, 'No;
you take me either for a rogue or a fool. I would be a rogue to
forget all my history and traditions; and I would be a fool,
because I would be hated by my own countrymen and mistrusted by
yours.' From that day he assumed a most acrid tone in his
_Express_ towards myself, and I was made full sorry at times by
the tone. But that was the overpowering thought in his mind--an
independent South Africa."[23]

[Footnote 23: _Cecil Rhodes: His Political Life and
Speeches._ By Vindex; p. 533. Borckenhagen had just died.]

The facts here disclosed explain how it was that the apparently
satisfactory situation in South Africa before the Raid so rapidly
developed into the dangerous situation of the years that followed it.
The Raid tore aside the veil which the Rhodes-Hofmeyr alliance had
cast over the eyes alike of Dutch and British, and left them free to
see the essential antagonism of aim between the two men in its naked
truth.[24] From that moment Rhodes was recognised by the Bond as its
chief and most dangerous enemy; and as such he was pursued by its
bitterest hostility to the day of his death; while Rhodes, on the
other hand, was driven to seek support solely in the people of his own
nationality. From that moment the Bond fell back upon the policy of
1881. The Dutch Press, pulpit, and platform commenced an active
nationalist propaganda on the old racial lines; and the advocacy of
anti-British aims increased in boldness and in definiteness as the
Transvaal grew strong with its inflowing armaments.

[Footnote 24: _Ons Land_, reputed to be controlled by Hofmeyr
himself, and certainly the recognised organ of the Bond,
published a paean of triumph over the surrender of Dr.
Jameson's troopers at Doornkop. "Afrikanderdom has awakened
to a sense of earnestness which we have not observed since
the heroic war of liberty in 1881. From the Limpopo, as far
as Capetown, the second Majuba has given birth to a new
inspiration and a new movement amongst our people in South
Africa.... The flaccid and cowardly imperialism that had
already begun to dilute and weaken our national blood,
gradually turned aside before the new current that permeated
our people.... Now or never the foundation of a
wide-embracing nationalism must be laid.... The partition
wall has d