MRS. VAN KOOPMAN
Among those with whom Rhodes had been intimate from almost the first days
of his establishment in Cape Town and his entrance into political life was
a lady who, for something like half a century, had been enjoying an
enviable position throughout almost the whole of South Africa. Mrs. van
Koopman was a Dutchwoman of considerable means and of high character. She
was clever, well read, and her quick intelligence allowed her to hold her
own in discussion upon any subject against the most eminent men of her
generation. She had never made a secret of her Dutch sympathies, nor of
her desire to see her countrymen given equal rights with the English all
over South Africa. She was on excellent terms with President Kruger, and
with President Steyn, whose personality was a far more remarkable one than
that of his old and crafty colleague.
The leading South African political men used to meet at Mrs. van Koopman's
to discuss the current events of the day. It is related that she was one
of the first to bring to the notice of her friends the complications that
were bound to follow upon the discovery of the gold fields, and to implore
them to define, without delay, the position of the foreign element which
was certain to move toward Johannesburg as soon as the news of the riches
contained in that region became public property.
If the English Government had considered the matter at once the
complications which arose as soon as companies began to be formed would
have been less acute. The directors of these concerns imagined themselves
to be entitled to displace local government, and took all executive power
into their own hands. This would never have happened if firm governmental
action had been promptly taken. The example of Kimberley ought to have
opened the eyes of the Mother Country, and measures should have been taken
to prevent the purely commercial domain of the gold fields from assuming
such strident political activities, and little by little dominating not
only the Transvaal Republic, but also the rest of South Africa.
Mrs. van Koopman had cherished a great affection for Rhodes. Her age--she
was in the sixties--gave an almost maternal character to the tenderness
with which she viewed him. He had made her his confidante, telling her all
that he meant to do for the welfare of the land which she loved so dearly.
She thought he looked upon South Africa with the same feelings of
admiration as she did.
The strength of her belief led Mrs. van Koopman to interest all her
friends in the career of the young Englishman, who appealed to her
imagination as the embodiment of all that was great and good. Her
enthusiasm endowed him with many qualities that he did not possess, and
magnified those which he really had. When he consulted her as to his
future plans she entered closely into their details, discussed with him
their chances of success, advised him and used all her influence, which
was great, in winning him friends and adherents. She trusted him fully,
and, on his part, whenever he returned to Cape Town after one of his
yearly visits to Kimberley, or after a few months spent in the solitudes
of Rhodesia, his first visit was always to the old and gentle lady, who
welcomed him with open arms, words of affection, and sincere as well as
devoted sympathy. She had always refused to listen to disparagement of her
favourite, and would never allow any of the gruesome details connected
with the annexation of Rhodesia to be recited in her presence.
In Mrs. van Koopman's eyes there was only a glorious side to the Rhodesian
expedition, and she rejoiced in the renown which it was destined to bring
to the man who had conceived and planned it. She fully believed that
Rhodes meant to bring English civilisation, English laws, the English
sense of independence and respect for individual freedom into that distant
land. The fact that lucre lay at the bottom of the expedition never
crossed her mind; even if it had she would have rejected the thought with
scorn and contempt.
Although the attacks upon Cecil Rhodes increased day by day in intensity
and in bitterness, Mrs. van Koopman never wavered in her allegiance. She
attributed them to jealousy and envy, and strenuously defended his name.
Mrs. van Koopman, too, rejoiced at any new success of Rhodes as if it had
been her own. She was the first to congratulate him when the dignity of a
Privy Councillor was awarded to him. After the Matabele Rebellion, during
which occurred one of the most famous episodes in the life of Rhodes, Mrs.
van Koopman had been loud in her praises of the man whom she had been the
first to guess would do great things.
The episode to which I refer, when he alone had had the courage to go
unattended and unarmed to meet the savage chiefs assembled in the Matoppo
Hills, had, by the way, done more than anything else to consolidate the
position of the chairman of De Beers in South Africa.
During the first administration of Cape Colony by Mr. Rhodes, when his
accession to the premiership had been viewed with a certain suspicion by
the Dutch party, Mrs. van Koopman made tremendous efforts to induce them
to have full confidence in her protégé. And the attempt succeeded, because
even the shrewd Mr. Hofmeyr had at last succumbed to the constant
entreaties which she had poured upon him. Thenceforward Mr. Hofmeyr became
one of Mr. Rhodes' firm admirers and strong partisans. Under the able
guidance of Mrs. van Koopman the relations between the Dutch party and
their future enemy became so cordial that at last a singular construction
was put upon both sides of the alliance by the opponents of both. The
accusation, already referred to, was made against Rhodes that he wished to
make for himself in South Africa a position of such independence and
strength that even the authority of the Queen might find itself
compromised by it. As has been pointed out, the supposition was devoid of
truth, but it is quite certain that the then Premier of Cape Colony would
not have objected had the suzerainty been placed in his hands by England
and British rule in South Africa vested solely in his person.
During a brief interval in his political leadership Rhodes pursued his
work in Rhodesia. In those days the famous British South Africa Company,
which was to become known as the Chartered Company, was definitely
constituted, and began its activity in the new territories which had come
under its control. Ere long, though, the tide of events brought him again
to the head of the Government. This time, however, though his appointment
had been considered as a foregone conclusion, and though very few had
opposed it, he no longer met the same sympathetic attention and
co-operation which had characterised his first administration of public
affairs. The Colony had begun to realise that Mr. Rhodes alone, and left
free to do what he liked, or what he believed was right, was very
different from Mr. Rhodes under the influence of the many so-called
financiers and would-be politicians who surrounded him.
An atmosphere of favouritism and of flattery had changed Rhodes, whom one
would have thought far above such small things. Vague rumours, too, had
begun to circulate concerning certain designs of the Chartered Company
(one did not dare yet mention the name of its chief and chairman) on the
Transvaal. Rhodes was directly questioned upon the subject by several of
his friends, amongst others by Mr. Schreiner, to whom he energetically
denied that such a thing had ever been planned. He added that Doctor
Jameson, of whom the man in the street was already speaking as the man who
was planning an aggression against the authority of President Kruger, was
not even near the frontier of the neighbouring Republic. The mere idea of
such a thing, Rhodes emphatically declared to Mr. Schreiner, was nothing
but an ill-natured hallucination to create bad blood between the English
and the Dutch. His tone seemed so sincere that Mr. Schreiner allowed
himself to be convinced, and voluntarily assured his colleagues that he
was convinced of the sincerity of the Prime Minister.
The only person who was really alarmed at the persistent rumours which
circulated in Cape Town in regard to a possible attack in common accord
with the leaders of the Reform movement in Johannesburg against the
independence of the Transvaal Republic was Mrs. van Koopman. She knew
Rhodes' character too well not to fear that he might have been induced to
listen to the misguided advice of people trying to persuade him that the
Rhodesian adventure was susceptible of being repeated on a larger and far
more important scale, with as much impunity and as little danger as the
other one had been. Alarmed beyond words by all that she was hearing, she
determined to find out for herself the true state of things, and, trusting
to her knowledge of Rhodes' character, she asked him to call upon her.
Rhodes came a few afternoons later, and Mrs. van Koopman closely
questioned him on the subject, telling him of the tales which were being
circulated not only in Cape Town, but also at Kimberley and Buluwayo and
Johannesburg. Rhodes solemnly assured her that they were nothing but
malicious gossip, and, taking her hands in his own, he repeated that all
she had heard concerning the sinister designs he was supposed to be
harbouring against the independence of the Transvaal had absolutely no
foundation. To add force to his words, he continued that he respected her
far too much to deceive her willingly, and that he would never have risked
meeting her and talking with her upon such a subject had there been the
slightest ground for the rumours which were disturbing the tranquillity of
the inhabitants of Cape Town. When he left her Mrs. van Koopman felt quite
reassured.
Next morning Mrs. van Koopman told her anxious friends that she had
received such assurances from Rhodes that she could not disbelieve him,
and that the best thing which they could do would be to contradict all
statements on the subject of a raid on the Transvaal that might come to
their ears. This occurred on an after-Christmas evening of the year 1895.
When the decisive conversation which I have just related was taking place
between Mrs. van Koopman and Cecil Rhodes, Doctor Jameson and his handful
of eager adventurers had already entered Transvaal territory. The Raid had
become an accomplished fact. It was soon realised that it was the most
deplorable affair that could have occurred for the reputation of Cecil
Rhodes and for his political future. The rebound, indeed, was immediate;
his political career came to an end that day.
The person who was struck most painfully by this disgraceful and cryingly
stupid adventure was Mrs. van Koopman. All her illusions--and she had
nursed many concerning Rhodes--were destroyed at one blow. She never
forgave him. All his attempts to bring about a reconciliation failed, and
when later on he would fain have obtained her forgiveness, she absolutely
refused all advances, and declared that she would never consent willingly
to look upon his face or listen to his voice again. The proud old woman,
whose ideals had been wrecked so cruelly, could not but feel a profound
contempt for a man who had thus deliberately lied to her at the very time
when she was appealing to his confidence. Her aristocratic instincts arose
in indignation at the falsehoods which had been used to dupe her. She
would not listen to any excuse, would not admit any extenuating
circumstances; and perhaps because she knew in the secret of her heart
that she would never be able to resist the pleadings of the man who had
thus deceived her, she absolutely refused to see him.
Rhodes never despaired of being restored to her favour, and would have
given much to anyone able to induce her to relent in her judgment as to
his conduct. Up to the last he made attempts to persuade her to reconsider
her decision, but they all proved useless, and he died without having been
able to win a forgiveness which he craved for many years.
I used to know Mrs. van Koopman well and to see her often. I admired her
much, not only on account of her great talents and of her powerful
intellect, but also for the great dignity which she displayed all through
the Boer War, when, suspected of favouring the Dutch cause to the extent
of holding communications with the rebels all over the Cape Colony, she
never committed any indiscretion or gave cause for any direct action
against her. For some time, by order of the military authorities, she was
placed under police supervision, and her house was searched for papers and
documents which, however, were not found--as might have been foreseen.
All through these trying months she never wavered in her attitude nor in
her usual mode of life, except that she saw fewer people than
formerly--not, as she used playfully to say, because she feared to be
compromised, but because she did not wish to compromise others. More than
once during my visits I spoke to her of Mr. Rhodes and tried to induce her
to relent in her resolution. I even went so far as to tell her that her
consent to meet him would, more than anything else, cause him to use all
his influence, or what remained of it, in favour of a prompt settlement of
the war in a peace honourable to both sides. Mrs. van Koopman smiled, but
remained immovable. At last, seeing that I would not abandon the subject,
she told me in tones which admitted of no discussion that she had far too
much affection for Rhodes not to have been so entirely cut to the core by
his duplicity in regard to her and by his whole conduct in that
unfortunate matter of the Raid. She could trust him no longer, she told
me, and, consequently, a meeting with him would only give her unutterable
pain and revive memories that had better remain undisturbed. "Had I cared
for him less I would not say so to you," she added, "but you must know
that of all sad things the saddest is the destruction of idols one has
built for oneself."
This attitude on the part of the one friend he had the greatest affection
for was one of the many episodes which embittered Rhodes.