Once, when they were together, Gordon related to Rhodes the story of an offer of a room full of gold which had been made to him by the Chinese Government, after the suppression of the Tai-Ping revolt. "What did you do?" asked Rhodes. "Refused it, of course. What would you have done?" said Gordon. "I would have taken it," answered Rhodes, "and as many more roomfuls as they would give me. It is no use for us to have big ideas if we have not got the money to carry them out."
When Gordon went to Khartoum he invited Rhodes to accompany him, but Rhodes refused. He accepted the offer made by the same post of the Treasurer-Generalship in the Scanlin Ministry. In 1884 he became Deputy-Commissioner for Bechuanaland, which, as the key to South Africa, he determined to keep under his watchful eye. He was at the same time Treasurer-General of Cape Colony. In 1889 he became Director of the British South Africa Company and Chairman till the fiasco of 1896, at which time he was Premier of Cape Colony. In addition to holding these posts, his activities have been unending. He has been the moving spirit in every enterprise for the expansion and development of South Africa. He has gained the esteem of the loyal Dutch, and has succeeded in making himself feared if not beloved by the disloyal. His great work of attempting to weld together the two races into one united people is for the nonce suspended, but should life be spared him he will doubtless see the realisation of his dream. In addition to his other labours Mr. Rhodes was Commissioner of the Crown Lands in 1890-94, Minister of Native Affairs 1894-95, and served in Matabeleland in 1896.
RHODESIA—UNCIVILISED
In sketching the history of Rhodesia it is necessary to go at least as far back as our friend Chaka, the great chieftain of the Zulus, whose military prowess has been described. In the days of this warlike personage, Matshobane, who governed the Matabele tribe on the north-west of Zululand, preferred to submit to Chaka rather than to be "eaten up." Matshobane was the grandfather of Lobengula, who is intimately associated with the infant history of this promising country. His son Mosilikatze, however, was not so amenable to Zulu discipline. He broke out, annihilated all men, women, and children who happened to come in his way, and betook himself finally to remote regions where he had no masters save the lions. Later on, in 1837, he conceived the ingenious notion of exterminating all the white men north of the Orange River; but the white men were too much for him, and so he promptly retired to fresh fields and pastures new—in fact, to the country now known as Matabeleland. Its inhabitants were then settled between the Limpopo and the Zambesi. Here he again carried on his fell work of extermination. Of the horrors of his triumphant progress nothing need be said. They are best left to the imagination. It is enough to explain that the tribes of the Makalas, Mashonas, and others that happened to be in the way, were speedily wiped out. The Matabele, reigning in this vast now almost desolate region, soon became the terror of other tribes. The ravagers continued their fiendish operations, and finally set up military kraals and installed their chief in the principal of these at Buluwayo.
How long this state of things would have endured it is difficult to say. Fortunately there appeared on the scene a man—The Man—who conceived in his mighty brain a way to clear this Augean stable and transform it into a comparative fairyland. Mr. Cecil Rhodes came—he saw—and he conquered in all senses of the word. He decided that British civilisation must be extended to this "hinter-land"—as the Boers called it—and, being a keen man of the world and no sentimentalist, he argued, moreover, that British civilisation might be made to pay its way! The idea that Mr. Rhodes is "the walking embodiment of an ideal," without personal ambition in his schemes, is as absolutely absurd as are the reverse pictures that have been painted of him. He is no angel and no ogre, Mr. Rhodes is one of Nature's sovereigns, who, conscious of his power and the limitations of human life, uses every minute at his disposal to write his name large in the records of his country. And, since his name is large, he wants as a natural consequence a large and clear area to write it in, and that area he means to have!
Matabeleland.
Now, Mr. Rhodes had decided that the British were the best administrators of South Africa, and that if the British shirked the task it would be undertaken by some other nation. He saw the key to South Africa in his hands—he saw the Boer overspreading his borders, he saw Germans and Portuguese intriguing for footholds—there was but one course open, and he followed it. On the 30th of November 1888, Lobengula, the chief of the Matabele, signed a document giving the British the right to search for and extract minerals in his territory. Upon that the British South Africa Company was started. In 1889 a charter was granted by the Imperial Government. The Company was created with a capital of one million sterling. There were eight directors, three appointed by the Crown, and five elected by the shareholders. Mr. Cecil Rhodes occupied the position of managing director. In a brief space of time the wildernesses and the forests were traversed, roads were made, and a strong protective force installed in the country. Dr. Jameson was appointed administrator at Salisbury. A railroad was planned and forts were built. These were occupied by the Company's police.
While the pioneers were at work prospecting for gold, and improving the country in all manner of ways, Lobengula became cantankerous. It must be remembered that he suffered from gout, for which he was treated by Dr. Jameson. Now, Lobengula without gout was sufficiently savage to cause much apprehension; with it, it is impossible to describe the nature of the alarm he must have occasioned. He fell out first with the Mashonas for trivial reasons, and murders were committed. Dr. Jameson then came to the conclusion that, if the place was to be held at all, Lobengula must be crushed. More commotions followed. The Matabeles and Mashona tribes between them contrived to render the country uninhabitable. The peaceable Europeans would stand it no longer. The Matabele war ensued.