secretary of State 
 distrustful of further responsibility in South Africa ; he 
 had before him a lesson against unhcensed adventure in 
 the fate of his predecessor. Sir Bartle Frere ; and he had 
 done as much as could be expected of any one governor 
 by his acquisition of Bechuanaland. Here now was Rhodes, 
 sweeping down Mke a whirlwind upon the happy Grahams- 
 town party, full of schemes for further " spheres of 
 influence " and evidently bent on securing an immediate 
 decision. He can hardly have been entirely welcome. 
 Still Sir Hercules was a conscientious governor ; he had a 
 liking and a great admiration for Rhodes ; so he resigned 
 himself to the speU of his masterful visitor. 
 
 The message which had disturbed Rhodes had come 
 from his friend Ralph WiUiams, the confidant of his schemes 
 in the days of the Warren expedition, and at this time 
 British agent at Pretoria. He had heard that a treaty had v 
 either been concluded or was about to be concluded between 
 the South African RepubUc and Lo Bengula, king of the 
 Matabeles, and had sent word to Rhodes that if it were 
 ratified it would preclude all British enterprise north of 
 Beiftiuanaland. This was a serious matter to Rhodes, who 
 had always regarded Matabeleland, with its dependency 
 Mashonaland, as the next stepping-stone to the Central 
 Lakes, the northern hmit of his dreams of empire in Africa. 
 The country had so far not been brought within the sphere 
 of influence of any European power, and, if the Transvaal 
 got beforehand with him, his plans would be brought 
 to naught and aU his labour on Bechuanaland, a mere 
 " Suez Canal to the interior," wasted. The sudden visit to 
 Grahamstown was to prevent this catastrophe. 
 
 The Matabeles were an offshoot of the Zulus, who had 
 broken away from the parent tribe under the leadership of 
 MoseUkatze, one of the Zulu King Chaka's captains, about 
 the same time as the Boers of Cape Colony began their 
 great trek. Beaten off by the Basutos, the Matabeles 
 swarmed through the Free State and thence across the Vaal 
 
ii8 CECIL RHODES 
 
 to the western districts of the Transvaal, leaving a track of 
 desolation wherever they passed. Here they came into 
 colhsion with Boer emigrants into the same district, one 
 of them being Kruger himself, who told a Matabele dele- 
 gation in 1887 that he did not speak from hearsay of those 
 encounters ; " f or I myself was present and, although 
 then very young, I could handle a gun and shoot. Potgieter 
 was my chief. We then came for the second time and drove 
 away Moselikatze." After this defeat the' chief led his 
 savage warriors across the Limpopo to the broad pasture- 
 lands north of Bechuanaland, and soon reduced to vassalage 
 the Mahololo and Mashonas, then inhabiting a large tract 
 of country south of the Zambesi. In 1868 Moselikatze 
 died and was succeeded by his son Lo Bengula, a tyrsiat as 
 bloodthirsty as his father. The sole object of the Matabele 
 organisation was war. The young males of the tribe and 
 those of the subject races captured in childhood were fed 
 almost entirely on beef, a diet which killed the weaklings 
 of dysentery and made the remainder very stout and fierce. 
 In due time they were drafted into one or other of the 
 regiments, into which the whole manhood was divided. 
 Here the strictest disciphne was maintained, and no youth 
 was allowed to marry imtil he had reached the age of 
 thirty-fiive and had blooded himself in fight ; so, to give 
 the would-be bridegrooms their chance, hostile raid# on 
 neighbouring kraals were a yearly occurrence. The fighting 
 spirit of the race was also excited by periodical war-dances, 
 in which the soldiers of the different regiments took part, 
 attired in their gorgeous and terrifying trappings, plumes 
 and capes of ostrich-feathers, otter-skin bands on their 
 foreheads, ox-tails round their arms and legs, and kilts of 
 wild-cat skin. After the destruction of the Zulu power in 
 1879 the Matabeles were the most formidable fighting race 
 left in South Africa. But since their early conflicts with 
 the Boers they had not molested Europeans.^ Both 
 Moselikatze and Lo Bengula, though firm in maintaining 
 their right to " refuse the road " through their territory 
 to any European they chose, were friendly to the few they 
 
 1 A story is told of Englishmen done to death by the Matabeles in 
 1878, but the guilt was never brought home to Lo Bengula himself. 
 
THE CHARTER 119 
 
 admitted. The great missionary Moffat had been allowed 
 to estabhsh a mission station at Inyati, and the hmiters 
 Baines, Hartley, Viljoen and Selous were always well 
 received ; a few traders, too, were permitted to set up 
 stores near the royal kraal. 
 
 The Transvaal Boers had long cast covetous eyes on 
 this country. In 1868, on the discovery of the Tati Gold 
 Fields, President Pretorius had proclaimed it a Transvaal 
 possession, bilt, on Sir Philip Wodehouse's protest, had 
 taken no further steps. Again, after Majuba, Joubert had 
 written to Lo Bengula urging him to ally himself with the 
 Boers rather than the EngUsh, for, " when an EngUshman 
 once has your property in his hand, then he is Hke a monkey 
 that has its hands full of pumpkin seeds ; — ^if you don't beat 
 him to death he will never let go " ; and in the succeeding 
 years various parties of Boers had talked of trekking into 
 Matabeleland or Mashonaland. Kruger, however, never 
 looked favourably on his rival Joubert's poHcy of expansion 
 northwards. Since his rebuff in Bechuanaland his chief 
 aim had been to obtain Swaziland on the east and access 
 to the sea, in order to have a free port of his own ; and he 
 had no wish to comphcate the issue by quarrelling with 
 England about the north. Still even Kruger was sometimes 
 obliged to yield to pubhc opinion, and in 1887 he consented 
 to ^he despatch of one Grobler to negotiate with Lo 
 Bengula a treaty of protection. There seems httle doubt 
 that in July 1887 Grobler obtained a document purporting V 
 to give the Transvaal wide powers of jurisdiction over their 
 own subjects settled in Matabeleland, and to keep a consul in 
 residence at the king's kraal. In fact, when Ralph Williams 
 sent his message to Rhodes, Grobler was on the point of 
 starting to take up his post as consul. Whether Lo Bengula 
 regarded the treaty as anything more than a vague renewal 
 of friendship is doubtful. At any rate the repubhc was 
 founding on it much greater claims than its words implied ; 
 for Rhodes had received independent evidence in a letter 
 from Pretoria that the Transvaal had already assumed the v 
 right of determining on concessions to Europeans in 
 Matabeleland. 
 
 Rhodes submitted his evidence to the Governor at 
 
120 CECIL RHODES 
 
 Grahamstown, and urged him at all costs to prevent the 
 country falling under the control of the Transvaal. Instant 
 action was necessary, or it would be too late, for Grobler 
 was already on his way, and it might be impossible to 
 dislodge him when once he had established his influence. 
 Sir Efercules was impressed by the danger, but Rhodes was 
 in too much of a hurry : precipitate action might not be 
 approved of at home and the risk was great. But Rhodes 
 had made up his mind, and when that was so, as Bamato 
 had observed, " he ties you up and you cannot resist him." 
 So the Governor was tied up. Six years later Rhodes, in 
 anecdotal mood, described to a Cape Town audience his 
 methods of persuading Sir Hercules. The occasion referred 
 to was not this interview, but the arguments were probably 
 similar, for Rhodes's methods of arguing were all his 
 own and did not vary much. Bechuanaland had been 
 secured, and, " I remember so well," said Rhodes, " that in 
 my discussions with your late Governor he was good enough 
 to say, ' Well, I think that is enough,' and, Mr. Mayor, 
 the only reply I made to him was, ' Do come with me and 
 look at the block-house . on Table Mountain.' I used that 
 expression to him, and then I said, ' Those good old people, 
 two himdred years ago, thought that block-house on Table 
 Mountain was the limit of their ideas, but now let us face 
 it to-day. Where are we ? We are considerably beyond 
 the Vaal River, and supposing that those good people were 
 to come to life again to-day, what would they think of it 
 and their block-house ? ' Then I said, ' Sir, will you 
 consider, during the period you have been the representative 
 of Her Majesty in this colony, what you have done ? We 
 are now on latitude 22°.' It was amusing when he said to 
 me, ' And what a trouble it has been ! ' He said to me, 
 ' But where wiU you stop ? ' and I repMed, ' I will stop 
 where the country has not been claimed.' Your old 
 Governor said, ' Let us look at the map,' and I showed him 
 that it was the southern border of TanganjTika. He was 
 a httle upset. I said that the Great Powers at home 
 marked the map and did nothing : adding, ' Let us try to 
 mark the map, and we know that we shall do something.' 
 ' Well,' said Sir Hercules Robinson, ' I think you should be 
 
THE CHARTER • 121 
 
 satisfied with the Zambesi as a boundary.' [He was akeady 
 getting tied up.] I replied, ' Let us take a piece of note- 
 paper, and Ibt us measure from the block-house to the 
 Vaal River ; that is the individual effort of the people. 
 Now,' I said, ' let us measure what you have done in your 
 temporary existence, and then we will finish by measuring 
 up my imaginations.' We took a piece of notepaper and 
 measured the efforts of the country since the Dutch occupied 
 and founded it. We measured what he had done in his hfe, 
 and then we measured my imaginations ; and his Excel- 
 lency, who is no longer with us, said, ' I will leave you 
 alone.' " [" You cannot resist him ! "] 
 
 By such simple, child-hke persistence Rhodes, reinforced 
 by Shippard, a convinced partisan of his views, won over 
 Sir Hercules. On Boxing Day Shippard was empowered to 
 write a despatch to his assistant commissioner, J. S. Moffat, 
 then on a visit to Lo Bengula, bidding him inquire about 
 the bargain with the Transvaal and persuade the king to 
 sign a treaty recognizing the exclusive influence of Great 
 Britain in his country. Rhodes then returned to his 
 business at Kimberley ; and a messenger was sent with 
 such urgent instructions for haste that after a journey of 
 700 miles he brought the despatch to Moffat before the 
 end of January. Moffat, the son of Livingstone's father- 
 in-law, who had founded the Inyati mission in MoseMkatze's 
 time, was a good agent for the purpose, as he had tact and 
 was trusted by Lo Bengula. Going quietly to work, he 
 got the king to admit that the Transvaal had no right to 
 interfere in his country, that he had no wish to receive 
 Grobler.as consul, and within a fortnight, on February 11, 
 1888, had persuaded him to sign a treaty of perpetual amity 
 with the Queen, whereby he engaged himself not to part 
 with any territory or sign a treaty with any other power 
 without the High Commissioner's sanction. 
 
 Thanks to the despised " Imperial factor," Rhodes had ^ 
 now obtained what in mining practice might be termed an 
 option on Matabeleland. His next business was to convert 
 this option into firm possession. Neither the Cape nor the 
 Home Government could be looked to for further assistance 
 at this stage ; the Cape was not yet ready to absorb even 
 
122 CECIL RHODES 
 
 Bechuanaland, while the High Commissioner had gone to 
 the utmost limits of his power. Private enterprise was the 
 only resource left : so Rhodes determined on private 
 enterprise ; and, if he could obtain the sanction of the 
 state for his private enterprise, so much the better. 
 He could look to a long line of illustrious chartered 
 companies as his models. Starting from the days of the 
 Tudors there had been the Levant and Russia Companies 
 for purely trading purposes, the Company of Adventurers 
 of London trading to Africa, and the Hudson's Bay and 
 East India Companies with their territorial and administra- 
 tive rights. These ancient corporations had by this time 
 either disappeared or lost their special privileges, but a 
 similar form of chartered company had recently been revived 
 in the British North Borneo Company of 1881 and the Royal 
 Niger Company of 1886, while for the Imperial British East 
 Africa Company also Sir WiUiam Mackinnon was shortly 
 to obtain the royal charter. At a time when the values 
 of territory in Africa were still but Httle known, and yet 
 every nation was scrambling for power there, the advantage 
 to the state of such semi-official companies to exploit new 
 ground was manifest. " If the results are good," said a 
 cynical writer, " they can be made the property of the 
 state. If the value be httle, the company can be left to its 
 own devices and its work be ignored." On the other hand, 
 the attraction to the private venturer was the chance of 
 large profits. So Rhodes, following these examples, decided 
 to obtain speculative concessions in the new coimtry and 
 protect them by a royal charter. jHis own naain object was 
 y' to pireserve as much as possible of Africa for British civiliza- 
 tion, to his mind the greatest blessing in the world ; ( but to 
 make converts he did not rely on this lure alone. " Pure 
 philanthropy is all very well in its way," as he said, " but 
 philanthropy plus 5 per cent is a good deal better." The 
 marvellous discovery of gold on the Rand had disposed the 
 public to look favourably on the reports of gold to be found 
 in Lo Bengula's dominions brought by every traveller of 
 repute. So gold was to be the bait to attract the pubUc 
 to his projects of northern expansion. By the beginning 
 of 1888 all things were ready : he had founded the Gold 
 
THE CHARTER 123 
 
 Fields and was on the eve of amalgamating the diamond 
 mines ; so he had no anxiety about finance and was prepared 
 to start forthwith. 
 
 Immediately on his return from Grahamstown, even 
 before the Moffat treaty had been signed, he and Beit 
 sent up a trader. Fry, to obtain a gold-mining concession 
 from Lo Bengula. Fry fell ill and returned without 
 accomplishing anything. Rhodes then paid a flpng visit 
 to England, and there heard that he had serious rivals 
 in the field. Two allied companies, the Bechuanaland 
 Exploration Company and the Exploring Company, were 
 in process of formation to obtain and exploit concessions 
 in the Protectorate and Matabeleland, and the promoters 
 had already informed the Colonial Office of their plans. 
 Rhodes also went to sound Lord Knutsford, who, without 
 committing himself, seemed impressed by Rhodes's ideas, 
 whereupon he hurried back to South Africa, convinced that 
 operations must be conducted on a larger scale. For the 
 new mission to Lo Bengula he had some difficulty in finding 
 the right men ; but finally pitched upon Rudd, his partner, 
 who for sixteen years had been hand in glove with him in 
 aU his ventures ; F. R. Thompson, who had helped him 
 with the Kimberley compoimds, and from the age of twelve 
 had been learning native languages and customs ; and lastly, 
 his old Oxford friend, Rochfort Maguire, the fellow of All 
 Souls. Rudd's son, a fine strapping youth much admired by 
 the natives, accompanied his father ; no expense was spared 
 on equipment, and there was an imposing retinue of Kaffir 
 drivers and attendants, all under the direction of Rhodes's 
 personal servant WiUiam. None of the party had been to 
 Matabeleland before, but two of them spoke the language, 
 while the third, Maguire, had that imperturbable Oxford 
 demeanour which no difficulties or hardships could ruffle. 
 The mission was well calculated to impress the king and his 
 councillors with the importance of the man they represented. 
 
 Rudd, Maguire and Thompson arrived at Buluwayo, 
 the king's principal kraal, in the latter half of 1888, having 
 previously announced their business in a letter drawn up 
 by the feUow of All Souls. Lo Bengula was an impos- 
 ing personage, with considerable powers of attraction to 
 
124 CECIL RHODES 
 
 Europeans. Sir Sidney Shippard, who also visited him this 
 year, thus describes his appearance as he came out of his 
 royal waggon : "A few minutes after I had taken my seat 
 near his waggon a curtain was drawn aside, and the great 
 man appeared and dehberately stepped over the front box 
 and sat down on the board before the driver's seat. He 
 was completely naked save for a very long piece of dark 
 blue cloth, rolled very small and wound round his body, 
 which it no wise concealed, and a monkey skin worn as a 
 small apron and about the size of a Highland sporan. In 
 person he is rather tall . . . and very stout, though by no 
 means unwieldy. . . . His colour is a fine bronze, and he 
 evidently takes great care of his person and is scrupulously 
 clean. He wears the leathern ring over his forehead as a 
 matter of course. Altogether he is a very fine-looking man, 
 and in spite of his obesity has a most majestic carriage. Like 
 all the Matabele warriors, who despise a stooping gait in 
 a man, Lo Bengula walks quite erect with his head thrown 
 somewhat back and his broad chest expanded, and as he 
 marches along at a slow pace with his long stafE in his 
 right hand, while all the men around shout his praises, he 
 looks his part to perfection." Like other absolute monarchs 
 in more civilized countries, he had to work hard for his 
 living, and to consult his people's wishes. He spent much 
 time in painting himself up for rain-making, and, though less 
 beUicose than his warriors, was imable to resist their un- 
 ceasing demands for raids on Mashonas and other tribes. 
 He was hospitable and well disposed to the Europeans he 
 knew, but much troubled with the many concession-hunters, 
 who, as he pathetically remarked to the High Commissioner, 
 " come in here like wolves without my permission and make 
 roads into my coimtry." Many of his young bloods would 
 have been quite ready to make short work of the intruders, 
 but he had the political instinct to see that this would be 
 fatal to his tribe ; besides, he had a regal sense of hospitality 
 even to intruders in his country. 
 
 When Rudd and his friends arrived they found plenty 
 of Europeans before them. The most influential was the 
 missionary Helm, who generally interpreted in important 
 negotiations and was trusted by the king ; Fairbaim and 
 
THE CHARTER 125 
 
 Usher, the two resident traders, were also privileged persons, 
 being regarded as members of the tribe. Fairbairn was the 
 custodian of the chief's great elephant seal, without which 
 treaties and concessions had no vaUdity, and with another 
 old resident, Sam Edwards, had the mining rights in the 
 Tati district, with authority to make laws " for keeping 
 the peace and order." These traders, who made great 
 profits by their monopoly, had no wish to see others invading 
 their preserves. Two rival syndicates. Wood, Francis and 
 Chapman, and Johnson and Heany, were each claiming the 
 mining concession in some territory disputed between Lo 
 Bengula and his southern neighbour Khama, having each 
 obtained a grant from one of the two rival disputants. 
 Maimd, already in high favour at Buluwayo, was there for 
 the Exploring Company, "guinea-pigs" Rhodes called 
 them, seeking as wide powers as Rhodes himself ; Phillips, 
 Leask and Tainton were also on the look out for conces- 
 sions, and there were Boers and Germans as well, hungrily 
 waiting for what they could pic]i up. With aU these rivals 
 in the field, with Moffat and Shippard on the one side and 
 Grobler on the other recommending their respective coun- 
 tries for special favours, with the English bishop of 
 Bloemfontein, in company with a German count, choosing 
 the same moment to inspect his mission stations in 
 Mashonaland, no wonder Lo Bengula was worried and 
 his young men straining at the leash. Grobler, the Trans- 
 vaal emissary, was the first to fall out, for in passing through 
 Bechuanaland he was waylaid and murdered by an impi 
 sent by Khama, who had a grievance against him for some 
 horse-coping transaction.^ But enough rivals remained to 
 make it likely that Matabeleland would be reduced to the 
 horrible state of confusion of which Swaziland was already 
 an example. Here the chief had been persuaded to give 
 away concessions right and left to Boer and Enghsh 
 speculators, who quarrelled among themselves and made the 
 
 * By order of the High Commissioner an inquiry was held by Shippard 
 into the facts, and in spite of Shippard's prejudiced report against Grobler, 
 Khama was ordered by the British Government to pay an annuity to 
 Grobler's widow. There is no ground for the suggestion made by some 
 Boers at the time that English officials had any connection with the 
 murder. 
 
126 CECIL RHODES 
 
 country a land of strife and turbulence, while the chief was 
 steadily drinking himself to death with the champagne, 
 which represented his particular mess of pottage. As 
 Rhodes had convinced Sir Hercules, the only possible 
 remedies were either to proclaim a protectorate or establish 
 one strong company with a monopoly of all concessions. 
 
 In their attempt to get this monopoly Rhodes's agents 
 had a good deal of indirect support from the favour with 
 which he was known to be regarded by Shippard and 
 Moffat as well as the High Commissioner. Nevertheless, 
 they had no light task. For three months or more they were 
 kept waiting on Lo Bengula's good pleasure, with the un- 
 comfortable prospect of being massacred at any time by 
 the young warriors. If they bathed or washed their teeth 
 they were accused of bewitching the water, and were always 
 unwittingly transgressing some tribal law ; once they were 
 warned of an instant attack and decided to sell their lives 
 dearly. However, Lo Bengula always managed to protect 
 them, and at last, after an indaba of two days, consented, 
 on October 30, 1888, to grant the desired concession. Even 
 then there was a hitch about signing, for Lo Bengula 
 thought his royal word should be enough ; but in the end 
 his mark and the elephant seal were affixed to a document 
 granting to Rudd and the others " exclusive power over 
 aU metals and miherals situated and contained in his king- 
 doms, principalities and dominions," with hcence to win 
 the same and enjoy all profits therefrom ; and further, 
 Lo Bengula, " having been much molested of late by divers 
 persons seeking and desiring to obtain grants and cessions 
 of land and mining rights in his territories," authority was 
 given them to exclude all such persons from his dominions. 
 In return, the beneficiaries bound themselves to pay the 
 chief £100 a month and to deliver to him 1000 rifles, 100,000 
 rounds of ammunition, and an armed steamer on the 
 Zambesi, the last a happy afterthought of Rhodes : " same," 
 he wrote to Rudd, " as Stanley put on Upper Congo." 
 
 Hardly won, the concession was nearly lost. Rhodes 
 had instructed Rudd to bring it away as soon as it was 
 completed. Rudd " obtained the road " from Lo Bengula, 
 who parted with him on most friendly terms, gave him a 
 
THE CHARTER 
 
 127 
 
 large firkin of beer, and told him to bring up his " big 
 brother Rhodes " next time. But on his journey through 
 the Bechuana desert, with one Kaffir driver, Rudd found all 
 the water-holes he had counted on dried up, and had to 
 abandon the horses and make the best of his way on foot ; 
 finally, overcome with thirst and almost dying, he just 
 managed to hide his precious document in an ant-bear hole 
 before he feU down insensible. In this state he was dis- 
 covered by some kindly Bechuanas, who gave him water and 
 brought him back to life ; afterwards he was picked up by 
 Sir Sidney Shippard's escort, to which his son had been 
 attached, and, having recovered the concession from the 
 ant-bear hole, was brought with it safely to Kimberley. 
 
 For more than a year after he had received the conces- 
 sion Rhodes was busy making it water-tight. His first 
 anxiety was about Lo Bengula ; he knew that every kind 
 of pressure would be put on the chief by rival speculators 
 to induce him to withdraw his promise or give other 
 concessions incompatible with it, and in all his instructions 
 to Rudd he had insisted that " if we get anything we must 
 always have some one resident or they will intrigue to upset 
 us," for " nature," he kept repeating, " abhors a vacuum." 
 So on Rudd's departure Thompson and Maguire were left 
 behind to fill the vacuum. At first they retained their 
 influence. They persuaded Lo Bengula to give public 
 notice that the concession had been granted and was a 
 bar to all others, and at the end of the year Maguire was 
 put in command of an impi to warn off Haggard and other 
 agents of the Austral Africa Company, who had come into 
 the country to ask for a concession. But at the begin- 
 ning of 1889 there was an ominous change. Maund, the 
 capable agent of the Exploring Company, regained control. 
 Another pubhc notice was issued, this time denjdng on Lo 
 Bengula's behalf that Rudd had been granted aU mineral 
 rights in the country ; and a deputation of indunas was 
 sent to England under Maund's charge to interview " the 
 great white Queen." Maund and the Exploring Company, 
 as will appear, were disposed of by Rhodes himself ; but that 
 was not the end of the trouble with Lo Bengula. Fairbairn, 
 keeper of the elephant seal, so worked upon the chief that he 
 
128 CECIL RHODES 
 
 got him to send a letter to the Colonial Office saying that 
 he -had signed the Rudd concession under a misapprehen- 
 sion. But Rhodes's means were not exhausted. His 
 friend Jameson, who on a hunting trip in Matabeleland 
 had earned the king's gratitude by curing him of gout, was 
 stiU in reserve ; so Jameson and another Kimberley doctor, 
 Rutherfoord Harris, were sent up to try their powers of 
 persuasion, and for the time being succeeded. But no 
 sooner were their backs turned than Lo Bengula changed 
 round again. He no longer needed the promptings of 
 disappointed traders and speculators to influence him 
 against the concession. His own fears and the anger of 
 his warriors kept him up to the mark. He professed 
 ignorance of what he had signed and demanded back the 
 original document for verification ; and he wrote to the 
 Queen declaring that " the white people are troubling me 
 much about gold. If the Queen hears that I have given 
 away the whole country, it is not so. I do not understand 
 where the dispute is, because I have no knowledge of 
 writing." To his indignant indunas and warriors he offered 
 as a scapegoat his chief adviser, Lotchi, who, he said, had 
 " blinded " him and induced him to sign the document. 
 Lotchi walked out of the council a doomed man, to make 
 his last preparations. He warned all his people to escape, 
 and said to the missionary Helm, " I am a dead man." 
 And so it proved. A detachment of the Imbesu or Royal 
 Regiment came to his kraal, carried off the young children 
 and cattle, and killed Lotchi and all the others who had not 
 fled. The position of Maguire and Thompson had become 
 almost as precarious, and, though the king did aU he could 
 to protect them, they were virtually hostages. The first 
 to flee the country was Maguire, in April 1889, and a month 
 6r so later Thompson made his escape. Thus the 
 " vacuum " so much abhorred by Rhodes was created. 
 But before this the centre of interest had shifted from Lo 
 Bengula's kraal to Cape Town or London or wherever 
 Rhodes happened to be. 
 
 His policy with rivals who claimed concessions from 
 Lo Bengula was the same as with rivals on the diamond 
 fields : to make a deal with them if possible, and only fight 
 
THE CHARTER 
 
 129 
 
 them in the last resort. He himself afterwards said that 
 his worst difficulty in acquiring Matabeleland for the Empire 
 was the settlement of some of the outrageous claims set 
 up against him. One man, who had never left England, 
 actually demanded compensation because he had not been 
 able to carry out his intention of seeking a mining licence 
 in Matabeleland owing to Rhodes's previous concession. 
 Rhodes did not compensate him, but he did others with 
 claims hardly less preposterous. When he heard that 
 Haggard and Wallop had been warned off by Magmre and 
 his impi, fearing " a Uterary campaign against us," he 
 proposed to indemnify them. More than a dozen claimants 
 of concessions were handsomely paid to drop them or merge 
 them with his own, and no questions asked about their 
 validity ; and many a South African was long afterwards 
 drawing a steady income of ;^6oo or more from this source. 
 The only rivals he seriously feared were the two allied 
 Bechuanaland Exploration and Exploring Companies. 
 After sounding the Colonial Office in the summer of 1888, 
 in the following January their principal directors, Mr. 
 George Cawston and Lord Gifford, had made the explicit 
 proposal that the two Companies should be incorporated 
 under Charter to work all the minerals in Khama's and Lo 
 Bengula's territories and build a railway to the Zambesi. 
 These were very much Rhodes's own objects, only, as he 
 put it, this interior company must be De Beers and the 
 Gold Fields with a combined capital of thirteen millions 
 instead of a company with a beggarly £50,000. The 
 Companies' two agents in South Africa had soon come to 
 the same conclusion. One of them was Sir Charles Metcalfe, 
 the engineer and an old friend of Rhodes, who had been 
 sent out to make surveys for the proposed railway ; but 
 as soon as he came to Kimberley he found that nothing 
 could be done without Rhodes's help. Maund, the other 
 agent, had made a good fight for his principals at Lo 
 Bengula's kraal, but on his way to England in January 
 1889 with the Matabele indunas began to feel some doubts 
 after a conversation with Rhodes at Kimberley. Learning 
 from him that, if it came to a fight, money would be no 
 object, but that there might be means of accommodation, 
 
 K 
 
I30 CECIL RHODES 
 
 Maund thought it prudent for the time being to withhold 
 certain important letters and documents in his possession. 
 Nevertheless Rhodes soon saw that it was time to foUow 
 him to England to conclude negotiations and arrange about 
 the Charter himself. " Our enemies," he wrote, " may 
 bowl us out if I do not go at once to headquarters. Our 
 concession is so gigantic, it is like giving a man the whole 
 of Australia : and our opponents are numerous." 
 
 He reached England in March 1889 with two tasks before 
 him : first to deal with opposition from rival syndicates, 
 and secondly to persuade the British Government and the 
 British public to entrust the administration and exploita- 
 tion of the interior of Africa to a Chartered Company formed 
 by himself. The first task was comparatively easy. When 
 Rhodes and Cawston had submitted to the Colonial Office 
 their rival proposals. Sir Robert Herbert had thrown out 
 the hint that their objects would be more easily attained 
 if they combined their interests ; and they had immediately 
 agreed. Within a few days of Rhodes's arrival the terms 
 of amalgamation were settled. The Exploring Company 
 was given a share in the Rudd concession, which was held 
 by Rhodes, Beit, the Gold Fields and a few others, while 
 Rhodes and Beit joined the board of the Exploring Com- 
 pany. The funds for developing the new country and for 
 bmlding the, railway were to be provided by the Rudd 
 Concession syndicate, converted first into the Central 
 Search Association, and afterwards, when the Bechuanaland 
 Exploration Company and other conflicting syndicates had 
 been brought in, into the United Concessions Company, 
 Limited. Thus all legitimate interests in the undeveloped 
 parts of South Africa up to the Zambesi would be in- 
 corporated into one great company. 
 
 But in the political field things did not go so smoothly. 
 His old adversary, Mackenzie, was back in England, urging 
 the Government to part with no more power in South Africa. 
 He was still agitating against the transfer of the Crown 
 Colony of Bechuanaland to the Cape, which Rhodes desired, 
 and was even more opposed to the grant of administrative 
 powers or a commercial monopoly to any company in the 
 Bechuanaland Protectorate or Matabeleland. Backed by 
 
THE CHARTER 131 
 
 the Aborigines Protection Society and the London Chamber 
 of Commerce he bombarded Lord Knutsford with memo- 
 randa representing that direct Crown Government was the 
 only means of securing justice for the natives, and that the 
 existing stagnation of Kimberley was an illustration of the 
 evils of one too powerful company. Still more influential on 
 the same side was the South African Committee, composed 
 of certain well-known members of Parliament and others, 
 such as Sir T. Fowell Buxton, Albert Grey (afterwards Earl 
 Grey), the Duke of Fife, Evelyn Ashley, Arnold Forster, 
 and Joseph Chamberlain. In a circular sent out by this 
 committee, they attacked the concession given to Rudd, 
 " a Cape colonist who is beUeved to have received very 
 influential support in the commercial part of his under- 
 taking from persons in authority at the Cape. ... A 
 single speculator who buys for an old song the most valuable 
 territory in South Africa." Bradlaugh, Labouchere and 
 other free-lances in the House of Commons asked awkward 
 questions about the favoiu shown by the High Commissioner 
 to Rhodes's associates. The stipulation that Lo Bengula 
 should receive payment in arms and ammunition was also 
 specially fastened upon for attack. Already in South Africa 
 the Bishop of Bloemfontein and others had commented 
 strongly on this provision, and their protests had been 
 re-echoed in the House by Chamberlain. The Government 
 at first also disapproved, but then weakly accepted the 
 Jesuitical plea, originated by Moffat and endorsed by the 
 High Commissioner, that rifles were a less effective and 
 less brutal means of massacre in the hands of natives than 
 assegais. Rhodes had also alienated many of that party, 
 to which he might naturally have looked for support in 
 his schemes of Imperial development, by his disparaging 
 remarks on the " Imperial factor " and by his alliance with 
 the Bond. The Times, for example, persisted in identif jing 
 this organization with the extremists who demanded the 
 dissolution of all ties with England, and solemnly warned 
 Rhodes, now that he had " made his pile," to turn his 
 attention seriously to patriotism. 
 
 But, though he had powerful enemies, he was an adept 
 at winning powerful friends. It woxild, no doubt, have been 
 
132 CECIL RHODES 
 
 comparatively easy for him to obtsiin absolution from the 
 Unionist party then in power and to rely entirely on their 
 support for a poHcy in keeping with their traditions. But 
 he had no such inchnation. Just as. in South Africa he 
 sought the co-operation of Dutch as well as Enghsh, so in 
 England he wanted to carry all parties with him and devoted 
 especial attention to conciUating certain sections of the 
 opposition. This came to him the more easily as on certain 
 questions his sympathies were rather with the Radicals than 
 the Conservatives, especially with those Radicals who had 
 been taught by Stead and Dilke to take an interest in 
 colonial affairs ; and, though Gladstone personally was 
 always suspect to him, and his unfavourable impressions 
 were only confirmed by the few conversations he had with 
 that great statesman, he was strongly in favour of Home 
 Rule for Ireland. He put himseK into the hands of Sir 
 Charles MiUs, the Agent-General for the Cape, and by his 
 means soon obtained the long-desired introduction to Wc T. 
 Stead, then at the height of his power as a journalist. Stead 
 came unwiUingly to the interview, for he was an ally of 
 Mackenzie's and was not prepossessed by what he had 
 heard of Rhodes ; but after talking to him for a few hours 
 he made the discovery that Rhodes was the man he had 
 long been looking for to be the practical exponent of his 
 own doctrines ; while Rhodes had already discovered in 
 the columns of the Pall Mall Gazette that Stead was his 
 mentor and his prophet. From that moment the strangely 
 assorted pair entered into a close alliance, and a friendship 
 was bom that survived even their later divergence in 
 poUtics. Rhodes confided to Stead all his dreams and his. 
 plans and made him his executor ; Stead, who never did 
 things by halves, began talking and writing about Rhodes 
 with all the force of his enthusiastic nature, and soon 
 persuaded the British pubhc that in him they had found 
 a new saviour of the British Empire. Mills also introduced 
 him to Dilke, who, though not carried away, Hke Stead, 
 by sudden enthusiasms, was also impressed by the young 
 statesman's broad-minded views on South African and 
 Imperial pohtics. About the same time, probably, he also 
 first made the acquaintance of Rothschild's son-in-law, 
 
THE CHARTER 133 
 
 Lord Rosebery, whom he came to look to as the English 
 statesman most in harmony with his general outlook. 
 
 The benevolence of the Irish party, important less for any 
 active support they could give than for their deadly power of 
 obstructing any cause obnoxious to them, had already been 
 secured. In 1887 Rhodes had travelled with Mr. Swift 
 M'Neill out to South Africa and told him of his S5anpathy 
 with Home Rule ; he had presided at one of his meetings 
 in Cape Town and offered to contribute £10,000 to the Irish 
 party fimds. In the following year, in an interview with 
 Pamell and in letters they exchanged, he had clearly 
 defined his position and laid down certain conditions for 
 his support. His main interest in Home Rule was in its 
 bearing on the larger question of Imperial Federation or, 
 as he frankly told Pamell, " because I beheved that Irish 
 Home Rule would lead to Imperial Home Rule." In his 
 conception of Home Rule he was in advance even of 
 Gladstone, for he had no belief in pettifogging safeguards 
 for the judiciary and constabulary or in maintaining the 
 fiscal dependence, " tribute " he called it, of Ireland ; the 
 settlement, he beheved, should be based on absolute trust 
 of the Irish, and he would give them as complete a form 
 of self-government as any of the self-governing dominions. 
 But there was one point on which he insisted for his support 
 and contribution to the party fxmds, that Irish members 
 should be retained at Westminster. Their exclusion by 
 Gladstone's BiU of 1886 he regarded as a fatal blot on that 
 measure, for he hoped to make the representation at West- 
 minster of a self-governing Ireland the precedent for the 
 admission there of representatives from all the self-governing 
 colonies. In fact the chief importance to him of Home Rule 
 was that it might be made the first step to a really Imperial 
 Parliament for a federated Empire. Parnell, whom Rhodes 
 described as " the most reasonable and sensible man I ever 
 met," agreed to Rhodes's terms : the Irish party would 
 not in future oppose the representation of Ireland at 
 Westminster and would agree to a clause extending the 
 same privilege to any colony contributing to Imperial 
 defence. And so the bargain was concluded. One advan- 
 tage of it to Rhodes was that in the subsequent discussions 
 
134 CECIL RHODES 
 
 on his South African policy some of his warmest supporters 
 in the House were found in the ranks of the Irish party ; 
 and room was found on their benches for his friend Maguire, 
 who acted as a semi-of&cial exponent of his views. No 
 doubt Rhodes had some such quid pro quo in his mind 
 when he struck his bargain with Pamell, but none the less 
 it was entirely in accordance with his deepest convictions. 
 No personal consideration of minor advantages deterred 
 him two years later from expostiilating with Pamell, when 
 he appeared to have gone back on his specific pledges, and 
 obtaining from him a renewal of his promise about Irish 
 representation. 
 
 Rhodes needed all the extraneous support he could get, 
 for Lord Sahsbury's Government had at first been very 
 shy of his projects and indeed of all further adventure in 
 Africa. It is true they accepted the Moffat treaty and 
 waived aside protests against it from the Transvaal and 
 Germany, but in June 1888 they were quite willing to accept 
 Portugal's extravagant claim to a continuous dominion 
 from Angola on the west coast to Mozambique on the east. 
 This would have entirely precluded Rhodes from securing 
 for British enterprise the central tracts of Barotseland and 
 Nyassaland north of the Zambesi. The Rudd concession 
 had been looked on coldly at first, and a message was 
 sent to Lo Bengula from the Queen advising him to scruti- 
 nize very carefully any concession he might grant, and at 
 any rate to give away " only an ox, not his whole herd." 
 The leader of the House, W. H. Smith, even declared that 
 British Bechuanaland would not be handed over to the 
 Cape, and very discouraging answers about the prospect of 
 a Charter were given in ParUament. However, pressure from 
 various quarters induced the Government to modify their 
 attitude. The Cape Government protested against any sur- 
 render to Portugal on the question of free access to Central 
 Africa, and Sir Hercules Robinson was goaded by W. H. 
 Smith's speech and Mackenzie's memoranda to his notorious 
 declaration about " the amateur meddling of irresponsible 
 and ill-advised persons in England." Robinson's support 
 for Rhodes's plan was unquaUfied, and no doubt had great 
 influence on the Government. He drew a lurid picture on 
 
THE CHARTER 135 
 
 the one hand of the confusion in Swaziland and on the 
 other of the evils of Crown Colony government " on the 
 cheap," as exemplified in British Bechuanaland, where 
 there was " a perpetual wrangle with the Treasury for the 
 means of maintaining a decent administration " ; and con- 
 cluded that the only way of escape from these dangers 
 in Lo Bengula's dominions was to estabUsh a strong 
 Chartered Company. 
 
 These considerations, backed by the powerful appeals of 
 Rhodes's influential supporters, converted Lord Knutsford 
 and the Government to Rhodes's scheme. On April 30, 
 1889, Lord Gifford on behalf of the Exploring Company, 
 and Rhodes, Rudd and Beit representing the Gold Fields 
 of South Africa, jointly appUed for a Charter to a company 
 prepared to carry out the following objects : 
 
 1. To extend the railway and telegraph northwards 
 
 towards the Zambesi. 
 
 2. To encourage emigration and colonization. 
 
 3. To promote trade and commerce. 
 
 4. To develop minerals and other concessions under one 
 
 powerful organization, so as to avoid conflicts 
 between competing interests. 
 
 Lord Knutsford forwarded the proposal to Lord Salis- 
 bury with the comment that the country would thereby be 
 saved such heavy expenses as it had incurred in British 
 Bechuanaland and also would retain more control over a 
 Chartered Company than it would over a Joint Stock 
 Company. Lord Salisbury's own view was that such far- 
 reaching objects fell properly within the province of the 
 Government but, being convinced that the House of 
 Commons would not vote the money, gave his blessing to 
 the project. Rhodes and his associates were asked to draft 
 a Charter, and were given a private intimation that it 
 would be advisable to include in their list of directors men 
 of social and political standing whd* would command more 
 respect in England than those who like Rhodes himself, Beit, 
 Cawston and Gifford, were merely associated with South 
 African companies. Rhodes took the hint and consulted his 
 friend Colonel Euan Smith on likely men. Lord Balfour of 
 
136 CECIL RHODES 
 
 Burleigh was first suggested as Chairman, but his connection " 
 with the Government was a bar; thereupon Rhodes per- 
 suaded the Duke of Abercorn to accept the position ; and 
 the Prince of Wales's son-in-law, the Duke of Fife, also 
 consented to join the Board. With his sure instinct for 
 conciliating opponents Rhodes then approached Albert 
 Grey, one of the most distinguished members of the South 
 African Committee and, with the Duke of Fife, a signatory 
 of the Circular directed against his concession. Grey hardly 
 knew Rhodes and first consulted Lord Salisbury, being 
 inclined Uke him to think that the Company's objects ought 
 to be secured by direct Government action. Reassured on 
 this score by Salisbury's own view of the difficulties, he then 
 asked Chamberlain for his advice. " WeU," said Chamber- 
 lain, " I know only three things about Rhodes and they all 
 put me against him : (i.) he has made an enormous fortune 
 very rapidly, (ii.) he is an Afrikander {i.e. not an Imperialist), ) 
 (iii.) he gave £10,000 to Parnell." Grey assured him that ' 
 he beheved Rhodes to be a single-minded patriot : " Well,^ 
 I have given you my advice," retorted Chamberlain, " you 
 must decide for yourself." Grey did decide to cast in his 
 lot with Rhodes, and, having once done so, ever afterwards 
 supported him through thick and thin, and came to love him } 
 with aU the chivalry of his warm-hearted nature. To have 
 gained Grey, " the Paladin of his generation," as Courtney) 
 called him, was one of the best bits of work Rhodes ever 
 did for himself and his great ideas ; for in after days, when 
 doubts arose about Rhodes's motives, the staunchness to 
 his cause of such a transparently honest man reassured 
 many ; and his sweet companionship was a solace in some 
 of Rhodes's darkest days. 
 
 The question of the directors once satisfactorily settled,) 
 the remaining stages before the issue of the Charter were) 
 merely a matter of slow and solemn formaUty. The petition 
 and draft had to be considered by the Colonial and Foreign 
 Offices, a Committee of the Privy Council and the Privy 
 Council itself, before the Letters Patent granting a Royal "j 
 Charter of Incorporation to the British South Africa Company ' 
 were signed by the Queen on October 29, 1889. Long before j 
 this Rhodes had returned to South Africa. Being a man who 
 
THE CHARTER 137 
 
 did not like idleness in London, as his friend and solicitor 
 Hawksley described him, he said, " I have done all I can, 
 and I will leave you to have the formalities settled." 
 Before leaving, however, he gave a taste of his impetuous 
 methods to the Colonial Office. To save time, he writes 
 on June i, he is prepared to pay the Government £30,000 
 immediately for a telegraph line from Mafeking, as he would 
 be bound to do under the Charter, and a further £4000 a 
 year for the upkeep of a British resident at Buluwayo to 
 advise Lo Bengula and " give to the Company moral support 
 as far as this can be done without entailing on H.M. 
 Government any responsibihty or expense." A fortnight 
 later comes the answer from the Colonial Office agreeing 
 in principle to these proposals. " To whom shall I make 
 the pa5mients ? " asks Rhodes by return. " Not so fast," 
 replies the Colonial Office a week later, " you must wait 
 till the Charter is granted." Rhodes did not wait, and on 
 his return to South Africa cabled to the Colonial Office 
 for 250 miles of telegraph wire. No. 8 Siemens, and a 
 corresponding quantity of telegraph poles. But it was not 
 till a week after the Charter had been approved that his 
 money was accepted and the wire and poles despatched. 
 
 The power granted by Charter to the British South 
 Africa Company was, as Rhodes had said of the Rudd 
 concession, " gigantic." Certain clauses were inserted for 
 the protection of native rights, freedom of rehgion, trade 
 and previous concessions ; the Secretary of State had 
 limited rights of supervising the Company's operations ; 
 and after twenty-five years, or earUer, if the Company's 
 privileges were misused, the Charter might be revoked. 
 Otherwise they had almost unfettered freedom of action. 
 The Company's " principal field of operations " was all 
 South Africa north of the new Crown Colony and the 
 Transvaal and west of the Portuguese possessions in East 
 Africa : thus it included the Bechuanaland Protectorate 
 and had no Hmit northwards, for Rhodes, " not satisfied 
 with the Zambesi as a boundary," had had his way. In 
 this vast territory the Company was given power to make 
 treaties, promulgate laws, preserve the peace, maintain a 
 police force, and acquire new concessions : it could make 
 
138 CECIL RHODES 
 
 roads, railways, harbours, or undertake other public works, 
 own or charter ships, engage in mining or any other in- 
 dustry, establish banks, make land grants and carry on any 
 lawful commerce, trade, pursuit or business. 
 
 The capital for this vast imdertaking was fixed at a 
 miUion in £1 shares. It must be admitted that the pro- 
 moters took good care of their own interests, for not only 
 did they receive 90,000 shares on account of rights and 
 concessions handed over to the Company, but the United 
 Concessions Company retained a half share in any profits 
 to be hereafter made. But there was no difficulty in 
 obtaining subscribers. Except for a few questions in the 
 House by Labouchere and others aU opposition to the grant 
 of the Charter had died down, and the public accepted it 
 without demur. Confidence was given to investors by a 
 subscription from De Beers for 200,000 shares, the support 
 of the Gold Fields and Rhodes's own large holding. But 
 this demonstration of good faith was hardly needed, for 
 the public were fascinated by the promise of wealth in 
 the new country. The Times wrote of it : "It is rich, 
 fabiilously rich, we are told, in precious metals and a 
 half-a-dozen others besides," a coimtry where there was 
 game in plenty on the uplands and cultivable ground, 
 " only in need of scratching to smile with com and all 
 kinds of agricultural wealth," watered as it was by " a 
 network of unfaihng streams," beside which " the cattle 
 fatten in peace." In this " land of Goshen," three times 
 the size of the United Kingdom, The Times concluded its 
 leader : " Whether the Company finds the wealth of Ophir 
 in the mountains and rivers of Mashonaland or not, we 
 cannot doubt that it will lay the basis of a great English- 
 speaking colony in what appears to be the fairest region 
 in Africa." With such appeals to the desire for lucre and 
 to public spirit no wonder the shares were eagerly taken 
 up. Rich men subscribed their thousands and small 
 investors their modest pounds : one hears of women buying 
 a single share merely for the privilege of attending an 
 annual meeting of the Company, to see and hear the great 
 adventurer who had conceived the enterprise. Rhodes 
 himself was away in Africa when this excitement began, 
 
THE CHARTER 139 
 
 busy with Cape politics and with preparations for the pioneer 
 expedition ; but the sudden curiosity about his personality, 
 so little known to the general public, only increased with 
 his absence. When he next returned to London, he came 
 not a suppliant but a dispenser of favours : politicians 
 consulted him, society worshipped him, and, what he cared 
 for most of all, he had become the talk of the busman and 
 the working-man. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 THE PIONEERS 
 
 Vast as were the powers sanctioned by the Charter, they 
 had yet to be made good when Rhodes returned to South 
 Africa in August 1889 ; for the Company was merely 
 permitted to administer territories and exercise privileges 
 it might acquire by its own exertions. Having gained the 
 approval and support of the Imperial factor, Rhodes's next 
 object was to carry South Africa, and especially the Dutch 
 of South Africa, with him. This desire to associate the 
 Dutch with his enterprise was, as we have seen, no sudden 
 impulse, but the result of a long and consistent course of 
 pohcy, dating further back even than his saying to Jameson 
 in 1878, that the Dutch were the coming race in South Africa 
 and that it was hopeless to run the country without them. 
 In his Bechuanaland poMcy he had proved his sincerity, and 
 since then, in his comparatively rare excursions into politics, 
 he had drawn closer the links between himself and the 
 Bond. Both in the House and at the Paarl, where he had 
 been invited to address a Bond meeting, he had spoken 
 strongly in favour of their policy of agricultural protection, 
 and had supported a great irrigation scheme in the Hartz 
 Valley for the benefit of the farmers. He had fore- 
 shadowed, much to their delight, his own Glen Grey policy, 
 when on a Registration Bill he had attacked the liberality 
 of the Cape franchise law to uneducated natives. He had 
 spoken in favour of Hofmeyr's motions for religious educa- 
 tion in the schools and the abolition of Sunday trains, and 
 in return had received aid from Hofmeyr in defeating a 
 proposal to tax the diamond industry, and a glowing eulogy 
 from him during the election of 1888 as a staunch friend 
 
 140 *> 
 
THE PIONEERS 141 
 
 to the Dutch cause. This alliance had recently been 
 strengthened by a passing estrangement between the Bond 
 and the Transvaal. The era of through-railways had begun ; 
 and it had become a vital matter to the Cape farmers no 
 less than to the merchants at the ports to have cheap and 
 rapid transport for their goods and produce to the Johannes- 
 burg markets. But Kruger, with his desire to free himself 
 from dependence on Cape ports and to draw all his suppUes 
 from Delagoa Bay or some port of his own on the east 
 coast, had put every obstacle in the way of the Cape policy. 
 He refused to allow a railway to come into his country from 
 the south, and even persuaded the Free State to reject an 
 agreement for a line through Bloemfontein to the Vaal ; he 
 would have nothing to do with a South African conference 
 on railways and customs, and insisted on keeping up a high 
 tariff on agricultural products from Cape Colony. Rhodes 
 supported the Bond in every endeavour to conciUate 
 Kruger and leave him every loophole for a compromise. 
 But even the Bond became indignant at this poor return 
 for their loyalty to Kruger's people in 1881, and passed 
 resolutions of protest against his opposition to the Cape 
 railway extension and his prohibitive tariff on Cape produce. 
 The very Dutchmen at the Cape, who in 1884 had been 
 willing to let Bechuanaland go to the Transvaal, in i88g, 
 so the Governor reported, were quite prepared to see the 
 British sphere extended to the Zambesi ; and Hofmeyr, 
 then most favourable to the Transvaal claims, now declared 
 himself in favour of Rhodes's Chartered Company, whereas, 
 "had Kruger fulfilled my expectations and fallen in with 
 my advice, Rhodes and I might have agreed to differ." 
 
 Rhodes naturally took full advantage of these favour- 
 able dispositions. It had originally been intended that as 
 Managing Director of the Chartered Company he should be 
 assisted by a local board in South Africa, and he himself 
 was very anxious to secure prominent Dutchmen to sit on 
 this -board. He offered the chairmanship in turn to Sir 
 Henry de Villiers, the Chief Justice of the Cape, and on his 
 refusal to Hofmeyr. At first Hofmeyr was inclined to 
 accept, and was empowered to do so by a special resolution 
 of the Bond, :but, his ingrained distaste for pubhc responsi- 
 
142 CECIL RHODES 
 
 bility reasserting itself, he thought better of it and refused. 
 The local board then fell to the ground and Rhodes carried 
 on the work unaided. But he secured very wide support 
 for the Company by getting as many South Africans as 
 possible to take a financial interest in it : he brought out 
 125,000 of the shares for disposal in South Africa and found 
 no difficulty in placing even more than these among the 
 Dutch as well as the Enghsh colonists. 
 
 He soon reaped the first-fruits of this poMcy. Part of 
 his bargain with the Home Government and an integral 
 element in his advance northwards was the extension of 
 the railway beyond Kimberley, and he set to work arranging 
 for it as soon as he returned to South Africa. Using as his 
 intermediaries Hofmejn: himself and Sivewright, a British 
 member of the Bond, he concluded, on the very day the 
 Charter was granted in London, a favourable agreement 
 with the Cape Ministry, who agreed to take over and work 
 the first section of the new Mne to Vryburg directly it was 
 out of the contractors' hands. The work was put through 
 with unexampled speed, and the Chartered Company, in 
 addition to the increased transport facihties so valuable for 
 their own purposes, derived some profit from this arrangement 
 with the Cape and conferred a benefit on the colonial traders 
 and farmers. 
 
 His next business was to arrange for the occupation of 
 the country over which the Charter had given him such 
 large prospective powers. His gold-digging rights under 
 the Rudd concession extended over the whole of the vague 
 dominions claimed by Lo Bengula, including Matabeleland 
 itself and the territory occupied by the tributary Mashonas, 
 the whole bounded by the Zambesi on the north and by 
 the Portuguese possessions on the east coast. It was out 
 of the question to venture into Matabeleland itself without 
 a large army, but the land inhabited by the gentler Mashonas 
 offered a more favourable field ; so Mashonaland was the 
 goal decided upon. But even for this there were still 
 difficulties with Lo Bengula. The abhorred vacuum at his 
 court had never been satisfactorily filled since Thompson's 
 departure, and afforded plenty of scope for the intrigues of 
 rivals and the chief's hesitations. WTien Lo Bengula gave 
 
THE PIONEERS 143 
 
 Rudd his concession in 1888 he neveranticipated that it would 
 be made the excuse for the ambitious undertaking conceived 
 by Rhodes : he thought a few white men would come and dig 
 holes in the ground for gold, not that a regular armed expedi- 
 tion would be sent into his country to settle in townships with 
 all the appurtenances of European civihzation ; and when 
 he found he had given away more than he bargained for he 
 began to deny that he had given anything. Though shrewd 
 in small matters he had Httle knowledge of European 
 business methods or of the real purport of legal documents, 
 and as Mr. Maguire said of him, " he had an extraordinary 
 dislike to come to a definite decision upon any subject, 
 coupled with extreme imwiUingness to say No." The 
 Grobler and the Moffat treaties and the Rudd concession, 
 mutually exclusive as they were, were probably regarded 
 by him merely as convenient methods of fobbing off trouble- 
 some visitors. So now he persisted in " dens^ng the road " 
 to any expedition proposed to carry out the Rudd conces- 
 sion. Once more Jameson was called upon to talk him 
 over. Jameson arrived with Dr. Rutherfoord Harris at the 
 same time as a deputation from the Queen, composed of a 
 military band and the three tallest of her Life Guards to 
 announce the Charter to Lo Bengiila and advise him to 
 put his trust in the new Company. Impressed by this 
 magnificence the chief once more gave way. At an indaba 
 attended by Jameson and Moffat he agreed that Rhodes's 
 agents might enter Mashonaland to seek for gold and 
 establish tents, stores and sheds as required, and that he 
 would then indicate to them what land they should be 
 entitled to occupy. But he jnight change his mind again, 
 so Rhodes had every motive for haste in equipping and 
 starting his expedition. 
 
 The only known route to Mashonaland was by the old 
 Missionaries' road through Tati into the heart of Matabele- 
 land and thence by Lo Bengula's " royal road " through 
 Inyati to the Mashona hills. In the present disposition of 
 the Matabeles it seemed foolhardy to send an expedition 
 through their coimtry unless it were backed by an im- 
 posing mihtary force. But this meant an expense the 
 Company could ill afford. Their total capital was only a 
 
144 CECIL RHODES 
 
 million, half of which was ear-marked for railways ; and 
 the Imperial officer who was consulted said he would require 
 2500 men for the job and that the cost would be httle short 
 of that total capital. On the other hand, failure and a 
 disaster at the outset, owing to an inadequate expedition, 
 would spell ruin to the whole Chartered policy. Various, 
 other plans were discussed, but all had to be rejected as 
 unsatisfactory ; and Rhodes was almost in despair. 
 
 In this despondent mood he came into the breakfast- 
 room of the Kimberley Club a few days before Christmas. 
 He looked vaguely at a young man seated at a table by 
 himself and was just passing him when he recalled his face 
 and came to sit down beside him. The young man was 
 Frank Johnson, then only twenty-three, who had just 
 arrived from a seven months' trek in the north on behalf 
 of the Bechuanaland Exploration Company and was going 
 off that night by the mail train for Cape Town. He had 
 previously visited Lo Bengula, against whom he had a 
 grievance, and had some concessions in Mashonaland. 
 Rhodes soon began to pour out his woes to Johnson, and 
 told him of the extravagant proposal made to him for an 
 armed force of 2500 men. " Two thousand five hundred 
 men is absurd," said Johnson, " why, with 250 I could 
 walk through the country." Rhodes went on eating eggs 
 and bacon and then suddenly burst out with, " Do you 
 mean that ? " " Yes." " How much wiU it cost ? " 
 " Give me four hours, and I'll let you know." By noon 
 Johnson had brought his calculations to Rhodes : 179 
 pioneers, a troop of poUce and 150 natives would do the 
 work, and the cost of their pay, food and equipment and 
 that of making the roads required woidd be £89,285 : los. 
 " Good," said Rhodes, " I accept the offer, and you shall 
 command the expedition." But to his disgust and 
 astonishment Johnson refused point-blank to serve under 
 the Chartered Company, and went off that evening to 
 Cape Town. Five days later he got a telegram from 
 Rhodes to meet him next morning at the Cape Town 
 station. " Oh, here you are," said Rhodes, as he came 
 off the Kimberley train, and the two drove off to the top 
 of Adderley Street, where Johnson paid £.nd dismissed the 
 
THE PIONEERS 145 
 
 hansom-^ior- Rfeedes-ne^er liad..any money about him — 
 and walked up and down Government Avenue. " Every- 
 body tells me you are a lunatic," began Rhodes, " but I 
 have an instinct you are right and can do it," and he again 
 pressed him to take command of the expedition. Finally, 
 on the understanding that he should not act as a servant 
 of the Company but work as an independent contractor, 
 Johnson agreed for a cheque down to enlist and equip the 
 pioneers, make a road and hand over Mashonaland to a 
 civil government in nine months' time. " That's all right," 
 said Rhodes, " I'll give you that cheque. Now let's get 
 some breakfast at Poole's." After breakfast Rhodes told 
 Johnson to draw up the draft contract, — ^he would have no 
 lawyers interfering — took him to his friend Sivewright to 
 look through the draft, and gave him a cheque for £20,000 
 on account. 
 
 The question of expense for the Company had thus been 
 satisfactorily settled, but the danger of disaster was not 
 yet averted, for no alternative to the risky road through 
 Buluwayo had been suggested. To some of Rhodes's 
 advisers the danger of a conflict with the Matabeles was no 
 objection : the Matabeles, they argued, would have to be 
 suppressed sooner or later, and the sooner the better. 
 Happily saner counsels prevailed. The proposed route 
 became known, and several of those acquainted with the 
 ferocity of the Matabeles pointed out the serious risks 
 involved. Among others, Mackenzie wrote to Lord Salis- 
 bury and Lord Knutsford to say that, opposed though he had 
 always been to the Charter, he did not wish to see a disaster 
 befall the Company, and " could not bear to think of all 
 those fine yoimg EngUshmen being speared some night." 
 But the advice which finally diverted Rhodes from this 
 foolhardy route came from one who had more claim to 
 speak about Lo Bengula's dominions than any other 
 European. 
 
 Frederick Selous was then a man of forty in the prime 
 of life and vigour. For twenty years he had been a mighty 
 hunter in Matabeleland and Mashonaland and also north 
 of the Zambesi ; in veld-lore and in knowledge of the natives 
 he was unrivalled ; he knew every track in Lo Bengula's 
 
 L 
 
146 CECIL RHODES 
 
 country and was that chief's trusted friend ; he shared 
 Rhodes's love of the Dutch and throughout South Africa 
 was famed for his chivalrous and sunny spirit His book 
 of sport and travel had reflected this spirit, and by its 
 attractive descriptions of Mashonaland had helped to en- 
 courage the interest at home in Rhodes's quest. He had 
 first met Rhodes ten years before, when he came to tell 
 him of his brother Herbert's death in Central Africa, and 
 had then shown him quills of gold obtained from the native 
 workings in Mashonaland. During the Charter negotia- 
 tions in London he had again met him and urged him to 
 settle the country permanently. Rhodes had said to him 
 then, " I shall soon have a job for you," and in January 
 1890 summoned him to Kimberley to discuss routes. 
 Selous at once warned him against the Buluwayo route, 
 which would only lead to bloodshed and disaster, and 
 suggested an alternative way, avoiding Matabeleland 
 altogether, through Tuli on the Limpopo, and thence north- 
 wards straight up through Mashonaland itself. Dense 
 bush at the outset and numerous rivers to cross would be 
 a bar to rapid progress, but these disadvantages would be 
 more than outweighed by the comparative safety of the 
 route. Rhodes, not an obstinate man when he saw good 
 reason against his plans, was convinced by Selous, and 
 persuaded him to guide the expedition by the way he 
 proposed. Selous thereupon went off on a flying visit to 
 the Zoutpansberg, to consult an old hunter well acquainted 
 with the country, and while there heard rumours of a project 
 which made it more than ever imperative for Rhodes to 
 despatch his expedition promptly. 
 
 Ever since the Grobler treaty he had dreaded being 
 forestalled by the Boers from the Transvaal. He knew 
 that many of them cast longing eyes northwards and that 
 the London Convention had put no exphcit obstacle to the 
 fulfilment of this desire. In September he had akeady 
 been scared by the rumour of a Boer trek into Mashonaland 
 and had at once sent the Imperial Secretary a letter 
 characteristic of his cavalier methods. " The report as 
 to Boers squatting," he writes, " may of course be incorrect, 
 but you will soon learn the correct facts and if true you 
 
THE PIONEERS 147 
 
 must instruct the police to expel them. If not the game is 
 up. You cannot allow a single Boer to settle across the 
 Limpopo until our position in the north is secure." Selous's 
 report was even more alarming. A burgher named Bowler 
 was organizing a trek to take up a concession he claimed in 
 north-east Mashonaland and preparations were said to be 
 well forward. Sir Henry Loch, Robinson's successor as 
 Governor and High Commissioner, protested to Kruger 
 against any such plan, and went to confer with him at 
 Blignaut's Pont in March 1890, taking Rhodes with him. The 
 President was not in the best of tempers, for he came fresh 
 from a stormy meeting with malcontents at Johannesburg, 
 who had torn down and trampled on the Republican flag, 
 and he was weU aware that the pohcy of a trek northwards, 
 which his rival Joubert openly favoured, was popular with 
 many of his burghers. But he was really much more 
 anxious to obtain control of Swaziland and thence gradually 
 make his way to a port on the east coast, and knew that in 
 the London Convention Loch held a trump card, as Rhodes 
 called it, that might be used against this plan ; so he was 
 ready for concession. On obtaining from Loch some rathei 
 vague assurances about Swaziland he promised Rhodes not 
 to interfere with the Charter and to damp down the trek. 
 A few months later Hofmejn: was sent up to chnch the 
 bargain ; a formal agreement was signed recognizing the 
 interests of the Transvaal in Swaziland, while Kruger 
 renewed his undertaking not to interfere in Lo Bengula's 
 dominions. 
 
 Meanwhile the pioneer expedition was getting under 
 way. Besides Johnson's 179 pioneers destined for settUng 
 in the country, a force of British South Africa PoHce 
 had to be enrolled to accompany them and keep order 
 afterwards. Though Johnson was mainly responsible for 
 choosing the settlers, Rhodes laid down the conditions for 
 their recruitment as well as for that of the poUce, and took a 
 personal interest in the men selected. He insisted that the 
 ranks were to be open to Dutchmen as well as Enghshmen, 
 and that every man in both forces must be inured to hard- 
 ship and adventure, amenable to discipUne and ready to 
 turn his hand to some trade or business. He himself went 
 
148 CECIL RHODES 
 
 to Basutoland to buy ponies, and trustworthy men were 
 commissioned to choose recruits and buy more horses in 
 likely centres. For the pioneers Nicholson brought from 
 Haenertsberg in the northern Transvaal men who had 
 come from all quarters of the globe to rough it at those 
 primitive diggings ; the Johannesburg contingent under 
 Lieutenant Mandey included Bowden and Wimble, heroes 
 of the cricket field, and Schermbriicker, descendant of an 
 Eastern Province pioneer. One raw Yorkshire lad, who 
 could not persuade any recruiter to take him, dogged 
 Rhodes's footsteps till his persistence was rewarded. 
 Among those from Cape Colony, Natal or the Free State 
 were Jack Spreckley, Chester Masters, Grimmer, Inskip, a 
 boy of nineteen who passed himself off as twenty-one and 
 is now a director of the Company ; Bowen, Neumeyer and 
 CorjTndon, who soon showed his mettle as administrator 
 of Barotseland ; the Burnetts, George and Ted, matchless 
 scouts and trackers ; a couple of Nesbitts, a well-known 
 Cape name ; Johnson's partners Heany, a Virginian, and 
 Borrow, Hoste, a Union Line skipper. Roach, the gunner, 
 an Irish V.C. and a naval middy, now an admiral. There 
 were three parsons, the Jesuit father Hartmann, Canon 
 Balfour and Surridge ; a doctor, Tabiteau, besides lawyers, 
 builders, tailors, butchers, bakers, engineers, miners, 
 farmers and ranchmen. Early in May this Ukely lot of 
 young men, numbering 184 altogether, full of courage and 
 the spirit of adventure, had assembled at the trysting place, 
 Mafeking : here they were equipped with Webley revolvers 
 and rifles, breeches and tunics of cordinroy, army boots and 
 gaiters, felt wide-awakes and waterproof overcoats. Their 
 pay was to be 7s. 6d. a day, and at the end of the journey 
 each was to receive fifteen gold claims and a 3000-acre 
 farm. They were divided into three troops under Heany, 
 skipper Hoste, and Roach, with Johnson, the dashing 
 young contractor of twenty-three, at their head. 
 
 A twenty days' march from Mafeking, which served to 
 weld this heterogeneous crowd into an orderly body, brought 
 them to Macloutsie on the northern border of Bechuanaland. 
 Here they found the British Bechuanaland PoHce, who were 
 to watch the Matabele borders while they advanced, and 
 
THE PIONEERS 149 
 
 five troops of the Chartered Company's new police who were 
 to accompany them. The poUce were under the command 
 of Col. Pennefather of the InniskiUing Dragoons, with 
 Forbes, Hesmian and Keith Falconer as troop leaders, 
 and Sir John Willoughby of the Horse Guards as staff- 
 officer. Rhodes was once reproached for having filled up 
 the ranks of the poUce with too many Englishmen froip 
 home, and he answered that, with aU his love of colonials, 
 he had to admit they were not so good at discipline as men 
 from a more settled country : nevertheless there was a 
 good sprinkling of colonials, EngUsh and Dutch, in the 
 police also. Here, too, they found 200 of Khama's natives 
 under his brother Radikladi, to act as scouts and road- 
 cutters, and also Selous, to guide them, Jameson, with 
 Rhodes's power of attorney, and Colquhoun, to be the first 
 administrator. Selous and Jameson had just returned from 
 a final visit to Lo Bengula to ask him to renew the " promise 
 of the road " which he had previously given ; but the king 
 had veered round once more. " I am tired," he said, " oJ 
 Rhodes ' mouths ' and wiU do nothing unless Rhodes, ' th( 
 great white king,' comes up himself to ask me." However 
 as Rhodes could not go, he and Jameson resolved to risl 
 Lo Bengula's displeasure and, acting on their rights undej 
 the concession and on previous promises of " the road," tc 
 proceed with the expedition. 
 
 Lord Methuen, deputed by Sir Henry Loch to insped 
 the pioneer column, gave them leave to go after three 
 weeks more driUing and preparation, and on June 27 
 1890, the start was made from Macloutsie. Selous hac 
 determined on Mount Hampden in the north of Mashona- 
 land, distant 460 miles, as his objective. As far as Tul 
 he had already cut the road, but there the difficulties 
 began. For haK the distance the course lay across lov 
 swampy country, thick with mopani brush, through whicl 
 every yard of road had to be cut. Five rivers in successior 
 had to be crossed, and any one of these in flood might have 
 held up the column for months. Besides its physica 
 difiiculties, the country was most favourable to ambus! 
 from an enemy, who could easily have approached the 
 column unperceived through the bush or taken up a 
 
150 CECIL RHODES 
 
 commanding position on one of the numerous granite 
 kopjes rising out of the low ground. Nor was the danger 
 of attack remote : twice, before the pioneers had left the 
 low country, messages came from Lo Bengula ordering" 
 them back, and his warriors were known to be eager to 
 make an example of the intruders. In such country an 
 attack in overwhelming numbers by the savages might 
 have been disastrous to a force reduced to httle more than 
 400, after detachments of pohce had been left behind at 
 Macloutsie and TuU, encumbered besides with ninety ponder- 
 ous waggons and a traveUing saw-mill. Fortunately the 
 march disciphne was good and precautions were duly observed 
 at every halt, while in Selous they had a rare guide. Each 
 day he went ahead with the Bechuana scouts and one of 
 the three troops of pioneers to cut the road nor ever 
 once led the coliunn astray. But even he began to be 
 anxious after Lo Bengula's second message, for it seemed 
 as if the low coimtry would never end. At last, after some 
 six weeks of this work, riding well in advance, he descried in 
 the distance the long-hoped-for pass leading up to the high 
 veld. Naming it Providential Pass, he rode back with the 
 good news, and by August 15 had brought the whole column 
 safely on to the high open country, where with their field- 
 guns and maxims the Europeans were more than a match 
 for any number of savages. By September 11, without a 
 single casualty, they had reached the site named Salisbury 
 after the Prime Minister.^ The goal had been attained, a 
 good road had been made to connect Sahsbury with civihza- 
 tion, and forts to guard the communications had been 
 thrown up at Victoria near Providential Pass and Charter, 
 all well within the nine months agreed upon by Johnson. 
 Even a relay postal service was organized, the first use to 
 which it was put being to send an express letter to Rhodes 
 announcing the colmnn's safe arrival, which reached 
 Macloutsie in five days. " When at last I found that they 
 were through to Fort Salisbury," said Rhodes, " I do not 
 think there was a happier man in the country than myself." 
 
 » Salisbury is south of Mt. Hampden, Selous's objective, but he had 
 left the column on another errand when they arrived there and decided to 
 go no further. 
 
THE PIONEERS 151 
 
 Rhodes, to his great disappointment, had been unable 
 to accompany the column. Detained by a pohtical crisis 
 at Cape Town, he had been gazetted Prime Minister of the 
 Colony a few days after the pioneers left Tuli. " If I could 
 quit that responsibility," he told the Dutchmen at the 
 Paarl, " no man would be happier than myself, because 
 I can then go and Uve with those yoimg people, who are 
 developing our new territories. The life is better than 
 that of receiving deputations, whilst it has all the romance 
 which attaches to the development of a new country." 
 But at the end of October he escaped from Cape Town and 
 came up country with Sir Henry Loch. At Vryburg he 
 attended the opening of his new section of railway, only 
 begun that year, and in his speech recalled his last visit 
 there five years before, when Warren had called him " a 
 danger to the peace of the country." Travelling thence 
 by road, he paid visits to Montsioa at Mafeking and Khama 
 at Palapye on his way to Macloutsie. True to his policy 
 of interesting the Dutch population in the new country, 
 he had brought with him two Cape Dutch members of the 
 Assembly, one of whom, De Waal, has left a lively account 
 of this and another journey he took with Rhodes. Major 
 Leonard, then in command of the pohce detachment left 
 at Macloutsie, has also written a graphic description of 
 the impression made on him by the great man. Sitting 
 opposite to him at lunch, writes Leonard on the first day, 
 " I saw a substantial organism, slow in his movements, 
 deliberate in his manner and phlegmatic in his temperament. 
 A big, heavy-looking, carelessly dressed man, not unhke a 
 Dutch farmer, with an awkward slouching figure and a dull 
 rather expressionless face, who talks in a curious dreamy 
 way, as if he was half asleep, and was taking no interest 
 in what he was sajdng, but was thinking of something 
 totally different . . . with Rhodes I made no headway, 
 and my conclusion is that his admirers have overrated 
 him." Next morning Rhodes hung about the camp, taking 
 in everything, " but our conversations were only trivial 
 commonplaces ; either he would not or I could not get 
 him to talk . . . but I am beginning to think he is very 
 deep. For under that dull exterior, which is but a mask. 
 
152 CECIL RHODES 
 
 he is continually taking in all around and about him . . . 
 his command of temper and faculties wonderful." This 
 dawning conception of Rhodes's depth was strengthened 
 by an incident next ^norning, when the great man suddenly 
 demanded the major's two best corporals to go with him 
 to Tuh. Leonard objected that this would leave him 
 short of N.C.O.'s. " N.C.O.'s, N.C.O.'s," murmured Rhodes 
 vaguely. " What are N.C.O.'s ? " Leonard explained, and 
 added that troopers would do as well for Rhodes's purpose. 
 " No, I prefer corporals and I must have them," Rhodes 
 snapped out in a quick decided way ; "his whole manner 
 had changed and he was quite another man. It was only 
 momentary, a mere flash in the pan ; then relapsing into 
 the dreamy, dull expression and shaking his head in a 
 semi-pathetic kind of way he turned to Lange (his secretary) 
 and said, ' They must be good men or Leonard wouldn't be 
 so anxious to keep them.' " In the evening Rhodes gave 
 a taste of his oratory. After a didl official speech from the 
 High Commissioner, " up rose the Colossus refreshed with 
 wine or possibly by the subject nearest his heart . . . 
 certainly he was Uke a man transformed. No longer that 
 slouching gait and in place of the heavy eyes, orbs full of 
 meaning flashing with a dangerous gleam that betrayed a 
 fixity of purpose, strength of will and a spirit that would 
 do or dare anything, he stood upright and erect, speaking 
 well and to the point [about the northern expansion]. At 
 first he talked very slowly and methodically as if he was 
 weighing each word with a balance ; but soon warming 
 to his subject ... he spoke fervently and earnestly yet 
 slowly and carefully as the man in authority." Finally 
 after three days, in which they " only talked of trivial 
 things, and I did not even once induce him to touch on 
 present or future policy," the major sums him up as 
 " dogged, determined to a degree and tenacious to the 
 last gasp ; once he gets hold of an idea he will never let it 
 go till he has attained it. In fact he is tenacious even to 
 obstinacy and inchned to petulancy if he cannot have his 
 way . . . powerful more than pleasant . . . sheer brute 
 force of will and rugged genius of mind." 
 
 The unfortunate Governor had an experience of this 
 
THE PIONEERS 153 
 
 petulancy and obstinacy. Rhodes had made up his mind 
 to visit his pioneers in Mashonaland in spite of all Loch's 
 arguments that, as Prime Minister of the Cape, he had no 
 business to go wandering off into an unknown country, 
 where he might be massacred by savages or held up for 
 months by swollen rivers. His reply was that he had not 
 come on this tiresome journey merely to see the British 
 Protectorate, but his own protectorate up north ; and the 
 utmost concession he would make was that he would re- 
 consider the matter at TuU : and thither he drove off in 
 a pet at dead of night. Here he at last set foot on his 
 own land ; but the rainy season was beginning and the 
 Governor's warning about swollen rivers bore fruit. Though 
 " our horses," he admitted, " are fat and strong ; we healthy 
 and in sound spirits ; our provisions more than enough ; 
 we must tium here," he decided, " we cross the Shashi and 
 the Crocodile, we travel down the Transvaal via the Blaaw- 
 bergen and Zoutpansberg, pay Oom Paul a visit and return 
 to Cape Town." 
 
 On a journey hke this Rhodes was at his best. He 
 loved the freedom of the veld, and to gain it was ready 
 to put up with any of the discomforts of travel. In the 
 worst circumstances he remained cheerful, even when a 
 lion was pursuing him in his pyjamas or when the transport 
 had broken down, and they all seemed lost in the low 
 country. " Well," he said on that occasion, " here we are 
 in a dark wild world. What wiU it avail us now to upbraid 
 Johnson with having deceived us with the road ? What 
 lies before us is to decide what to do, and if we don't 
 make that decision now, the delay may result in our 
 catching fever. . . . Come, speak your minds and let us 
 devise a plan." Once when travelling on a crazy coasting 
 steamer infested with beetles and cockroaches, " Well," he 
 said, in answer to his companion's shrill complaints, " I 
 cannot say I Hke them, but as I have had many a worse 
 time than this in my hfe, I don't worry myself much about 
 such minor discomforts " ; and then as the grumbles still 
 went on, " Oh, my good friend, take the world as it is. . . . 
 How silly to be afraid of such harmless httle things ! Why, 
 I treat them like flies." " Looking at the comparative," 
 
154 CECIL RHODES 
 
 as he called this rough philosophy, enabled him to go 
 through much worse trials than a few beetles in a steamer- 
 cabin ; and he expected those about him to take the rough 
 with the smooth as philosophically as himself. Once, 
 relates his Boswell, De Waal, he handed over the party's 
 last bottle of whisky to a poor fever-stricken pioneer they 
 found stranded by the wayside, and on De Waal's angry 
 remonstrances added as a further gift his companion's 
 f avoiuite pony and professed to be astonished at De Waal's 
 resentment. But his elephantine sense of humour at 
 others' expense was redeemed by the saving grace of being 
 able to see a joke against himself. " Come back ; too 
 many cooks spoil the broth," roared out Rhodes as De Waal 
 rushed forward officiously to help a man unloading horses 
 at Beira : but a few minutes later, when the man got into 
 difficulties, " Nonsense," he said with a guilty smile, " go 
 off and help him." At times, as he rode along, he would 
 disconcert his companions by hour-long bouts of silent 
 reflection, when they could not get a word out of him : 
 then suddenly he would wake up from his abstraction 
 and begin to talk, garrulous as a child, of people he had 
 met, of his poMtics and his ambitions or of his vague 
 philosophy of hfe, and, like a wilful child, urge and tease 
 them into disputation and argument. 
 
 But let some affair in which he was interested crop up, 
 and the wilful child at once vanished to give place to the 
 shrewd, hard man of business. When he gave an order, 
 it was sharp and there was no gainsaying it ; and his sudden 
 gusts of wrath were terrible. Once when his Cape boy had 
 not brought round his cart in time, Leonard describes him 
 as raging Uke a lunatic ; the boy was to be arrested and 
 given no food, and " he kept on alternately abusing the 
 boy and repeating the order." Then, when the storm had 
 had its effect, calm would succeed as suddenly. And he 
 could interrupt any pleasant jaunt to attend to business. 
 On this journey he stopped at Pietersburg to interview 
 Adendorff and Barend Vorster, two Boers who claimed to 
 have a concession from Chibe, a minor chieftain in Mashona- 
 land, and were organizing another trek. They thought to 
 bluff him into paying them compensation to give up their 
 
THE PIONEERS 155 
 
 claim, but he refused to be bled and told them he would 
 give them nothing until he had verified their rights ; and, 
 as it happened, in the following year he obtained conclusive 
 proof from Chibe himself that the concession was worth- 
 less. He visited Johannesburg to discuss the cyanide 
 process and his interests in the Gold Fields : " the great 
 man's visit was a great success," reports his agent, " and 
 I have never seen him in better form or temper " owing to 
 the success of his trek. When he arrived at the outskirts 
 of Pretoria he was disgusted to find a pompous reception 
 awaiting him, with high officials in state carriages and a 
 guard of honour to escort him into the capital. Here he 
 took coffee with the President, but at this interview appears 
 to have met his match. He tried, according to Kruger's 
 version, to put into practice his theory that you can make 
 a deal with any man, but signally failed with this wily 
 antagonist. " We must work together," began Rhodes, so 
 Kruger's version runs ; "I know the republic wants a 
 seaport : you must have Delagoa Bay." " But the harbour 
 belongs to the Portuguese," objected Kruger, " and they 
 won't hand it over." " Then we must simply take it," 
 was the reply. " No," said the President, " I can't take 
 away other people's property. If the Portuguese won't 
 sell the harbour, I wouldn't take it, even if you gave it 
 me : for ill-gotten goods are accursed." There is obviously 
 some foundation for this account, for Rhodes had the 
 question of Delagoa Bay much on his mind at this time,'^ 
 and may well have sotinded the President with a view to a 
 deal : and a cynical disregard of Portuguese susceptibilities 
 was not aMen to his methods. But the old President rather 
 overdoes his virtuous indignation, considering his readiness 
 only six years previously to annex a portion of Bechuanaland, 
 which he had expressly engaged not to do by the recent Con- 
 vention of London. At any rate the conversation must have 
 ranged over other subjects, though this is the only topic 
 recorded by Kruger. He had just signed the Swaziland Con- 
 vention and probably renewed to Rhodes his assurance that he 
 would not aUow his coimtrymen to meddle with the Charter 
 rights. Rhodes at least professed himself well satisfied. 
 
 1 See below. Chap. XIII. p. 198. 
 
156 CECIL RHODES 
 
 Kruger undoubtedly meant to fulfil his promise, but 
 some of his burghers were difficult to restrain. Adendorff 
 and Vorster, in spite of their talk with Rhodes, persisted in 
 their intentions, and in March 189 1 inserted advertisements 
 in the papers inviting volunteers to found a republic in 
 north-east Mashonaland. This Banyai trek, as it was 
 called, alarmed the Colonial Office as well as the Chartered 
 Company ; and, after a fisang visit home by Loch and 
 Rhodes, the Queen issued a proclamation in April declaring 
 a protectorate over Lo Bengula's dominions and warning 
 trespassers that they would be treated as enemies. And 
 now Rhodes began to reap the advantage of his conciliatory 
 poMcy to the Cape Dutch. Du Toit, the former fire-eater 
 of the Bond, who had instigated Kruger's abortive 
 Bechuanaland proclamation in 1884, had been entirely 
 won over to Rhodes's views. A few years before he had 
 demanded " a united South Africa under its own flag," but 
 now he sounded a very different note. " Let us not ignore," 
 he wrote, " the guidance of Providence. God has given us 
 England as a guardian, a more considerate one than Israel 
 found in Pharaoh of old." At this juncture, with a cousin 
 of Hofmeyr's, he was employed in organizing Dutch opinion 
 both in Cape Colony and the Transvaal against the trek, 
 and, as a set-off to AdendorfE's scheme, enlisting Boers to 
 settle in the new country on Rhodes's own terms. The 
 official support of the Bond was even seciured. Immediately 
 on his return from his visit to London, during which he 
 had been invited to Windsor Castle, Rhodes went to 
 address the Bond Congress at Kimberley. Referring with 
 ingenuous satisfaction to the " consideration he had received 
 from the politicians of England and to the expression of a 
 desire by Her Majesty herself that he should meet her and 
 have the honom: of dining with her," and pointing to the 
 " extraordinary anomaly it would have been considered in 
 the past, that one who possessed the complete confidence 
 of Her Majesty herself should have been able to show that 
 at the same time he felt most completely and entirely that 
 the object and aspirations of the Afrikander Bond were 
 in complete touch and concert with a fervent loyalty to 
 Her Majesty the Queen," he drew the moral that there was 
 
THE PIONEERS 157 
 
 nothing incompatible between his own aspirations and their 
 ideal of a united South Africa. In another speech, and in 
 an open letter to the secretary of the Bond, he declared that 
 the Chartered territories were held by him merely as a trust 
 for the Cape and South Africa generally, and that all South 
 Africans prepared to acknowledge the Company's authority 
 were welcome. He had already given an earnest of his 
 freedom from race prejudice by including Dutch lads as 
 weU as EngUsh among his pioneers, and so felt justified in 
 appealing to the old Bondsmen as fathers : " Your young 
 men, because they are your young men, have gone up 
 sixteen himdred miles, have slept in their boots every night, 
 and have felt that they would be murdered at four o'clock 
 every morning : oh, yes ! every one said so, from the 
 President of the Transvaal downwards. . . . And now 
 what has happened ? . . . Mr. Adendorff and Mr. Barend 
 Vorster and Mr. Du Preez say they are going to take the 
 results of the labours of your sons. . . . When these gentle- 
 men say that they are going to take from my young men their 
 rights and dispossess them of the results of their labours, 
 then I confess I lose my temper ; and I teU you to-night 
 that if they continue with it, and if these people will not 
 accept our rule and law, then there will be a difference 
 between us." " My young men," " your young men," it 
 was all one to Rhodes : he spoke and felt with the same 
 affection for all the fine lads who had added more homes to 
 England. 
 
 ' After the pubhcation of a letter signed by Hofme}^: 
 discountenancing the trek, most of the volunteers melted 
 away, leaving only a few score hot-heads under a Colonel 
 Ferreira to end the scheme in ridicule. At the end of June 
 this valiant band approached the drift of the Limpopo 
 opposite Tuli. It so happened that Jameson had just 
 arrived there, and he knew how to deal with them. Their 
 leader Ferreira was arrested on the TuU side and sent back 
 to parley with his followers : he was told to explain to 
 them that their concession was so much waste paper, but 
 that any of them who chose to enter the country on the 
 Company's terms were free to do so. The raiders' bouncing 
 spirit soon evaporated at the sight of the pohce maxims. 
 
158 CECIL RHODES 
 
 and they turned to the more profitable business of selling 
 their surplus meal, tobacco and salted horses to the 
 troopers : some even joined the pohce or took farms under 
 the Company. Ferreira and his secretary were retained 
 as prisoners on parole, and soon induced their gaolers to 
 take shares in the Mashonaland Agricultural and Supply 
 Ssoidicate founded on the spot chiefly for the benefit of the 
 promoters. Rhodes was never more troubled with raiders 
 from the Transvaal, but, true to his word, did aU in his power 
 to encourage the settlement of Boer farmers. He sent up 
 Van der Byl and several leading Dutch agriculturists to 
 inspect and report on the country to their neighbours, and 
 later encouraged a number of Boer families to take up a 
 block of farms in the promising district of Melsetter in 
 the east of Mashonaland. And he never veered from this 
 policy. In fact, ten years later, when we were at war with 
 the Transvaal, one of the grievances against him of an 
 EngUsh transport rider was that he flooded the road with 
 the waggons and spans of oxen of Boer refugees " who had 
 been in arms against us a few weeks before." 
 
 But though all danger from the Transvaal was thus 
 averted, things had not gone too well with the pioneers 
 during their first year in the country. The Portuguese, 
 whose claims must be reserved to the next chapter, had 
 caused a good deal of anxiety ; while serious transport 
 difficulties and the enormous expense of the administration 
 had been the source of much discontent. At first when 
 news came of the pioneer column's success there was a 
 rush to the new country. Intending settlers and pro- 
 spectors, who had been waiting at Macloutsie and Tuh, 
 began pouring in ; transport riders began to ply their trade 
 with waggon-loads of stores. Dr. Rutherfoord Harris, who 
 had been given charge of the Company's transport and 
 supply, had arranged for large reserves of food to be 
 collected at TuH and an energetic agent to forward them. 
 But even in the most favourable circumstances the diffi- 
 culties of transport were great. Until the disputes with 
 Portugal were settled, Salisbury's sole base of supplies was 
 Cape Town or Port Elizabeth, nearly 2000 miles away; 
 and of this 2000 miles 1000 beyond railhead at Vryburg 
 
THE PIONEERS 159 
 
 consisted of bad roads, over which all supplies had to be 
 brought by ox-waggon at a cost of £60 to £80 a ton. And 
 the circumstances were not favourable, for the rainy season 
 of 1891 was one of the worst known : all the rivers were 
 in flood and the drifts impassable for months, during 
 which no supphes came through at all. The result was 
 that the whole population of settlers, scattered round the 
 country on farms or mines, were in very serious distress. 
 They could obtain meat and a poor kind of Kaf&r-corn 
 from the natives, but flour, groceries and the commonest 
 luxuries were almost unobtainable. A whisky and soda, 
 for example, cost los. 6d. at Salisbury, and a sixpenny pot 
 of jam sold for £3 ; as for agricultural implements and 
 heavy mining machinery needed for developing the country, 
 they were not to be had at any price. The settlers had 
 other grievances. The farms allotted were disappointing, 
 and the Company's mining regulations, entitling it to 
 50 per cent of the scrip of any newly formed company, 
 were regarded as a strong deterrent to mining enterprise. 
 The pioneers on the whole stood the test of hardship well, 
 but many of the later arrivals, especially those fresh from 
 England, were loud in their complaints. " Many of them 
 thought," said Rhodes, " that a fortune was to be made 
 in about a week or a month ; but they found a bare country 
 whose future must depend on the energy of its first occu- 
 pants, and that a race out from home and a race back would 
 not in any part of the world give one a quarter of a million 
 of money." 
 
 From the Company's point of view also radical reforms 
 were needed. Colquhoun, partly on account of the diffi- 
 culties with Portugal, had raised the police force to a 
 strength of 700, a crushing burden on an undeveloped 
 country ; and the total cost of administration for the 
 first year came to a quarter of a million. The settlers' 
 complaints, which gradually permeated to England, the 
 failure to find gold in any pa3dng quantities, and the 
 great cost of administration were having a serious effect 
 on the Company's credit. The directors at home were in 
 despair and were continually imploring Rhodes to send 
 them news of gold discoveries ; £j. Chartered shares, which 
 
i6o CECIL RHODES 
 
 had started at a premium of 275 per cent, fell below par ; 
 and " then," as Rhodes said, " imdoubtedly came a true 
 period of depression. The condemnation of the home 
 papers could only be compared to their previous undue 
 sanguineness." One step Rhodes took at once to remedy 
 the evils. In July 1891 he superseded Colquhoun and 
 gave a free hand as administrator to Jameson. This was 
 an ideal choice. Jameson had courage and driving power, 
 devotion to Rhodes's interests, and a wonderful tact in 
 dealing with the rough lads in the country. " He is getting 
 more and more popular every day," wrote one of the 
 pioneers to Rhodes. " If you had searched for twelve 
 months I am sure you would not find a more able man 
 and so thoroughly suited to the position. If only he had 
 been in power from the start." He immediately reduced 
 the pohce from 700 to 100, and for a small retaining fee 
 persuaded the settlers to volunteer for service when needed, 
 and by this and other economies soon brought down the 
 annual expenses from the quarter of a milhon to ^^40,000. 
 But, in spite of this improvement, it was full time for the 
 master's eye to survey his domain, when Rhodes was at 
 last able to visit it, a year after the pioneers had reached > 
 SaUsbury. 
 
 His presence in the country was hke a glorious burst of 
 sunshine on the winter of its discontents. He came by 
 Beira, bringing horses and natives to work in Mashonaland, 
 in spite of objections by the Portuguese officials. Pushing 
 through the marshy fly-belt of the Pungwe, having somehow, 
 as it was currently reported, " foimd a means of squaring 
 the tsetse-fly," he travelled on to Salisbury at his usual 
 hghtning speed, eyes and ears all open to everything. At 
 Umtali, while his horses were resting, every grumbler of 
 the place came to him with his tale of grievances ; and 
 though nothing was altered in the state of affairs, his sunny 
 presence sent every one away contented. He went to the 
 hospital, not to see the patients, for " if I were ill," he 
 remarked, " I shouldn't Hke to be stared at," but to give 
 the nurses a cheque for expenses and promise them a medical 
 library from England, and left declaring that if these ladies 
 could five at Umtah it was absurd for any man to grumble. 
 
THE PIONEERS i6i 
 
 Further on the faithful De Waal is allowed to choose a site 
 for a farm and have it measured out forthwith by the 
 Surveyor-General. " I had just been speaking to my friends 
 in the waggon," Rhodes teUs him, " about the grandeur 
 of the place, and I told them that I was sure you would 
 not pass it without desiring a slice of it." At Salisbury 
 more grumblers come to see him. Their main grievance is 
 the dearth of provisions : " Well," says Rhodes, " I know 
 that when the rivers were full the waggons could not cross, 
 but I could not help that. You certainly cannot expect 
 to be already provided with roads, telegraphs, bridges, 
 post-carts, etc. etc., all within the short space of twelve 
 months. But if you wanted food, you had plenty of beads, 
 linen, etc., to change for food in the Kaffir kraals as we 
 did on our way up. . . . No, your agitation has not arisen 
 from want of food, but from something else ; it is want of 
 liquor that displeases you." He dealt in less cavaUer 
 fashion with remediable grievances, such as unsatisfactory 
 land grants and the 50 per cent mining regulation. This last 
 was a pet nostrmn of Rhodes's, for he beheved with some 
 reason that a postponement of all charges on diggers and 
 prospectors until they had proved their ground and could 
 float a company, was in their interest ; but he was open to 
 argmnent and agreed to reduce the Company's share in 
 hard cases. But of far more use than his promises and his 
 lavish gifts of money to the scores of deserving and un- 
 deserving cases of distress were his straight talks, his 
 practical advice, his intense belief in the country, and his 
 cheery optimism, " always looking at the comparative." 
 The settlers felt that he was one with them when he talked 
 to them about their farms and their fencing, inspected their 
 mines and found them good, and snubbed Lord Randolph 
 Churchill, then touring through the country, for his doubts 
 and his aloofness. He was specially interested in the 
 Zimbabwe ruins as evidence of a former avilization and 
 prosperity, made friends with the natives, and like another 
 Joseph had storehouses erected against times of scarcity. 
 Then, when his time was up, he posted back to Vryburg 
 by every available means of conveyance — oxen, mules, 
 hdrses — covering the last 625 miles in seven days. The 
 
 M 
 
i62 CECIL RHODES 
 
 whole round journey from Cape Town and back took him 
 barely more than two months ; but in that time he had 
 restored the confidence of every one in the country. " It 
 is quite a different Mashonaland since you came," wrote 
 one of the pioneers, " for now every one is hopeful." 
 Thereafter the settlers had many more trials and hardships 
 to undergo, but in the worst times they never despaired, 
 because they had learned that they always had their 
 founder watching over them and ready to help. In this 
 and succeeding visits he implanted in them that absolute 
 trust in himself, the memory of which was still lively, when 
 Lord Selbome travelled through the country sixteen years 
 later and Rhodes himself was dead. In him, writes Lord 
 Selborne, they had one " who was in complete touch and 
 sjmapathy with them, who was always accessible, always 
 kindly. ... So long as he lived they had a friend in their 
 midst. ... Of his memory they always spoke in terms of 
 deep afEection." 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 RHODESIA 
 
 When the Charter was granted, the idea of the Government" 
 was that the philanthropists of the British South Africa 
 Company should spend their resources on developing un- 
 explored tracts of South Africa, while the Crown should 
 exercise considerable control over their proceedings. Theo- 
 retically the Crown had large powers of control, for the 
 Company could not conquer or administer any territory 
 without its explicit consent intimated by Order in Council 
 or proclamation of the High Commissioner, and all relations 
 of the Company with other powers had to be conducted 
 through the Foreign Ofi&ce. But in practice the control 
 Was very slight. No provision had at first been made for 
 an Imperial officer specially to watch and report on the 
 Company's proceedings, and, in the absence of such super- 
 vision, the Company's officials might weU embark on a 
 course of action, from which there was no receding and for 
 which the nation was boimd to accept responsibility. The 
 danger of such an occurrence was more than once illustrated 
 in the first few years of the Company's existence. 
 
 One of the expedients whereby the Government hoped 
 to retain influence over the Company broke down from the 
 outset. The three Hfe-directors, the Dukes of Abercorn 
 and Fife and Mr. Albert Grey, had been insisted on for their 
 unblemished social and political position as a guarantee 
 against any undue preponderance of Cecil Rhodes and his 
 South African friends on the Board. The Duke of Abercorn 
 proved a dignified and excellent chairman, and the Duke 
 of Fife pleased the shareholders by telling them more than 
 once that theirs was the only company of which he had 
 
 163 
 
i64 CECIL RHODES 
 
 consented to be a director ; Albert Grey was indeed a 
 man of the noblest ideals, of a tact which amounted to 
 genius and of great administrative ability : but all three, 
 with the rest of the Board, succimabed at once and irre- 
 trievably to Rhodes's dominating personality. He was the 
 only director who knew what he wanted and how to carry 
 it through, and when he was not there the rest were all at 
 sea and ready to send for him on any emergency. In fact, 
 as long as he lived, whether on the Board or off it, Rhodes 
 was the South Africa Company. " We are in the dark 
 here," writes Grey to him at a crisis in the Company's 
 fortunes, " but I have the fullest confidence in the wisdom 
 of any move which you and Jameson may agree in thinking 
 the right one. ... Do whatever you think right. We tvill 
 support you whatever the issue." In South Africa he was 
 of coiuse supreme. He was not only managing director 
 out there, but had the Board's power of attorney to cover 
 his actions on their behalf, and, owing to the breakdown 
 of the negotiations with Sir Henry de ViUiers and Hofmeyr,^ 
 the scheme of a local board, which, might have exercised 
 some check on him, fell through. The Imperial Govern- 
 ment soon had to adjust itself to the facts and to recognize 
 that in deahng with the Chartered Company they were 
 deahng with Rhodes. And he was not an easy man to deal 
 with. 
 
 The Pioneer expedition into Mashonaland, of which we 
 have already traced the fortunes, was reaUy only a small 
 item in Rhodes's plans for the Chartered Company. 
 Bechuanaland and Mashonaland, ever since the days 
 when he had dreamed his dreams at Warren's headquarters, 
 he looked on only as stepping-stones to the region of the 
 Great Central Lakes, and had formed his ideal of a great 
 British dominion through the centre of Africa stretching 
 from Cape Town to the Mediterranean. In the terms of 
 the Charter he had taken care to leave free scope for these 
 ambitions, for, though the Company's field of operations 
 was limited on the south, the east, and the west, it had no 
 boundaries on the north. 
 
 When he was arranging for the Charter he had already 
 
 "^ See Chapter XI. p. 141. 
 
RHODESIA 165 
 
 obtained a vantage ground beyond the Zambesi. Since the 
 death of Livingstone in 1873 at Chitambo, near Lake 
 Bangweolo, Scottish missionaries had been spreading the 
 gospel in that region, and the African Lakes Company, in 
 alliance with them, had established trading factories on Lake 
 Nyassa and in the Shire Highlands. But the Arab slave 
 raiders from Zanzibar had long regarded this region as a 
 favourable grotmd for their business and were in constant 
 conflict with the missionaries and the Company. These 
 conflicts had almost reduced the Company to bankruptcy, 
 and when Rhodes was in London in 1889 he was told by 
 Major Lugard, fresh from an expedition against the raiders, 
 that their suppression could only be secured at a much 
 larger cost than the Company could afford. It looked as 
 if this advance post of British enterprise would have to be 
 abandoned, imless the Government would undertake the 
 task of protecting the traders and missionaries ; but though 
 Lord Salisbury was anxious that British influence should 
 not entirely disappear from this region, he was at a loss 
 for the funds. Rhodes, however, was ready to step into 
 the breach. He entered into negotiations, not finally 
 concluded till 1893, with the African Lakes Company for 
 the purchase by the Chartered Company of their good-will 
 and stock-in-trade. This was to give him the necessary 
 financial and commercial interest in the development of 
 the country. He then turned to the Government and 
 offered, on condition a British protectorate were declared 
 over the Lake Nyassa district and the Chartered Company 
 were allowed to administer the rest of Central Africa, to 
 provide for a definite period £10,000 a year for the upkeep 
 of the protectorate. This arrangement, so favourable to 
 the Government, was at once accepted by Lord SaUsbury. 
 A protectorate was declared over Nyassaland in 1891, and 
 Sir Harry Johnston was sent out in the dual capacity of 
 Government Commissioner in the protectorate and admini- 
 strator in the Company's sphere. The Chartered Company 
 paid the £10,000 for five years for the upkeep of the pohce, 
 and Rhodes, out of his own pocket, contributed a further 
 £10,000 to carry on war against a peculiarly turbulent slave- 
 chief, Makanjira. Johnston gradually suppressed the slavers. 
 
i66 CECIL RHODES 
 
 and by a small but efficient force of Sikh police ensured 
 security for life and property in both his spheres ; steamers 
 were placed on Lakes Nyassa and Tanganyika, British justice 
 was administered in consular courts, and settlers were en- 
 couraged on the Shire Highlands. In 1895 the Company took 
 over the direct administration of their districts and made 
 very large profits by the trading business acquired from 
 the African Lakes Company. 
 
 Rhodes also acquired a footing for the Company further 
 west. Early in 1889 Lewanika, titular chief of Barotse- 
 land, a large undefined territory, stretching from the 
 southern border of the Congo state to the north bank of 
 the Zambesi, learning of the Moffat treaty with Lo Bengula, 
 applied also to come under the Queen's protection. Lord 
 Knutsford refused the apphcation at the time, but in the 
 following year a trader named Ware obtained a comprehen- 
 sive concession from Lewanika over his dominions. This 
 concession was bought up by Rhodes and subsequently 
 confirmed by further concessions, and liltimately the 
 Government recognized Barotseland as weU as the Lakes 
 district as within the Chartered Company's sphere. 
 
 But before the boundaries of the Company's domains 
 in either of these districts or even in Mashonaland could be 
 finally settled Rhodes foimd himself in conflict with two 
 foreign powers, Germany and Portugal. Of these Germany 
 was more easily disposed of. Up till 1890 the extent of 
 German East Africa had never been clearly defined, and 
 claims were put forward to the whole country between 
 Lakes Nyassa and Tanganjdka as far as Lake Bangweolo. 
 Included in this tract was the Stevenson road connecting 
 the two first-named lakes, which had a sentimental interest 
 to the British people for its association with Livingstone, and 
 also the tree near Lake Bangweolo where the great mission- > 
 ary breathed his last. In 1890, however. Lord SaUsbury 
 negotiated with Germany the treaty which was to settle 
 once for all the points of difference between the two nations 
 in Africa, and determine the boundaries of South- West Africa 
 and German and British East Africa and the protectorate of 
 Zanzibar. Lord SaUsbury made the mistake of not consult- 
 ing the Cape Colony as to interests which concerned them 
 
RHODESIA 167 
 
 directly or indirectly in the proposed treaty, and was far 
 more concerned in making a satisfactory deal about 
 Heligoland and Zanzibar than with any sentimental 
 considerations about Livingstone's grave or Stevenson's 
 road. Rhodes not only had a real feeling for historic 
 associations but was naturally unwiUing to part with 
 territory claimed by the Chartered Company ; so he asked 
 Grey to urge their rights on Lord SaUsbury. Grey met 
 with a cold response and telegraphed out to Rhodes that 
 the Stevenson road was in danger. No answer came, but 
 some weeks later an announcement appeared in the papers 
 that the Chartered Company's agents had erected two new 
 forts on the Stevenson road, Fort Fife and Fort Abercom. 
 Meeting Rhodes later Grey asked him the meaning of these 
 mushroom forts. " Oh," said Rhodes with a chuckle, 
 rubbing his hands together, " I knew they could not give 
 up a fort named after a member of the royal family " ; ^ 
 and he was right. ^The treaty fixed the German boimdary 
 just short of the Stev^son road, leaving to the Chartered 
 Company this vital communication between the two lakes 
 and all the country westwards. 
 
 The Portuguese claims were more far-reaching. After 
 their discovery of-South Africa in the fifteenth century 
 they had made sundry settlements on the east and west 
 , coasts at Angola, DelagoarBay, QuiUmane and Mozambique. 
 . These settlements had never been entirely abandoned, and 
 a treaty was stated to have been made in the seventeenth 
 century with a mythical Emperor of Monomatapa, on 
 which they foimded a right to Mashonaland. But this 
 treaty was not given prominence or acted upon until after 
 the scramble for Africa had begun in 1880, when the 
 Portuguese, hitherto content with a few coast settlements, 
 began to make the most extravagant claims to the interior. 
 They not only asserted a right of continuous dominion 
 across Africa from Angola to Mozambique, which would 
 have included Barotseland, the Nyassa region and the 
 whole course of the Zambesi, but also stated that their 
 coastal territory from the mouth of the Zambesi to Delagoa 
 Bay extended westwards to Gazaland and Manicaland and 
 
 * The Duke of Fife was married to a granddaughter of the Queen. 
 
i68 CECIL RHODES 
 
 included Mashonaland itself. The former claim had actually 
 been recognized by France and Germany in 1886 and had 
 nearly been accepted by England two years later. ^ Acting 
 upon it in 1889 an adventurous Portuguese Major, Serpa 
 Pinto, had made a raid into the Shire Highlands, slaughtered 
 some of the natives who relied upon our protection and 
 formally annexed the country ; and for a long time the 
 Portuguese authorities put every possible obstacle in the 
 way of the African Lakes Company, whose only access to 
 the interior was by the Zambesi and Shire rivers. The 
 Portuguese Government had protested at once against the 
 Moffat treaty and the Rudd concession, and had tried to 
 forestall Rhodes by sending roving bands under half-caste 
 Capitaos Mors to distribute Portuguese flags and terrorize 
 the native kraals in Manicaland, Gazaland, and on the 
 eastern outskirts of Mashonaland. The most notorious of 
 these buccaneering adventurers was a Goanese called 
 Gouveia, or Manoel Antonio de Souza, who had founded a 
 semi-independent native state to the east of Manicaland. 
 But negotiations for a settlement had been going on during 
 1890, and three weeks before the pioneers reached Sahsbury 
 a convention had been signed to delimit the respective 
 spheres of England and Portugal. It was satisfactory to 
 England in respect to Nyassaland, where the British 
 interests were recognized ; a favourable arrangement was 
 also made for the lease of a quay to the Lakes Company 
 at the Chinde mouth of the Zambesi, recently discovered 
 by Rankin, and for free navigation on the waterways ; but 
 Rhodes discovered, much to his indignation, that most of 
 Barotseland and the whole of Manicaland were ceded to 
 Portugal. He wrote angry letters to everybody whom he 
 held responsible for it, bidding them " drop this wretched 
 treaty." After a good deal of abuse of the Portuguese, 
 " I do not think I am claiming too much from your depart- 
 ment," he added to a Foreign Office official, " in asking 
 you to give some consideration to my views . . . and that if 
 you have any regard for the work I am doing, you will 
 show it by now dropping the Anglo-Portuguese agreement." 
 The trouble was that Rhodes, concentrating all his 
 
 1 See Chapter X. p. 134. 
 
RHODESIA 169 
 
 attention on his own views, was apt to pay too little heed 
 to views relevant to other parts of the Empire. It was 
 pointed out to him on this occasion that if we were too hard 
 on Portugal, there might be a revolution there and in Spain 
 also, and that a Spanish Republic might render thfe supply 
 of provisions for Gibraltar difficult. It had been just the 
 same with regard to the treaty with Germany. One of 
 those interested in British East Africa had written com- 
 plaining that there was not enough co-operation between 
 Rhodes's Company and Mackinnon's I.B.E.A., and that 
 Germany stood to gain in the negotiations by this disunion ; 
 whereas if Rhodes could have thought of the islands of 
 Manda and Patea, off the East African coast, as well as 
 the Stevenson road, England might get both. But he 
 would not see it. He could think of other parts of the 
 Empire when he had leisure, but allowed nothing to stand 
 in the way of his own immediate object. This impatient 
 method had its risks, but it accounts. for a great deal of 
 Rhodes's success in getting what he wanted. He once 
 wrote to a friend : " The story of the importunate widow is 
 the best in the Bible." 
 
 Fortunately the Portuguese themselves reheved him of 
 his anxiety about this convention by refusing to ratify it in 
 an outburst of indignation at the concessions they were 
 themselves called upon to make. So the pioneers were 
 able to stake out further claims. In 1890 the only tangible 
 sign of the Portuguese occupation of Manicaland was a 
 small fort at Macequece on its eastern border. Before the 
 pioneer column had actually reached Salisbury, Jameson, 
 taking Colquhoim and Selous with him, had left it to view 
 their proceedings. He found that Umtassa, the paramount 
 chief of the country, did not recognize the Portuguese 
 claims, and concluded with him a treaty which practically 
 amounted to a British protectorate and a gift of all minerals 
 to the Company. Two months later the Portuguese brought 
 up strong reinforcements and occupied Umtassa's kraal, 
 but were all caught napping there by Captain Forbes and 
 thirty of the B.S.A. police, who disarmed the rank and file 
 and took prisoners the redoubtable Gouveia and two other 
 high Portuguese officials. The capture of Gouveia had a 
 
 u 
 
170 CECIL RHODES 
 
 great effect on the minds of the natives, whom he had 
 oppressed, and helped the Company in their peaceable 
 settlement of the country. Selous then went off to make 
 treaties with other chiefs fm'ther north, and Dennis Doyle, 
 on behalf of Rhodes, was sent to get a concession from 
 Gungunhana, the Chief of Gazaland, to the south of Manica- 
 land. But here the Portuguese were on the alert ; and 
 when Jameson, after an adventurous journey of twenty-five 
 days by river and jungle, came to confirm the treaty he 
 found the Portuguese in possession and the Company's 
 ships, sent up the coast to meet him and to convey arms 
 to Gungunhana, under arrest. But after two more 
 skirmishes at Umtali, the Company's new settlement 
 founded near Umtassa's kraal, and at Macequece, in which 
 they were beaten, the Portuguese came to terms. By the 
 treaty of June 1891 the spheres of the two nations in Central 
 Africa were defined as in the abortive convention of the 
 previous year, while the Company gained Barotseland and 
 the greater part of Manicaland, leaving Macequece and most 
 of Gazaland to the Portuguese. Of still more importance to 
 the Company were the transport facilities granted. The 
 navigation of the Zambesi and Shire rivers was declared 
 free, and the prospect of a new and much shorter access to 
 Mashonaland was obtained by the opening of the port of 
 Beira and the promise of the Portuguese to build a railway 
 thence to Umtah and Salisbury, a distance of only 380 
 miles as compared with the 2000 miles from Cape Town. 
 This treaty gave Rhodes all he could reasonably ask, for he 
 had always said that he would be quite content to leave 
 the low-lying coast districts to the Portuguese, as long as 
 he held the healthy uplands of the interior for his people.' 
 It also restored the ancient friendship and alliance between 
 the two nations, while in Africa the Company ever 
 afterwards had the most cordial relations with the 
 Portuguese. 
 
 Even after this settlement with Portugal the Company's 
 position was still unsatisfactory in one respect. Although 
 they had the right to dig for minerals in Mashonaland, they 
 had no exphcit power to deal with the land. It is true this 
 had hitherto made no practical difference : farms had been 
 
RHODESIA 171 
 
 allotted to the settlers and Salisbury had been cut up into 
 stands for sale ; and Rhodes had cheerily spoken of the 
 10,000 farms, each of 4000 acres, waiting to be taken up 
 by Europeans. Still, the want of title was a defect, which 
 might lead to questionings and trouble in the future. One 
 Edward Amandus Lippert, a German financier, had 
 observed the weak spot and resolved to make his profit 
 thereby. He made his way with a Mr. Renny-Tailyour to 
 Lo Bengula's kraal and found the king in a good disposition 
 for his purpose, for he was still being worried for concessions 
 and moreover was becoming anxious at the Company's 
 lavish grants of land, Lippert represented himself as the 
 disinterested friend anxious to save him trouble, and offered 
 to take off his shoulders the burden of assigning to Euro- 
 peans any land necessary for their operations, receive the 
 rents himself and pay Lo Bengula £1000 down and a 
 " globular sum " annually, as Rhodes described it, of 
 £500.^ The offer was accepted, and Lippert returned with 
 the concession in his pocket to Pretoria to make the best 
 use of it he could. He approached Alfred Beit, who was 
 his cousin, with a proposal to float a company to develop 
 it, and on his refusal hawked it round to others and, when 
 told it was valueless by the Chartered Company's agents, 
 spoke darkly of the support he had been promised by the 
 German Government. 
 
 The news of this concession troubled Rhodes greatly, as 
 it might seriously hamper the Company's freedom of action. 
 His first inclination, after consulting Sir Henry Loch, was 
 to dispute its validity, and he procured the arrest of 
 Lippert's accomplice, Renny-Tailyour, as he was travelling 
 through Bechuanaland. But on second thoughts his 
 natural disposition to a deal reasserted itself, and he made 
 
 ^ The wording of the concession is far-reaching. " Whereas," Lo 
 Bengula is made to say, " large numbers of white people are coming into 
 my territories and it is desirable that I should assign land to them . . . 
 and appmnt some persons to act for me in these respects " ; to'Edward 
 Amandus Lippert, in consideration of the above-mentioned payments, 
 is assigned the sole right for a hundred years " to lay out, grant or lease 
 for such period or periods as he may think fit, farms, townships, building 
 plots and grazing areas ; to impose and levy rents . . . for his own 
 benefit ; to give and grant certificates . . . for the occupation of any 
 farms, townships, building plots and grazing areas." 
 
172 CECIL RHODES 
 
 several unsuccessful attempts through agents to bring 
 Lippert to reasonable terms. Finally he saw the man 
 himself and arranged that, after it had been confirmed 
 by Lo Bengula, the concession should be bought by the 
 Company. The price was no doubt large ; still, it was 
 cheap at any price to the Company, whose entire scheme of 
 settlement might otherwise have been at the mercy of 
 Lippert and a rival syndicate. Wide, however, as were 
 the powers granted by Lo Bengula, they were nothing to 
 the fantastic superstructure of rights subsequently built 
 upon this document by the Company. Rhodes himself, 
 though not quite consistent in all his utterances on the 
 subject, generally spoke of the land as pubMc property, 
 for. which he and the directors were merely trustees, and 
 warned the shareholders that any profits they might make 
 must come solely from minerals. But after his death the 
 directors propoimded the theory that all the land in Lo 
 Bengula's dominions was the Company's private property. 
 They had several arguments in support of this view, but 
 based it mainly on this Lippert concession, by which at 
 most they obtained agents' rights for a hundred years ; by 
 that time, too, Lo Bengula himself had long disappeared 
 and his country had been conquered on behalf of the Crown. 
 This contention, vehemently opposed by the settlers, was 
 not finally disposed of till 1918, when the Privy Council 
 declared the Lippert concession valueless as a title to 
 private property in the land. But nothing in the Privy 
 Council judgement impugned the use made of the conces- 
 sion at the time it was granted. Rhodes was thereby 
 enabled to give secure titles to his settlers and also to use 
 the proceeds of land sales to cover purely administrative 
 costs.^ 
 
 Lo Bengula had now granted away his minerals and 
 land rights ; the only remaining danger to the settlers was 
 the presence of Lo Bengula himself and his savage Matabele 
 hordes in their immediate neighbourhood. For the first 
 three years of its existence the settlement of Europeans in 
 
 1 In their first report the directors estimated the land at their disposal 
 at 80,000,000 acres, which, capitalized at 3d. an acre, amply secured the 
 shareholders' capital. 
 
RHODESIA 173 
 
 Mashonaland was a strange anomaly. By the admission 
 of the Crown the country still belonged to Lo Bengula, 
 and Jameson was sharply called to order by the Colonial 
 Office for speaking of troublesome natives he had chastised 
 as rebels : in fact, the newcomers were there only on 
 sufferance. For Lo Bengula, being an ignorant savage, 
 never understood the concessions he had granted in the wide 
 sense their legal phraseology might warrant and as they were 
 interpreted by the Company, and resented the creation of 
 an independent state within his borders. " I thought you 
 came to dig for gold," he wrote to the Secretary, " but it 
 seems you have come ... to rob me of my people as well " ; 
 and he was beginning to find confirmation of his fears 
 expressed years before to the missionary Helm : " Did you 
 ever see a chameleon catch a fly ? The chameleon gets 
 behind the fly and remains motionless for some time, then 
 he advances very slowly and gently, first putting forward 
 one leg and then another. At last, when weU within reach, 
 he darts out his tongue and the fly disappears. England 
 is the chameleon and I am that fly." But he had no idea 
 of giving up his rights without a struggle and continued by 
 his own barbarous methods to assert his sovereignty over 
 the Mashonas, among whom the settlers were living. Twice 
 in 1892 he sent raiding bands of his warriors to punish 
 cattle thefts and exact tribute from these unfortunate 
 people ; and the raiders carried on their depredations 
 under the eyes of the Europeans in the neighbourhood. 
 These raids stopped all farming and mining, for the native 
 workers fled to their caves in the hiUs and even the settlers 
 in isolated camps felt insecure. As early as 1891 it was the 
 common talk in Mashonaland that " until the Matabeles 
 are crushed and welded into shape the success of the 
 country either as a mining concern or a new market and 
 administration will never be accomphshed." Other less 
 worthy considerations also had their influence. The rough 
 tumbled country of Mashonaland had not proved the 
 expected El Dorado either for mining or farming, and longing 
 eyes were cast on the more fertile uplands, where the 
 Matabeles pastured the largest and finest herds in South 
 Africa. Rhodes himself had long seen whither events 
 
174 CECIL RHODES 
 
 were drifting and at Tuli in 1890 had given this answer to 
 a Transvaal Boer who had offered to fight the Matabeles 
 for him : " Yes, Mr. Graaff, I shall certainly some day be 
 pressed to do as you want me to do, but you must remember 
 that I have only the right to dig gold in that land ; so long, 
 therefore, as the Matabele do not molest my people, I 
 cannot declare war against them and deprive them of their 
 country, but as soon as they interfere with our rights I 
 shall end their game ; I shall then ask for your aid and be 
 .very glad to get it, and when aU is over I shall grant farms 
 to those who assisted me." 
 
 In July 1893 matters came to a head. The telegraph 
 Une had been cut near Victoria and Lo Bengula sent an 
 impi, partly to punish the culprits, partly to recover some 
 cattle stolen from his own kraal. The savages behaved as 
 usual — murdering, pillaging and burning round the country- 
 side and even within the precincts of Victoria itself. 
 Captain Lendy,^ the Company's officer at Victoria, remon- 
 strated, but without avail, and Jameson came down from 
 Salisbury to deal with the offenders. Jameson was con- 
 vinced that the raiders must be given a sharp lesson ; 
 otherwise there would be no peace in the country ; and, 
 though the Company was hardly prepared for war with 
 so formidable an enemy as the Matabeles, he had supreme 
 confidence in himself and in Rhodes's support. He tele- 
 graphed to him saying that it might be necessary to strike 
 a blow at once and march on Buluwayo. Rhodes was in 
 the Cape House at the time and scribbled off the laconic 
 answer : " Read Luke xiv. 31," ^ to which Jameson replied 
 that he had read the verse and that it was all right. Mean- 
 while he had summoned the indunas of the impi to an 
 indaba and told them plainly that, unless they were off 
 the commonage in an hour, he would make them go. At 
 the end of the hour Lendy was sent after them with a troop 
 
 1 Captain Lendy had already acquired unenviable notoriety by his 
 brutal treatment of N'gomo, a Mashona chieftain charged with theft. 
 He had been severely censured by the Colonial Secretary, and should 
 have been cashiered. It was certainly unfortunate that the Matabele 
 War was opened with this man in a responsible position. 
 
 " " Or what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not 
 down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet 
 him that cometh against him with twenty thousand ? " 
 
RHODESIA 175 
 
 of police ; though they were already moving off, Lendy 
 nevertheless fired and killed some. By this action the die 
 was cast : Lo Bengula recalled a strong impi he had sent 
 to Barotseland and Jameson began to make his preparations 
 for war. 
 
 Nearly three months passed, however, before hostiUties 
 actually began. On hearing of the events at Victoria 
 Sir Henry Loch took charge of the negotiations with Lo 
 Bengula, made Jameson withdraw the claim he had made 
 for compensation and enjoined him not to move without 
 his permission. Loch was not in an enviable position with 
 regard to Rhodes and the Chartered Company. Though 
 he had Httle control over Jameson's actions in Mashonaland, 
 his would be the responsibility, if anything went amiss. 
 " The danger is," he complained to a friend in England, 
 " the Company as soon as they are a Uttle better prepared, 
 may bring about fighting, as they can't stand long armed 
 and waiting for events with the possible view of committing 
 H.M.'s Government in their quarrel. So I am obliged to 
 watch both friend and enemy." His relations with his 
 masterful Prime Minister made his task none the easier. 
 He had a sincere admiration for him, but was not so 
 completely imder his sway as his predecessor appears to 
 have been : and Rhodes liked to be a dictator and resented 
 criticism no less from a governor than from anybody else. 
 In the previous year Rhodes had taken umbrage at a fancied 
 attempt by Loch to curtail the Company's operations, and 
 now he strongly objected to any interference by the Imperial 
 authorities. To do him justice he took the brunt of the 
 work on his own shoulders. Immediately after the Victoria 
 incident he ordered the enrolment of men, bought up horses 
 in the Transvaal and sent them up to Charter and Victoria ; 
 and, to meet the expenses of campaign, sold 40,000 
 Chartered .shares at a loss. " I was afraid," he told the 
 South Africa Committee three years later, " the Doctor 
 might have a bad time, and I did sell my interest in 
 various things to provide money to carry on the war, 
 because I felt that if there was a disaster, I was the only 
 person to carry it through." On September 18 he sailed 
 for Beira on his way to Mashonaland, telHng Loch before 
 
176 CECIL RHODES 
 
 he left that " the Company asked for nothing and wanted 
 nothing." 
 
 Loch, though always made to feel in Rhodes's presence 
 the lesser of the two kings in Brentford, stuck manfully to 
 his rights. As an old soldier, he realized more fuUy than 
 Rhodes or Jameson the formidable imdertaking it might 
 prove to conquer Lo Bengula's 15,000 savages with only 
 1000 Europeans, and was anxious lest the war should 
 spread to the protectorate, for which he was directly re- 
 sponsible. With the fuU support of his chief. Lord Ripon, 
 he insisted on satisfjdng himself about Jameson's prepara- 
 tions and plan of campaign before allowing him to stir, 
 and, in spite of Rhodes's assurance that the Company 
 wanted nothing, strengthened the poUce force in the 
 protectorate with a view to a possible diversion against 
 Buluwayo. At the same time he did his utmost to avert 
 hostihties by messages to Lo Bengula. The chief himself, 
 though he refused any further payments under the Rudd 
 concession as " blood money," to the end seemed anxious 
 to avoid an open rupture ; but after the events of July 
 it was impossible for him to restrain the hotheads of his 
 tribe. Bands of his warriors still hovered about the out- 
 skirts of Victoria, and in October some of the Imperial police 
 were fired on by Matabele scouts. The bellicose spirit of the 
 settlers and one of its motives is equally plain from the 
 terms of the " Victoria agreement," which the volunteers 
 called up for service in August required Jameson to sign 
 before they would march. By this agreement the lion's 
 skin was carved up before he was slain : every man who 
 invaded Matabeleland was to receive a farm of 6000 acres, 
 valued at £1 : los. an acre if the Company wished to re- 
 purchase it for public purposes, twenty gold claims and 
 an equal share of all " loot " — the famous Matabele herds. 
 
 With these dispositions on both sides war could hardly 
 be avoided. After the firing on the poMce patrol Loch gave 
 permission to Jameson to start. Within less than a month 
 the issue was decided. Six hundred volunteers and four 
 hundred native auxiMaries, with a good supply of maxims 
 and field-guns, marched along the high plateau leading 
 from Mashonaland to Buluwayo. After repelling two 
 
RHODESIA 177 
 
 attacks, on the Shangani and Imbembesi Rivers, of Mata- 
 bele forces numbering some 5000, the column entered 
 Buluwayo on November 4, 1893. A diversion from the 
 south by Goold Adams and the Imperial police materially 
 assisted them, and Goold Adams joined them in Bixluwayo 
 a few days later. Before the volunteers arrived Lo 
 Bengula had blown up his royal kraal, no doubt with 
 gunpowder received in payment for concessions, and had 
 fled northwards. Major Forbes and Captain Alan Wilson 
 were sent with a small party in pursuit, but at the Shangani 
 the force divided, Wilson being sent across the river to 
 foUow up the spoor. Thus isolated from the rest Alan 
 Wilson's detachment was suddenly attacked by an over- 
 whelming nimiber of the king's bodyguard ; Forbes, who 
 was also engaged, could send him no help. For some 
 time Wilson's fate was in doubt and Rhodes, already at 
 the front, hurried up from Buluwayo with reinforcements. 
 But it was too late. Wilson and his men, surroimded by 
 their enemies, died where they stood hke gallant Enghsh- 
 men, the last man faUing only when the last cartridge had 
 been spent. Rhodes, who loved his gallant pioneers, was 
 deeply affected by the tragedy and glory of this last stand, and 
 erected one of his most famous memorials to their memory. 
 Save for this, his men came almost scatheless out of the 
 brief campaign which gave him the whole of Matabeleland. 
 Lo Bengula, harried as a fugitive, did not long survive 
 the loss of his country. Two months later news came 
 that he had died of small-pox on the Shangani. Barbarous 
 and cruel as he was, according to the traditions of his race, 
 all the Europeans who met him unite in testifpng that he 
 had many of the quaUties of a great gentleman. To men 
 he knew well and trusted, like Selous, he was courteous 
 and scrupulous in his dealings. When his young men were 
 crying out for the blood of Maguire and Thompson, he would 
 not suffer a hair of their heads to be touched. Even when 
 the Europeans were advancing on his capital, he set a guard 
 to protect the four European traders who had not escaped 
 in time ; and they were foimd safe and sound by the 
 Company's forces amid the ruins of the native village. 
 It is humiliating to feel that he did not always meet with the 
 
 N 
 
178 CECIL RHODES 
 
 same consideration from the Europeans. He was badgered 
 and worried into granting concessions which he barely under- 
 stood, and he vainly tried to avert the dangers he foresaw 
 from a white settlement. Even at the last, two of his envoys 
 to the High Commissioner were killed at the outposts in a 
 blimdering affray ; and, worse stiU, two European troopers, 
 to whom during his flight he had entrusted a sum of money 
 as an earnest of his readiness to surrender, embezzled the 
 money and kept back his message.^ No doubt the state of 
 society he represented was incompatible with the European 
 civilization brought within his boundaries, and the ending 
 of the savage Matabele system was a benefit to all Lo 
 Bengula's subjects : nor could the raids and massacres 
 of his tribesmen have been stopped otherwise than by 
 miUtary conquest. Still, \ in spite of these reasons to 
 justify it, and in spite of the redeeming courage of 
 Alan Wilson and his men, the mercenary motives that 
 inspired many of those who took part in this war 
 give it a sordid aspect, which does not redound to the 
 national credit. It is satisfactory at least to know that 
 Rhodes himself felt a twinge of compassion for the 
 " naked old savage," as he caUed him, deserted by his 
 royal regiments at the last and left to die friendless, and 
 that he undertook at his own charge the education and 
 support of his sons. 
 
 Before the issue of the war was known Rhodes had 
 found a fresh cause of grievance against the Imperial 
 Government in a message from Loch that all negotiations 
 about the settlement of Matabeleland were to be conducted 
 by the High Commissioner. In a peremptory telegram to 
 the Board of Directors he required them to find out the 
 meaning of this message, and demand that the Company, 
 having asked nothing of the Government, should be free 
 to settle terms with Lo Bengula, subject only to Lord 
 Ripon's approval. " I certainly intend to settle the ques- 
 tion on South African lines," he telegraphed to a Dutch 
 friend at the Cape. " I had the idea and found the money 
 and our people have had the courage to fight without 
 
 1 It is satisfactory to know that this dastardly conduct subsequently 
 came to Ught, and that the two men were sentenced to penal servitude. 
 
RHODESIA 179 
 
 help from home.^ Surely I should have a voice in the 
 final settlement. I feel I can reckon on the people of 
 Cape Colony supporting me in this view." He instructed 
 Jameson on arriving at Buluwayo to retain the management 
 of everything in his own hands for the Company, and told 
 him not to allow the Imperial representative to have a say. 
 Accordingly Jameson began to allocate farms and to seize 
 the king's cattle. But even Rhodes, after his first outburst 
 of petulance, could hardly maintain that the Crown should 
 have no voice in the settlement, especially when Loch and 
 Ripon tactfully assured him that nothing should be decided 
 without his consent. He declared Jameson's action to 
 be merely provisional, and in a speech to the volunteers at 
 Buluwayo warned them that all arrangements about land 
 grants must be subject to the High Commissioner's approval. 
 Still he could not resist a dig at the " negrophilists of Exeter 
 Hall," and talked some arrant nonsense about the opposi- 
 tion to the war by a small section in England, which he 
 spoke of as " conduct that ahenates colonists from the 
 Mother Coimtry," and hinted that " it was in the same 
 spirit that the Mother Country lost America," ignoring 
 completely the wholehearted support given him throughout 
 by the Liberal administration and the great mass of 
 Englishmen at home. He was on surer ground when he 
 came to giving practical advice to his settlers, and in a 
 characteristic peroration illustrated all that was best in his 
 own belief and practice. " Many of you," he concluded, 
 " are going to leave, and we wish them all joy and success ; 
 but I must confess that my feelings and sympathy are most 
 with those who are going to stay and make this their 
 home, and to them I do heartily wish success. I would 
 say to these that when afterwards they are alone and 
 have afterwards possibly to deal with hardship, let them 
 deal with such Whilst considering always what I call the 
 comparative state : ' Were I not here, where should I be 
 and what should I be doing ? ' When you think of what 
 you might have been doing elsewhere, many of you will 
 
 * This is hardly exact. The presence of the Imperial police on the 
 border and their diversion of a large force of Matabeles, south of Buluwayo, 
 materially contributed to Jameson's success. 
 
i8o CECIL RHODES 
 
 find it is a great source of comfort that you have a 
 great country that we know with many miles of it 
 minerahzed . . . and that there is a fair prospect of many 
 of them being of value. Then you have, if you are inclined 
 that way, a certain sentiment about knowing that 806 
 of you have created another state in South Africa, large 
 in extent, with every prospect of being proportionately 
 valuable, and that you have put an end to the savage rule 
 south of the Zambesi." 
 
 In the end Rhodes had his way about Matabeleland in 
 the agreement of May 1894 between the Company and the 
 Crown. The whole of Lo Bengula's dominions were treated 
 as conquered territory and assigned to the Company to 
 govern on the lines of a Crown Colony. The appointment 
 of the administrator and his council and of the judges was 
 vested in the Board of Directors, subject to the Secretary 
 of State's approval : the Board alone could impose taxes 
 and customs duties and issue ordinances concurrently 
 with the High Commissioner and the administrator in 
 council. The Company was free to allocate all land as it 
 pleased, subject to two reserves set apart for the natives ; 
 and as the successor of Lo Bengula, who claimed the owner- 
 ship of all herds, it was allowed to retain aU the cattle in 
 the country, provided the natives were allowed a certain 
 proportion for milking. The Secretary of State and the 
 High Commissioner retained the power of veto, but an 
 ex post facto veto was no great safe-guard in a country 
 still so remote from communication. In effect Rhodes, as 
 sole managing director of the Company, became almost 
 absolute in the whole territory extending from Bechuanaland 
 to the Zambesi. 
 
 In the following year, in recognition of his great work, 
 Rhodes was made a Privy Councillor, and all the Company's 
 sphere in South Africa, including Mashonaland, Matabele- 
 land, Barotseland and Central Africa, received by Proclama- 
 tion the title of Rhodesia, whereby formal authority was 
 given to a name already suggested by the settlers' affection 
 for their founder. Rhodes himself was vastly pleased at the 
 personal distinction given to him as Privy Councillor, but 
 still more at the title chosen for his country : as he said, in 
 
RHODESIA i8i 
 
 his shy boyish way, to a friend, " Well, you know, to have 
 a bit of country named after one is one of the things a 
 man might be proud of." 
 
 By 1895 Rhodes was at the pinnacle of success and 
 glory. A hfe-time's thought, no doubt, but only six years' 
 ostensible work had enabled him to " paint the map of 
 Africa red " to a greater extent than had been accompKshed 
 by the labours of previous centuries. And it was no mere 
 painting of the map. Over a large part of this great 
 dominion, 750,000 square miles in extent, larger than Spain, 
 France and the former German Empire put together, 
 order and settled government had been established ; no 
 internal or external danger to its peace gave cause for 
 apprehension. The railway was being pushed on towards 
 Salisbury from Mafeking and from Beira ; Salisbury, 
 Buluwayo and other townships had been put in touch by 
 the telegraph line with the outside world. The even more 
 ambitious scheme of the African Transcontinental Telegraph 
 Company, almost entirely a creation of Rhodes's forethought 
 and private capital, had begun Unking up the whole of 
 Africa from Cape to Cairo and had already reached Blan- 
 tyre in the distant Shire Highlands. To secure the 
 through route he had begun negotiations with the German 
 Government for way-leaves through German East Africa, 
 and as a second string had obtained from Lord Rosebery's 
 Government a treaty with the Congo State allowing him 
 to run the telegraph along the western shore of Lake 
 Tanganyika in exchange for the lease of the Lado Enclave.^ 
 In Southern Rhodesia farming, stimtdated by Rhodes's 
 encouragement and his practical help, was already giving 
 promise, and gold production had at last taken a favotuable 
 turn. The public finances were improving and confidence 
 in the country was shown by the rapid development of its 
 chief centres, Salisbury, Buluwayo, Gwelo and Umtali. 
 The cKmate had been proved healthy and fit for white 
 men to work in and rear families. Already Rhodes's wish, 
 " Homes, more homes, that is what I want," formulated as 
 he looked over the uplands of Rhodesia and thought of the 
 
 * Owing to the opposition of France and Germany this treaty was 
 never ratified. 
 
i82 CECIL RHODES 
 
 squalid tenements General Booth and others had shown him 
 in London, was being reahzed. 
 
 Rhodes's great wealth was no doubt a large factor in his 
 success ; and there was an element of truth in the critic's 
 envious comment that it was easy for him to attain his 
 objects " with your armies and your gold and with all 
 the quiet, majestic, resistless advance of an elephant 
 through brushwood." He himself never imderestimated 
 this factor. "If we have imaginative ideas^^j we n^usf 
 have pounds, shiUings and penceTto~ carry them jout," he 
 said to Gordon. But something more was needed. Earl 
 Grey, the friend who more than any other could pierce 
 through Rhodes's crust of C3micism to the noblest elements 
 in him, put his finger on one essential : pubUc spirit.. 
 Sending him a model in gold of the first Rhodesian mine 
 opened for working with the inscription, 
 
 els ouovos dpiaros, d[j,we<jdat, irepl Trdrprjs, 
 
 he added, " In Tudor and Plantagenet times men did things 
 'first for England, then for themselves. Some of our big 
 wigs can't beUeve you act like this." And Rhodes himself 
 knew that even with wealth and public spirit he could never 
 have succeeded without the f ueling of the people and his own 
 persistence. In this matter of the feeling of the people 
 he had the true instinct of the great statesman. " We 
 went far to the north," he told a Cape Town audience; 
 " we occupied all short of the Zambesi ; we did it by the 
 feeling of the people. For after aU, even if you have the 
 wealth, it is impossible to carry out a conception unless 
 you have the feeling of the people with you ; . . . and I have 
 found out one thing," he added, " and that is, if you have 
 an idea and it is a good idea, if you wiU only stick to it, 
 you wiU come out all right. ... In those early days every one 
 was against me. When I pointed out to the House, as an 
 individual member, that the hinterland must be preserved, 
 I could not get a vote, I could not get a single vote ; and 
 one had to continue at the question in spite of every 
 difficulty. I made the seizure of the interior a paramount 
 thing in my politics and made ever5^hing else subordinate. 
 . . . My paramount object weighed with me as supreme." 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 PRIME MINISTER OF THE CAPE 
 
 For the five years succeeding 1885 Rhodes had, much to 
 the disappointment of his friends, taken very little part 
 in the proceedings of the Cape ParHament. Sauer had 
 urged him in 1888, as soon as his diamond amalgamation 
 was completed, " to give some time and attention to other 
 things than mining. I mean of course the pohtics of this 
 Colony and the states adjoining — in fact the whole of 
 South Africa." But he remained deaf to all appeals. At 
 the general election of 1888 he had, as usual, been re- 
 turned for Barkly West, but was too much absorbed by 
 Chartered business to take his seat in the session of 1889, 
 and for the same reason intended to be absent from his 
 parliamentary duties during the following year. Early 
 in June 1890, however, he suddenly changed his mind and, 
 " without waiting to pack his portmanteau," hurried off to " 
 Cape Town, took the oath and his seat, and threw himself 
 into the political fray. 
 
 A desperate attempt by Sir Gordon Sprigg's moribund 
 ministry to recover popularity was the occasion of this 
 sudden change of plans. In the recent development of 
 railway communications attention had been mainly devoted 
 to the great trunk lines connecting Cape Town and Port 
 Elizabeth with the north, where the best markets for over- 
 seas goods and Cape produce were to be found. As a result 
 the more recent port of East London and the country 
 farmers in the western and central districts of the Colony 
 had felt themselves neglected. To remedy this grievance 
 
 183 
 
i84 CECIL RHODES 
 
 Sprigg proposed a great scheme of railway construction to 
 tap hitherto undeveloped districts and link up existing lines 
 at a cost to the taxpayer estimated at anything from 
 seven to twelve millions. It was a plausible scheme, for 
 every Dutch farmer hkes to have a railway as near his 
 front door as possible, and seemed calculated to catch votes. 
 But it was extravagant, especially at a time when the 
 Cape finances were none too flourishing ; for many of the 
 proposed hues would admittedly not be pajdng. To 
 Rhodes this vote - catching appeal was particularly 
 obnoxious, for he hated locahsm and did not want the 
 colony's resources diverted from schemes of general utihty 
 to unreraunerative hues in out-of-the-way districts. One 
 of Sprigg's ideas was to connect the newly discovered Indwe 
 collieries by a rambUng railway with East London. Develop 
 the Indwe coUieries by all means, Rhodes argued, but 
 develop them in the most rational way by giving them the 
 shortest possible Hne to their best market, Kimberley, 
 which would wiUingly take any amount of cheap colonial 
 coal in place of English sea-borne coal at £8 : los. a ton. 
 As for East London, its proper function was to be a mart 
 for the rich grain trade of the Free State and the Eastern 
 Province, not to compete with Port EUzabeth for long- 
 distance traffic ; " but there seems a sort of mania," he 
 complained, " when one port has its distinct area, to let 
 another port come in and render what by itself is profitable 
 unprofitable when shared by two." Sprigg had over- 
 ' reached himself. The Bond farmers, dearly as they would 
 have liked their particular railways, are a frugal race and 
 I were alarmed at the cost ; Sauer and Merriman, the 
 ; financial watchdogs of the opposition, joined forces _ with 
 Rhodes ; and after several defeats in Committee Sprigg 
 resigned on July lo. ^^^ 
 
 At that time the Bond party, led by their great tactician 
 Hofmeyr, had the deciding voice in the Cape ParMament. 
 In 1879, when Hofme57r entered Parhament, out of a House 
 of seventy-four members, he could reckon on a following 
 of about twenty ; in 1884 it had increased to thirty-three, 
 and in the last election a few more seats had been gained. 
 This resiilt had been attained by infinite patience and 
 
PRIME MINISTER OF THE CAPE 185 
 
 much subterranean manoeuvring on the leader's part : the 
 tenets of the party had been purged of their anti-British 
 bias, so exasperating to colonists of Anglo-Saxon origin, 
 and attention had been concentrated on the practical issues 
 of Cape politics. In fact the Bond under Hofmeyr's 
 • guidance, though still drawing most of its adherents from 
 the Dutch population, had become chiefly a country or 
 farmers' party as opposed to the commercial interests of 
 the towns. But, though so powerful in Parliament, Hofmeyr 
 had never had an absolute majority, and without that had 
 always declined to undertake the responsibihty of forming 
 a Ministry. His purpose was served equally well without 
 that. Few of his rustic followers were fitted for administra- 
 tive duties, so he was quite content to let the more politically 
 minded Englishmen govern and to turn out their Ministries 
 when they ceased to be agreeable to the Bond. In this way 
 since 1881 the Scanlen, Upington and Sprigg Ministries) 
 had successively owed their tenure of office to Bond votes. 
 Rhodes himself, though he never enrolled himself in the 
 Bond, had been veering more and more to their point of 
 view. On his rare visits to the House he had generally 
 found himself in the same lobby as the Bondsmen, and 
 during the election of 1888 had acted in close concert with 
 Hofme}^:, using his influence to induce several of his 
 English friends to win seats with the support of the Bond 
 and to get English voters to support some of Hofmeyr's 
 candidates. 
 
 On Sprigg's resignation the Governor sent for Sauer, 
 but as he and his friend Merriman could not count on 
 Hofmeyr's support, he gave up the attempt to form a 
 Ministry. Rhodes was then sent for. His first step was: ^ 
 to find out if the Bond would be with him : he even offered \ 
 either to serve under Hofmeyr or to give him a place in' 
 his Cabinet. Hofmeyr decUned both offers but gave his 
 blessing to a Rhodes Ministry. His followers were equally 
 favourable and promised to give the new Ministry fair 
 play. Some of Rhodes's Enghsh supporters in Kimberley 
 were not too well pleased at these parleyings with the 
 <^tch, but he had a ready answer for the grumblers. " I 
 think," he said, " if more pains were taken to explain 
 
i86 CECIL RHODES 
 
 matters to the Bond party, many of the cobwebs would be 
 swept away and a much better understanding would exist 
 between the different parties." 
 
 He had little difficulty in forming a Ministry. " There 
 are no clear lines of political division in this country," he 
 once told the Cape Parliament ; "I do not mean it is a 
 question of ' ins ' and ' outs,' but I would ask the House 
 to consider whether in so far as public poUcy is concerned 
 there are very great lines of difference in forming a Cabinet 
 ... it would probably be a matter to be settled personally 
 or socially." And for setthng matters personally or socially 
 he was without a rival. He met Parliament within a week 
 of Sprigg's resignation with his Cabinet already formed. 
 It contained three supporters of the Bond : himself, Faure 
 and Sivewright, the last a clever Scotsman who had risen 
 from the Cape telegraph service to a great position as a con- 
 tractor, and had won Rhodes's confidence by his business 
 capacity and his help in forwarding the Kimberley-Vryburg 
 railway. The opposition members were Innes, a highly 
 respected lawyer, now Chief Justice of the Union; Sauer, 
 the ablest debater in the House ; and, as Treasurer-General, 
 Merriman, a rigid economist of the Gladstone school, witty 
 and eloquent, a Rupert of debate. It was hailed as a 
 " Cabinet of aU the talents " ; but, strong as it seemed, it 
 contained within it the seeds of discord. Rhodes may have 
 been right in asserting that there were no clear lines of 
 poHtical division in the country ; nevertheless there were 
 certain underlying problems which might at any moment 
 come to the surface and create profound dissensions in the 
 commimity. One of these was the native question, on 
 which Sauer and Merriman held diametrically opposite 
 views to the less liberal-minded Bondsmen. Another was 
 the rivalry between Enghsh and Dutch, never entirely 
 allayed and hable to blaze up again at any spark. For the 
 time being, however, Rhodes, while incHned towards the 
 Bond view on both these questions, was able to exercise 
 a moderating influence, and his first Cabinet survived for 
 nearly three years. Then differences, both personal and 
 poHtical, became so acute that it could no longer hold 
 together. 
 
PRIME MINISTER OF THE CAPE 187 
 
 The immediate cause of its disruption was Sivewright. 
 Rhodes with all his capacity for conceiving great plans was 
 growing impatient at the drudgery of working out the 
 details, and was only too willing to hand them over to some 
 capable subordinate. He foimd Sivewright, able and not 
 too nice in his methods, just the man for this purpose, and 
 created some jealousy among the other Ministers by the 
 special confidence he reposed in this " brain-carrier of the 
 Ministry," as Hofmeyr called him. At the end of 1892 
 Innes, Sauer and Merriman discovered that Sivewright on 
 his own responsibiUty, without calhng for tenders, had 
 given away an important contract to a personal friend of 
 his. On being informed of this Rhodes, who was away 
 in Europe with Sivewright, cabled his consent to the 
 reptidiation of the contract, but when he found on his 
 return that those three Ministers refused to remain in the 
 Cabinet unless Sivewright retired, he could not bring himself 
 to dismiss Sivewright. In his dilemma he wrote a letter 
 to Hofme37r that shows the close relationship between the 
 two men : "I feel very much ashamed of myself to write 
 to you aimidst all your trotible [Hofme5n:'s father had 
 just died] ; but still I will say that I have a Cabinet crisis 
 upon me and I need greatly your calm judgment. ... If, 
 however, you think I should respect your sorrow and get 
 through the difficulty by my own judgment, just say so." 
 Hofme37r came and advised him to send in the resignation 
 of the whole Cabinet and then reconstruct the Ministry, 
 and Rhodes followed his advice. He himself was anxious 
 to give up the lead, as he felt how undesirable it was for 
 the Prime Minister to be absent so frequently as he was 
 bound to be with his varied calls to London and Rhodesia, 
 and offered to serve without portfolio under De ViUiers or 
 Hofmeyr. He first made overtures to the Chief Justice, 
 atid but for a misunderstailding, this negotiation might 
 have succeeded.^ He was equally unsuccessful with Hof- 
 meyr, whereupon he felt obhged to become Prime Minister 
 again with an entirely new Cabinet. Its principal members 
 were his own predecessor Sprigg, who took over the 
 
 1 For the correspondence between De ViUiers and Rhodes see Note 
 at the end of the chapter. 
 
i88 CECIL RHODES 
 
 Treasury from Merriman; another Scotsman, Laing, who 
 succeeded Sivewright ; and his friend W. P. Schreiner as 
 Attorney-General. With this Cabinet he carried on the 
 government until his own resignation more than Jwo years 
 later. 
 
 Rhodes's dictum about the absence of clear lines of 
 pohtical division in the country was well illustrated by the 
 presence of Sprigg in his second Ministry. For two years 
 they had not been on speaking terms owing to some remark 
 dropped by Sprigg in debate and warmly resented by 
 Rhodes. They had met over the Kimberley-Vryburg 
 railway negotiations of i88g ; but during the whole . of 
 Rhodes's first Ministry Sprigg had opposed his measures 
 and attacked him several times for combining the in- 
 compatible duties of Prime Minister of the Cape and 
 managing director of the Chartered Company. But, though 
 Rhodes still retained both posts, Sprigg, an adaptable 
 pohtician, made no difficulty about entering his Cabinet. 
 Except under stress of the most violent controversies it 
 was difficult for Cape pohticians to remain irreconcilable 
 for long. Cape Town society is comparatively small ; and 
 most of the legislators belong to one club, where they 
 cannot avoid meeting one another on friendly terms at 
 the bar or the luncheon-table. The Cape House lent itseK 
 to tolerance. It was a very cultivated assembly, where 
 Latin quotations could be made and appreciated without 
 false shame, and where the standard of debate and good 
 breeding was high. " Up to the present," Rhodes once 
 told his fellow-members, " we have the best men in the 
 country in the House," and he set up as an awful warning 
 to them " the methods of Austrahan and other colonies, 
 where members indulge in vulgar personahties." Vulgar 
 personalities were indeed singularly rare in that polite and 
 friendly assembly, where oratory was practised as a fine 
 art and the roughest knocks were rarely resented or, if 
 resented, soon condoned. The members were familiar with 
 one another's pecuharities and proud of them. For flights 
 of oratory and debating power the Cape House could bear 
 comparison with most British assemblies, when it could 
 produce a Merriman or a Sauer, Upington, the Irish orator. 
 
PRIME MINISTER OF THE CAPE 189 
 
 or even Sprigg, a most adroit controversialist : Sivewright's 
 triumphant exposition of his railway convention with the 
 Transvaal and his defence of his own part in the contract 
 scandal are admirable examples of lucid statement. 
 Hofmejo-'s special bent was for insinuation in the lobbies, 
 but when he spoke in the House no one could be more 
 concihatory and persuasive. For comic relief there was 
 O'Reilly, the Cape Town Irishman, who fixed on Rhodes 
 as the special mark of his buffoonery, and Schermbriicker, 
 the genial and swashbuckUng colonel from the Eastern 
 Province. In many respects the Cape House of Rhodes's 
 day resembled more the House of Commons of the 
 eighteenth century than its twentieth-century successor. 
 For both were in essence oligarchical and undemocratic 
 bodies. The eighteenth - century poUticians in England 
 habitually kept a certain measure in attacks on their 
 opponents and dehvered them with an air of good breeding, 
 since all were concerned in upholding a state of society 
 and government favourable to themselves, and had no 
 desire, by pushing their quarrels to extremes, to give an 
 opening to the lower classes. Both EngUsh and Dutch at 
 the Cape had the same caste feeling of aristocracy, but in 
 their case the lower classes were represented by the 
 himdreds of thousands of natives, of whom they were the 
 poHtical masters : in their presence they felt bound in 
 honour to maintain an attitude of Oljonpian superiority. 
 Rhodes, for example, was in some respects as radical as 
 any member of the Assembly, but he stopped short at any 
 attempt to tamper with the aristocratic basis of govern- 
 ment. He only expressed the thoughts of most of his 
 fellow-members when he praised the high franchise in 
 Prussia, " a most enormous but necessary protection 
 against demagogues, ... a most unpleasant people," or 
 when he uttered the unimpeachably Tory sentiment : "I 
 wish to preserve the landed classes of the country as a 
 conservative element in connection with changes that are 
 coming over the country, ... as a bulwark against the 
 march of legislation, . . . which is very often hurried and 
 mischievous." This spirit of exclusiveness generally makes 
 for good manners : and just as in America one looked to 
 
igo CECIL RHODES 
 
 ' find the most gracious hospitality and the greatest courtesy 
 ' in the slave-owning South, so, of all the British dominions, 
 ; South Africa with its subject races is the most distinguished 
 for these qualities. 
 
 Rhodes himself was quite in his element in the Cape 
 House. He understood its ways and its members under- 
 stood him. As an orator and a master of words he was 
 not pre-eminent, and he was sparing in his utterances, for 
 he never spoke unless he had something definite to say. 
 Then he talked in a conversational strain, taking the House 
 into his confidence and telhng them " amusing " stories— 
 not always so " amusing " to his hearers as to himself— 
 about his own youth and adventures. So, despite his 
 awkward manner and his disjointed style, he was always 
 listened to willingly for the thought he was laboriously 
 contriving to express. During his speeches he was never 
 troubled by the buzz of talk of which some members 
 ingenuously complained. To these he onde administered a 
 grim reproof. " If a member," he drily observed, " has 
 anything to say that is worth sajdng and worth 
 listening to, every one listens to it. . . . When a member 
 gets on his feet and hears a buzz in the House, he should 
 say to himself that it is clear that what he is conveying to 
 the House is not of much importance, and he should then 
 either proceed to his facts or sit down," an utterance which 
 recalls Chatham's terse word of advice to a flustered oppo- 
 nent : " Whenever that member means nothing, I advise 
 him to say nothing." Rhodes, in his utterances, was 
 certainly never guilty of " meaning nothing," though 
 their connection with the subject under discussion was not 
 always obvious. Sometimes in debate he would interpose 
 a long rambling speech entirely off the point to convey 
 some quite irrelevant idea, on which he had been reflecting 
 and which he desired to make known to his audience. In 
 1892, for example, Sprigg had made a strong case against 
 him for not having yet carried out his engagement to extend 
 the line from Vryburg to Mafeking : in his reply he almost 
 ignored the charge and devoted himself to a detailed 
 vindication of his northern poHcy since 1880 and of his 
 recent occupation of Mashonaland, concluding with the 
 
PRIME MINISTER OF THE CAPE 191 
 
 amusing piece of intelligence that " the honourable gentle- 
 man has put the motion on a very suitable day. It happens 
 to be my birthday." So engaging a plea naturally proved 
 irresistible ; and the House celebrated the auspicious 
 anniversary by rejecting Sprigg's motion. They were 
 indeed very proud of their Prime Minister : proud of his 
 business capacity as the " great amalgamator," proud of 
 his Imperial vision and his care, in all his African schemes, 
 to put the Cape first ; flattered too by the glory reflected 
 on the Colony from the deference paid at home to their 
 leading statesman. His personal disinterestedness in Cape 
 politics also earned their respect. After he had been in 
 of&ce three years it was discovered that he and his secre- 
 taries between them had cost the Colony no more than 
 £527 : 5s. during the whole period. " The country is never 
 likely to have another Prime Minister in exactly the same 
 position as Mr. Rhodes," said Merriman, then speaking 
 from the opposition benches, " for there is not a man in 
 the Government who takes less out of the pockets of the 
 country and is more modest in his demands." And he 
 was liked because he always remained one of themselves, 
 simple in his address and mindful of his fellow-citizens' 
 chief interests as farmers, miners or traders. Above all, 
 he was the first statesman among them to merge the 
 divergent views of EngUsh and Dutch into one common 
 outlook as Cape Colonists and South Africans. 
 
 This friendly atmosphere in the Cape ParUament faciU- 
 tated Rhodes's special methods of government. He was 
 once attacked in the House for teUing a London audience 
 that he proposed running his trans-African telegraph 
 through the Mahdi's territories, and expected no difl&culty 
 about it, "for I have not found in Ufa any one I could not 
 deal with." Far from expressing shame at the sentiment, 
 he repeated it and further explained his theory : "I have 
 invariably found in life that you could either quarrel or 
 deal with men ; i.e. you could sit down and argue with a 
 man and reason with him or quarrel with him ; but if you 
 sit down and reason with menTyou would invariably find 
 that you could settle with people or arrange with people." 
 He consistently followed this principle of " sitting down 
 
192 CECIL RHODES 
 
 and arguing with a man," and was well rewarded by his 
 immunity from serious opposition during his five and a 
 half years of office. The arguments took different forms 
 according to the man he was sitting down with. Barnato, 
 as we have seen, he placated by a luncheon at the Club and 
 a seat in the House ; Sir Thomas Upington, one of his 
 most eloquent opponents, was persuaded to take a judge- 
 ship in 1892 ; next year Sprigg and Laing were brought 
 into the Cabinet ; Theron, a Bondsman who had opposed 
 the Charter, was talked over by Rhodes and in 1894 
 proposed as chairman of committees in opposition to his 
 former chief. Sir Thomas Scanlen. Scanlen in his turn was 
 given an important post in Rhodesia. Some members 
 were helped out of their difficulties by Rhodes, and by the 
 distribution of Chartered shares others were attached to his 
 interests. Of conscious bribery he was no doubt quite 
 guiltless, but his wealth and his manifold activities as 
 chairman of De Beers and the Gold Fields, as managing 
 director of the Chartered Company, and as Prime Minister 
 of the Colony inevitably tended to rivet many connections 
 and incline a large number of Cape politicians to regard 
 his tenure of power as indispensable. He also had a keen 
 eye to the value of the press and exercised considerable 
 control over a group of South African newspapers : not 
 that he dictated their policy, but he was at any rate secure 
 of their general support. His general attitude on this 
 question is well illustrated by Hs remark to Garrett, the 
 editor of the Cape Times : "I have never inspired an article 
 in your paper, or requested that a given Hne should be 
 taken, but you might at least be careful about facts." In 
 Parliament he preferred to settle controversial subjects 
 behind the scenes rather than in open debate, and he 
 certainly laid himself open to Merriman's charge that : 
 " Parliament was being demoralized by the practice of 
 underhand agreement, lobbjdng and caucuses ... he 
 preferred to stand up and take his fighting in the House; 
 the Premier preferred to take it in the lobby." His chief 
 adviser and ally in this practice of lobbying was Hofmeyr, 
 a past-master in the art ; and Rhodes always looked to 
 Hofmeyr to keep him in touch with the Dutch party he 
 
PRIME MINISTER OF THE CAPE 193 
 
 was so anxious to conciliate. The two men saw one 
 another ahnost daily during the session, riding out in the 
 early morning over the Cape flats and the mountain slopes, 
 or meeting for consultation in Camp Street or Groote Schuur. 
 Attacked in the House for his understanding with HotraeyT 
 Rhodes admitted and gloried in the charge. " I will take 
 the House into my secrets," he replied. " I did consult the 
 honourable member for Stellenbosch. I consulted him in 
 the first place because he represents a large section of the 
 people of this country ; in the second place because I 
 find his sound judgement of enormous assistance to me." 
 As an outcome of this alliance and of these preliminary 
 parleyings Rhodes in presenting to the House most of his 
 important measures, the Scab Act, the Franchise and 
 Ballot Act and the Glen Grey Act, could count beforehand 
 on the support of the Bondsmen, whose extreme limits of 
 concession he had already sounded and allowed for. It 
 was assuredly from no ignoble desire to retain power that 
 he pursued this poUcy : " You and some of your friends 
 think I am too subservient to the country party," he once 
 told an EngUsh supporter, " but I have great sympathy 
 with the Dutch ; they have needs and experiences, which 
 we are all, I sincerely think, apt to overlook. I help 
 them as far as I can, instead of opposing them. Is not 
 that the better way ? It pleases them and it pleases 
 me. 
 
 The Dutch farmers certainly never had a Prime Minister t- 
 so solicitous for their interests. To their great deUght 
 three of the Ministers in his first Cabinet could answer 
 their members in their own language. Soon after taking 
 of&ce he declared that he would not, like most previous 
 goverimients, confine his attention to the ports and the 
 carrying trade of the colony, but make the prosperity of 
 the fanners and the development of the country's natural 
 resources his chief care. He created a Ministry of Agri- 
 culture and took great pains to improve the methods of 
 that hitherto neglected industry. In place of Sprigg's 
 extravagant scheme of railway construction he put forward 
 a well-thought-out programme for connecting the central 
 farming districts with their markets at smaU cost to the 
 
 o 
 
194 CECIL RHODES 
 
 taxpayer.^ The colony's orange groves, that were being 
 ravaged by insect pests, he saved by the introduction of 
 the American ladybird, and he made a beginning of the 
 scientific fruit culture, which has since proved so profitable 
 to the Cape, by bringing over experts from the fruit farms 
 of California to give instruction in the best methods of 
 fruit-growing and packing the fruit for export. He im- 
 proved the breed of Cape horses by importing Arab staUions 
 and developed the export trade of horses to India. He 
 saved the colony's flocks and revived the wool trade by 
 the drastic provisions of his Scab Act ; and, when on a 
 visit to Constantinople in 1894, he persuaded the Sultan 
 to let him have some goats of the precious Angora breed 
 to cross with the Cape stock, and so improve the quality 
 of the goats'-hair, which the colony already exported to 
 the value of half a miUion annually. The wine industry, 
 which was being ruined by the phylloxera, gave him 
 especial concern ; for it was one of the most important 
 in the Cape : in fact about a third of the members of the 
 House represented vine-growing districts. American vines 
 beUeved to be immune were distributed to the farmers ; 
 and Rhodes himself studied wine-culture in France and 
 imparted to them the results of his experiences. He also 
 tried to improve their export trade. Ever since Cobden's 
 agreement with France and the lowering of the duties on 
 French wines the Cape wines had lost their market in 
 England. To redress the balance Rhodes enlisted the 
 support of Gilbey, the wine importer, and tried to persuade 
 Harcourt to give a preference to colonial wines, both Cape 
 and Australian. But Harcourt, though S5nnpathetic with 
 his difiiculties, gave no hope of acceding to his request : 
 he could not afford the loss to the budget, or the risk of 
 antagonizing France, and saw no prospect of a quid pro quo 
 in any modification to England's interest of the high 
 AustraUan tariff. Rhodes for his part had no fear of 
 protection for farmers. He objected to bolstering up 
 " bastard industries," as he called them, not suited to the 
 country, and refused to consider tariffs such as Australia 
 
 ' Instead of Sprigg's seven or eight millions the three railways he 
 proposed in 1895 were to cost the taxpayer only ;£ 700,000. 
 
PRIME MINISTER OF THE CAPE 195 
 
 had adopted for this purpose. But tariffs to make the 
 country self-supporting and to encourage farming seemed 
 to him perfectly legitimate. It was a poHcy, too, that 
 exactly suited the wishes of his Bond supporters. 
 
 But with all his desire to carry the Bond with him he 
 never compromised on questions of principle. The Scab 
 Act, which toblc'^up most of the 1894 session, introduced a 
 system of compulsory isolation for flocks infected with 
 scab, especially obnoxious to the independent Boer farmers. 
 But Rhodes saw that it must be insisted on, if the wool 
 industry was to be saved, and though he made many 
 concessions on details he stuck to his compulsory clauses 
 and carried them. On education also he had strong views, 
 which often ran counter to accepted views in South Africa 
 and gave him some trouble with the Bond. The university 
 system in the Cape was very defective, with its isolated 
 colleges for Dutchmen and Englishmen and a purely 
 examining body to grant degrees. The racial question was 
 the chief obstacle to reform ; for the Dutchmen clung to 
 their special college at SteUenbosch and dreaded amalgama- 
 tion. Rhodes's project was to create a real teaching and 
 degree-giving university at Cape Town, drawing its students 
 from both races and from all states or colonies of South 
 Africa : the advantage of such an institution would, he 
 believed, be far-reaching, not least when the students 
 returned to their homes, " tied to one another by the 
 strongest feehngs that can be created, because the period 
 in your Ufe when you indulge in friendships which are 
 seldom broken is from the age of eighteen to twenty-one ; 
 and they would go forth into all parts of South Africa 
 prepared to make the coimtry ; and in their hands this 
 great question ^f union could safely be left." In this 
 instance vested rights and racial feehng proved too strong 
 for him ; and, though he gave and collected large sums 
 for the scheme, he did not hve to see it fulfilled. He was 
 more successful in introducing a welcome change from the 
 arid system of judging men's work purely by examination 
 results. When a mining school was opened at Kimberley, 
 he and Beit offered scholarships for students there, and he 
 insisted that the course should include practical experience 
 
196 CECIL RHODES 
 
 in the mines. " I am entirely sick," he said, " of these 
 theoretical things, which end in a flomish of trumpets. I 
 want this mining-school to be such that when a lad has 
 been there he will go home, not simply with a piece of 
 paper in his pocket, but with an offer from a manager of 
 a mine for a good situation." He was equally determined 
 to allow no pohtical influences to interfere with the proper 
 administration of the pubUc education. On a vacancy for 
 the post of superintendent-general he chose the best man 
 he could obtain from Scotland, and, when urged by the 
 Bond to appoint an unsuitable candidate of their own, 
 rephed, " I would rather throw up my position than let a 
 man, whom I do not think quaUfied, educate the young, 
 however much I may be urged by local people." 
 
 Even in his deahngs with the Transvaal, Rhodes, helped 
 partly by Kruger's fooHsh poUcy on railway and tariff ques- 
 tions, partly by his own skill in diplomacy, was gradually 
 bringing the Bond to his view that the Cape must be the 
 dominant state in South Africa. He had persuaded the Bond 
 to cry " hands off " to the Transvaal and pledged them to 
 his own pohcy in Rhodesia, and, when Sprigg, Laing and 
 O'Reilly attacked him for his dual position in the Cape and 
 Rhodesia, he found his warmest supporters among their 
 members. Hofmeyr went so far as to declare that, though 
 " he had hoped that the North could be developed ip the 
 old Boer fashion, this was proved impossible before the 
 Charter. If a man such as the -Premier had not started 
 the Company, the country would have been colonized in 
 a manner very different from what they would Mke. They 
 should not, therefore, place difficulties in the Company's 
 way. If the interests of the Company and the Colony 
 clashed, the Premier would retire from the Government, 
 and he was right in this." Where Sprigg had failed he 
 succeeded in obtaining from the Free State in 1891 the 
 long desired permission to extend the Cape railway through 
 Bloemfontein to the Vaal, and ia the following year, by 
 means of Sivewright, overcame Kruger's long-rooted objec- 
 tion to the further extension to Johannesburg and Pretoria. 
 As for Kruger, by his prohibitive tariffs on Cape wine, 
 brandy, cattle, com, fruit and butter he was driving the 
 
PRIME MINISTER OF THE CAPE 197 
 
 Dutch farmers of the Cape to look to Rhodes rather than 
 himself as their chief ally. Rhodes even played the 
 moderating part when the Bond members raised their 
 voice in angry protest against these tariffs. " Do not let 
 us lose our tempers," he said, " but maintain a statesman- 
 like and dignified attitude " ; and he assured them that, 
 if they would but have patience, Kruger was bound ulti- 
 mately to yield. 
 
 II 
 
 In certain quarters, where Rhodes's " Imperial factor " 
 speech had not been forgotten, this strait alUance with the 
 Bond was looked on with some misgivings. The Times, 
 converted to a beUef in Rhodes's good intentions by the 
 Charter poMcy, was still afraid that he might be a dupe. 
 " Mr. Rhodes," it stated, " continually asserts his belief 
 that it will be a British union within the Empire. Mr. 
 Hofmeyr intends that it shall be a Dutch union outside 
 the Empire ... he is the older, perhaps the cooler, certainly 
 the more experienced of the two. He has been giving 
 points ever since Mr. Rhodes's return from England. . . . 
 He asks for the equivalent now." But Rhodes was certainly 
 not the dupe. He was even gradually weaning the Bond 
 from its provinciahsm and converting it, with the other 
 Cape Colonists, to take an interest in the wider questions 
 for which he chiefly cared. In fact, he found a good ally 
 for this pohcy in HofmejT, always a cautious and enUghtened 
 supporter of the Imperial connection. But where Hofmeja: 
 worked with deMcate insinuations Rhodes played his part 
 with dramatic directness. Previous Prime Ministers had 
 sometimes had occasion to make respectful representations 
 to the Colonial Office on the colony's affairs, none before 
 Rhodes had ventured, with the almost vmanimous approval 
 of his feUow-colonists, to assert the right of interfering in the 
 general concerns of the Empire. He had not been in office 
 a fortnight before he brought up for the consideration of the 
 House the treaty just signed by Lord Sahsbury with Germany 
 for setthng African boundary questions,^ and carried what 
 was virtually a vote of censure on the Home Government 
 
 1 See Chap. XII. pp. 166-7. 
 
igS CECIL RHODES 
 
 for signing such a treaty without consulting the Cape. He 
 claimed by this resolution that, as the " dominant state in 
 South Africa," the Cape was entitled to a voice in any 
 future agreement concerning territory south of the Zam- 
 besi, and supported it by a reference to his own successful 
 stratagem in forcing the hands of the Government by the 
 creation of Forts Fife and Abercom : " I obtained," he 
 said, " an arr&ngement of boundaries, which seemed almost 
 impossible, but which showed what could be done by 
 making one's voice heard." He set a new precedent, which 
 pleased the Dutch, in proposing that the House should 
 send a vote of condolence to the Queen of Holland on her 
 husband's death. He even undertook to purchase for the 
 colony a large tract of territory from a foreign power. In 
 1891 the Portuguese were in difficulties owing to the claim 
 of an American, M'Murdo, for compensation for the forcible 
 seizure of a railway he had constructed from Delagoa 
 Bay to the Transvaal border. Kruger was especially 
 interested in this railway, as it was the link which was 
 to connect his own hne from Pretoria with the port at 
 Delagoa Bay ; and he hoped, when his own hne was 
 completed, to have the whip hand of the Cape by control- 
 hng a shorter railway connected with a nearer port t"&an 
 Cape Town or Port EUzabeth for the Johannesburg traffic. 
 Rhodes, however, in 1891 conceived the ambitious idea of 
 buying up the whole province of Louren90 Marques from 
 Portugal on behalf of the Cape, which would have put this 
 railway and all the cards in his own hands. The Portuguese 
 finances were not then in a flourishing condition and it 
 was hoped that the price might prove a temptation. 
 Mr. Maguire, Sivewright and other agents carried on the 
 negotiations for several years, and it was no doubt with 
 these negotiations in his mind that, when he saw Kruger 
 in 1891, Rhodes suggested to him that an arrangement 
 might be made between them about Delagoa Bay.^ Ulti- 
 mately, however, the Portuguese, whose national pride was 
 engaged in retaining their ancient possession, definitely 
 refused all offers. 
 
 Still more remarkable was his attempt to establish 
 
 ^ See above, Chap. XI. p. 155, and cp. Michell ii. 94. 
 
PRIME MINISTER OF THE CAPE 199 
 
 direct relations between the self-governing colonies without 
 the intervention of the Colonial Oifice. In May 1891 he 
 addressed private letters to Sir Henry Parkes and Sir John 
 Macdonald, the Prime Ministers of New South Wales and 
 Canada, suggesting that they should aU three agree on a 
 common fiscal policy. Writing to Macdonald he con- 
 gratulates him on the result of the Canadian elections, 
 which had turned on the question whether fiscal relations 
 should be made closer with the United States or the 
 Mother Country, and then goes on, " between us we must 
 invent some tie with our Mother Country that will prevent 
 separation ... a practical one, for future generations will 
 not be bom in England. The curse is that EngUsh pohti- 
 cians cannot see the future." In a postscript he modestly 
 explains : " You might not know who I am, so I will say 
 I am the Prime Minister of this Colony — that is Cape 
 Colony," and expresses a wish to meet him " before stern 
 fate claims us." This wish remained mxfulfilled, for 
 Macdonald died before the letter reached him. But it 
 bore fruit. In the following year the High Commissioner 
 for Canada sent him, " as one desirous of the unity of the 
 Empire," the resolution of the Canadian Parliament in favour 
 of colonial preference, and invited him to pass a similar 
 resolution at the Cape ; and four years later Rhodes met 
 Macdonald's successor in London and tried to arrange a 
 reciprocal reduction of duties on Canadian timber and Cape 
 wines as a prehminary to a more general policy of preference. 
 When the Canadian Government issued invitations for the 
 inter-colonial conference at Ottawa, he accepted eagerly on 
 behalf of the Cape, and secured the interest of the Dutch by 
 persuading Sir Henry de Villiers and Hofmeyr to represent 
 the colony. In his instructions to them he laid down that 
 they were (i) to show a friendly feehng with the other 
 colonies, (2) to discuss Imperial cable routes, (3) to obtain a 
 measure of inter-colonial trade, (4) to consider the payment by 
 the colonies of subsidies to the Imperial Navy. At the confer- 
 ence Hofmejn: served him weU and gave a very practical 
 turn to the discussion on cable routes and colonial contribu- 
 tions to the Navy. Always with the same idea of drawing 
 closer the ties of kinship with the other colonies, in 1893 
 
200 CECIL RHODES 
 
 , this most unconventional of Prime Ministers used Cape 
 Government balances to relieve the financial depression in 
 
 ' Australia. He bought ;£200,ooo worth of Victoria and New 
 South Wales stock, then standing at 82 per cent, as a cheap 
 and safe investment and " as a pubhc means of showing 
 confidence in the two colonies," and easily persuaded the 
 House to endorse his action. 
 
 " The future government of the world is a question of 
 tariffs " was an opinion Rhodes was fond of repeating ; 
 for he had a great belief in the power of tariffs as an element 
 in a bargain. A good illustration of his methods is his 
 treatment of the customs at Walfisch Bay. This Cape port 
 formed an enclave in German South West Africa and was 
 the Germans' most convenient outlet for trade. The Cape 
 had always waived the collection of duties there, partly 
 for reasons of international courtesy, partly to preserve the 
 port as an outlet for German trade, and partly, in Rhodes's 
 time, as he admitted, for an ulterior motive. He was 
 anxious to obtain favourable terms frotn the German 
 Government for the extension of his Trans-African telegraph 
 through their province of East Africa to Uganda and hoped 
 by customs concessions in South -West Africa to dispose 
 them to entertain his request. But he had no success. 
 " Without putting on these duties at Walfisch Bay," he 
 indignantly told the House, " I have been refused to let 
 the telegraph go through their territory to civilize Africa." 
 " Clap the duties on," shouted Merriman, interrupting him. 
 " For two years," continued Rhodes, " they have refused 
 for the most paltry reasons, they have refused to allow the 
 telegraph to go through their East African possessions. 
 They have refused over and over again, so that they are 
 not entitled to the shghtest consideration." 
 
 He does not seem to have been more successful in a 
 singular attempt to influence the fiscal pohcy of the United 
 States. The M'Kinley tariff recently passed in the States 
 caused him serious apprehension for its possible effects on 
 British trade, and in 1894 he apparently conceived the 
 strange idea of communicating his sentiments to the Presi- 
 dent of the Senate. His letter is unfortunately not extant, 
 but its tenor is apparent from the answer it called forth 
 
PRIME MINISTER OF THE CAPE 201 
 
 from Senator Lodge and thirty-three other senators. They 
 turned the tables completely on their rash correspondent, 
 for, after remarking on " the recent rather astonishing 
 communication to the President of the Senate from the 
 Premier of Cape Colony," they are moved by the nature of 
 its author's business " to suggest another proper exercise 
 of this legitimate discrimination. Since the discovery of 
 the Kimberley diamond fields less than a quarter century 
 ago, diamonds to the value of $175,000,000 have been 
 imported into the United States. ... It is estimated that 
 the country now absorbs from a third to a half of the annual 
 product of these South African diamond mines, which are 
 controlled by English investors, who have hmited the 
 output, created a trust and practically control the price 
 of the diamonds of the world." To break down these high 
 prices and also as a lever to induce the British Government 
 to adopt a more conciHatory attitude on the silver question 
 then agitating the States, these senators propose a 30 per 
 cent tax on diamonds, which would " check consumption 
 and reduce the excessive and artificial prices for these 
 stones which now prevail and might induce people of Cape 
 Colony to believe that the present attitude of Great Britain 
 in relation to silver is not only unfair and unjust but is also 
 injurious to the interests of that colony." A very pretty 
 Roland for Rhodes's OHver ! 
 
 Nevertheless the M'Kinley tariff made him aU the more 
 anxious to create " the practical tie " of colonial preference. 
 He feared that, unless retahatory measures were adopted, 
 America's protective poMcy would starve England out of 
 the world markets and reduce her industrial labourers to 
 distress. But these very retaUatory measures would, he 
 felt, give the Mother Coimtry her opportunity of dis- 
 criminating in favour of the natural products of her colonies 
 and of receiving from them a preference for her manufac- 
 tured articles ; and so the whole Empire would be drawn 
 closer together by trade interests. To the Dutch farmer this 
 policy offered an immediate advantage in better prices on 
 the EngUsh market for wool and wine and a prospect even 
 for wheat. But to Harcourt and most of the EngHsh 
 statesmen of the time the prospect was not so attractive. 
 
202 CECIL RHODES 
 
 Harcourt bluntly called Rhodes a protectionist, much to 
 his indignation, for hke all tariff-reformers he was convinced 
 that he and his school alone possessed the true secret of free 
 trade. He was not a very clear thinker and in his anxiety 
 to relieve the Enghsh industrial labourer, forgot that a 
 preference to colonial products would imply higher prices 
 for all foodstuffs and raw material, and raise the price of 
 Mving and the cost of manufacture in England. However, 
 it must be admitted that he was so convinced of his case 
 that he was wiUing to give where he did not receive. When 
 he was negotiating with the Colonial Office for the settlement 
 after the Matabele War, he tried to get a preference clause 
 into the new constitution so framed that, without any 
 return from England, it should be impossible to increase 
 the existing low tariff on British imports into Rhodesia or 
 to put any duty at all on goods sent from states in the 
 South African Customs Union. The provision was harm- 
 less enough and In no way violated the principles of free 
 trade, but Harcourt and his colleagues rejected it on the 
 ground that it might interfere with the treaty rights of 
 other powers. In the Cape Parhament the Cape farmers 
 expressed bitter disappointment at the loss of free trade 
 with Rhodesia and were pacified by Rhodes, as best he 
 could, by the promise not to let the question rest. Four 
 years later he had better success with Lord SaUsbury's 
 Government and had the clause inserted in the Rhodesian 
 Constitution. 
 
 By his vehement methods of asserting Cape Colony's 
 soUdarity with other parts of the Empire Rhodes succeeded, 
 to a greater extent even than Macdonald in Canada, in 
 demonstrating the practical possibiMty of a closer union 
 between England and her colonies. Men hke Seeley, Sir 
 George Grey, Dilke and Stead had long been preaching 
 this doctrine ; what was needed to make it a hving force 
 was proof that the Mother Country would not thereby 
 increase her heavy responsibilities or the colonies lose their 
 precious independence in internal affairs. Macdonald 
 afforded this proof for Canada and Rhodes for South 
 Africa. Before he came into public hfe complete inde- 
 pendence or humiliating dependence on the changing 
 
PRIME MINISTER OF THE CAPE 203 
 
 policy of Downing Street seemed the only alternatives for 
 the Cape. Out of office he jealously upheld the principle 
 of complete liberty for internal concerns coupled with the 
 British flag for defence, and during his five years as Prime 
 Minister converted it into an axibm in the relations between 
 the Colonial and Home Governments. 
 
 Ill 
 
 Rhodes's internal administration is hardly less memor- 
 able than his external poMcy. When he took office in 1890 
 the Colony was passing through a severe financial crisis : 
 one of the principal banks had suspended payment, money 
 was hard to get and even as late as 1892 a Cape loan could 
 not be raised in London on better terms than 93 per cent. 
 But between them Merriman, by his economies in the 
 pubhc service and his knowledge of finance, and Rhodes, 
 by the confidence he inspired in the City as well as in South 
 Africa, soon restored the credit of the colony. A Bank Act 
 was passed imposing salutary restrictions on the issue of 
 notes, and, owing chiefly to his predecessor Merriman's good 
 management, Sprigg, in introducing the budget of 1894, was 
 able to say that the Cape loan was quoted at 107 per cent, 
 and that the credit of the colony was never so high. 
 
 Except for the Scab Act already described, Rhodes's 
 principal measures, the Franchise and BaUot Act, the 
 annexation of Pondoland and the Glen Grey Act, all bore 
 more or less directly on the native question. When he 
 introduced the last of these measures, which involved a 
 considerable change in native administration, Merriman 
 accused him of having hastily concocted the Bill during " a 
 scamper through the Transkei," the chief native preserve. 
 The charge, as Rhodes pointed out, was most unjust, for 
 he had been dealing with natives for twenty years, and 
 for the last ten years had more natives under his control 
 than any other man in South Africa. Alone on the cotton 
 plantation of the Umkomaas he had begun to study the 
 ways of raw natives and continued doing so in the early 
 days of Kimberley ; in Basutoland and Bechuanaland he 
 had been brought into touch with their chiefs and the 
 
204 CECIL RHODES 
 
 domestic concerns of independent native states. In the 
 De Beers compounds he was responsible for over 10,000 
 natives, and in Southern Rhodesia alone he was the jHrtual 
 ruler of nearly 300,000. He had a right to speak on native 
 questions, for he brought to these responsibilities great 
 i sympathy with the natives and a peculiar gift, also possessed 
 ^by his brother Herbert, for attracting and attaching black 
 men to himself. His own personal attendants were devoted 
 to him, and Tony, his well-known factotum, was looked on 
 more as a trusted companion than a menial. Wherever he 
 went he made friends with the natives and had an un- 
 common gift for always recognizing those he had once 
 spoken to. In his first journey through Mashonaland he 
 had in his train a small native boy, " Pikenin," who very 
 soon disappeared from the party : five years later, once 
 more travelling through the country, he saw the same boy 
 washing clothes in a stream. " Ah, Pikenin, is that you ? " 
 he said at once, and offered to take him to Cape Town, 
 where for many years he lived happUy in Rhodes's house- 
 hold. At Kimberley he loved to saunter round the com- 
 pounds, chaf&ng the natives, settling their little troubles 
 and learning all about their tribal customs. But though 
 S5mipathetic he never allowed a native to take a liberty 
 with him and was very impatient of any sign of truckling 
 to natives in others. He once related how he shocked the 
 Imperial commissioner at the capital of Lerothodi, para- 
 mount chief of the Basutos, by his straight talk with that 
 chief for harbouring a native malefactor : " Why do you 
 keep that murderer in your country ? " he asked, " you 
 ought to be ashamed of it. I am very sorry I have nothing 
 to do with it, or I should keep you till you give the murderer 
 up " ; and yet in telling the story he showed an unexpected 
 touch of sympathy with the malefactor : " Who wandered 
 about, prepared to murder everybody. I believe he leads 
 a most unhappy Ufe." He always felt that the treatment 
 of the natives, watched, as he said, " not only here but at 
 home," was as difficult as any question arising in South 
 African politics, and accordingly laid down a rule that the 
 Ministry of native affairs should be associated with the 
 office of Prime Minister. He took pleasure in the title 
 
PRIME MINISTER OF THE CAPE 205 
 
 " father to the natives " which this association brought 
 him, and rejoiced that the additional charge of one and a 
 half million Cape natives to his responsibiUties in Rhodesia 
 and at Kimberley would enable him to " follow one train 
 of thought " in formulating a policy. For he was convinced 
 that no greater mistake could be made than to look at 
 native policy from a local instead of a South African 
 standpoint : the question of imion was involved in the 
 right solution, and even the survival of the Europeans. 
 Appreciating the difficulties, as he did, he was modest in 
 his appeal for confidence. " I have no native policy," he 
 admitted at the outset, " I could not afford to say I have. 
 I am a beginner at these things. . . Still, give me a trial, 
 as I hope to do it well." 
 
 The Cape system, as he found it, differed from that of 
 the other states in making no political distinction between 
 natives and Europeans. The franchise for both, on a basis 
 of a £25 yearly occupation, had been hardly altered since 
 1853, when the Colonial Secretary, Newcastle, refused to 
 impose any restrictions, " in order that all the Queen's 
 subjects at the Cape, without distinction of class or colour, 
 should be united by one bond of loyalty and a common 
 interest." At first, when the proportion of natives in the 
 colony was Httle more than two to one, and the few quahfied 
 natives rarely voted, the practical objections to this provi- 
 sion were negligible : but it was very different in 1891 
 when the natives, by enlargement of territory and their 
 greater productivity, had increased fourfold and the whites 
 only twofold ; and when the " blanket voters," as they 
 were called, had already the deciding voice in certain 
 constituencies. On the other hand in Natal, where the 
 natives were as ten to one of the whites, the franchise law 
 had been so contrived that only thirteen were on the voting 
 roll; in the Transvaal and the Free State they had no 
 franchise and in the Transvaal were expressly excluded from 
 equal rights in Church or State. Though the Cape colonists 
 in 1853 had generally opposed the equal franchise to the 
 natives, since then a considerable body of pubhc opinion 
 had grown up in its favour on the ground that it was the 
 best means of educating the natives and preserving them 
 
2o6 CECIL RHODES 
 
 from oppression ; and some of the most enlightened men 
 in Cape politics, Saul Solomon and his relations, Innes, 
 Merriman, Sauer and the Schreiners, upheld this view. 
 Rhodes was of the contrary opinion. He was convinced 
 that any attempt to unite South Africa would break down 
 on the snag of the Cape native franchise, which the other 
 states would never admit ; and union was to him always a 
 paramount consideration. " We have Hved in the past," 
 he said in his younger days, " under what might be called 
 the mists of Table Mountain, and the poHcy of the House 
 has been drifting like the clouds that sail round it. . . . 
 We must adopt a system of Indian despotism in our relations 
 with the barbarians of South Africa, so that by means of it 
 there may be a possibiUty of creating a United South Africa 
 stretching to the Zambesi," and it was no doubt such a 
 sentiment that provoked Sir WiUiam Harcourt's sarcasm : 
 " Mr. Rhodes is a very reasonable man. He only wants 
 two things. Give him Protection and give him Slavery 
 and he will be perfectly satisfied." He also firmly believed 
 that in their own interests the natives should be treated^ 
 like children. His own countrymen had won the franchise 
 only after centuries of painful education in pohtics : it was 
 absurd that natives, uneducated and barely emerging from 
 a savage state, should have the same privilege. "It is 
 just as if," he said, " the Lord Mayor and his Corporation 
 were to suddenly proceed to Stonehenge and finding the 
 Druids there discuss with them municipal legislation. It 
 would be absurd. And the absurdity of our legislation 
 has been that it is only within the last forty years that we 
 found we could not put natives on the footing of the 
 whites." 
 
 When, therefore, in 1891 Hofmeyr and the Bond urged 
 upon him a measure which would increase the white and 
 reduce the coloured vote, they were merely forcing an open 
 door. But he had to tread warily, for three of his Ministers, 
 Innes, Sauer and Merriman, were against the Bond on this 
 question. However, their scruples were appeased by a 
 vague resolution " to secure due weight in the future for 
 the material and educational interests of the country," 
 and in the following year the Franchise and Ballot Bill was 
 
PRIME MINISTER OF THE CAPE 207 
 
 introduced. The object of Rhodes and the Bond was 
 indirectly attained by raising the occupiers' qualification 
 to £75. by retaining the very low owners' qualification, 
 almost entirely confined to Europeans, and by a more 
 stringent education test. As a sop to the other members 
 of the Ministry a provision for the ballot was introduced. 
 In his opening speech Rhodes reviewed the electoral systems 
 of most European countries and British colonies and pitched 
 upon Jamaica as an example to his Hking. Here, he 
 asserted, the native franchise had led to the revolution of 
 1865, " when stringent measures were used by the governor, 
 who was (as is the usual custom in such cases) recalled and 
 disgraced " : but it had afterwards been aboHshed with 
 excellent results. And he did not conceal his hostility to 
 the ballot clause in his own bill : "I object to the ballot 
 in toto," he said, " because I like to know how a person 
 votes — ^not, I hasten to say, for any ulterior purpose," 
 but, as he explained, because the loafers and I.D.B. men in 
 Kimberley, if not watched by the honest workmen, would 
 vote in favour of " free liquor and robbery." But in spite 
 of its foster-parent's opposition the baUot was carried with 
 the rest of the bill. In the following year the registers 
 showed a decrease of 3348 coloured voters and an increase 
 of 4506 whites, and, as no existing voters were disfranchised, 
 it became increasingly more effective for its objects. 
 
 The settlement of Pondoland was one of the first ques- 
 tions Rhodes was called upon to deal with when he took 
 over the ministry of native affairs. This native state, 
 bounded on the west by Cape Colony and on the north-east 
 by Natal, had long been a source of trouble. Its only port, 
 St. John's, had been annexed by the Cape, but the natives 
 in the interior were given over to the barbarous practices 
 of witchcraft and " smelling out " among themselves and 
 made themselves a nuisance to their neighbours on each 
 side. Rhodes's " unhappy man," Umhlonho, had murdered 
 a border magistrate and his clerks in 1880 and was still a 
 fugitive from justice ; and cattle raids into the Cape 
 territories were common. In 1890 Rhodes had been urged 
 by Upington to stop the civil war provoked by Sigcau, 
 one of their chiefs, and to put an end to the depredations 
 
2o8 CECIL RHODES 
 
 of the Pondos by annexing their country : the Home 
 Government, he said, would readily consent as Rhodes had 
 so many friends on both sides of the House of Commons. 
 But Rhodes was not to be hurried by the Irishman's blarney 
 into taking over the care of 200,000 more natives without 
 fuU consideration. In 1893, however, his hand was forced. 
 Sir Henry Loch was treated with studied insolence by 
 Sigcau during a tour in his territory and the chief's other 
 neighbour, Natal, was showing a disposition to annex the 
 country on her own account. Natal had duly recently 
 acquired a responsible Government and was hardly yet 
 aware of her own Umitations : at any rate Rhodes flared up 
 at such presumption and determined to castigate it. On 
 his return from the Matabele War he went for his " scamper 
 through the Transkei," travelling in great state with eight 
 cream-coloured horses and making a great impression on 
 the population. The son of a Transkei magistrate, then a 
 boy of five, stiU remembers the awe with which he beheld 
 the big, broad man, who said to him : " My boy, I'll send 
 you to Oxford," and the effort it cost him to retort " No, 
 you won't." At Kokstad on the borders of Pondoland he 
 was welcomed by the local magnates, but got rid of them 
 and went off to lie on the hillside by himself, muttering, 
 as he beheld the beauty of the place, " Oh how I wish they 
 would let me alone — let me stay here." But he had to 
 come down to the banquet at night, where he sat listless 
 and bored till a local orator began to attack the Cape 
 Government and expressed a wish for Natal to annex the 
 country. At that he woke up to some purpose and 
 launched out into a violent tirade against Natal, speaking 
 of its parliament as a parochial assembly and sneering at 
 its wretched financial state and its tiny white population. 
 This savage attack on gallant little Natal illustrates 
 Rhodes's inabiUty sometimes to see beyond his immediate 
 object. He defended it in the Cape House on the plea that 
 it was necessary to make their neighbours reaUze the 
 position. But he might have attained this object by less 
 provocative language. It did him harm, for though the 
 Natal people might have stood the reproof from Rhodes, 
 they were maddened when Sprigg followed it up by a 
 
PRIME MINISTER OF THE CAPE 209 
 
 truculent reminder, " We are the big bear and you are the 
 little bear " ; and it antagonized Escombe, Natal's best 
 statesman, from whom Rhodes was then hoping for support 
 in proposals of union. 
 
 From Kokstad, though warned of the risk, he went into 
 Pondoland. He announced to some minor chiefs that 
 their country was to be annexed, then summoned Sigcau 
 to attend him and kept him waiting three days, the exact 
 period the chief had kept Sir Henry Loch waiting, before 
 granting him an interview. He told him plainly that he 
 and his Pondos were unfit to govern themselves, and then 
 took him for a walk towards a meaMe field, on which some 
 machine-guns had been trained ; at a given signal the 
 guns opened fire and laid low the meaUe crop ; " and that 
 is what win happen to you and your tribe," grimly remarked 
 Rhodes, " if you give us any further trouble." But he 
 took no risks and ensured the ready submission of the 
 Pondos by a suf&cient display of force.' Never, said one 
 of the magistrates appointed to take over the country, had 
 he met so satisfactory a Minister : there was no red tape, 
 and he had only to speak or write a word to Rhodes to 
 get every reasonable request complied with at once. And 
 though stem he was fair to the natives, and saved them 
 from the depredations of concession hunters by refusing 
 to recognize any grants previously made that did not 
 appear just and equitable. 
 
 With further experience of native problems and increased 
 opportunities for " following out one train of thought," Rhodes 
 gradually shed his juvenile ideas of " oriental despotism " 
 and saw that a more constructive poUcy was needed than 
 a mere restriction of the franchise. He came to the con- 
 clusion that the privileges and higher civilization of the 
 Europeans imposed upon them responsibilities to the 
 natives, " those children, just emerging from barbarism," 
 and an obligation to help them to a better use of their 
 " human minds." " If you are reaUy one who loves the 
 natives," he said at Queenstown, " you must make them 
 worthy of the country they hve in, or else they are certain, 
 by an inexorable law, to lose their country. You will 
 certainly not make them worthy ... if you allow them 
 
 p 
 
2IO CECIL RHODES 
 
 to sit in idleness and if you do not train them in the arts 
 of civilization." Not that he beheved in th,e Board school 
 form of education too often given by well-meaning mission- 
 aries, which at best produced natives fit only to be Kaffir 
 parsons or newspaper editors, both objects of his intense 
 dislike, instead of helping them to use their capacities 
 to the best advantage ; but he heartily approved of the 
 training in manual crafts provided at Lovedale, as an 
 incentive to work instead of loafing. Speaking of the 
 native loafer, he described his life as " very similar to that 
 of the yoimg man about town, who lovmges about the 
 club during the day and dresses himself for a tea-party in 
 the afternoon, and in the evening drinks too much, and 
 probably finishes up with immorality. . . . They are a 
 nuisance to every district in the Transkei, to every magis- 
 trate in the Transkei, and to every location. We want to 
 get hold of these young men and make them go out to 
 work." To do him justice, Rhodes would have been quite 
 as ready to force the English loafer and young man about 
 town to work as the native loafer ; and it was an absurd 
 travesty of the truth for an English paper to describe him 
 as " an EngUsh-speaking Dutch Boer, thirsting for slavery," 
 because he wanted to encourage work among the natives. 
 The natives then must be taught to work, but on lines of 
 their own ; and these lines were best found when they 
 were not contaminated by too close contact with Euro- 
 peans, but segregated in districts of their own. The 
 natives in their undeveloped stage were readier to imitate 
 the vices of Europeans than their virtues, and were especially 
 subject to temptation from the Uquor bars and canteens 
 that Europeans always brought with them. But in native 
 reserves it was possible to exclude the drink traffic altogether, 
 as Khama, the enUghtened chief of the Bamangwato, had 
 done. For these reasons Rhodes decided to keep the natives 
 as much apart from the whites as possible? But in thm 
 reserves they were to have every inducement to improve 
 themselves. He had a great belief in the virtues of landed 
 property as an aid to self-respect, so he set himself to 
 introduce it gradually as a substitute for the communal 
 tenure, which left the villagers too much at the mercy of 
 
PRIME MINISTER OF THE CAPE 211 
 
 their head-man and gave them little incentive to industry ; 
 and also in the educative value of self-government in local 
 matters suited to their apprehension. " The natives know 
 nothing of the politics of the country," he declared ; " they 
 have told me time after time that they do not understand 
 these poUtics. ' Leave us alone, but let us try and deal 
 with some of our httle local questions.' That is the 
 common statement they have made to me." So in their 
 reserves the natives were not to have the colonial franchise, 
 but as a set ofE were to elect representatives with a power 
 of taxation for the purposes of education, road and bridge- 
 making, plantations and other needs of the district. This 
 policy, to which he had come after he had been Prime 
 Minister four years, was a great advance on his previous 
 utterances. But even here the development of his ideas 
 did not cease. Within a few years he was proclaiming 
 " equal rights for all civilized men, irrespective of races, 
 south of the Zambesi," his final creed, when he had purged 
 himself of all colour-prejudice and attached importance 
 only to capacity and intrinsic worth. 
 
 These four principles, then : work, segregation in native -;, 
 reserves, individual property and local self-government, < 
 were embodied in the famous Glen Grey BiU, presented to f 
 the Cape Parliament late in the session of 1894. It was 
 so called from the district near Queenstown, to which 
 its provisions were in the first instance to be tentatively 
 applied. " As a gentle stimulus to these people to make 
 them go on working," a labour tax of los. was imposed 
 on all male natives not in possession of landed property, 
 who had not worked outside the district during the year ; 
 no Europeans were allowed to settle in the district ; village 
 management boards were to assign plots of eight or nine 
 icres apiece to individual owners ; and besides these village 
 boards, district councils and a general native council of 
 the Transkei were to manage local affairs and levy rates 
 n their respective spheres. Rhodes introduced the Bill 
 n a discursive speech, more illustrative of the workings of 
 lis own mind than of the details of the Bill, and then 
 irbitrarily rushed it through the House with hardly any 
 ime for serious discussion. Immediately the second reading 
 
212 CECIL RHODES 
 
 was carried the committee stage was begun ; and after 
 a debate of three and a half hours on one clause he said, 
 " I have made up my mind for a night of it," and insisted 
 on sitting till the Bill was through committee next morning. 
 No essential injustice was done, for he had previously 
 secured the assent of Hofme}^: and his followers to the 
 BiU, and the chief advocates of native rights, Merriman, 
 Sauer and Innes found no great objection to its principle ; 
 while the second and third readings were carried by over- 
 whelming majorities. 
 
 The only provision which aroused much criticism from 
 the advocates of the natives was the labour tax of los. 
 It was resented as a badge of servitude, and was noted as 
 singularly convenient to the interests of the Cape farmer 
 or the mine manager, always at their wits' end to obtain 
 enough native labour. Rhodes replied to his critics on this 
 point with a humorous rejoinder to Sir WiUiam Harcourt's 
 sarcasm about his fondness for slavery : "I was much 
 more of a slave," he declared, " than any of those natives 
 could easily be . . . for nine mortal years of my life ; and 
 it was compulsory slavery too. . . . Six years at school I 
 had to work five hours during the day and prepare 
 work for the next day for three hours in the evening, while 
 at college I was compounded in the evenings and not allowed 
 out after g o'clock." This pathetic picture of Rhodes, a 
 slave at Oxford, was unkindly marred by Innes's quick 
 interjection : ""And you never went out, I suppose ? " and 
 was hardly a serious argument.' The gravamen of the 
 charge against the clause was not that it acted as an 
 inducement to labour, but that it compelled the natives 
 to work for white men, whereas the " poor whites," equally 
 in need of a stimulus, were under no such compulsion. 
 In practice the clause, which was objected to as much by 
 Europeans most anxious to raise the natives' standard of , 
 work as by the natives themselves, very soon became_a 
 dead letter, and eleven years later was formally repealed^ 
 But the other, more important, provisions of the Bill were 
 an unquaUfied success. New reserves were within a very 
 short time added to the Glen Grey district for the purposes 
 of native land tenure and local government ; and the Act 
 
PRIME MINISTER OF THE CAPE 213 
 
 was twice amended and amplified. The natives entered 
 into the spirit of ownership and took up plots eagerly : 
 only three years after the passing of the Act 7088 of these 
 plots had been surveyed and 6576 taken up, and ;^i5,ooo 
 had been collected from natives in survey fees. Even 
 without the stimulus of the labour tax the young men's 
 inclination to work increased with the removal of tempta- 
 tions to liquor and improved educational facilities, and with 
 their greater appreciation of necessities and luxuries to be 
 obtained only by the earnings of labour. The native 
 councils worked well. Thirteen years later the Transkei 
 General Council was raising rates to the tune of £46,750, 
 more than half of which was devoted to education and 
 £12,700 to road improvement. The Superintendent- 
 General for Education reported that " in those districts 
 where the Glen Grey Act has been proclaimed, better 
 teachers are got, schools are in better condition generally, 
 and the people take a good deal more interest in educa- 
 tion " ; and a Select Committee of the Cape House stated 
 in 1903 that " the operations of the Act have been, as they 
 were intended to be, most beneficial to the natives 
 concerned. Individual tenure and local self-government 
 have done much, and will in the future do more, to lead 
 the aboriginal natives in the path of improvement." 
 
 In a speech delivered at Queenstown soon after the 
 passage of the Glen Grey Act Rhodes reviewed, with some 
 natural pride, the achievements of his two Ministries. 
 The settlement of the franchise question, long an apple of 
 discord in Cape politics, the Scab Act, the completion of 
 railway connections in the colony and the extension of 
 the trunk system to the Transvaal border, the annexation 
 of Pondoland and the Glen Grey Act : these were the 
 measures for which he took chief credit. It was due to 
 luck, no doubt, that the annexation passed off so well, 
 but, as he said, recalling the story of the man who always 
 backed Fred Archer, "It is good to have a Minister with 
 luck." But the Glen Grey Act was his favourite child. 
 
214 CECIL RHODES 
 
 " We are prepared to stand or fall by it : it is worth fighting 
 and worth falling by," and he added, " if the Glen Grey 
 policy is a success, we shall see neighbouring states adopting 
 it. ... I hope we shall have one native poUcy in South 
 Africa." Here was the secret of his affection for it, for 
 during four patient years he had done aU he could, except 
 when he lost his temper at Kokstad, to improve relations 
 with the neighbouring states and colonies, with the one 
 cherished object of bringing them into closer federation for 
 common purposes. With this note of union he concluded 
 his speech : "I have a greater and bigger idea — and that 
 is by steady work, which I take delight in, by keeping an 
 object in view and at the same time not hurting the 
 independence of neighbouring republics — to work with one 
 broad and big idea, and that is the union of South Africa." 
 
NOTE TO CHAPTER XIII 
 
 [See above, p. 187] 
 
 Correspondence between Sir Henry de Villiers and Rhodes 
 on the formation of the Ministry in 1893. 
 
 Cape Town, 
 
 Sth May 1893. 
 
 My dear Rhodes — I am somewhat puzzled by your note of 
 yesterday's date saying that you had found my condition impossible 
 to carry out — for the only condition mentioned in our interviews 
 was that you undertook to be unofficial member of any Ministry 
 I should form. Let me very briefly recall the occurrences of the 
 past week while they are fresh in our memories. On Friday morn- 
 ing you called on me at Sauer's request to consult me about some 
 matter of professional etiquette which had arisen in his unfortunate 
 dispute with Sivewright. After I had given my view we discussed 
 the pohtical situation and incidentally I let fall the remark that, 
 after twenty years' service as Chief Justice, I had a strong inclination 
 to re-enter political Ufa in view of the important questions that may 
 crop up in the near future. After a few moments' consideration 
 you said that the best solution of the crisis would be that I should 
 form a Ministry, you undertaking to be an unofficial member. 
 You pointed out how undesirable it was that the Premier should 
 be so frequently absent as you would be bound to be. This took 
 me by surprise, but you asked me seriously to consider the matter 
 and meet you again. That evening you called at my residence 
 and we discussed the probable names of the Ministry I should form. 
 On Saturday evening you again called, and we agreed upon the 
 names of Sprigg, Schreiner and Faure in addition to yours and 
 mine. Coming to Sauer's name we agreed that if he should not 
 take office Laing would be suitable. The doubt in regard to Sauer 
 arose from the fact that he had been a party to the dispute which 
 was wrecking the Ministry. You offered to call again on the 
 Simday morning before riding to town to see Hofmeyr, but I said 
 that I would meet you at your residence and ride with you 
 some distance. When we met I handed you a letter agreeing to 
 the Ministry as previously arranged except that Sprigg's name was 
 doubtful instead of Sauer's. We both thought that one might not 
 
 215 
 
2i5 CECIL RHODES 
 
 wish to sit with the other. I told you that I had worked with 
 Sprigg in the struggle for Responsible Government and believed that 
 I could again work with him, my only objection being that he had 
 once landed us in the Basutoland War. As to Sauer I was in the 
 diflaculty that you had asked me not to divulge to him what had 
 occurred, and I felt that it might savour of treachery if I took 
 advantage of the interview suggested by him by taking ofl&ce. In 
 the course of our ride we had a long and, as I thought, satisfactory 
 conversation about the poUtical situation. I told you that my sole 
 aim was to advance the good of the country and that my political 
 sympathies were with Hofmejnr, whose object I thought to be to 
 give his countiymen that voice in the government of the country 
 which Responsible Government was intended to give. If I could 
 have seen Sauer that day the whole matter would have been settled, 
 but I was bound by my promise to you. The same evening (Sunday) 
 you called again and shewed me a memo containing the objections 
 against Sauer being included. Some of these objections I could 
 not agree with — but I fully realised the force of most of them. I 
 agreed that if I were to form a Ministry at all it would have to be 
 without Sauer. I therefore said that my decision was not to 
 undertake the task. You seemed disappointed and asked me not 
 to give a final decision until the following day (Monday). I said 
 as things stood it seemed impossible for me to carry out the plan, 
 but on leaving, you said you would not take my decision as final 
 unless I adhered to it on Monday, when you would meet me at the 
 Legislative Council at 1.30. To this I consented. After you left 
 I gave the whole matter the fullest consideration and decided that 
 it would be impossible under the circumstances to include Sauer 
 and that I would aisk your consent to explain the position to him, 
 feeling sure that he would fully appreciate it. I prepared my address 
 to the electors and made every other preparation for the change. 
 On Monday morning I thought of seeing you before going to town, 
 but could not do so owing to the rain, but I sent a note to you 
 asking you to request Hofmeyr (whom you were going to see) to 
 meet me at the interview. My object was to explain to him 
 personally the general lines of policy which I thought desirable. 
 Immediately on my arrival in town I sent for Mr. Schreiner, as I 
 felt it a necessity to consult some one on the situation, for I had 
 stood perfectly alone up to that time. As he was not engaged in 
 politics and I had perfect confidence in his discretion, I thought 
 him the most suitable person to consult. I had only a few minutes 
 to spare before the sitting of the Gaurt and informed him of the 
 whole situation. I had to be very guarded with him as I could 
 not make a definite ofier until 1.30, but I put it to him hypothetically 
 whether, in case I should form a Ministry, he would take of&ce under 
 me as Attorney-General, and he said he would. He was perfectly 
 candid with me and said that he could not have taken the office 
 if it involved opposition to Sir Gordon Sprigg, with whom he had 
 been in confidential relations. He gave me other information 
 
NOTE TO CHAPTER XIII 
 
 217 
 
 which satisfied me that I was doing the right thing in deciding to 
 take ofi&ce. While in Court that morning, I received a note from 
 you saying that as Hofmeyr had gone to Somerset West for the day 
 you could not see him and that you thought it best to see me after 
 seeing him. Monday and Tuesday passed without my hearing 
 more from you. On Tuesday evening Sauer called and, strangely 
 enough, gave me a vague message from you that Hofmeyr had not 
 returned and that you would see me later on. He told me that 
 the Ministry had resigned but that he knew nothing more. As 
 your message confirmed me in the view that you and I were still 
 to meet for my final decision, I took the opportunity of asking 
 Sauer what his position would be tf I formed a Ministry excluding 
 him. He said he well knew that I could not be guilty of treachery 
 against him and that any Ministry I might form, even if it included 
 Sprigg, would have his support. My mind was relieved and I felt 
 that at our postponed interview a final arrangement could be arrived 
 at. On the following morning (Wednesday), I saw in the papers 
 that you were fonnLng a Ministry, and when in Court that day 
 I received the note to which I referred at the outset of this letter. 
 On the following day I saw it announced that the same Ministry 
 had been formed which we had provisionally agreed upon, except 
 that the name of Frost was substituted for mine. I do not know 
 nor am I entitled to know what induced you to change your mind 
 on the Monday or Tuesday, but I regret that even if you thought 
 there was some condition in the matter you did not allow me to 
 meet you at the appointed time to give you my final decision as 
 agreed. I was kept in suspense from Monday morning to Wednesday 
 morning waiting for the interview which never came off. I do not 
 write all this by way of reproach but merely to explain to you my 
 own position. In the nature of things I could not take advice 
 from any one, and my "fear was that I might be acting unworthily 
 towards Sauer at whose request you first interviewed me. On 
 Monday morning I had a clear course of action before me, and if 
 we had met at the appointed time (Hofmeyr's presence being of 
 course not essential) everything would have been arranged, provided 
 of course you had not changed your mind. The task you proposed 
 to me was not sought for, and it was only a sense of duty which 
 induced me to consent to undertake it in case His Excellency the 
 Governor should have asked me to do so.- — Believe me, yours 
 sincerely, J. H. de Villiers. 
 
 Friday. 
 
 My dear Chief Justice — I have carefully read your letter. 
 I left you on Monday with the belief that as far as you were con- 
 cerned you would not form without one of the old Ministers possessed 
 of Administrative training, and the one you desired was Sauer. I 
 said I would come again on Monday as I was desirous to see Hofmeyr 
 and consider if such a course was possible. I found on Monday 
 
2i8 CECIL RHODES 
 
 morning that Hofmeyr was away. I had also had full time to 
 consider the question, and I had personally come to the conclusion 
 that it would be impossible for me to be a Minister of a new 
 Ministry if one of the old Ministers between whom differences had 
 occurred became a member of the new Ministry, but I thought I 
 would see Hofmeyr and ask his advice on his return. He fully 
 agreed with me, and I felt therefore in view of your decision on 
 Sunday evening it was hopeless to ask you to reconsider your decision, 
 in fact your answer had been so emphatic I did not expect you to 
 do so. I had asked to see you again in order to consider very 
 carefully whether your condition was possible in any way to carry 
 out. — Yours truly, C. J. Rhodes. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 GROOTE SCHUUR AND THE BURLINGTON 
 
 After he left the Hertfordshire vicarage at the age of 
 seventeen, Rhodes never knew what it was to have a real 
 home of his own or, except perhaps when he rode alone on 
 the veld with the bush-boy by his side, to enjoy true privacy. 
 Dwelling-places he had many, but each of them, to his mind. 
 
 Was but a Tent where takes his one day's rest 
 A SultAn to the reahn of Death addrest. 
 
 Until he took office as Prime Minister he had never troubled 
 himself about his personal comforts or the kind of house he 
 dwelt in. At Kimberley he shared rooms with a friend or 
 two, at Cape Town during the session he was content with 
 a noisy lodging in Adderley Street, and took his meals at 
 the club or an hotel ; his tastes were simple, and he had no 
 time or incUnation for such an establishment as his wealth 
 could command. But when he became Prime Minister he 
 felt it incumbent on him to live in a style more befitting 
 the dignity of his position as head of the dominant state in 
 South Africa. He soon found a house tb his purpose. 
 
 At Rondebosch, on the outskirts of Cape Town, the 
 Dutch East India Company had three barns or store-houses, 
 De Groote, De Kleine and De Oude Schuur, in a hollow at 
 the foot of the Mountain ; here they stored their tithes and 
 the grain, wood, skins, wine and other necessaries for the 
 Cape community and for revictuaUing East Indiamen that 
 called at Table Bay on the voyage to or from Batavia. 
 These store-houses had houses attached to them for the 
 accommodation of the official store-keepers, persons of some 
 importance in the Government, the chief of them being the 
 
 219 
 
220 CECIL RHODES 
 
 Opper-baas van de Schuur, who lived at Groote Schuur : ^ 
 the last Opper-baas to live there was an ancestor of Jan 
 HofmejT, who lies buried in the grounds. In the middle of 
 the eighteenth century the Company sold the houses and 
 grounds to private owners. The Groote Schuur house passed 
 through several hands, suffering some disfiguring alterations 
 in the process, and in recent years had been occasionally 
 let to English governors as a summer residence. In 1891 it 
 was in the possession of Mrs. van der Byl, who had re- 
 named it The Grange. In that year Rhodes leased it, and 
 two years later bought the freehold. He also acquired by 
 degrees some 1500 acres of the neighbouring mountain and 
 valley land ; all, including the house and a small block of 
 buildings in Cape Town, at a cost of over ;^6o,ooo. On 
 becoming its owner Rhodes restored to the house its old 
 Dutch name of Groote Schuur, and also set about remodelling 
 it on the lines of an old water-colour drawing he bought, 
 which showed its appearance before the disfiguring 
 alterations. 
 
 By good fortune, at a luncheon party in 1892, he chanced 
 to meet Mr. Herbert Baker, a young architect who had 
 recently come on a visit to South Africa. Baker had been 
 wandering about the Cape Peninsula, rediscovering with 
 joy the then nearly neglected beauty of the old Dutch 
 farm-houses. Simple, solid, cool and spacious, they seemed 
 almost fashioned by nature to tone in with the sunlight 
 and clear air of the country, and were in striking contrast 
 with the hideous and incongruous buildings of more modem 
 days. Since the end of the Dutch Company's rule the art 
 of good building had been fast disappearing from South 
 Africa owing to the growing craze for cheapness and easy 
 work. In place of the beautiful old thatched or tiled roofs, 
 sheets of corrugated iron disfigured the landscape ; instead 
 of the local craftsmen's well-wrought metal fittings and care- 
 fully moulded doors and window-frames in the seventeenth- 
 and eighteenth -century houses, cheap ready-made sub- 
 stitutes, turned out by the gross in European factories, 
 
 ' Some account of the duties of the Opper-baas is given in Life at the 
 Cape in Mid-Eighteenth Century, by O. F. Mentzel. Translated for the 
 Van Riebeeck Society (Cape Town, igig). > 
 
GROOTE SCHUUR AND THE BURLINGTON 221 
 
 were imported. The fine hard native woods formerly 
 fashioned into rafters or into the simple and beautiful 
 furniture of the farmsteads were neglected for the shoddy 
 chairs, tables and planks brought over in ship-loads. Houses 
 were built and furnished hastily and without any regard to 
 style or the needs of the climate. This decay in the building 
 and furnishing arts was only a symptom of the attitude, 
 deplored by Rhodes, of too many of the English colonists. 
 The Dutch loved the country and intended to live and die 
 there, and ordered their Uves accordingly ; many of the 
 English came simply to seek their fortunes at the mines or 
 as traders at the ports, and never looked on the country as 
 a permanent home. Jerry-built houses, good to last their 
 time in the country, did well enough for them ; and unfor- 
 tunately the fashion spread to the Dutch also. Baker felt 
 aU this and had a mind to see if the old art could be revived; 
 but he was young and untried. Rhodes saw that his ideas were 
 good, and decided to give him a trial. Bidding him come 
 round and hear his "thoughts," he told him briefly to restore 
 the front of Groote Schuur according to its original plan, 
 and then left him to his own devices. The pitch of the roof 
 had been altered by a former owner, and to avoid the danger 
 of fire the thatch replaced by slates ; by the time Rhodes 
 came back from the Matabele War, Baker had entirely 
 restored the front with its original gables and high-pitched 
 roof of thatch. Rhodes said httle, but told Baker to go on 
 rebuilding the rest of the house in the old style. 
 
 Soon he began to take a deep interest in the work himself. 
 " I want the big and simple, barbaric if you like," he would 
 say. He had all the deal planks in the structure replaced 
 by beams and ceiHngs of solid teak, and the rooms either 
 panelled in teak or simply whitewashed. In the bath- 
 room he had a great mottled-marble bath such as the Romans 
 used ; and the only modern note he allowed on the front of 
 the house was a bronze plaque, by the sculptor Tweed, let 
 in above the doorway, and representing Van Riebeeck's 
 landing in 1652. The furnishing was of a piece. He was 
 once shown a plain Dutch wardrobe of black South African 
 wood, and was so taken with it that he allowed Baker to 
 furnish the house throughout in the same style, either with 
 
222 . CECIL RHODES 
 
 old pieces discovered in Dutch farm-houses or with chairs 
 and tables made of native timber by specially trained local 
 craftsmen. He even went about making purchases for 
 himself, and though at first he made some mistakes, never 
 having thought much of such things in his busy hfe, he soon 
 developed a very clear idea of his own taste, and, unlike 
 many mUhonaires with a craving to form art collections, 
 would never abdicate his own judgement. One unfortunate 
 expert from Bond Street was brought out to help in finding 
 old Dutch furniture, but he took too much upon himself 
 and was soon bundled home. He refused to form a picture 
 gallery : good pictures, he said, were too expensive for him 
 when there were so many miles of railway to be built in 
 i Rhodesia, and there was only one, a fine example of the 
 English school, in the dining-room at Groote Schuur. Nor 
 did he care for small niggling objects, however valuable and 
 beautiful. In his clean, bare, well-proportioned rooms he 
 had a few pieces of soHd furniture, some good specimens of 
 old Dutch glass. Delft or Oriental china brought to the 
 country in the Company's days, and one or two reUcs of the 
 ancient arts of South Africa, the chief favourite being a very 
 wise-looking stone bird, found in the Zimbabwe ruins.^ 
 
 One of the principal rooms in the house was the hbrary. 
 Here again were signs of his individuaUty. His books were 
 not a mere millionaire's collection of standard works, 
 sumptuously bound, or rare editions collected without plan 
 or personal taste, but the gleanings of his own eccentric 
 choice. Though not a great reader — ^he led a too active life 
 for that — he occasionally had great bouts of reading, especi- 
 ally on board ship. Then he read books Ukely to help him 
 in his own schemes, mining regulations of all countries, as 
 we have seen,* when he was immersed in his diamond mines ; 
 treatises on federal schemes in Canada and Australia, as 
 Lord Grey once suggested to him, when he was revolving 
 plans for South African union. One of his constant com- 
 panions was a well-scored Marcus Aurehus, and he knew 
 
 1 For the account of Rhodes's building at Groote Schuur and else- 
 where and his artistic views, I am deeply indebted to notes kindly- 
 supplied me by Mr. Herbert Baker. 
 
 ^ See Chap. IX. p. 97. 
 
GROOTE SCHUUR AND THE BURLINGTON 223 
 
 his Bible well. Books of travel or descriptions of national 
 customs and institutions always had a fascination for him, 
 and generally brought grist to his mill : he once met Sir D. 
 Mackenzie Wallace and told him that he had been reading 
 his book on Russia with great pleasure, and derived from it 
 some of the ideas of land tenure that he incorporated in his 
 Glen Grey Act. He made a special hobby of everything ! 
 known relating to the exploration and history of Africa, 
 and eagerly sought out for his library old maps of the con- 
 tinent, accounts of the early discoverers and investigations 
 into the tribal institutions of the natives. In 1892 he sent 
 Mr. Wihnot, a member of the Cape legislature weU known 
 for his interest in African antiquities, to secure copies of 
 dociunents in the Public Record Office and in the Vatican 
 Library, and to buy for the library at Groote Schuur manu- 
 scripts and rare books about the early history of South 
 Africa. Another feature of his hbrary is the collection of 
 t5T)e-written translations of Greek and Latin authors. This 
 collection arose in this wise. One of his favourite authors 
 was Gibbon : he loved him for the majesty of his conception, 
 for his language, and stiU more for the connection he traced 
 between Gibbon's account of the grandeur of Imperial Rome 
 and his own idea of Great Britain's Imperial mission. Talk- 
 ing of Gibbon during a country-house visit in England, he 
 expressed regret that his knowledge of Latin and Greek did 
 not enable him to read all the authorities quoted in the 
 Decline and Fall, and that there were no good translations 
 available. On his host's advice he went to see if Mr. 
 Humphreys of Hatchard's could help him to get the trans- 
 lations he needed, found he would undertake it, and left 
 him a cheque on account with instructions to procure 
 literal and complete translations of aU Gibbon's authorities. 
 Scholars were engaged to translate, tsrpists to copy, and 
 clerks to index the required versions, which in due time 
 began to flow in to Groote Schuur. Rhodes perhaps hardly 
 realized what he had let himself in for : with Suetonius and 
 Tacitus and such like he was well pleased, but when it came 
 to the apparently endless series of the complete works of the 
 Fathers of the Church, from whom Gibbon quarried, he had 
 to cry halt, and issued an order that the Fathers must cease. 
 
224 CECIL RHODES 
 
 Such as it is, the collection cost him some £8000, and is a 
 freak hardly worthy of Rhodes ; the money would have 
 been much better spent in pubhshing for the benefit of the 
 world some of the excellent versions of interesting works 
 not hitherto rendered into English. But it is unfair, as 
 some do, to judge the whole library from this piece of 
 extravagance ; for it was composed, as a Hbrary should 
 be, of books that reflected the owner's tastes in history, 
 travel and adventure, social questions and novels, not always 
 the best, but those he fancied himself ; and it was the room 
 that he used most for his work and his play, and where his 
 guests could come and browse to their liking. 
 
 In December 1896, when Rhodes had many other calami- 
 ties to afflict him, the house, as restored by Baker, was burnt 
 to the ground. Happily most of the books were saved and 
 a few of the treasures, but most of the furniture perished 
 and nearly all his private papers.^ Baker was at once 
 instructed to rebuild the house in the same style, which he 
 faithfully did, only once more abolishing the thatch roof, 
 owing to its inflammabihty, and substituting for it not 
 slates, but beautiful tiles made in South Africa. Such as 
 the house was then built and furnished for Rhodes's use, it 
 now remains unaltered as the official residence of the Prime 
 Minister of the Union. 
 
 Rhodes gave no less care to the grounds than to the 
 house itself. He carefully preserved aU their old beauties 
 and associations and added new ones in keeping with the 
 Mountain, the dominant feature from the back-stoep. He 
 treasured a great avenue of trees as an approach from the 
 road and the beautiful clumps of stone pines which give the 
 foreground of the Mountain the look of a Turner landscape. 
 The glen Wolvegat in the further distance, which still had 
 its wolf-trap till the middle of the century, had recently 
 been stripped of its splendid oak trees, but Rhodes saw that 
 its wild growth of vines, maiden-hair, pelargonia and arum 
 hUes was left undistmrbed. He loved hydrangeas, so he 
 
 ^ For this reason the Rhodes Trustees unfortunately possess very few 
 personal papers dating further back than 1896. There is a small bundle 
 of half-charred papers of an earlier date labelled " Fire Papers," but it 
 contains little of much importance. 
 
GROOTE SCHUUR AND THE BURLINGTON 225 
 
 completely filled a hollow within sight of the stoep with 
 great masses of hydrangeas that in their season blaze with 
 a riot of blue, purple and hlac. He was fond of birds and 
 beasts, and tried to acclimatize rooks and singing birds from 
 England; without success, however. He had better luck 
 with African fauna. He made a huge enclosure in his park, 
 in which buck, zebras, ostriches and other wild animals 
 were allowed to roam as they pleased. He also kept some 
 lions in a cage, meaning some day to build a lordly edifice 
 with portico and marble courts to fit the dignity of the 
 king of beasts : this he never accomplished, but he and the 
 poet Kipling got much enjoyment from the Hon-cub, Sullivan, 
 until he became too stout to be a safe plaything for children 
 or to be able to escape through the bars of the elder lions' 
 house. But before all he thought of the view of his beloved 
 Mountain, He bought up the interests of water companies 
 in order to be able to remove their hideous reservoir from 
 the summit of its ridge. He cut down trees here, planted 
 new and rare ones there, always with a view to big effects 
 and to enhance the majesty of its aspect ; for in planning 
 grounds he had what Chatham called " the prophetic eye 
 of taste." He made roads and paths to give access to the 
 finest views on the Mountain, and would sit by the hour 
 on the stoep watching the mists roll over it or the changing 
 light playing upon its peaks and kloofs. But his favourite 
 spot for musing by himself or with a chosen friend was on 
 a buttressed ledge, whence he could see both the Atlantic 
 and the Indian Ocean. Here now stands Watts's Physical 
 Energy, with the stately hon portico that commemorates 
 the vigilant watcher. 
 
 His groimds were thus made beautiful, not for a morose 
 and solitary pleasure, but that all his fellow-citizens might 
 have enjoyment. Always open to the public, they were 
 crowded on Saturday afternoons and Sundays by holiday- 
 makers, who came from Cape Town to picnic and wander 
 about. There were no rules or warnings against trespassers, 
 and even when a party strayed on to the stoep where he 
 was sitting, the only request he made of them was not to 
 light a fire there. He refused to close the grounds when the 
 depredations in the flower-beds became too flagrant, and 
 
 Q 
 
226 CECIL RHODES 
 
 when they were shut by a cautious overseer on a scare of 
 rinderpest, he ordered them to be reopened immediately. 
 He always treated his property on the slopes of the Mountaijl- 
 not as a personal possession, but as a pubUc trust. "I 
 love," as he said, speaking of the road he had made through 
 his grounds and continued right round the Mountain, "I 
 love to think that human beings will walk that road long 
 after I am gone." 
 
 His house, too, though he could not make it quite so 
 pubhc as his groimds, he looked on less as a personal home 
 than as a fitting frame for the hospitality he dispensed 
 with regal lavishnesS. Toward the end of his Hfe, when he 
 was aiUng and obsessed with the idea that his money would 
 not go far enough for all his pubhc objects, he was inclined 
 to worry over the expenditure on Groote Schuur, which, 
 without food, came to over £400 a month for upkeep and 
 wages alone ; but such considerations troubled him httle 
 before the Raid. He was stiU content for himself with a 
 shanty at Kimberley or a tent on the Rhodesian plains to 
 hve in ; but at all times he enjoyed a good table and good 
 wines, which he needed to support his large frame and vast 
 energy. He never ate or drank to excess and could, if 
 necessary, put up with privations as well as any man ; 
 but, whenever it was possible, whether on the veld or in 
 town, he was particular that the fare should be abundant 
 and good, both for himself and for his guests. At Groote 
 Schuur he kept almost open house. His colleagues in 
 Parhament would often drop in for lunch and a talk, 
 especially tried allies hke Hofmeyr, Fuller, who wrote 
 some charming reminiscences of him, and, during his first 
 Ministry, Sauer and Merriman ; old Kimberley and Johan- 
 nesburg friends passing through Cape Town were always 
 sure of a welcome, and so were Dutch farmers come from 
 remote districts to have long slow talks with their friend 
 the Prime Minister. Once a large party of country folk 
 were coming to lunch with him and one of his servants 
 suggested that, as they were persons of httle importance, 
 they need not be given of the best wines. " No," said 
 Rhodes ; " be sure you give them that special hock : they 
 will hke it." One old farmer, Coetzee, come with a deputa- 
 
GROOTE SCHUUR AND THE BURLINGTON 227 
 
 tion to protest against the Scab Act, was so taken with 
 his host's welcome that he picked up a stone as a memento 
 of his day at Groote Schuur. " Throw it away," says 
 Rhodes, " and take this instead," presenting him with a 
 beautiful old snufiE-box : and some years afterwards old 
 Coetzee sent a message through a friend that " if all 
 Englishmen were like Mr. Rhodes, he would not mind being 
 an Englishman instead of a Dutchman." He even had a 
 tolerance for globe-trotters, and was often glad to give 
 them something new to think about the country by a talk 
 at Groote Schuur : to more serious visitors from the old 
 country he always gave the warmest welcome. Young 
 men bound for Rhodesia were generally asked to the house 
 on their way through Cape Town ; for the Founder always 
 liked to see of what stuff his boys were made and to give 
 special chances to the most promising. For the poet 
 Rudyard Kipling he built a little cottage in the grounds 
 of Groote Schuur, the Woolpack, and for several years in 
 succession persuaded him to come and live there for some 
 months. When a daughter of Bishop Alexander was to 
 marry one of his pioneers, Bowen, he invited the bishop 
 and both daughters to stay with him and had the marriage 
 from his house. 
 
 In the bishop's Life there is a delightful picture of this 
 visit. Rhodes is seen in his most charming moods : gallop- 
 ing in the early morning over the Cape Flats with one of 
 his guests and perhaps Hofmeyr, silent and wrapped in his 
 thoughts for a space, then suddenly moved to unceasing 
 taUc. One morning it was all the Sherlock Holmes game, 
 for he had just been reading the book and was full of it, 
 and he would give the most whimsical accounts, based on 
 a fleeting observation, of every passer-by's past history and 
 recent crimes. At lunch he was eagerly discussing some 
 problem of the moment with Cape politicians or a pioneer 
 from the north, or launching out into a dreamy monologue. 
 The House of Assembly took him off in the afternoon ; then 
 at supper simple talk with the bishop and his daughters on the 
 last book he had been reading, on religion or on some other 
 general topic. He had a way of wandering in and out of 
 the room during a conversation, sometimes disappearing 
 
228 CECIL RHODES 
 
 before he had had the answer to his last question : and he 
 had a childish hking for the most absurd topics and games. 
 " Who is the cleverest man you ever met ? " he once put 
 to the company, his own answer being the Prince of Wales : 
 another time he started a game of capping quotations, at 
 which he proved surprisingly expert, until the bishop 
 discovered him, like a naughty schoolboy, cribbing from 
 a book under the table. Some of his games were of a 
 grimmer nature. Lord Haldane recalls a particularly 
 dreary one he once started in an Enghsh country house. 
 It was a wet afternoon and some lady suggested a drawing- 
 room game to relieve the boredom. Rhodes woke up with 
 a jerk : "A game ? Yes, certainly," and he made the ladies 
 sit round him in a ring, with Lord Haldane armed with a 
 Whitaker in the middle. The game was for Rhodes to ask 
 such questions as " How many regiments are there in the 
 British Army ? " or " How many ships in the Navy ? " 
 and for Lord Haldane to verify the answers of the other 
 players from Whitaker. After an hour or so of this 
 the ladies became restive, and Rhodes dismissed them 
 with a dry, " I think we've learned something from our 
 game." 
 
 At the wedding of Miss Alexander, Rhodes gave away 
 the bride, and was so much moved that he almost broke 
 down. Indeed Miss Alexander's whole accoimt of this visit 
 to Groote Schuur is enough to prove how mistaken are 
 the stories of Rhodes's hatred of women's society. He was 
 exceedingly courteous to women, and was by no means 
 indifferent to the company of those who would talk with 
 him sensibly. One of his favourite guests was the great 
 Dutch lady, Mrs. van der Byl, the former owner of Groote 
 Schuur, to whom he showed great deference, always fetch- 
 ing her and taking her away from his house in his own 
 brougham. Miss Olive Schreiner, before she quar;relled 
 with him, found few people so sympathetic with her work 
 as Rhodes ; and when she began attacking him as a 
 murderer and one who ought to be an outcast from society, 
 he would never speak of her except with respect for her 
 ability. He certainly did utter disparaging and even 
 brutal remarks about the marriages of some of his friends ; 
 
GROOTE SCHUUR AND THE BURLINGTON 229 
 
 but his objection to marriage was only in those cases where 
 he thought the wife would interfere with her husband's 
 work in the world, and where the husband made his wife 
 an excuse for neglecting his duties. Once, after he had 
 addressed at length two packed meetings of Chartered 
 Company shareholders and was worn out, a friend brought 
 up his bride to introduce to him. Rhodes at once took 
 her into a httle private room and spoke to her charmingly, 
 telling her especially how much help a wife could give her 
 husband. When he was as busy as he could be with the 
 Matabele War and negotiations with the High Commissioner, 
 he finds time to send two telegrams to Mrs. Colenbrander 
 telling her that her husband at the front is well and begs 
 her acceptance of one of his horses. He himself indeed 
 once contemplated marriage, but later he came to the 
 conclusion that he could never marry : his reason being 
 that he had so much to do in the world that he could not 
 give a wife as much of his thought and care as she was 
 entitled to get. Possibly, had he met the right woman, 
 he would have changed his mind. It would certainly 
 have been happier for him to have had a good wife : she 
 might have saved him from many mistakes of his later 
 years and cahned the fiery outbursts that did him and his 
 cause no good : and there is no doubt that she would have 
 had a most considerate husband. 
 
 Though he naturally did not agree with his religious 
 views, the bishop came to the conclusion that Rhodes's 
 earnestness of piuTpose and lofty ideals were as good as 
 the religion of many Christians ; and a very different 
 evangelist, General Booth, came to the same conclusion. 
 His church was not a building but the veld or, at Cape Town, 
 the Mountain. " The fact is, if I may take you into my 
 confidence," he told some chapel-goers assembled to see 
 him lay the foundation-stone of their place of worship, " I 
 do not care to go to a particular church even on one day 
 in the year, when I use my own chapel at all other times. 
 I find that up the Mountain one gets thoughts, what you 
 might term religious thoughts, because they are thoughts 
 for the betterment of humanity, and I beheve that is the 
 best description of religion, to work for the betterment of 
 
230 CECIL RHODES 
 
 the human beings who surround us." Prayer, he admitted 
 to General Booth, was "useful, acting as a sort of time- 
 table, bringing before the mind the duties of the day and 
 puUing one up to face the obligations for their discharge," 
 and when Booth suddenly knelt down in a railway carriage 
 and began to offer up prayer for him, he knelt down 
 devoutly also, and was pleased to have Booth's promise 
 that he would continue praying for him. His own brave 
 habit of " loolsing at the comparative " and thinking, in 
 every trial, how much worse off he might have been, stood 
 to him for the consolations of rehgion ; and, however 
 unorthodox he may have been, he was convinced that every 
 man should have some religious creed. He realized, 
 perhaps, with all his courage, his own loss in having no 
 definite religious beUefs ; and Bramwell Booth records the 
 impression of gloom and melancholy his appearance gave 
 him. " Happy ? I happy ? " he exclaimed in answer to 
 Booth's question ; " Good God, no ! " and added, " I would 
 give aU I possess to believe what that old man [the General] 
 believes in the next carriage." So when he was setting up 
 schools in Rhodesia he insisted that half an hour each day 
 should be devoted to the teaching of religion by denomi- 
 national teachers ; " I must say," he wrote to Milton, 
 " that experience teaches us the world prefers religion in 
 its instruction to the young." There was also to be a 
 conscience clause, but those profiting by it, he shrewdly 
 added, must have lessons during that half -hour, lest they 
 should get into the habit of saying, " Thank goodness my 
 good old Dad is an atheist and I get an extra half-hour in 
 the playground." He was very human in his religious ideas 
 as in everything else. 
 
 Having once made a beautiful home of his own, he turned 
 his thoughts to creating beauty elsewhere. He had a 
 Roman's passion for interpreting to the dwellers therein 
 the majesty and beauty of their own country through 
 noble monuments fitting to the natural surroundings. He 
 sent Mr. Herbert Baker on a tour " to see Thebes, Paestum, 
 Athens and the tomb of Lars Porsena," as he curtly 
 expressed it, in order to get ideas for South Africa from some 
 of the greatest monuments in Greece, EgjTpt and Italy. 
 
GROOTE SCHUUR AND THE BURLINGTON 231 
 
 When he discovered the grandeur of the Matoppo Hills, 
 he found in one of the caves the remains of the old Matabele 
 warrior Moselikatze. " He had desired to be buried seated 
 upright on the summits of his kingdom, so that even in 
 death he might look over the limitless expanse below him. 
 . . . What a poet that man was ! " exclaimed Rhodes, 
 recounting the story to Watts. Here he determined should 
 be his own burying place, here the ValhaUa for Rhodesia. 
 He made a beginning with the Wilson memorial, for which 
 the sculptor Tweed made the bronze panels, explaining his 
 intention to a father to whom he was showing the drawings : 
 " Your boy died for his country, and now I want him to 
 teach others to be ready to do the same." All his designs 
 were on spacious lines. Buluwayo he planned as if it were 
 a capital of a great state, and to connect it with Govern- 
 ment House he planted an avenue a mile and a half long ; 
 to Umtah he presented a park, and urged on the 
 administrator the planting of another mile-long avenue 
 of stone pines and flamboyant trees, adding that if the 
 country could not pay for them, he would. At Kimberley, 
 his home for twenty years, he caused a great arcade, of 
 vines and rows upon rows of fruit trees to spring from a 
 thirsty soil, and planned a huge bath or fountain in Penteh- 
 can marble to commemorate the siege. At Cape Town 
 he erected the statue of Van Riebeeck on the quay and 
 scrupulously preserved the few historical landmarks of the 
 Dutch Company's time. He saved from destruction the 
 blockhouses on the Mountain, and tried to rescue the Castle 
 on the seashore from the neglect into which it was falling 
 from the Imperial authorities' use of it as a barracks and 
 of&ce.i He co-operated heartily with Mrs. Koopman, a 
 very influential lady in Bond circles, in her efforts to 
 preserve and make accessible the interesting old archives 
 of the Cape. In a debate on the proposal to build a modem 
 Town Hall on the Parade adjoining the Castle ditch, he and 
 Merriman played up to each other well in support of " the 
 sentimental aspect." " It is true," said Rhodes, " the 
 Parade is wind-swept and unsightly at times, but there are 
 
 ^ He failed to purchase it for the Colony from the Secretary for War 
 owing to the prohibitive price asked. 
 
232 CECIL RHODES 
 
 many old associations with it, and further I would point 
 out that it is the only open space left in the city. Even the 
 Saturday market has been a pleasant custom for two 
 hundred years. . . . Oh, let us," he concluded, " keep up 
 some of those old things. There are not many in the 
 country, and I say it is good for the people to see those old 
 things preserved." One' of the most lasting services Rhodes 
 rendered to the people of South Africa was in helping to 
 stimulate pride in their ancient history, and to restore the 
 elements of beauty and fitness to their pubUc and private 
 architecture. Mr. Herbert Baker was the genius who 
 created so many of the bea,utiful private houses that 
 distinguish Johannesburg and Pretoria, who brought a 
 note of distinction to the commonplace cathedral at Cape 
 Town by the stately chapel he built for it, and gave splen- 
 dour and dignity to the administrative capital of the 
 Union by the Governor-General's house and the magnificent 
 Government buildings on Meintjes Kop : but assuredly he 
 would not have been so readily recognized by South Africa 
 as the great architect he is, had it not been for the early 
 chance given him by Rhodes and the example he was able 
 to set by his work at Groote Schuur, 
 
 The secret of the great influence wielded by Rhodes in 
 South Africa was that he was so transparently and whole- 
 heartedly a South African. He always spoke of the country 
 as his home, and never felt quite happy for long away from 
 it. Unhke so many Enghsh South Africans, he much 
 preferred having to do with Enghshmen or Dutchmen of 
 the country than with new arrivals from England. Thus 
 most of his secretaries. Grimmer, Jourdan, Lange, Milton, 
 were chosen from men with associations in South Africa 
 who intended to spend most of their lives there. Oxford 
 men he hked to see about him and to talk with, and he was 
 always anxious they should settle in the country, but for 
 his personal dealings with the people of the country he 
 preferred those who knew the people. For, as he boasted 
 at a time when he was accused of causing disunion, he had 
 done the contrary in Rhodesia, " by taking up young men 
 from the south and putting them into our administration 
 of affairs, because our country is not one in which 'no 
 
GROOTE SCHUUR AND THE BURLINGTON 233 
 
 Afrikander need apply.' " So it was with his managers and 
 overseers and the other men he employed in his business. 
 Sometimes they were brought from overseas on account of 
 their special knowledge, but they were generally men pre- 
 pared to stay. One of the qualifications, for example, that 
 he urged to Hofmeyr for using the services of Sivewright 
 was that he intended to remain permanently in the country. 
 His great friend Jameson was such another. At a time of 
 life and after an experience which would have inclined most 
 men to Uve comfortably at home, he did as Rhodes, and began 
 his life anew in South Africa. This identification with the 
 country thus accounts for the extraordinary position Rhodes 
 enjoyed as a colonial statesman by the end of 1895. There 
 was some opposition but no organized opinion against him 
 at the Cape from EngUsh or Dutch, for it was recognized that 
 he had brought appeasement and prosperity to the colony 
 such as it had never enjoyed before. Sprigg was his hench- 
 man, Hofmeyr his good friend, and it seemed inconceivable 
 that any one could take his place as Prime Minister. 
 
 His position in the world was only less remarkable. In 
 Germany, France and Italy he was not yet personally known, 
 but had become an object of awe and mystery : in Portugal 
 he was the homen horribel : in Constantinople he was received 
 with honour by the Sultan and given a jealously guarded 
 favour. In Egypt he and Kitchener, as early as 1893, talked 
 over their plans of connecting north and south of Africa with 
 telegraph and railway, discussing the route and the gauge, 
 and starting their friendly rivalry to reach the centre first. 
 In his yearly visits to London he had become the Hon of 
 society and the hero of the financial and political worlds. 
 
 His home in London, after he became Prime Minister, 
 was invariably the Burlington, a discreet hotel of irre- 
 proachable standing, where his wishes were known and 
 studied and the same set of rooms always kept for him. 
 Here he could hve as he pleased ; he had no need to seek 
 out people, for the world flocked to see him and do busi- 
 ness with him. The diamond amalgamation, his power at 
 the Cape, and above aU the glamour from his achievements 
 in the north, all helped to captivate the imagination of the 
 London public. Plis rough uncouth figure, his carelessness 
 
234 CECIL RHODES 
 
 in dress and manner, his massive well-cut head, recalling, 
 as he himself was pleased to fancy, the Roman emperor 
 Titus, all added to the mystery and attraction of his per- 
 sonality. And no one could mistake that here was a real 
 person, quite independently of any passing achievement 
 or timely good fortune ; he could be ignored no more by 
 opponents than by admirers. Great ladies sought for the 
 honour of entertaining him ; he had but to nod and great 
 men were eager to forward his schemes or enlist his support 
 for theirs. He frankly enjoyed all this flattery. He was 
 especially pleased at the favour shown him by Queen Victoria, 
 and used to tell with much complacency one of his conversa- 
 tions with her. " What have you been doing since I last 
 saw you, Mr. Rhodes ? " says the Queen. " I have added 
 two provinces to Your Majesty's dominions." " Ah," 
 rejoins his Sovereign, " I wish some of my. Ministers, who 
 take away my provinces, would do as much." In society 
 he was moody and ill at ease when bored, and would talk of 
 anything but South Africa to silly women who asked him 
 sUly questions. But to those who interested him he talked 
 without reserve. " He could conquer hearts as effectually 
 as any beauty that sets herself to subjugate mankind," 
 said of him a great lady ; for he had, according to another, 
 " great grey eyes and a smile of singular and persuasive 
 charm . . . like the sun on a granite hill," and more than 
 that, a most winning and contagious enthusiasm in com- 
 municating his ideas. Years afterwards one writes to 
 remind him of his advice to her at a dinner-party, always 
 to speak well of the United States and make all English- 
 speaking people understand one another, and humbly hopes 
 that the attempts she has made to carry out his behest will 
 meet with his approval. 
 
 He knew, too, that the deference paid to him at London- 
 derry House, at New Court or in Printing House Square 
 were all useful to the great schemes he had at heart. He 
 was very sensitive to criticism, especially in the newspapers, 
 and took much pains to blunt its edge. Of his methods of 
 doing this, Sir Sidney Low gives an illuminating example. 
 He had recently attacked Chartered finance in the St. James's 
 Gazette, and shortly afterwards had his first meeting with 
 
GROOTE SCHUUR AND THE BURLINGTON 235 
 
 Rhodes, who received him in a towering passion. " Look 
 at your newspapers," exclaimed Rhodes ; "see what Truth 
 says about me and th6 Daily Chronicle," and that at a time 
 when abnost every other newspaper in the kingdom had 
 been belauding him. " Jameson and I came home," he 
 continued, " after giving a new dominion to the Empire, 
 and we found that nobody took any notice of us, but that 
 all your people were fuU of excitement because a Mrs.. 
 Somebody hadn't been elected to the School Board." After 
 this outburst he set himself patiently to explain his views 
 to Low, and gained one more adherent. The Times, which 
 at one period had spoken somewhat sceptically and slight- 
 ingly of his plans, became a whole-hearted convert. Moberly 
 Bell, the all-powerful manager of the paper, was admitted 
 to Rhodes's confidence, and in turn gave him his fuU support, 
 and Miss Flora Shaw, one of the most brilliant and accom- 
 plished members of its staff, was allowed to share many of 
 his secrets, and brought all her gift of enthusiastic advocacy 
 to his cause. And there was always Stead, a very voci- 
 ferous and influential prophet. In the City Rhodes had the 
 powerful Kaffir ring at his command, and, thanks to the 
 Rothschilds' cautious and weighty approval, was fast 
 becoming a gilt-edged security of the Empire. 
 
 In political circles he had closer relations with Liberals 
 than Conservatives. Though he obtained the Charter from 
 Lord Salisbury's Government, he never seems to have quite 
 found his footing with that reserved and fastidious states- 
 man. It is true Lord SaHsbury once spoke of Rhodes as 
 " a very considerable man, a man of very many remarkable 
 powers and remarkable resolution and will," but he paid 
 very little regard to his vapourings, as he probably thought 
 them, on the German and Portuguese treaties, and expressed 
 a profound disbelief in the stability of Chartered Companies. 
 In the Liberal camp he found more personal sympathy. 
 That party was in power during most of his term of office at 
 the Cape, and on the whole allowed him to do much as he 
 pleased. Lord Ripon, the Colonial Secretary, though some- 
 what distant in his relations, generally fell in with his views, 
 and the Under-Secretary, Mr. Sydney Buxton, and Sir Robert 
 Herbert and Mr. Fairfield, two of the principal officials at 
 
236 CECIL RHODES 
 
 the Colonial Office, were on most cordial terms with him. 
 Lord Rosebery shared many of his opinions on Imperial 
 federation, and was a powerful friend in the Cabinet. 
 Harcourt was his chief stumbling-block. Personally, the 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer was friendly enough to Rhodes. 
 Though he admitted to Mr. Wilfrid Blunt that " Rhodes 
 was an astonishing rogue and Uar," his own rollicking 
 humoTir had some affinity with the blunt directness of the 
 rough South African. He invited him down to Malwood 
 one Christmas, holding out as an inducement that he would 
 find the Forest almost as savage as Matabeleland, and could 
 obtain there all the poles he needed for his Trans-African 
 telegraphs. But Rhodes never shared this friendly feeling. 
 He looked on Harcourt as a typical little-Englander, and 
 never forgave him for refusing to grant the concession to 
 Cape wines and rejecting his preferential tariff clause in the 
 Rhodesian constitution. 
 
 Once, however, partly by his own manoeuvring, he had 
 the satisfaction of seeing Harcourt's little-England policy 
 defeated, an incident which also brought him into conflict 
 with Gladstone himself. When the Liberal Government 
 took office in 1892, they were called upon to decide promptly 
 on the knotty problem of Uganda. The I.B.E.A., then 
 responsible for its administration, had announced that they 
 were no longer in a financial position to hold the country, 
 so, failing Government intervention, Uganda would be lost. 
 Rhodes, who happened to be in England at the time, was 
 of course strongly against abandonment, both on general 
 principles and because Uganda was an essential link in his 
 Trans-African railway and telegraph systems. Gladstone 
 sent for him to talk it over. " Our burden is too great," 
 was the tenor of Gladstone's opening. " We have too 
 much of the world, and, as it is, I cannot find the people to 
 govern aU our dependencies. We have too much to do. 
 Not that I blame you, Mr. Rhodes," he added in his courtly 
 manner; " you neveu give us any trouble." " If you will 
 only take the country," Rhodes repHed, " you will have 
 the people capable of administration," and went on to urge 
 his favourite doctrine that unless we annexed every suitable 
 market we should find ourselves excluded from all markets 
 
GROOTE SCHUUR AND THE BURLINGTON 237 
 
 by a hostile world. Gladstone took up the point with zest, 
 and tried to indoctrinate Rhodes with his own free-trade 
 opinions, but neither was shaken in his convictions. Rhodes 
 then went off to see Harcourt armed with a large map. 
 Harcourt's horrified accoimt of the interview, as reported by 
 Mr. Blunt, is as follows : " It is not Egjpt only they want 
 us to swaUow, but the whole of East Africa. Rhodes was 
 with me yesterday, and showed me this map, where you will 
 see the territories he has grabbed. He has put up a telegraph 
 already as far as Nyassa, and means to carry it on to Uganda 
 and then to Cairo. He has offered to run Uganda for 
 £25,000 a year, though he admits there is nothing to be made 
 of it commercially." Nevertheless, Lord Rosebery backed 
 up Rhodes's views to such effect that he persuaded the 
 Cabinet, before irrevocably giving up Uganda, to adopt 
 the compromise of a Government Mission to report on the 
 outlook. Rhodes's brother Frank was a member of the 
 Mission sent under Sir Gerald Portal ; Rhodes himself 
 advised Portal as to route and methods of transport, and, 
 as every one expected, once hopes of annexation had been 
 raised, the Government found it impossible to draw back. 
 Sir WiUiam Harcourt himself introduced the BiU to guarantee 
 a subsidy for the Uganda railway. 
 
 Besides Africa, the chief question that interested him in 
 Imperial poHtics was the Home Rule Bill, with the principle 
 of which he fully sympathized, especially now that Gladstone 
 proposed to retain the Irish members at Westminster. He 
 kept himself informed of the progress of the measure, and in 
 1893 restated his views on the importance of Irish representa- 
 tion by means of a letter written to The Times by his friend 
 Mr. Maguire. Otherwise English poHtics did not interest 
 him. They seemed to him too much an affair of " Mrs. 
 Somebody and the School Board election," and he somewhat 
 unreasonably expected the Imperial Parliament to be always 
 thinking imperially, unmindful of the resentment he would 
 have felt had it directed its Imperial-thoughts too meticu- 
 lously to South Africa. His real conception of the Imperial 
 Government's proper function is brutaUy expressed in an 
 election speech he made in 1898..: " We are not going to be 
 governed from home. . . . We do everything. We pass a 
 
238 CECIL RHODES 
 
 Bill and the Queen just puts her name to it. She never 
 objects. . . . But what she does do for us, and without our 
 paying for it, is this : she protects us with her fleet, and 
 when I take a new country for you she protects me from 
 the German and the Frenchman. . . . Whenever I took a 
 country I simply said to the Queen : ' I have taken that : 
 you must put your flag over it.' " 
 
 But though Uttle attracted by English domestic politics, 
 he was profoundly interested in fundamental social questions, 
 and, as far as he could during his short visits, studied them 
 at first hand for himself. From his talks with Stead and 
 General Booth, and from visits to his own working-class 
 property at Dalston, he was appalled by the mass of poverty, 
 ignorance and distress he found existing in England. He 
 paid a visit with General Booth to the farm colony at Had- 
 leigh for the " submerged tenth," and was only confirmed 
 thereby in his belief that the only hope for such people was 
 the provision of " homes, more homes " in uncrowded and 
 healthy surroundings such as he could offer them in 
 Rhodesia. He accordingly invited the General to settle as 
 large a colony there as he chose, and offered him assistance 
 and full control over the experiment. In his own eyes the 
 power to make such offers and to make the world a happier 
 and healthier place to live in was the justification and chief 
 advantage brought to him by his vast wealth and the great 
 expanses of territory he had conquered. 
 
 Apart altogether from newspapers, politicians, financial 
 houses and society dames Rhodes always had in his share- 
 holders of the British South Africa Company, whose 
 numbers had very soon risen to eight or nine thousand, a 
 compact body of Enghsh pubhc opinion behind him. The 
 Board, as we have seen, had very soon become his dutiful 
 agents and the willing interpreters of his actions : the annual 
 meetings of the shareholders served, whenever he chose, 
 as a platform from which to proclaim urbi et orbi not only 
 his views on Chartered policy but his opinions on political 
 affairs in general. These meetings were held at the Cannon 
 Street Hotel, which had the largest hall available in the 
 City, and whenever Rhodes was announced to speak it was 
 always packed to overflowing. Twice in the first six years 
 
GROOTE SCHUUR AND THE BURLINGTON 239 
 
 of the Company's existence he came to meetings, in Novem- 
 ber 1892 and January 1895. On the first occasion he had 
 to meet an assemblage by no means satisfied with their 
 own or the Company's prospects. Their shares worth 
 £3 : 15s. in 1890 had sunk to 12s. ; the expenses of adminis- 
 tration had been enormous ; the promised gold was not 
 forthcoming, while the stories of distress and discontent 
 among the pioneers had produced a most discouraging effect. 
 But his massive appearance, his eAddent_Jalth Jn Jiiraself , 
 and tEe'sense" Re conveyed' of enormous strength gave even 
 more confidence than his simple straightforward words: 
 all doubts vanished and" success seemed more than ever 
 assured. In 1895 he came flushed with victory in the 
 Matabele War, with his railway completed from Beira to 
 Umtali, the main trunk line advancing and the telegraph 
 carried forward to Blant5T:e, and aU he had to do was to 
 recount these triumphs. Then, having given a satisfactory 
 account of his stewardship, he would turn to the stiU more 
 congenial task of educating his audiences, and through 
 them the English people, in the elements of his Imperial 
 creed. In both these speeches he dwelt on the advantages 
 of his Trans-African telegraph, not only as a dividend- 
 earning but also as a patriotic concern. It was already 
 earning 4 per cent as far as the Zambesi, he told them in 
 1892 ; and its very conception would make it impossible 
 to abandon Uganda, through which it must pass, and 
 rendered it imperative either to " deal with " the Mahdi 
 or reconquer tiae Soudan. Another topic common to both 
 speeches was the advantage to the community of his 
 extension of territory. He took as his text in 1892 the 
 argument brought forward by Labouchere for his policy 
 of " scuttle," that new colonies had never done any good 
 to his bootmaking constituents at Northampton, and 
 retorted that without these open markets in the British 
 Empire the Northampton bootmakers would see their 
 foreign markets extinguished by the McKinley and other 
 foreign tariffs. In 1895 he tried to picture what the " man 
 in the street " gained from the Chartered Company's enter- 
 prise. He would have gained more, he said, had not the 
 Ministry of the day been too wedded to Cobden's " beautiful 
 
240 CECIL RHODES 
 
 theory" to agree to his preference clause for British 
 manufactures brought into Rhodesia. They would have 
 done much better, he added, to accept the real solution of 
 social difficulties he offered them than to spend their time 
 talking on platforms about " three acres and a cow," " a 
 social programme," and " ethical discussions about the 
 House of Lords (we aU know you are not going to be guilty 
 of the folly of making only one Chamber) " ; and he ended 
 with the injunction to his shareholders to give their votes 
 to Jones or Brown at the forthcoming election on one 
 condition only, " that they engage to put that clause in the 
 constitution of Matabeleland." 
 
 The chief value of these artless talks to the shareholders 
 was that they gave people a practical interest in Imperial 
 questions, such as they had never felt before. It needed Ms 
 magnetic personahty to make men at home realize that 
 they were personally concerned in the new countries he 
 was developing and that success or failure depended partly 
 on them. " More homes," preference, dividends from gold 
 mines, railway and telegraph connections formed a mixed 
 assortment of arguments but all of a nature to appeal to 
 the man in the street. And from the interest aroused by 
 Rhodesia they turned naturally to other parts of the British 
 dominions. When therefore Chamberlain took the Colonial 
 Office in July 1895, with long-meditated plans for a sympa- 
 thetic administration of the colonies, which should lead to 
 a more living sense of union with the Mother Country, he 
 found that Rhodes, as much as any man, had prepared the 
 ground before him. Rhodes, too, led the way for the later 
 and less fortunate advance of Chamberlain to colonial 
 preference. There had been protectionists and " fair 
 traders " before Rhodes, but since Peel's day they had made 
 little headway, and even Lord Randolph Churchill had 
 found a preferential tariff an unremunerative venture. 
 Rhodes was the first to arrest attention to the proposal 
 and even to induce the City to consider it ; for here was no 
 mere theorist, but a hard practical man of business prepared 
 to back his beUefs by restricting his own power of raising 
 revenue in Rhodesia. And with Rhodes, as later with 
 Chamberlain, the moving force for his creed of tariff reform 
 
GROOTE SCHUUR AND THE BURLINGTON 241 
 
 was not self-interest, but a belief, however mistaken it 
 may have been, that in it he had discovered a panacea for 
 social ills and a " practical tie " with the colonies. 
 
 But when all is said the shareholders of. the Chartered 
 Company came to care far more for Rhodes himself than 
 for his opinions or even his achievements. They cheered 
 him to the echo when he appeared and at the end of his 
 speeches burst into a tornado of applause. They submitted 
 willingly to all he asked of them. They even accepted, on 
 Hawksley'p assurance that he approved, the watering down 
 of their stock by 100 per cent in order to buy off the United 
 Concession Company's claim to half their profits. They 
 consented to his demand for a large issue of debentures at 
 6 per cent in 1893 : in January 1895 they took his advice 
 to create no more ordinary shares, and seven months later, 
 merely at his written request from South Africa, agreed 
 to issue 500,000 more at a premium.^ Chartered shares 
 have not yet paid a dividend, but their possession, thanks 
 largely to Rhodes's finance, was an advantage. They 
 were generally at a premium after 1892 and so could be 
 sold at a profit, and they also carried rights in remunerative 
 undertakiiigs such as the Rhodesian railways. But a large 
 number of the shareholders held to their shares purely out 
 of gratitude to him for allowing them thereby a part in 
 his great enterprise. Certainly no man ever had a more i 
 loyal body of supporters than he in the shareholders of j 
 the Chartered Company : and the time was to come when I 
 he would need aU the loyalty and sjmipathy they could 
 give him. 
 
 ^ This transaction proved very profitable to the Company. The 
 500,000 new shares were issued at £3 : 103., and with the proceeds of this 
 premium the debenture debt of £750,000 was wiped out, while ;£i, 000,000 
 new stock still remained for railway development and administration. 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 THE RAID 
 
 ',] The union of South Africa had ever been the principal 
 object of Rhodes's colonial policy. Without union he felt 
 that all his achievements in the north, all his success in 
 drawing Dutch and Enghsh closer together at the Cape 
 were maimed and incomplete. He was the first to recognize 
 that the obstacles to union were great : the antagonism 
 between the Dutch and Enghsh races, the strong national 
 feehng in the Transvaal and the almost equally strong., 
 particularism of Natal, the difference in native poMcy 
 between the Cape and the other states, even the hostile 
 customs tariffs and antagonistic railway policies, from which 
 union was the only escape, all were being used as entrench- 
 ments behind which the separatist tendency in each colony 
 or state was constantly gaining fresh strength. From the 
 outset Rhodes had recognized that such obstacles could 
 not be surmounted or even circumvented by any sudden 
 stroke, but that patience, tact and faith were essential to 
 achieve his purpose. And for many years he had displayed 
 all three quaHties to an eminent degree. The faith that 
 union would come never forsook him ; his tact in appre- 
 ciating the value of the Dutch and the need of bringing 
 about union with their co-operation and goodwill had 
 been exceptional for an Englishman ; and his patience 
 had been learned in the hard school of Kimberley and 
 in his early deaUngs with Van Niekerk and the blood- 
 thirsty Groot Adriaan De la Rey. " It took me twenty 
 
 ^ years to amalgamate the diamond mines," he told the Bond 
 
 242 
 
THE RAID 243 
 
 in 1891 ; " that amalgamation was done by detail, step by 
 step . . . and so your union must be done by detail, never 
 opposing any single measure that can bring that union 
 closer, giving up even some practical advantage for a 
 proper union, educating your children to the fact that it 
 is your policy and that you must and will have it, telling 
 it them and teaching it them in your district Bestuurs and 
 households. ... In connection with this question I may 
 meet with opposition ; but if I do I shall not abandon it." 
 As we have seen, he had been as good as his word and had ^/ 
 gone some way towards mitigating the bitterness of racial 
 feeling by his moderating influence as Prime Minister. He 
 it was who tried to soothe the indignation of the Cape 
 Dutch farmers at the Transvaal's outrageous tariffs ; he 
 had succeeded, where others had failed, in inducing Kruger 
 to admit the Cape trunk lines into the Transvaal, and by 
 his native legislation had paved the way for a better under- 
 standing on this radical cause of disagreement. 
 
 Already by 1894 he was looked up to as the one hope 
 for a settlement of South African differences on federal 
 lines. Albert Grey and other statesmen in England, who 
 looked forward to this solution of the perennial race trouble, 
 were eagerly watching his efforts in this direction ; he had 
 Hofmeyr and the Bond with him ; he was always impressing 
 on his Rhodesians that their destiny was to be merged in 
 a united South Africa ; and even in Natal, still smarting 
 from his Kokstad speech, there was a disposition to follow 
 , him. Albert Grey, after a visit to that colony in 1894, sends 
 Rhodes the following message from Escombe, with the full 
 concurrence of Escombe's rival, John Robinson, and of the , 
 Governor : " ' Inter-colonial and inter-state free trade in / 
 the produce of each colony and state ' is Natal's policy, 
 and they look on you as their leader, recognizing you as the 
 only person who can bring this about. If you will make 
 this a fundamental part of your poUcy," adds Grey, " he 
 wiU wheel his Colony into line behind you, engaging to carry 
 his people in spite of the opposition of those who fear 
 a customs-union means dear bread and cheap brandy for 
 Natal. He says, ' Let Rhodes, who has the statesmanship i^ 
 and imagination, strike a high note when he goes to Pretoria.' 
 
244 CECIL RHODES 
 
 Small men might be turned away from the high advantages 
 of this policy by narrow sectional self-interests, and be unable 
 to go in for the big idea because they fear the Cape may 
 suffer from the free import of Natal sugar, or that Natal 
 may be drowned in cheap Cape wine and brandy, but he 
 looks to you as strong enough to emancipate your people 
 from the tyranny of low ideals. Under your leadership 
 Escombe feels strong enough to do the same in Natal. 
 Now is the time : the Colonies should not go hat in hand 
 to the Republics but vice versa. But this is a dogged 
 little EngUsh colony and it won't do to threaten them as 
 you did in your Kokstad speech. You would make it 
 much easier for Escombe to play up to you if you could find 
 an opportunity of saying something sympathetic to Natal 
 which will cause them to beheve that you have their interests 
 at heart." 
 
 '"'Sentiment, however, far more than material causes, 
 played, as is generally the case in national differences, the 
 greatest part in perpetuating disunion in South Africa. It 
 Was unfortunate, from Rhodes's point of view, that before 
 he came into the field with proposals for union, he had 
 been forestalled by the Bond's original proposals. These 
 j included a Republican" f6nn~"of government for South 
 / Africa, freed from all English tutelage and under its own 
 flag. It is true the Bond had been persuaded by Hofmeyr 
 to drop the RepubUcan flag, but the idea was still cherished 
 in many Dutch hearts, and was the only condition which 
 Kruger, had he entertained union at all, would have 
 accepted. To Rhodes such an idea was out of the ques- 
 tion : he had no wish to cut adrift from England himself 
 ^ and was convinced that the Enghsh Cape colonists and Natal 
 V would never consent to it. He was once approached by 
 Borckenhagen, the editor of a Dutch paper at Bloem- 
 fontein, with the proposal that they should both work 
 together for an independent South Africa. His reply was 
 short and unmistakable : " I am neither a knave nor a fool. 
 I should be a knave to leave my own people and a fool to 
 join yours, because I should be hated by my own people 
 and despised by yours." At the same time he was equally 
 convinced that the Boer states would never willingly 
 
THE RAID 
 
 245 
 
 )art with their independence. The Free State had come 
 
 value an independence originally thrust upon them ; the 
 Transvaal cherished theirs the more dearly for having lost 
 ind then regained it. 
 
 To overcome this sentimental difficulty, Rhodes's pro- 
 posal was to leave the Republics their own flags and their 
 ndependence in certain spheres of government, but for 
 :ederal purposes to create a central government under the 
 British flag. " I have my own views as to the future of 
 south Africa," he said as far back as 1883, " and I believe 
 in a United States of South Africa, but as a portion of the 
 British Empire. I believe that confederated states in a 
 colony under responsible government would each be practi- 
 cally an independent Republic, but I think we should also 
 have all the privileges of the tie with the Empire." Again, 
 Ln one of his first public speeches as Prime Minister, he said : 
 " I know myseK that I am not prepared to forfeit at any 
 time my own flag. I repeat I am not prepared at any time 
 to forfeit my own flag. If I forfeit my flag, what have I 
 left ? If you take away my flag, you take away everything. 
 Holding this view, I cannot but feel the same respect for 
 the neighbouring states, where men have been born under 
 Republican institutions and with RepubUcan feelings." In 
 the following year, in his speech to the Bond at Kimberley, 
 he had deplored the mistakes of the past, which had led to 
 the creation of independent states, and took the occasion 
 of some criticisms elicited by this speech to restate his views 
 on union to President Reitz : 
 
 " I hear from so many quarters that the meaning of a 
 portion of my speech at Kimberley has been so misunder- 
 stood at Bloemfontein that I think, in justice to myself, I 
 should state the views I expressed as to our future relations 
 with the neighbouring Republics. I simply repeated what 
 
 1 have repeatedly said before, that our efforts should be to 
 obtain with them a customs union, railway communication, 
 and free trade in the products of the country, always re- 
 specting their independence and never in any way attempting 
 to undermine that position, in the same way as I felt sure 
 they would not attempt to interfere with our relations with 
 our Mother Country. It is perfectly true that I also stated 
 

 246 CECIL RHODES 
 
 that if we were all to commence again to civilize Africa, 
 starting from Cape Town, I think we should all agree that it 
 would have been better for the people of South Africa to 
 have had one system from Cape Town to the Zambesi, and 
 I used the line of argument m reference to the North Exten- 
 sion being made on a friendly understanding with the system 
 of the people of the Old Colony, so that [we] . . . should 
 not repeat the policy of fifty years ago of practically forcing 
 the voortrekers ... to form an independent system. . . . 
 Through the errors and blunders of the then Government 
 these people were forced to part company from [their] 
 compatriots, to strike out for themselves and seek relief 
 sewhere." ^ 
 Kruger and the Transvaal were the great^t_obstacle 
 to the attainment of even this modified forin of union. 
 With the old President, do what he would, Rhodes seemed 
 fated to be in almost continual conflict.] First it had been 
 Bechuanaland ; then Swaziland, the Adendorff trek, railway 
 construction and customs had followed, though both in 
 Bechuanaland and in Rhodesia Rhodes had made it plain 
 that he welcomed Transvaal subjects if they would acknow- 
 ledge British laws. But behind all these difficulties, some of 
 which were easily susceptible of arrangement, there loomed 
 a vital difference of outlook best illustrated by the great 
 Uitlander question. Kruger's predominant idea was to keep 
 his Repubhc unpolluted by British interference or British 
 ideas, and his conduct to the gold-diggers of the Transvaal was 
 a natural outcome of this idea. There they were, 80,000 of 
 them, chiefly of English birth and already four iimes_ the 
 number of his burghers, and more of them flowing in : he 
 could not drive them out, nor did he really desire to do so, for 
 their activities had raised the Transvaal from bankruptcy to 
 the height of affluence. The Rand taxes produced nineteen- 
 twentieths of the state's total revenue, which, since the 
 discovery of gold, had risen from £178,000 to nearly three 
 millions. But without driving them out and so cutting off 
 this bountiful source of supply, Kruger could at least make 
 
 1 From an incomplete draft in Rhodes's handwriting. I have struck 
 out a few words and added two, in square brackets, in the last few lines, 
 to bring out the sense. 
 
THE RAID 247 
 
 them feel that they were intruders of Uttle more account 
 politically than the natives. The franchise law of the 
 Transvaal, most hberal before the discovery of the Rand, 
 had been so restricted that it had become impossible for an 
 Uitlander to obtain a vote in the country to which he 
 contributed most of the revenue ; ^ he had no control even 
 over the affairs of the city he had founded and built up, 
 for Johannesburg was stiU treated as a mining camp under 
 a mining commissioner. The language of instruction in the 
 State schools of Johannesburg, supported by the Uitlanders' 
 rates, was Dutch, and EngUshmen who wanted their children 
 instructed in their mother tongue had in addition to pay 
 heavy fees at a private school. Though denied the ordinary 
 rights of citizenship and treated as an ahen, the Uitlander 
 was nevertheless Mable to be impressed for service in native 
 wars, as occurred in 1894. He also had more material 
 grievances. The wealth he had brought to the Transvaal 
 had attracted a swarm of needy adventurers, who buzzed 
 roimd Kruger as if he had been a second Lo Bengula, and 
 extracted from him all manner of concessions at the expense 
 of the gold-mining community. A specially iniquitous con- 
 cession was that for the manufacture of dynamite, which 
 was not really made in the country, but imported by the 
 monopolists, and then sold at such a price to the mines that 
 it was equivalent to an extra tax on the industry of £600,000. 
 Another set of adventurers obtained the concession for carry- 
 ing coal along the Rand, which they did at almost prohibitive 
 rates : the group owning the liquor concession succeeded in 
 passing a liquor law, with so few restrictions that the natives 
 on the mines, were being rapidly debauched. So strong, 
 indeed, was the influence of the monopolists that a judge 
 who ventured to give a decision adverse to one of these 
 .concessions was promptly dismissed by Kruger. Even 
 Van Oordt, the President's partial biographer, is driven to 
 admit the scandal caused by the unprincipled crew who 
 beset the old man's stoep and the lobbies of the Volksraad 
 in search of every conceivable concession. The scandal was 
 
 ^ By a law of July 1894 it was made practically impossible for anybody 
 not settled in the Transvaal before 1876 or the son of a burgher to obtain 
 a vote ; whereas burghers obtained the vote at the age of sixteen. 
 
248 CECIL RHODES 
 
 all the greater because the beneficiaries were not even his 
 own ignorant burghers, but foreigners from Holland, 
 Germany and any other country but England, far less 
 likely to become loyal and permanent settlers in the Trans- 
 vaal than the Uitlanders themselves. 
 
 Foolish as Kruger's treatment of the Uitlanders was, 
 it was wisdom compared with his fiscal policy to the Cape, 
 whereby he did all he could to alienate his best friends. He 
 would not hear of entering the Customs Union, which even 
 the Free State had joined, and did his utmost to exclude Cape 
 produce from the Transvaal. Colonial pigs, brandy, cattle 
 and coal could be imported only on payment of fantastic 
 , duties. -His railway policy was equally obstructive :] he 
 finally consented to the Cape system crossing the Vaal only 
 when his own railway was in such desperate financial straits 
 that he was obliged to accept for it a subsidy from the Cape 
 and in return to aUow the extension to Johannesburg, Even 
 when the extension had been made, fresh difficulties arose 
 about the rates, which he put up so high on this section that 
 the goods were almost forced round to the rival Delagoa Bay 
 route. In 1894 Rhodes had a conversation with Kmger at 
 Pretoria on this point, but without avail. " I told him," was 
 Rhodes's version of the interview, " it was contrary to the 
 spirit of our agreement that he should go and raise the rates, 
 and he said he had the right to do it. I said, ' Well, this is 
 /rather breaking the spirit of the convention ; it is most unfair. 
 We lent you £700,000 to build this line when you could 
 get it from nobody else. The result was that Rothschilds 
 lent you one and a half millions to complete the Delagoa 
 Bay railway, and as soon as you have got that line you 
 have broken the spirit of the convention.' He said he did 
 not care, he should raise the rates. I warned him, 'If you 
 do not take care, you wiU have the whole of South Africa 
 against you. You are a very strong man ; but there are 
 things you may do which wiU bring the whole of the Cape 
 Colony and the north, and indeed the whole of South Africa 
 against you, and so strongly that you will not be able to 
 stand against it.' " 
 
 J This question of railway rates was to Rhodes'? mind the 
 strongest illustration of the need for union. It was not 
 
THE RAID 
 
 249 
 
 merely a duel between the Cape and the Transvaal for cheap 
 rates, but Natal also came in as a competitor for the 
 Johannesburg traffic, -ana in the rate war of 1894 Kruger 
 was able to play off the Natal line as well as his own against 
 Rhodes. " I am sometimes told," said Rhodes to the 
 Cape House, " that the question of South Africa at the 
 present moment is the question of a united South Africa ; 
 others say it is scab or labour or stock-thefts, but I think it 
 is the settlement of tariffs between Delagoa Bay, Durban 
 and the ports of Cape Colony, because if we do not settle 
 these tariffs it wiU be ruinous for us all." But he would not 
 be driven hastily to acts of reprisal. " The Transvaal is ; 
 foolish," he admitted, " but we should not be foolish too. • 
 Let us look at it with sorrow, and hope the Transvaal will 
 change. . . . Our waggons, fruit, wine, butter and cattle 
 are being taxed as in the past. But do not let us lose our 
 tempers over it. The Transvaal and President Kruger will 
 have to consider whether a system should continue which 
 refuses nine-tenths of the population under' it the franchise 
 and which refuses to a friendly state, which helpe4 it in the 
 time of need [i.e. in 1881], any commercial advantages, and 
 which says : ' We wiU have nothing you can produce.' Is 
 it possible to maintain an action of that kind ? If the 
 President succeeds in doing so, he would be the most re- 
 markable man since the commencement of the world, because 
 such a position is impossible. Still, all we can do is to 
 negotiate anew and maintain a statesmanhke and dignified 
 position." 
 
 Up to the end of 1894 the struggle between Rhodes and 
 Kruger had been straight and open. The antagonism of 
 the two men was quite intelligible. Kruger's one aim was 
 to keep his Transvaal a sanctuary for his chosen people ; if 
 the alien gold-seekers Hked to bring wealth into the country, 
 well and good, but there must stop their privileges. Rhodes 
 was one of these aJiens, for he had some of the largest gold- 
 interests on the Rand. Besides, Kruger felt that he had 
 legitimate grievances against the nation of which Rhodes 
 was the outstanding figure in South Africa. Though he 
 had loyally carried out his promise to Hofmeyr in 1890 to 
 damp down the Adendorff trek as a condition for the first 
 
250 CECIL RHODES 
 
 Swaziland convention, he had two more conventions to sign 
 before the matter was finally settled. And even then, 
 though he had at first been led to expect that he might take 
 a railway through that country to the sea, he found all his 
 hopes dashed by England's annexation of the intervening 
 territories, besides the ports of Kosi Bay and St. Lucia. 
 4^He felt himself hemmed in by the English north, south, east 
 and west, and he feared and hated Rhodes, because he 
 knew that his adversary's aim was to destroy the isolation in 
 which he gloried. Rhodes opposed Kruger not from any 
 animosity to his race — on the contrary, no Englishman of 
 his time appreciated and S3mipathized more with the Boers — 
 but because he saw in the other's obstinate determination 
 to keep alive the old bitter feeling, which had prompted 
 the great Boer trek, the main obstacle to harmony between 
 the races. He had been fighting Kruger ever since he 
 engaged in politics, and hitherto had generally got the. 
 better of him. It was an unequal contest between the 
 man of modern ideas, the owner of millions, backed 
 by the greatest Empire in the world, and the solitary 
 old man, strong only in the obstinacy with which hte 
 jjlung to the ideas of his childhood. But though the con- 
 test was unequal, the victory was not yet won. Rhodes 
 had been very patient and forbearing, but his patience 
 had limits, and already he had shown the fatal weakness 
 of underrating his adversary. Utterances such as "I 
 pity the man," " the President must have been a very 
 disappointed man," are jarring notes in his otherwise skilful 
 diplomacy, and they are the premonitory signals of that 
 u/9/3t?, as the Greeks called it, which so often attends success 
 so overwhelming as his. 
 4^, Rhodes must have exercised enormous self-control to 
 display the patience he did in some of the most important 
 affairs of his life, for his was a turbulent, volcanic nature, 
 more naturally disposed to brush aside or crush opposition 
 than to " sit down and argue with it " ; and sometimes, in 
 spite of all precautions, or perhaps because he thought a 
 pose of brutality would serve his purpose best, the natural 
 man had blazed out. But by 1895 a subtle change was 
 coming over him : he was losing some of his powers of self- 
 
THE RAID 
 
 251 
 
 restraint and of waiting upon the occasion. His health 
 was partly to blame. Although his big burly form seemed 
 to have overcome the early disposition to consumption, he 
 had recently had warnings of the heart trouble which in 
 the end was to prove fatal. At the end of 1891 he broke 
 his collar-bone and nad a bad attack of influenza, which 
 gave some anxiety to his friends — " The thought of where 
 we should be if we were to be deprived of the help of 
 your brain and guiding hand is an ugly sort of nightmare," 
 wrote Grey — and he never afterwards quite recovered his 
 elasticity. He himself had no illusions : he used often to 
 say that he would not live beyond forty-five, and that, 
 within his few remaining years, he must accomplish all 
 he still had left vmfinished. With this obsession upon him, 
 he began to feel that the time for patient and laborious 
 methods was past and to give rein to his natural impatience. 
 Power, too, and success had begun to spoil him. He became 
 strangely arrogant : old friends noted with pain the change 
 from his former simple and boyish good-fellowship to the 
 almost pompous and overweening attitude of the later 
 Rhodes. " Newspapers," he once roared out ; " do you 
 think I care a continental fig what the newspapers may say ? 
 I am strong enough to do what I choose in spite of the whole 
 pack of them." He was beginning to say in his heart that 
 he was not as other men, but like a god, and that he had only 
 to say, it shall be so, and it was so. This arrogant spirit 
 was encouraged and pampered by his surroundings. He had 
 turned away or lost many of his old friends, and in their 
 place had come a horde of flatterers, secretaries and second- 
 rate Dutchmen, who lived on him and treated him as Canute 
 was treated by his courtiers. At the Burlington his ante- 
 chamber was thronged, Uke my Lord Chesterfield's, with 
 needy parasites in search of a favour ; and the Dr. Johnsons 
 too rarely found access. At the Cape he was jealously 
 shielded by secretaries and cronies from the rude blasts 
 of outside opinion, and his every word received as an 
 oracle. His court was specially remarkable for its array of 
 doctors. " I Hke doctors for my work, because their calling 
 gives them such an insight into humanity," was his poUte 
 way of accounting for this taste : his more brutal explanation 
 
252 CECIL RHODES ' 
 
 was : " because, when there is blood-letting to be done, 
 they are less squeamish." Such brutal sayings should not be 
 taken too literally : Rhodes always took a malicious delight 
 in trying to dpater le bourgeois and shock the unco guid by 
 such remarks, which he did not mean very seriously. In the 
 same way, though he enjoyed flattery, he was able to take 
 it at its proper valuation, and turn to serious and well-tried 
 friends, Jameson, Beit or Grey, in times of real trouble and 
 stress. But, hke all forceful men, when he had once mapped 
 out his course, he preferred for his agents those who would 
 not trouble him with arguments, but simply get on with 
 the work. 
 
 His relations with the Governor illustrate weU his growing 
 impatience of contradiction. Sir Henry Loch and he had 
 never hit it off. Rhodes suspected the High Commissioner of 
 desiring to curtail his privileges and freedom of action in 
 Bechuanaland and Rhodesia ; nor was Loch always tactful 
 in his deahngs with his formidable Prime Minister ; for he 
 rarely forgot that he was the representative of Royalty or 
 remembered that Rhodes was riot a man to whom you could 
 apply the ordinary rules. At any rate Rhodes was not 
 displeased to hear in 1895 that Loch was averse to returning 
 from his leave in England. His own choice for a successor 
 was his old friend Sir Jlercules Robinson, Loch's predecessor, 
 with whom he had always worked well. There were objec- 
 tions to Sir Hercules, for he had been recalled for his remarks 
 on the Imperial factor, he was getting old, and also he was 
 thought to be too closely connected with De Beers and other 
 South African companies. But Lord Ripon and Mr. Buxton 
 were naturally much influenced by the Cape Prime Minister's 
 opinion and accepted his view that Robinson would be the 
 best Governor they could find to work harmoniously with 
 Hofmeyr and the Dutch : so, in spite of some protests in 
 the House of Commons, Robinson was chosen.^ The new 
 Governor was well aware that he owed his renewed tenn 
 very largely to Rhodes ; but his gratitude was doubtless 
 tempered with some apprehension. " I file that letter," 
 
 1 It is interesting to find that in April 1895 Chamberiain, though 
 not yet in ofSce, was informally consulted as to Robinson's appointment 
 to the Cape and made no objection. 
 
THE RAID 253 
 
 was his caustic comment on Rhodes's pledge in his letter 
 of congratulation : " If we come to disagree on anything, 
 I promise to take that as indicating that I am wrong." 
 On his side Rhodes was maturing plans which required the 
 presence of a ssonpathetic Governor. 
 
 II 
 
 Whatever may have been the cause — flatterers, fear of ^ 
 death or natural impatience — a period came in Rhodes's 
 relations with Kruger when he felt there was nothing more 
 to be gained by open diplomacy. This conviction was 
 borne in upon him gradually. On customs and railway 
 rates he never had any real anxiety ; the colonists held the 
 whip-hand of Kruger in those matters when, as now, they 
 were united. But the Uitlander question was a different 
 matter. The indignation of the Uitlanders, mostly men of 
 British birth, had been gradually rising at their failure 
 to obtain any redress for their grievances. Twice the 
 President received serious warning that they were not to 
 be trifled with indefinitely : once at Johannesburg in 1890, 
 when an angry mob surrounded his lodging and trampled 
 on the RepubMcan flag ; and again at Pretoria four years 
 later, when a rowdy crowd took out the horses and dragged 
 the carriage, in which Sir Henry Loch and he were seated, 
 and waved a Union Jack over his head. But the only 
 answer he vouchsafed them was to impose further restric- 
 tions on their Mberty. A law was passed forbidding meet- 
 ings of more than six persons ; and when in 1894 and 1895 
 they presented largely signed petitions to the Volksraad 
 for the redress of grievances, they were received with! 
 jeers and told that if they wanted the franchise they must ' 
 fight for it. Kruger did indeed withdraw the commandeer- 
 ing order in 1894 on Loch's stern representations, but 
 immediately afterwards began casting about for means of 
 strengthening his position. 
 
 In the first place he very largely increased his jnilitary 
 budget, spending most of the money on supplies of guns and 
 rifles. He also sought external alliances. Since 1872 he 
 had been trying to enter into a defensive alliance with 
 
254 CECIL RHODES 
 
 the Free State, without success during President Brand's 
 Ufetime ; but after Brand's death he had found his 
 successor Reitz ready to sign a treaty of mutual guarantee 
 against aggression. He had also sought a more powerful 
 ally. In the autumn of 1894 he had sent his State Secretary, 
 Mr. Leyds, to sound Germany, where he had been so well 
 received himself in 1883. Leyds seems to have met with 
 an encouraging reception, so encouraging that at a banquet 
 of the German Club in January 1895 Kruger proposed the 
 Emperor's health, and said he knew he could thenceforward 
 count on the Germans. " I feel certain," he added, " that 
 v^hen the time comes for the Republic to wear larger clothes 
 [i.e., presumably, to shake off all Enghsh tutelage], you 
 Germans will have done much to bring it about. . . . The 
 time is coming for our friendship to be more firmly estab- 
 lished than ever." 
 
 This speech aroused once more all Rhodes's apprehen- 
 sions— o-f ...German interference in South^lHricar and Tie 
 afterwards attributed his participation in the plot against 
 the Transvaal Government largely to this cause. Moreover, 
 as managing director of one of the chief companies on the 
 Rand, he was naturally concerned at the unrest in Johannes- 
 burg, and during his visit to Kruger in 1894 on the railway 
 question had discovered from conversation with Leonard, 
 Hays Hammond and other friends that there was every 
 chance of a spontaneous rising against the Government. 
 Sir Henry Loch, too, after his recent experience at Pretoria, 
 had been convinced of the danger, and had actually had 
 a force of police ready on the Bechuanaland border to 
 act in case of emergency. Early in 1895 both he and 
 Rhodes had warned the Colonial Office. But as yet there 
 was no organized plot. The leaders of the gold industry 
 did not, as one of them said, care a fig for the vote ; they 
 were only troubled at the hindrance and loss to their 
 business caused by the dynamite and other concessions, 
 and pinned their faith chiefly on what was euphemistically 
 called an " election fund " for securing a more friendly 
 Volksraad. Such men feared Rhodes's impulsive nature 
 and were obviously much relieved when Beit advised them 
 in 1894 not to consult him on their difficulties. The chief 
 
THE RAID 255 
 
 agitators for more drastic action were some of the working 
 men and the business people who intended to make their 
 homes in Johannesburg ; but both Rhodes and Loch saw 
 that they were as sheep without a shepherd and had neither 
 arms nor plans for a successful revolt. The conviction 
 was gradually forced upon Rhodes that if the rising was 
 not to be a fiasco he must himself take a hand in it. 
 He had a third motive for action : a fear that unless the 
 movement were directed on the rightTmes it might impede 
 rather than advance his own plans for union, by simply 
 replacing a Boer by a British Republic. " You might be '' 
 sure, sir," was his comment on this idea, " that I was not 
 going to risk my position to change President Kruger for 
 President J. B. Robinson." 
 
 Early in 1895, therefore, Rhodes decided to organize the v 
 rising in Johannesburg and ensure its success. At first he 
 took only a few people into his confidence. With Beit he 
 arranged to share the expenses ; Hawkesley, the Chartered 
 Company's sohcitor, Mr. Maguire and a few others in 
 London were let into the secret ; there were one or two 
 chosen confidants in Johannesburg ; Jameson, the adminis- 
 trator of Southern Rhodesia, and Dr. Rutherfoord Harris, 
 the Cape Town secretary of the Chartered Company, were to 
 take an active part in the conspiracy. In taking this decision / 
 judgement and the sense of honour had ahke deserted Rhodes ; 
 for as Prime Minister of the Cape and managing director 
 of the Chartered Company he had no business to interfere 
 with the internal affairs of a friendly state except on behalf 
 of his Colony or of Rhodesia. As it was, from the outset 
 he placed himself in a false position. To ensure the success 
 of a revolt two factors had to be considered : a supply of 
 arms for Johannesburg and the provision of a force on the 
 border ready to enter the Transvaal and support the rebels 
 at the first signal of a rising. Rhodes proposed as a private 
 individual to buy and smuggle into the Transva.al arms 
 which it was his duty as Prime Minister to stop, and by the 
 use of his authority as managing director of the Chartered 
 Company secretly to place a force on the border for a 
 purpose entirely aHen to the trust imposed on him by the 
 Crown. 
 
256 CECIL RHODES 
 
 The Chartered Company was at that time so uncontrolled 
 in its actions that no difficulty was anticipated in secretly 
 concentrating a force of police ready to enter the Transvaal 
 at the right moment ; but they had no good " jumping-off 
 ground." The most suitable trysting-place was in the 
 neighbourhood of Mafeking ; but that region was still 
 directly under the Crown. Already, however, before he 
 had embarked on his plans for a Johannesburg rising, 
 Rhodes had been trying to obtain the transfer of the whole 
 of Bechuanaland from Imperial control. With respect to 
 the Crown Colony of British Bechuanaland, memorable to 
 him for his early associations with Stellaland and Goshen, 
 he had no difficulty. The British Government had always 
 been ready to hand it over to the Cape, when that Govern- 
 ment was prepared to undertake the administration. 
 Accordingly, when Rhodes proffered the request. Lord 
 Ripon raised no objection ; and the terms of transfer were 
 finally settled by his successor, Mr. Chamberlain. In 
 V August 1895, therefore, ten years after his lament over the 
 Cape's lost opportunity through Warren's policy, Rhodes 
 had the satisfaction of passing in the Cape House an Act 
 for the annexation of British Bechuanaland. Although 
 Rhodes came in for some friendly criticism on the provisions 
 required by Chamberlain, limiting the Cape's right of inter- 
 fering with the natives, and was told that he had been 
 worsted in his first encounter with the new Secretary of State, 
 the Colony made a very good bargain ; for it took over this 
 new province without being asked to repay to the Imperial 
 Government any part of the large sum spent on its develop- 
 ment. But this addition to the Colony still gave Rhodes no 
 satisfactory jumping-off ground, for he had no right to post 
 his Rhodesian force in Cape territory : for this he required 
 a footing for the Chartered Company in the Protectorate. 
 
 The Bechuanaland Protectorate was in fact within the 
 Company's sphere of opera'tions, which in the Charter was 
 defined as all the region to the north of Mafeking : but, 
 although they already possessed nearly aU the concessions 
 there, they had not hitherto been granted powers of 
 administration. In a letter to the Duke of Abercom Loch 
 had thus explained the position : "An enormous area was 
 
THE RAID 257 
 
 included in the Charter and if all had to be taken up and 
 worked at once, the Company would have required a capital 
 of nearer £5,000,000 than one, but the position, as I under- 
 stand it, is this. The B.S.A. Company were to establish 
 themselves first in Mashonaland and develop the wealth of 
 that country before embarking in further liabilities ; the 
 Imperial Government in the meanwhile administering the 
 remainder of the country under the High Commissioner 
 with as much economy as the necessities of the position 
 permitted, so that the Company might have breathing 
 time to gradually feel their way and estabUsh themselves 
 in Lo Bengula's country before undertaking further 
 responsibihties." But apart from any ulterior designs, 
 this arrangement did not suit Rhodes at aU. He suspected 
 Loch and the Imperial Government of an attempt to cozen 
 him out of his rights, and, in his letter of November 1894 
 to Lord Ripon asking when the engagement to the Company 
 was going to be fulfilled, remarked with some asperity 
 that he would never have undertaken the railway north- 
 wards had he thought he was not to control the Protectorate. 
 Lord Rosebery's Government had no objection to giving 
 Rhodes what he asked, but they were already tottering to 
 their fall and were afraid of taking a decision that might 
 arouse opposition. For Rhodes and the Company still had 
 enemies : their financial operations were sharply criticized, 
 and the Exeter Hall party distrusted their native pohcy 
 none the less for the Matabele campaign. Accordingly 
 Ripon put off a decision until the Government's defeat 
 on cordite in June 1895 left the matter over for his successor. 
 In the new Secretary of State, Joseph. Chamberlain, 
 Rhodes met a man no less masterful and with even greater 
 means of exercising authority than himself. Unlike Lord 
 Ripon, whose official existence depended on a precarious 
 majority of some thirty votes, Chamberlain had at his 
 back an overwhelming majority in the country. He had 
 come to the Colonial Office, not as most previous Secretaries,! 
 because their services to the party did not entitle them to| 
 a more important department, but of his own deliberate! 
 choice and mth a settled purpose of making its true import- 
 ance appear. He was not one to fall under the influence 
 
 s 
 
258 CECIL RHODES 
 
 even of a Rhodes, as his two predecessors had unconsciously 
 done : he had formerly distrusted him ; ^ and though he 
 had come to sjmipathize with many of his aspirations, he 
 had no idea, even in carrying out any objects they might 
 have in common, of allowing Joseph Chamberlain to play 
 second fiddle to Cecil Rhodes. PoUtely but firmly he 
 indicated this in his answer to Rhodes's letter of congratula- 
 tion on his appointment ; and he very soon made it evident 
 that, though wiUing to honour his predecessor's promise to 
 transfer the Crown Colony to the Cape, he had no immediate 
 intention of handing over the Bechuanaland Protectorate 
 to the Company. So Rhodes had to try another tack, and 
 commissioned Dr. Rutherfoord Harris, then acting as his 
 agent in London, to secure a strip on the Protectorate 
 border for the purposes of railway construction. 
 
 Before the negotiations for this strip, however, were con- 
 cluded. Chamberlain gave a foretaste of his decisive methods 
 and of the control he intended to exercise in South Africa, 
 when Imperial interests were concerned. The rates war with 
 Kruger was still dragging on without much prospect of settle- 
 ment. When the Transvaal railway manager had proposed to 
 put up the rate from the Vaal above 6d. a ton, in order to 
 kill the Cape traffic, Kruger had hght-heartedly lu-ged him 
 to make it is. Thereupon the traders in desperation forsook 
 the railway at the Free State border and carried their goods 
 over the short stretch to Johannesburg in bullock-waggons. 
 Not to be outdone, Kruger proclaimed that the Vaal drifts, 
 by which they had to cross, would be closed. This last 
 stroke united all parties at the Cape against the obstinate 
 old President, and Rhodes carried even the Bond members 
 of his Ministry with him in appealing to Chamberlain to 
 take action against what his Attorney-General, Schreiner, 
 declared to be a breach of the London Convention. 
 I Chamberlain took the same view and described the Presi- 
 dent's act as "almost . . . one of hostility"; he also 
 j declared his willingness to back up a protest by a display of 
 ' force, on condition the Cape Government undertook to pay 
 half the cost ; for " Her Majesty's Government," he stated 
 in the despatch, " do not intend that such an expedition 
 
 1 See Chap. X. p. 136. 
 
THE RAID 259 
 
 should, like most previous colonial wars, be conducted 
 solely at the Mother Country's expense." Rhodes did not 
 quite relish the condition, but recognized that Chamberlain 
 was not to be trifled with, and secured the consent of his 
 Cabinet. No force was needed, for Kruger saw he had gone 
 too far and climbed down. 
 
 The negotiations between Chamberlain and the Colonial 
 Office on the one hand, and Dr. Harris and the other Chartered 
 -Company's agents on the other, have been a subject of such 
 acute controversy that it is essential to bring out as clearly 
 as possible the conditions under which they were conducted. 
 When Chamberlain entered upon them, he had held the 
 seals of of&ce only a few weeks and was barely posted in 
 the outlines of the case he had to deal with. He found that 
 his predecessors Knutsford and Ripon had pledged them- 
 selves more than once that the Protectorate should ulti- 
 mately revert to the Company. But the date of cession 
 had been left open, and Chamberlain himself was anxious 
 to postpone it, for he had a firm behef that, where natives 
 were concerned, the Imperial Government's rule was the 
 fairest, and he himself, unUke some of his predecessors, had 
 no fear of shouldering responsibility. In this view he was 
 confirmed by the extreme unwillingness he found in the 
 principal Bechuana chiefs, Khama, Sebele and Bathoen, to 
 exchange Imperial protection for that of the Company, and 
 by the enlightened government of Khama himself. He 
 also felt that the Company already had quite as much terri- 
 tory to administer as they could manage for the time being, 
 and that any sudden increase " would," as he drily remarked, 
 " be deemed by any person of administrative experience to 
 contain in itself the elements of failure." On the other hand, 
 he had great ideas of developing the empire by railways and 
 other means, and kept pressing Rhodes to fulfil his engage- 
 ment to continue the extension of the railway northwards. 
 To this demand Harris's answer, on behalf of Rhodes, was 
 that for a railway he must have at least a strip of territory 
 along the Protectorate border under the Company's complete 
 control; and to this, in principle. Chamberlain at once agreed. 
 The other outstanding question in South Africa to Chamber- 
 lain's mind was the trouble in Johannesburg. The Colonial 
 
26o CECIL RHODES 
 
 Office had long been aware that a rising might at any 
 moment occur, and that the Imperial Government might 
 be called upon to interfere in the interests of peace in South 
 Africa. Loch's action in having a body of police on the 
 border in 1894 was fully approved, and next year Lord 
 Ripon and Mr. Buxton had discussed with Sir Hercules 
 what steps he should take. It had been arranged by them 
 I that, if Johannesburg revolted, he should at once go to the 
 i Transvaal and have a sufficient force at hand to ensure 
 respect for the advice he might proffer. On assuming office. 
 Chamberlain had confirmed these instructions and arranged 
 that troops should be available, if required.^ By his prompt 
 and decisive attitude on the Drifts question he showed that, 
 if necessary, he was prepared to strike hard. 
 
 Dr. Harris, Mr. Maguire, Hawkesley and Albert Grey 
 carried on the negotiations with the Colonial Office on 
 behalf of the Chartered Company. The first three certainly, 
 probably the last, knew what was foremost in Rhodes's 
 blind in his anxiety to obtain the -border-strip, though the 
 (ostensible reason was simply to facihtate the railway con- 
 ! struction. Of these agents Dr. Harris took the leading part. 
 iPy his own account, he was the repository of nearly all 
 Rhodes's secrets. " I do not think," he told the South 
 Africa Committee, " anybody was more intimately associated 
 with all Mr. Rhodes's affairs, private, pohtical and public, 
 than I was. I did everything for him." If that was so, 
 it does not indicate much discrimination on Rhodes's part. 
 Dr. Harris was an extremely able and energetic secretary 
 to the Company, a very successful man of business, and a 
 good whip to Rhodes's party in the Cape Parhament ; and 
 Rhodes was no doubt grateful to him for his readiness to 
 take trouble off his shoulders. But he had little acquaint- 
 ance with large poHtical questions, and was certainly not 
 of the caUbre to deal on equal terms with a leading English 
 statesman. He came to the business so full of Rhodes's 
 plan of putting an emergency force on the border that he 
 seems to have worked himself quite sincerely into the belief 
 
 1 For several months the troopships conveying drafts to or from India 
 were ordered, instead of going through the Suez Canal, to take the longer 
 course round Africa and call for orders at the Cape. 
 
THE RAID 261 
 
 that any one with whom he discussed the possibility of a 
 revolution or the railway strip was as much aware of the 
 secret scheme as he was himself. He and some of the others 
 in the secret certainly confided it to Miss Flora Shaw of The 
 Times, with the expectation that she would prepare the 
 way discreetly ; and she even went so far as to draw up a 
 memorandum for The Times correspondents abroad that 
 they might know the line to take when the rising occurred. 
 A few privileged individuals in society were also admitted 
 into the secret, and a favourable atmosphere of vague 
 expectation was created. Frequent visits were paid to 
 the Colonial Office and long conversations were held with 
 Fairfield, the head of the South African section, on Chartered 
 Company business. In these conversations the state 
 of Johannesburg, the possibility of a rising and even the 
 attitude to be adopted in face of such a rising were not 
 unnaturally touched upon ; and Dr. Harris certainly received 
 the impression that Fairfield was more aware of Rhodes's 
 particular plan than he actually was. 
 
 Chamberlain himself met Harris only twice. The first 
 time was in August, when the question of the strip was first 
 discussed, and Chamberlain agreed that if Rhodes could 
 come to terms with the various chiefs concerned he might 
 have his railway strip, leaving large reserves for the natives. 
 At this interview Harris tried the effect on Chamberlain of 
 what he called a "guarded allusion." According to his 
 own account, he hinted " in confidence " that troops placed 
 at a cerjiain point on the border might be useful in case of a 
 rising in Johannesburg. But Chamberlain cut him off very 
 short, teUing him coldly that he wanted no confidences from 
 him, as the High Commissioner could be trusted to give him 
 all necessary information ; he did not catch his allusion to 
 troops, and had obviously no inkhng of Harris's real meaning. 
 The second interview in November was at a purely formal 
 meeting attended also by the Bechuana chiefs, when there 
 was no opportunity for " guarded allusions." At this meeting 
 Chamberlain, with the consent of the chiefs, handed over 
 the border strip to the Company on terms which he justi- 
 fiably regarded as very advantageous to the country. In 
 return for the six-mile strip along the Livingstone road, 
 
262 CECIL RHODES 
 
 the Company agreed to the creation of large reserves for 
 the natives under the High Commissioner, to abandon their 
 claim to a subsidy of £10,000 a year for the railway, promised 
 them by Ripon, and even to save the Imperial Government 
 the large expenditure on the Bechuanaland pohce by under- 
 taking responsibility for the security of the strip and the 
 border. On Rhodes's representation that it was essential 
 to secure immediate protection for the construction parties, 
 Chamberlain allowed him to recruit for the Company's 
 police from the disbanded Imperial police, and to collect an 
 adequate force at Pitsani, a few miles north of Mafeking. 
 
 Rhodes had thus obtained the " jumping-ofE ground " 
 he needed ; not a day too soon, for the Johaimesburg rising 
 had been timed for December ; — though at a price of which 
 he complained in no measured terms to Dr. Hams. But 
 he was also brought to believe- that he had the indirect 
 approval of Chamberlain for his scheme. The hints and 
 innuendoes made to Chamberlain and Fairfield were re- 
 ported for all they were worth to South Africa, as well as 
 Dr. Harris's optimistic impressions of the sense in which 
 they were accepted. There is no doubt that Dr. Harris, 
 and, chiefly through his reports, Rhodes and several of the 
 other conspirators, were fully persuaded that their course of 
 action was countenanced by Chamberlain. Rhodes himself 
 was not one to insist on an explicit sanction from those in 
 v'authority in a case of difficulty. As he himself said to a 
 young English officer whom he blamed for not exceeding 
 instructions in Uganda : " You cannot expect a Prime 
 Minister to write down that you are to seize ports, etc. 
 But when he gives you orders to the contrary, disobey them." 
 But there is not a tittle of evidence that either Chamberlain 
 or the Colonial Office officials really understood, still less 
 approved of, Rhodes's scheme. What Chamberlain certainly 
 knew was that a rising in Johannesburg was probable, and 
 he had provided for the intervention of the High Com- 
 missioner in that case, and for a military force to support 
 him, if necessary. It may even have occurred to him that 
 the police on the border might possibly be called upon for 
 assistance, though a man of Chamberlain's masterful nature, 
 had he contemplated such a case, is much more hkely to have 
 
THE RAID 263 
 
 retained the police in his own hands. But that Chamberlain 
 had any inkling that Rhodes himself was actively plotting 
 for the revolution, and that part of his plan was to send in 
 a Rhodesian force as soon as the rising occurred is neither 
 proved nor credible ; for the reports by Dr. Harris of his 
 impressions are not evidence.^ 
 
 HI 
 
 While the discussions about the strip were going on, the 
 rising in Johannesburg was being organized. Jameson paid 
 several visits to the Rand to feel the ground before he finally 
 broached the subject of Rhodes's plans to the leading 
 members of the National Union, an organization started to 
 secure rights for the Uitlanders. The arrangements then 
 proposed and accepted were that 5000 rifles and a million 
 rounds of ammunition should be smuggled in from Kimberley, 
 that on the eve of the rising the arsenal at Pretoria should 
 be surprised, and that at a given signal Jameson should 
 cross the border at the head of 1500 men with guns and 
 Maxims. The date tentatively fixed for the rising was 
 December 28. The only doubt still left in the minds of the 
 leaders was as to the flag under which the revolution should 
 be carried out : the Republican Vierkleur or the Union Jack. 
 In other words, was the Transvaal to remain independent 
 or be annexed to England ? Rhodes and Jameson were ^ 
 suspected of designing annexation ; the Johannesburg leaders 
 were convinced that such a design spelt failure, for though 
 the majority of the Uitlanders were English, many even 
 of these, besides the Germans and Americans among them, 
 had no wish to upset the Republican institutions, if their 
 just grievances were removed. To clear up the point, a 
 deputation went to see Rhodes in October. His answer 
 was quite satisfactory : he had, he said, two objects in*'' 
 embarking on the revolution — ^first, to get rid of abuses which 
 affected him as one of the largest mine-proprietors, and 
 secondly, to obtain free trade with the other South African 
 states. " That is what I want," he said, lajdng his finger 
 on the word " free trade " in the Uitlanders' declaration of 
 
 ^ For a further discussion ot this point see Chap. XVI. pp. 282-283. 
 
264 CECIL RHODES 
 
 rights, " from that will flow a customs union, railway 
 amalgamation and ultimately federation." He assured 
 them further that he had no intention of changing the flag 
 by violence, and that if a plebiscite after the revolution 
 decided on a Repubhc he would not oppose it, provided the 
 Repubhc came into close fiscal union with the rest of South 
 Africa. It was, in fact, his old idea of independence for 
 local affairs with the British flag for union. 
 
 From this date preparations both in Johannesburg and 
 on the border began in earnest. Rhodes himself, beyond 
 providing the funds with Beit, took little active part, 
 trusting to subordinates not always well chosen. His 
 brother Frank, a cavalry colonel of exquisite charm but no 
 business capacity, was sent in a nominal capacity on the 
 Gold Fields, to take charge of the plot in Johannesburg. 
 The Chartered Company's office at Cape Town was used as 
 a clearing-house for messages to Rhodes and between 
 Johannesburg and Jameson on the border ; officials of 
 De Beers at Kimberley took an active part in smuggling 
 arms over the border, concealed in oil-drums or under truck 
 loads of coal, and in enrolling men, such as the " eleven 
 fine diamonds" sent to Johannesburg in December, to stiffen 
 the conspirators. A Dr. Wolff, another of Rhodes's Kimberley 
 doctors, was sent to the Transvaal to buy up stoits and horses 
 and place them at suitable points on the road between the 
 border and Johannesburg, for the relief of Jameson's column. 
 Touches of melodrama were introduced by mysterious 
 agents, ostentatiously engaged on secret intrigues. A 
 certain Captain Holden dropped one fine day from the 
 clouds on a wretched forwarding agent at Port EMzabeth, 
 who was so cowed by the other's formidable gift of silence 
 that he at once complied with his demand on him to for- 
 ward some oil-drums fuU of arms surreptitiously to Johannes- 
 burg. " He was most extraordinary. He asked me to 
 ask him as few questions as possible. I have never found 
 a man so silent before. He was like an oyster," said the 
 forwarding agent; and he had never seen him before or 
 since. The plot was referred to as the " flotation of the 
 new company," or the " polo tournament," the conspirators 
 as "subscribers" or "shareholders," or what not, in the 
 
THE RAID 265 
 
 telegrams these agents showered on one another. How 
 little Rhodes himself controlled the details of the plot is 
 evident from his friends' testimony. " Mr. Rhodes was 
 always trying to remember details, but he never could," 
 said one of them. He did not even trouble to sign his own 
 cheques, and contented himself with giving the vaguest; 
 instructions. ' ' That is not the way Mr. Rhodes does things, ' ' 
 Dr. Harris told Sir WiUiam Harcourt. " If Mr. Rhodes 
 has an agent he trusts him and gives him carte blanche in 
 that way. He does not say, ' If you think fit to do so and 
 so, do it.' He says, ' You know the whole thing ; do the 
 best you can, when the circumstances arise.' " 
 
 The trouble about this method of conspiring is that the 
 chief conspirator should have a very dear idea himself of 
 his object and agents thoroughly to be trusted to carry 
 out that idea. Unfortunately Rhodes was rather vague 
 on the crucial question of the flag ; though he had not 
 insisted on the revolt being under the Union Jack, he 
 certainly had every hope, nay intention, that the Transvaal 
 should vote itself British. In that sense he may have 
 spoken to his intimates. But Dr. Harris seems to have 
 gone further and wanted the revolt itself to be a British 
 affair, and, after his return from England in the middle of 
 December, the Johannesburg leaders were becoming dis- 
 quieted at rumours emanating from Cape Town of Rhodes's 
 intention to insist from the outset on the British flag. 
 Jameson, the appointed leader of the border force, was 
 another who was inchned to interpret very largely any Hcence 
 to " do the best he could when the circumstances arose." 
 
 Gallant and devoted to Rhodes as Jameson was, he was 
 naturally impetuous and self-confident, and none the less 
 so for his recent success in Matabeleland ; and he was 
 soon so much taken up vidth his own side of the plot that 
 he began to forget the subsidiary role originally assigned to 
 his force. The enrolment of its members had been proceed- 
 ing apace since October, when a detachment of 250 Mashona- 
 land mounted pohce was brought down to a camp at Pit- 
 sani, in the six-mile strip, north of Maf eking. ^ Recruits were 
 
 ' This was possible at that date, as Rhodes had purchased from 
 Montsioa a tract of land at Pitsani with Chamberlain's approval. 
 
266 CECIL RHODES 
 
 obtained from Cape Colony, and by the end of December, 
 when many of the disbanded Imperial police had joined him, 
 Jameson had 600 men at Pitsani ; a well-equipped force, yet 
 less than half the 1500 promised to the Johannesburg leaders. 
 As military advisers he had Major Sir John Willoughby of 
 the Horse Guards and some other British officers seconded 
 for police work, who in April had conducted a secret 
 reconnaissance of the country round Pretoria. If Jameson 
 himself was rash, these regular officers gave him very little 
 baUast ; all seem to have regarded the success of the 
 expedition as a foregone conclusion and to have undertaken 
 ' it with the light-hearted carelessness of cheery schoolboys. 
 One curious precaution Jameson did take. He obtained 
 from the Johannesburg leaders a letter of invitation to 
 himself, which described the disturbed and discontented 
 state of the city, the likehhood of a conflict with the 
 Government and the consequent danger to " thousands 
 of unarmed men, women and children ... at the mercy 
 of well-armed Boers," and concluded with a request that 
 he should come to their help if a disturbance took place. 
 The date of the letter was purposely left blank ; Jameson 
 was to fill it in when he started and use its appeal for the 
 helpless women and children as a justification for invading 
 the Boers' territory. As a further safeguard to his officers 
 Jameson felt justified in assuring WiUoughby in general 
 terms of the Imperial authorities' goodwill to the scheme ; 
 and Willoughby passed on these assurances to the others.- 
 Jameson based his behef partly, no doubt, on the optimistic 
 reports sent from London about Chamberlain's attitude, 
 partly also on recent conversations with Sir Hercules 
 Robinson. Naturally neither Rhodes nor he informed 
 Robinson of their scheme — Rhodes, indeed, as wiU appear, 
 carefully concealed it from him — ^but they had discussed 
 with him the action to be taken in case of a rising in 
 Johannesburg. Robinson had told them confidentially of 
 his instructions to mediate, and possibly Jameson suggested 
 to him that, if he wanted armed support, the poHce on the 
 border might prove useful. But this is a very different thing 
 from Robinson approving of the unauthorized invasion of 
 the Transvaal that Rhodes and Jameson contemplated. But, 
 
THE RAID 267 
 
 like iDr. Harris, Jameson seems to have believed that others 
 understood his hints in the same sense that he gave them. 
 Meanwhile there was more misunderstanding in 
 Johannesburg. Arms had been smuggled in, but not in 
 sufi&cient quantities, and the tale of 5000 rifles promised 
 had not been nearly completed by the end of December. 
 The leaders also required a definite assurance that the 
 High Commissioner would come up to protect them, as 
 soon as the revolt broke out. Rhodes gave the necessary 
 assurance, quite unjustifiably, for his knowledge of 
 Robinson's intention came to him only in confidence as 
 a Minister of the Crown, and was never meant to be used 
 as_a_5timulus to the revolt. Finally, the question of the 
 flag" came up again in an acute form. The Reform 
 Committee, organizing the revolt, discovered that many 
 of the rank and file were very lukewarm about rising at 
 aU and were certainly not prepared to risk their Uves for 
 the Union Jack. Accordingly The Times correspondent. 
 Colonel Younghusband, who was in the Committee's 
 confidence, volunteered to see Rhodes in Cape Town. On 
 arriving at Groote Schuur on December 22, 1895, he found 
 Rhodes with a large party on his stoep. " Have you seen 
 my hydrangeas ? " said Rhodes, catching hold of his arm, 
 " come and see them " ; and, as soon as they were out of 
 earshot : " Now tell me quick what it is, as we can't stay 
 here long ; we are being watched." On hearing Young- 
 husband's message : " AU right, if they won't go into it, 
 they won't ; and I shall wire to Jameson to keep quiet." 
 As, however, he was strolling off to the station for bis three 
 days' journey back, Younghusband was overtaken by Dr. 
 Harris, who said, " Oh, Rhodes says that when any rising 
 takes place it must be under the British flag." When this 
 message was reported, the Reform leaders were in dismay : 
 they sent telegrams and messengers to Jameson to delay 
 his departure, and two more delegates to have it out with 
 Rhodes. The delegates saw him on December 28, and 
 were reassured by his statement that there would be no 
 question of the Union Jack — Dr. Harris's message had 
 probably been another case of " doing the best he could " ; 
 and in the evening it was agreed to postpone all action for 
 
268 CECIL RHODES 
 
 another ten days, when it was hoped more arms would 
 have arrived. Rhodes himself thought the revolution had 
 " fizzled out hke a damp squib." 
 
 Even before this Rhodes had quite decided that all 
 action must be postponed till the Johannesburg people 
 were readier. Throughout the 26th, 27th and 28th. 
 telegrams of increasing urgency were being sent to Jameson 
 from the Chartered Company's office, bidding him. stand, 
 fast. Dr. Harris was evidently moved almost to tears by 
 the hesitation of Johannesburg, and concludes one of his 
 telegrams " Ichabod " ; but he makes it quite plain to 
 Jameson that he must not move : " All our foreign friends 
 are dead against flotation and say pubUc will not subscribe 
 one penny towards it even with you as director. . . . We 
 cannot have fiasco." 
 
 But Jameson was tired of delays and of all the excuses 
 of Johannesburg for postponement — the flag, the High 
 Cornmissioner, a race meeting or what not — which he began 
 to suspect were simply signs of oozing courage ; and he came 
 to the conclusion that if left to itself Johannesburg would 
 never rise at all. Well, if they hesitated to take the plunge, 
 he would drive them in. Moreover, there were signs that 
 the secret was leaking out : everybody in Mafefiing knew 
 that some plot was afoot ; there were rumours in the Free 
 State and in Cape Town, and even the old President in 
 a speech at Middelburg had hinted that he might be more 
 wide awake than was suspected. For all these reasons he 
 decided he must act at once if at all : " You may say what 
 you hke," he is reported to have exclaimed, as he rose from 
 reading Macaulay's essay, " but Clive would have done 
 it ! " So, in_s£ite^of Rhodes's direct and reiterated orders, 
 he prepared to " 3o~the"T'Sr'Ke""could as circumstances 
 arise." One of the Johannesburg messengers, the silent 
 gentleman of the oil-drums, sent to stop him, finding, when 
 he arrived at Pitsani on December 28, that his message was 
 spoken to deaf ears, decided to cast in his lot with the 
 column and go in with it. The other messenger startled the 
 inhabitants of Maf eking by thundering at the door of a 
 Jewish storekeeper in the early hours of the following morn- 
 ing, and after getting a pair of top-boots from the store 
 
THE RAID 269 
 
 rode on post-haste to Pitsani on the same fruitless mission. 
 On this day, Sunday, December 29, Jameson and his officers 
 harangued the men, read out snatches of the " letter of 
 invitation," which he dated December 20, and exhorted 
 them to ride in with every prospect of an easy success. 
 Parting healths were drunk, in one case too freely, for the 
 trooper sent to cut the wires to Pretoria was so befuddled 
 that he carefully cut and buried long strands from a 
 faifmer's fence in mistake for the telegraph wire. The care- 
 less young of&cers had no doubts or fears ; they had, been 
 told that " it would be all right " with the Imperial 
 authorities, and so easy were they as to the event that one 
 of them carried in his kit a complete collection of incrimi- 
 nating documents, code-telegrams, a code to interpret 
 them, and a diary recording his talks with Rhodes and 
 Jameson. At 9.30 p.m. the magistrate of Mafeking was 
 sitting peacefully on his stoep after evening service with his 
 wife and mother, when the quiet was suddenly broken by 
 loud cheering from the poUce camp hard by. It came 
 from the Imperial police, transferred to the Chartered 
 Company's service, starting out to join the Rhodesians at 
 Pitsani. So sallied forth Jameson's troop of 600 across the 
 border into the Transvaal. 
 
 On the morning of that Sunday Rhodes received a tele- 
 gram from Jameson sajdng that he was starting that night. 
 Rhodes at once drafted a telegram ordering him on no 
 account to move. But the telegraph offices were shut for 
 the rest of the day, and by the evening the hne to Ca!pe 
 Town had been cut by troopers unfortunately more sober 
 than their comrade ; so this telegram was never sent off. 
 Hitherto Rhodes had confided his plan to only two men in 
 the Imperial service. One of these was his Oxford friend, 
 F. J. Newton, formerly on the Governor's staff, but now 
 Commissioner of the Protectorate, where his acquiescence 
 was almost essential to Rhodes's plans. Newton had felt 
 some qualms at this knowledge and thought he ought either 
 to resign or inform his chief, but Rhodes had quieted his 
 scruples, saying it was unnecessary and absurd for him to 
 resign and that it might do harm to speak to Robinson 
 prematurely. The other was the Imperial Secretary him- 
 
270 CECIL RHODES 
 
 self, the High Commissioner's right-hand man. Sir Graham 
 Bower. In October Rhodes, on obtaining his word of 
 honour that he would keep it secret, told him of the force 
 he was collecting at Pitsani for action in the Transvaal, 
 adding, " If trouble comes, I am not going to sit still. 
 You fellows are infernally slow : you can act if you hke, 
 but, if you do not act, I will." Later he told Bower of the 
 money he was spending on the Johannesburg rising, but 
 at the end of December informed him that the plot had 
 miscarried. Great then was his astonishment and distress, 
 when he was summoned to Rhodes's house at eleven 
 o'clock that Sunday night, and Rhodes showed him Jameson's 
 telegram. Rhodes still professed to have a faint hope 
 that Jameson might be recalled by his own message ; but 
 he was evidently crushed by the news and kept sa57ing, 
 " I know I must go ; I will resign to-morrow." 
 
 Naturally Rhodes had said nothing of his designs against 
 the Transvaal Government to his ally Hofmeyr, though 
 he seems to have thought of giving him a hint when all the 
 preparations were completed ; nor did he tell his colleagues 
 in the Ministry. /He appears to have thought that success 
 would justify him in their eyes.l Two of his Ministers, 
 however, had been disturbed by persistent rumours connect- 
 ing his name with the rising in Johannesburg. One of 
 them, Schreiner, had gone to see him at Groote Schuur on the 
 memorable Sunday and warned him against having anything 
 to do with the Johannesburg movement, as people would be 
 watching him. " Oh, that's all right," said Rhodes, shrug- 
 ging his shoulders : he then still hoped his telegram would 
 recall Jameson. On Monday 30th Schreiner had telegrams 
 from the magistrate and police inspector at Mafeking, sent 
 by despatch rider to the nearest station below the 
 interrupted wires, announcing Jameson's departure into 
 the Transvaal. Schreiner did not beheve it and told the 
 magistrate not to get unduly agitated; but he went to 
 consult Rhodes. He was out riding with a friend, so 
 Schreiner left a message and went home to dinner. Hardly 
 had he finished when Rhodes's boy came with a lantern to 
 guide him through the woods to Groote Schuur. Schreiner 
 came into Rhodes's study with the telegrams in his hand : 
 
THE RAID 271 
 
 " The moment I saw him," is Schreiner's own account, 
 " I saw a man I had never seen before. His appearance 
 was utterly dejected and different. Before I could say a 
 word, he said, ' Yes, yes, it is true. Old Jameson has 
 upset my apple-cart. It is aU true.' I said I had some 
 telegrams. He said, ' Never mind, it is all true. Old 
 Jameson has upset my apple-cart.' ... I was staggered," 
 continues Schreiner; "I SEiid, 'What do you mean, what 
 can you mean ? . . . Why did you not say anything to 
 me yesterday when I was here ? ' and he said then at once, 
 ' I thought I had stopped him. I sent messages to stop 
 him and did not want to say anything about it if I stopped 
 him.' . . . J^Why do you not stop him [now] ? Although 
 he has ridden in you can still stop him.' He said, ' Poor 
 old Jameson. Twenty years we have been friends, and 
 now he goes in and ruins me. I cannot hinder him. I 
 cannot go in and destroy him.' " Then for three hours 
 the two friends talked about this tragic ending to their 
 partnership, for both at once saw that Rhodes's Ministry 
 was doomed. " During the entire interview," says Schreiner, 
 " Mr. Rhodes was really broken down. He was broken down. 
 He was not the man who could be playing that part. 
 Whatever the reason may have been, when I spoke to 
 him he was broken down. . . . He was absolutely broken 
 down in spirit, ruined. ... I left in very great distress." 
 That one may well believe ; for Schreiner was one of 
 Rhodes's most faithful followers. His mother, tied as she 
 was to her up-country home, never saw Rhodes, but had 
 long watched his career with passionate devotion, used to 
 write him letters full of the pride she felt in him, and had 
 brought up her son William almost to worship him. In 
 parting from this friend on that Monday night Rhodes had 
 a foretaste of what the Raid might mean to him. The 
 agony had begun, but the worst was yet to come : for 
 he stiU believed that Jameson might perhaps by a miracle 
 win through to Johannesburg, and, though he could have 
 felt httle hope, he yet went on fighting fiercely for his 
 friend. 
 
 Early next morning Sir Graham Bower told the High 
 Commissioner of Jameson's intention to enter the Transvaal ; 
 
272 CECIL RHODES 
 
 and on the same day a cable message came from Chamberlai 
 saying that rumotirs of such an intention were current i 
 London, and that any such violation of a friendly territor 
 must be repudiated forthwith. Rhodes's secret designs 
 confided to The Times and to too many other people ii 
 London, had evidently leaked out. At any rate, this messagi 
 effectually disposes of the suggestion, afterwards put about 
 that Chamberlain was privy to Rhodes's plot, for it waj 
 sent before Chamberlain could possibly have known whethei 
 Jameson had been called in by the Johannesburg people 
 or not, and whether he was Ukely to succeed or fail. Rhodes 
 was at once called upon by Robinson to disown Jameson's 
 action, but would not do so, and even avoided meeting the 
 High Commissioner until he thought that he could do some 
 good to Jameson by seeing him. But he sent in his resigna- 
 tion as Prime Minister, which Robinson did not accept for 
 a few days, as he was just starting for Pretoria to interview 
 the President on the crisis. On the 31st all Cape Town knew 
 of the Raid, among others Hofmeyr. ," If Rhodes is behind 
 this, he is no more a friend of mine," he said, aud straightway 
 telegraphed to Kruger, wishing his burghers success against 
 " Jameson's fihbusters " ; he also called on the High Com- 
 missioner to issue a proclamation against the raiders, as 
 Kruger had done against the AdendorfE'trek. Robinson not 
 only agreed, but accepted Hofmeyr's draft. Then Rhodes 
 was roused to come and plead with Robinson for delay, at 
 least until Jameson's fate was known. In Sir Graham 
 Bower's room he met Hofmeyr face to face. He told him 
 that he had offered to resign and of the reason : " I have 
 been so intimately connected with Jameson people will 
 not reUeve me of responsibility." " Mere resignation is not 
 enough," was Hofmeyr's retort ; " you must issue a manifesto 
 repudiating Jameson, suspending him as Administrator of 
 Rhodesia, and declaring that the law wiU be set in force 
 against him." " Well, you see," answered Rhodes, " Jame- j 
 son has been such an old friend, of course I cannot do it." 
 " I quite understand," said Hofmeyr, " that is quite enough, 
 you need say no more." With that he turned away, and 
 told a friend a day or two later that he felt about Rhodes's 
 conduct as if he had been deceived by the wife of his bosom. 
 
THE RAID 273 
 
 To Rhodes this loss of a fifteen-year-old friendship was a 
 bitter blow : hearing of his deep distress, Hofmeyr consented 
 to visit him once more at Groote Schuur. But the breach 
 was only widened by this, their last, interview. Rhodes 
 went away convinced that Hofme}^: meant to attack his 
 Charter, and would make no admission of guilt ; Hofmeyr 
 came away saying Rhodes had been spoilt : "He imagines 
 himself a young king, the equal of the Alniighty," or, as 
 another version has it, "a Clive and a Warren Hastings 
 roUed into one." Rhodes afterwards would veil his feelings 
 by brutal and cynical allusions to Hofmeyr and their previous 
 relationship, but he felt the loss none the less deeply. 
 
 While any hope remained that Jameson might win v 
 through, Rhodes and his associates did their best to promote 
 his success. They could not stop the proclamation outlaw- 
 ing him, but hoped through their influence on The Times to 
 win the sympathy of England. The " letter of invitation," 
 with its date now altered to December 28 by Dr. Harris, 
 was cabled over to Printing House Square and, by its 
 appeal for helpless women and children, stirred up a wave of 
 popular enthusiasm for the Doctor and his troopers, and 
 inspired one of the worst sonnets ever indited even by a 
 poet-laureate. Dr. Harris kept up the appearance of suc- 
 cess as long as he could, and a report was circulated that 
 a victory had been won and Johannesburg nearly reached. 
 But on January 2 th& stunning news came through that on 
 that morning Jameson and his whole party had surrendered | 
 to the Boers at Doomkop, near Krugersdorp, twenty miles 
 short of their goal : he had not been assisted by the Johannes- j 
 tegers, and it began to look as if he was not even wanted ; 
 by them. However, this was the very moment obligingly 
 chosen by the German Emperor to divert attention from 
 Rhodes's and Jameson's misdeeds by an uncaUed-for telegram 
 of congratulation to Kruger. The British nation were not 
 going to stand any German interference in South Africa, 
 ; and promptly ordered out their fleet as a warning. In 
 South Africa even Hofmeyr was stirred to anger at the 
 .. Kaiser's "blundering utterance " : " Nobody," he suggested 
 caustically, " knows better than his Imperial Majesty that 
 '. the first German shot against England would be followed 
 
 -' T 
 
274 CECIL RHODES 
 
 by . . . the acquisition by England of all German colonies 
 — Damaraland included — which would not be an unmixed 
 evil for the Cape." Rhodes himself, when he met the Kaiser 
 three years later, bluntly described what a good turn he 
 had done him : " You see, I was a naughty boy, and you 
 tried to whip me. Now my people were quite ready to whip 
 me for being a naughty boy, but directly jyoM did it, they said, 
 ' No, if this is anybody's business, it is ours.' The result 
 was that Your Majesty got yourself very much disliked by 
 the English people, and I never got whipped at aU." 
 , However, the Kaiser's bluster could not veil the fact that 
 Jameson and his men were at the mercy of the Boers, and 
 had made themselves ridiculous by their easy self-confidence ; 
 that the Johannesburg rising, partly through the blundering 
 impatience of Rhodes's own trusted agent, had collapsed 
 ignominiously, and that the leaders, among whom was 
 Rhodes's own brother, were to be put on trial for their Uves 
 as traitors to the Repubhc. [ The Transvaal was put on its 
 
 ^ guard, and redoubled precautions against a menace to its 
 independence. Rhodes had impUcated the British South 
 Africa Company's officials in his plot and had brought its 
 Charter into jeopardy ; he had perverted the De Beers 
 Company and the Gold Fields from their legitimate objects, 
 and had destroyed a Cabinet which seemed to have no possible 
 rivals. Above all, by this attempted short-cut to success, he 
 had undone his patient labour of years to unite Enghsh and 
 
 .JDutch and to promote the union of South Africa. J Before 
 the world, and especially before his enemies, he kept a proud, 
 almost arrogant, demeanour, barely admitting his error, or 
 admitting it only so far as to claim credit for the admission. 
 But in his own house, during the week succeeding the Raid, 
 he unbared to a few intimates the agony of his soul, an 
 agony like that of Saul — 
 
 drear and stark, blind and dumb. 
 
 He had failed not merely in his plot — that touched him least 
 \ — ^but failed for the time being in the object of union closest 
 to his heart, and failed through his most trusted friend ; 
 and he had lost the confidence of those through whom he 
 had the fondest hopes of achieving his aim. Never after- 
 
THE RAID 
 
 275 
 
 wards was he the leader of the community, but only of a party 
 based chiefly on the racial lines which he detested : a few 
 good friends stiU remained to him among the Dutch, but the 
 Dutch as a whole had been carried off by Hofmeyr from him 
 for ever. Many of the EngUsh too. For Mr. Merriman 
 represented the feelings of many of his EngUsh fellow- 
 colonials, as well as of the Dutch at the Cape, who objected 
 as strongly as Rhodes himself to Kruger's treatment of the 
 Uitlanders. " I was heartily in favour of the Reform move- 
 ment," he said, " and it was the Raid that stopped the 
 movement. The Raid was not only wrong in its inception, 
 but it is the deceit and treachery which accompanied it 
 that I object to; and the Raid has put Mr. Kruger back 
 into his old position and rehabihtated him in the civiHzed 
 world. That is the pity of it, and for that we have to thank 
 Mr. Rhodes. ... I do say, Mr. Rhodes is unworthy the 
 trust of the country." 
 
 Lastly, he had, by this unworthiness, lowered the tone 
 of South African politics. In his solitude and sad repining 
 he may well have felt what Schreiner, reveaUng the depth 
 of his own loss, expressed in this bitter cry : " You cannot 
 trast a man altogether and be absolutely mistaken in your 
 trust and remain with regard to the rest of the world 
 just as full of trust and confidence as ever : and that is 
 what hundreds of people are feeling in South Africa 
 to-day ; they have lost their leader. Yes, they have lost 
 him absolutely, a leader who cemented around him such 
 loyalty and devotion as I do not suppose in the colony any 
 man ever had, or is likely soon to have again. . . . [The 
 result is that] people do not confide as they did ; they do not 
 take a statement that a thing is so as necessarily proving 
 that it is so ; it may be so, or it may not be so." 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 THE NEW BEGINNING 
 
 Rhodes had no David to harp to him during that week of 
 agony, to tell him : 
 
 Each deed thou hast done 
 Dies, revives, goes to work in the world ; . . . 
 
 . . . each ray of thy will. 
 Every flash of thy passion and prowess, long over, shall thrill 
 Thy whole people, the countless, with ardour, tiU they too give 
 
 1 forth 
 A like cheer to their sons, who in turn fill the South and the 
 
 North 
 With the radiance thy deed was the germ of . . . . 
 
 He had no David to 
 
 . . . Snatch him the mistake. 
 Him the failure, the ruin he seems now,— and bid him awake 
 From the dream, the probation, the prelude, to find himself set 
 Clear arid safe in new light and new life, — a new harmony yet 
 To be run and continued and ended — who knows ? — or endure I 
 
 He had no David ; but during those sleepless nights and days 
 he found a voice in his own heart to tell it him : and he came 
 forth to face the world with the words on his lips : 
 
 " I am just begiiming my career." 
 
 For the time being he had ceased to count at the Cape, 
 except as a suspect, but there was yet much for him to do 
 elsewhere. " What does it matter what the people say 
 about us, so long as our work goes on ? Hey ? I am sure 
 you realize that," he once told a friend : and it was a 
 
 276 
 
THE NEW BEGINNING 277 
 
 principle he always followed out himself. There was the 
 fate of Jameson and the Reform prisoners to be thought of. 
 Jameson and his officers were handed over by Kruger to the 
 British authorities and, after a trial at bar, were sentenced 
 to terms of imprisonment. Rhodes made it his business to 
 provide for their legal expenses, and to ensure them every 
 comfort it was within his power to give, and he wrote saying 
 that he was prepared to stand his trial also, if the Govern- 
 ment wished to prosecute. The Reform prisoners were put 
 on trial in the Transvaal, and Frank Rhodes and the other 
 leaders were sentenced to death. Rhodes encouraged his 
 sister to go up and do all she could for Frank while he was 
 in prison ; and when the death sentences on Frank and 
 the other three were commuted for fines of £25,000 apiece, 
 Rhodes cheerfully paid them as part of the expenses of the 
 Raid. These expenses, which included the cost of all the 
 agents employed in the plot, a press fund to secure a favour- 
 able pubhc opinion, compensation to sufferers, arms smuggled 
 into Johannesburg, and pay and equipment for the raiders, 
 amounted to considerably over a quarter of a million sterling, 
 a debt which was promptly settled by Rhodes and Beit 
 between them. He also had it at heart to make a clean 
 breast of his own share in the Raid. There was no definite 
 charge on which he could be brought to trial, as Jameson 
 had been ; but two Committees inquired into the plot against 
 the Transvaal. The first, a Committee of the Cape House of 
 Assembly, sat in 1896, and, after hearing all thp evidence 
 available in South Africa, reported that, though Rhodes 
 did not direct or approve Jameson's entering the territory 
 of the South African Republic, yet he could not be relieved 
 of responsibility for the unfortunate occurrences that had 
 taken place, as he had concurred in the previous arrange- 
 ments. Rhodes himself was not present at this inquiry, 
 as he was then engaged in suppressing the rebellion in 
 Matabeleland, but he concurred in the verdict. 
 
 The second inquiry was in 1897, before the British South 
 Africa Committee of the House of Commons. When he 
 started from South Africa to " face the music " — so he called 
 it — a considerable revulsion of feehng had already set in. 
 Kruger, not for the first time, had had all the cards in his 
 
278 CECIL RHODES 
 
 hand after the Raid, and by a display of generosity might 
 have brought nearly all South Africa to his feet. But he had 
 shown clemency to the Reform prisoners only grudgingly, and 
 under pressure of an almost general expression of opinion 
 from every other colony and state : and he had not made 
 any concessions to the Uitlanders' real grievances. This 
 obstinacy, for one thing, had helped to rehabiUtate his great 
 rival. Rhodes himself also, by his masterly settlement^ of 
 the Matabele trouble, had recalled to men's minds the great 
 quahties of their lost leader : absence and his silence to the 
 world, while he was " doing his duty," as he said, in Rhpdesia, 
 ! did the rest. So, when he came round from Beira 6n his 
 I way home to England, his journey was more hke a triumphal 
 'progress than the penitential pilgrimage of a culprit going 
 to meet his judges. Invitations to pubUc receptions 
 showered upon him from town after town on his way, but 
 he refused them all except those from Port Elizabeth and 
 Cape Town. At Port Elizabeth he began his speech nobly : 
 " If I may put to you a thought, it is that the man who is 
 continuously prosperous does not know himself, his own 
 mind or character. It is a good thing to have a period of 
 adversity. You then find out who are your real friends. . . . 
 I am confident enough to say that I do not feel that my 
 pubhc career has closed. ... I am determined stiU to 
 strive for the closer union of South Africa. . . ." On his 
 railway journey to Kimberley and thence to Cape Town 
 crowds thronged to the stations to welcome him, and among 
 them he was rejoiced to recognize the faces of many of his 
 old friends among the Dutch farmers. He was deeply 
 touched : " It is very moving to see one's feUow-beings feel 
 so kindly to one. Such appreciation as this generally comes 
 after a man is dead," he said to FuUer, and at a priva.te 
 dinner with some former parUamentary colleagues was 
 moved to the frankest expression of his contrition. " I do 
 not so much regret," he admitted, " joining in an attempt 
 to force President Kruger into a juster and more reasonable 
 policy. . . . But what has been a burden to me is that I 
 was Prime Minister at the time, and that I had given a 
 promise that I would not do anything incompatible with the 
 joint position I held as director of the Chartered Company 
 
THE NEW BEGINNING 279 
 
 and Premier of the Cape Colony. On every ground I was 
 bound to resign if I took such a course as assisting in a 
 revolution against an officially friendly state ; and I did not. 
 I can only say that I wiU do my best to make atonement 
 for my error by untiring devotion to the best interests of 
 South Africa." Unhappily he never went so far in public. ' 
 He had promised to make this apology at the pubhc reception 
 in Cape Town, but as he was beginning it the apology was 
 drowned in a hurricane of applause, and he did not continue. 
 It was indeed not a humble Rhodes, and many doubted if 
 his repentance was sincere when, in that first pubhc speech 
 at Port Ehzabeth, he had blurted out his contempt for 
 the " unctuous rectitude " of his countr3niien in England, 
 before whom he was about to appear.^ 
 
 ' No such scene greeted him at the inquiry in London as 
 that immortahzed by Macaulay in his description of the 
 trial of Warren Hastings. It is true some of the greatest 
 in English poHtics were to sit in judgement upon him : 
 Chamberlain himself and Hicks-Beach, the jealous watch- 
 dog of the Exchequer, whose rough tongue had no respect 
 of persons; Harcourt, CampbeU-Bannerman, and Buxton; 
 Blake, the Irish-Canadian orator; Labouchere, who from 
 the outset had pursued an untiring vendetta against Rhodes, 
 his Company and all their proceedings ; the Attorney- 
 General, Cripps and Bigham, all three learned in the law 
 and adroit in cross-examination; and there, too, primed 
 with Rhodes's case by a recent sojourn with him in 
 Rhodesia, " the delight and ornament of the House, and 
 the charm of every private society he honoured with his 
 presence," that modern Charles Townshend, George Wynd- 
 ham ; the poet, had he not dallied with poUtics, the great 
 statesman, had he not trifled with Uterature.^ To assist 
 the Committee in coming to a just decision were assembled 
 many of the great leaders of the Bar : Cohen, melhfluous 
 
 ^ An ingenious and cautious friend suggested to him that the words 
 he meant to use and which should be inserted in the official report were 
 "anxious rectitude." But Rhodes, as might be expected, rephed, "No, 
 I said it and I stick to it." 
 
 ^ Charles Boyd relates that Rhodes, when he had known him only a 
 year, said of him, " Thought he was a spring poet : instead of that he 
 is all chapter and verse." 
 
28o CECIL RHODES 
 
 and most deadly when with exqtdsite courtesy he seemed to 
 be yielding every point ; Pember, harsh and domineering, 
 whose rough decision overbore aU argument ; and silver- 
 tongued Pope, the unquestioned monarch of the ParUa- 
 mentary Bar, who in his weighty and measured utterances 
 seemed always, with consummate art, to be pleading not 
 for a mere client's interests but for truth and public policy. 
 All these were there ; yet it was but a drab spectacle. 
 The setting was not Rufus's Hall, but a dull committee- 
 room adjoining. No beauty, rank or eminence graced the 
 proceedings, for all but those connected in some way with 
 the case were rigidly excluded. Dramatic moments, indeed, 
 there were : Sir Graham Bower's starthng revelation of 
 his own privity to the plot and his concealment of it from 
 the High Commissioner, some passages in Dr. Harris's 
 evidence, where his word and Chamberlain's seemed almost 
 irreconcilable, and Hawkesley's refusal to produce telegrams 
 in his possession ; but there was no eager crowd, swayed 
 by divergent feehngs, to share in and murmur at the 
 exciting moments. 
 
 The two chief points of interest at the Committee were 
 Rhodes himself and the question of Chamberlain's fore- 
 knowledge of the plot. Rhodes took the inquiry very 
 seriously, and on his voyage to England spent two hours 
 every day on ship-board rehearsing his evidence with a 
 friend : the friend had tq ask the sort of questions he 
 imagined Labouchere or Harcourt would put. " Yes, that 
 is a very fair question," Rhodes would say, and carefully 
 consider how he would answer it. In spite of all this 
 preparation he was evidently nervous when he really found 
 himself walking up to the little table placed in the centre 
 of the horse-shoe round which the Committee were sitting. 
 He came in looking, as to features, very much like a Roman 
 Emperor — massive head, masterful nose, and sleepy eyes, 
 yet with a veiled fire in them — ^but in gait and gesture 
 very unUke any Roman Emperor : iU - fitting clothes 
 huddled on to an awkward body, a rather shambling walk 
 and a half -dazed appearance. The first unfavourable 
 impression was confirmed when he began to speak. His 
 voice was squeaky and staccato, he sat humped up in his 
 
THE NEW BEGINNING 281 
 
 chair and was obviously ill at ease before his inquisitors. 
 The answers he gave seemed involved and sometimes off 
 the point. One began to wonder if this were really the 
 great Colossus who bestrode half a continent. He seemed 
 heavy, even stupid. Then came the hour for luncheon, 
 which, with characteristic disregard of ceremony, the 
 Committee and witnesses ate off little trays brought in by 
 a waiter, so that the proceedings were not interrupted. 
 Rhodes murmured his order to the waiter and then went 
 on as before. The luncheons were brought in ; and before 
 Rhodes was set a solitary sandwich and a large tankard of 
 stout. One bite of the sandwich, one long draught from 
 the tankard ; and then, as if suddenly aroused by this 
 diversion, he shook himself together, like a lion just awaking, 
 pulled straight his coat, sat up square to his tormentors, 
 sent forth a gleam from that hitherto sleepy eye, and then — 
 he just took that Committee in hand. Hitherto they had 
 seemed to play with him, henceforward the rdles were 
 reversed. There was no longer any question of examining 
 Rhodes on his misdeeds ; Rhodes himself took the floor 
 and began examining the Committee on their knowledge 
 of South Africa and lecturing them on things he thought 
 it good for their souls to know. He enjoyed himself 
 vastly. He dragged them away from the Raid, not because 
 he wished to conceal his own part in the business — he stated 
 quite frankly at the outset that he accepted fuU responsi- 
 bility for it — but he brushed it aside as irrelevant, because 
 he wanted to make that Committee, and through them the 
 British public, understand their own mistakes and responsi- 
 biUty in South Africa and the poUcy for which he stood. 
 Germany's part in Transvaal affairs ? Oh, Germany's 
 susceptibilities must be considered, and we must observe 
 the correct diplomatic reticence, was the attitude of most 
 of the Committee. Diplomacy go hang, said Rhodes in 
 effect ; you've got to know what I beheve to be the facts : 
 and these facts he proceeded to tell them. He had five days 
 in that witness chair ; but once he was on his mettle he 
 never let that Committee go. Unmoved aUke by Sir 
 William Harcourt's grand manner and by Labouchere's 
 insidious thrusts, he answered their questions indeed, but 
 
282 CECIL RHODES 
 
 often told them more than they bargained for. He was 
 accused of having made money by selling shares at the 
 time of the Raid, so Wyndham asked him a friendly ques- 
 tion about his transactions. Yes, I've sold plenty of shares, 
 cheerfully responded the culprit ; when the work on the 
 telegraph or railway hues was hung up for lack of funds, 
 I would seU large blocks of shares to enable me to pay for 
 them out of my own pocket ; I did Hkewise at the time of 
 the Matabele War, " when I was afraid the Doctor might 
 have bad times." But nobody had the courage to ask 
 him the specific question about the Raid time : it would 
 have been too absurd, for any one who had seen and heard 
 him, to suspect him of having tried to make money out of 
 that adventure. After his five days under examination 
 the Committee seemed only too glad to let him go. Would 
 you hke to have me up again ? blandly inquired Rhodes ; 
 I shall be happy to come, but you must remember that 
 my work in Rhodesia keeps me very busy. Later, perhaps, 
 said the Committee ; but " later " never came. 
 
 As to Chamberlain's supposed privity^ with the plot 
 against the Transvaal, nothing came out that has not been 
 recounted in the previous chapter. The only unsatisfactory 
 incident of the inquiry was that Hawkesley, on Rhodes's 
 orders, refused to produce some documents, presumably 
 telegrams and letters sent by Rhodps's agents to South 
 Africa, which he had shown privately to Chamberlain the 
 previous year ; nor did the Committee insist on their 
 production. This was unfortunate, because there was a 
 suspicion abroad, partly fostered by Rhodes's friends, that 
 Chamberlain was, in the current phrase, "in it up to the 
 neck " ; and the behef is even yet not quite dead that, after 
 secretly countenancing the conspirators' plans, he threw 
 them over when the fiasco came. Complete mathematical 
 proof of Chamberlain's innocence is, of course, not possible, 
 since these communications have never been revealed ; 
 and by this time probably all copies have been destroyed. 
 Rhodes himself certainly beheved that he was serving his 
 country's interest in forbidding their production ; but it 
 is significant that all the cables in code which passed between 
 agents in London and Rhodes himself or the Company's 
 
THE NEW BEGINNING 283 
 
 officials at the Cape were duly produced, and that the 
 utmost they go to prove is that some of these agents beUeved 
 that Chamberlain had an inkUng of Rhodes's plans.^ If 
 the banned documents went any further, the most probable 
 solution of the mystery is that Chamberlain may, in some 
 utterance to Rhodes or his friends, have expressed a hope 
 that the expected rising in Johannesburg would succeed, or 
 have alluded to the instructions given to Robinson as to his 
 course of action in the event of a rising. If that was so, 
 Rhodes may have thought it prudent to avoid the dis- 
 closure of such utterances at a time when the rising had 
 failed and the best hope of securing appeasement in South 
 Africa was by conceaUng from Kruger what might have 
 happened in other circumstances ; and Chamberlain, though 
 he said he had no objection to their disclosure, may for the 
 same reason not have regretted Rhodes's decision. But 
 though mathematical proof is impossible, it may confidently 
 be asserted that, whatever sympathy Chamberlain may have 
 had with the rising, he was not privy to, still less approved 
 of, Rhodes's machinations in connection with it.^ 
 
 The verdict of this Committee was very much the same 
 as that of the Cape inquiry. The Raid was condemned, 
 and Rhodes was severely censured for the misuse of his 
 office as Prime Minister of the Cape and managing director 
 of the Chartered Company ; that was the least which the 
 national honour demanded, especially in view of assertions, 
 such as Jameson's, " I know, if I had succeeded, I should 
 have been forgiven," and Rhodes's " unctuous rectitude." 
 It must be admitted, however, that the sting of the 
 rebuke to Rhodes was very much taken out by the sub- 
 sequent debate in the House of Commons. Courtney, 
 that jealous keeper of the nation's conscience, and other 
 
 ^ Some documents purporting to be the suppressed communications 
 were published subsequently in the ' IndSpendance Beige and are quoted 
 in Jeyes's Life of Chamberlain. But they carry us no further. 
 
 ' The view expressed in the foregoing paragraph is borne out by a 
 statement attributed to George Wyndham by Mr. Blunt (My Diaries, i. 
 p. 346). Wyndham, who was in all the secrets of the Rhodes group, told 
 Blunt that Chamberlain was not involved in the Raid but was concerned 
 in political intrigue against the Transvaal, which would obviously refer 
 to the instructions to Robinson to use an armed force, if necessary, in 
 case of a rising in Johannesburg. 
 
284 CECIL RHODES 
 
 speakers made a strong plea for removing his name from 
 the list of Privy Councillors, as a mark of the nation's 
 disapprobation of his action ; but the House would not 
 listen to the suggestion. They were not perhaps much 
 moved by Chamberlain's paradoxical assertion that Rhodes 
 had done nothing inconsistent with his personal honour ; 
 an assertion which went far beyond what Rhodes himself 
 admitted to his friends at Cape Town. But it was felt that 
 he had been punished enough in losing his great position 
 at the Cape as well as his seat on the Board of the Company 
 he had himself created. They were also impressed by a 
 generous tribute to him from his successor and former rival, 
 Sprigg, who testified to the love and admiration in which 
 he was still held at the Cape and to the strong feeling there 
 that any further punishment meted out to him would appear 
 merely vindictive. 
 
 Rhodes himself was undoubtedly enough punished, not 
 merely in loss of position and power, but still more in the 
 disappointment of hopes. Nevertheless the Committee, and 
 still more the debate in the House, were, from a national 
 point of view, deplorable. A treacherous and, in method, 
 unjustifiable attack had been made on the Transvaal 
 Repubhc, and, whatever the provocation, admittedly great, 
 in the treatment of the Uitlanders, it would have been more 
 in keeping with our honour frankly to have admitted the 
 wrong done by our fellow-citizens and leave the excuses 
 aside. The Committee, however, allowed itself , to be 
 diverted by long discussions as to the Uitlanders' grievances, 
 the Transvaal's intrigues with Germany and such really 
 irrelevant matters. For, however just ours and the Uit- 
 landers' case may have been against Kruger's regime, our 
 countrymen had put themselves irretrievably in the wrong by 
 the Raid, as well as by the plottings and smuggling of arms 
 which preceded it. The Committee's inabihty to obtain docu- 
 ments known to be in the possession of one of the witnesses 
 was another unfortunate incident ; and Rhodes rendered 
 a poor service to his coimtry by forbidding their production. 
 For whatever they may have contained, nothing could have 
 been more mischievous than the atmosphere of suspicion 
 created by their non-production. And the subsequent debate 
 
THE NEW BEGINNING 285 
 
 in the House was worst of all, with Chamberlain's almost 
 implicit disassociation from the condemnation of Rhodes by 
 the Committee. The fact is that in many quarters in England 
 there was Httle condemnation of the Raid. Rhodes was 
 aware of this when he said, " I found all the busmen 
 smiling at me when I came to London ; so I knew it was 
 all right." 
 
 II 
 
 Even before this final examination by his countrymen 
 Rhodes had found work of the utmost importance to his 
 hand. His first great fear, after the catastrophe, had been 
 that his beloved Company might be deprived of its Charter, 
 and that he himself would be allowed to have no further 
 part in Rhodesia. Hardly had he come out of his retire- 
 ment at Groote Schuur in January 1896 than he took ship 
 to England for a week's visit to see his Board and Chamber- 
 lain. He found out from the latter that there was no 
 immediate design of cancelling the Charter ; and satisfied 
 with this assurance, when he saw that his own continued 
 presence on the Board might injure the Company, he made 
 no difficulty about resigning his directorship.^ But, director 
 or no director, he was determined now to devote his energies 
 chiefly to his own country. Returning by the East coast 
 route, he called on Kitchener in Egjrpt on the way and 
 obtained through him a cargo of Soudanese donkeys for 
 use in Rhodesia, because of their immunity from horse- 
 sickness.* He landed at Beira on March 20, 1896, and a few 
 days later heard news so serious that he thought no more 
 for some time of donkeys or horse-sickness. On March 24 
 the first murders of isolated settlers near Buluwayo were 
 perpetrated by the Matabeles, the signal for the serious 
 
 ^ This resignation did not take effect till June, when Chamberlain 
 had pointed out its necessity. 
 
 * Mr. Blunt in his Diaries reports a cock-and-bull story to the effect 
 that Rhodes and Kitchener between them plotted that Rhodes should be 
 allowed to kidnap 200 Soudanese men to work in the Rhodesian mines. 
 Rhodes at the time heard of the story, and in a speech at Buluwayo 
 promptly contradicted it : "I had hardly arranged for these donkeys to 
 arrive here when I received a peremptory telegram asking if it was correct 
 that I was arranging for the importation of Soudanese. I replied 
 promptly, gentlemen, that it was totally incorrect, and that the only 
 animals I was receiving or arranging for were donkeys." 
 
286 CECIL RHODES 
 
 rising, which for a time jeopardized the lives of the whole 
 white community in Matabeleland. The Matabeles had 
 many grievances real and imaginary against the English. 
 Since Jameson's arrival in 1893 there had been a drought 
 of unexampled severity ; the native pohce enrolled by the 
 Company, taken chiefly from the races formerly subject 
 to the Matabeles, had shown a tactless and tyrannical 
 disposition, much resented by their former masters, and 
 had even sometimes been employed in securing forced 
 labour for the mines ; the reserves set aside for the natives 
 after the Matabele War had been most unsatisfactory ; 
 " not homes, but cemeteries," they were described by a 
 distinguished Englishman. To crown all, one of the most 
 fatal attacks of rinderpest ever known in South Africa 
 spread havoc and destruction among the magnificent herds 
 which had been the glory and chief source of livehhood to 
 Lo Bengula and his people. To Lo Bengula's old warriors 
 the opportunity seemed good for revenging themselves on 
 the invaders : some of their best regiments had taken no 
 part in the fighting of 1893 and felt themselves a match 
 for the English, whose prestige had suffered by Jameson's 
 defeat at Doomkop ; moreover, the country had been largely 
 denuded of pohce by their diversion to the Raid. The 
 revolt spread Hke wildfire, and very soon the 4000 inhabit- 
 ants of Buluwayo found themselves a beleaguered garrison 
 surrounded by 15,000 savages and in danger of starvation, 
 if not worse. 
 
 Fortunately help was at hand. Earl Grey had gallantly 
 undertaken the thankless task of succeeding Jameson as 
 Administrator. Arriving at Mafeking within a month of 
 the outbreak of revolt, he hurried stores up to Buluwayo. 
 Already Colonel Plumer, now for the first time enabled to 
 give proof of his great miHtary capacity, had organized a 
 rehef column, which on May 24 inflicted the first defeat 
 on the rebel forces and removed all danger from Buluwayo. 
 Relief had also been coming from another quarter. ■ Rhodes 
 had arrived at Sahsbury at the end of March and had at 
 once, though ill of malaria, begun organizing a column 
 under Colonel Beal, and in spite of his condition insisted 
 on accompanying it. During the march to Buluwayo 
 
THE NEW BEGINNING 287 
 
 Beal defeated the rebels near Gwelo, and Rhodes took his 
 full share of all risks in this engagement and in the still 
 more dangerous reconnoitring expeditions. He seemed to 
 bear a charmed life, never carrying any weapon except a 
 hunting-crop and always riding ahead with fearless courage. 
 He was apparently not a man of much physical courage 
 naturally, but he had the greater rrioral courage of being 
 able to force himself to incur necessary dangers at a crisis ; 
 and he now probably felt that his own skin was of little 
 worth compared with the example he felt bound to give. 
 When his column arrived at Buluwayo in the beginning of 
 June the Matabele impis had all dispersed into the Matoppo 
 Hills, a large tract of tumbled country to the south-east 
 of Buluwayo. Sir Frederick Carrington had arrived to 
 take command of the operations and ordered a sweep round 
 of this country by three columns. Plumer won a consider- 
 able success at Thabas Imamba, north of the Matoppos, 
 at the end of the month, but another attack in July showed 
 that the rebels would never be defeated by this sort of 
 warfare. When pressed they could always take refuge in 
 the almost inaccessible hills at their back, and from their 
 posts of vantage could sally forth and inflict serious losses 
 on the attackers. They could indeed be starved out ; 
 but Rhodes wanted peace not extermination. The only 
 other course was negotiation, and this Rhodes resolved to 
 imdertake. 
 
 Negotiation was not ah easy task. Carrington insisted 
 on keeping a large force on the edge of the Matoppos, which 
 naturally aroused the suspicions of the Matabeles that a 
 trap was being laid for them ; and Rhodes's first difficulty 
 was to get into communication with them at all. However, 
 an opportunity was found by the capture in August of an 
 old old crone, a widow of Lo Bengula's father, MoseUkatze, 
 who was released with a message to the rebels. Four days 
 later a small party rode out of Plumer's camp, Rhodes 
 himself, Hans Sauer, Colenbrander, a man well versed in 
 the natives' ways, who had quarrelled with the Chartered 
 Company but came in response to Rhodes's special request, 
 one or two other Europeans and the native scouts John 
 Grootboom and Makunga. The party were unarmed and 
 
288 CECIL RHODES 
 
 they rode out to the trysting-place, where a red flag was 
 to be flying if the Matabele indunas were prepared to parley. 
 The red flag was ftying right enough, and to show that it 
 was- understood Rhodes hung beneath it his own white 
 handkerchief. Further messages were sent in to the chiefs 
 to induce them to come to an indaba with Rhodes to discuss 
 grievances and consider terms of peace ; but they were still 
 very wary of approaching close to the English camp. So, 
 to give them confidence, Rhodes with his little party moved 
 right away from the troops and pitched a camp far in the 
 heart of the Matoppos ; there he remained, forbidding any 
 armed force from Plumer's camp to come near him, defence- 
 less, had the Matabeles any sinister intentions. All the time 
 he was being watched by the Matabeles in the hills above 
 him ; and at last, seeing that he had no aggressive intentions, 
 they gradually gained confidence enough to consent to a 
 meeting, on the understanding that neither side should 
 bring rifles or assegais. This first indaba on August 21 
 was the crucial one. Rhodes and his party were first at 
 the meeting-place, a large smooth rock ; they carried 
 among them only four revolvers and their horses were 
 tethered some way behind them, so that there was no means 
 of escape in case of treachery. Soon at least 100 natives 
 were seen approaching, all fully armed with assegais and 
 rifles, and flanking parties thrown out to cut off any retreat. 
 In spite of the previous arrangement and several messages 
 the. natives kept advancing with threatening mien. These 
 were anxious moments for Rhodes and his friends. A 
 sign of fear or hesitation would certainly have brought the 
 whole crowd upon them. Not before they were forty yards 
 from the rock did the natives lay down their arms. Then 
 the talk went on between them and Rhodes for two hvelong 
 hours, Colenbrander acting as interpreter. At first the 
 young men were inclined to be unruly and interrupt their 
 elders, who were doing most of the talking, but were soon 
 brought to order by the wise old induna Babyan. The 
 following fragment of conversation shows the nature of the 
 discussions that went on during those two hours : " Rhodes, 
 we know," said a chief, " he is not in fault." Then a 
 Majaka said insolently, " How do we know that Mr. Rhodes 
 
THE NEW BEGINNING 289 
 
 is doing his best for us ? Perhaps when he goes away he 
 tells his people to rob us." To this the chiefs answered that 
 they trusted Colenbrander and Rhodes ; whereupon, " Tell 
 them, Colenbrander, that I am going to stay in the country," 
 said Rhodes. After this he scattered bagfuls of tobacco 
 to be scrambled for by the natives, and the indaba broke 
 up. On returning to camp Rhodes remarked that the 
 interview had just enough spice of danger to make it 
 interesting. 
 
 After this, for nearly two months, Rhodes stayed on at 
 his camp, holding frequent indabas with the natives, urging 
 them to come in before it was too late to sow their crops 
 and avert starvation, and allowing them to go freely in 
 and out of the camp as they pleased; so gradually they 
 came to look upon him as their Father and Protector. 
 Such impHcit faith, too, had his friend Lord Grey, the 
 Administrator, in Rhodes and his trustful methods that he 
 allowed Lady Grey and his daughter to stay a fortnight in 
 the camp with no more protection from the natives surround- 
 ing them than Rhodes had himself. 
 
 The last solemn conference, held on October 13, was 
 attended by Lord Grey, Rhodes, with Colenbrander to 
 interpret, and nineteen of the chiefs. Grey opened the 
 proceedings by teUing them the Queen wished for peace 
 before they were starved. It would be useless for them 
 to resist the English, who were very strong with their rail- 
 way, then being brought up to Buluwayo by Sir Charles 
 Metcalfe, their forts and their guns. " I hear," he added, 
 " that you chiefs are sore because you have lost authority 
 and the young men laugh at you. Well, I will give authority 
 to good indunas, and first to Faku and Umjeen, to whom I 
 will give a horse and in due time a salary." Then the 
 following dialogue took place : 
 
 Ganibo. We have no leader and it is impossible for a 
 nation to Uve without a ruler. 
 
 Rhodes. The chiefs will be at the head of their followers, 
 but the Administrator will be over them. 
 
 Somdbulana. We want some one to whom we can go 
 before we go to Mr. Rhodes, to whom we can report our 
 troubles. We want one not half a dozen heads. 
 
 u 
 
290 CECIL RHODES 
 
 Rhodes. Each chief will have his own district and the 
 people will go with their grievances to the chiefs. The 
 chief will go to the native commissioners, who will in turn 
 communicate with the Administrator. 
 
 Faku. That is what we want. Give us a head and we 
 are satisfied. 
 
 Rhodes. The trouble is that the chiefs and indimas 
 have nothing, and they will be compelled to beg food 
 from the common people. It is not right that chiefs should 
 do this, but if they draw salaries from the Government 
 this will be avoided. They can then stay in their districts 
 and thus look after their people. The chiefs must show 
 by their conduct that they are loyal. Look at Dhlio, he is 
 not here to-day, because he is in the hills collecting guns. 
 
 And then, after further talk from Grey, Rhodes thus 
 concluded : " Before this meeting breaks up I wish to 
 inform you that I am leaving the Matoppos to-day, but 
 before you go away to your homes I should be pleased to 
 give you some presents. I hope you will behave well to 
 the Administrator and show your loyalty." 
 
 The chiefs then thanked Rhodes and said they would 
 lick the ground he was treading on. 
 
 Having made peace with the indunas, Rhodes gave 
 them a prompt illustration of the spirit in which he meant 
 to deal with them hereafter. Up in the Matoppos the 
 Matabeles had been almost starving, and even now were 
 faced with many months of famine, since they had not 
 been able to sow their lands. To reUeve their immediate 
 distress, therefore, he ordered a miUion bags of mealies at 
 once, telling Grey that if the Company objected to the 
 expense he would pay the whole cost out of his own pocket. 
 He also promised the settlers compensation for their losses : 
 and the Company cheerfully accepted both charges. 
 
 The settlement thus achieved by Rhodes after these 
 long weeks of suspense and danger was never broken. 
 He had succeeded by his confidence and courage, by his 
 sjnnpathetic understanding of the workings of the native 
 mind, and above all by his abihty to recapture that lost 
 quahty of patience which had characterized the old Rhodes 
 
THE NEW BEGINNING 291 
 
 of the breakfast with Groot Adriaan De la Rey, of the 
 night-long vigil with Barney Bamato at Kimberley, or of 
 the happy relations with the Dutch, when he could " sit 
 down and argue with a man." It was one of the great 
 incidents of his life, the most complete single achievement, 
 and the one which gave him, perhaps, the most unalloyed 
 satisfaction. 
 
 Unfortunately the trouble in Rhodesia did not come to 
 an end with this settlement. Hardly had Rhodes, with 
 most of the available fighting men in Mashonaland, arrived 
 to relieve Buluwayo than another serious revolt broke out 
 in the country they had just left. The Mashonas had 
 always been regarded as an unwarhke people Mttle Mkely 
 to take up arms, but they were stimulated to revolt by 
 the prophecies of a venerated seer, who Mved in a cave, 
 as well as by the example of their former masters, the 
 Matabeles. Their revolt was much more troublesome to 
 quell than the other, as they had no such corporate 
 existence, each of the many chieftains with his kraal being 
 a law unto himself : so each had to be defeated separately. 
 The revolt accordingly dragged on from June 1896 to 
 October 1897, the natives taking refuge in the innumerable 
 caves of the country, whence they made raids on the 
 English : and the method sometimes adopted of dealing with 
 them was to blow up their fastnesses with dynamite. During 
 part of this guerilla warfare Rhodes had to be away giving 
 evidence before the Committee in London, but as soon as 
 he was released he hurried back to his country. It must 
 be remembered that all this time Rhodes had no official 
 position of any kind there : for he was no longer a director 
 and had no more status than any other settler. But Rhodes 
 was Rhodes, and, wherever he was, could no more be ignored 
 than the sun or the weather. He once made himself colonel 
 of a column to bring to an end the disputes between two 
 officers of equal rank ; he told generals and others in 
 the Imperial service when he thought their work was done, 
 and saw that they took the hint for their departure ; and 
 everybody, high or low, looked to him for help and counsel. 
 While the guerilla war was still going on he did not neglect 
 the material development of the country. He set himself 
 
292 CECIL RHODES 
 
 the task of importing cattle from the Cape, from the Argen- 
 tine and from Australia, to make good the terrible ravages 
 of 'the rinderpest ; finding that the Beira-Salisbury railway 
 could not be laid to the existing site of Umtali except at a 
 prohibitive cost, he boldly moved the whole township ten 
 miles farther east with full compensation to the stand- 
 holders ; the insurgent Mashonas had destroyed a large 
 section of his Trans-African telegraph line, but undismayed 
 he started laying it again at once. Where this pet project 
 was concerned he was ruthless in hustling on his agents to 
 almost superhuman exertions. When one of them grumbles 
 at difficulties, he replies, " I cannot understand people 
 undertaking a job and then not finishing it. ... I am 
 determined to finish the telegraph this year to Blantsnre " ; 
 and though, owing to the destruction of the line, this was 
 not accomplished till April in the following year, 1898, he 
 was justifiably proud of the speed with which the line 
 had been laid through some hundreds of miles of alnaost 
 unexplored territory. 
 
 All this work he loved. He felt he was doing some- 
 thing definitely useful for his fellows : he was, as he called 
 it, " creating." Speaking to his Rhodesians almost for the 
 last time, he expressed some of his joy in this " creating." 
 "To be in this country," he said, " is surely a happier 
 thing than the deadly monotony of an English country 
 town or the still deadUer monotony of a Karroo village. 
 Here at any rate you have your share in the creation of a 
 new country. . . . You have the proud satisfaction of 
 knowing that you are civihzing a new part of the world. 
 Those who fall in that creation fall sooner than they would 
 in ordinary life, but their lives are better and grander." 
 He loved, too, the roaming life on the open veld, which 
 this work of supervising the development of his country 
 entailed. There he was most at home, there most himself. 
 He was fortunate in having with him then in Rhodesia the 
 friend most suited to his mood. Lord Grey, gallant and 
 courageous as himself and of a sunnier nature. Grey had 
 many stories of his talks with his friend as they rode together 
 over the plains or sat beside the camp-fire, stories which 
 reveal softer sides of the man's nature rarely shown to 
 
THE NEW BEGINNING 293 
 
 others. " Why," asked Grey of him one day, " do you 
 always give away cheques of £20, £^0, £50 or more to 
 every ne'er - do - weel who whines to you for help ? " 
 " Well," said Rhodes, " a man once came to me in Cape 
 Town and said he was on his beam-ends, could I lend him 
 something ? I didn't hke the fellow's face and refused, 
 and that same night he committed suicide. That was a 
 lesson to me ; and since then I have never dared to refuse 
 money to folks who are hard up." One night Grey was 
 sleeping soundly in his tent after a hard day's ride when 
 suddenly he awoke with a start to find Rhodes, clad only 
 in a flannel shirt, leaning over him and shaking him : 
 " Wake up. Grey, wake up ! " " Eh, what's the matter ? 
 Is the tent on fire ? " sleepily murmured Grey. " No, no, 
 but I just wanted to ask you, have you ever thought how 
 lucky you are to have been born an Englishman when 
 there are so many millions who were not born Englishmen ? 
 And that's not all : there you are, over forty, with a clean 
 and healthy body and a sound mind when you might have 
 been riddled with disease. That's all : that's all I wanted 
 to say." " The dear old fellow," said Grey to himself, 
 " he had been thinking of the Raid and was trying to do 
 a bit of his ' looking at the comparative.' " Then there 
 is the well-known story of Grey breaking to him the news 
 of the burning of Groote Schuur. " I've bad news for you," 
 said Grey, with a telegram in his hand. " Tell it me quick, 
 then," said Rhodes, " so that I may know the worst " ; and 
 when he had heard, " Nothing worse than that ? That's 
 all right. Why, I thought you were going to say it was the 
 Doctor." 
 
 Ill 
 
 At first he took little part in Cape poHtics. In 1896 
 he did not appear at all in the House, in spite of an urgent 
 appeal from some of his truest friends to make at least 
 one speech in extenuation of his fault, by reminding the 
 House of all he had done for the colony as Prime Minister. 
 But in refusing he was probably wiser than they, for his 
 work in Rhodesia was the best acknowledgement of repent- 
 ance he could offer. But on his return from England next 
 
294 CECIL RHODES 
 
 year he was in his place for a few weeks and made a couple 
 of speeches on indifferent matters. The House maintained 
 its reputation for courtesy, for nobody attacked him or 
 made any allusion to the past ; while some of his old 
 Dutch friends, who used to call him affectionately " De 
 Oud Kerel," said after heading him : " There spoke our old 
 Rhodes. It is the first time we have heard him since the 
 Raid." At the end of that year he began to take a more 
 active interest again in Cape poMtics. He was stung by the 
 suggestions made by some of his old friends that his best 
 retreat was " a hermit's cell somewhere on the Zambesi " ; 
 " but," he added, " I have not the sUghtest intention of 
 being driven out." He was especially taken up then and 
 during the succeeding year in the elections, in which the 
 Progressives, the party newly formed to resist the Bond, 
 made their first appearance. In consequence of the Raid 
 the Bond had gained a great many new adherents, such as 
 Sauer, Merriman and Schreiner, who was appointed by 
 Hofmeyr its leader in the House. The old race-antagonism 
 was reviving, and the coolness towards Kruger had quite 
 disappeared. The principal tenets of the Progressives were 
 anti-Krugerism, redistribution, to remove the unfair ad- 
 vantage of the country districts over the towns, and the 
 union of South Africa : a programme inspired by Rhodes. 
 
 On both sides great activity was displayed at these 
 elections of 1898 and much money spent. The Bond 
 were accused of drawing funds from the secret service 
 chest of the Transvaal, and Rhodes himself spent lavishly 
 on the election, an expenditure which he frankly admitted 
 and defended when charged with it. H^ stood himself for 
 two constituencies : Namaqualand, a safe seat for his party, 
 and his old seat, Barkly West, where the large Dutch 
 element made it rather doubtful if he would succeed. But 
 he himself was determined to get elected at Barkly West for 
 that very reason. " It may be asked," he told his electors 
 there, " why do I worry or bother with this constituency ? 
 My answer is that I wish to show that, whatever may have 
 been my mistakes, I still keep the strong support of a large 
 section of the Dutch people, that I have a broad idea as to 
 the union of Africa, and that I have not altered my ideas 
 
THE NEW BEGINNING 295 
 
 in the least about the equahty of the races, and that I am 
 prepared to meet Dutch audiences equally with English. 
 ... I want to show that I still have a large section of the 
 Dutch electors in my favour." He travelled all over the 
 constituency, meeting the Dutch farmers, regretting that 
 he had not been born in the country, so that he could talk 
 to them in Dutch, and expounding his views in every village. 
 He also made speeches for the party at Cape Town and Port 
 Elizabeth, and was consulted on every electoral difficulty 
 that arose. A suggestion was made that the Doctor should 
 stand ; and Rhodes, whose tender devotion to him after 
 he had " upset his apple-cart " is one of the finest traits in 
 his character, was all for it. But most of his friends wisely 
 decided that the time had not yet come ; and Jameson 
 postponed to a later date the rehabilitation he so splendidly 
 achieved. Had not Rhodes felt, as he surely did now, 
 that his own days were numbered, it would in some ways 
 have been better for his fair fame could he also have waited. 
 For in the heat of the election he said many hard and bitter 
 things of old aUies and friends, parted from him solely on 
 account of his own misdeeds, things that one would wilUngly 
 forget. But Rhodes's theory was, " What is the good of 
 friends to me when I am right ? I want them when I 
 am wrong " ; and to those who had left him at such a time 
 he was brutal and unforgiving. However, he achieved two 
 objects by his campaign. Though his party were defeated 
 in the coimtry, his own triumphant return for his old 
 constituency, Barkly West, proved that he was right in 
 believing that many of his former friends among the Dutch 
 still remained faithful to him personally. He also made 
 men talk and think of his dream, a united South Africa. 
 
 Speaking of union Rhodes would always adopt a severely 
 practical line of argument. He would begin by pointing 
 out to his audiences, mostly composed of farmers, the 
 intolerable burdens they suffered from excise laws, from 
 customs barriers at every state frontier, from the irritating 
 tariffs of rival state railways, matters they could all under- 
 stand. Then he would lead them on, with some such 
 remark as, " After all, the general questions of South Africa 
 and the parish pump are wonderfully intermingled," to 
 
296 CECIL RHODES 
 
 consider that a federal union under which all these material 
 squabbles would disappear would also be the best means 
 of abolishing the perennial sore of racial strife. One of the 
 suggestions he made was that, if the Republics hung back 
 at first, Rhodesia and the two colonies should form a federa- 
 tion into which the others would soon be bound to come. 
 To this he was reduced largely owing to his own plottings 
 and the Raid ; for Kruger had hardened his heart the more 
 in consequence, and the Cape Dutch, who alone could have 
 brought in the Transvaal, were estranged. Perhaps the 
 most important disciples he made were in Natal, a colony 
 hitherto inclined to stand aloof from the rest of South 
 Africa. Escombe, it will be remembered, was already a 
 convert to his views on union, and with time he became 
 more enthusiastic. He writes to Rhodes in 1898 that he 
 has sent a letter to Laurier in Canada asking for suggestions 
 and is digesting other federal constitutions : he even pro- 
 poses a motion in the Natal ParUament in favour of imion. 
 In the following year he had actually made a draft 
 constitution for the " South African Commonwealth " 
 based on Austrahan Acts, on the Mnes Rhodes had always 
 laid down : the Governor-General to fly the flag of the 
 United Kingdom, and each colony, state or province to 
 maintain its own flag and, subject to the constitution, its 
 own laws. But the most remarkable symptom of the 
 growing feehng for South African sohdarity in Natal was 
 the invitation given to Rhodes in the last year of his hfe 
 to sit for Newcastle as their representative on the Legislative 
 Council. 
 
 All these signs may well have cheered Rhodes, but he 
 was not destined to enter into the promised land. Plans 
 and hopes of union were all brought to naught by the 
 outbreak of the South African War. The antagonisms of 
 race he had laboured so long to allay were started into 
 fresh malevolent growth. Escombe, too, his strongest 
 supporter, died prematurely. But even at this dark time, 
 burdened himself and fevered with impatience by his own 
 faihng vigour, Rhodes never despaired. And, indeed, his 
 ideas did not die. When he himself was dead and men 
 had forgotten his faults, remembering only what South 
 
THE NEW BEGINNING 297 
 
 Africa owed him, their thoughts turned more and more 
 to the solution of their chief difficulties that he had 
 preached to them in and out of season. When the Union 
 Convention met, many of its members said to themselves, 
 as Jameson did and as his master Rhodes would have said : 
 " We must give up many small things if we are to attain 
 the bigger thing, Union ; for that cannot be attained 
 without sacrificing many of our personal predilections." 
 So when the first great difficulty appeared, the language 
 question, it was Jameson who proposed that the EngHsh 
 and Dutch languages should be on an absolutely equal 
 footing : whilfe his great fight was on equal voting powers 
 for all : in both respects following out Rhodes's maxim, 
 " Race feeling wiU go on until equal rights are given." So 
 on the native question, which Rhodes had foreseen would 
 be one of the great stumbHng-blocks, the Cape consented, 
 without giving up her own liberal franchise, to the 
 compromise by which the other provinces retained their 
 more stringent law. And so was fulfilled the aspiration 
 in one of Rhodes's most combative election speeches. 
 " We must forget the past," he said, addressing the 
 Afrikanders, " we must forget the past, and work with 
 you again in the future, for we are convinced that our 
 main objects — the gradual acquisition of Africa and the 
 union of South Africa — ^are one and the same." 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 
 THE ST. martin's SUMMER 
 
 The four years in Rhodes's life succeeding the Raid are, 
 as an example of his grit and dogged determination in 
 overcoming difficulties, the most marvellous even in his 
 meteoric career. He knew himself to be under sentence of 
 death, he was still rgehng from a blow which would have 
 crushed many of the strongest, and he had every inducement 
 that wealth and friendship could give to pass the remainder 
 of his days in peace and comfort. But peace and comfort 
 did not enter into his scheme of Hfe, and never less so than 
 when he felt that his days were numbered and that he had 
 a fault to retrieve. He dropped none of his old interests, 
 but took up new ones with zest and seemed to bring to 
 them all the old energy and directing capacity. Certainly 
 his feUow-shareholders in his great commercial concerns, 
 De Beers and the Gold Fields, could not complain of any 
 neglect on his part. In the midst of the excitement caused 
 by his journey to London to " face the music," he found time 
 to preside at the De Beers General Meeting at Kimberley and 
 give the shareholders a lucid and most encouraging account 
 of their concerns. For this Company he was always thinking 
 out fresh plans of economizing in the workings and in- 
 creasing its usefulness to the community. He took very 
 seriously his trust to dispose of the surplus profits for 
 public objects, such as grants for educational purposes, a 
 sanatorium for Kimberley, which, he said, " I have always 
 thought would be an admirable place for people with chest 
 complaints from home," volunteer corps and a local 
 exhibition. He also took the chief part in establishing a 
 dynamite factory for the benefit of both companies, to save 
 
 298 
 
THE ST. MARTIN'S SUMMER 299 
 
 them the extortionate charges made by the importing 
 firms ; and induced De Beers to devote large amounts of 
 its earnings to experiments valuable to the colony, such as 
 horse-breeding and farming. 
 
 One subject, however, though it still interested him 
 deeply, he never touched : the internal affairs of the 
 Transvaal. He had burnt his fingers there once, and, as 
 he said to a German interviewer, " a burnt child dreads 
 the fire. I keep aloof from the whole Transvaal crisis, so 
 that no one may be able to say if things go wrong that 
 Rhodes is in it again." This self-imposed restraint was 
 much eased by his complete confidence in the new Governor, 
 who came out in May 1897. Sir Alfred Milner was a man 
 after Rhodes's own heart. A pupil and follower of his 
 friend Stead in the new conception of the British Empire 
 as a power to be strengthened for good in the world by the 
 closest union of its parts, he had come to South Africa far 
 otherwise equipped for his task than the ordinary colonial 
 governor, both in mental attainments and by his long 
 training, first in social work and the best kind of journalism 
 and then in high Government posts at home and abroad. 
 The two men met on the veld in Rhodesia and conceived a 
 liking and admiration for each other. Rhodes naturally did 
 not attempt to obtrude his advice about Cape politics or 
 Transvaal affairs on Milner, nor would Milner have allowed it; 
 for he was determined to take his own line in deahng with the 
 problems which had been agitating South Africa so long and 
 to rely on his own judgement. But they had occasionally to 
 confer on Rhodesian affairs, especially when Milner came on 
 a visit of inspection to that country at the end of 1897, and 
 discovered that each was big enough to do his own work 
 without interfering with the other. Indeed the relations 
 between the two men redound to the credit of both ; for 
 they were not easy relations. Rhodes was not wont to make 
 it easy for any one who came in his way, governor or no 
 governor ; and there was Milner, practically sent to take 
 out of his hands affairs he had mismanaged. In respect 
 to that particular business Rhodes used to say, " Oh, it's all 
 right in Milner's hands," and left it there quite contentedly. 
 Later, when the war had fixed policy irretrievably. 
 
300 CECIL RHODES 
 
 the two men saw one another and corresponded rather 
 more freely. Rhodes sends Mibier long letters about his 
 proposed scheme for the settlement of English colonists 
 in the country districts to the end that they might mix 
 more with the Dutch and help to break down the bitterness 
 of racial feeling, largely due to want of acquaintance with 
 one another. MUner helps Rhodes with suggestions for 
 getting over difficulties in Rhodesia, encourages him in 
 his trans-continental railway and telegraph plans, and 
 gives him a friendly hint as to the best moment for approach- 
 ing Chamberlain on a guarantee scheme for the Rhodesian 
 railways. " The objection you may take to all this is," 
 he writes, " that you are going over now and not in the 
 autumn, and I quite agree that, as your personal advocacy 
 of the scheme in London is essential to its success, it would 
 be a bore for you not to be able to settle it now, as this 
 might involve another journey at an early date. I admit 
 this, but I fancy that, if my arguments are good, and the 
 chances of your succeeding six months or a year hence are 
 far greater than now, you would make very little of the 
 personal inconvenience." 
 
 But the letter which best shows the relations between 
 the two men is one written by Lord Milner when some 
 busybodies were tr5dng to stir up strife between them. 
 Rhodes had apparently once done the same thing on his 
 side, " a confidence," says Milner, " which you once showed 
 me, and for which I have always felt grateful." As to 
 the present attempt, he continues, " it is a crazy scheme, 
 and it is not from any fear of your lendilig an ear to it, 
 especially after the generous and consistent support you 
 have shown me through aU this trying crisis — and that at 
 a time when my position was much weaker than it is to-day 
 — that I am writing these lines ; . . . [but] in view of the 
 future and of the infinite importance, for public reasons, 
 of a continued good personal understanding and absolute 
 frankness between you and me about the hes, innuendoes 
 and suggestions which may be poured into your ear in the 
 course of it. Therefore I say to you precisely as you once 
 said to me — if you are told anything about myself, which 
 implies either that I distrust your co-operation with me, 
 
THE ST. MARTIN'S SUMMER 301 
 
 or that I wish to hamper your own big work or detract 
 from the influence which you exercise and always must 
 exercise in the development of S. Africa — please, do me the 
 justice and the kindness absolutely to disbelieve it. I don't 
 for the life of me see why we should ever clash, for there is 
 work enough for both of us in all conscience, in the next 
 year or two, in working out the future of the great British 
 country here, which is going, I trust, not only to federate 
 itself, as a free nation hke Canada and Australia, but to 
 be one of the means of federating the Empire. 
 
 " Of course, we may differ, here and there, as to poHcy. 
 If so, I am sure we can in the future, as in the past, discuss 
 all differences frankly and with mutual trust, brushing 
 aside the suspicions and the arriere-pensees which certain 
 reptiles are never tired of trying to implant in the minds of 
 both of us." 
 
 Among the schemes Rhodes took up with special zest 
 after his fall was model farming on a great scale! He had 
 been ruminating such a project when he was Prime Minister, 
 " as an example which will be a large benefit throughout 
 the colony," but he does not seem to have taken it up 
 seriously tiU he was released from the trammels of office. 
 His original idea was that it should be an enterprise financed 
 with De Beers money, and so he proposed to the shareholders 
 in his speech at Kimberley in 1896. But, as was often his 
 way, he began the v/ork as a private experiment of his 
 own in partnership with Beit. His own modest account 
 of the experiment is given in a letter he wrote to Lord 
 Milner : " In a small way I have tried to encourage fruit 
 cultivation in the Cape Colony and possess some twenty 
 or thirty farms in the Paarl and SteUenbosch districts. 
 Owing to their special knowledge the men in charge of 
 these farms are almost entirely English, who have studied 
 fruit-cultivation in California ; and for the first time we 
 have a number of English on the land in these districts. 
 At first they were looked upon with suspicion and distrust 
 by their neighbours.'^ This feeling has now totally altered. 
 
 1 When Rhodes first began to purchase farms, there was a hubbub 
 in 0ns Land, the Dutch paper, Rhodes being accused of sinister designs 
 on the Dutch. So great secrecy had to be maintained at first about the 
 
302 CECIL RHODES 
 
 They mix socially with the neighbouring farmers ; they are 
 intermanying with the Dutch and the whole tone of these 
 two districts is changing." The experiment was begun 
 about 1897 with the engagement of Mr. Pickstone, a man 
 of great experience in the methods of Cahfornian fruit 
 growing and packing, who had hitherto failed in his South 
 African ventures, but whom Rhodes unhesitatingly picked 
 out as the very man for the job. Rhodes's confidence was 
 fully justified, for no man could have been more whole- 
 hearted in his devotion to his employer's interests or to 
 his idea in starting the scheme. Under his careful manage- 
 ment the farms were rapidly developed and made examples 
 to the whole of South Africa in scientific fruit culture. 
 Within four years some 150,000 fruit trees — pears, apples, 
 prunes, apricots, peaches and Japanese plums — were 
 planted on the quincunx system ; and it was calculated 
 that in the fourth year from planting the orchards should 
 pay their expenses. Vines also were planted on some of 
 the farms, and plans were made for artificial irrigation, for 
 a cannery and for a light railway to take the produce to 
 market or on shipboard for export. Special attention was 
 paid to this export trade, to develop which Rhodes spared 
 no expense in bringing over expert sorters and packers 
 from America. This proved so successful that the first 
 sample cases sent to Covent Garden and to America were a 
 revelation to the dealers and gave the start to a new South 
 African industry, an industry which has now attained 
 such large proportions that Cape plums, once a rarity for 
 the milhonaire's table, are now seen ever3rwhere, even 
 on the humble coster's barrow. Both Rhodes and his 
 manager were determined that the experiment should not 
 be a mere luxury, but put on a paying basis as soon as 
 possible, for, as the latter said, " A scheme founded on 
 philanthropic lines is of no benefit to the community, but 
 a business scheme, which can pay a dividend, is of undoubted 
 assistance to any country." 
 
 But the farm experiment did not end there. Mr. 
 Baker discovered that one of the farms had excellent clay 
 for tile- and brick-making; just the thing needed for the 
 introduction of a South African tile industry, which he and 
 
THE ST. MARTIN'S SUMMER 303 
 
 Rhodes were anxious to create ; so the latest brick-kilns 
 and tile works were established and a new manufacture 
 started. Rhodes also built a model village on another of 
 the farms for the coloured labourers on the estate. The 
 village was designed by Mr. Baker, and had a church and a 
 parsonage for the Dutch parson engaged to look after the 
 spiritual wants of the inhabitants. One of the coloured 
 women was once describing to a visitor how she came there. 
 " Let me tell you," said she, " that I was living with all 
 my family in a little one -roomed pondokice [i.e. mud 
 hut], as most of us coloured labourers are obliged to Uve, 
 and the ' Big Master ' came to see me and he looked at me 
 and my hovel and said, ' Now if I give you a nice cottage, 
 all beautifully clean and pretty for the same rent you pay 
 for this hovel, viz. los. a month, will you promise me to 
 ever keep it as you find it, clean and bright ? ' ' Yes,' I 
 replied, and the ' Big Master ' smiled and did as he said, 
 and now I and all who Mve here keep our cottages as you 
 see them to-day, always skoon en blink [i.e. clean and shin- 
 ing], for you see at any moment the ' Big Master ' may come 
 and we must keep our promises. Don't come and tell us 
 any lies about him, for we know what he has done and 
 we love him." Rhodes, indeed, was a model employer. 
 Whereas most farmers tried to influence their boys entirely 
 through the wine bottle, the rule on Rhodes's Farms was 
 that no wine was given ; and it was found that the boys 
 were best influenced by the managers being able themselves 
 to do the work. 
 
 Finally, after Rhodes had proved the success of the 
 experiment, the estate and business of " Rhodes's Fruit 
 Farms " was turned into a limited habihty company, in 
 which nearly aU the shares were held by Rhodes himself, 
 Beit and De Beers, each of these having provided over 
 £60,000 of the initial capital required, and Rhodes having 
 made aU the first advances out of his own pocket. 
 
 He also had two farms of his own, which he dearly 
 loved, in Rhodesia. He loved them perhaps for the reason 
 he gave in one of his speeches : " Because life on a South 
 African farm gives a good deal of time for thinking." 
 One was a vast estate of 100,000 acres at Inyanga, in 
 
304 CECIL RHODES 
 
 Eastern Mashonaland, which he bought in 1897 for over 
 £50,000. This was given over to the management of his 
 friend Grimmer, and was especially valuable as grazing 
 ground. Here Rhodes made trials of various kinds of stock, 
 Angora goats, sheep and cattle of different breeds, to see 
 if they were suited to the climate of Rhodesia. He also 
 tried cereals, vegetables and fruit trees, but without great 
 success. " Do you not think Inyanga the best place in 
 Africa for farming ? " he asked one of his farmers ; "I 
 should like to see it next year about February or March, 
 as I am very fond of the place." The difference between 
 this and the other farm, Westacre in the Matoppos, was 
 thus expressed by one who knew them both : " Inyanga 
 is a country hke Scotland, which to enjoy one must walk 
 over : Matoppos one rides through." 
 
 During his long sojourn in those Matoppo Hills in 1896 
 he had discovered two spots which made a lasting impression 
 upon him. One was the hill with the wonderful vi6w which 
 he came upon in the course of a long ride with George 
 Wyndham and Grey, and promptly christened the " View 
 of the World." Near by was Moselikatze's grave, which 
 had made so strong an appeal to his sense of fitness and 
 grandeur.^ Some PhiUstine had rifled the remains, and 
 Rhodes had immediately recovered them, summoned all 
 the chief Matabeles, and re-interred them with fitting 
 barbaric pomp. He had also determined to make the 
 " View of the World " the Westminster Abbey of Rhodesia, 
 — " My church is the Mountain," he used to say at Cape 
 Town, — there to put up the Wilson Memorial and the 
 monuments of any who should hereafter deserve well of 
 Rhodesia. Here, too, was to be his own last resting-place, 
 his bit of 6 feet by 4 feet, that he was wont to speak of as 
 his last possession. 
 
 The other discovery was a tract of singularly rich soil 
 by a gap in the hills. " Providence," he said, " left this 
 gap in the hills for a purpose, and we must respond. Get 
 a good engineer and arrange for him to prepare surveys for 
 a dam and furnish us with an estimate of the cost." Hardly 
 sooner said than done. Mr. M'Donald, the factor to whom 
 
 1 See Chap. XIV. p. 231. 
 
THE ST. MARTIN'S SUMMER 305 
 
 charge was given of the estate Rhodes had promptly 
 bought near the gap, was told to get the work going. The 
 plans for the undertaking, which was to cost some £30,000, 
 took a year to prepare, hardly quick enough for Rhodes's 
 impatience ; but then he himself was largely to blame, for 
 during the preparation of the plans and also during the 
 whole course of the work he was always making fresh 
 suggestions. He made friends with Aird, the contractor 
 for the great Nile dam, and was always taking hints from 
 him and others about the best models of valve or other 
 new devices in dam-construction. " Mr. Rhodes," says 
 M'Donald wearily, " keeps making alterations, which I 
 admit have so far been good. He talks dams with every- 
 body that has one, and gets new ideas which his secretary 
 writes me at his request." The construction, which was 
 pressed on with the utmost goodwill by factor, engineer 
 and workmen, took nearly four years. As always happens 
 in such enterprises, faults in the rock and other unexpected 
 troubles occurred ; but when at last completed it was 
 a triumphant success. The scale of the undertaking may 
 be gauged from the measurements of the embankment, 
 which was 1200 feet long, 75 feet high, 15 feet wide at the 
 top, and 390 feet at the bottom ; the reservoir stretched 
 back from this embankment a quarter of a mile and held 
 50 million gallons of water, and it was calculated to irrigate 
 2000 acres in the valley below. 
 
 The Matoppos farm, like Inyanga, was principally used 
 as an experimental station for the benefit of the settlers, 
 a purpose that was perpetuated by the clause in the will 
 directing the trustees to cultivate both farms " for the 
 instruction of the people of Rhodesia." Oats, maize, 
 mangels, potatoes and lucerne do best on the Matabeleland 
 farm, which also makes a good show of pigs, poultry, cattle, 
 ostriches and fruit trees. Rhodes here, as at Groote 
 Schuur, wanted others to share what gave him so lUuch 
 delight. At the opening of the railway to Buluwayo in 
 1897 he invited all the assembled guests to a huge picnic 
 he gave there, and he always encouraged chance visitors 
 or holiday-makers from Buluwayo to come out and see 
 the View of the World, Later he had an hotel built 
 
 X 
 
3o6 CECIL RHODES 
 
 in the neighbourhood and a light railway made from 
 Buluwayo ; none too soon, for his sorely tried factor 
 complains that he had had to entertain about 150 visitors 
 within two and a half months. But, with Henry V., 
 Rhodes could exclaim, " I care not who doth feed upon 
 my cost." Rhodes was particularly fond of sending out 
 thither tired secretaries or friends, beUeving that quiet 
 meditation in that glorious scenery was the best cure 
 for jangled nerves. For the same reason he kept 
 on one of his quite impracticable farmers, a regular 
 Diogenes he is described, because, in spite of his vile 
 farming, " his philosophical meditations " were suited to 
 the place. 
 
 In April 1898 Rhodes was restored to the board of the 
 British South Africa Company : not that it made any real 
 difference to his power, for during the two years he had been 
 ofS. the board he had taken a greater part in the affairs of the 
 country than at any previous period ; and the chairman said 
 he had always been consulted on every important decision : 
 but it pleased and touched him. The meeting at which he 
 was re-elected was packed. His name was proposed by 
 one of his old Rhodesians, Weston- Jarvis, who gave as his 
 best quahfication that he was accessible to all men, and 
 seconded by the Duke of Abercom. By the cheers from the 
 whole hall that greeted this nomination and that were 
 redoubled when Rhodes appeared and stood forward to 
 address them, the shareholders showed that they had lost 
 nothing of their old enthusiasm and affection for him. He 
 had already been negotiating with the Colonial Of&ce 
 about the new constitution for Rhodesia, rendered necessary 
 by the Jameson Raid. The chief points of interest in the 
 new Order in Council, issued in November 1898, were 
 three. First, the Imperial Government took definite powers 
 of exercising control over the administration of the country 
 by providing for a resident commissioner to act as the High 
 Commissioner's eyes and ears, and an Imperial Command- 
 ant-General over the Company's pohce and volunteers. 
 Secondly, Rhodes secured his long-cherished object of a 
 clause to prevent the raising of the Rhodesian customs 
 duties on British imports above the existing Cape tariff, a 
 
THE ST. MARTIN'S SUMMER 307 
 
 first step, he hoped, to a general system of preference for 
 the Empire, and, by its insertion in the constitution, as 
 difficult to alter, he argued, as a clause in the United 
 States constitution. Thirdly, a move was made in the 
 direction of self-government by the estabUshment of a 
 legislative council, of which the settlers were entitled to 
 elect a minority of the members. In his speech at Bulu- 
 wayo in June 1896 Rhodes had indicated that he was in 
 favour of this, and at Salisbury in the following November 
 had dwelt more expMcitly on the near approach of a 
 representative system, with the sole reservation that, as 
 long as the shareholders paid for the country, the Company 
 must have the deciding voice. Since the directors endorsed 
 his views Chamberlain was only too willing to give effect 
 to the proposal. 
 
 No trouble seemed too great for him and no detail too 
 trivial when it was a question of Rhodesia. He looked 
 forward to the day when Southern Rhodesia, as a self- 
 governing community, would take a decisive part in South 
 African poHtics, and he was convinced that the best means 
 of hastening the day was by developing the country's 
 resources and making the settlers self-supporting. Sir 
 Arthur Lawley and Sir WiUiam Milton, the joint-adminis- 
 trators who succeeded Grey, were helped by him in every 
 effort to improve conditions and remove grievances. He 
 founded settlements of Fingoes and Bechuanas to increase 
 the labour supply and give an example of good native 
 methods of agriculture to the Matabeles and Mashonas ; 
 he sanctioned a Salvation Army colony under General 
 Booth, and, as always, welcomed new Dutch and Enghsh 
 settlers. He sent Mr. E. B. Sargent, an authority on 
 questions of education, to plan a good system of national 
 schools. He encouraged by judicious concessions all efforts 
 by genuine workers to develop the gold mines, in which 
 he had the greatest confidence as the chief resource of the 
 country. Northern Rhodesia also, though he never visited 
 it, was not forgotten. He sent two men, Codrington and 
 Coryndon, in whom he had confidence, to govern it, and 
 kept a sharp look-out on their proceedings. There the 
 conditions of climate were so different and the white settlers 
 
3o8 CECIL RHODES 
 
 so few that he insisted on native police instead of an expen- 
 sive and useless European force, of whom he caustically 
 observed : " They would do nothing excepting get fever. 
 Their day's work would be eating three meat-meals, lying 
 on their backs on stretchers : for the balance, reading 
 Tit-Bits and devoting their conversation to cursing the 
 country and the Chartered Company. I don't blame them." 
 He did all he could to help prospecting companies, such as 
 Mr. R. WiUiams's Tanganyika Concessions Syndicate, to 
 discover new openings for mining or agricultiu-al enterprise. 
 And everyTvhere peace and good order were gradually 
 established. Lord Selbome, who visited Northern Rhodesia 
 in 1907, only seven years after the Chartered Company took 
 over full responsibility for it, thus testifies to the value of 
 the work inaugurated there by Rhodes : "I travelled 
 through the country with the same safety and in the same 
 atmosphere of the existence of a civiUzing influence that I 
 should find in the native territories of Cape Colony or in 
 Basutoland. . . . And yet it is not more than fifteen years 
 ago since the Matabele perpetrated their last wholesale 
 massacre on the Batoka plateau, or since the Barotse 
 themselves raided one of their subject tribes. ... It is 
 less than that since masters killed their slaves at will, 
 and since people were constantly being executed for witch- 
 craft." 
 
 He was not so successful in his deaUngs with the Govern- 
 ment about railway extension. The Matabele rebeUion had 
 brought home to him the need of a more rapid construction- 
 of the railways to connect the isolated parts of Rhodesia 
 with sources of supply and reinforcements. Thanks chiefly 
 to the exertions of Sir Charles Metcalfe and the contractors 
 the railway was brought into Buluwayo by 1897 : in the same 
 year Beira was connected with Umtah and two years later 
 with Salisbury. But Rhodes had another railway, not so 
 obviously necessary for the defence of Rhodesia, almost 
 equally at heart : the Cape to Cairo railway. The first 
 section he proposed to lay was from Salisbury across the 
 Zambesi through N.E. Rhodesia to the southern end of 
 Lake Tanganyika : the Imperial Government had already 
 agreed to a railway in Uganda, and he had arranged 
 
THE ST. MARTIN'S SUMMER 
 
 309 
 
 with his friend Kitchener ^ to bring the Egyptian and Soudan 
 system to tlje northern border of Uganda; arrangements 
 were even made for securing that the gauges of the Egyptian 
 and South African systems should be identical : the only 
 portion left over, therefore, was from Tanganyika to the 
 south of Uganda, which he hoped could be settled with 
 the German or Congolese Governments. The demand he 
 made on the British Government was for a guarantee 
 on the section from Salisbury northward to Tanganyika. 
 Chamberlain was at first not averse to the proposal ; but 
 Hicks-Beach, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, would agree 
 only upon such impossible conditions that Rhodes gave 
 up the idea of a Government guarantee in disgust. Though 
 he contained himself enough in his public statement to 
 the shareholders to earn Chamberlain's thanks, in private 
 he remarked of Sir Michael that " he reminds me of the 
 young man in the Bible with our Saviour when asked to 
 part with his wealth." But he was not beaten, and set 
 himself doggedly to collect the capital from shareholders 
 of the Chartered Company, friends in the City and other 
 companies interested in Rhodesian development. The 
 route was changed from a north-easterly to a north-westerly 
 direction chiefly in order to tap the recently discovered 
 Wankie coalfields : this route had the additional advantage 
 to Rhodes's eyes of crossing the Zambesi just below the 
 Victoria Falls ; "I should Uke the spray from them to 
 dash against the railway carriages," he said, and added 
 pathetically, " I want to get there at once, as there is little 
 satisfaction in knowing the railway will reach there after 
 one's death." But he never saw the Falls. 
 
 As his Trans-African telegraph approached Tanganyika, 
 he began to be anxious about the strip between that point 
 and Uganda. It is true that by the Rosebery treaty of 
 1894 provision had been made to connect the line through 
 
 •^ Kitchener and he had long had an understanding about a junction 
 between their respective spheres of work. Chaf&ng telegrams were inter- 
 changed between them when Kitchener got to Sobat and later to Khartoum 
 in his Soudan expedition. Kitchener telUng Rhodes he was likely to be 
 behindhand at the trystiug-place, and Rhodes answering that that was 
 the only fly in his ointment. Kitchener also took special care to tell 
 Rhodes of his brother Frank's wound in the campaign and of his re- 
 instatement in the army. 
 
310 CECIL RHODES 
 
 Congo territory, but unfortunately King Leopold had not 
 received the stipulated payment of the Lado enclave ; ^ and 
 Rhodes's opinion of that monarch was " that it wdU be 
 very difficult ever to get him to any practical conclusion 
 unless he has by far the best of the bargain." The alter- 
 native route to Uganda was through German East Africa. 
 So in March 1899, on his way back to England from Egj^pt, 
 where he had been making arrangements with Kitchener and 
 Cromer for Unking up his line with theirs, he paid visits to 
 Leopold II. and the Kaiser, to find out from which of the 
 two rtionarchs he could get the better terms. Little is known 
 of what actually passed in his private interviews with them,^ 
 but the results are clear. He always afterwards spoke of 
 Leopold with the utmost loathing, and as he came out of 
 his room caught hold of our mihtary attach^, who happened 
 to be passing, and hissed in his ear : " Satan, I tell you that 
 man is Satan." At any rate he got nothing out of him. 
 
 With the Kaiser he found himself at once on the best 
 footing. The interview seems to have started happily with 
 the genial interchange of chaff about the Kaiser's telegram 
 of January 1896 ; * and when it was over Rhodes came 
 out with a promise that he should have every facility 
 for taking his telegraphs through German East Africa. 
 At an Embassy dinner where the two met again they had 
 another long talk together, at the end of which the Emperor 
 called up one of his Ministers and said, " Make a note of 
 this, that when Mr. Rhodes gets into our territory he does 
 not require a mihtary escort for his workers, as that would 
 put him to unnecessary expense." Some of the details had 
 to be worked out between Rhodes and Von Billow and other 
 German Ministers, and the final agreement was not signed 
 till the end of the year, after the despatch of a cable signed 
 " C. J. Rhodes " : " What about my telegraph ? I am close 
 to the German border and should not like to enter German 
 territory without authority. The only alternative dismissing 
 whole staff " ; the cable happily arrived when the Kaiser was 
 
 1 See Chap. XII. p. i8i. 
 
 " Rhodes sent a long letter describing the [interviews to the Prince 
 of iWales (afterwards Edward VII.) ; but the letter does not seem to have 
 been preserved. 
 
 » See Chap. XV. p. 274. 
 
THE ST. MARTIN'S SUMMER 311 
 
 about to visit England and wanted to improve English feeling 
 by publishing the fact of the agreement. In a letter to 
 the Foreign Of&ce Rhodes explained that the Germans 
 naturally required a quid pro quo for their concession, 
 in the shape of permission to land their trans-Atlantic 
 cable at Waterville or Valentia, oh the west coast of Ireland. 
 Rhodes urges the Foreign Ofl&ce to agree to these terms on 
 the grounds that we ought not to foster the monopoly of 
 the existing American Company and that we should have 
 more control over the German cable if it landed in our 
 territory than if it were laid under the sea all the way to 
 America. Finally, the only condition for permission to 
 carry the telegraph Hne through German East Africa was 
 that the Chartered Company should not make a railway Mne 
 to connect with the west coast except through German 
 S.W. Africa ; while a promise was given that if the 
 Germans themselves could not find the capital for a railway 
 line through German East Africa Rhodes should be allowed 
 to construct it. 
 
 Within less than a year of this agreement the telegraph 
 line had been laid over fifty miles in German territory ; 
 and Rhodes had calculated to a nicety the cost of construc- 
 tion from Cape Town to Port Said, the staff required for 
 maintenance, the charge to be made for messages and the 
 dividend that would be payable on capital.^ He humorously 
 defended to the shareholders of the Chartered Company his 
 tariff arrangements with the Egyptian Govermnent before 
 he was on their borders and at their mercy on the ground 
 that, " I will not say for a moment that they would black- 
 mail us, but I have always found my own countrymen 
 are particularly good at a bargain, especially if you find 
 they are the sole people to be dealt with." Another result 
 of his interview with the Kaiser was that he lost aU his 
 apprehensions of German designs against England in Africa, 
 and carried away a vivid appreciation of the Kaiser's quick 
 and business -hke methods. In subsequent speeches he 
 described him as " a big man," " a broad-mmded man " ; 
 
 1 It illustrates Rhodes's thorough methods that to ensure exactitude 
 in his calculations he obtained from Australia all relative statistics about 
 their trans-continental line. 
 
312 CECIL RHODES 
 
 and to a German shortly afterwards he wrote : " Your 
 Emperor was very good to me. As far as myself is con- 
 cerned, I shall not alter my determination to work with 
 the German colonies in Africa," and in answer to a tele- 
 gram of congratulation from the Kaiser after the relief of 
 Kimberley expressed great dehght at " the good feehng 
 your Emperor showed to us." But the most remarkable 
 testimony of his personal gratitude was the provision in 
 a codicil to his will that the German Emperor should choose 
 a certain number of Rhodes scholars annually from his 
 people. 
 
 During this eventful year, 1899, Rhodes may well have 
 felt that the seal was set to his rehabiUtation by two great 
 testimonies to the honour in which he was held. The first 
 was at the last meeting he ever addressed of the British 
 South Africa Company, when the vast hall at the Cannon 
 Street Hotel could not contain the crowd of shareholders 
 that pressed to see and hear him, and after the principal 
 meeting he had to address an overflow meeting on the 
 stairs and corridors, being piloted through the throng by 
 two or three big, burly, smiling poHcemen. His opening 
 words indicated unwonted shjTiess at this great demonstra- 
 tion : "I suppose that the most unhappy thing in the 
 world is for a pubUc man to make a speech, especially the 
 night and day beforehand. The only simile I can think of 
 would be, perhaps, the night and morning of one of our 
 forefathers, just before he went to a State execution." But 
 he soon took heart and made one of his usual rattUng, 
 practical speeches. 
 
 The other and stiU more welcome testimony was the 
 degree of D.C.L., honoris causa, conferred on him at Encaenia 
 by his old and much-loved university. He had the added 
 gratification of receiving the honour at the same time as 
 Kitchener, the friend who was working in co-operation with 
 him from the other end of Africa, the recent victor of 
 Omdurman. There had been some opposition to the degree 
 in Oxford, but this was more than counterbalanced by 
 the extra warmth of the reception accorded him. He was 
 ingenuously pleased and said so, as soon as he got back 
 to Cape Town. After describing his interview with the 
 
THE ST. MARTIN'S SUMMER 313 
 
 Kaiser, he went on : " And then, sir, I had the good luck 
 to meet Lord Kitchener in London. We met very fre- 
 quently, and we rode in the park together. I think horse 
 exercise increases the activity of the brain. And we came 
 to a distinct understanding, and I think you will hear 
 before very long that funds have been provided for Lord 
 Kitchener to proceed from Khartoum to Uganda. I had 
 the opportunity of meeting him on several occasions. We 
 met at Oxford. Talking of Oxford, really one sometimes 
 feels fortimate in having done very wrong, because it brings 
 out the affection and support of one's people. Some pos- 
 sessed of the most complete rectitude at Oxford thought 
 I was unworthy of receiving the degree that had been 
 awarded to me. Perhaps it was the most fortunate thing 
 that ever happened to me — I mean their opposition. I 
 went to Oxford with the great general, on whom the eyes 
 of the world were fixed. I think, sir, I should have been 
 almost nobody if it had not been for this opposition to me. 
 But I can assure you, gentlemen, they gave me a greater 
 reception than Lord Kitchener, and you must remember 
 that they were not mere undergraduates of eighteen, but 
 Masters of Arts, gentlemen with grey beards, because after 
 the day's proceedings, the undergraduates numbered 400 
 and the others numbered 5000. Gentlemen, I mention 
 this because one's troubles have brought out one's friends." 
 In more serious vein was the speech he made at the 
 luncheon given in his honour by his old college, Oriel. 
 " Sometimes," he began, " in pursuing my object, the 
 enlargement of the British Empire, and with it the cause of 
 peace, industry and freedom, I have adopted means in 
 removing opposition which were the rough-and-ready way 
 and not the highest way to attain that object. But you 
 must remember that in South Africa, where my work has 
 lain, the laws of right and equity are not so fixed and 
 established as in this country ; and if I have once or twice 
 done things which savoured rather of violence than of 
 protest or peaceful striving, yet you must look back to far- 
 off times in English history for a parallel to the state of 
 
 things in South Africa. I beUeve my ndAbour, the Regius 
 
 ^t 
 
 Professor of History, could tell you thaJB? those past times 
 
314 CECIL RHODES 
 
 there have been not a few men who have done good service 
 to the State, but some of whose actions have partaken of 
 the violence of their age, which are hard to justify in a more 
 peaceful and law-abiding age. It is among those men that 
 my own Hfe and actions must be weighed and measured ; 
 and I trust to the justice of my countrjmaen, of which I 
 thought I read some forecast in the kind reception and 
 appreciation awarded to me here in my old college." 
 
CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 LAST DAYS 
 
 WheK the South African War broke out in October 1899, 
 Rhodes was a tired man. The control over himself, which 
 the catastrophe of the Raid had for a time restored, was 
 gradually sMpping away. His temper, hot and fiery at 
 the best of times, began to regain the mastery ; and he 
 observed no measure with those who had for any cause 
 displeased him. He had long and heated controversies 
 with co-directors in several of his companies, rating them 
 for hot having in all respects followed his advice and speak- 
 ing with a rather sad arrogance of all his own previous 
 services to their shareholders. He often spoke harshly and 
 inconsiderately to subordinates for faults which in better 
 days he would have treated with good-humoured indulgence. 
 To an unfortunate railway manager, for example, who was 
 slower than he liked in sending in some accounts, he tele- 
 graphs in clear, so that all might read : "I order you again 
 
 to send the accounts . . to Cape Town Absolute 
 
 nonsense your suggesting settlement of accotmts should 
 wait. ... Be good enough to do as you are told " ; and 
 to the unfortunate man's protests against his "insulting 
 telegrams " and a " fearful letter " he vouchsafes no reply. 
 In fact it gets to such a pitch that he can barely brook 
 a word of contradiction except from the faithful friend of 
 happier times, the beloved Doctor, who exercises over him 
 almost the only soothing influence. The excuse, and it is 
 some excuse, for this loss of control is that no man's mental 
 and physical strength could stand the tremendous strain 
 Rhodes had been putting on his throughout his life, and 
 especially during the last four years. 
 
 315 . 
 
3i6 CECIL RHODES 
 
 Rhodes had taken no part in the negotiations preceding 
 the war. In accordance with his settled policy he had 
 scrupulously left aU such matters entirely in Sir Alfred 
 Milner's hands. But he had expressed a very decided 
 belief that it would not come to hostilities. In September 
 he had, perhaps rather inadvisedly, presented Kruger with 
 a lion for his Zoo, and was highly indignant when it was 
 returned to him with scant ceremony. " I see no connec- 
 tion," he wrote to the director of the Pretoria Zoo, " between 
 a Zoological Gardens and your Government's present differ- 
 ences with H.M.'s Government. It is the first time that 
 lions and politics have been mixed up. I suppose some one 
 must have chaffed them about the British Hon." Both 
 pubhcly and privately he committed himself to the forecast 
 that " Kruger wiU at the final push give anything . . , 
 nothing will make Kruger fire a shot " ; for he judged from 
 the ease with which the President had been made to climb 
 down about the Drifts affair. The fact was that Rhodes 
 had never fully realized the difference wrought by the Raid 
 in South African poHtics. Kruger himself would probably 
 not have yielded about the treatment of the Uitlanders, 
 Raid or no Raid ; but before that incident Kruger's own 
 position was being so rapidly sapped by the growing 
 alienation of the Cape Dutch and by the opposition to his 
 pohcy in his own country that, had there been no Raid, 
 the obstinate old man would ere this almost certainly have 
 fallen. The Raid had restored his prestige and given a 
 new lease of life to his obstinacy. Moreover, Rhodes forgot 
 that though his dealings with the Kaiser may have convinced 
 him that his own apprehensions of German intrigue were 
 iU-founded, Kruger had not forgotten the telegram and 
 assuredly counted on help from Germany. 
 
 On the eve of the ultimatum Rhodes insisted on taking 
 his place among the defenders of his diamond mines at 
 Kimberley. It was a great risk, because the Boers were 
 known to be anxious to capture him, and the story went 
 that they had planned to exhibit him in a cage as a prisoner 
 throughout the Transvaal. He did extraordinarily good 
 work during the long siege in practical measures for the 
 security and support of the inhabitants. He opened a 
 
LAST DAYS 317 
 
 soup-kitchen to feed the poor, constantly supphed the 
 hospital with grapes from the De Beers vines and other 
 luxuries, arranged for the underground workings of the 
 mines to be used as shell-proof shelters for the women and 
 children, raised bands of natives to act as runners, provided 
 horses and equipment for the volunteer corps, and even 
 succeeded in getting a 28-pounder rifled gun designed and 
 turned out from the De Beers workshops, a gun appro- 
 priately christened " Long Cecil." But when all this is 
 said, it must be admitted that Rhodes did not do himself 
 credit at the Kimberley siege. He could not understand 
 that in a beleaguered town the miUtary officers must 
 necessarily be supreme. He was accustomed to give orders 
 and not to receive them, and he expected the same rule to 
 be observed on this occasion. Naturally Colonel Kekewich 
 did not take the same viev/ of his duties, with the result 
 that long before the end of the siege the two men were not 
 on speaking terms. This was bad enough, for when the 
 principal civihan in the town was notoriously insubordinate, 
 Kekewich's task in maintaining discipline among the 
 inhabitants was made exceedingly difficult. But this was 
 not the worst ; for Rhodes from the outset conceived the 
 idea that all other operations in the war should be brought 
 to a standstill imtil Kimberley was relieved. Almost before 
 the siege had begun he had started bombarding the Governor, 
 Lord Methuen, and other military authorities with demands 
 for a reUeving force to be sent forthwith. He wrote to 
 Colonel Baden-Powell at Mafeking urging him to take the 
 same Hne, he summoned a special meeting of the De Beers 
 directors to make similar representations, and when Roberts 
 and Kitchener came out he was equally vociferous to them. 
 It is, of course, absurd to imagine that he was anxious about 
 his own skin, but he was suffering, in an intensified form, 
 from the same malady which had characterized some of his 
 dealings with Lord Salisbury and other Ministers, a complete 
 inability to see the importance of anything which inter- 
 fered with his own immediate object. Knowing nothing of 
 the relative value of objectives in a campaign and having 
 always a profound contempt for soldiers as such, he decided 
 that the failure to relieve Kimberley at once was simply 
 
3i8 CECIL RHODES 
 
 another instance of military incapacity. It is perfectly 
 true that it would have been a serious blow to the British 
 cause had Kimberley fallen, but not so serious, in spite 
 of all the diamond mines, as to make it worth while to 
 divert the whole course of the campaign to save it. 
 
 Throughout the campaign there was the same inability 
 in Rhodes to conceive that any miUtary object ought to 
 stand in the way of his own plans. When it was not Kim- 
 berley it was something else. Immediately after the siege 
 he offered to forward supplies to Roberts and Kitchener, 
 provided " I have full power and no one to interfere with 
 me. . . . Reply sharp as otherwise I am going to Cape 
 Town." The Field-Marshal and his Chief of the Staff must 
 have felt embarrassed at this peremptory offer of their 
 would-be Moses, the more so as he showed a disposition 
 to dictate to them what their base of supply should be 
 and how many waggon-loads they ought to require : and 
 the arrangement did not last long. In the later stages of 
 the war he again came into conflict with Kitchener. 
 Kitchener wanted to finish off the guerilla war as soon as 
 possible and ordered that all available railway rolling-stock 
 should be employed for military purposes : Rhodes was tired 
 of the war and thought it more important that his rolling- 
 stock should be employed in developing Rhodesia. It had 
 so happened that when Kitchener was pressing forward 
 his desert railway for the Soudan campaign, Rhodes had 
 generously come to his help by allowing him to have some 
 of his new engines destined for Rhodesia ; and now he takes 
 care to remind him of his debt. " Tell K.," he wires to the 
 staff officer, " I lost a lot of time by giving up my engines 
 for his Khartoum trip. I really think this time he should 
 leave my rolling-stock alone." But even this personal 
 appeal ad hominem seems to have met with no response. 
 
 Yet there were still flashes of the great man. One such 
 flash came in October igoo, when Lord Roberts, having 
 reached Pretoria and dispersed the Boer forces, declared 
 that the war was practically at an end ; and this dictum 
 was for a short time accepted by the English, among others 
 by Rhodes. To celebrate the victory of our arms he was 
 invited and consented to address a meeting of the South 
 
LAST DAYS 319 
 
 African League at Cape Town, a body of loyal propagandists, 
 of which he was president. The meeting was held on a fine 
 sunny morning of a South African spring day. The Moun- 
 tain above was clear and sharp, the air fresh : a sense of 
 joy and hope was about. In contrast to the glory outside 
 the meeting gave a dreary impression. It was a mean hall 
 and the audience looked duU : the time being morning, few 
 men were present, and most of the seats were filled with 
 fanatical-looking ladies, who seemed to regard the event 
 they were celebrating as a national triumph of English 
 over Dutch, and by look and tone showed that they at any 
 rate would have scant mercy on the vanquished. Then 
 Rhodes strode in, marched straight to his seat, looking 
 neither to right nor left, and almost at once plunged into his 
 discourse. He was an altered man since that other entry 
 into the committee room at Westminster four years ago. 
 He still had a shy manner, but not the same dazed and 
 nervous look ; physically, though, he was much changed 
 for the worse, with the puffy face and bloated appearance 
 that often comes with an affection of the heart. As he 
 spoke his audience hardly seemed to exist for him. He 
 never glanced at them or at the sordid surroundings, but 
 kept his gaze fixed above their heads at the window in front 
 of him, with that strange dreamer's look in his eyes, as if 
 he were straining for a sight of his Mountain and beyond to 
 the clean sun-washed uplands of the country he had made 
 his own. His first words were like a trumpet-call ; but it 
 was a call little in tune with the mood of such an audience : 
 " You think you have beaten the Dutch ! But it is not so. , 
 The Dutch are not beaten ; what is beaten is Krugerism, a 
 corrupt and evil government, no more Dutch in essence 
 than English. No ! The Dutch are as vigorous and un- 
 conquered to-day as they have ever been ; the country is 
 still as much theirs as it is yours, and you will have to hve 
 and work with them hereafter as in the past. Remember 
 that when you go back to your homes in the towns or in 
 the up-country farms and villages : let there be no vaunting 
 words, no vulgar triumph over your Dutch neighbours ; 
 make them feel that the bitterness is past and that the 
 need of co-operation is greater than ever ; teach your 
 
320 CECIL RHODES 
 
 children to remember when they go to their village school 
 that the little Dutch boys and girls they find sitting on the 
 same benches with them are as much part of the South 
 African nation as they are themselves, and that as they learn 
 the same lessons together now, so hereafter they must work 
 together as comrades for a common object — the good of South 
 Africa." So spake he, and gave them a " thought." ^ 
 
 " What a hypocrite the man must be ! " said an English 
 friend to whom this scene was described, a friend still hot 
 with wrath at the shame of the Raid, and convinced that 
 the war was almost entirely due to Rhodes. But he was 
 not a hypocrite : for in this speech you get the whole 
 essence of Rhodes's Hfe-work for union. He bungled it 
 for his own time, by his impatience and his folly, but he 
 never once swerved from his aim. 
 
 The speech made a great sensation, especially among 
 his friends in England. General Brocklehurst ^ wrote : " I 
 have been rubbing it into every one since I got back that you 
 are the only man who can save South Africa (beginning with 
 the Queen), and I am surprised to find how many of your 
 enemies agree. I told the Queen you and Gordon were the 
 same man, only with different methods — this fairly made 
 her jump, but she ' saw my point,' as you would say. 
 The Government, I am sure, would be only too thankful 
 for you to come out of your tent and give them a lead. I 
 have said you and Milner are on most cordial terms, so that 
 he would approve. My line has been — ^you propose a Federal 
 Parliament right away (no Crown Colonies), yourself at the 
 head of it, compensation for both sides for all damage done 
 during the war, and general amnesty. I've got rather hung 
 up in trying to work this out in detail, but that is where 
 Cecil Rhodes comes in, and it would mean peace, or at least 
 an alternative to the present poUcy of trying to sit on 
 bayonets, which would probably be accepted by the Boer 
 leaders and would bring peace." 
 
 And Lord Grey, ever faithful and enthusiastic, wrote : 
 " The full report of your speech which arrived by last mail 
 
 ^ Rhodes's exact words are not quoted in the above account, but the 
 gist of this speech, spoken twenty years ago, and the whole scene are- 
 indeUbly impressed on my memory. 
 
 ^ Now Lord Ranksborough. 
 
LAST DAYS 321 
 
 has more than confirmed the good impression created by the 
 cabled summary, and has further justified the contention of 
 your Friends that you are the one man who has the 
 qualities of Heart, Head, and Experience required for the 
 task of fusing Boer and Briton. 
 
 " Your speech, in my opinion the best you ever made, 
 cannot fail to make this view popular even in quarters 
 where recently, and perhaps not unnaturally, considering 
 aU things, there has been a strong prejudice against you. 
 I am in hopes that you may be able to find some further 
 opportunity of impressing in your own characteristic and 
 effective fashion, the necessity of every man doing every- 
 thing in his power not only to conquer the resistance but 
 to win the affection and confidence of the Boers." 
 
 Some of his old friends in South Africa also urged him 
 to come forward again after the fall of the Schreiner 
 Ministry in 1900, and Sir Alfred Milner would have welcomed 
 him in office. But his heart was chiefly in Rhodesia, and 
 he did not feel he had the strength to undertake what at 
 best would have proved a thankless task. He was conscious 
 indeed that the centre of interest in South African politics 
 had shifted from his old " dominant state " to the north, 
 the Transvaal or even the Chartered Territory ; so much so 
 that he signed the unfortunate petition for the suspension 
 of the Cape Constitution, a petition which Chamberlain, to 
 his credit, emphatically rejected. 
 
 During these last years he put the finishing touches to 
 
 the Win. He made the first will, it will be remembered,^ 
 
 when he was an almost unknown boy of twenty-four, and 
 
 with all the changes of detail introduced later, never altered 
 
 its main purpose of making his wealth a means of advancing 
 
 the highest interests, as he conceived them, of the British 
 
 Empire. His first idea was to leave the Trustees wellnigh 
 
 unfettered in their discretion as to the best means of carrying 
 
 out his intentions. In the final will of 1899, however, he 
 
 laid down explicitly his central notion of a great educational 
 
 scheme to apply to all the English-speaking portions of 
 
 the globe. The plan he adopted, after long consultations 
 
 with his friends Stead and Hawkesley, was to provide 
 
 1 See Chap. VI. pp. 51-52. 
 
 Y 
 
322 CECIL RHODES 
 
 scholarships for young students from all the self-governing 
 colonies and from the States of America of sufficient value 
 to enable them to have courses at his own university of 
 Oxford, because " I consider that the education of young 
 colonists at one of the universities in the United Kingdom 
 is of great advantage to them for giving breadth to their 
 views, for their instruction in hfe and manners, and for 
 instilling into their minds the advantage to the colonies 
 as weU as to the United Kingdom of the retention of the 
 unity of the Empire. . . . And Paecause] I also desire to 
 encourage and foster an appreciation of the advantages 
 which I implicitly believe wiU result from the union of the 
 EngUsh-speaking people throughout the world." 
 
 In a pencil note to Hawkesley, undated but addressed 
 from " Near Aden," he gives his first sketch of the terms on 
 which the " Rhodes Scholarships " are to be granted and 
 held : "... The conditions for election should not only 
 be for Mterary attainments, but also due weight should be 
 given to the character and social quaUties of the candidates, 
 especially to their being moderately fond of field sports, 
 say cricket and football, I do not want simply ' book- 
 worms ' ; you might copy the idea of the All Souls 
 condition, ' bene natus bene vestitus et moderate doctus.' 
 Of course I object to the snobbishness of the bene natus 
 bene vestitus, but I quote this to give you my idea : to sum 
 up, I mean ' for good Hterary attainments and a taste for 
 outdoor sports.' I have made the amount £250 per annum, 
 as I think a young fellow should five for that sum at Oxford 
 and not require to pinch himself, but my opinion is he 
 cannot do it for less. You wiU note that you will really 
 have to provide for nine [i.e. from South Africa], as there 
 will be three each year for three years continuously. You 
 might point out in the Will that I consider such a course 
 of great advantage to young colonists ' for giving breadth to 
 their views, for giving instruction in life and manners, and for 
 instilling into their minds the advantage to the Colonies as weU 
 as to England of the retention of the Unity of the Empire.' 
 You might also add a suggestion to the authorities at Oxford 
 to try and extend their scope and add if possible to their 
 sphere of instruction a medical school, aiming at equalling 
 
LAST DAYS 323 
 
 the high standard reached at Edinburgh ; there are now 
 over fifty South African students there. I should have 
 given some of the Scholarships to Edinburgh, but they have 
 no residential system and I 'think it most disastrous that 
 yoimg fallows should at the most critical period of their 
 lives be left without supervision ; it leads to the ruin of 
 many, especially of young Colonists from abroad who have 
 no family circles close at hand to act as a check if they have 
 a tendency to waste their time and energies in free living 
 and dissipation. 
 
 " The successful candidates should choose whatever 
 College they like at Oxford, it is a mistake for them to 
 crowd together at one College, they would get too local, 
 they should be spread through the University ; they might 
 have a yearly dinner to compare and celebrate their successes 
 in the Schools and in the field sports." 
 
 These provisions for the " Rhodes Scholarships " are 
 those that attracted most attention in Rhodes's will : 
 with these he was himself most happy. Lord Rosebery 
 relates his sa5dng to him : " When I find myself in un- 
 congenial company, or when people are playing their games, 
 or when I am alone in a railway carriage, I shut my eyes 
 and think of my great idea. I turn it over in my mind and 
 try to get new light on it. It is the pleasantest companion 
 I have." The scheme has now been working for nearly 
 twenty years, and it has proved at least as great a success 
 as the founder hoped. At Oxford, chosen for his experiment 
 quia multum dilexit, young men, from every corner of the 
 British Empire and from every State of the great Republic 
 our fathers founded, come yearly to be taught and to teach 
 the common interests of good government, and to put into 
 practice the Aristotelian theory of virtue, which Rhodes 
 looked on as one of the great precepts of Ufe, ylrvxv<; ivepyeia 
 Kar aperrjv . . . rrjv apiarrfv xal TeXeioTaTqv . . . ev ^i(p 
 reXeia, " the exercise of the human faculties in such 
 way as to develop the highest excellence in the best 
 circumstances." At Oxford, it is said, the Rhodes scholars 
 from the Eastern, Middle, and Western States of America 
 gain a better knowledge of one another's characteristics 
 
324 CECIL RHODES 
 
 and of the wider problems of their own commonwealth than 
 they could ever have done had they never left America ; 
 the Dutch and Enghsh students from South Africa, the 
 French and Enghsh from Canada, the New Zealander and 
 the Austrahan meet on common groimd to discuss problems 
 which for the first time they perceive they have in common ; 
 while the whole university in turn gets a closer acquaintance 
 with the idiosyncrasies of its own citizens from overseas 
 and of the common problems of the Enghsh-speaking races. 
 The Germans, too, who came thither before the war, had 
 learnt to value the pecuharly Enghsh hfe and teaching of 
 Oxford : and it is one of the finest indications of the 
 Oxford spirit conquering the passions of war that one of the 
 colleges commemorated on the same hst with the Enghsh- 
 men their German Rhodes scholar, who had fallen pro patria. 
 
 Various provisions of the wiU illustrate other behefs 
 and aims of Rhodes. He gave munificent endowment to 
 his old coUege, Oriel, with a sly indication that the ^loi; 
 reXeto? does not consist exclusively of an undue asceticism ; 
 in his dispositions for his own family he took precautions 
 that his wealth should never be used to encourage the 
 abhorred breed of " loafers," but that it should help to 
 foster the old " country gentleman " spirit, to which he 
 attributed a large measure of England's greatness. He left 
 Groote Schuur to the Prime Minister of the Union of 
 South Africa, with ample provision for his comfort and 
 dignity : an act of faith in the final realization of the 
 pohcy for which he had made a hfelong struggle. 
 
 His trustees were friends who shared his views, men 
 on whom he could rely to carry out his further un- 
 written desires for advancing the interests of the British 
 Empire : Lord Rosebery, Grey, Beit, Sir Lewis Michell, his 
 trusted banker, Hawkesley, Lord Milner, and, a death-bed 
 choice, the Doctor. Stead had been one of the original 
 trustees, but, though never ceasing to be personal friends, 
 they had parted on the South African War, and Rhodes 
 had expunged his name " on account of his extraordinary 
 eccentricity." 
 
LAST DAYS 325 
 
 The last months of his life were tragic. He was in 
 constant pain from his fatal heart-illness, and vainly sought 
 relief by travel in Italy, in Egypt, or on a moor in Scotland. 
 From this last sojourning-place he dragged himself back, 
 almost d5dng, to South Africa, to deal with a sordid case, 
 in which his name was involved. A woman in whom he 
 had been interested had forged his name to a number of 
 bills of exchange, and the affair was becoming a scandal in 
 Cape Town. He had to give his evidence on his death-bed, to 
 which he took as soon as he landed. The last home chosen 
 for him by the Doctor, who brought him back and tended 
 him with a love passing the love of woman, was a tiny 
 cottage at Muizenberg, close to the seashore, where he 
 could get all the cooling breezes to help him in the prolonged 
 agony for breath. AH old passions were hushed during this 
 lopg struggle of the brave fighter, and friends tallied round 
 him. Hofmeyr, his old aUy, sent him a message of 
 reconciliation, and those since parted, who remembered 
 pleasant commtmings with him in the past, brought their 
 S5mipathy. Daily a cable message would be sent to his 
 friends in London, with Jameson's hopes or fears of his 
 progress, and daily a message of encouragement would 
 come back. 
 
 Rhodes himself, djdng, had all the humility of the great 
 man who has aimed high, and, as with all those who aim 
 highest, has failed in reaching the utmost height. At one 
 time, in his pride, he had felt that at least he had achieved 
 success which would ensure undying glory for his name : 
 but latterly he had come to see the vanity of all human 
 striving and the many points in which he, the strong, the 
 powerful, had failed. " Everything in the world is too 
 short. Life and fame and achievement, everything is too 
 short," he had once said in these latter days to Lord 
 Rosebery : so now, one of his latest utterances, before he 
 breathed his last on March 26, 1902, less than fifty years of 
 age, was " So Uttle done, so much to do." 
 
 He was buried in his chosen resting-place, the View of 
 the World in the Matoppos. A huge concourse greeted 
 him for the last time from all parts of South Africa. Besides 
 his own most faithful friends those who mourned him most 
 
326 CECIL RHODES 
 
 deeply were the people of his own chosen land, among whom 
 he had come to rest : the settlers and the natives, to both 
 of whom he had always stood as the great protector. For 
 the settlers Milton, once his secretary, now the administrator 
 he had picked out, thus spoke of the " profound gloom and 
 sorrow throughout Rhodesia caused by the passing of the 
 great figure to whom all the inhabitants have from its 
 earliest days been wont to turn in their difficulties and 
 doubts for guidance and help. It may be hoped that during 
 the trials of his later days our founder and friend may have 
 been cheered and sustained by the thought that the fabric 
 he had reared rested on no unsure foundation." For the 
 natives he had conquered and then succoured Faku, one 
 of the chiefs of the 1896 indabas, thus spoke : " I am an 
 old man and am on the brink of the grave. I was content 
 to die knowing that my children and my people would be 
 safe in the hands of Mr. Rhodes ; who was at once my 
 father and my mother. That hope has been taken 
 from me and I feel that the sun has indeed set for 
 me." As the coffin was lowered into the rock-hewn grave 
 Faku's tribesmen gave him the royal salute, only given to 
 their kings. 
 
 A simple slab with his name carved on it marks the 
 spot — 
 
 Is Saul dead ? In the depthspf the vale make his tomb — bid arise 
 A grey mountain of marble heaped four-square, till, built to the 
 
 skies, 
 Let it mark where the great First King slumbers : whose fame 
 
 would ye know ? 
 Up above see the rock's naked face, where the record shall go 
 In great characters cut by the scribe, — Such was Saul, so he did. 
 
 This book will have been written in vain, if it has failed 
 to give some impression of what manner of man Rhodes 
 was, what his faults and what his fine points, his aims and 
 his performance : still more will it have failed, has it not 
 made plain that he was one of the great men of the world, 
 great not mainly for any definite achievement^-though 
 in achievement he was also great — but for a personality of 
 
LAST DAYS 
 
 327 
 
 resistless energy and dominating force. He was one of 
 those rare beings of whom one can say that, whatever he 
 turned his hand to, he would have been a master ; and, 
 like all such beings, he seemed to have his star, his aura 
 of success, which fascinated the world and made it jdeld 
 him even more success than he had asked for. Yet, as 
 with Caesar on the Ides of March, or with Napoleon at 
 Waterloo, the star suddenly failed him at a crucial moment, 
 because in his pride he presumed on success and forgot 
 that the strongest may become intolerable. It is this gift 
 of dominating personality which is most elusive to describe 
 and yet which most interests the world, regardless of 
 whether its owner succeeds or fails ; the gift which makes 
 all eyes turn to the man who has it, wherever he appears, 
 though there may be others present who have achieved 
 more or been greater benefactors to humanity. Who 
 would turn to look at Brutus, who overcame Caesar, 
 could he behold Caesar himself, or even Wellington, were 
 Napoleon with him ? A Gibbon, maybe, raised a monu- 
 ment to the Roman Empire and to himself greater than 
 any single achievement of a Chatham : yet still Gibbon 
 remains merely a man who wrote a great book, while 
 Chatham, apart from any action, is a supreme personality. 
 And so it was with Rhodes : you might hate him, you 
 might loathe all he did, you might even think meanly of 
 his actual achievement, but you could not ignore him any 
 more than you could ignore a flash of lightning that 
 suddenly blazes forth across a murky night. 
 
 His achievement also, partly for good, partly for ill, 
 was great. For the worst of a man of such dominating 
 personality is that his evil example is as potent as the good. 
 He was no cjmic for himself, nor, doubtless, was he a cynic 
 in his outlook on humanity : he cared too much for his 
 " fellow-beings " for that. But his Kimberley training led 
 him deliberately to adopt a pose of C5niicism, which had 
 effects almost as baleful as if he had himself been a cynic 
 to the core. He himself used his wealth for public objects 
 and inspired others to do hkewise. Yet by the chances of 
 winning an easy fortune on the share market, which he 
 offered to those whom he wanted to gain for his great 
 
328 CECIL RHODES 
 
 designs, he tempted smaller men to think more of the bribe 
 than of the design. Rhodes himself, like Walpole, was 
 not accessible to motives of self-interest, but nevertheless, 
 like Walpole, presuming too much on the temptation to 
 others of self-interest, he lowered the standard of public 
 life at the Cape and even at home in England. The good 
 side of his " sitting down and arguing with a man " had 
 thus its sinister reverse. 
 
 Grey, in one of his letters, describes a visit to Watts, 
 then at work on his " Physical Energy" : " He took me to the 
 statue and said, ' Well, that is Rhodes ! ' " ; and Grey adds, 
 " I hope he may decide to give the head of the Rider some 
 resemblance to your features, so that it may go out to the 
 world as his conception of your character." Rhodes's 
 physical and mental energy was indeed abounding ; but 
 this very strength sometimes proved a weakness, when he 
 had passed away. As long as he lived Rhodesia was boimd 
 to thrive under his watchful eye. We have seen what 
 Faku thought of Rhodes as a father and mother to the 
 natives : and it was so with the white settlers. Had they 
 a difficulty in farming ? — go to Rhodes, and it was all right : 
 was a railway needed ? — ^go to Rhodes, and it was put in 
 hand forthwith : was the gold law irksome in a particular 
 case ? — ^go to Rhodes and he would make the proper allow- 
 ance for the circumstances. He corresponded personally 
 with viceroys and colonial governments, he dealt with the 
 British or any foreign government as an equal when he 
 wanted any concession for Rhodesia. But when he was 
 gone, there was no Rhodes to take his place, nor even a 
 system as a substitute. Like so many strong men he 
 found he could get what he wanted so much more easily 
 by personal intervention and by a sic volo, sic jubeo system, 
 that he set up no other for the time when he should not 
 be there. Five years after his death the settlers were 
 complaining that no director of the Chartered Company 
 came near them, and they had no one to whom they could 
 turn as in the old days of Rhodes's lifetime. The natives, 
 too, suffered when he had gone. There was then no one to 
 soften their hardships if they had a year of famine or were 
 harried. When he was alive he used to send up cattle 
 
LAST DAYS 329 
 
 to distribute to the natives who did not " loaf " and to 
 keep their hearts " white " ; when it came to the bare 
 rights allowed them in their comparatively small and even 
 curtailed reserves they had good cause to echo Faku's 
 lament. 
 
 Fortunately the evil effect of the Raid, Rhodes's worst 
 definite fault, passed away, and the pohcy, of which it was 
 a distorted S3miptom, the union of South Africa, remained 
 and gained ever fresh strength after his death. His influence 
 on the members of the Convention itself has already been 
 alluded to ; ^ on events which led to the Convention it was 
 still greater. Before he came on the scene, the Dutch had 
 been striving for a Dutch union under a Dutch flag, and 
 the English toyed with such fantastic schemes as Fronde's 
 and Carnarvon's to make federation an excuse for finally 
 crushing Dutch aspirations : it is due to him more than to 
 any man that English and Dutch in South Africa came to 
 see that a joint action for union would alone gain the end 
 desired by both. Indirectly, too, he made the Enghsh and 
 Dutch sides more equal in the bargainings for union by 
 his services to the whole of South Africa as well as to the 
 British Empire in the acquisition of Rhodesia. The Dutch 
 never forgot that, had it not been for him, Rhodesia, like 
 South- West Africa, might have passed to Germany, a power 
 even more distasteful to them than undiluted England : 
 and for the first time they had cause to see that English 
 and not Dutch enterprise had brought a great new tract of 
 South Africa under the civilizing influences of Dutch and 
 English combined. 
 
 Rhodes was indeed a faulty hero : what hero is not ? 
 But he had great aims, some of which he attained, and 
 he had the priceless faculty of inspiring others with the 
 same aspirations. Perhaps the purest devotion to those 
 aims he ever inspired was found in one of his own Rhodesians. 
 Young Hubert Hervey in his lifetime echoed Rhodes's 
 words, when he said, " Only believe in your idea and it 
 will carry you through every difficulty. If you live you will 
 do great things ; if you die— well ! how can you die better ? 
 And your idea will not die." For those aims later he was 
 » See Chap. I. p. 2, and Chap. XVII. p. 297. 
 
330 CECIL RHODES 
 
 ready to lay down his life. As he lay dying of his wounds 
 in the Matabele rebellion, he asked for Rhodes and begged 
 him to see that his sister was cared for after his death. 
 Rhodes was touched. He spoke thus of him afterwards : 
 " He never thought of himself, he was without self. ... He 
 was without fear — ^he did not know fear— and without self. 
 . . . That feeling about the Empire was the ideal of his life. 
 There is a great deal of talk about the Imperial idea, but 
 unhappily self is so often beneath it. That is where it is ; 
 people say all this, but self is so often at. the bottom of it. 
 With him it was absolutely pure ; . . . There may be cynical 
 people who will say about the Imperial part, ' Oh yes, we 
 know it is generally a cover for self.' But when they see 
 that half an hour before death he still had not thought about 
 himself, that aU his thoughts were for others, they will feel 
 there was no self in him. Half an hour before death ! I 
 had gone to him wondering what he wished — other men 
 might have had other thoughts — but his were still, even 
 then, only for others." Rhodes, we may believe, was so 
 deeply stirred, not merely by his love for the young man, 
 but yet more because he felt the nobiUty of that short life 
 consecrated his own aims in the face of his fellow-men. 
 
 Such was Rhodes's influence on one among many : of 
 this influence generally no one could speak better than 
 that disciple of his whom he inspired with a Hfe-long 
 devotion to the same ideals. Earl Grey, at the Chartered 
 Company's general meeting held in the year succeeding 
 Rhodes's death, said of him : " He was in truth the 
 most strenuous lover of his country, the most single- 
 minded and the greatest-hearted man I ever met. During 
 his life he gave all his energies and all his wealth to the 
 service of the Empire, and in his will he has bequeathed 
 to the entire Anglo-Saxon world the priceless legacy of an 
 inspiring ideal. ... I have come across, and sometimes in 
 the most unexpected quarters, men whose characters have 
 been entirely changed by the example of Cecil Rhodes, and 
 whose ambition it is now to administer as a public trust 
 considerable proportions of those fortunes, which but for 
 him they would probably have spent upon themselves." 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 I. Oral 
 
 For a Life of Rhodes there are still available the personal recollec- 
 tions of many who spoke with him and knew him well. I have had 
 the privilege of talking with many such during the last six years or 
 more that tlfis book has been incubating. Some, alas ! of these 
 have now passed away ; for it is wellnigh twenty years since Rhodes 
 himself died. Among those to whom I am deeply grateful for 
 information about Rhodes's career, and still more for many of those 
 intimate touches that make the savour of a biography, I should like 
 to mention : 
 
 The late Sir Starr Jameson. 
 The late Earl Grey. 
 The late Sir Frank Lascelles. 
 The late Mr. Robert Yerburgh, 
 
 M.P. 
 The late Mr. F. C. Selous. 
 The late Mr. C. D. Rudd. 
 Col. Sir F. Younghusband. 
 Mr. and Mrs. Rochfort Maguire. 
 Mr. H. WUson Fox. M.P. 
 Sir Ralph Williams. 
 
 Sir Graham Bower. 
 
 Sir Chas. Metcalfe. 
 
 Miss Louisa Rhodes. 
 
 Mr. Herbert Baker. 
 
 Rt. Hon. J. X. Merriman. 
 
 Sir Francis Newton. 
 
 Mr. F. J. Dormer. 
 
 Mr. Robert Williams. 
 
 Miss Alexander. 
 
 Sir William and Lady Solomon. 
 
 Sir Lionel Phillips. 
 
 II. MS. Authorities 
 
 The Rhodes Trustees possess a large quantity of letters, etc. 
 addressed to Rhodes, his letter-books, copies of his telegrams, and 
 various other papers relating to him. Unfortunately most of his 
 early papers were destroyed in the fire at Groote Schuur in 1896. 
 Some of his most characteristic utterances are contained in the 
 telegrams, by means of which he conducted a large part of his 
 business. Towards the end of his life he had a great distaste for 
 writing letters himself, but in many of those dictated to his secretaries 
 his actual words are given in inverted commas. 
 
 The Rhodes Trustees generously gave me unrestricted permission 
 to see and make copies of all the papers in their possession. For 
 their generosity I owe them deep gratitude. 
 
 331 
 
332 CECIL RHODES 
 
 The late Mr. C. D. Rudd allowed me to see and copy a number 
 of letters addressed to him by Rhodes, rangirig in date from 1874 
 to within two years of his death. These are especially useful for 
 the Kimberley days. 
 
 To Miss Rhodes I owe the very interesting letter quoted in Chapter 
 IV., and the sight of some other early letters, etc. 
 
 III. Published Books on Rhodes 
 
 MiCHELL, Sir Lewis. Life of Rt. Hon. C. J. Rhodes. 2 vols. 
 
 1910. (Indispensable for facts.) 
 JouRDAN, Philip. Cecil Rhodes, His Private Life. 1911. 
 Le Sueur, Gordon. Cecil Rhodes. 1913. 
 
 (The last two give personal touches by former private 
 
 secretaries.) 
 Radziwill, Catherine, Princess. Cecil Rhodes, Man and 
 
 Empire-Maker. 1918. (Not of much account.) 
 CoLviN, Ian. C. /. Rhodes. 1912. (A slight but good sketch.) 
 Frost, A. S. C. /. Rhodes. 1902. (Slight.) 
 De Waal, D. C. With Rhodes in Mashonaland. 1896. (Most 
 
 useful.) 
 " Imperialist." Cecil Rhodes. 1897. (Chiefly interesting for 
 
 two chapters of reminiscences by Jameson.) 
 Hensman, H. Cecil Rhodes. 1901. (Many useful facts.) 
 Dormer, F. J. Vengeance as a Policy in Afrikanderland. 1901. 
 
 (Gives interesting, if unfavourable, view of the later Rhodes.) 
 Fuller, Sir Thomas. Rt. Hon. C. J. Rhodes. 1910. (A most 
 
 valuable Memoir.) 
 " Vindex." Cecil Rhodes, His Political Life and Speeches. 1900. 
 
 (Indispensable for the speeches.) 
 .Stead, W. T. The Last Will and Testament of Cecil J. Rhodes. 
 
 1902. (Valuable as an exposition of Rhodes's aims.) 
 
 Useful sketches of Rhodes are also to be found in : 
 
 Wilson, Lady Sarah. S. African Memories. 1909. 
 Menpes, Mortimer. War Impressions. 1901. 
 Leonard, A. G. How We Made Rhodesia. 1896. 
 Alexander, E. Primate Alexander, A Memoir. 1913. 
 Berdrow, W. Buch beriihmter Kaufleute. Leipzig, 1905. 
 Fort, G.. Seymour. Dr. Jameson. 1908. 
 Robinson, Sir John. Notes on Natal. Durban, 1872. 
 Williams, Sir Ralph. How I Became a Governor. 1913. 
 Paladini, Carlo. Interviste (Rhodes, etc.). Firenze, 1902. 
 Van Goch, H. A. Weerstaat den Rhodesgeest. Dordrecht, 1900. 
 Laurence, P. M. On Circuit in Kaffirland. 1903. 
 Scully, W. C. Reminiscences of a South African Pioneer. 1913. 
 Proceedings at Unveiling of Rhodes Memorial Tablet. Oxford, 1907. 
 Hutchinson, G. T. Frank Rhodes, A Memoir. (Privately printed.) 
 1908. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 333 
 
 Parkin, G. R. The Rhodes Scholarships. 1912. 
 
 Cook, E. T. Edmund Garrett. 1909. 
 
 Hansard and The Times are essential ; and for Rhodes 's speeches 
 
 during his tenn of office as Prime Minister the Cape Hansard 
 
 is necessary. 
 
 At least two novels have been based on Rhodes 's story : 
 
 Hope (Hawkins), Anthony. The God in the Car. 2 vols. 1894. 
 Roberts, Morley. The Colossus. 1899. 
 
 Olive Schreiner's Trooper Peter Halket, 1897, is a bitter attack 
 on Rhodes's native policy. 
 
 Innumerable Magazine articles have been published about 
 Rhodes. Among these may be singled out articles by : 
 
 CusT, H. N. American Rev. July, 1902. 
 
 Various Authors. Diamond Fields Advertizer, Christmas Nos. 
 
 1906 and 1907. 
 Warren, Sir C. Contemporary. May, 1902. 
 Low, Sir Sidney. Nineteenth Century and After. May, 1902. 
 Witt, R. C. Nineteenth Century and After. May, 1902. 
 Thomas, E. N. Empire Review. Aug. and Sept., 1902. 
 Sauer, Dr. H. Empire Review. May, 1902. 
 Baker, H. Nineteenth Century and After. January, 1920. 
 
 The articles on Rhodes in the D.N.B. by Charles Boyd and in the 
 Ency. Brit, by Lady Lugard should also be consulted. 
 
 IV. South African History 
 
 A most valuable book for the student of S. African history and 
 Uterature is S. Mendelssohn's S. African Bibliography (2 vols., 1910). 
 During his lifetime Mr. Mendelssohn allowed me to read many 
 otherwise inaccessible books in his library, on which his bibliography 
 is chiefly based ; since then the library has been bequeathed to the 
 Union of S. Africa. 
 
 Among general histories are : 
 Theal, G. M. History of S. Africa, 1 486-1872. 5 vols. 1888-93. 
 
 History of S. Africa, 1 795-1 894. 5 vols. 1908. 
 
 S. Africa. 1894. 
 Lucas, C. P. Historical Geography ofS. Africa. 1897, 1904. 
 WoRSFOLD, B. S. Africa. 1895. 
 
 Lord Milner's Work in S. Africa. 1906. 
 
 Reconstruction of New Colonies under Lord Milner. 1913. 
 Wilmot, a. History of Our Own Times in S. Africa. 3 vols. 
 
 1897-99- ' 
 Cory, G. E. The Rise of S. Africa {to 1857). 3 vols. 1919. 
 Leyds, W. J. First Annexation of the Transvaal. 1906. 
 The Transvaal Surrounded, \gi9- 
 
334 CECIL RHODES 
 
 TiLBY, A. Wyatt. S. Africa, 1486-1913. 1914. 
 Bryden, H. a. a History of S. Africa. 1904. 
 The Natives of S. Africa. 1901. 
 The S. African Natives. 1909. 
 
 Amery, L. S. (general editor). " The Times" History of the War 
 in S. Africa. 7 vols. 1900-1909. 
 
 Political Biographies. 
 
 Martineau, J. Life of Sir Bartle Frere. 2 vols. 1895. 
 
 MoLTENO, P. A. Life and Times of Sir J. C. Molteno. 2 vols. 
 1900. 
 
 WiLMOT, A. Life and Times of Sir R. Southey. 1904. 
 
 Kruger, S. J. Paul. Memoirs. 2 vols. 1902. 
 
 Van Oordt, J. F. P. Kruger en de Opkomst der Z.A.R. Amster- 
 dam. 1898. 
 
 Hofmeyr, J. H., and Reitz, F. W. Life of J. H. Hofmeyr [Onze 
 Jan). Cape Town, 1913. 
 
 Mackenzie, W. D. John Mackenzie. 1902. 
 
 O'Brien, R. Barry. Life of C. S. Parnell. 1910. 
 
 V. Special Periods 
 (i) The Diamond Fields. 
 
 Diamond Fields Advertiser. Christmas Number, 1901. 
 
 Anciaux, Gabriel. Puppets on Show. (? 1896.) 
 
 Murray, R. W. Diamond Fields Keepsake. 1873. 
 
 Knights of Labour of S. Africa, Manifesto of. 1892. 
 
 Raymond, H. B. I. Barnato, A Memoir. 1897. 
 
 Cohen, L. Reminiscences of Kimherley. 191 1. 
 
 Matthews, J. W. Incwadi Jami, Twenty Years' Personal Ex- 
 perience of S. A. 1887. 
 
 Williams, Gardner F. The Diamond Mines of S. Africa. New 
 York, 1902. (Most valuable.) 
 
 Reunert, Th. Diamonds and Gold in S. Africa. 1893. 
 
 Payton, Chas. A. The Diamond Diggings of S. Africa. 1872. 
 
 (2) Gold-fields of S. Africa. 
 
 Mathers, E. P. Golden S. Africa. 1887. 
 
 Reunert, Th. See under Diamonds. 
 
 Goldman, C. S. Financial History of Gold and other Companies 
 
 of Witwatersrand. 1892. it 
 
 South African Mines. 3 vols. 1895—96. 
 Baines, Thomas. The Gold Regions of S.E. Africa. P. Elizabeth, 
 
 1877. 
 South Africa. (Majority Special Number.) 1910. 
 
 (3) The Scramble for (S.) Africa. 
 
 Hertslet, Sir E. The Map of Africa by Treaty. 3 vols. 
 1909. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 335 
 
 FiTZMAURiCE, Lord E. Life of 2nd Earl Granville. 2 vols 
 
 1905- 
 Lowe, C. Prince Bismarck. 2 vols. 1885. 
 BuscH, Dr. MoRiTz. Bismarck, Some Pages from his History. 
 
 3 vols. 1898. 
 Robertson, C. Grant. Bismarck. 1918. 
 Rose, J. Holland. Development of European Nations, 1870-90. 
 
 1905. 
 Deville, M. Victor. Partage de I'Afrique. 1898. 
 Keltie, J. Scott. The Partition of Africa. 1893. 
 
 Government Publications. 
 
 C. 4190. Angra Pequena. 1884. 
 
 C. 4262. Angra Pequena. 1884. 
 
 C. 4265. Angra Pequena. 1884. 
 
 C. 5904. Africa No. 2. 1890. 
 C. 6495. Africa No. 7. 1891. 
 
 (4) Bechuanaland and Transvaal. 
 
 Williams, Ralph. The British Lion in Bechuanaland. 1885. 
 Mackenzie, John. Ten Years North of the Orange River. 1871. 
 Austral Africa. 2 vols. 1887. 
 
 Government Publications. 
 
 C. 2308. Bechuanaland. 1878-79. 
 
 C. 3419. Transvaal. 1882. 
 
 C. 3635. S. Africa. 1883. 
 
 C. 3686. Transvaal. 1883. 
 
 C. 3841, 3947, 4036, 4194, 4213, 4251. Transvaal. 1884. 
 
 C. 4275, 4310, 4432, 4588. Transvaal. 1885. 
 
 C. 4643, 4890. Transvaal. 1886. 
 
 C. 7932. British Bechuanaland. 1896. 
 
 C. 7962. South Africa. 1896. 
 
 C. 8474. Transvaal (Drifts question). 1897. 
 
 (5) Rhodesia, Pioneers, Matabele Wars, etc. 
 
 Wills, W. A., and Collingridge, L. T. Downfall of Lo Bengula. 
 
 1894. 
 Blennerhasset, R., and Sleeman, L. Adventures in Mashona- 
 
 land. 1893. 
 Leonard, A. G. How We Made Rhodesia. 1896. 
 Thomas, T. M. Eleven Years in Central S. Africa. 1872. 
 Hyatt, S. Portal. Diary of a Soldier of Fortune, (n.d.) 
 
 The Northward Trek. 1909. 
 CoLQUHOUN, A. R. Matabeleland. 1893. 
 
 Dan to Beersheba. 1908. 
 Wood, J. G. Through Matabeleland. 1893. 
 Knight Bruce, G. W. H. Memories of Mashonaland. 1895. 
 Du ToiT, S. J. Rhodesia Past and Present. 1897. 
 Grogan, E, S., and Sharp, A. H. From the Cape to Cairo. 1900. 
 
336 CECIL RHODES 
 
 The B.S.A. Co. General Information, etc. 1889. 
 
 Regulations for Pioneer Corps. Cape Town, 1890. 
 Hone, Percy F. Southern Rhodesia, igog. 
 Selous, F. C. Travel and Adventure in S.E. Africa. 1893. 
 
 Sunshine and Storm in Rhodesia. 1896. 
 Johnston, Sir H. H. British Central Africa. 1897. 
 
 The Colonization of Africa. 1899. 
 
 Britain Across the Seas — Africa, (n.d.) 
 Duff, H. L. Nyasaland under the Foreign Office. 1906. 
 LuGARD, F. D. The Rise of our E. African Empire. 2 vols. 
 
 1893. 
 Peters, Dr. Carl. The Eldorado of the Ancients. 1902. 
 Mauch, Carl. Reisen in Inneren v. Sud-Afrika, 1865-73. 
 
 Gotha, 1874. 
 Fox-Bourne, H. R. Matabeleland and the Chartered Co. 1897. 
 Blunt, Wilfrid S. My Diaries, I. 1888-1900. 1919. 
 Grey, Albert, Earl. Hubert Hervey, Student and Imperialist. 
 
 1899. 
 Darter, Adrian. The Pioneers of Mashonaland. 1914. 
 Johnson, Lieut.-Col. F. " Reminiscences " in R. Sussex Herald, 
 
 vol. iii. Lahore, 191 8. 
 Hensman, H. History of Rhodesia. 1900. 
 Thomson, H. C. Rhodesia and its Government. 1898. 
 Cooper-Chadwick, J. Three Years with Lo Bengula. 1894. 
 MiLLAis, J. G. Life of F. C. Selous, D.S.O. igi8. 
 Churchill, Lord Randolph. Men, Mines, and Animals in 
 
 S. Africa. 1892. 
 
 Government Publications. 
 
 C. 2220. Bechuanaland. 1878. 
 
 C. 4890. Transvaal. 1886. 
 
 C. 5237. Bechuanaland. 1887. 
 
 C- 5363. Bechuanaland. 1888. 
 
 C. 5588. S.A.R. 1888. 
 
 C. 5524. Bechuanaland. 1888. 
 
 C. 5918. Bechuanaland. 1890. 
 
 C. 7171, 7190. S. Africa. 1893-94. 
 
 C. 7196. Mashonaland. 1893. 
 
 C. 7284, 7290, 7383, 7555. B.S.A. Co. 1894. 
 
 C. 8547. B.S.A. Co. 1897. 
 
 C. 9138, 9323. B.S.A. Co. 1899. 
 
 The Directors' Reports and Proceedings at meetings of the British 
 S. Africa Co. and the proceedings before the Privy CouncU on the 
 Special Reference in the Matter of S. Rhodesia all throw light on the 
 early history of Rhodesia. 
 
 I have especially to thank the Directors of the B.S.A. Co. for 
 kindly allowing me to see these and other papers in their possession, 
 some of them of a confidential nature. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 337 
 
 (6) The Raid. 
 
 There is a large literature on this subject i^the following books 
 are specially useful : 
 
 Garrett, F. E., and Edwards, E. J. Story of an African Crisis : 
 
 the Raid. 1897. 
 [Terrail, G.] Mermeix (pseud.). Le Transvaal et la Chartered. 
 
 Paris, 1897. 
 FiTZPATRiCK, J. Percy. The Transvaal from Within. 1899. 
 Stead, W. T. Joseph ChUtnberlain, Conspirator or Statesman f 
 
 1900. 
 YouNGHUSBAND, F. South Africa of To-day. 1898. 
 Jeyes, S. H. Mr. Chamberlain. 1903. 
 
 Government Publications. 
 
 C- 7933- Transvaal. 1896. 
 
 C. 8380. 1897. (The Cape Inquiry.) 
 
 H.C. 311. 1898. (The House of Commons Committee's Inquiry.) 
 
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE 
 
 1852. Jan. 16. Sand River Convention (S.A.R. established). 
 
 1853. Feb. 9. L. S. Jameson b. 
 July 5. Cecil John Rhodes b. 
 Livingstone's first journey to Zambesi country. 
 
 1854. March 11. Convention of Bloemfontein (O.F.S. estab- 
 
 lished). 
 1854-6. [Crimean War.] 
 1857-8. [Indism Mutiny.] 
 
 1859. Inyati Mission founded by Moffat. 
 
 i85i. Rhodes goes to Bishop Stortford Grammar School. 
 1861-5. [American Civil War.] 
 
 1864. [Schleswig-Holstein War.] 
 
 1866. [Austro-Prussian War.] 
 
 1867. First diamond discovered in South Africa, 
 Mauch discovers gold at Tati. 
 
 July I. [Dominion of Canada established.] 
 
 1869. Basutoland declared British. 
 Rhodes leaves school. 
 
 1870. Kimberley dry diggings discovered. 
 Sept. I. Rhodes lands at Durban. 
 
 1870-1. [Franco-Prussian War.] 
 
 1871. Oct. 17. Keate award ; Griqualand West annexed. 
 Rhodes goes to the Diamond Fields. 
 
 1872. Cape Colony gets Responsible Government. 
 
 1873. [Ashantee War.] 
 
 April 30. Death of Livingstone. 
 
 Oct. 13. Rhodes matriculates at Oxford. 
 
 Nov. Death of Rhodes' s mother. 
 
 1874. [Disraeli Prime Minister.] 
 
 March. Rhodes returns to Kimberley. 
 1876 (Ap.)-78 (June). Rhodes keeps terms at Oxford. 
 
 1876. July. [Brussels Conference on Africa.] 
 
 1877. Sir Bartle Frere Governor of Cape. 
 Transvaal annexed. 
 
 Sept. Rhodes' s first Will. 
 1877-8. [Russo-Turkish War.] 
 
 1878. Feb. Rhodes' s father dies. 
 African Lakes Co. founded. 
 
 339 Z2 
 
340 CECIL RHODES 
 
 [German African Society founded.] 
 March 12. Walfisch Bay annexed. 
 
 [Stanley returns from Africa. Congo Association founded.] 
 1879. [Afghan War.] 
 Zulu War. 
 
 1879. Jan. Rhodes in fight with Korannas near Christiana. 
 March. Hofmeyr enters Cape House. 
 
 Nov. Herbert Rhodes dies in Nyassaland. 
 
 1880. [Gladstone's Second Ministry.] 
 
 April I. Rhodes founds De Beers Mining Co. 
 
 Frere recalled ; Sir Hercules Robinson, Governor of 
 
 Cape. 
 Oct. Griqualand West incorporated in Cape Colony. 
 Nov. Rhodes elected for Barkly West. 
 Dec. Transvaal War begins. 
 
 1881. Feb. 27. Majuba. 
 
 April 19. Rhodes's maiden speech on Basutoland. 
 
 Aug. 3. Convention of Pretoria restores independence to 
 
 Transvaal. 
 Oct. Rhodes's last term at Oxford : takes degree (Dec). 
 Nov. [Charter to British North Borneo Company.] 
 
 1882. Stellaland and Goshen founded in Bechuanaland. 
 Rhodes meets Gordon in Basutoland. 
 
 [Arabi's revolt ; Tel-el-Kebir.] 
 
 1883. April. Rhodes visits Stellaland. 
 
 May. Germans occupy Angra Pequefia. 
 Aug. Rhodes's first speech about Bechuanaland. 
 
 1884. Feb. Basutoland transferred to Imperial Government. 
 Feb. 27. Convention of London with S.A.R. 
 March-May. Rhodes Treasurer of the Cape. 
 
 June. Granville admits German claim to Angra Pequefia. 
 Aug. Rhodes's mission to Stellaland and Goshen. 
 Dec. Warren's expedition to Bechuanaland. 
 
 1885. Jan. 24. Rhodes meets Kruger. 
 
 Jan. 26. [Fall of Khartoum ; death of Gordon.] 
 Feb. 26. Berlin Act regularizes scramble for Africa. 
 June 30. Rhodes attacks Warren's conduct in Bechuanaland. 
 Aug. [Independent State of Congo announced.] 
 Sept. British Bechuanaland a Crown Colony ; Pro- 
 tectorate over rest of Bechuanaland. 
 
 1886. Gold discovered on Witwatersrand. 
 
 [Gladstone's first Home Rule Bill defeated : Salisbury's 
 
 Ministry formed.] 
 July 10. [Charter to Royal Niger Co.] 
 Nov. I. [Anglo-German agreement re East Africa.] 
 
 1887. May. Rhodes acquires all holdings in De Beers mine. 
 Rhodes founds Gold-fields of S. Africa. 
 
 July 30. Grobler Treaty with Lo Bengula. 
 [First Colonial Conference.] 
 
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE 341 
 
 1888. Feb. II. Moffat Treaty with Lo Bengula. 
 March. De Beers Consolidated Mines formed. 
 
 Sept. 3. [Charter to Imperial British E. Africa Co. 
 
 (I.B.E.A.).] 
 Oct. 30. Rudd Concession granted by Lo Bengula. 
 
 1889. March. First S. African Customs Union (Cape and O.F.S.). 
 April 30. Rhodes applies for Charter. 
 
 Sept. 21. Brit. Protectorate over Nyasaland. 
 Oct. 29. Charter granted to British South Africa Co. 
 Robinson replaced by Sir H. Loch as Governor of Cape. 
 i8go. March 6. Rhodes and Loch meet Kruger at Fourteen 
 
 Streams. 
 June 27. Pioneer expedition starts. 
 July I. Anglo-German agreement re Zanzibar, East and 
 
 Central Africa, and Heligoland. 
 July 17. Rhodes Prime Minister of Cape. 
 Sept. II. Pioneers reach Salisbury. 
 Oct.-Nov. Rhodes's trip to Tuli and Pretoria. 
 Nov. 15. Fight with Portuguese at Umtassa's Kraal. 
 
 1 891. April. AdendorfiE Trek damped down by Kruger. 
 May 14. Brit. Protectorate over Nyasaland. 
 June 6. [Death of Sir John Macdonald (Canada).] 
 June II. Anglo-Portuguese Treaty re African spheres. 
 July.- Jameson Administrator of Mashonaland. 
 Rhodes's Bank Act passed. 
 
 Sept.-Nov. Rhodes's first visit to Mashonaland. 
 
 1892. [Gladstone's fourth Ministry.] 
 
 Rhodes's negotiations to acquire Delagoa Bay. 
 
 Rhodes's Franchise and Ballot Act passed. 
 
 Aug. Transvaal National Union founded (Uitlanders). 
 
 1893. [Gladstone's second Home Rule Bill.] 
 [Portal's Mission to Uganda.] 
 
 May. Rhodes forms second Ministry. 
 
 Kruger re-elected President. 
 
 June 26. Natal given Responsible Government. 
 
 July 18. Victoria affray starts Matabele War. 
 
 Nov. 4. Chartered troops occupy Buluwayo. 
 
 1894. Pondoland annexed to Cape. 
 June. Protectorate over Uganda. 
 
 Rhodes sends Hofmeyr and De ViUiers to Ottawa Con- 
 ference. 
 Rhodes passes Glen Grey Act and Scab Act. 
 Oct. Railway reaches Mafeking. 
 
 Nov. Rhodes sees Kruger on railway and customs questions. 
 Dec. Final agreement with Transvaal re Swaziland. 
 
 1895. Feb. 2. Rhodes sworn of Privy Council. 
 March. [I.B.E.A. surrender charter to Crown.] 
 April. Tongaland annexed. 
 
 Loch replaced by Sir Hercules Robinson. 
 
342 CECIL RHODES 
 
 May. Chartered territories named Rhodesia by Proclamation. 
 June. [Rosebery Ministry defeated ; Salisbury forms 
 
 Ministry — Chamberlain Colonial Secretary.] 
 Oct. Drifts incident. 
 
 Nov. 1 6. Brit. Bechuanaland annexed to Cape. 
 Dec. 29. Jameson's Raid. 
 
 1896. Jan. 2. Jameson surrenders at Doornkop. 
 Jan. 5. Rhodes resigns. 
 
 March 24. Matabele Rebellion begins. 
 June 26. Rhodes resigns from B.S.A . Board. 
 Sept.-Oct. Rhodes' s. indabas in Matoppos. 
 
 1897. Feb. Rhodes before S. Africa Committee. 
 Railway reaches Buluwayo and Umtali. 
 
 Lord Rosmead (Robinson) replaced by Sir Alfred Milner. 
 [Kitchener's advance on the Soudan.] 
 
 1898. April. Rhodes restored to Board of B.S.A. Co. 
 
 June. Cape elections ; Progressive party formed under 
 
 Rhodes. 
 Sept. 2. [Battle of Omdurman. — Fashoda.] 
 Oct. 20. New O. in C. for Southern Rhodesia. 
 
 1899. March. Rhodes sees Kaiser ; Telegraph agreement. 
 May 2. Rhodes' s last speech to B.S.A. Co. 
 
 June. Rhodes D.C.L. at Oxford. 
 Bloemfontein Conference (Milner and Kruger). 
 July I. Rhodes' s last Will. 
 Oct. II. S. African War begins. 
 Rhodes at Kimberley. 
 Dec. 15. Colenso. 
 
 1901. Jan. I. [Commonwealth of Australia established.] 
 
 1900. Feb. 15. Relief of Kimberley. 
 Feb. 27. Paardeberg. 
 
 Oct. Rhodes's speech to S. African League. 
 
 1902. Jan. 18. Rhodes leaves England for last time. 
 March 26. Death of Rhodes, aged 49. 
 
 May 31. Peace of Vereeniging. 
 1904. July 14. Death of Kruger, aged 79. 
 1909. Union of South Africa Act passed. 
 
INDEX 
 
 Abdul Hamid sees Rhodes, 194, 233 
 Abercorn, Duke of, 136, 163, 256, 
 
 306 
 Abercorn, Fort, 167, 198 
 Aborigines Protection Society, 78, 
 
 131 
 Adderley Street, 59, 144, 219 
 Adeudorfi trek, 154-7, 246, 249, 
 
 272 
 African Lakes Co., 165-6, 168 
 Afrikander Bond : 
 founded, 60-61, 67 
 policy, etc., 67-8, 140-41, 156-7, 
 
 184 sqq., 243, 294 
 See also Hofmeyr, Rhodes 
 Agriculture in Cape Colony, 19, 
 
 193-5 
 Alexander, Dr. (Primate of Ireland), 
 
 42, 227-9 
 Angola, 76, 167 
 Angra Pequena, 76-8 
 Aristotle, Rhodes's admiration for, 
 
 40, 48, 50, 323-4 
 Arnot, David, 22 
 Atherstone, Dr. W. G. (Cape 
 
 mineralogist), 15, 45 
 Austral Africa Co., 127 
 Australian federation, 222, 296 
 
 Babyan, 288 
 
 Baden - Powell, Major - General 
 
 R. S. S., 317 
 Baines, Thomas, 69, 107, 119 
 Baker, Herbert, 220-22, 224, 230, 
 
 232, 302-3 
 Bangweolo, Lake, 165-6 
 Bank Act, 203 
 Banket formation, 108-9 
 Banyai trek, 156 
 Barbertou goldfields, 85, 107 
 Barkly, Sir Henry (Governor), 22-3 
 Barkly West, 16, 22 
 
 Rhodes M.L.A. for, 57, 183, 294- 
 
 295 
 
 Barnato, Barney : 
 
 early success at Kimberley, 43-7, 
 
 93 
 forms Kimberley Central Co., 44, 
 
 95-6 
 character, 96-8 
 
 duel with Rhodes, 96-104, 291 
 in De Beers, 103, 114 
 M.L.A., 103, 192 
 and Rand, 109 
 opinion of Rhodes, 103. 120 
 Barolongs, 21-2, 71 
 Barotseland, 134, 148, 166-8, 170, 
 
 175. 308 
 Basutoland and Basuto War, 18- 
 
 20, 63-9, 148 
 Batlapins, 21-2, 71 
 Beal, Colonel, 286-7 
 Bechuanaland : 
 
 question of, 22, 69-90 
 
 " Suez Canal into the interior," 3, 
 
 22, 72, 117 
 British (Crown Colony), 88, n6, 
 130, 135 
 incorporated with Cape Colony, 
 89, 256 
 Protectorate, 88, 129, 137, 252, 
 256-8 
 Bechuanaland Exploration Co., 123, 
 
 129-30, 144 
 Beira, 160, 170, 181, 239, 285, 292, 308 
 Beit, Alfred : 
 
 devotion to Rhodes, 54, 252 
 and De Beers, 98, 101-3, 114, 195 
 at Witwatersrand, 108, no 
 and Charter, 123, 130, 135, 171 
 and Raid, 254-5, 277 
 and Rhodes's fruit farms, 301-3 
 trustee, 324 
 Bell, Moberly, 235 
 Benning and Martin's hotel, 27 
 Bishops Stortford, 7 
 
 Grammar School, 8-10 
 Bismarck, Otto v., 74-7 
 
 343 
 
344 
 
 CECIL RHODES 
 
 Blantyre, 239, 292 
 
 Blignaut's Pont, 147 
 
 Bloemfontein, 84, 141, 196, 244-5 
 
 Blunt, Wilfrid S., 236-7, 283, 285 
 
 Boomplaats, 18 
 
 Booth, General, 182, 229-30, 238, 307 
 
 Borckenhagen, Carl, 244 
 
 Botha, Louis, 62 
 
 Bowen, G., 148, 227 
 
 Bower, Sir Graham : 
 
 friendship with Rhodes, 58 
 in Bechuanaland, 79 
 Rhodes's letter to him, 146 
 knowledge of Raid, 269-72, 280 
 
 Bowler trek, 147 
 
 Boyes, Lorenzo (diamonds), 15 
 
 Brand, John (President O.F.S.), 
 19, 21, 23-4, 66, 112, 254 
 
 Bristol seat offered to Rhodes, 99 
 
 British Bechuanaland Police, 148, 
 176-7, 179, 254, 260, 262, 
 266, 269 
 
 British North Borneo Co., 122 
 
 British South Africa Committee 
 (H. of C), 36, 175, 277-85 
 
 British South Africa Co. : 
 Charter, etc., 130-39, 163 
 directors, 135-6, 159, 163-4 
 meetings of, 238-41, 306, 312 
 shares and finance, 138, 142, 159- 
 
 160, 192, 239-41 
 connection with Raid, 255-6, 259- 
 
 260, 274, 285 
 See also Rhodesia 
 
 British South Africa Police, 147, 
 149-51, 159-60, 262, 265-6, 
 269, 306 
 
 Brocklehurst, General J. F., 320 
 
 Bultforitein mine, 16-17, 21, 93, 104 
 
 Buluwayo, 123 sqq., 137, 181, 231 
 occupation of, 177 
 besieged, 285-7 
 
 Burlington Hotel, 233, 251 
 
 Buxton, Sydney (Lord), 235, 252, 
 260, 279 
 
 Canada, 199, 202, 222, 296 
 Cannon Street Hotel, 238, 312 
 Cape Colony : 
 
 in 1871, 17-18 
 
 " dominant state," 71, 73, 80, 
 196, 198, 219, 321 
 Cape Committee on raid, 277 
 Cape politicians, 58-60, 188-90 
 Cape to Cairo railway, 236, 308-9 
 Cape Town, i, 58-9, 231-2 
 
 Cape Town (transport from), 31, 
 
 158, 170, 183, 198 
 Carnarvon, Earl of (Colonial Secre- 
 tary), 24, 51, 56, 60, 76, 329 
 Carrington, Sir F., 287 
 Cawston, George, 129-30, 135 
 Central Search Association, 130 
 Chamberlain, Joseph : 
 
 relations with Rhodes, 131, 136, 
 
 240, 258 
 becomes Colonial Secretary, 256-7 
 negotiations about Bechuana- 
 land, 259-63 
 on Drifts question, 258-9 
 and the Raid, 261-3, 272, 279-85 
 referred to, 252, 300, 307, 309, 
 321 
 Charter, Fort, 150, 175 
 Chartered Companies, 122, 134-5, 
 
 235 
 See also B.S.A. Co. 
 Chibe, 154-5 
 Chinde, i68 
 Churchill, Lord Randolph, 4, 98, 
 
 161, 240 
 Civil Service Club, 59, 188 
 Codrington., R., 306 
 Coetzee (farmer), 226-7 
 Coleubrander, J. (and Mrs.), 229, 
 
 287-9 
 Colesberg Kopje (Kimberley mine), 
 
 17, 27-9 
 Colquhoun, A. R., first adminis- 
 trator of Mashonaland, 52, 
 
 149, 159, 160, 169 
 Concession-hunters, from Lo Ben- 
 
 gula, 125-129 
 from Kruger, 247-8 
 Congo Free State, 74, i8i, 309-10 
 Coryndon, R. T., 148, 306 
 Cotton planting in Natal, 11- 14 
 Courtney, Leonard (Lord), 136, 
 
 283 
 Currey, J. B., 32, 35, 37, 59 
 Currie, Sir Donald, 99, 100 
 Cyanide process, 109 
 
 Dalston property, 7, 238 
 Damaraland, 69, 76-7, 274 
 Darwin, Charles, Rhodes on, 49, 50 
 De Beers Consolidated Mines : 
 founded, 102 
 trust deed, 103-4, m 
 results, 105-7, 113-15, 131 
 referred to, 129, 138, 192, 204, 
 264, 274, 298, 301, 303, 317 
 
INDEX 
 
 345 
 
 be Beers Mining Co. : 
 foundedi 47, 56 
 progress, 92 sqq. 
 
 merged in Consolidated Mines, 
 102 
 De Beers New Rush. See Kimber- 
 
 ley mine 
 De Beers (Old) mine, 17, 36, 44-7, 
 
 92-6, 100-102 
 Delagoa Bay, 141, 155, 167 
 Rhodes's attempt to buy, 198 
 railway, 248-9 
 De la Rey, Groot Adriaan, 82, 242, 
 
 291 
 Derby, Earl of (Colonial Secretary), 
 
 78. 83 
 Dernburg, Herr, on Rhodes, 2 
 De VUliers, Sir Henry (Lord), 104, 
 
 141, 164, 187, 199, 215-18 
 De Waal, D. C, 151-4, 161 
 Diamond Diggings and Mines, 13, 
 15-32 
 dif&culties at, 44-5, 92-3 
 amalgamation of, 92 sqq. 
 See also De Beers, Kimberley 
 Diamonds, price of, 29, 95, 102, 105, 
 
 201 
 Dilke, Sir Charles, 99, 132, 202 
 Doornkop, 273, 286 
 Doyle, Dennis, 170 
 Drifts question, 258-60, 316 
 Dudley, Lord (diamonds), 15 
 Dutch and English relations, 19, 
 20, 57, 60-61, 71, 79, 88, 
 140-41, 185-6, 195-6, 221, 
 
 294-7. 316 
 Du Toit, Rev. S. J., 67, 82, 156 
 Dutoitspan mine, 16-17, 26-7, 32, 
 
 45. 93. 104 
 Dynamite factories, 247, 298 
 
 East London, 183-4 
 
 Education in Cape Colony and 
 
 Rhodesia, 195-6, 210, 213, 
 
 230, 307 
 Edward VII. (P. of W.), 228, 310 
 Edwards, Sam, 125 
 Escombe, Harry, 3, 209, 243-4, 296 
 Exeter Hall, 98, 117, 179, 257 
 Exploring Co., 123, 125, 127, 129-30, 
 
 135 
 
 Fairbairn (at Buluwayo), 124, 127 
 Fairfield, E., 235, 261 
 Faku, 289, 326, 329 
 Faure, R. H., 186, 215 
 
 Ferreira, Colonel, 157-8 
 
 Fife, Duke of, 131, 136, 163, 167 
 
 Fife, Fort, 167, 198 
 
 Flag : for union of South Africa, 
 
 67-8, 81, 156, 245 
 incident, 253 
 
 at Johannesburg, 263, 265, 267-8 
 Forbes, P. W., 149, 169, 177 
 Fourteen Streams, 84, 86 
 Franchise and Ballot Act, 193, 203, 
 
 205-7, 213 
 French Company (Kimberley), 100 
 Frere, Sir Bartle (Governor), 56, 
 
 58, 70, 76, 77, 80, J 17 
 Froude, J. A., 30, 45, 60-61, 329 
 Fruit farms, Rhodes's, 301-3 
 Fry, John, 123 
 Fuller, Sir T. E., 226, 278 
 
 Garrett, F. E., 192 
 
 Garstin, Norman, 31 
 
 Gazaland, 167-8, 170 
 
 German E. Africa, 166, 181, 200, 
 
 310-11 
 German S.W. Africa, 76-8, 200, 311 
 Germany : 
 
 designs, etc., in South Africa, 
 
 74-8, 83, 87-9, 134, 166-7, 
 
 197-8, 200, 254, 273-4, 311-12 
 
 telegraph agreement, etc., 200, 
 
 310-12 
 
 Gibbon, Rhodes's admiration for, 
 
 40, 50, 223 
 GifJord, Lord, 129, 135 
 Gladstone, W. E. : 
 Transvaal policy, 62 
 on African expansion, 75 
 Home Rule Bills, 133, 237 
 talk with Rhodes, 132, 236-7 
 Glen Grey Act, 3, 140, 193, 203, 
 
 211-14, 223 
 Gold discoveries in South Africa, 35, 
 69, 85, 107, 122 
 at Witwatersrand, 107-9 
 " Gold Fields of South Africa " : 
 founded, iii', 122 
 Rhodes's profits on, 111, 114 
 referred to, 129-30, 135, 138, 155, 
 192, 264, 274, 298 
 Gold mines on Rand, 109-11 
 Gold production on Rand, 109 
 Goold Adams, Colonel H., 177 
 Gordon, General Charles, and 
 Rhodes, 52, 64-6, 91. 182, 
 320 
 Goshen, 72, 78-9, 81-4, 86, 88, 256 
 
346 
 
 CECIL RHODES 
 
 Gouveia, 168-9 
 Grahamstown party, 116-23 
 Great Kei River, 17-18 
 Grey, Albert (Earl) : 
 admiration for Rhodes, 5, 136, 
 164, 182, 252, 292-3, 320-21, 
 328, 330 
 director of B.S.A. Co., 136, 163- 
 
 164, 167 
 on South African union, 243 
 Administrator of Rhodesia, 286- 
 
 293. 307 
 
 trustee, 324 
 
 referred to, 131, 222, 260, 304, 329 
 Grey, Sir George (Governor), 70, 202 
 Grimmer, J., 148, 232, 304 
 Griqualand West, 13, 20, 22-4, 71-2 
 
 incorporated with Cape Colony, 57 
 Grobler Treaty, etc., 117, 119-21, 
 
 125, 143, 146 
 Groote Schuur, i, 2, 60, 267, 270- 
 271, 285, 324 
 
 account of, 219-27 
 
 burnt down, 224, 293 
 Gungunhana, 170 
 Gwelo, 181, 287 
 
 Haggard, A. W., 127, 129 
 Haldane, R. B. (Lord), 228 
 Hammond, J. Hays, 254 
 Harcourt, Sir William, 201-2, 206, 
 
 212, 236-7, 265, 279-81 
 Harris, F. Rutherfoord : 
 
 with Lo Bengula, etc., 128, 143, 
 
 158 
 and Raid, 255, 258-63, 265-8, 273, 
 280 
 Hartley (hunter), 107, ng 
 Hawkesley, Bourchier F., 137, 241, 
 255, 260, 280, 282, 321-2, 324 
 Hawkins, H. C, 12 
 Hebron mission station, 16 
 Helm, Rev. C. D., 124, 173 
 Herbert, Sir Robert, 130, 235 
 Hervey, Hubert, 329-30 
 Hicks-Beach, Sir Michael, 279, 309 
 Hofmejrr, J. H. (Onze Jan) : 
 alluded to, 58, 187 
 sketch of his policy, etc., 60-61 
 relations with Rhodes, 61-3, 66, 
 140-41, 185, 187, 192-3, 215- 
 218, 226-9, 233, 325 
 on Basutoland, 63, 67-8 
 and Afrikander Bond, 61, 67-8, 
 
 294 and passim 
 on Bechuanaland, 73-4, 79 
 
 Hofmeyr, J. H. (Onze Jan) : 
 favours Charter, 141, 157, 164, 
 
 196 
 on native policy, 206 
 and Swaziland Convention, 147 
 influence in Cape politics, 61, 184- 
 
 185, 215-18 
 refuses premiership, 185, 187 
 at Colonial Conference, 199 
 and Raid, 270, 272-3, 275 
 on Germany, 273-4 
 on South African union, 60, 67, 
 197, 243-4 
 
 Holden, Captain, 264, 268 
 
 Humphreys, A. L., 223 
 
 I.D.B., 32, 94, 207 
 
 Imperial British E. Africa Co. 
 
 (I.B.E.A.), 122, 169, 236 
 " Imperial factor," 80-81, 99, 121, 
 
 131, 197, 237-8 
 Imperial policy in South Africa : 
 
 re Griqualand West, 20-24 
 
 re Basutoland, 63-4 
 
 re Bechuanaland, 70 sqq., 256-9 
 Indwe collieries, 184 
 Innes, Sir James Rose — 186-7, 206, 
 
 212 
 Inyanga farm, 303-5 
 Inyati Mission, 119, 121, 143 
 Irish Home Rule, 133-4, 237 
 
 Jameson, Dr. Leander Starr : 
 
 at Kimberley with Rhodes, 54-5, 
 57, 70, 103, 140 
 
 Xvith Lo Bengula, 128, 143, 149 
 
 with Pioneers, 149 
 
 stops Ferreira, 157 
 
 Administrator of Mashonaland, 
 160 
 
 and Portuguese, 169-70 
 
 and first Matabele War, 174-6, 179 
 
 and the Raid, 255,263,'265-77,283 
 
 Rhodes's love for, 54-5, 233, 252, 
 271-2, 277, 293, 314 
 
 his rehabilitation, 295 
 
 trustee of will, 324 
 
 at Rhodes's death, 325 
 
 inheritor of Rhodes tradition, 5 
 
 at Union Convention, 2, 297 
 Joel, Woolf, 103 
 Johannesburg : 
 
 founded, 108-9 
 
 flag incident, 253 
 
 grievances. See Uitlanders 
 
 rising at, 242 sqq. 
 
INDEX 
 
 347 
 
 Johnson, Frank, 125, 144-5, 147-8, 
 
 150, 153 
 Johnston, Sir Harry, 165-6 
 Joubert, Piet, 83, 86, 119, 147 
 
 Kaffraria, 18, 20 
 Kalahari desert, 69, 127 
 Keate award, 23, 70 
 Kekewich, Colonel R. G., 317 
 Kenilworth, model village, 105-6 
 Khama, 88, 125, 129, 149, 151, 210, 
 
 259 
 Khartoum, 66, 309, 313, 318 
 Kimberley : 
 early history {see also Diamond 
 Diggings), 17, 26 sqq., 43 
 sqq., 69, 70 
 results of amalgamation on, 3, 
 
 106, 131 
 amenities of, 231, 298 
 mining school, 195-6 
 siege of, 316-18 
 Kimberley Central Co., 95, 10 1-4 
 Kimberley Club, 98, 102, 144 
 Kimberley, Earl of (Colonial 
 
 Secretary), 17, 22-3, 58, 76 
 Kimberley mine, 17, 27-9, 36, 44-5, 
 
 47. 93. 95-6, 99-104 
 Kipling, Rudyard, 225, 227 
 Kitchener, H. H. (Lord), 233, 285, 
 
 309-10, 312-13, 318 
 KUpdrift (Barkly West), 16, 22 
 Knight-Bruce, Rt. Rev. J. W. H., 
 Bishop of Bloemfonteiu, 125, 
 
 131 
 
 Knights of Labour, 106 
 
 Knutsford, Lord (Colonial Secre- 
 tary), 123, 131, 135, 145, 
 
 259 
 Kokstad, 208-9, 214, 243-4 
 Koopman, Mrs., 231 
 Kosi Bay, 250 
 Kruger, S. J. P. : 
 early history, 84-6, 118 
 views on Rhodes, 3, 86-7, 155 
 breach of London Convention, 
 
 82-3, 156 
 meetings with Rhodes, 84, 86, 
 111-12, 147, 153, 155, 248-9 
 Rhodes on, 86, 249-50, 316 
 policy re Matabeleland, 119, 147 
 railway and tariff policy and 
 Drifts question, 141, 196-8, 
 244, 248-9, 258-9 
 and Uitlanders, 112-13, 147, 246- 
 248. 275 
 
 Kruger, S. J. P. : 
 
 wants Swaziland, iig, 147, 155, 
 
 250 
 damps down Adendorff trek, 147, 
 
 156, 249 
 antagonism with Rhodes, 249-50 
 and Raid, 268, 277-8, 296, 316 
 and South African War, 316 
 See also Transvaal 
 
 Labouchere, Henry, 114, 131, 138, 
 
 239. 279-81 
 Lado Enclave, 181, 310 
 Laing, John, 188, 192, 196 
 Lawley, Sir Arthur, 307 
 Lendy, Captain, 174-5 
 Leonard, A. G., 151-4 
 Leonard, C, 254 
 Leopold II., 74, 310 
 Lerothodi, 204 
 
 " Letter of Invitation, "266, 269,273 
 Lewanika, 166 
 Leyds, J. W., 254 
 Lippert, E. A., concession, 171-2 
 Livingstone, David, 69, 70, 165-7 
 Lo Bengula : 
 
 sketch of, 124 
 
 alluded to, 88, 118, 125, 129, 286 
 
 treaty with Grobler, 117, 119 
 
 and Moffat treaty, 121 
 
 and Rudd concession, 123-8, 131, 
 142-3, 149 
 
 relations with Europeans, 124-6, 
 172-3, 177 
 
 messages to and from Qiieen, 127, 
 
 134. 143 
 tries to stop Pioneers, 150 
 grants Lippert concession, 17 1-2 
 war with B.S.A. Co., 172-7 
 death, 177-8 
 
 Loch, Sir Henry (Lord) (Governor) : 
 sees Kruger, 147, 253 
 relations with Rhodes, etc., 149, 
 151-3, 156, 171, 175, 178, 
 209-10, 252, 256 
 and Matabele War, 175-6 
 and Uitlanders, 254-5, 260 
 
 Lodge, Senator, 201 
 
 London Convention, 78, 82, 147, 258 
 
 Lotchi, 128 
 
 Lourengo Marques, 198 
 
 Low, Sir Sidney, 55-6, 234-5 
 
 Ludorf, Rev. J., 21-2 
 
 Lugard, Sir F. D., 165-6, 168 
 
 Macdonald, Sir John, 199, 202 
 
348 
 
 CECIL RHODES 
 
 M'Donald, J. G., 304-6 
 
 Macequece, 169, 170 
 
 Mackenzie, Rev. John, 70, 78, 117, 
 
 132 
 in Bechuanaland, 79-81, 83-4, 86- 
 
 90 
 opposes Charter, 130, 134 
 on Pioneers, 145 
 McKinley tariff, 114, 200-201, 239 
 Mackinnon, Sir William, 122, 169 
 Macloutsie, 148-51, 158 
 M'Neill, J. Swift, 133 
 Mafeking, 69, 71-2, 82, 137, 151, 
 181, 190, 256, 265, 268-70, 
 286, 317 
 Maguire, T. Rochfort, 39, 53, 90, 
 123-9, 134, 143, 177, 237, 
 255, 260 
 Majuba, 57, 61-2, 119 
 Manicaland, 167-70 
 Mankoroane, 71-3, 79, 88 
 Mashonaland. See Rhodesia 
 Mashonas, 117 sqq., 142 sqq. 
 raided by Matabeles, 173-4 
 rebellion, 291-2 
 Matabeleland. See Rhodesia 
 Matabeles, 86, 117 sqq. 
 and Pioneers, 145, 150 
 first war, 172-8, 202 
 revolt, 285-91 
 Matoppo Hills (dam and farm, etc.), 
 
 231, 287-90, 304-6, 325-6 
 Matthews, J. W. (diamonds), 25 
 Mauch, Karl, 69, 107 
 Maund, A. E., 127, 129-30 
 Melsetter, 158 
 Merriman, J. X. : 
 
 at Kimberley, 30-32, 44, 57, 95 
 relations with Rhodes, 31-2, 55, 
 60, 70, 191-2, 200, 226, 231 
 and Basutoland, 66 
 and Bechuanaland, 73, 77-8, 80 
 in opposition, 184-5 
 Treasurer-General, 1 84-7 
 native poUcy, 206, 212 
 on the Raid, 275 
 Metcalfe, Sir Charles, 40, 53, 129, 308 
 Methuen, Lord, 149, 317 
 Michell, Sir Lewis, 324 
 Mills, Sir Charles, 132 
 Milner, Sir Alfred (Viscount), 299- 
 
 301, 316, 320-21, 324 
 Milton, Sir William, 232, 307, 
 
 326 
 Missionaries' road, 35, 69, 70, 72- 
 73. 143. 261 
 
 MofEat, J. S. (Treaty), 121,. 123, 
 125-6, 131, 134, 143, 166, 168 
 Mofiat, Robert, 69, 70, 119 
 Molopo River, 88 
 Molteno, Sir J. C, 59 
 MontSioa, 71-2, 79, 82, 88, 151, 265 
 Moselikatze, 117-18, 121, 287 
 
 his tomb, 231, 304 
 Mount Hampden, 149-50 
 Mozambique. 167 
 Muizenberg, i, 325 
 
 Namaqualand, 69, 76 
 (Cape Colony), 294 
 Natal : 
 
 in 1871, 18, 25-6 
 gets responsible government, 208 
 references to, 2, 11, 208-9, 243- 
 244, 249, 296 
 National Union, 263 
 Natives of South Africa : 
 
 affected by diamond discoveries, 
 
 19 
 compound system, 94, 106, 204 
 policy of various states, 205-6, 297 
 franchise in Cape Colony, 140, 
 
 205 sqq., 297 
 See also Rhodes, Rhodesia, etc. 
 Newcastle, Duke of (Colonial 
 
 Secretary), 205 
 Newcastle (Natal), 296 
 New South Wales, 199, 200 
 Newton, Sir Francis, 58, 269 
 Ngami, Lake, 70 . 
 
 Nyassa, lake and land, 134, 165-8, 
 237 
 
 Ons Land, 301 
 
 Orange Free State : 
 in 1871, 18-19 
 
 claims to Griqualand West, 21-4 
 and Basutoland, 63, 66-7 
 customs and railway policy, 196, 
 
 248 
 treaty with Transvaal, 254 
 
 Orange River, N. border of Cape 
 Colony, 18, 20, 23 
 
 O'Reilly, John (diamonds), 15 
 
 O'Reilly, — , M.L.A., 189, 196 
 
 Oriel College, Oxford, 37, in, 313, 
 324 
 
 Oriel mine, iii ' 
 
 Ottawa Conference, 199 
 
 Owen, Sir Lanyon, 56 
 
 Oxford, in Rhodes's time, 37-43 
 See also under Rhodes 
 
INDEX 
 
 349 
 
 Paarl, the, 140, 151, 301 
 Parker, Stafford (diamonds), 16 
 Parkes, Sir Henry, 199 
 Parnell, C. S., 133-4 
 Peacock, Sophia, 9, 10 
 Penfold, Captain, 59 
 Pennefather, Colonel, 149 
 Pickering, N. E., 53, 55, 70, 103 
 Pickstone, H. E. V., 302-3 
 Pinto, Serpa, 168 
 Pioneers : 
 
 selection and names of, 147-8 
 
 expedition, 147 sqq. 
 Pitsani, 262, 265-6, 268-70 
 Plumer, H. C. O. (Lord), 286-8 
 Pniel, 16, 21 
 
 Poudoland, 203, 207-9, 213 
 Poole's Hotel, 59, 145 
 Port Elizabeth (transport from), 31, 
 158, 183-4, 198 
 
 welcomes Rhodes, 278-9 
 Portuguese claims in Africa, 74, 76, 
 
 134, 158-9, 167-70 
 Pretoria, 155, 248, 253-4, 263, 272, 
 
 316 
 Pretoria Convention, 67, 71, 73 
 Pretorius, President, 21-3, 119 
 Pringle, Thomas, quoted, 26, 
 
 50-1 
 Progressive party, 294-5 
 Providential Pass, 150 
 
 Queenstown, 209, 213 
 
 Radikladi, 149 
 Raid (Jameson), 242 sqq. 
 results of, 3, 274-5, 296, 316 
 inquiries into, 277-85 
 Railway strip, 259 sqq. 
 Railways in South Africa, 18, 63, 
 141-2, 181, 183-4, 193-4. 213, 
 248-9, 262, 292, 308-9, 311 
 See also Cape to Cairo railway 
 Rawstorne of Colesberg Kopje, 17 
 Reade, Winwood, Martyrdom of 
 
 Man, 49, 50 
 Reform Committee, 267 
 Reform prisoners, 277-8 
 Reitz, F. W., 245, 254 
 Rermy-Tailyour, E. R., 171 
 Rhodes, Cecil John : 
 A. Chronological: 
 
 1854. Birth and family, 7-10 ; 
 
 school, 8, 10 
 1870-71. Cotton planting in 
 Natal, 11-14 
 
 Rhodes, Cecil John : 
 
 A. Chronological {conid.) : 
 1871. To diamond fields, 13, 
 
 25-9 
 1871-80. Life at Kimberley, 
 
 29-36 
 1873-81. At Oxford, 37-43 
 1874. Pumping contract at 
 
 Kimberley, 45-6 
 1877. Makes first will, 51-2 
 1880. Founds De Beers, 44-7; 
 
 M.L.A. for Barkly West, 
 
 57 ; hfe at Cape Town, 
 
 58-61 
 1881-83. On Basuto question, 
 
 63-8 
 1882-85. On Bechuanaland 
 
 question, 70-90 
 1885-88. Amalgamates dia- 
 mond mines and founds De 
 
 Beers Consolidated Mines, 
 
 91-107, 113-15 
 1885-90. Works with Bond 
 
 in parliament, 140-41 
 1886-88. On Rand : " Gold 
 
 Fields of South Africa," 107- 
 
 114 
 
 1887. Visit to Grahamstown 
 about the North, 116-21 
 
 1888. Sends Rudd party to 
 Lo Bengula, 123-7 '■ ^^b" 
 scribes to Irish party funds, 
 133-4 
 
 1888-89. Obtains Charter, 127- 
 
 139 
 1889-90. Organizes Pioneer 
 
 expedition, 142-50 
 1889-91. Secures N. Rhodesia, 
 
 164-7 
 
 1890. Prime Minister of the 
 Cape, 183-6 ; visit to Tuli, 
 etc., 151-155 
 
 1 891 . Acquires Groote Schuur, 
 219 sqq. ; first visit to 
 Mashopaland, 160-62; passes 
 Bank Act, 203 
 
 1891-94. Tries to buy Delagoa 
 Bay, 198 
 
 1892. Passes Franchise and 
 Ballot Act, 203-7 ; gets 
 Lippert concession, 171-2 ; 
 starts Trans-African Tele- 
 graph, 181 
 
 1893. Forms second ministry, 
 187-8 ; and Matabele War, 
 172-80 
 
350 
 
 CECIL RHODES 
 
 Rhodes, Cecil John : 
 
 A. Chronological {contd.) : 
 
 1894. Passes Scab Act, 193-6 ; 
 Glen Grey Act, 3, 211-14; 
 annexes Pondoland, 207-11 
 
 1895. Privy Councillor, 180 ; 
 Drifts dispute with Kruger, 
 258-9 ; and the Raid, 243- 
 
 275 
 
 1896. Resigns office, 272 ; in 
 Matabele rebelUon, Matop- 
 pos indaba, 285-93 
 
 1 896-1 90 1. Develops Rhodesia, 
 291-2, 303-11 
 
 1897. Gives evidence to H. 
 of C. Comniittee, 277-85 ; 
 reappears in Cape House, 
 293-4 ; starts fruit farms, 
 
 301-3 
 
 1898. Cape elections, founds 
 Progressive party, 294-5 
 
 1899. D.C.L. at Oxford, 312- 
 314 ; makes last will, 321-4 
 
 1 899-1 900. Besieged in Kim- 
 berley, 316-18 
 
 1901. Speech to S.A. League, 
 318-21 
 
 1902. Death and burial, 324-6 
 
 B. Relations with : 
 Afrikander Bond, 140-41, 156- 
 
 157. 185-98, 243, 294 
 Herbert Baker, q.v. 
 B. Barnato, 96-104 
 Alfred Beit, q.v. 
 Sir G. Bower, 58, 146, 269-70 
 B.S.A. Co., directors, 163-4, 
 
 306 ; shareholders, 138-9, 
 
 238-41, 306, 312 
 J. Chamberlain, q.v. 
 Colonies, 199, 200, 240, 328 
 Sir H. de Villiers, 141, 187, 
 
 199, 215-18 
 Sir C. Dilke, 132 
 Dutch of S.A., 57, 61-3, 71, 
 
 87, 89, 147, 158, 185-6, 195, 
 
 226-7, 250, 275, 278, 294-5, 
 
 319-20 
 Edward VII. (P. of W.), 228, 
 
 310 
 English political parties, 131- 
 
 133. 235-8 
 W. E. Gladstone, 132, 236-7 
 General Gordon, 64-6 
 Earl Grey, q.v. 
 Sir Wm. Harcourt, q.v. 
 J. H. Hofmeyr, q.v. 
 
 Rhodes, Cecil John : 
 
 B. Relations with {conid.) : 
 Dr. Jameson, q.v. 
 
 Lord Kitchener, q.v. 
 
 President Kruger, q.v. 
 
 Lo Bengula, 149, 178 
 
 Sir H. Loch, q.v. 
 
 Rev. J.' Mackenzie, 79, 84, 86, 
 
 90. 145 
 T. R. Maguire, 39, 53, 90, 123, 
 
 134, 237, 255, 260 
 J. X. Merriman, q.v. 
 Lord Milner, q.v. 
 natives of S.A., 12, 14, 30, 94, 
 
 106, 203-14, 287-91, 326, 
 
 328 
 newspapers, 58, 192, 234-5, 251 
 Oxford, 4, 12, 37-43, 208, 212, 
 
 232, 312-14, 321-4 
 C. S. Parnell, 133-4 
 Rhodesian Pioneers, 3, 157, 
 
 160-62, 179-80, 292, 326, 328- 
 
 330 
 Sir H. Robinson, q.v. 
 Lord Rosebery, 133, 236-7, 
 
 323-4 
 Lord Rothschild, 100, 235 
 C. D. Rudd, q.v. 
 Lord Salisbury, 165, 235, 317 
 Schreiner family, 59, 188, 228, 
 
 270-71, 275 
 Sir G. Sprigg, 63, 187-8, 192, 
 
 215-17, 233, 284 
 W. T. Stead, q.v. 
 The Times, q.v. 
 
 Uitlanders, 254-5, 263-5, 267-8 
 Queen Victoria, q.v. 
 Sir Charles Warren, 9, 56, 83-4, 
 
 87, 89, 90, 151 
 William II., 274, 310-12 
 women, 33, 228-9, 234 
 George Wyndham, q.v. 
 
 C. Characteristics, Views, etc. : 
 aims, 50-57, 87, 120-21, 164, 
 
 242, 329-30 
 " The Great Amalgamator," 
 
 115 
 Anglo-Saxon race, 50-51, 55, 
 
 322 
 anti-gambling law, 32 
 appearance, 11, 33, 151, 233-4, 
 
 280, 319 
 artistic tastes, 220-22, 224-5, 
 
 230-32 
 the ballot, 207 
 the bar, 38 
 
INDEX 
 
 351 
 
 Rhodes, Cecil John : 
 
 C. Characteristics, etc. (contd.): 
 books, 40-42, 49, 50, 97, 222-4 
 characteristics, 9, 33-4, 96-9, 
 
 151-5. 219 sqq., 250-53, 315 
 
 sqq. 
 " The Colossus," 152, 281 
 country gentleman class, 10, 
 
 189, 210, 324 
 doctors, love of, 251-2 
 education, 195-6, 210, 230, 307, 
 
 322 
 " equal rights," 211, 297 
 farming, love of, 57, 193-5, 
 
 301-6 
 freemason, 39 
 friendships, 5, 9, 12, 31-2, 39, 
 
 40, 48, 53-5, 58-60, 98, 115. 
 
 136, 226-7, 251-2, 295 
 Hampstead property, 39 
 " homes, more homes," 181, 
 
 240 
 impatience, 137, 168-9, 178-9, 
 
 250-53. 315-8 
 " imperial factor," q.v. 
 imperial federation, 4-6, 51-2, 
 
 133, 199, 202, 240 
 letters and telegrams, 3, 10, 14, 
 26-9, 32, 37-9, 46, 90, 97-8, 
 no, 126-7, 168-9, 174. 178-9, 
 187, 199, 200, 217-18, 245, 
 269, 300-302, 308-9, 331 
 loafers, 40, 57, 210, 308 
 " looking at the comparative," 
 
 153, 161, 230, 293 
 money, value he attached to, 
 36, 38, 52, 91, 113-15. 122, 
 182, 192, 327, 330 
 protectionist, 194-5, 202, 239- 
 
 240 
 religion, 49-51, 229-30 
 South African, a great, 232-3 
 speaking, method of, 66, 152, 
 
 igo-91, 240 
 speeches, on Basutoland, 64, 66- 
 67 ; on Bechuanaland, 73, 
 79, 88-9 ; on N. expansion, 
 120, 152, 156-7, 182 ; on 
 Bond policy, 140 ; as Prime 
 Minister, 190-214; to 
 Rhodesians, 179, 292, 307 ; 
 to B.S.A. Co., 238-41, 306, 
 312 ; after Raid, 278-9 ; on 
 S.A. union, 242-3, 245, 295- 
 297 ; in 1898 election, 294-5 ; 
 at Oxford, 313-14 ; to S.A. 
 
 Rhodes, Cecil John : 
 C. Characteristics, etc. {contd.): 
 League, 318-20 ; extracts 
 from, 35, 59 
 summary of, 1-6, 326-30 
 veld, love of, 25-6, 35-7, 153-4, 
 292 
 Rhodes, Frank, 7-11, 14, 30, 31, 33, 
 
 35. 37. 237. 264, 277 
 Rhodes, Rev. F. W., 7, 8, lo-ii, 31 
 Rhodes, Herbert, 7, 8, 11-13, 27, 
 29-31. 35-6, 70, 107, 146, 204 
 Rhodes, Louisa (Mrs.), 7, 8, 26 
 Rhodes, Miss Louisa, 7, 277 
 Rhodes, Samuel, 7 
 Rhodes, William, 7 
 Rhodes scholarships, 4, 321-4 
 Rhodesia : 
 
 name given, 180 
 Northern, 164-7, 307-8 
 Southern, form of government, 
 
 180, 306-7 
 development, 181, 291-2, 307-9 
 customs clause, 202, 240, 306-7 
 natives in, 204, 286, 307, 328 
 mining regulations, 159, 161, 
 
 328 
 gold production, 122, 138, 159, 
 
 181. 307 
 
 See also B.S.A. Co., Mashonas, 
 Matabeles, Nyassaland 
 Ripon, Marquis of (Colonial Secre- 
 tary), 176, 178-9, 235, 252, 
 256-7, 259-60, 262 
 Roberts, Field-Marshal Earl, 318 
 Robinson, Sir Hercules (Lord 
 Rosmead) (Governor) : 
 
 alluded to, 76, 79, 147 
 
 relations with Rhodes, 58, 84, 90, 
 117, 252 
 
 and London Convention, 78 
 
 and Bechuanaland, 81, 83-4, 88, 
 90 
 
 consents to MofEat treaty, 116-17, 
 119-21, 126 
 
 supports Charter, 131, 134-5 
 
 speech on meddlers, superseded, 
 81, 252 
 
 Governor for second time, 252-3 
 
 instructions re Johannesburg ris- 
 ing, 260-63, 283 
 
 ignorant of Rhodes's policy, 266, 
 269 
 
 action on Raid, 271-2 
 Robinson, Sir John, 12, 243 
 Robinson, J. B., 16, 108-10, 255 
 
352 
 
 CECIL RHODES 
 
 Rondebosch, i, 219 
 Rooigrond, 72, 79, 82, 86 
 Rosebery, Lord, 34, 133, 181, 236- 
 
 237. 257. 309, 323-4 
 Rothschild, Lord, 100, 132, 235 
 Royal Niger Co., 122 
 Rudd, C. D. : 
 
 Rhodes's partner in De Beers, 31, 
 
 36-9, 45-7, 92 
 at Johannesburg, 108, iio-ii 
 concession from Lo Bengula, 123- 
 
 128, 131, 143, 168, 176 
 applies for Charter, 135 
 Ruskin, John, influence on Rhodes, 
 41-2, 50 
 
 St. John's (Pondoland), 207 
 St. Lucia Bay, 250 
 Salisbury (Rhodesia), 150, 158-61, 
 168, 170-71, 174, 181, 286, 
 292, 307-8 
 Salisbury, Marquis of, 134-6, 145, 
 
 165-7, 235. 317 
 Sargent, E. B., 307 
 Sauer, Hans, io8, 287 
 Sauer, J. W., 59, 183-8, 206, 212, 
 
 215-7, 226, 294 
 Scab Act, 193-5, 203, 213, 227 
 Scanlen, Sir Thomas : 
 Prime Minister, 63, 185 
 and Basutoland, 64, 66 
 and Bechuanaland, 73, 78, 80 
 falls " on a bug," 77 
 to Rhodesia, 192 
 Schermbriicker, Colonel, 189 
 Schreiner, Olive, 59, 228 
 Schreiner, W. P., 59, 206, 215-6 
 Attorney-General, 188, 258 
 sees Rhodes after Raid, 270-71 
 on Raid, 275 
 
 leader of Bond party, 294 
 Prime Minister, 321 
 Scramble for Africa, 74-8, 166-70 
 Scully, W. C, 31-3, 35 
 Selborne, Earl of (Governor- 
 General), 162, 308 
 Selous, F. C, 69, 119, 177 
 
 and Pioneers, 145-7, 149-50, 169- 
 170 
 Shangani River, 177 
 Shaw, Miss Flora (Lady Lugard), 
 
 235. 261 
 Shippard, Sir Sidney, 51, 116, 121, 
 
 124-7 
 Shire Highlands and River, 165-6, 
 168, 170, 181 
 
 Shoshong, 69, 70 
 
 Sigcau, 207-9 
 
 Sivewright, Sir J., 142, 186-9, 196, 
 198, 215, 233 
 
 Sleaford, 9, 10 
 
 Smith, Sir Harry (Governor), 18 
 
 Smith, W. H., 134 
 
 Solomon, Saul, 59, 206 
 
 South African League, speech to, 
 318-20 
 
 South African Republic. See Trans- 
 vaal 
 
 South African War, 315-21 
 
 Southey, Robert, 21-4, 32, 59 
 
 Sprigg, Sir Gordon : 
 
 defeated on Basuto War, 63 
 at Goshen, 83 
 second ministry, 182-5, ^96 
 attacks Rhodes, 188, 196 
 in Rhodes's second ministry, 187- 
 188, 192, 203, 208, 215-17, 
 
 233 
 third ministry, 284 
 tribute to Rhodes, 284 
 Stanley, H. M., 74, 126 
 " Star of South Africa," 15 
 Stead, W. T. : 
 
 account of Rhodes's aims, 49-50 
 Last Will and Testament of 
 
 Cecil J. Rhodes, 49 
 trustee of will, 52, 53, 321, 324 
 at HoUoway, 98 
 meets Rhodes, 132 
 Rhodes's prophet, 132, 235 
 referred to, 202, 238, 299 
 Stellaland, 71-4, 78-9, 81-4, 86-8,256 
 Stellenbosch, 60, 195, 301 
 Stevenson Road, 166-7, ^68 
 Struben brothers, 107-9 
 Sutherland, Dr. P. C, 11, 13, 36 
 Swaziland, 119, 125, 135, 147, 155, 
 246, 250 
 
 Table Mountain, i, 120, 206, 224-6, 
 
 229, 231, 304, 319 
 Tanganyika, Lake, 120, 166, 181, 
 
 308-9 
 Tariffs in South Africa, 74, 80, 141, 
 ^ 194-7. 200, 202, 236, 243-4, 
 
 248, 263-4, 295-6, 306 
 Tati Gold Fields, 69, 107, 119, 125, 
 
 143 
 
 Taungs, 69, 71-2 
 
 Telegraph, African Transconti- 
 nental, 181, 191, 200, 236, 
 239, 292, 309-11 
 
INDEX 
 
 353 
 
 Thabas Imamba, 287 
 
 Theron, T. P., 192 
 
 Thompson, F. R., 123, 127-8, 142, 
 
 177 
 Times, The : 
 
 and Rhodes, 90, 99, 131, 138, 
 197. 235. 237 
 
 and the Raid, 261, 272-3 
 Transkei, 203, 208, 210-13 
 Transvaal (South African RepubUc) : 
 
 in 1871, 19 
 
 claims to river diggings, 20-23 
 
 annexation of, 56, 61, 74 
 
 and Bechuanaland, 69 sqq. 
 
 and Matabeles, 118 sqq. 
 
 franchise, 247 sqq. 
 
 railway and tariff policy, 74, 80, 
 141, 196, 248-9 
 
 See also Kruger 
 TuH, 146, 149-53. 158- 174 
 Tweed, John, 221, 231 
 
 Uganda, 200, 236-7, 308-10, 313 
 Uitlanders : 
 
 grievances, 112, 246-8, 253-5, 
 
 284, 316 
 rising organized, 255, 263 sqq. 
 See also Johannesburg 
 Umkomanzi (Umkomaas) River, 11- 
 
 14, 96, 203 
 UmtaU, 160, 170, 181, 231, 239, 292, 
 
 308 
 Umtassa, 169-70 
 Union of South Africa : 
 
 National Convention on, 2, 297, 
 
 329 
 Carnarvon's scheme for, 56 
 See also Hofmeyr, Rhodes 
 United Concessions Co., 130, 241 
 U.S.A. and Rhodes, 114, 201, 
 
 234 
 University College, Oxford, 37 
 Upiugton, Sir Thomas (Prime 
 
 Minister, etc.), 59, 79, 83, 
 
 185, 188, 192, 207 
 Usher, 125 
 
 Van der Byl, Mrs., 220, 228 
 
 Van Niekerk, G. J., 71-2, 79, 81-3, 
 
 87-8, 242 
 Van Niekerk, Schalk, 15 
 Van Pittius, Gey, 72, 81-3, 88 
 
 Van Riebeeck statue and panel, i, 
 
 221, 231 
 Victoria, Queen, and Rhodes, 156, 
 
 234. 320 
 Victoria (Australia), 200 
 Victoria (Rhodesia), 150, 174-6 
 
 agreement, 176 
 Victoria Falls, 309 
 View of the World, 3, 304-5, 325 
 Vorster, Barend, 154-7 
 Voruitzicht (De Beers), 16-17, 44 
 Vryburg, 71-2, 142, 151, 158, 161, 
 
 190 
 
 Walfisch Bay, 76, 200 
 Wankie coalfields, 309 
 Warren, General Sir Charles, 56, 70, 
 
 83-90, 117, 151 
 Waterboer (Griqua), 20-3 
 Watts, F. G., " Physical Energy," 
 
 etc., 225, 231, 328 
 Wernher, Beit and Co., 101-2, 113 
 Wesselton (Premier) mine, 105-6 
 Westacre, 304 
 Weston- Jarvis, E., 306 
 WilUam II., Kaiser : 
 
 telegram, 273-4, 316 
 
 sees Rhodes, 310-12 
 WilUams, F. Gardner, 100, 105 
 Wilhams, Sir Ralph, 87, 90, 117, 119 
 Williams, Robert, 308 
 Willoughby, Sir John, 149, 266 
 Wilmot, Alexander, 223 
 Wilson, Alan, 177-8, 231, 304 
 Witwatersrand, described, 107-9 
 
 See Gold, Johannesburg 
 Wodehouse, Sir Philip (Governor), 
 
 15. 119 
 Wolff, Dr., 264 
 
 Wood, Francis and Chapman, £25 
 Wyndham, George, 279, 282-3, 304 
 
 Yerburgh, Robert, 9, 37, 39 
 Younghusband, Colonel Sir F., 267 
 
 Zambesi, 69, 70, 80, 86, 118, 121, 
 126, 137, 141, 165, 167, 170, 
 182, 309 
 
 Zanzibar, 165, 167 
 
 Zimbabwe ruins, 161, 222 
 
 Zuid-Afrikaan, 60 
 
 Zulus, 18, 20, 1 1 7- 1 8 
 
 Prittiedin Great Britain by R. & R. Clark, Limited, Edinburgh.