ffront of not being asked to attend; and,
though his common sense told him that it would have been altogether out of
the question for him to take part in it, as this would have been
considered in the light of a personal insult by President Kruger, he would
have liked to have been consulted by Sir Alfred Milner, as well as by the
English Government, as to the course to be adopted during its
deliberations. He was fully persuaded in his own mind that Sir Alfred
Milner, being still a new arrival in South Africa, had not been able to
grasp its complicated problems, and so had not adopted the best means to
baffle the intrigues of President Kruger and the diplomacy of his clever
colleague, President Steyn. At every tale which reached Cecil Rhodes
concerning the difficulties encountered by Sir Alfred, he declared that he
was "glad to be out of this mess." Yet it was not difficult to see that he
passionately regretted not being allowed to watch from a seat at the
council table the vicissitudes of this last attempt by conference to
smooth over difficulties arising from the recklessness displayed by people
in arrogantly rushing matters that needed careful examination.

[Illustration: PRESIDENT KRUGER]

CHAPTER VI.

THE AFTERMATH OF THE RAID

Toward the close of the last chapter I referred to the Raid passing from
the forefront of public memory. But though, as a fact, it became blurred
in the mind of the people, as a factor in South African history its
influence by no means diminished. Indeed, the aftermath of the Raid
assumed far greater proportions as time went on. It influenced so entirely
the further destinies of South Africa, and brought about such enmities and
such bitterness along with it, that nothing short of a war could have
washed away its impressions. Up to that fatal adventure the Jingo English
elements, always viewed with distrust and dislike in the Transvaal as well
as at the Cape, had been more or less held back in their desire to gain an
ascendancy over the Dutch population, whilst the latter had accepted the
Jingo as a necessary evil devoid of real importance, and only annoying
from time to time.

After the Raid all the Jingoes who had hoped that its results would be to
give them greater facilities of enrichment considered themselves
personally aggrieved by its failure. They did just what Rhodes was always
doing. The Boers and President Kruger had acted correctly in this
enterprise of Doctor Jameson,