There is no doubt that there were
two forces at work in Johannesburg, as, indeed, I had surmised during
our voyage out: the one comprising the financiers, which strove to
attain its ends by manifesto and public meeting, with the hint of
sterner measures to follow; and the other impatient of delay, and thus
impelled to seek the help of those who undoubtedly became freebooters
the moment they crossed the Transvaal border. Certainly Dr. Jameson's
reported words seemed to echo with reproach and disappointment--the
reproach of a man who has been deceived; but whatever his feelings were
at that moment of despair, when his lucky star seemed at length to have
deserted him with a vengeance, I happen to know he never bore any
lasting grudge against his Johannesburg friends, and that he remained on
terms of perfect friendship even with the five members of the Reform
Committee, with whom all the negotiations had gone forward. These
included Colonel Frank Rhodes,[3] always one of his favourite
companions.
As an instance of how acute was the feeling suddenly roused respecting
Englishmen, I remember that Mr. Harry Lawson, who was staying in the
same house as ourselves, and had decided to leave for Johannesburg as
special correspondent to his father's paper, the _Daily Telegraph_, was
actually obliged to travel under a foreign name; and even then, if my
memory serves me right, he did not succeed in reaching the Rand.
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