was
come.

But the chiefs of the Matabele had retired into their fortresses in the
Matoppo hills and could not be reached. To send small columns to track
them down might mean needless loss of life: to keep the forces in the
field right through the winter was ruinous to the Company's finances.
Rhodes offered his own services as negotiator, and they were accepted.
The man who could carry his point with Jewish financiers and Dutch
politicians might hope to achieve his ends with the simpler native
chiefs. But it was a sore trial of patience. He moved his own tent two
miles away from the British troops to the foot of the hills, sent native
messengers to the chiefs, and waited. During this time he was not idle:
he put in a lot of riding and of miscellaneous reading: his mind was
actively employed in planning roads and dams for irrigation, in scheming
for the future greatness of the country. It was six weeks before a chief
responded. Gradually they began to drop in and to hold informal meetings
round the tent, putting questions, replying to Rhodes's jokes, relapsing
into fits of silence, oblivious as all savages are of the value of time.
He would spend hours day after day in this apparently futile way;
accustoming them to his presence, coaxing them into the right humour. At
last he persuaded them to meet him in a formal 'indaba', which must have
been a dramatic scene. Alone he stood facing them, boldly reproaching
them with their bad faith and cruel acts. They stated their grievances:
some were admitted: satisfaction was promised. In the end peace was
proclaimed and the delighted natives greeted him uproariously with the
title of Lamula 'm Kunzi (Separator of the Fighting Bulls). The
discussions were not over till the end of October, and it was a month
later ere Rhodes was able to leave the country and face the Committee in
London--a very different gathering in very different surroundings. His
work during these two months was perhaps the greatest of his life; and
that he should have been able to concentrate all his powers upon it so
soon after the shattering blow of the Raid is a great tribute to his
essential manliness and patriotism.

The two Committees, sitting in London and Cape Town, agreed to censure,
though in modified terms, Rhodes's conduct over the Raid; but he still
retained the respect of the bulk of his countrymen, and on his return
the citizens of Cape Town gave him an enthusiastic welcome. They and he
were loo