The Matabeles had no desire to fight, and did not know that the whites contemplated attacking them, till it was too late, otherwise it might have been a very different thing. Lobengula, who had ever been a warm friend of his white brother, who had fed him, protected him and granted him his every wish, within reason, had now, in return for his many kindnesses, been foully murdered, because he was chief, and controlled thousands of cattle which the Chartered Company must have, in order to postpone, for a few years, its inevitable downfall. The truth is, that Jameson sent word to Lobengula, that some of his people had come in and killed some of the Mashonas, and that he must arrest and punish them. Lobengula immediately sent a party to arrest the murderers, and Jameson at once, on their approach, made it an excuse to invade Matabeleland. The men who composed the police force tell the truth when they say it was a put up job, and the Chartered Company and its officials maliciously lie, when they say the war was provoked and prosecuted for the cause of humanity. Matabeleland and Mashonaland together were now christened Rhodesia. There was nothing more to fear, now that Lobengula was dead, and the great Rhodesian swindle prospered for several years, or until the Jameson raid. CHAPTER II. A CARNIVAL OF MURDER--PRECEDING JAMESON'S RAID AND CHAMBERLAIN'S CONSPIRACY. Having remained in Johannesburg for just thirty days, I secured four pack donkeys, and in company with three friends, started for this fabulously rich country, Golden Rhodesia. It was the rainy season, and it was rain, rain, rain, day and night, but we were determined not to be balked by anything; we would see Buluwayo, the gold center, 600 miles away, or go down in the attempt. We had before us eight swollen rivers, wicked rivers at this season, but almost dry beds at any other time of the year. We had to swim all of them, and what a struggle it was for us! I can't understand now just how we succeeded, and do not know how we escaped the crocodiles, yet we landed safely in Victoria, Mashonaland, on Easter Sunday, in the early part of April. [Illustration: CECIL J. RHODES Notorious for his greed and inhumanity.]