Part 20 (2/2)

To describe all the means by which Rhodes worked towards this end would be impossible He worked hard at Kimberley to furnish the sinews of war; he used his personal influence and power of persuasion at Cape Town to win support froo to the frontier at any moment when there ork to be done His first commission of this sort had been in Basutoland in 1882, when he helped the famous General Gordon to pacify native discontent; but the following year saw hira ards and had started t republics, called Goshen and Stellaland, on the route from Kimberley to the north Rhodes travelled to the scene of action, interviewed Mankoroane, the Bechuana chief, and Van Niekerk, the head of the new settlenetism persuaded them both to accept British control When the Cape Parliament refused the responsibility, he referred to the Colonial Office in London, and by the help of Sir Hercules Robinson, the High Commissioner, he carried his point When the new Governor, as appointed by the Colonial Office, quarrelled with the Boers, it was Rhodes who made up the quarrel, and when in 1885 the Transvaal Dutch interfered and provoked our ho force under Sir Charles Warren, it was Rhodes once more who acted as the reconciler, and effected a settlenant Delarey,[64] provoked by English blundering, said oive me my breakfast, and then we can talk about blood' He stayed with Delarey a week, came to terms on the points at issue, and even becarandchild He was never the man to resort to force when persuasion could be employed, and he usually won his end by his own means

[Note 64: General Jacobus Delarey, one of the most successful comreat work in 1883-5 was on the northern frontier he was growing to be a fa politicians at Cape Town We have an impression of him as he appeared on his entrance into politics 'He was tall, broad-shouldered, with face and figure of so over his forehead, his eyes of bluish grey, dreamy but kindly But the mouth--aye, that was the unrulythe curve of the moustache, it had a determined, masterful, and so was straight and to the point He was not a hard hitter in debate--rather a persuader, reasoning and pleading in a conversational way as one more anxious to convince an opponent than to expose his weakness He used little gesture: what there as most expressive, his hands held behind him, or thrust out, sometimes passed over his brow'[65] Such success as he had in Parliaifts than to force of character; but this brought him rapidly to the front

As early as 1884 he was in the Ministry, and despite his long absences over his northern work he was judged to be the only man who could become Prime Minister in the parliamentary crisis of 1890 There was, by that year, little question that he was thein the Transvaal goldfields, discovered in 1886; he was head of the great De Beers Corporation of Kimberley; and he was chairman of the newly-created Chartered Company To reat financial interests with the position of First Minister of the Colony; but at least it was clear that the interests of the companies were subordinated to national aims, that the money which he obtained from mines was spent on imperial ends, and that his political position was never used for the pro of financial objects

[Note 65: _Cecil Rhodes: a Monograph and a Remans & Co, 1910)]

But it is tireatest of his schemes and the one dearest to his heart The year 1885 had secured Bechuanaland to the river Molopo as British territory, while a large stretch farther north was under a British protectorate One danger had been avoided The neck of the bottle was not corked up: a way to the interior was now open The next factor to reckon as the Matabele nation and its chief, Lobengula They were a Bantu tribe, fond of fighting and hunting, an offshoot of the Zulus who fought us in 1881

They had a very large country surrounding the Matoppo hills, and Lobengula ruled the various districts through 'indunas' or chiefs, who had 'i men at their disposal To the north-east of them lay the weaker tribe of the Mashona, who paid tribute to Lobengula and whose country was a coround for the Matabele braves Over the latter, so long as he did not check too ula exercised a fairly effective control

He hi in body and lish visitors: 'A sorotesque costume of four yards of blue calico over his shoulders and a string of tigers' tails round his waist could not ure ridiculous In early days he was an athlete and a fine shot; and though, as years went on, his voracious appetite rendered him conspicuously obese, he was every inch a ruler Visitors were overnment: very little went on in his wide dominions of which he was not instantly and accurately informed' He was an arbitrary ruler, but not cruel to Europeans, of whom a few, like the famous hunter Selous, visited his capital from time to time He clearly held the keys to the north, and it ith him that Rhodes had now to deal

The first step was the mission sent out by Rhodes and Beit early in 1888, headed by their old associate Rudd He and his two fellow-envoys stayed so for favourableto win his favour They shi+fted their quarters when the king did so, touring fro and his indunas with offers and argunature to a treaty giving full and unqualified rights to the envoys for working ive him money, rifles, amet the support of the British authorities in London for that political extension which was dearer to Rhodes than the richest reatly helped by his consistent supporter, Sir Hercules Robinson, who held office in Africa for many years, studied men and matters at first hand, and had a juster estimate of Rhodes and his value to the Empire than the officials in Whitehall Thewas by chartered company, the old Elizabethan method, which still has its value to-day, as it relieves the ho new countries, yet reserves to it the right to control policy and to enter into the harvest The Coe colonization and spread trade; the Governht arise with neighbours if it were acting under its own name

The third step was to ula's consent was given conditionally: the first expedition was to avoid his capital, Bulawayo, and to go by the south-east to Mashonaland The chief kne difficult it ht prove to hold in his impis when, instead of a solitary Selous, sorounds And so it proved Lobengula had to pretend later that he had not consented to their passage, and the expedition had to slip through the dangerous zone before they could be recalled authoritatively By May 1890 a column of nearly one thousand men was ready to start from Khama's country; and in June their equipment was approved by a British officer On Septeh trackless country (souide), the British flag was hoisted on the site of the modern town of Salisbury It is a chapter of history orth reading in detail, but Rhodes himself could not be there: the heroes of the march were Jameson and Selous The other half of Rhodesia, Matabeleland, was not added till a few years later; but British enterprise had now found the way and overcome the worst difficulties 'Occupation Day' is still kept as the chief festival of the Colony

Further extension was inevitable The Matabele ist the Mashonas Jameson's coula He himself did not ar, but he failed to control his men, and in Septeht They had on the spot about nine hundred ainst these the Matabele with all their bravery could effect little In two engageallantry, and then they broke and fled

Lobengula hiuard cut up a small party of British ere too impetuous in pursuit, but by the end of the year the country was at peace In 1894 Matabeleland was added to the territory of the Chartered Company, in 1895 the term 'Rhodesia' came into use for postal purposes, and in 1897 it was officially adopted for aduese, who claih they had never occupied it, caused a good deal of ill feeling, and very nearly led to hostilities both in Africa and Europe The Boers for the new lands before they could be effectively occupied, and had to be headed off The Matabele impis continued for months in a state of exciteerous for Rhodes or for others to go up there for some time But Rhodes himself said that he had less trouble with natives, with Dutch, and with Portuguese, than he had with compatriots of his oho claiued against hiifts came out, his patience, his persuasive power, his readiness to pour out money like water for a worthy end Soht; and in all cases he ainst his rivals Robinson, Rudd, Jaave theenerous praise; but the mind and the will that planned and carried out the whole movement, and added a province to the British Empire, was unquestionably his own

Rhodes was Pri this tied to be more often at Cape Town It was in 1891 that he first leased the property lying on the eastern slopes of Table Mountain where he built 'Groote Schuur', the famous house which he bequeathed to the service of the State Here he gradually acquired 1,500 acres of land, laying thes, and to the pleasure of his fellow-citizens Here he lived from time to time, and received all kinds of men with boundless hospitality No one can fully understand hi iuests who sat with hih up on the mountain side, where he had his favourite nooks The visitors sahat they had eyes to see One would note his foibles, his blunt manner, his slovenly dress, his want of skill at billiards, his fondness for special dishes or drinks Another would be i, by the books which he read and the questions which he asked, by his love for Gibbon and Plutarch, by his interest in Marcus Aurelius and other writers on high theain tell us of his relations to his fellow- and old, to British and Dutch, and how his generosity was abused: how his acquaintances preyed upon him; how, for all that, he kept his true friendshi+ps few in number and he held them sacred In fact, loyalty to friends meant more to Rhodes than loyalty to principles His temper was impatient, especially in the last years of physical pain; he often tried to take short cuts to his ends, believing that his ends orthy and knowing that life was short He made many mistakes, but he retrieved theh-hewn and unpolished, but he was a great man

It is impossible to put in a short compass the many important questions hich he dealt His policy towards the natives was moderate and wise He wished to educate the them and to open to theive theh to use it well, but not before; to apply to thehts for every civilized man south of the Zambezi' His policy towards the Dutch was to establish identity of interest between the two nations and so to secure friendly relations with thericulture, in railways, in colonization, in export trade, in ie Free State by a policy of common railways, and even to break down the sullen opposition of the Transvaal But the latter proved ier leant more and more upon Dutch counsellors frooa Bay and turned his back upon Cape Town: and the antagonism became more acute In 1895 Mr Chamberlain initiated a new era at the Colonial Office He was actively awake to British interests in all parts of the globe; and President Kruger, who had tried to check trade with Cape Town by stopping the Cape railway at his frontier, and then by closing the 'Drifts' or fords over the Vaal, was coreements made with the Suzerain State

A still more serious question was the treatment of the 'Uitlanders' or alien European settlers in the Transvaal Though the Boer rulers took an increasingly large share of their earnings, they restricted rant of the franchise In taxation, in commerce, in education, there was no prospect between the Vaal and the Li like it In June 1894 the High Coer that the Uitlanders had 'very real and substantial grievances'; in 1895 they were no less substantial, and agitation was rife in Johannesburg On December 28, Jameson at the head of an armed column left Pitsani on the borders and rode into the Transvaal to support a rising against the Boer Govern took place, and Jameson's s, outnumbered, and forced to surrender The Jaenerally held responsible, attracted all eyes in Europe as in Africa How President Kruger used his advantage against the Uitlanders, a whom Col Frank Rhodes was a leader, can be read in many books: here we need only relate how the event affected the Prened office at once and put himself at the disposal of the Governed by the Dutch, alike in the Cape and in the Transvaal, to have been the author of the Raid, and all chance of his doing further service in reconciling the two races was at an end The beginning of 1895 saw hiht of his ambition The end of it saw his power shattered beyond repair

His behaviour in this crisis enables us to know the real man For a few days he kept aloof, unapproachable, overcome by the ruin of his work He made no attempt to conciliate opinion: in moments of bitterness he scoffed at the 'unctuous rectitude' of certain politicians ere i the occasion But he spoke frankly to those who had the right to question him He went to London in February and saw Mr Chamberlain, the Colonial Secretary, and his Directors He ader would always yield to a show of force, he had been responsible for putting troops near the border to exercise iven Jameson orders to invade the Transvaal, or to precipitate an armed conflict, which he believed to be unnecessary Such was his consistent statement, and he was ready to face, when the time should come, the Parliamentary committees appointed by the British and South African Houses to report on the Raid Meanwhile he put all brooding away and looked round for soenial sphere His colony of Rhodesia, to which he had gone straight froreat native outbreak The causes were various Rinderpest had spoiled one of the chief native industries, and superstition had invented foolish reasons for it; also the ru about the Raid, made the natives believe that the British poas shaken The Mashonas, as well as the Matabele, took part in the revolt which began early in April 1896 To th, while General Carrington was sent out froements in difficult country followed: the enemies' forces were quickly broken up, and by the end of July the tiotiation was come

But the chiefs of the Matabele had retired into their fortresses in the Matoppo hills and could not be reached To send sht mean needless loss of life: to keep the forces in the field right through the winter was ruinous to the Cootiator, and they were accepted

The man who could carry his point with Jewish financiers and Dutch politicians ht hope to achieve his ends with the simpler native chiefs But it was a sore trial of patience He moved his own tent two miles away from the British troops to the foot of the hills, sent nativethis ti and of : hisroads and dareatness of the country It was six weeks before a chief responded Gradually they began to drop in and to hold infor to Rhodes's jokes, relapsing into fits of silence, oblivious as all savages are of the value of time

He would spend hours day after day in this apparently futile way; accustoht humour At last he persuaded them to meet him in a formal 'indaba', whichthe therievances: some were admitted: satisfaction was prohted natives greeted him uproariously with the title of La Bulls) The discussions were not over till the end of October, and it was a month later ere Rhodes was able to leave the country and face the Co in very different surroundings His work during these two reatest of his life; and that he should have been able to concentrate all his powers upon it so soon after the shattering blow of the Raid is a great tribute to his essentialin London and Cape Town, agreed to censure, though in modified terms, Rhodes's conduct over the Raid; but he still retained the respect of the bulk of his countryave hi ahead as well as behind: they felt that his services were still needed for the establishi+ng of a United South Africa under the British flag But in this respect his as done The Cape Dutch were more and more influenced by their sentih Rhodes severed hiues and becaer watched the breach, assured himself of Dutch support, made no concessions to the Uitlanders, repelled all overtures froht for war Rhodes, despite his knowledge of the Dutch, er would give way and not fight; but, when the war broke out in 1899, he went up to Kie lasted about four h he failed to work harmoniously with the military commandant, rendered many services to the town, thanks to his wealth, influence, and knowledge of the place When the toas relieved in February 1900, he went to Rhodesia and spent ed by his followers to return to politics, Cape To little of him; when he was not in the north, he was , half-way between the capital and the Cape of Good Hope The heart complaint, from which he had suffered interroorse; his last year was one of great suffering, and in March 1902 he breathed his last at Muizenberg with Jameson and a few of his dearest friends around him He was buried in the place which he had himself chosen aantic boulders keep guard round the silish service was over, the natives celebrated in their own fashi+on the passing of the great chief who had already been enshrined in their iination

At Kimberley, at Cape Town, in the Matoppos, his as done before the nineteenth century was finished, and he had earned his rest The complete union of the European races for which he laboured in Parliament is yet to co a noble purpose By his will he founded scholarshi+ps at Oxford for scholars from the Dominions and Colonies, frolo-Saxon race being extended to our Teutonic kinsarded a common education and common ideals as the surest cement of E his countrymen by the provinces which he added to the British dominions Kimberley and Cape Town have their monuments, their memories of his rave To us the peace and solitude of the hills where he liesactivity of his life But solitude will not reign there always, if Rhodes's ideal is fulfilled It was here that he had stood with a friend, looking towards the vast horizon northwards, and, in an often-quoted sentence, expressed his dream for the future: 'Ho as our race produces such bold dreamers, such strenuous workers, its future, in Africa and elsewhere, need occasion no doubts or fears