Part 6 (1/2)

I can very clearly picture Cecil Rhodes in one of his characteristic attitudes After dinner it was his wont to lean forith both elbows on the table and hishis chin gently with his forefinger Very often he would sit in the attitude described for a very long tioing on His hts were far away, but occasionally some interjection would indicate that, to a certain extent, he was keeping in touch with the current topic Indeed, it often see with soe Paton used to banter him severely for this peculiarity, but the banter was always taken in good part

My first transaction with Cecil Rhodes was over the sale of on

Within a few old at Marabastad was much discussed, and an expedition thither, under the leadershi+p of Herbert Rhodes, was organized There was difficulty in the on; eventually I was persuaded to lend mine for the trip When the expedition returned, about four on was a wreck Naturally I de it back

The question arose as to what compensation I was to receive It was known that the vehicle had cost me only 13, but I had, shortly after my arrival, refused an offer of 35 for it I now demanded 30 Cecil Rhodes offered 25, which I declined to accept After discussing the reed one afternoon to settle the dispute by ame of euchre If Rhodes won, the price was to be 25; if victory declared for a of mealie-meal stood in the corner of the tent; I laid this prone so that it round, one at each side of the an At first luck was on the side of ame before I had scored a point, and was soon ”all but” in the second Then fortune favored me and after a hard tussle I won When at Groote Schuur in 1894 I reminded Mr Rhodes of this occurrence, and found that he re the visitors to our mess tent I recall several who have since played pro these ht, now an artist on the staff of the Illustrated London News He occasionally o ho” He apparentlyto draw That Mr

Wright did ”get the drawing” is quite evident from the work he turns out and the position he holds I have a vivid recollection of an excellent pair of top-boots and a very wide scarlet cummerbund which he used to wear

Another frequent visitor was Archibald Cauished hi for the Turks He ca deed connected with the defense of the Schipka Pass, when he was under the Command of the traitorous Suleiuest, also the forinald Fairlie, who subsequently becaly dramatic romance I shall have occasion to refer to Archibald Campbell later

Mr J X Merriman dined with us several times He was at the time in partnershi+p with Mr H C Becher Mr Barry, the first Recorder of the Griqualand High Court, afterwards Sir Jacob Barry, Judge President of the Eastern Districts Court, also was our guest Of the original members of the mess there are, so far as I know, only four alive These are Mr George Paton, Norh McLeod, and ht when the Rhodeses, Campbell, Fairlie, Garstin, and I returned from a mild spree at Du Toit's Pan

Close to our caalvanized iron, and with a rather discordant toned bell at one end My companions threwstones, to clinant inhabitants of the surrounding tents swar me stranded However, the sand was soft, so I dropped down and ed to escape

Cecil Rhodes had a rusty black pony named ”Bandersnatch” which I occasionally rode when shooting, ga more or less plentiful within a fewdogs I have ever seen It had no vestige of a tail, and, generally, it bore a strong rese

In the days I write of Cecil and Herbert Rhodes orking a claim near the north end of No 10 Road They found a fair nu on shares a sround in the same road, the property of Gray Barber By this tiravel on one's claier had a depositing-floor to which his ground was carted or harrowed Of the original surface of the , vast chasreen, tenacious, decoranular and abounding in mica would be loosened with a pick, hauled up to the level of the road by means of bucket, rope, and pulley, and then conveyed to the depositing-floor

The bulk of the native labor at the diamond-fields was drawn from Bechuanaland and the northern Transvaal Many of the natives froed to the Baphedi tribe, whose chief was the celebrated Sekukuni These people used to arrive in an unspeakably miserable physical condition; they had traveled hundreds ofbut skin and bone

But after a week's feeding on ie which was their staple food at the an to pick up At the end of a month they would be sleek and in first-rate fettle

It is practically certain that before leaving home these people had been instructed in the art of dia That such was the caseincident A friend of ht six ”boys” (we used to buy these creatures from the labor touts at 1 per head), and put the lus watching the poor creatures, ere in an unspeakably wretched condition They were perfectly naked, except that each wore the usual stert reian speculating as to whether one of them would know a diamond if he saw it

Just then a certain kind of ”sell” was often practiced One would cut a piece of alum into the ordinary octahedron fores Such a production would make a capital imitation of a white, frosted stone The ”sell” was practiced thus: You would go to the sorting table of a friend, stealthily insert the luravel, and watch until he found it The first thing a man usually did when he found a diamond was to put it into his mouth so as to remove the dust The face of a ht

On the occasion in question I happened to have in my pocket a carefully prepared luhed about fifteen carats After indicating to my friend what I was about to do, I walked up close to the heap of clods, bent down as though to tie round Then I returned to where I had been sitting For anear the spot, but soon one of the natives shambled away from his companions and came towards it He put his foot on the lump of alum and shambled on, but the lu up at once, but I restrained hi clods for a fewheap of rubbish We followed and seized hirasped between his toes

Cecil Rhodes's depositing-floor was large and very conveniently situated close to the edge of the htening my labors considerably But a catastrophe happened One Sundayroar There was talk of earthquakes Soon, however, we found out what had happened, the whole of the northern portion of No 10 Road had collapsed into the chasm on its western side Had this happened on a weekday, at least a hundred men would have lost their lives; probably I would have shared their fate This occurrence put a stop to , stretched wire ropes, windlass, and iron pulley-travelers now beca out one's stuff As my little capital was quite inadequate to all this, I surrendered the clai, a stor adventures I was told a few years since of an escapade which I will here relate While believing the story, to be literally true, I do not guarantee its authenticity

It is believed that in the caverns of what used to be Sekukuni's country considerable stores of diamonds, taken back from the fields by Baphedi laborers in the early days, lie concealed Now, Sekukuni was a warrior of parts, he defied for several years the Transvaal, when the aders attempted to levy tribute on hireat ambition to obtain a cannon for the defense of his ly, towards the end of the seventies, he offered a heavy price, no less than a pint of clear, flawless diamonds, to any one ould supply such a weapon Herbert Rhodes heard of the offer, opened coreed to provide a cannon on the ter the supply of firearhtly looked upon as the unpardonable sin by

But this case fell not into the ordinary, category of gun-running A cannon, for purposes of offence or defense, would have been of no ramophone However, the chief did not know this He possessed the diamonds, but they were of no use whatever to him He desired the artillery; this could not have been of any use to hiun was, as a matter of fact, a weapon so utterly obsolete that it could have been of no use to any one Logically, therefore, the transaction proposed aainst x reat use to Herbert Rhodes, while the cannon would have been as a symbol priceless to the chief; he would have slept sounder the nights through in the realization that he possessed an engine capable, at least, of un, it appears, was conveyed to Lourenco Marques in a sht it was lowered into a boat, which was rowed up the Maputa River to a specified landing-place

Sekukuni had sent an induna bearing the pint of diamonds and accompanied by a number of carriers, with directions to keep to the valley of the Olifant River as far as the Leboe to the Ko of the arrival of the gun

Herbert Rhodes was not alone a first-rate boxer, but was unduly fond of giving practical illustration of his skill On board the barque he quarreled with anotherThisfound out about the forwarding of the gun, he ive inforuese commander at once made preparations to send a coun-runners In the meantime a man at Lourenco Marques as in Herbert Rhodes's confidence dispatched a swift runner ahead to warn Rhodes of his danger This runner arrived some considerable time before the soldiers, so Rhodes had ample time in which to make preparations

The way he dealt with the difficulty was siun and a piece of twine to the rope

Then he flung rope and gun into the river, fastened the end of the twine to a floating fragarette, and sat down to await developuese force arrived The officer in charge was accompanied by an interpreter Rhodes and his companions were at once arrested The fornant tere When inforreatest astonished the officer to institute a search This was done at once, and thoroughly; needless to say, nothing of an incried his tone, becoetic He probably knew by experience that for a blunder such as this evidently, was, he, rather than his superior, would have to bear the brunt But Rhodes was ie As soon as the British Governraceful manner in which one of its subjects had been treated, a man-of-ould be sent round frouese shanties about the Portuguese ears, &c The officer, now thoroughly frightened, becaet full change out of hi; he failed to make use of the loophole of escape that Fortune showed his, namely, that the Maputa is a tidal river, that several hours had elapsed since the gun had been heaved overboard, and that the tide was falling One of the soldiers, in strolling about, noticed so unusual just beneath the surface of the water To this he called the attention of a noncoun was hauled out Rhodes now tuh horse and the officer at once mounted it

The search partyRhodes and his companions as prisoners The companions were placed at once on board their shi+p