tively. By May 1890 a column of nearly one thousand
men was ready to start from Khama's country; and in June their equipment
was approved by a British officer. On September 11, after a march of
four hundred miles through trackless country (some of it unknown even to
Selous, their guide), the British flag was hoisted on the site of the
modern town of Salisbury. It is a chapter of history well worth reading
in detail, but Rhodes himself could not be there: the heroes of the
march were Jameson and Selous. The other half of Rhodesia, Matabeleland,
was not added till a few years later; but British enterprise had now
found the way and overcome the worst difficulties. 'Occupation Day' is
still kept as the chief festival of the Colony.

Further extension was inevitable. The Matabele impis would not forgo
their old habit of raiding amongst the Mashonas. Jameson's complaints
received only partial satisfaction from Lobengula. He himself did not
want war, but he failed to control his men, and in September 1893 the
Chartered Company was driven to fight. They had on the spot about nine
hundred men and some machine-guns. Against these the Matabele with all
their bravery could effect little. In two engagements they threw away
their lives with reckless gallantry, and then they broke and fled.
Lobengula himself was never heard of again. His rearguard cut up a small
party of British who were too impetuous in pursuit, but by the end of
the year the country was at peace. In 1894 Matabeleland was added to the
territory of the Chartered Company, in 1895 the term 'Rhodesia' came
into use for postal purposes, and in 1897 it was officially adopted for
administrative purposes.

The jealousy of the Portuguese, who claimed the 'Hinterland' behind
their East African colony, though they had never occupied it, caused a
good deal of ill feeling, and very nearly led to hostilities both in
Africa and Europe. The Boers formed schemes for raiding the new lands
before they could be effectively occupied, and had to be headed off. The
Matabele impis continued for months in a state of excitement; and their
forays made it far too dangerous for Rhodes or for others to go up there
for some time. But Rhodes himself said that he had less trouble with
natives, with Dutch, and with Portuguese, than he had with compatriots
of his own, who claimed to have received concessions from native chiefs
and intrigued against him in London. But here his peculiar gifts came
out,