Rhodes was essentially an Englishman, and set his own country above everything else in the world.

Emphatically this is so; but it is equally true that his strange conceptions of morality in matters where politics came into question made him totally oblivious of the fact that he thought far more of his own self than of his native land in the plans which he conceived and formulated for the supremacy of England in South Africa.

He was absolutely convinced that his election as Life President of a South African Republic would not be in any way detrimental to the interests of Great Britain; on the contrary, he assured himself it would make the latter far more powerful than it had ever been before in the land over which he would reign.

By nature something of an Italian _condottieri_, he considered his native land as a stepping-stone to his own grandeur.
For a good many years he had chosen his best friends among Dutchmen of influence in the Cape Colony and in the Transvaal.

He flattered, courted and praised them until he quite persuaded them that nowhere else would they find such a staunch supporter of their rights and of their claims.
Men like Mr.Schreiner,[A] for instance, trusted him absolutely, and believed quite sincerely that in time he would be able to establish firm and friendly relations between the Cape Government and that of the Transvaal.