selves," he adds, "that they preferred the Matabele rule to ours, because under them they were troubled but once a year, whereas now their troubles came with each day's rising sun."
The story which follows is the story of what befell the "naked men with shields" at the hands of the clothed men with guns seeking for "concessions."
In the 'seventies and 'eighties of last century, British, Boer, Portuguese, and German adventurers began wandering about the Limpopo River. Boers and British had been in touch with the Matabele since the early 'fifties and competed to acquire political influence over the then ruler of this people, by name Lobengula. They made unpleasant remarks about one another. "When an Englishman once has your property in his hands," wrote the Boer Joubert to Lobengula in 1882, "then he is like an ape that has his hands full of pumpkin seeds: if you don't beat him to death he will never let go." But Lobengula was partial to the British. Between his father and the famous missionary, Dr. Moffat, a real friendship had existed. The link was perpetuated in the person of Lobengula and Dr. Moffat's son, a British official in the adjoining territory of Bechuanaland, over which a British Protectorate was established in 1884. These personal relations determined Lobengula's final choice. In February, 1888, at his capital, Buluwayo, he signed a treaty with Moffat acting for the British Government, in which he undertook to hold no communications with any "foreign State or Power." It was stipulated in the treaty that "peace and amity shall continue for ever between Her Britannic Majesty, her subjects, and the Amandebele people."
The knowledge that the country over which Lobengula held sway, was passing rich in gold, had been gradually permeating South Africa. The signing of this treaty had been preceded, and was followed, by numerous efforts on the part of rival corporations to secure special privileges from its ruler. In the October following the conclusion of this bond of friendship, Messrs. Rudd, R. Macguire, M.P., and Mr. F. R. Thompson, commissioned by Mr. Cecil Rhodes and by Mr. Alfred Beit, succeeded in getting Lobengula to append his signature to a document. By its terms, in exchange for a monthly payment of £100 and material products of European
