The Place of Peace.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 352, 5 February 1903, Page 7

The Place of Peace.

can easily appreciate the cirMufaT cnms t ances which induced Cecil Rhodes to select for his resting place the solemn, peaceful grandeur of the Matoppo Hills, says the ' London Mail. For it was there that the most tragic episodes of his life were enacted, and it was there also that in the dark days of the Matabele rebellion he saw men willingly sacrifice themselves in the cause of empire. But of the many brave deeds performed by the men who took part in what has been described as * the race for the V. C.,' near the place where he is buried, no one surpassed the act of heroism by which Mr Rhodes brought the war to an end. Unarmed, he rode into the heart of the enemy's encampment, called a great indaba or conference of the chiefs, spoKe to them as a father might to his rebellious children, and did not leave until he had induced them to proclaim peace. The rock upon which Mr Rhodes sat at this historic assembly is now a tranquil spot, which he always loved, and is the place of his sepulchre—a tomb more enduring than the Pyramids. The Matoppo Hills stretch in a northeasterly direction from Bulawayo for a distance of a hundred miles, their greatest breadth being thirty-five miles. The place of burial is situated about thirty miles from the town. 'Thb Womd's Vnw.' Near by is a part of the hills which bears the important title of «The World's View. The prospect from any chosen summit makes a deep impression on the spectator. It is impressive without being picturesque. As far as the eye can see, there is spread out before him a panorama of treeless mountains of varied shapes, mostly of abrupt outline, suggestive of a turbulent sea stilled by an omnipotent hand. The base of the hills is fringed with trees, and here and there is a clump of thick bush. In places great gorges draw black lines between the mountains, which, moreover, are punctured with giant caves, where the Matabele took refuge during the rebellion, and could have held for an indefinite period bad Hot the genius and daring of Mr Rhodes pot an end to the outbreak. The predominant note is massiveness and .stability, for the hills are of granite; but the hardness is toned down by the green of the lower foliage and the soft, velvety azure of the sky above. It was the poet in Cecil Rhodes which impelled him to his choice. In places the traveller comes upon groups of ruins which in this out-of-the-world region strangely stir the imagination. It is difficult to realise that these habitations were occupied by gold-seekers so long ago as 1000 B. C. When one thinks of Rhodesia it is invariably of the great possibilities which the future holds for the country. But what of Rhodesia's past P Three thousand years ago as goldhungry as the 'greenest' prospector of to-day scoured the Matoppos and the surrounding country for the precious metal. These crumbling ruins once contained the furnaces for the retorting and smelting of t e gold. In many quarters huge excavations are found where the ancients dug far down into the bowels of the earth in search of the metal. Several of these mines are still the largest on the earth's surface. The galleries are caked with layers of soot from the torches of the workers One historian estimates that the ancient miners discovered millions of pounds' woith of gold in Rhodesia. Where thb ' Great Whitb Man ' Rests.

These early emigrants are believed to have bees Phoenicians, who, as the Old Testament shows, were a great colonizing people. Several writers have lately arisen to proclaim Bhodesia as the veritable land of Ophir, * a land teeming with gold and precious atones.' Hitherto India has been regai .led as the Ophir of the ancients, but savants now claim that in the light of recent discoveries India must renounce that distinction in favor of Bhodesia. One writer goes so far as to assert that Job was a Bhodesian, basing his inquiries on the words rfi the Book of Job: 'Surely there is a vein for the silver and a place for the gold where they find it.' The historian atttmpts to identify the ' place' as Zimbabyc, where many ancient ruins abound. The land now known as Bhodesia wjt, he a-serts, in Job's days one of tne few eiviiiz-.d countries in the world. For centuries atterward it was overrun by eavagesj and the man who rests in the land that bears his name did more than any other to reclaim it to civilization. Buluways, where the coffin rested for some timi', was until the year 1893 the rojal kraal of King lobongula. It is now a thriving town, reminiscent at each Btep of the man to whom it owes existence. Bhodes street is the principal thoroughfare. Government house, with a threelined avenue two miles l*ng, was the pro? perty of the Colossus. '&. few miles away,

in the heart of the mountaim, ' the great white man/ as the natives called him, rests in peace* And round and about his tomb lies a monument, tha like of which • has been raised to no other man, a monument measuring 750,000 square miles— Bhodesia.