tributed to the uprising. One is peculiarly typical of the African
savage. An outbreak of rinderpest, a disease hitherto unknown in
Southern Africa, came down from the North and ravaged the cattle herds.
In order to check the advance of the pest the Government established a
clear belt by shooting all the cattle in a certain area. It was
impossible for the Matabeles to understand the wisdom of this procedure.
They only saw it as an outrage committed by the white men on their
property for they were extensive cattle owners. In addition many died
after eating infected meat and they also held the settlers responsible.
The net result of it all was a sudden descent upon the white settlements
and scores of white men, women and children were slaughtered.

This time the operations against them were on a large scale. The present
Lord Plumer, who commanded the Fourth British Army in France against the
Germans,--he was then a Lieutenant Colonel--came up with eight hundred
soldiers and drove the Matabeles into the fastnesses of the Matopos,--a
range of hills fifty miles long and more than twenty wide. Here the
savages took refuge in caves and could not be driven out.

You now reach one of the remarkable feats in the life of Cecil Rhodes.
The moment that the second Matabele war began he hastened northward to
the country that bore his name. As soon as the Matabeles took refuge in
the Matopos he boldly went out to parley with them. With three unarmed
companions, one of them an interpreter, he set up a camp in the wilds
and sent emissaries to the syndicate of the chiefs who had succeeded
Lobengula. He had become Premier of the Cape Colony, was head of the
great DeBeers Diamond Syndicate, and had other immense interests. He was
also Managing Director of the British South Africa Company and the
biggest stockholder. He was determined to protect his interests and at
the same time preserve the integrity of the country that he loved so
well.

He exposed himself every night to raids by the most blood-thirsty
savages in all Africa. Plumer's command was camped nearly five miles
away but Rhodes refused a guard.

Rhodes waited patiently and his perseverance was eventually rewarded.
One by one the chiefs came down from the hills and succumbed to the
persuasiveness and personality of this remarkable man who could deal
with wild and naked warriors as successfully as he could dictate to a
group of hard-headed business men. After two months of negoti