CHAPTER XIX. 



THE PRODUCTS OF RHODESIA I 

 SOUTHERN RHODESIA NORTHERN RHODESIA 



(Compiled partly from Official Reports and Publications oj 

 tJie British South Africa Company.) 



IN June 1890, Cecil Rhodes sent five hundred 

 pioneers northwards to Mashonaland. The column 

 constructed a serviceable road four hundred miles 

 in length from Tuli, on the Bechuanaland Border, 

 to Fort Salisbury, now the town of Salisbury, and 

 the capital of Southern Rhodesia. The whole of 

 this undertaking, including the making of many 

 drifts, was accomplished within three months. Not 

 a shot was fired in anger, neither man, woman, or 

 child molested. Later it was found, however, that, 

 in order to keep Mashonaland, it would be necessary 

 to crush the King of the Matabele, Lobengula, 

 whom Sir Henry Stanley described as the most 

 blood-thirsty tyrant he had ever come across. The 

 Matabele war was the consequence. 



On the spot where formerly Lobengula used to 

 sit and watch prisoners and slaves being tortured 

 stands Bulawayo. Mashonaland and Matabeleland 

 form Southern Rhodesia. Its area covers 148,575 

 square miles, and there are now about three thousand 

 miles of main roads, and, in addition, seven hundred 

 and fifty miles of cross-roads in the mining districts. 



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