Ch. 19: An Uplifting Power

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	AN UPLIFTING POWER 239 the expansion of the undertakings of De Beers Consolidated Mines was the carrying out of his long-cherished aims. It was for this chiefly that De Beers Charter was drawn with so free a hand. Assured control of the great South African diamond mines was the assurance of great wealth, — from Rhodes's point of view, great power that should be greatly used. His aims ranged far beyond any personal exalting. His heart was set on the making of Greater Britain by expansion and loyal federal union. In the Dark Continent, beyond the confines of civilization, he saw the open field for British occupation and development, and was unresting till it was grasped. How great this attainment was in actual stretch of territory may best be comprehended, ^A ^Corner ⁱⁿ ^Mr" ^Rhodes'^s ^Library- as the London Times notes, "by any one who will take the trouble to contrast the map of Africa as it appeared in 1881, when Mr. Rhodes first entered public life, with that which Is open to his study to-day. At the earlier date, the line of the 28th degree of south latitude bounded our possessions in South Africa; the later map he will find coloured red right up to the shores of Lake Tanganyika — within a few degrees of the Equator."

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