RHODESIA 
233 
ing the company to explore, colonize, and develop the coun- 
try between the Limpopo and Zambesi Rivers: and the 
organization was ready for business. 
The same year the “Pioneer Column” of first settlers — 
numbering five hundred — left Fort Tuli, on the southeast 
corner of Matabeleland, for the plateau of Mashonaland 
which they reached on August 13, 1891, after a one thousand 
mile march, four hundred of which was through dense for- 
ests. They found the “promised land beautiful but an open 
waste,” as Mr. Rhodes said two years later; and the diffi- 
culties of settlement and of opening up the country in an 
undeveloped region, cut off from civilization, seventeen hun- 
dred miles from the sea, where food cost £70 per ton, were 
many and serious. However, headquarters were established 
at Fort Salisbury and after six months of isolation, rain, and 
discomfort, the most serious phase of the occupation was 
passed. A second “concession” was secured from Lo 
Bengula by Edward A. Lippert on November 17, 1891, giv- 
ing the company the right to lease farms and land and to 
levy taxes and rents for one hundred years, for the payment 
of £1000 down and an annuity of £500. Dr. Jameson (later 
Sir Starr and the president of the company; died in 1917) 
was persuaded by Rhodes to become the first administrator 
of the new protectorate. Soon a large influx of new settlers 
ensued; and the towns of Salisbury and Victoria were laid 
out. The following year — 1892 — Mr. Rhodes himself vis- 
ited the country and assisted in a complete reorganization of 
the financial and administrative system, so that it became 
possible for Dr. Jameson to strike a favorable balance in his 
accounts the following year. 
Disputes and difficulties between the natives and colonists 
over land, cattle, and pasturage led to the great raid of the 
Matabeles into Mashonaland in July, 1893. This was fol- 
lowed by the successful campaign of Major Forbes into