CHAPTER XII.
The Chartered Company and Mr Cecil Rhodes. OLLOWING the precedent established by Napoleon,
when — now a hundred years ago — P£ron, the naturalist, was sent to report upon the Antipodean settlement of Botany Bay, the French Government have lately despatched Monsieur Lionel Ddcle on a scientific mission to Africa. With the general results of the observations made by the explorer during his journey from Capetown to Uganda we are not specially concerned: he has. however, with the aptitude of the French mind for rapid generalisation, provided us with a happy phrase to characterise the field of the Chartered Company’s operations— “ The pick of Central Africa on both sides of the Zambesi.” But we are dealing with a country which is not only physically but historically attractive. Apart from the interest which attaches to the scene of a great colonising effort, the territories now opened up by the Company possess two strong claims upon our attention, the great River Zambesi and the ruins of Zimbabwe.
The special objective of the Company’s operations * is the high plateau which stretches for 300 miles, at an
* The Company’s “ field of operations ” extends from the Molopo River to the Congo State, over an area of 750,000 square miles. Matabeleland and Mashonaland have been provided with an administrative system similar to that of a Crown Colony; and the Company assume the administration of the country north of the Zambesi (except Nyasaland) under the Agreement of November 4th, 1894. The Bechuanaland Protectorate is still entrusted to the B. B. Police, an Imperial force, but under the Charter the Company have the sole right to obtain concessions of land and minerals in the Protectorate.