512 



OBITUARIES, FOREIGN. (RHODES.) 



1847 he became a chevalier of the Legion of 

 Honor; in 1884 an officer; in 1873 an Officier de 

 1' Academic, and Officier de la Instruction Publique 

 in 1891. 



Rhodes, Cecil John, a South African poli- 

 tician, born in Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, 

 July 5, 1853; died in Cape Town, March 20, 1902. 

 He was one of the seven sons of a country clergy- 

 man and was sent to school to prepare for Ox- 

 ford and the clerical profession. When he was 



sixteen his health 

 became so delicate 

 from a heart af- 

 fection that he 

 was sent out to 

 his brother's farm 

 in Natal. Finding 

 the farm deserted 

 by his brother, 

 who had joined 

 the rush to the 

 diamond-fields, he 

 undertook to man- 

 age it, and plant- 

 ed cotton, which 

 was then being 

 tested on some of 





the large estates 

 and discussed as 



a promising new 



culture. He was successful enough with his 

 crop to win a prize, and then quit farming, his 

 brother having written to him of the chances to 

 make money in Kimberley. After one year of 

 diamond-mining he found himself very rich at 

 the age of eighteen, owner of some of the best 

 claims and in receipt of a large income. His 

 health at the same time had become robust. He 

 determined to return to England and complete 

 his education at Oxford. Before sailing he made 

 a long journey through the northern veldt, occu- 

 pied only by savage tribes and scattered Boers 

 whose flocks and herds grazed over farms as 

 large as counties, with wide spaces where only 

 the wild antelopes roved. His slow trip in a 

 Cape wagon drawn by ox-teams to Mafeking and 

 through the Transvaal to Pretoria and back to 

 Kimberley impressed his youthful imagination 

 Avith the immensity of this salubrious region that 

 had changed him from a weakling into an ath- 

 lete, and already he dreamed of gaining this new 

 empire for England, with its agricultural and 

 mineral wealth that when tapped only in spots 

 on the border gave such surprising returns as 

 he had seen in Natal and at Kimberley. He 

 traveled in this way for eight months, then re- 

 turned to England in the latter part of 1872 and 

 matriculated at Oriel College. He remained only 

 six months, for though he hunted and roved his 

 heart became weak again and his lungs diseased 

 to such an extent that a famous London physi- 

 cian, in approving his desire to go out again to 

 South Africa, privately made a note predicting 

 a fatal termination of the case in six months. 

 In three more years at Kimberley he reestablished 

 his health and increased his fortune until his 

 property in diamond-mines was second to none. 

 He was still determined to take his degree at 

 the university, though he could not neglect his 

 important business interests, so in 1876 and the 

 two following years he kept his terms at Oxford, 

 spending the rest of the year at Kimberley, and 

 by reading in the intervals of affairs he managed 

 to pass the examinations. Only far-reaching 

 schemes, not ordinary details of business, could 

 hold the attention of this young gentleman of 

 ideas who, starting penniless and giving only 



half his mind to it, had become a great capi- 

 talist at twenty-five. The yield of the Kimberley 

 mines, when American engineering methods were 

 employed, increased by leaps and outstripped the 

 consumption, although an unlimited demand for 

 diamonds was growing up in the United States 

 and other countries. The competition of the dif- 

 ferent mines was likely to destroy the market 

 and render the mining properties valueless, for 

 unless prices could be kept firm the demand would 

 naturally diminish, instead of continuing to in- 

 crease. Cecil Knodes, who was the managing di- 

 rector and principal owner of the De Beers, the 

 largest of the companies, was one of the first to 

 see that the remedy was consolidation and lim- 

 itation of output, and was the first to act. He 

 gradually absorbed the smaller concerns, and 

 then negotiated an amalgamation with the large 

 companies. When dealing with the two chief 

 operators besides himself he agreed to the terms 

 they asked on condition that his one demand 

 should be complied with, which was that the 

 profits of the new De Beers consolidated com- 

 pany might be used for political purposes in ex- 

 tending British rule over the northern countries. 

 The conferees objected that this was not business, 

 to which he replied that it w r as his business. He 

 cared little for what money could buy and noth- 

 ing for money in itself, but he had an exaggerated 

 opinion of its potentiality in bringing about po- 

 litical results, believing that there was no use 

 in having big ideas if you have .not the money 

 to carry them out. The first three years after 

 his arrival saw the completion of the first amal- 

 gamation, whereby the competition of the small 

 mining concerns that were cutting prices was re- 

 moved and arrangements could be made with the 

 large corporations to divide the market. This 

 business ended, Cecil . Rhodes entered the Cape 

 Legislature in 1881 as member of the Assembly 

 for Kimberley. He went over to England in the 

 same year to take his degree at Oxford. In the 

 Assembly he came at once into conflict with 

 Paul Kruger, under whose lead the Transvaal 

 Boers had recovered their independence, one of 

 the conditions being that they should not extend 

 their rule to the westward of the existing bound- 

 aries into Bechuanaland or Griqualand W'est. 

 Individual Boers, however, went over the border 

 and by treaty with native chiefs obtained terri- 

 tory on which they based the independent re- 

 public of Stellaland. No expansion of British 

 territory northward was at that time desired, 

 the Little England policy being predominant in 

 Great Britain, bvit in Cape Colony Rhodes worked 

 up a sentiment of jealousy of the Transvaal, 

 and in England, too-, by pointing out the danger 

 of Germany and the Transvaal shutting off 

 the trade route to the north, he w r on approval 

 of his plan of acquiring Bechuanaland. Wliile 

 a member of the commission appointed to fix the 

 western boundary of the Transvaal he obtained 

 a cession of the lands of Mankaroane, one of the 

 Bechuana chiefs, and by virtue of this a British 

 protectorate was declared over all Bechuanaland 

 in 1884 and a treaty was made with the Trans- 

 vaal in which in return for the ostensible with- 

 drawal of the claim of suzerainty they accepted 

 the boundary laid down for them on the west and 

 agreed to confine themselves within their exist- 

 ing frontier on the north. Rhodes already had 

 practical plans of an indefinite imperial expan- 

 sion northward. He could accomplish nothing 

 in Cape politics if he identified himself with the 

 British party, and therefore, having persuaded 

 the Dutch at the Cape of the advantage and ne- 

 cessity for the future of their commonwealth of 



