Might, money & miscalculation

The year was 1871. A sickly looking youngster with a bad cough rolled slowly into Colesberg Kopje (soon to be called Kimberley) in a cart drawn by two oxen. He had travelled alone from Umkomaas in Natal, a journey of 650km, to join his brother, Herbert, in prospecting for diamonds. This was to be their second attempt at launching a business venture; their first, farming cotton, had ended in disaster.

The youngster’s name was Cecil John Rhodes, and he had been born in 1853, the fifth son of the rector of Bishop’s Stortford in Hertfordshire, England. As a child, he was shy and was inclined to wander the countryside, immersed in his thoughts.

Herbert had pegged a mining claim, and the brothers settled down in the heat and dust of the boisterous settlement. The dry climate