Cecil Rhodes | Page 9

to the
voice of the desert, so full of attractions for those who have grown to
discern somewhat of Nature's hidden joys and sorrows. South Africa
became for him a second Motherland, and one which seemed to him to
be more hospitable to his temperament than the land of his birth. In
South Africa he felt he could find more satisfaction and more
enjoyment than in England, whose conventionalities did not appeal to
his rebellious, unsophisticated heart. He liked to roam about in an old
coat and wideawake hat; to forget that civilisation existed; to banish
from his mind all memory of cities where man must bow down to Mrs.
Grundy and may not defy, unscathed, certain well-defined prejudices.
Yet Cecil Rhodes neither cared for convention nor custom. His motto
was to do what he liked and not to trouble about the judgments of the
crowd. He never, however, lived up to this last part of his profession
because, as I have shown already, he was keenly sensitive to praise and
to blame, and hurt to the heart whenever he thought himself misjudged
or condemned. Most of his mistakes proceeded from this
over-sensitiveness which, in a certain sense, hardened him, inasmuch as
it made him vindictive against those from whom he did not get the
approval for which he yearned. In common with many another, too,
Cecil Rhodes had that turn of mind which harbours resentment against
anyone who has scored a point against its possessor. After the Jameson
Raid Rhodes never forgave Mr. Schreiner for having found out his
deceit, and tried to be revenged.

Cecil Rhodes had little sympathy with other people's woes unless these
found an echo in his own, and the callousness which he so often
displayed was not entirely the affectation it was thought by his friends
or even by his enemies. Great in so many things, there were
circumstances when he could show himself unutterably small, and he
seldom practised consistency. Frank by nature, he was an adept at
dissimulation when he thought that his personal interest required it. But
he could "face the music," however discordant, and, unfortunately for
him as well as for his memory, it was often so.
The means by which Cecil Rhodes contrived to acquire so unique a
position in South Africa would require volumes to relate. Wealth alone
could not have done so, nor could it have assured for him the popularity
which he gained, not only among the European colonists, but also
among the coloured people, notwithstanding the ruthlessness which he
displayed in regard to them. There were millionaires far richer than
himself in Kimberley and in Johannesburg. Alfred Beit, to mention
only one, could dispose of a much larger capital than Rhodes ever
possessed, but this did not give him an influence that could be
compared with that of his friend, and not even the Life Governorship of
De Beers procured for him any other fame than that of being a
fabulously rich man. Barney Barnato and Joel were also familiar
figures in the circle of wealthy speculators who lived under the shade
of Table Mountain; but none among these men, some of whom were
also remarkable in their way, could effect a tenth or even a millionth
part of what Rhodes succeeded in performing. His was the moving
spirit, without whom these men could never have conceived, far less
done, all that they did. It was the magic of Rhodes' name which created
that formidable organisation called the De Beers Company; which
annexed to the British Empire the vast territory known now by the
name of Rhodesia; and which attracted to the gold fields of
Johannesburg all those whom they were to enrich or to ruin. Without
the association and glamour of Rhodes' name, too, this area could never
have acquired the political importance it possessed in the few years
which preceded, and covered, the Boer War. Rhodes' was the mind
which, after bringing about the famous Amalgamation of the diamond
mines around Kimberley, then conceived the idea of turning a private

company into a political instrument of a power which would control
public opinion and public life all over South Africa more effectually
even than the Government. This organisation had its own agents and
spies and kept up a wide system of secret service. Under the pretext of
looking out for diamond thieves, these emissaries in reality made it
their duty to report on the private opinions and doings of those whose
personality inspired distrust or apprehension.
This organisation was more a dictatorship than anything else, and had
about it something at once genial and Mephistophelian. The conquest
of Rhodesia was nothing in comparison with the power attained by this
combine, which arrogated to itself almost unchallenged the right to
domineer over every white man and