Contact Artefacts please if you have any comments or more information regarding this record.	Menu Home Upfront Now Up Books Towns Structures People Firms Lexicon		Mapungubwe National Park : Rhodes' Drift Musina district, Limpopo

Date: 1890 Client: Cecil John Rhodes Type: Cottage Style: Colonial : Vernacular Status: Derelict

See more photographs The first European explorers and missionaries to arrived in what is now Zimbabwe (then to become Rhodesia) crossed the Limpopo at Tuli in the early C16. The area was used by the European pioneers for hunting, trading and mission work among the tribes and people living there. At the end of the C19 Cecil John RHODES along with a group of men under his command called the ‘Pioneer Column’, were sent to annex Matabeleland and Mashonaland for the British Crown. On 1 July 1890 Fort Tuli was founded on a small kopje along the banks of the Shashe River. The first crossing over the Limpopo – Rhodes’ Drift – was established in 1890. As a result of Fort Tuli’s importance, the road from Rhodes’ Drift was frequently used, and in 1891 it became part of the Zeederberg Coach line from Pietersburg (now Polokwane). A few months later, a second drift was constructed about eight kilometres upstream from Rhodes’ Drift, as part of the Zeederberg Coach Route. This drift was known as Pont Drift. Because of the coach line, the Transvaal Government agreed to have a customs officer at Rhodes Drift. The first offcial, named Hendrick, built a hotel near where the Rhodes’ Drift house now stands, and it became known as Hendriksdal. Traces of the coach line are still visible as ruts in various calcrete patches in the Tuli Block. Because of its location close to the Rhodesian Border and Fort Tuli where the British forces were located it received immediate attention from the Boer forces early in the Anglo-Boer War. The Boers launched a concerted attack with some 300-400 burghers, in two columns, across the Limpopo, to destroy the Rhodes' Drift camp and take Fort Tuli. One column surprised the Rhodesians at Bryce's Store (Plumer's advanced supply depot) who fled into the bush or surrendered. Those at Rhodes Drift were surrounded and, after heavy firing and shelling for much of the day, withdrew during the evening to Fort Tuli. The Boers however did not push their advantage and moved elsewhere into the Transvaal field. The buildings are now part of the Mapungubwe National Park. A note on the buildings: It is unclear as to which time the buildings date and what the purpose of their construction was. The building style of Cyclopean masonry is unusual and has elements of a pioneer vernacular although the stonework is done with a degree of skill and craft and the construction technique not ubiquitous for these parts.