Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume I

194 ENGINEERING WONDERS OF THE WORLD. bury in Mashonaland—then as now the seat of the Rhodesian Government—with, a possible extension eastwards through Portuguese terri- tory to the port of Beira. Permission for the construction of this latter line was included in the Anglo-Portuguese Treaty dated June 11, 1891, but so far the work had not been taken in hand. Riding alone one morning, towards the end of 1892, on the lower slopes of Table Moun- tain, Mr. Rhodes suddenly asked himself why the line should not be carried forward from Salisbury through Blantyre, the chief town of British. Central Africa (so named after the little Scottish, village where David Livingstone first saw the light), to Zomba, and thence, skirting the great lakes of Nyasa and Tanganyika, to Uganda and the Soudan, where it would eventually meet the Egyptian telegraph sys- tem which Sir Herbert Kitchener (as he then was) was busily pushing southwards as part of his scheme for the ultimate subjugation of the Khalifa and his followers. The more Mr. Rhodes thought over this idea, the more did it grip his imagination, if only for the fact that it would bring South Africa into so much closer touch with the Mother Country. After discussing the matter with, several engineers, explorers, and others who had some acquaintance with the nature of the country through which, the line would have to be carried, Mr. Rhodes finally determined that the idea was a practical one, and he outlined his scheme to his fellow-directors of the British South Africa Company. As a result, it was decided to form the African Transcontinental Telegraph Com- pany, which was accordingly incorporated in December 1892. It was decided that the line should be built in sections, the first section being from Salisbury to Zomba, a distance of 430 miles, about 100 miles of which lay in Portuguese territory. The cost of this part of the line was estimated at, in round figures, The A.T.T. Com- pany incorporated. £140,000, and the public were invited to sub- scribe for shares to this amount. Though, some measure of interest was manifested in the scheme, the financial response was very poor, only £46,000 being subscribed by the outside public. Mr. Rhodes had therefore to find the balance—nearly £100,000 sterling—out of his own pocket. Work was then commenced, con- struction parties starting from both Salisbury and. Zomba, and working towards a common meeting-place. The line had barely got well started when the Matabele rebellion broke out, and delay at once began, since the material for the con- struction of the line was being brought up through. Matabele- ^he land by bullock-wagon, and it was, of course, impossible to get these supply trains through, the dis- turbed area. However, just when arrange- ments had been completed hurriedly for bringing the poles and other equipment round by sea to Beira and thence to the route of the line by train and native carriers, the Mashona- land rising took place. Some 200 miles of wire had by that time been erected, the greater part through Mashonaland, despite the some- what trying climatic conditions to which those engaged in the work were subjected, most of the route passing through' dense, unhealthy forests, or over rocky ground so hard that the only means of providing holes in which to place the bases of the iron poles carrying the wire was to blast them out of the solid rock. About £40,000 were spent upon this portion of the route in labour, materials, transport, etc., and when the rebellion 5 stamped out and it was pos- sible for the settlers to take stock of the damage that had been done, it was found that practically the whole length of been destroyed, and that the wire itself had been looted and cut up to make slugs for the native riflemen. A lengthy pause then took The Line destroyed. the line had