nt: very little went on in his wide
dominions of which he was not instantly and accurately informed.' He was
an arbitrary ruler, but not cruel to Europeans, of whom a few, like the
famous hunter Selous, visited his capital from time to time. He clearly
held the keys to the north, and it was with him that Rhodes had now to
deal.

The first step was the mission sent out by Rhodes and Beit early in
1888, headed by their old associate Rudd. He and his two fellow-envoys
stayed some months with Lobengula watching for favourable moments and
trying to win his favour. They shifted their quarters when the king did
so, touring from village to village, plied the king and his indunas with
offers and arguments, and finally in October they obtained his signature
to a treaty giving full and unqualified rights to the envoys for working
minerals in his country. In return they covenanted to give him money,
rifles, ammunition, and an armed steamboat.

The next step was to get the support of the British authorities in
London for that political extension which was dearer to Rhodes than the
richest mines and the biggest dividends. In this he was greatly helped
by his consistent supporter, Sir Hercules Robinson, who held office in
Africa for many years, studied men and matters at first hand, and had a
juster estimate of Rhodes and his value to the Empire than the officials
in Whitehall. The method of proceeding was by chartered company, the old
Elizabethan method, which still has its value to-day, as it relieves the
home Government of the expense of developing new countries, yet reserves
to it the right to control policy and to enter into the harvest. The
Company was to build railways and telegraphs, encourage colonization and
spread trade; the Government was to escape from the diplomatic
difficulties which might arise with neighbours if it were acting under
its own name.

The third step was to make a way into the country and to start actual
work. Lobengula's consent was given conditionally: the first expedition
was to avoid his capital, Bulawayo, and to go by the south-east to
Mashonaland. The chief knew how difficult it might prove to hold in his
impis when, instead of a solitary Selous, some hundreds of Europeans
began to cross their hunting-grounds. And so it proved. Lobengula had to
pretend later that he had not consented to their passage, and the
expedition had to slip through the dangerous zone before they could be
recalled authorita