art
of its population. He had the best intentions in regard to President
Kruger himself, and there was one moment, just at the time of the
Bloemfontein Conference, when a _modus vivendi_ between President Kruger
and the Court of St. James's might have been established, notwithstanding
the difficult question of the Uitlanders. It was frustrated by none other
than these very Uitlanders, who, fondly believing that a war with England
would establish them as absolute masters in the Gold Fields, brought it
about, little realising that thereby was to be accomplished the one thing
which they dreaded--the firm, just and far-seeing rule of England over all
South Africa.

In a certain sense the Boer War was fought just as much against financiers
as against President Kruger. It put an end to the arrogance of both.

CHAPTER II.

THE FOUNDATIONS OF FORTUNE

It is impossible to speak of South Africa without awarding to Cecil Rhodes
the tribute which unquestionably is due to his strong personality. Without
him it is possible that the vast territory which became so thoroughly
associated with his name and with his life would still be without
political importance. Without him it is probable that both the Diamond
Fields to which Kimberley owes its prosperity and the Gold Fields which
have won for the Transvaal its renown would never have risen above the
importance of those of Brazil or California or Klondyke.

It was Rhodes who first conceived the thought of turning all these riches
into a political instrument and of using it to the advantage of his
country--the England to which he remained so profoundly attached amid all
the vicissitudes of his life, and to whose possessions he was so eager to
add.

Cecil Rhodes was ambitious in a grand, strange manner which made a
complete abstraction of his own personality under certain conditions, but
which in other circumstances made him violent, brutal in manner, thereby
procuring enemies without number and detractors without end. His nature
was something akin to that of the Roman Emperors in its insensate desire
to exercise unchallenged an unlimited power. Impatient of restraint, no
matter in what shape it presented itself, he brooked no resistance to his
schemes; his rage against contradiction, and his opposition to any
independence of thought or action on the part of those who were around
him, brought about a result of which he would have been the first to
complain, had he suspected