That is what we want.
The Jameson conspiracy fared no worse and no better than the great majority of conspiracies in history. Jameson did not obtain more than 500 men. Johannesburg had the greatest diffi culty in smuggling in and distributing the rifles with which the insurgents were to be armed. The scheme to seize the Pretoria fort had to be abandoned, as at the time fixed Pretoria was thronged with Boers. Finally, Jameson, becoming impatient of delay, in spite of receiving direct messages from the leaders at Johannesburg telling him on no account to move, marched into the Transvaal.
The policy of delay in the execution of the plot which the uitlander leaders found themselves compelled to adopt was deter mined by a variety of causes. Apart from the difficulty of obtain ing arms, a serious question arose at the eleventh hour which filled some of the uitlanders with mistrust. The reform leaders in the Transvaal, down to and including the Johannesburg rising, had always recognized as a cardinal principle the maintenance of the independence of the State. From Cape Town it was now hinted that the movement in which Jameson was to co-operate should, in Rhodes's view, be carried out under the British flag. A meeting of uitlander leaders was hastily summoned on Dec. 25. Two messengers were that night despatched to interview Rhodes, who then gave the assurance that the flag question might be left to a plebiscite of the inhabitants of the Transvaal (see Blue-book, 1897, 165, p. 21). It was determined nevertheless to postpone action ; however, on Dec. 29, Jameson started, and the news of his having done so reached Johannesburg from outside sources. A number of leading citizens were at once formed into a reform committee. In the absence of Charles Leonard, who had been sent as one of the delegates to Cape Town to interview Rhodes, Lionel Phillips, a partner in Messrs. Eckstein and Company, the largest mining firm on the Rand, was elected chairman. Under the supervision of the reform committee, such arms as had been smuggled in were distributed, and Col. Frank Rhodes was given charge of the armed men. A large body of police was enrolled, and order was maintained throughout the town. On Jan. 2, 1896,
Jameson, who found himself at Doornkop in a position surrounded by Boers, surrendered. Jameson and his men were conveyed to Pretoria as prisoners, and subsequently handed over to the high commissioner (Sir Hercules Robinson, who had succeeded Sir Henry Loch in June 1895).
Years later, speaking at Durban (Aug. 9, 191o), Jameson de clared that the raid was not racial in the sense usually under stood, but an effort towards federation. Had the raid succeeded it was proposed to make Gen. Lukas Meyer (d. 1902) president. He subsequently explained, however, that they had had no com munication with Meyer on the subject.