desian
expedition, and she rejoiced in the renown which it was destined to bring
to the man who had conceived and planned it. She fully believed that
Rhodes meant to bring English civilisation, English laws, the English
sense of independence and respect for individual freedom into that distant
land. The fact that lucre lay at the bottom of the expedition never
crossed her mind; even if it had she would have rejected the thought with
scorn and contempt.

Although the attacks upon Cecil Rhodes increased day by day in intensity
and in bitterness, Mrs. van Koopman never wavered in her allegiance. She
attributed them to jealousy and envy, and strenuously defended his name.
Mrs. van Koopman, too, rejoiced at any new success of Rhodes as if it had
been her own. She was the first to congratulate him when the dignity of a
Privy Councillor was awarded to him. After the Matabele Rebellion, during
which occurred one of the most famous episodes in the life of Rhodes, Mrs.
van Koopman had been loud in her praises of the man whom she had been the
first to guess would do great things.

The episode to which I refer, when he alone had had the courage to go
unattended and unarmed to meet the savage chiefs assembled in the Matoppo
Hills, had, by the way, done more than anything else to consolidate the
position of the chairman of De Beers in South Africa.

During the first administration of Cape Colony by Mr. Rhodes, when his
accession to the premiership had been viewed with a certain suspicion by
the Dutch party, Mrs. van Koopman made tremendous efforts to induce them
to have full confidence in her protege. And the attempt succeeded, because
even the shrewd Mr. Hofmeyr had at last succumbed to the constant
entreaties which she had poured upon him. Thenceforward Mr. Hofmeyr became
one of Mr. Rhodes' firm admirers and strong partisans. Under the able
guidance of Mrs. van Koopman the relations between the Dutch party and
their future enemy became so cordial that at last a singular construction
was put upon both sides of the alliance by the opponents of both. The
accusation, already referred to, was made against Rhodes that he wished to
make for himself in South Africa a position of such independence and
strength that even the authority of the Queen might find itself
compromised by it. As has been pointed out, the supposition was devoid of
truth, but it is quite certain that the then Premier of Cape Colony would
not have objected had the suz