Boers
distrusted British honour and British integrity; and doubting the word or
promises of England, they made her responsible for this mistake of Cecil
Rhodes. Rhodes, however, refused to recognise the sad fact. The big
magnates of Johannesburg said that the wisest thing Rhodes could have done
at this critical juncture would have been to go to Europe, there to remain
until after the war, thus dissociating himself from the whole question of
the settlement, instead of intriguing to be entrusted with it.

The fact of Cecil Rhodes' absence would have cleared the whole situation,
relieved Sir Alfred Milner, and given to the Boers a kind of political and
financial security that peace would not be subject to the ambitions and
prejudices of their enemies, but concluded with a view to the general
interests of the country.

CHAPTER XV.

DEALING WITH THE REFUGEES

The refugees were a continual worry and annoyance to the English community
at the Cape. As time went on it became extremely difficult to conciliate
the differing interests which divided them, and to prevent them from
committing foolish or rash acts likely to compromise British prestige in
Africa. The refugees were for the most boisterous people. They insisted
upon being heard, and expected the whole world to agree with their
conclusions, however unstable these might be. It was absolutely useless to
talk reason to a refugee; he refused to listen to you, but considered
that, as he had been--as he would put it--compelled to leave that modern
paradise, the Rand, and to settle at Cape Town, it became the
responsibility of the inhabitants of Cape Town to maintain him. Table
Mountain echoed with the sounds of their vain talk. They considered that
they were the only people who knew anything about what the English
Government ought to do, and who criticised it the most, threatening at
every moment that they would write to their influential friends--even the
poorest and most obscure had "influential friends"--revealing the
abominable way in which English interests were neglected in Cape Colony,
where the Government, according to them, only helped the rebels, and
considered their wants and requirements in preference to those of their
own people.

At first, when they were not known as they deserved to be, some persons
fresh from the Mother Country, to whom South African morals and intrigues
were unknown, took to heart the position as well as the complaints of
those ref