Among those with whom Rhodes had been intimate from
almost the first days of his establishment in Cape Town and his entrance
into political life was a lady who, for something like half a century, had
been enjoying an enviable position throughout almost the whole of South
Africa. Mrs. van Koopman was a Dutchwoman of considerable means and of high
character. She was clever, well read, and her quick intelligence allowed her
to hold her own in discussion upon any subject against the most eminent men
of her generation. She had never made a secret of her Dutch sympathies, nor
of her desire to see her countrymen given equal rights with the English all
over South Africa. She was on excellent terms with President Kruger, and
with President Steyn, whose personality was a far more remarkable one than
that of his old and crafty colleague.
The leading South African political men used to meet at
Mrs. van Koopman's to discuss the current events of the day. It is related
that she was one of the first to bring to the notice of her friends the
complications that were bound to follow upon the discovery of the gold
fields, and to implore them to define, without delay, the position of the
foreign element which was certain to move toward Johannesburg as soon as
the news of the riches contained in that region became public property.
If the English Government had considered the matter at
once the complications which arose as soon as companies began to be formed
would have been less acute. The directors of these concerns imagined
themselves to be entitled to displace local government, and took all
executive power into their own hands. This would never have happened if firm
governmental action had been promptly taken. The example of Kimberley ought
to have opened the eyes of the Mother Country, and measures should have been
taken to prevent the purely commercial domain of the gold fields from
assuming such strident political activities, and little by little dominating
not only the Transvaal Republic, but also the rest of South Africa.
Mrs. van Koopman had cherished a great affection for
Rhodes. Her age—she was in the sixties—gave an almost maternal character to
the tenderness with which she viewed him. He had made her his confidante,
telling her all that he meant to do for the welfare of the land which she
loved so dearly. She thought he looked upon South Africa with the same
feelings of admiration as she did.
The strength of her belief led Mrs. van Koopman to
interest all her friends in the career of the young Englishman, who appealed
to her imagination as the embodiment of all that was great and good. Her
enthusiasm endowed him with many qualities that he did not possess, and
magnified those which he really had. When he consulted her as to his future
plans she entered closely into their details, discussed with him their
chances of success, advised him and used all her influence, which was great,
in winning him friends and adherents. She trusted him fully, and, on his
part, whenever he returned to Cape Town after one of his yearly visits to
Kimberley, or after a few months spent in the solitudes of Rhodesia, his
first visit was always to the old and gentle lady, who welcomed him with
open arms, words of affection, and sincere as well as devoted sympathy. She
had always refused to listen to disparagement of her favourite, and would
never allow any of the gruesome details connected with the annexation of
Rhodesia to be recited in her presence.
In Mrs. van Koopman's eyes there was only a glorious
side to the Rhodesian expedition, and she rejoiced in the renown which it
was destined to bring to the man who had conceived and planned it. She fully
believed that Rhodes meant to bring English civilisation, English laws, the
English sense of independence and respect for individual freedom into that
distant land. The fact that lucre lay at the bottom of the expedition never
crossed her mind; even if it had she would have rejected the thought with
scorn and contempt.
Although the attacks upon Cecil Rhodes increased day by
day in intensity and in bitterness, Mrs. van Koopman never wavered in her
allegiance. She attributed them to jealousy and envy, and strenuously
defended his name. Mrs. van Koopman, too, rejoiced at any new success of
Rhodes as if it had been her own. She was the first to congratulate him when
the dignity of a Privy Councillor was awarded to him. After the Matabele
Rebellion, during which occurred one of the most famous episodes in the life
of Rhodes, Mrs. van Koopman had been loud in her praises of the man whom she
had been the first to guess would do great things.
The episode to which I refer, when he alone had had the
courage to go unattended and unarmed to meet the savage chiefs assembled in
the Matoppo Hills, had, by the way, done more than anything else to
consolidate the position of the chairman of De Beers in South Africa.
During the first administration of Cape Colony by Mr.
Rhodes, when his accession to the premiership had been viewed with a certain
suspicion by the Dutch party, Mrs. van Koopman made tremendous efforts to
induce them to have full confidence in her protégé. And the attempt
succeeded, because even the shrewd Mr. Hofmeyr had at last succumbed to the
constant entreaties which she had poured upon him. Thenceforward Mr. Hofmeyr
became one of Mr. Rhodes' firm admirers and strong partisans. Under the able
guidance of Mrs. van Koopman the relations between the Dutch party and their
future enemy became so cordial that at last a singular construction was put
upon both sides of the alliance by the opponents of both. The accusation,
already referred to, was made against Rhodes that he wished to make for
himself in South Africa a position of such independence and strength that
even the authority of the Queen might find itself compromised by it. As has
been pointed out, the supposition was devoid of truth, but it is quite
certain that the then Premier of Cape Colony would not have objected had the
suzerainty been placed in his hands by England and British rule in South
Africa vested solely in his person.
During a brief interval in his political leadership
Rhodes pursued his work in Rhodesia. In those days the famous British South
Africa Company, which was to become known as the Chartered Company, was
definitely constituted, and began its activity in the new territories which
had come under its control. Ere long, though, the tide of events brought him
again to the head of the Government. This time, however, though his
appointment had been considered as a foregone conclusion, and though very
few had opposed it, he no longer met the same sympathetic attention and
co-operation which had characterised his first administration of public
affairs. The Colony had begun to realise that Mr. Rhodes alone, and left
free to do what he liked, or what he believed was right, was very different
from Mr. Rhodes under the influence of the many so-called financiers and
would-be politicians who surrounded him.
An atmosphere of favouritism and of flattery had changed Rhodes, whom one would have thought far above such small things.
Vague rumours, too, had begun to circulate concerning certain designs of the
Chartered Company (one did not dare yet mention the name of its chief and
chairman) on the Transvaal. Rhodes was directly questioned upon the subject
by several of his friends, amongst others by Mr. Schreiner, to whom he
energetically denied that such a thing had ever been planned. He added that
Doctor Jameson, of whom the man in the street was already speaking as the
man who was planning an aggression against the authority of President
Kruger, was not even near the frontier of the neighbouring Republic. The
mere idea of such a thing, Rhodes emphatically declared to Mr. Schreiner,
was nothing but an ill-natured hallucination to create bad blood between the
English and the Dutch. His tone seemed so sincere that Mr. Schreiner allowed
himself to be convinced, and voluntarily assured his colleagues that he was
convinced of the sincerity of the Prime Minister.
The only person who was really alarmed at the
persistent rumours which circulated in Cape Town in regard to a possible
attack in common accord with the leaders of the Reform movement in
Johannesburg against the independence of the Transvaal Republic was Mrs. van
Koopman. She knew Rhodes' character too well not to fear that he might have
been induced to listen to the misguided advice of people trying to persuade
him that the Rhodesian adventure was susceptible of being repeated on a
larger and far more important scale, with as much impunity and as little
danger as the other one had been. Alarmed beyond words by all that she was
hearing, she determined to find out for herself the true state of things,
and, trusting to her knowledge of Rhodes' character, she asked him to call
upon her.
Rhodes came a few afternoons later, and Mrs. van
Koopman closely questioned him on the subject, telling him of the tales
which were being circulated not only in Cape Town, but also at Kimberley and
Buluwayo and Johannesburg. Rhodes solemnly assured her that they were
nothing but malicious gossip, and, taking her hands in his own, he repeated
that all she had heard concerning the sinister designs he was supposed to be
harbouring against the independence of the Transvaal had absolutely no
foundation. To add force to his words, he continued that he respected her
far too much to deceive her willingly, and that he would never have risked
meeting her and talking with her upon such a subject had there been the
slightest ground for the rumours which were disturbing the tranquillity of
the inhabitants of Cape Town. When he left her Mrs. van Koopman felt quite
reassured.
Next morning Mrs. van Koopman told her anxious friends
that she had received such assurances from Rhodes that she could not
disbelieve him, and that the best thing which they could do would be to
contradict all statements on the subject of a raid on the Transvaal that
might come to their ears. This occurred on an after-Christmas evening of
the year 1895.
When the decisive conversation which I have just
related was taking place between Mrs. van Koopman and Cecil Rhodes, Doctor
Jameson and his handful of eager adventurers had already entered Transvaal
territory. The Raid had become an accomplished fact. It was soon realised
that it was the most deplorable affair that could have occurred for the
reputation of Cecil Rhodes and for his political future. The rebound,
indeed, was immediate; his political career came to an end that day.
The person who was struck most painfully by this
disgraceful and cryingly stupid adventure was Mrs. van Koopman. All her
illusions—and she had nursed many concerning Rhodes—were destroyed at one
blow. She never forgave him. All his attempts to bring about a
reconciliation failed, and when later on he would fain have obtained her
forgiveness, she absolutely refused all advances, and declared that she
would never consent willingly to look upon his face or listen to his voice
again. The proud old woman, whose ideals had been wrecked so cruelly, could
not but feel a profound contempt for a man who had thus deliberately lied to
her at the very time when she was appealing to his confidence. Her
aristocratic instincts arose in indignation at the falsehoods which had been
used to dupe her. She would not listen to any excuse, would not admit any
extenuating circumstances; and perhaps because she knew in the secret of
her heart that she would never be able to resist the pleadings of the man
who had thus deceived her, she absolutely refused to see him.
Rhodes never despaired of being restored to her favour,
and would have given much to anyone able to induce her to relent in her
judgment as to his conduct. Up to the last he made attempts to persuade her
to reconsider her decision, but they all proved useless, and he died without
having been able to win a forgiveness which he craved for many years.
I used to know Mrs. van Koopman well and to see her
often. I admired her much, not only on account of her great talents and of
her powerful intellect, but also for the great dignity which she displayed
all through the Boer War, when, suspected of favouring the Dutch cause to
the extent of holding communications with the rebels all over the Cape
Colony, she never committed any indiscretion or gave cause for any direct
action against her. For some time, by order of the military authorities, she
was placed under police supervision, and her house was searched for papers
and documents which, however, were not found—as might have been foreseen.
All through these trying months she never wavered in
her attitude nor in her usual mode of life, except that she saw fewer people
than formerly—not, as she used playfully to say, because she feared to be
compromised, but because she did not wish to compromise others. More than
once during my visits I spoke to her of Mr. Rhodes and tried to induce her
to relent in her resolution. I even went so far as to tell her that her
consent to meet him would, more than anything else, cause him to use all his
influence, or what remained of it, in favour of a prompt settlement of the
war in a peace honourable to both sides. Mrs. van Koopman smiled, but
remained immovable. At last, seeing that I would not abandon the subject,
she told me in tones which admitted of no discussion that she had far too
much affection for Rhodes not to have been so entirely cut to the core by
his duplicity in regard to her and by his whole conduct in that unfortunate
matter of the Raid. She could trust him no longer, she told me, and,
consequently, a meeting with him would only give her unutterable pain and
revive memories that had better remain undisturbed. "Had I cared for him
less I would not say so to you," she added, "but you must know that of all
sad things the saddest is the destruction of idols one has built for
oneself."
This attitude on the part of the one friend he had the
greatest affection for was one of the many episodes which embittered Rhodes.
