The Lost City of Solomon and Sheba by Robin Brown-Lowe Read Free Book Online

evidently thinks that the rifles . . . were meant for Lobengula (
hinc illae lacrymae
) and I dare-say he isn’t far wrong.’ They were already well on their way to Lobengula. Jameson and Harris crossed into Bechuanaland ostensibly as hunters, picked up the cached rifles, and eventually arrived at the Matabele border post where they were met by one of Rudd’s partners, J.R. Macquire, a British barrister and friend of Rhodes from Oxford who was there to see that the Lobengula concession was couched in the right legal terms.
    In December 1888 Lobengula fixed his mark to a document, the key paragraph of which read:
    Unto the said grantees their heirs, representatives and assigns jointly and severally the complete and exclusive charge over all metals and mineral situated and contained in my Kingdoms, Principalities and dominions together with full power to do all things that they may deem necessary to win and procure the same and to hold, collect and enjoy the profits and revenue if any derivable from the said metals and mineral subject to the aforesaid payment and Whereas I have been much molested of late by divers persons seeking and desiring to obtain grants and concessions of Land and Mining rights in my territories I do hereby authorize the said grantees, their representatives and assigns to take all necessary and lawful steps to exclude from my Kingdoms, Principalities and Dominions all persons seeking land metals, mineral or mining rights therein and I do hereby undertake to render them such needful assistance as may from time to time require for the exclusion of such persons and to grant no concessions of land or mining rights from and after this date without their consent and concurrence.
    Rudd immediately took the road for Cape Town, leaving the lawyer, Macquire, at the court to defend the concession against the attacks Rudd was sure would come. And come they did but first there was the most extraordinary incident that could well have ended in the concession which paved the road to Ophir never seeing the light of day.
    A pond called the Lemoen pan upon which all travellers relied for their water was found to be dry. A note fixed to a thorn tree told Rudd there was water 2 miles away but in searching for it he became hopelessly lost in the bush. Rudd dropped the concession, his money bag and a farewell letter to his wife down an ant bear hole, convinced he would not last the night. Wandering around in the dark, Rudd eventually heard the barking of dogs and found their Tswana owners camped nearby. They gave him water and, amazingly, he was quickly able to recover his possessions.
    Thereafter, to make up lost time, he made a gruelling dash in a mule-drawn wagon: ‘We drove on through the night in stretches of two hours with one and a half hour intervals.’ Two days later he drove in to Kimberley and handed the concession to Rhodes, a record for the distance that would not be broken until the railhead was extended to Bulawayo. They travelled on to Cape Town and presented the document to High Commissioner Robinson who, as Rhodes commented, ‘raised no difficulties as to the guns’. Rhodes, of course, interpreted this as a deed of occupation, which it is not. The powers to protect finds of ‘metals and minerals’ are somewhat ambiguous but it remains a mining concession, nothing more. The other concession-hunters immediately claimed the Rudd Concession was a fake and Portugal rejected it outright.
    The Consul for Portugal in Cape Town, Eduardo A. de Carvalho, published a denial of Lobengula’s claim to Shona territory:
    Whereas a notice signed by order of LO BENGULA , king of the Matabeles, has lately been published in the Newspapers giving notice that the mining rights in Matabeleland, Mashonaland and adjoining territories have already been disposed of, and soliciting the assistance of all neighboring Chiefs and States in excluding all persons entering these territories hereafter, I