a loss: he was only half-informed, and Rhodes's advocates on the commission, and especially Chamberlain, could do what they pleased with him.
But there was one man on the commission equal to his task, Sir William Veraon Harcourt. He had studied his brief, had made himself familiar with the facts, seemed quietly determined to get at the truth. When he took Rhodes in hand, the relative proportions of the two men became plain at once. Rhodes began to lose his self- confidence, hesitated, hectored. Sir William Vernon Harcourt apologized, used great courtesy, never insisted, but returned with new questions. Again and again Chamberlain interfered to turn the attack, but Sir W. Vernon Harcourt was not to be denied or diverted from the main points; he smiled at Chamberlain and went on pushing in probe after probe in deadly fashion.
Rhodes and his supporters in the press had been putting forward the notion that the agitation in Johannesburg was a real reform movement, whereas Sir William Vernon Harcourt evidently believed that the cosmopolitan Jew financiers directing the mines in Johannesburg didn't even wish to become citizens of the Transvaal Republic. He had already made it pretty plain that it was a fictitious and carefully fomented agitation. Rhodes, on the other hand, asserted that Jameson had gone in to assist the reformers and to keep order.
Sir William Vernon Harcourt went on to the morning before the raid and read a telegram from Jameson to Woolff in Johannesburg: 'Meet me as arranged before you left on Tuesday night, which will enable us to decide which is the best destination.'
'Can you explain to me, Mr. Rhodes, what is the meaning of those words, 'which is the best destination'?' Thus daintily Sir William Vernon Harcourt placed the bomb upon the table.
Rhodes pretended indignation.
'No, I certainly could not; you see, Woolff was at Johannesburg: Jameson telegraphed from Pitsani. I should say the 'best destination' means the best route.'
Sir William Harcourt smiled.
'That is not the ordinary meaning of destination. Was it proposed that Dr.
Jameson, instead of going to Johannesburg, should go to Pretoria direct?
Have you ever heard that, Mr. Rhodes?'
The bomb had exploded, the tension in the room was extraordinary: members craned forward and held their breath so as not to miss a word.
Rhodes hesitated, and then:
'I don't think I could have heard. I couldn't be sure. No,' he added, 'all I understood was that he would go to Johannesburg if required by the people of Johannesburg.'
Again Sir William Harcourt insisted.
'Was there such a proposal? I ask because this is very important.'
Mr. Rhodes turned and replied sulkily, fighting desperately for time. 'I don't see the importance of it.'
Sir William Harcourt, though interrupted by Mr. Pope, one of the opposing counsel, persisted quietly;
'I am putting a most important question. Was it ever discussed between you and Dr. Jameson whether or not he should go direct to Pretoria and attack President Krueger's Government, instead of going to Johannesburg?'
Mr. Rhodes fumbled: 'I really couldn't answer that definitely; it might have been said.' Then, catching at a straw, 'Ask Dr. Jameson.'
'You are an even more important person than Dr. Jameson. I really must ask you.'
'I have given you my answer; I cannot remember; I don't see the importance of it.'
Sir William Vernon Harcourt: 'There is a very important difference between going to assist an insurrection in Johannesburg and going to make an attack direct upon the government of Pretoria.'
Rhodes admitted the proposal may have been discussed, though he couldn't remember it.
Thus Sir William Harcourt by his questions had brought out the fact which, indeed, was contained in a telegram of Jameson, that the objective of the raid was not decided when the doctor started; that Jameson had it in mind not to go to Johannesburg at all, but to make a dash for Eirene, the place where the Boers stored their arms and ammunition about seven miles from Pretoria, and thus attack Krueger's government at the heart and directly.
Everyone expected Sir William Harcourt to pursue his interrogatory on the morrow, but he did not, and I was deeply disappointed. The commission broke off for the day and the point was never touched on again.
For the life of me, I couldn't fathom the situation or guess the secret. I found it out afterwards, however, from Dilke, the best informed Member of Parliament. He told me what I have already explained in Chapter XIV, that when the German Emperor congratulated Krueger on having defeated the raid, Queen Victoria reproved him sharply and declared that he seemed to be trying to make her government responsible for it, whereas none of her ministers knew anything about the raid. The German Emperor apologized humbly for his mistake.
'But when the South African Committee stirred the whole matter up again,'
Dilke said, 'a Conservative statesman called upon Sir William Vernon Harcourt and told him about the Queen's letter to the German Emperor, and his reply; and when he had recited the facts, the Conservative went on to point out that if Sir William Vernon Harcourt pursued his questions and demonstrated the complicity of Chamberlain, or, indeed, rendered Chamberlain's complicity probable, he would be proving the Queen to have told what was not the truth to the German Emperor. He left it to Sir William Vernon Harcourt's sense of what was fit and becoming whether he would continue his interrogatory or not. Sir William Vernon Harcourt thereupon abandoned his plan, and gave up the victory he might have won over Chamberlain.'
The committee condemned severely Sir Graham Bower, the Imperial Secretary, who had betrayed his superior, Sir Hercules Robinson, but Chamberlain gave him a governorship at once. Thus is traitorism rewarded in England.
Much the same thing happened with Robinson. He made two or three distinct charges against Chamberlain, and on my way home in April, '96, at Cape Town, he gave me chapter and verse for these accusations, but begged me not to say anything about them till he had returned to London and seen me, as he intended to make them in person against Chamberlain.
When he came back I wrote to him, saying that I was ready to see him at any time he might wish, and he replied that he would give me an immediate appointment. Then he wrote again, putting me off in a letter with a very changed tone; and when I pressed him, he wrote saying he was very ill, too ill to see any one, although he had seen the Colonial Office and Chamberlain in the meantime. Suddenly he was made Lord Rosmead and nothing more was heard of his accusation against Chamberlain. The English often close mouths with titles.
CHAPTER IV
I must tell of some of my African adventures which took place shortly after I passed my fortieth birthday.
Africa-what gaudy memories the mere word calls to life: that first evening in the desert south of Biskra, with the grave Arabs sitting round, listening to the story-teller shaping the age-old tale to a new ending, acting the characters the while, mimicking villain and hero, slave and ruler, and with a magic of personality, making the drama live before our eyes.
Or that long ride up Table Mountain with Cecil Rhodes. I still see him standing-a greater Cortez-with his back to the Pacific, starting towards Cairo, six thousand miles away, dreaming of the immense central plateau, three times as large as the United States, as one empire.
That great central plateau where the air is light and dry, like champagne, and mere breathing's a joy; where the blessed sun reigns all through the long day, and the earth grows odorous under the hot embrace, and the sweat dries on the naked back in selvages of salt like the ripples on a sandy beach, while the night is cool and refreshing as the yellow moon comes up over the black forest and turns the camp into fairyland, while sweet airs breathe sleep on weary limbs.
And the freedom of it! Not the freedom of London: freedom to do as others do, dress as others dress, and
