UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA.
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THE DIAMOND MINES OF
SOUTH AFRICA
SOME ACCOUNT OF THEIR RISE
AND DEVELOPMENT
THE DIAMOND MINES OF
SOUTH AFRICA
SOME ACCOUNT OF THEIR RISE
AND DEVELOPMENT
BY
GARDNER F. WILLIAMS, M.A.
GENERAL MANAGER OF DE BEERS CONSOLIDATED MINES, LTD.
ILLUSTRATED
Nefa gorfc
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
LONDON : MACMILLAN & CO., LTD.
I9O2
All rights reserved
EDITION DE LUXE.
Of this Edition only One Hundred Copies have been
printed.
Tbi, Cofy i, Jfo~
COPYRIGHT, 1901,
BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.
Set up and electrotyped September, 1902.
• NortooolJ
J. 5. Cuibing & Co. — Berwick (3 Smith
• Norwood, Man., U.S.A. •
Contents
CHAPTER PAGE
I. The Ancient Adamas ........ i
II. In Traditional Ophir Land . . . . . . .32
III. The Pioneer Advance . . . . . . . -87
IV. The Discovery . . . . . . . . .114
V. The Camps on the Vaal . . . . . . .140
VI. The Rush to Kimberley 164
VII. The Great White Camps 190
VIII. Opening the Craters . . . . . . . .220
IX. The Moving Men ........ 267
X. The Essential Combination . . . . . . .297
XI. Systematic Mining ........ 307
XII. Winning the Diamonds . . . . . . .360
XIII. Obstacles and Perils 384
XIV. The Workers in the Mines 407
XV. The Mining Towns 450
XVI. Formation of the Diamond ....... 479
XVII. The Diamond Market 511
XVIII. Cutting and Polishing 528
XIX. An Uplifting Power . . . . . . . 552
APPENDIX
I. The Mines besieged . . . . . . . .605
II. Winding Engines for the Main Shaft, Kimberley Mine . . 667
III. Report on Pumping Plant for Kimberley Mine .... 669
IV. Relative Value of Coals ....... 670
V. Statistics of De Beers Company . . . . . .671
Illustrations
PAGE
The Koh-i-nur (Old Cutting) I
i. A Black Diamond in Gold Setting. 2. Ordinary Window Glass.
3. A Pink Diamond ........ 2
The Shah 3
The Egyptian Pascha ......... 4
The Polar Star 8
The Hope Blue 8
The Empress Eugenie . . . . . . . . .15
The Nassak 16
The Great Mogul 17
The Sancy ........... 25
The Koh-i-nur (Present Cutting) . . . . . . -27
The Orloff 28
The Regent ........... 29
The Florentine .......... 30
The Piggott . . . . . . . . . .30
The Star of the South ......... 30
Dutch Ships of the Eighteenth Century ..... 40, 44, 45
Dutch Ships of the Seventeenth Century . . . . . 41, 42, 43
Insiza Ruins .......... 48, 49, 50
Khami Ruins ......... 51, 52, 53, 54
Gold Ornaments found in Ancient Ruins . . . . . .52
Zimbabwe Ruins . . . . . . 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60
The Old East India House, Leadenhall Street, London . . . .61
The Landing of Van Riebeeck . . . . . . . .62
Portrait of Johan Antonyse van Riebeeck ...... 63
Portrait of Maria de la Querellerie . . . . . . .63
Constantia ........... 64
Vergelegen ........... 69
Boschendal 71, 72
Entrance to Boschendal . . . . . . . . .72
Botanic Gardens .......... 73
Lekkerwijn ........ , , . 74
vii
viii ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
Bien Donne, Groot Constantia . . . . . . . 75, 76
Overmantel and Old Dutch Relics . . . . . . -75
Farm House, Klein Drakenstein . . . . . . . . -7
Palmeit Vallei 77, 80
A Wine Farm at Klein Drakenstein . . . . . . .78
Muller's Farm, Achter Paarl ....... 78, 79, 80
Mooi Kelder, Lower Paarl . . . . . . . .81
Plaisis de Merle, Groot Drakenstein . . . . . . .81
Donkerhoek, Groot Drakenstein . . . . . . . .82
A Wine Cellar. Herd of Cape Goats 82
Tatr, 1757 . .83
An Old Farm House, Lower Paarl ....... 84
Farm House, Achter Paarl ........ 84
Brand Solder 85
Cape Cart 85, 276
The Gate of the Castle 86
Zulu Chief Cetawayo and Part of his Family . . . . .92
Zulu Prince Dinizulu . . . . . . . . -93
Zulu Family ........... 93
A Zulu and his Ten Wives ........ 94
Zulu Kraal and Huts ......... 95
Zulu Hut in course of Construction .....'.. 96
Zulu Woman grinding Corn ........ 97
Zulu Women .......... 98
Zulus smoking Indian Hemp ........ 99
Old Zulu Women taking Kafir Beer to a Wedding .... 99
Zulu Girls . . . . . . . . . . . .100
Native Laborers in War Dress . . . . . <" . 101
Trekbok (Springbok) Hunting . . . . . . . .102
Zulu in War Dress . . . . . . . . . .103
Zulu — Jim Cameel ......... 105
A Zulu Laborer in War Attire . . . . . . . .108
Nest of Social Grosbeak . . . . . . . . i'i 2
John O'Reilly 120
Mr. Lorenzo Boyes . . . . . . . . .121
Dr. W. Guybon Atherstone . . . . . . . .121
Pniel Diggings . . . . . . . . . .139
Delport's Hope, Vaal River Diggings . . . . . . .142
Diggers' Camps on the Vaal River . . . . . . .143
River Diggings at Gong Gong, 1880 . . . . . . .147
Vaal River Diggings . , , . , , , . . 149
ILLUSTRATIONS ix
PAGE
River Diggings, Waldek Plant . . . . . . . .151
Pniel Diggings, Vaal River . . . . . . . .152
Klip-drift, Early River Diggings . . . . . . .152
Gong Gong . . . . . . . . . . 153
Washing Diamond Gravel by Machinery at Gong Gong, 1880 . . 155
Lightning at Kimberley . . . . . . . . . 1 56
Day View, Same Scene . . . . . . . . .156
Largest River Diamond ever found in South Africa . . . . .158
Views of Klip-drift .......... 162
Kimberley, 1872 .......... 169
Mrs. Rawstorne . . . . . . . . . .173
Mr. T. B. Kisch 174
Kimberley Mine just after the Discovery, July, 1871 . . . 175, 176
Fleetwood Rawstorne . . . . . . . . .177
Native Chiefs . . . . . . . . . .179
The First Government House and Buildings of the Colony of Griqualand
West 1 80
Sir Richard Southey's Residence, Kimberley . . . . .181
Stephen J. Paul Kriiger . . . . . . . . .185
Coach leaving Kimberley for the Coast, 1875 • • • • .187
Kimberiey, before the Discovery of Diamonds . . . . .190
Dutoitspan . . . . . . . . . . 191, 192
Kimberley, 1871 . . ~f~" ....... 193
Kimberley Mine, 1871 . . . . . . . . .194
Around Kimberley Mine, 1871. . . . . . . -'95
Kimberley Mine, 1872 197, 203, 205, 208, 209
Centre Block, Kimberley Mine, 1874 200
The Roadways, Kimberley Mine, 1871-1872 20 z
Roads in Kimberley Mine, 1871-1872 204,207
Market Square, Kimberley . . . . . . .212, 213
Natives resting, on their Way to the Mines . . . . z 1 8
The Breaking up of the Roads, Kimberley Mine, 1872 . . . .221
Miners going to Work ......... 222
The Hand Drums used for Winding-up the Blue Ground . . . 223
De Beers Mine, 1873 223
Kimberley Mine, 1873 ••-••• • 2Z4
Kimberley Mine, 1874 225
Natives carrying Ground out of Dutoitspan in Buckets . . . .226
Back View of the Staging with Grooved Wheels, at Kimberley . . . 226
Kimberley Mine, 1875 - . . . 227
Snow in Kimberley Mine, June 2 1 , 1876 . . . . . .228
x ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
Method of Hauling, De Beers Mine, 1873 228
The First Horse Whim, Kimberley Mine, 1874 . ... 229
Hauling Gear and Jumpers, Kimberley Mine, 1878 . . . ±:g
A Nook in Kimberley Mine, 1874 230
The Horse Whims, Kimberley Mine, 1875 231
Hauling Gear, Dutoitspan Mine, 1876 ...... 232
Surface Loading Boxes ...... 233
Aerial Trams and Surface Chutes, De Beers Mine, 1885 . . .233
Hauling Gear, Kimberley Mine, 1885 234
The French Company's Sling Gear, 1885 235
Loading Tubs at Bottom of Kimberley Mine, 1885 . . . . 236
The Standard Company's Claim, Bottom of Kimberley Mine, 1885 . . 237
Bottom of Kimberley Open Workings . . . . . . .238
Pumping Engine in Kimberley Mine, 1875 ...... 239
Incline Tramway for Hauling Reef, 1878 . . . . . . 240
Hauling Reef, Kimberley Mine, 1873 ...... 241
Reef Falls, Kimberley Mine, 1 88 1 242
Steam Pumping Engine, De Beers Mine, 1879 . . . . . 243
The Central Company's Shaft, Kimberley Mine, 1885 . . . . 244
The Bottom of Kimberley Mine, 1885 245
Plan of Kimberley Mine, 1883 . . . . . . . .246
Reef Slips, Kimberley Mine, 1874 . . 247
Kimberley Mine, showing how the Ground cracked before Subsidence . 247
The Central Company's Atkins Shaft ....... 248
The Last of Open Working, Kimberley Mine, 1889 .... 249
R. D. Atkins 250
No. 2 Incline Shaft, De Beers Mine . . . . . . .251
Eldorado Road, Dutoitspan Mine, 1874 . . . . . 251
Claims in Dutoitspan Mine . . . . . . . .252
Bultfontein Mine, 1879 2S3
The First Rotary Washing Machine 254
Another Early Washing Machine, 1874 . . . . . .255
Horse-power Washing Machine, 1875 . . . . . . , 255
Early Horse-power Washing Machine, 1874 ..... 256
The First Washing Machine with Elevator to carry away the Tailings . 257
Washing Gear, Bultfontein Mine . . . . . . .258
Steam Washing Gear, Kimberley Mine . . . . . .259
Webb's Washing Machine, 1878 260
Cape of Good Hope Company's Washing Gear, 1878 . . . .261
Washing Gear, Dutoitspan Mine ....... 262
Washing Gear, Bultfontein Mine, 1878 ,,,,,. 263
ILLUSTRATIONS xi
PAGE
Mr. Barney Barnato .••...... 268
C. J. Rhodes, when a Student at Oxford . . . . . .272
Cape Town ........... 273
Silver Trees . . . . . . . . . . . 27C
Mr. C. D. Rudd 279
Mr. Robert English ......... 270
Plan of Kimberley Mine, 1882 ........ 282
House of Parliament, Cape Town ....... 284
Avenue of Oaks, Cape Town . . . . . . . .285
Mr. Carl Meyer .......... 287
Mr. Alfred Beit 289
The Diamond Market, Kimberley, 1875 . . . . . . 290
The Right Honorable Cecil John Rhodes, and Alfred Beit, Esq., October,
1901 292
Fac-simile of Check given in Payment for Kimberley Mine . . . 295
A Group of Directors, De Beers Mines ...... 300
Group of Life Governors, Directors, Manager, and Secretary, De Beers Mine 303
Mr. E. R. Tymms ......... 306
The Last of Open Mining, Kimberley . . . . . .308
Plan of De Beers Mine ....... 309, 316, 318
Section through De Beers Mine ....... 310, 311
Plan of Kimberley Mine . . . . . . . . .312
Section of Kimberley Mine . . . . . . . -313
Sketch of Premier Mine . . . . . . . . .318
Sloping 319, 320
Timbering Tunnels . . . . . . . . .321, 322
Natives drilling, De Beers Mine . . . . . . .322
A Shaft Station . . . . . . . . . .324
Loading the Trucks . . . . . . . . . .325
Loading Chutes for Rock Shaft . . . ... . . .326
Plan of Skip for Six Loads . . . . . . . .327
Main Shaft, Kimberley Mine . . . . . . . .328
The Rock Shaft, De Beers Mine 329
Vertical Tandem Compound-condensing Winding Engines . . 330, 331
Winding Engine, Kimberley Mine . . . . . . 332
Mr. Louis I. Seymour . . . . . . . . • 332
Plan of Bultfontein Mine . . . . . . . . -333
Mount Ararat before Blasting ........ 342
Shots fired 343
A Second after Firing . . . . . . . . '344
The Mine filled with Smoke . , . . . . . -345
xii ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
After the Smoke has cleared away ....... 346
Premier Mine, Open Workings .... . . . 34,8
Premier Mine 350, 351, 353^
One of the Early Washing Machines . . . . . . .354
One of the Present Washing Plants . . . . . . -355
No. i Washing Plant, De Beers Floors . . . . . 356
No. 2 Washing Plant, De Beers Floors . . . . 357, 370
Excelsior Diamond ......... 358, 359
De Beers Mine and Floors . . . . . . . .361
Details of zo-Cubic-feet Truck ........ 362
Details of 1 6-Cubic-feet Truck ........ 363
De Beers Floors ........ 364, 365, 366
Mechanical Haulage, Kimberley Mine . . . . . .364
Kimberley Floors . . . . . . . . . .366
Harrowing Blue Ground . . . . . . . . .367
Traction Engine for harrowing Blue Ground . . . . .368
Loading Pulverized Blue Ground, De Beers Floors . . . . ^ 369
Washing Machine, De Beers Mine . . . . . . .370
De Beers Crushing Mill 371.374
Details of Rotary Washing Machine . . . . . -372.373
The Pulsator 376
Sorting Gravel for Diamonds . . . . . ... -377
Automatic Diamond Sorter .. . . . . . -379
Mr. James Stewart . . . . . . . . . .381
^60,000 Parcel of Diamonds ........ 382
A Day's Diamond Wash ......... 383
Mr. Lindsay, killed in Fire . . . . . . . .388
Fire in De Beers Mine, July ii, 1888 389
No. z Incline Shaft, after the Fire . . . . . • 392» 393
Waiting for News from the Mine ....... 395
Men escaping through Tunnel ........ 398
The Survivors coming up the Terraces . . . . . .401
General Manager of De Beers Mines and his Staff . . . . . 406
J. M. Jones ........... 407
The Engineers, Mechanics, and Workmen who built De Beers Crushing
Plant 408
Frank Mandy .......... 409
G. Scott 409
Rinderpest ........... 410
The Game of the Country . . . . . . . .411
Chiefs of the Batlapin Tribe . . . , . . . .412
ILLUSTRATIONS xiii
PAGE
De Beers Compound . ... 414,415,417,418,419
De Beers Compound Musical Band of Natives ..... 420
A Fireside Gathering, Kimberley Compound . . . . .421
Natives making Coffee, Kimberley Compound . . . . .422
Open Mine Workers, Kimberley Compound ..... 423
Kimberley Mine Compound ........ 424
Natives drilling in the Open Mine . . . . . . -425
The Last of Open Mining in Dutoitspan Mine ..... 425
Natives drilling Underground ........ 426
The Midday Meal 427
Zulu Workmen, Dutoitspan Mine . . . . . . .429
Native making Bangles ......... 430
Mr. Rouliot and Native Workmen . . . . . . . 43 1
'Mshangaan in War Attire . . . . . . , .433
Native War Dance .......... 434
'Mshangaans in War Paint . . . . . . . .435
Sir Alfred Milner's Visit to Kimberley Compound . . . . .437
A Quiet Game of Cards . . . . . . . . -438
Natives playing Chuba ......... 439
Natives playing Mancala . . . . . . . . .439
Swimming Bath, De Beers Compound ...... 440
Natives smoking Indian Hemp . . . . . . . .441
Diamonds swallowed by a Native ...... 444, 445
Diamond Thieves ........ 446, 447, 448
De Beers Machine Shops ......... 449
Snow in Kimberley, 1876 . . . . . . -45'
Theatre Royal ......... 452, 453
The Town Hall 454
Dutoitspan Road, Kimberley . . . . . . . .454
Kimberley Hospital . . . . . . . . . -455
The Kimberley Club 455, 456
Horns of South African Antelope . . . 457, 458, 459, 460, 461
Professor J. G. Lawn ......... 462
Professor Orr ........... 462
Sir Alfred Milner passing the Offices of De Beers Mines .... 463
De Beers Offices decorated in Honor of Governor's Visit . . .463
Kimberley Public Library ......... 464
The Sanatorium .......... 464
Masonic Temple .......... 465
The Post-office, Kimberley ........ 466
Nazareth House, Kimberley ........ 466
xiv ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
The Author's House at Kimberley . . . . . . . -67
" Smell my Flowers " 468
Kimberley Race Course . . . . . . . . .468
The Grand Stand 469
Bachelors' Quarters, Kenilworth Village . . . . . . 47 1
Passenger Train for Workmen . . . . . . . .472
The Road to Kenilworth and Kenilworth Reservoir . . . .472
Kenilworth Club-house . . . . . . . . .473
Kenilworth Village ........ 474, 475, 476
Preparing Trenches for planting Vines and Trees . . . . .477
Section of De Beers and Kimberley Rock Shafts ..... 480
De Beers Diamond . . . . . . . . .482
The Largest Diamond ever found in the Kimberley Mine . . .483
Fossil Fish from Premier Mine ........ 486
Irregular Crystallization of Diamonds ...... 488, 489
Crystal of Diamond . . . . . . . . ( . 490
Twin Crystal Formations . . . . . ... . .491
Diamonds of Regular Forms . . . . . . . .493
Diamonds of Irregular Forms ....... 496, 504
A Microscopical Diamond . . . . . . . .501
Smooth Surface of Diamond dissected by Combustion ... . . 503
Two Views of the Face of a Rough Diamond as seen through the Microscope 505
Diamond bearing a Smaller Crystal in its Centre ..... 507
Diamond Sorters and Valuators . . . . . . . .512
A De Beers Group . . . . . . . . . .515
The Officials who manage the Benefit Society, De Beers Mines . . 518
A Group of Officials of De Beers Consolidated Mines Limited . . 519
Photograph of a Book with the Leaves cut out in the Centre, used by an
Illicit Diamond Dealer to send Diamonds to England . . .522
Examination of the Diamonds before and after Cutting . . . .529
Cleaving ........... 540
Cutting . . . . 541, 543
Polishing . . . 54.5, 549
A Group of Directors, General Manager, and Secretary of De Beers Mines . 552
Natives riding Bullocks . . . . . . . . -553
Pioneers Trekking . . . . . . . . . .554
A Prospecting Expedition to Mashonaland . . . . . .554
Trekking on the Veld 555
The first and only Load of Cotton raised in South Africa . . . .556
Zebra 557
Coach leaving Kimberley for the Transvaal before the Day of the Railway . 558
ILLUSTRATIONS Xv
PAGE
Cape Town and Table Mountain . . . . . . 558, 561
A Group of Well-known Kimberley Men . . . . . -559
Eland ............ 560
Table Mountain, from the West . . . . . . .562
Lord Milner ........... 563
Donkey Transport .......... 564
A South African Farm ......... 565
Natives shearing Sheep ......... 566
Dutch Farm in the Karoo ......... 567
Beaufort West .......... 568
Norvals Pont Bridge . . . . . . . . .569
Sir Walter Hely Hutchinsen . . . . . . . .571
Entrance — Groote Schuur . . . . . . . -575
Groote Schuur after its Destruction by Fire . . . . . -577
Pioneers Trekking in Mashonaland . . . . . . -579
Khama, a Noted Chief . . . . . . . . .580
Khama's Town . . . . . . . . . .581
Khama's Hut .......... 582
Matabele Women carrying Water . . . . . . -583
A Group of Visitors at Groote Schuur. . . . . . .584
Great Kafir Kraal, Mochudi, Matabeleland . . . . . .585
Groote Schuur .......... 587
Major Wilson's Grave ......... 588
Victoria Falls, Zambesi River ...... 590, 591, 593
Zambesi River One Mile below Victoria Falls . . . . .594
Summer House at Groote Schuur ....... 596
" Stoep," Groote Schuur. ........ 597
A Corner in Mr. Rhodes's Library ....... 599
Another View of Mr. Rhodes's Library ...... 600
A Boer Commando .......... 605
Lieut. Col. Kekewich and Staff of Imperial Officers .... 606
Fort on Tailings Heap, Kimberley Mine Floors ..... 607
One of the Redoubts ......... 608
Fort Rhodes, Kenilworth, and its Defence Force ..... 609
View from the Conning Tower ........ 609
The Waterworks Company's Reservoir as a Fort . . . . .610
Fort Rhodes, on Top of No. 2 Tailings Heap, De Beers Floors . .610
No. 2 Redoubt, near Kimberley Mine . . . . . .611
A Barrier on the Road leading to Kenilworth . . . . .611
The Sanatorium in Time of Peace . . . . . . .612
The Sanatorium during the Siege . . . . . . .612
xvi ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
Mounted Camp, Kimberley . . . . . . . .613
Camp of the Royal North Lancashires . . . . . . .614
Officers of the Diamond Fields Horse . . . . . . .615
The Diamond Fields Horse at Kenilworth, during Siege of Kimberley . 615
A Group of the Town Guard . . . . . . . .616
Defence Guns and Maxims massed in the Gardens . . . .616
Headquarters Staff, Cape Mounted Police . . . . . .617
Kimberley Waterworks Reservoir, with Royal Artillery . . . .618
Premier Mine Fort, Royal Artillery in Action . . . . .618
Premier Mine Searchlight . . . . . . . . .619
Canvas House erected for Protection from the Sun and Thunderstorms . 619
Railway Bridge over the Vaal River at Fourteen Streams .... 620
Boer Laager, near Kimberley . . . . . . . .621
Group of Typical Boers . . . . . . . . .621
A Group of Mercenaries fighting with the Boers . . . / . . 622
Code Dispatches received during the Siege . . . . . .623
Typical Boer ........... 624
Major W. H. E. Murray ........ 624
Armored Locomotive . . . . . . . . .625
Armored Train . . . . . . . . . .625
Railway Bridge at Modder River ...'.... 626
Effect of a Nine-Pound Shell . . . . . . . .627
Trophies of the Siege ......... 628
Boer Nine-Pound Shrapnel . . . . . . . . 629
British and Boer Shells fired at Kimberley ...... 630
Site of Cronje's Laager, Magersfontein . . . . . .631
Conning Tower, De Beers No. I Shaft . . . ^«" • • 632
The Funeral of Colonel Scott-Turner and the Men who fell with him . 633
Boer Trenches at Magersfontein ........ 634
Plan through Tomb .......... 634
The Honoured Dead Memorial . . . . . . . .635
Plan through Columns . . . . . . . . .-635
"Long Cecil" as a Mild Steel Billet - . 636
" Long Cecil " in course of Construction . . . . . .637
"Long Cecil " just before it was taken out of the Workshops . . .638
Construction of " Long Cecil " . . . . . . . .639
Boring and Rifling Tools ......... 640
Shell for 4.1 inch B. L. Siege Gun and for 2.5 inch Gun . . .641
"Long Cecil" and the De Beers Men who made it .... 642
"Long Cecil" 643
"Long Cecil" firing at the Boers on Carter's Ridge . . . .643
ILLUSTRATIONS xvii
PAGE
"Long Cecil," made in Kimberley, and Royal Artillery Gun sent to defend
Kimberley .......... 644
Casting Shells for Seven- Pounders, De Beers Foundry .... 645
The Soup Kitchen .......... 645
Comparison of Shells ......... 646
Notice on the Market Buildings during the Siege ..... 647
Inhabitants of Kimberley waiting for their Daily Allowance of Horse Meat . 648
Band of the Kimberley Volunteer Regiment playing at the Mounted Camp
during the Siege ......... 649
The Mafeking "Long Tom" 650
Boer Shells . . . . . . . . . . .651
Premier Studio, showing Effect of 100- Pound Shell . . . .652
Effect of a loo-Pounder ........ 653, 654
Mr. Compton's Drawing-room barricaded for Shelter from Boer Guns . 654
Shell-proof constructed by the Public Works Department . . . .6;;
Excavations in the Tailing Heaps at Beaconsfield, used as Shelters . . 656
Shell-proof, after the Siege . . . . . . . .656
Shell-proof at the Convent . . . . . . . .657
Shell-proof Dugouts . ......... 657
Notice sent round the Town during the Shelling by the Boers' 100- Pound
Gun ........... 658
Shelters for Women and Children during firing of loo-Pound Boer Gun . 659
Too Late ! Two Siege Guns arrived after the Siege . . . .659
The United States Consulate ........ 660
Women and Children waiting to be lowered down De Beers Mine . . 660
Hoisting Double-decked Cage loaded with People and their Bedding . .661
Boer Gun captured at Dronfield . . . . . . . .662
Surrender of General Cronje . . . . . . . 663
Lord Roberts and General Cronje ....... 664
General Cronje as a Prisoner of War . . . . . . .665
Reception of Lord Roberts and Lord Kitchener, Kimberley Town Hall . 666
MAPS
Blaeuw's Map of Africa ....... between 32-33
Visscher's Map of Africa, 1662 ....... 33
Africa from an Early Dutch Map . . . . . . .34
Outline Copy of the Catalan Mappermonde, 1375 . . . 36, 37
Outline Copy of the Map of Portolano Laurenziano, 1351 . . . 38
Africa de Mappermonde, Juan de la Cosa, 1500 ..... 39
Chart showing Method of Surveying Coast Lines ..... 46
xviii ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
Map showing the Position of Ancient Ruins in Rhodesia .... 47
Kimberley Mine between 276-277
Diamond Mines owned by De Beers Consolidated Mines Limited between 316-3 I 7
A Map to illustrate the Rhodesia Railway System . ... 592
PHOTOGRAVURES
FACING PAGE
Portrait of Gardner F. Williams ....... Frontispiece
Farmhouse on the Farm Constantia, near Cape Town .... 64
La Rhone, Groot Drakenstein |
Old Le Roux . . \'
A View from the Kloof Road leading from the Upper Part of Cape Town . 86
Zulu in War Attire ..... . .94
The Author's Collection of Diamonds . . . . . . .154
The Homestead of the Farm Vooruitzigt on which are De Beers and Kim-
berley Mines . . . . . . • . . .172
Portrait of Sir Richard Southey «£ . . . . . . . 1 80
Natives seeking Work . . . . . . . . .188
Kimberley Mine, 1872 I. 196
Floating Reef, Kimberley Mine ........ 240
Kimberley Mine, 1886 246
Bultfontein Mine, 1878. . . . . . . .252
Portrait of Cecil John Rhodes . . . . . . . .272
Barnato's Residence, Kimberley ........ 296
A Group of Officials 298
Premier Mine, looking from Workings up through Incline where the Blue
Ground is hauled ......... 344
Premier Mine . . . . . • • • • .352
Washing Machine with 1 8 Pans. Capacity, 6000 Loads, equal to 4800
Tons in Ten Hours . . . . . . . . .374
Waiting for News from the Mine, July 12, 1888 392
Dutoitspan Road, Kimberley ......... 454
The Gardens of the Intermediate Pumping Station of the Kimberley Water "
Works Company ......... 466
Piece of Blue Ground ......... 484
A Thin Section of Diamond-bearing Rock (enlarged 3^ times) from the
1320-Foot Level of the De Beers Mine ..... 486
Cape Town ........... 562
Mr. Rhodes's House 574
Victoria Falls ........... 592
The Terrace Garden 598
THE DIAMOND MINES OF
SOUTH AFRICA
SOME ACCOUNT OF THEIR RISE
AND DEVELOPMENT
The Diamond Mines of South Africa
CHAPTER I
THE ANCIENT ADAMAS
T the beginning of the last century, when the
blinded Shah-Shuja sought refuge in the lair
of the " Lion of Punjaub," Runjeet Singh, his
chief treasure was the crystal pebble which Nadir
Shah had snatched from the head of the last of
the Great Moguls.
For the sake of the pebble, Runjeet starved the wife and
children of his friend until he was driven to lay the Koh-i-nur
at the feet of his host. " At what
price do you value it?" said the
Lion, showing his teeth in a grim
smile.
"At good luck," replied the
blind Shah, " for it has ever been
the bosom companion of him who
has triumphed over his enemies."
It may have been the tradi-
tional talisman of Carna, Rajah
of Anga, fighting in legendary The Koh-i-nflr. (ow Cutting.)
wars, hundreds of years before the great Achilles stormed and
sulked under the walls of Troy.1 From its earliest known
appearance it had been so coveted that agas and sultans and
1 "Tales from Indian History,"]. Talboys Wheeler, assistant secretary of
the government of India in the Foreign Department, Calcutta, 1881 ; "The
Great Diamonds of the World," Edwin W. Streeter.
THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
rajahs and shahs had snatched it in the first spoils of victory,
or tried to extort it by starvation or blinding or boiling oil or
some other device of torture ; and the adventurous and blood-
stained career of this famous diamond is only one of many like
passages, for every precious
stone of renown has a trail
like a meteor. Some have
gleamed weirdly in the eye-
sockets of idols in Indian
temples or flashed from
the splendid thrones of
emperors, or glittered in
golden basins amid gems
of every hue heaped up in
tribute, or sparkled on the
crests of warriors, the tur-
bans of rajahs, the breasts
.of begums, and the san-
dals of courtesans. To
win them temples have been profaned, palaces looted, thrones
torn to fragments, princes tortured, women strangled, guests
poisoned by their hosts, and slaves disembowelled. Some have
fallen on battlefields, to be picked up by ignorant freebooters
and sold for a few silver coins, and others have been cast into
ditches by thieves or swallowed by guards, or sunk in ship-
wrecks, or broken to powder in moments of frenzy. No strain
of fancy in an Arabian tale has outstripped the marvels of fact
in the diamond's history.
Among all the stones that our world's fancy holds precious,
the diamond stands preeminent. It is pure crystallized carbon.
It crystallizes in almost all the forms of the isometric system,
commonly the octahedral or dodecahedral, and frequently with
curved faces.1 Two pyramids with triangular sides and a
1 Dana and others mention that diamonds in the form of cubes have been found.
While one might expect to find a diamond in cubic form, as this is the fundamental
form of the isometric system, still no specimen of this form has come under the
i. A Black Diamond in Gold Setting. 2. Ordinary
Window Glass. 3. A Pink Diamond. (Photo-
graphed with the Roentgen Rays.)
THE ANCIENT ADAMAS 3
common base make up the octahedron. The dodecahedron has
twelve rhombs or natural facets of lozenge shape.
It is the most impenetrable of all known substances, for the
edge of one of its facets will scratch the face of any other stone
or the hardest steel. It is the most perfect reflector of light.
It refracts entering rays more than any other translucent sub-
stance except crocolite, the chromate of lead.1 Chrysolite alone
exceeds its dispersive power to dissolve white light into rainbow
tints, but its combined powers of reflection, refraction, and dis-
persion are unmatched.2 Hence appears the play of color in its
crystalline heart and the resplendent flashing of its radiant fire.
It may be as purely transparent and colorless as a drop of dew, or
it may display all the primary colors, such as red, orange, yellow,
blue, and violet; so that, as John Mandeville quaintly observed,
" It seems to take pleasure in assuming in turn the colors proper
to other gems." 8 It is highly phosphorescent. Even the blackest
of diamonds are transparent to the X-rays. No acid will mar it,
no solvent will dissolve it. Its brilliance is undecaying, and ages
might roll by without rubbing the minutest particle from its ada-
mantine face. The diamond that gleamed with such strange fire
in an idol's eye before the rising of the Star of Bethlehem may be
sparkling to-day with more dazzling
radiance in the crown of an emperor.
Koh-i-nur and Darya-i-nur and Taj-
e-mah and Regent and OrlofF and
Sancy and Shah will shine no less re-
splendent when the sovereigns that
now treasure them shall be dust. The shah.
observation of those whose duty it is to look over every stone that comes from the
South African mines. The South African diamonds differ in appearance from those
found in India or Brazil. They are bright and without any incrustation, and the
imperfections, if any, are visible in their natural state.
1 " Table of Indices of Refraction," Dufrenoy, p. 87. " Treatise on Gems,"
Feuchtwanger, New York, 1867.
2 "Table of the Distinguishing Characteristics of Gems," Feuchtwanger,
pp. 494-499. "Optical Properties of the Diamond," Sir David Brewster,
Phil. Trans., VIII, 157, 1817. s " Le Grand Lapidaire," Paris, 1561.
4 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
" With the point of a diamond," Jeremiah (B.C. 600) says,1
records were graven when stones were writing-tablets ; but,
unfortunately for our knowledge, the diamond did not tell its
own story ; and it is, at best, a groping effort that would search
out the rising of this gem through the mists of tradition.
" Thou hast been in Eden, the garden of God ; every
precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the
diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire,
the emerald, and the carbuncle. Thou wast upon the holy
mountain of God ; thou hast walked up and down in the midst
of the stones of fire." *
How glowing are the words of the Prophet of the Captivity,
declaring the vainglory forerunning the doom of Tyre's princes
and people (588 B.C.). Did the three
rivers of Eden flow through sands glit-
tering with stones of fire ? Did the eating
of a little green apple from the tree of
knowledge open the eyes of the first
woman of earth to the lure of the gems
that are now so tempting to every daugh-
ter of Eve ? If not, how long was it
The Egyptian Pascha. before the topaz an(J the diamond, the
emerald and the ruby and the sapphire were added to the fig-
leaf covering of our first parents ?
Multicycles of refining are needed for a clear perception of
beauty. The aboriginal Adams and Eves did not have it. The
children of the twentieth century will open their eyes to its
light more quickly than those of the Stone Age, because the
children of to-day inherit the quickened sense of unnumbered
generations, and are taught to trace the range of beauty in
nature and art. Prehistoric man, a weakling in perception,
turned his eyes to the grand orb of the sun, rising above the
horizon and flooding the earth with its rays, to the pale bow
1 Jeremiah xvii.
2 Ezekiel xviii. 13 and 14 (588 B.C.). Babylonian captivity of the Jews
(588-537 B.C.).
THE ANCIENT ADAMAS 5
of the moon and the sparkling of the firmament of stars, to
the ceaseless surge of the ocean and the mountain summits
wreathed in clouds, — to all the grander aspects and motions
of nature, — before his eyes were drawn to lesser things outside
the petty circle of his rambling and the sating of his crude
animal wants. Mayhap thousands of years of brutal life rolled
by before the savage stooped to pick up any one of the gleam-
ing pebbles which the fierce tiger spurned with bounding foot
and the flying deer trampled heedlessly on the river's bank.
Any one may guess, and any one's guess is as good as another's,
what little pebble first drew the glance of the barbarian's eye or
the stoop of the rover's knee. The first-known precious stones
of the world were undoubtedly found on the face of the ground,
without any wearisome digging or quarrying, as they lay shin-
ing in the gravel, washed from hillsides over the plains, or along
the courses of rivers swelled by floods and sweeping the par-
ings of the earth's crust to the sea. Thousands of carnelians,
garnets, jasper, amethysts, sapphires, rubies, and diamonds
were picked up, maybe by children rummaging in gravel beds
or the clefts of rocks, and thrown away as carelessly as splinters
of flint, before one was preserved and prized. White and tinted
shells were much easier to collect and pierce and link together,
and rude armlets and leg-bands of copper and silver and gold
were easily forged, and more to the savage taste than any neck-
lace of stones.1
When some of the precious stones were lifted and borne
away from their beds in drifts of gravel, they were valued first
chiefly for the mystic powers attributed to pebbles of such rich
hues, phenomenal hardness, and peculiar lustre. One of them
would be worn in a pouch next to the bosom as an amulet or
charm, averting peril, inspiring courage, healing diseases, repell-
ing evil spirits, or winning the love of scornful maidens. Or,
if any one of these magic stones was set to gleam in the buckle
of a warrior's plume, it was less for a show of ornament than for
1 "A Treatise on Diamonds and Precious Stones," John Mawe, London,
1813.
6 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
its mystic shielding power and redoubling of valor. The tradi-
tion of these virtues has passed from generation to generation,
and still finds credence among the masses of Asia. The poor
natives of India believe to this day in the efficacy of sapphires
and rubies in purifying the blood, strengthening the body,
quenching thirst, dispelling melancholy, averting danger, and
assuring honor and fortune. The emerald in their eyes is
potent to dispel bad dreams, give courage, and cure palsies,
colds, and acute dysentery. The turquoise they say will brighten
and heal weak and sore eyes, and serve as an antidote for veno-
mous snake bites.1 Like the other precious stones, the diamond
was early endowed by fancy with medical virtues, and particu-
larly prized as a safeguard from madness, in its power to " raze
out the written troubles of the brain."2 It was also believed to
be potent to touch the heart, and there is a pretty conceit that
the darts of Cupid were diamond tipped. Perhaps the passion
of women for gems gave point to this fiction.
As the diverse stones of fire became better known and more
sharply distinguished, special significance was given to each by
some nations of the East, associating them with the planets,
the march of the seasons, or with various divinities. Sometimes
they were of emblematic service. For the representation of the
twelve tribes of Israel, twelve distinct gems were set in gold
plates on the robe of the high-priest.3 When the rise of letters
and the fine arts brought the devising of symbols and graven
inscriptions, the supposed potency of these stone amulets was
increased by the craft of priests and sorcerers, cutting the face
of the charms themselves or directing the hands of expert work-
1 "Oriental Accounts of Precious Minerals," Journal of Asiatic Society of
Bengal, August, 1832.
2 "Treatise on Gems," Feuchtwanger, New York, 1867.
8 Exodus xxviii. "Natural History of the Bible," Thaddeus M. Harris,
Boston, 1820. "Precious Stones in their Scientific and Artistic Relations," A.
H. Church, London, 1883. " De Duodecim Gemmis in Veste Aaronis."
Epiphanius, 1565. John Peter Lange, Professor University of Bonn, in Schaff's
' « Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical Commentary ' ' on the Bible.
THE ANCIENT ADAMAS 7
men. The Chaldeans are especially charged with the fomenting
of superstitions by the exaggeration of this conceit. These
engraved stones served often as distinctive seals, and for con-
venience in carrying and the gratification of a spreading taste for
such ornaments, the talismans were set in rings and clasps. So
Solomon's seal, summoning and mastering genii, was the wonder
of legends, and so, too, the famous ring of Polycrates and the
rival marvels of Oriental romancers familiar in the tales of the
" Arabian Nights."
As time and art disclosed more and more of the marvels of
the stones of fire in the crust of the earth, the wonder grew and
the supernatural potency of the various gems was more deeply
impressed. Thus we reach the belief and tribute of the priest
Onomacritus (500 B.C.), who declared of the lucent crystal,
" Whoso goes into the temple with this in his hand may be
sure of having his prayer granted, as the gods cannot withstand
its power." Its use to concentrate the sun's rays as a burning
glass was highly prized also in priestly ministrations.
Onomacritus says crudely of this use that " when a trans-
parent crystal is laid on wood, so that the sun's rays may shine
upon it, there will soon be seen smoke, then fire, then a bright
flame." Fire kindled through this agency was holy in the
sight of priests and people, and no burnt offering was so pleas-
ing to the gods as one set in these sacred flames.
The precious stones are so greatly dependent upon the ad-
vance in the art of polishing and cutting for the revelation of
their qualities and beauty that it was doubtless long after their dis-
covery before they came into any considerable use as ornaments.
Their hardness defied, at first, any effort to fashion their shape
with primitive tools. The most that could be effected was the
rude polish that might be obtained by the tedious rubbing of
the face of one stone against another. But, as time went on,
the lines of natural cleavage were noted, and grinding wheels
in the hands of skilful artisans gave a smooth face to the natural
contours of the softer stones, and, later, even to the sapphire
1 " Precious Stones and Gems," Streeter.
8 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
and diamond. With the advance in art the demand for precious
stones increased apace, and, to meet the demand, keener and
wider ranging searches developed new and greater supplies.
There is a certain tracing of the use of
precious stones for ornaments to the ancient
Babylonian civilization, whose existing ruins
extend back to from 6000 to 7000 years B.C.1
Babylonian lapidaries were cutting and polish-
ing carnelians, sards, onyx, and rock crystals
before the Egyptians had advanced beyond
The Polar Star. i • c \ • r • T-I i
the carving or their sort steatite. 1 hen the
Phoenicians drew from all parts of the known earth its treasures.2
So Ezekiel testifies of Tyre : " Syria was thy merchant by
reason of the multitude of wares of thy making : they occupied
in thy fairs with emeralds, purple and broidered work and fine
linen and coral and agate. The merchants of Sheba and Raamah,
they were thy merchants : they occupied in thy fairs with chief
of all spices, and with all precious stones, and gold."
Judea had some share of this stream. The Queen of Sheba
bore a "great store of precious stones " to Solomon (B.C. 101 5-975)
with her tribute of gold,4 but this was a
trivial trickle compared with the flow to
Phoenicia and Babylonia. Long before the
days of the Captivity (B.C. 598),' the robes
of the princes and nobles of these rich realms
were glittering with jewels, and their gor-
geous array was the marvel of the poor The Hope Blue,
exiles, crying with the voice of their prophet, Ezekiel : " Every
1 " Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge," SchafF-Herzog. "Archaeology
of the Past Century," Professor W. M. F. Petrie.
2 The Story of the Nations, " Phoenicia," George Rawlinson, M.A.
3 Ezekiel xxvii. 22.
4 " Old Testament History," William Smith. "Precious Stones in the
Scriptures," R. Hindmarsh, London, 1851.
5 Date of removal of Jehoiachin, according to Prideaux and to Clinton. Ewald
makes the date 597 B.C.
THE ANCIENT ADAMAS 9
precious stone was thy covering. Thou hast walked up and down
in the midst of the stones of fire." As tradition placed the garden
of Eden in the valley of the Euphrates, Ezekiel makes the gar-
den typical of the splendor of Babylon in his fervid outpouring.
How the stones of fire were brought into being in the garden
of Eden or elsewhere, Ezekiel was not moved to reveal, and the
savants that have sought to tell are but groping seers. When a
sprinkling of stones was uncovered by the rains and floods, or
dug and washed from the beds of gravel, or traced by rude min-
ing through clay or conglomerate layers or enclosing rocks, there
was still no widespread knowledge of the deposits, and even
among the most familiar with the search there was ever the
hope of finding, some day, some marvellous store. Hence
sprung up the romances. Even in the days when the sharp
tooth of history had cut into legends, a story was told of the
climbing of Zulmat by the great Alexander, to the rim of the
inaccessible valley, where, beneath sheer precipices, glittered a
coverlet of the stones of fire. There was no way of winning the
diamonds that glowed so temptingly except by flinging down
masses of flesh and waiting for swooping vultures to bear the
lumps up to their perches on the mountain with precious stones
sticking in the meat.1
Sindbad the sailor had this tale in mind fortunately in his
second voyage. It will be remembered that he was stranded
by shipwreck on a desert island and carried away by the flight
of a gigantic rukh to the top of a distant mountain. From
this mountain he descended into a neighboring " valley, exceed-
ing great and wide and deep and bounded by vast mountains
that spired high in air." Walking along the wady, he found
that " its soil was of diamond, the stone wherewith they pierce
minerals and precious stones and porcelain and the onyx, for
that it is a dense stone and a stubborn, whereon neither iron or
hardhead hath effect, neither can we cut off" aught therefrom,
nor break it save by means of lead stone."
1 " Oriental Accounts of Precious Minerals," Journal of Asiatic Society of Ben-
gal, August, 1832.
io THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
Luckily for the sailor, his descent was by day, for " the val-
ley swarmed with snakes and vipers, each as big as a palm tree,
that would have made but one gulp of an elephant ; and they
came out by night, hiding during the day, lest the rukhs and
eagles pounce on them and tear them to pieces." In view of
the horrid prospect of soon dropping through the throat of one
of these snakes, Sindbad began to wish that he had not flown
away from the island, where he was, at least, out of reach of vast
vipers, but he soon bethought himself of the old story of the
valley from which diamond-studded meat was "plucked by
eagles." So he quickly filled his pockets and shawl girdle and
turban with the choicest diamonds. Then he put a piece of raw
meat on his breast and lay down on his back. Soon a big
eagle swooped into the valley, clutched the meat in his talons,
and flew up to a mountain above, " where, dropping the carcass,
he fell to rending it," leaving the lucky sailor to scramble off"
with his booty. He gave a parcel of the diamonds to the dis-
appointed merchant, who had cast down the meat, but he had
stuffed his clothes so full of the gems that he went home, after
some strange sight-seeing, with a great store of diamonds and
money and goods.1
This amazing tale is less teeming with interest than it was in
the days when it was first told, for, even hundreds of years
afterwards, diamond-lined valleys and monstrous rukhs and
snakes that could gulp down elephants were not beyond cre-
dence. If in valleys there might be a diamond lining, why
should there not be a massing of diamonds and rubies in the
dwellings of genii in caves, awaiting the entry of some lucky
Aladdin ? Oriental fancy, teeming with visions, disdained any
curbing within the petty confines of crawling experience, and was
prolific in marvels far more pleasing to the masses that egged
on the story-tellers with craving credulity. Who then could
explode these bubbles with any sharp prick of positive contra-
diction ? Even if in all known fields the precious stones were
gathered by toilsome searches only rarely rewarded, who had the
1 "Arabian Nights," Lady Burton's edition, Vol. Ill, pp. 476-482.
THE ANCIENT ADAMAS n
range of knowledge to deny the possible existence of caverns
filled with rubies or mountain summits studded with diamonds ?
Seeing that to this day so little can be asserted positively of
the forming of the precious stones scattered in the earth's crust,
it is not surprising that the origin of the stones of fire has been,
from the first, a baffling puzzle and a fountain-head of conflict-
ing surmises. Some wondering people viewed them as splin-
ters dropping from the stars, and some, as the creations or
transformations of genii. Some Hindoo miners still believe
that diamonds grow like onions, though much less quickly, and
that their age is marked by the difference in their size and
quality. Others suppose the common rock crystals to be
immature diamonds, and the distinction is marked by calling
the rock crystal kacha (unripe), while the diamond is pakka
(ripe).1
For the ripening of the crystals and the quickening of their
seeming inward fire, the lightning bolts, that sometimes rived
the ground, were thought to be potent. Others again, observ-
ing the liquid purity and likeness which is marked to this day
in the term " diamonds of the purest water," attributed the
forming of the crystals to the supernormal trickle and hardening
of dewdrops. It is of this fancy that Dryden makes poetic use
in his likening of the tears of Almahide : —
" What precious drops are those,
Which silently each other's track pursue,
Bright as young diamonds in their infant dew ? ' '
Bizarre speculation was stretched even to the point of attrib-
uting to these strange crystals animal instincts and reproductive
powers. Thus Barreto is quoted in the dictionary of Antonio
de Moraes Silva as saying : —
" Que os diamantes se unem, amam e procream." 3
1 "Oriental Accounts of Precious Minerals." Translation by Rajah Kalikis-
ken, Asiatic Society of Bengal.
2 "The Conquest of Granada," Second Part, Act III, Scene I, Dryden.
3 " Commonplace Book," Second Series, p. 668, Southey.
12 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
The tradition of the generative power of this marvellous
crystal originates with the Hindoos, and to this day the
natives of Pharrah will affirm that the diamond beds yield
fresh supplies of well-grown stones at intervals of from fifteen
to twenty years.
It is seemingly hopeless to attempt to fix with any certainty
the time when the diamond was first singled out from the peb-
bles in which it lay, and was prized by any one, or even when it
entered the list of gems known to the chief nations of Asia.
Traditions coming down through the mists of legendary ages are
conflicting and uncertain reliances at best. The ancient writers
add to this perplexity by loose or erroneous descriptions when
the advance of the science had not marked precise distinctions
of structure and composition. Thus the Carbunculus of Pliny
was probably stretched to cover the spinal or Balas ruby, the
garnet and other red stones, besides embracing the Anthrax of
Theophrastus or our modern ruby. Many ancient writers con-
founded also under the general term Smaragdus various dis-
tinct minerals of green color, not only the true emerald, but
green jasper, malachite, chryscolla, and fluor spar.1 Among the
common people, pretending to no mineralogical knowledge,
there was less thought of distinction, and, in days approaching
our own, Tavernier observes in his travels, A.D. 1669, after
describing the true ruby of Pegu, in Ceylon, " the fatherland
of rubies," that " all other stones in this country are called by
the name Ruby, and are only distinguished by color, thus, in
the language of Pegu, the sapphire is a Blue Ruby," etc.2 This
confusion is not surprising, and a much more discreditable one
occurred within the last thirty years in the sensational touting
of the discovery of rubies in the garnets of the" Macdonnell
Ranges in South Australia. It seems highly probable that the
stone of exquisite blue, now particularly distinguished as the
typical sapphire, was the ancient Hyacinthus ; and the Sap-
phirus of the ancients certainly included the lapis lazuli and
1 " Precious Stones and Gems," Streeter, London, 1892.
* "Voyages en Turquie, en Perse et aux Indes," Paris, 1676.
THE ANCIENT ADAMAS 13
covered the range of corundums of every tint except red. Thus
green sapphires are noted, although very rarely, and yellow and
gray, as well as pure white or colorless, and this stone is pre-
sumed by Streeter and other investigators to have been the
" adamas " first known to the Greeks.1
There can be no question that sapphires or corundums of
varied hue were much more common than diamonds in the hands
of the merchants of the East or any other ancient collectors before
the Christian era. The sapphire was, indeed, one of the most
widely known of all gems, and how highly it was valued may be
surmised from the dignity given to it by the sacred writers. The
prophet Ezekiel likens to a " Sapphire stone " the appearance of
the throne in the firmament above the cherubim. Job makes
it the representative of all gems in his splendid description of the
daring of miners.2
Like the sapphire, the diamond is repeatedly referred to by
the Hebrew writers. It formed one of the typical stones in the
high priest's breastplate, and Ezekiel puts it in the first rank of
the stones of fire. Jeremiah speaks of the sin of Judah as written
with the point of a diamond, " puncto adamantinis" of the Latin
Bible, but Streeter holds that this pen point was probably a
corundum and not the true diamond.3
This is a stretch of assumption largely based upon the lack
of any precise description applying to the diamond until close to
the beginning of the first century of our reckoning. Adamas,
the indomitable, the adamant of the ancients, was the name given
to the diamond because of its distinguishing hardness. Pliny
was greatly impressed by what he heard of this characteristic,
but obviously knew little or nothing of the stone by personal
handling or test. For he wrote down soberly : " The most
valuable thing on earth is the Diamond, known only to kings,
and to them imperfectly. It is only engendered in the finest
gold. Six different kinds are known, among these the Indian
^'Traite de Mineralogie, avec application aux Arts," Brongniart, Paris,
1807.
2 Job xxviii. i-i I. 3 " Precious Stones and Gems," Streeter.
14 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
and Arabian of such indomitable, unspeakable hardness, that
when laid on the anvil it gives the blow back in such force as to
shiver the hammer and anvil to pieces.1
Unfortunately for the aim of identifying the diamond with
the references to the ancient adamas, the term was commonly and
loosely applied to any substance of peculiar hardness. So moun-
tains of iron-stone, like unto that upon which the ship of Sindbad
was dashed, were called adamant, and so too were the arms and
armor of gods and heroes. Addison only transmits a tradition
in the fine lines of his poem —
" And mighty Mars, for war renowned,
In adamantine armor frowned." 2
In Homer, as Streeter notes, adamas occurs only as a per-
sonal name, and in Hesiod, Pindar, and other early Greek poets
it is used to signify any hard weapon or metal like steel or an
alloy of the harder metals.8 No distinct identification of the
diamond with adamas appears, according to Streeter's view, until
the first century A.D., in the writings of the Latin poet and astron-
omer Manilius, and his contemporary Pliny (A.D. 62-114). In
the fourth book of Manilius's poem " Astronomicum," occurs
this line, " Sic Adamas, punctum lapidis, pretiosior auro," which,
Streeter says, " is supposed to be the earliest indubitable reference
to the true diamond." It is difficult to see how this " stone's
point, more precious than gold," is any more distinct and indubi-
table in its reference to the diamond than the diamond pen point
of Jeremiah hundreds of years before. But Pliny, with all his
erroneous amplifications, unquestionably describes the true Indian
diamond as " colorless, transparent, with polished facets and six
angles ending either in a pyramid with a sharp point or with two
points like whipping tops joined at the base." *
1 "Historia Naturalis," XXXVII, 15.
2 Poem addressed to Sir Godfrey Kneller, referring to William III. of England.
3 " aSa/jas ytvos otSvrjov," -^schylus. See Stanley's Commentary on ^Eschy-
lus, "Prometheus Vinctus."
4 Plinii Secundi (Caii), " Naturalis Historia," XXXVII, 15.
THE ANCIENT ADAMAS 15
In view of the hardness of the sapphire, so great that it will
scratch every other precious stone except the diamond, it is there-
fore contended that this was the stone known to the earliest
Greek writers as adamas.1 This may be so, and it cannot be
doubted that, even at a much later day, a white corundum or a
pale yellow topaz or a good rock crystal often passed for a dia-
mond in the hands of collectors or in the sharp practice of gem
selling. Whatever may have been the blundering of the Greeks
or the application of adamas, there is, nevertheless, no sufficient
reason in this for questioning the probability that genuine dia-
monds were found in the gravels of India many centuries before the
Christian era. As far back as tradition goes the largest stones
were particularly prized by the native princes,
and were strictly exacted in tribute from the
diamond-bed washers. But the smaller stones
were less jealously guarded, and may readily
have found their way into the hands of traders
with the other peoples of Asia or with Egypt.
It seems most probable that the Jews derived
their first knowledge of precious stones from The Empress Eugenie-
the Egyptians chiefly, for the Hebrew names of the stones are
of Egyptian derivation.2 Thus there is no approach to certainty
for the assumption that the stones called diamonds in the English
version of the Hebrew Scriptures were not rightly named, or
that allusions to the diamond in other ancient writings were
wholly unreliable or mistaken.
The main support for the questioning of the mingling of
diamonds with the other gems noted by the ancient writers is
the apparent failure to uncover diamonds in the excavations on
the site of ancient temples and cities where other precious stones
are brought to light. Thus emeralds and other gems in various
settings have been exhumed from the volcanic overflow that
1 "History of Stones," Theophrastus. Edited by Sir John Hill, London,
1746. " Elem. de Min.," Lessing, II, 61. "The Great Diamonds of the
World," Streeter.
2 " Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge," Schaff-Herzog.
i6 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
buried Herculaneum and Pompeii, from the ruins of old Rome,
and the tombs of Egypt.1 In the course of explorations on the
site of Curium and other ancient towns in Cyprus, scarabs
and scaraboids of agate, onyx, jasper, and variously tinted car-
nelians were found, as well as gold ornaments, relics traced to the
days of Eteandros, king of Paphos in the seventh century B.C. ;
but no diamonds were unearthed in this collection.'2 Nor is
there record, as yet, of the discovery of
diamonds in the explorations in Baby-
lonia.3
But this is, at most, evidence pointing
to what is undoubted, — the comparative
rarity of the diamond among the gems
that served as amulets or ornaments for
the people of western Asia, northern
The Nassak. n r • T>
Atrica, or southern Europe prior to the
Christian era and for centuries afterward. Pliny expressly asserts
this rarity in his allusion to the diamond ; but the fact that the
gem was scarce, outside of India, is entirely compatible with its
occasional inclusion in the collections of sovereigns, which the
same writer remarks, and the high value set upon it would
naturally limit its use as an ornament.
It is impossible to mark with any precision in what district
of India a search for diamonds first began. Rajah Sourindo
Mohun Tagore, in his account of the precious stones of India,
gives the names of eight localities in which diamonds have been
found according to tradition or more certain report. These are
Harma (Himalayas), Matanga (Kistna), and Godaveri (or Gol-
conda), Saurashtra (Surat), Paunda (probably including the Chutia
Nagpur Province), Kalinga (the tract between Orissa and the
Godaveri), Kosala (the modern Ajodhya or Berar), Vera Ganga
1 Clarke's » Travels," Vol. VIII, p. 150.
2 Story of the Nations, " Phoenicia," George Rawlinson.
3 "Nineveh and Babylon," pp. 160—161, 602 et seq., Layard ; " Arch-
asologyofthe Past Century," Professor W. M. F. Petrie.
THE ANCIENT ADAMAS
(the Wemganga), and Saubira (the stretch between the Sarhund
and Indus rivers).1
According to this showing the diamond is scattered over a
wide ranging region, but it occurs everywhere in one of two
comprehensive formations, — alluvial or otherwise disintegrated
surface deposits, and conglomerate rocks of far receding geo-
logic antiquity, belonging to the Vindyhan formation, which
borrows its name from the Vindyhan Hills of old geographers.2
It seems reasonable to presume that the surface wash comes
from the disintegration of the seat of the diamond in con-
glomerate beds, — for even in alluvial gravels there are fre-
quently no diamonds found outside of a conglomerate of
rounded pebbles and sandstone breccia. It is likely that the
first diamonds were taken from the surface wash and that the
more solid breccia was opened later.
In some of the diamond-bearing districts of India to-day
the native villagers are searching for diamonds exactly as their
fathers did in days of remotest tradition. After a heavy rain
that washes away loose soil, a
sprinkling of diamonds may be
found in exposed sandstone brec-
cia, and sharp-eyed Hindoos
scrape the face of the ground for
the precious crystals.
Along the banks of the Kistna
and Godaveri rivers the Golconda
of tradition outstretched, and this
diamond-studded ground came
later into the hands of the Nizam
of Hyderabad, and was included The Great Mogul.
in the bounds of the Madras Presidency. Here, it is claimed,
was the bed of the Koh-i-nur and Regent and Great Mogul,
and others of the jewels most renowned in history and romance.
Here, of a certainty, was the richest diamond field in India, in
1 "Mani Mala," Calcutta, 1879.
2 "Manual of Geological Survey of India," Professor V. Ball, Vol. III.
i8 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
the days of Tavernier's travels (1669 A.D.). Here was the
famous mine, " Gani-Coulour," that he saw, where sixty thou-
sand natives were then at work, and " Gani-Parteal," and
twenty more of lesser note.1 Gani-Coulour has probably been
identified with the modern Kolur on the Kistna, Gani being
simply a slight change of the Persian " Kan-i " or "mine of,"
so that Gani-Coulour is the mine of Kolur as Gani-Parteal is
the mine of Parteal.2 The surface ground of this district along
the rivers is a black " cotton soil " washed down by floods, and
underlying this at an average depth of twenty feet is a layer of
broken sandstone, quartz, jasper, flint, and granite, interspersed
with masses of calcareous conglomerate, forming the stratum in
which the diamonds were embedded. When the black soil had
been dug up laboriously and carried away, the diamond-bearing
layer was exposed, and was removed, piecemeal, to level stretches
of ground or prepared floors, where it was scraped and picked
over by hand to find the diamonds.
The whole of this rich mining district and a tract stretching
for many miles away was loosely called Golconda, or the King-
dom of Golconda, by foreign traders and travellers, because the
town of Golconda was its capital and the trading centre where
the diamonds from the mines were chiefly bought and sold.
The only mark of this old mart to-day is a deserted fort near
Hyderabad, but its fame will endure until traditionary Golconda
ceases to be a standard of riches.
Next in importance and prestige to the mines of Golconda
was the diamond field of Sumbulpur, in the Central Provinces,
between the rivers Mahanadi and Brahmini. The diamonds of
this district were remarkable for their purity and beauty, though
no very large crystals have been traced to this region, and the
few which the washings still yield rank with the finest of the
Indian stones. Here the precious stones were found chiefly
along the course of the Mahanadi, in a stratum of tough clay
and pebbles stained reddish by iron oxide. At the opening of
1 "Voyages en Turquie, en Perse et aux Indes," Tavernier, Paris, 1676.
2 " Manual of Geological Survey of India," Vol. III.
THE ANCIENT ADAMAS 19
the dry season, thousands of villagers, men, women, and chil-
dren, began to search every cleft and cranny in the river beds
for diamonds. With ankovas, or light picks, the men broke
and scraped out the diamond-bearing bed and piled the broken
ground on the river bank. Then the women scooped up
ground from the heaps with their daers. These were shovel-
shaped boards, about five feet long, with ridged sides and hol-
lowed in the centre. Resting one end of the daer on the
ground and tilting the other slightly, they washed away the clay
and sand and picked off the rock splinters and larger pebbles.
After this rude sorting they spread out the finer gravel on a
smaller board, the kootla, and scraped it over very carefully to
separate the diamond crystals and grains of gold. When there
was a level stretch along a bank, the native workers would some-
times make an enclosure on this flat, with a low wall pierced at
several points by small waterways. Then they would dump
the diamond-bearing ground into this shallow basin and wash
away the clay and dirt with running water. After two or three
washings they would pick out the larger stones from the cleaned
gravel, and dry the remainder, to be picked over on their kootlas
or on any smooth, hard flooring.
Perhaps the most laborious diamond digging in India has
been in the pits of Panna and neighboring villages in the Prov-
ince of Bundelkhund. Here the diamond-bearing conglomerate
was buried under a cover of heavy ground, ranging in places
over thirty feet in thickness. To reach the diamond strata large
pits were dug, with inclines leading to the bottom in or below the
conglomerate. There was no drainage, and the diamond diggers
were forced to work in the rainy season knee-deep in water,
breaking the conglomerate, and filling baskets which were hauled
by hand to the top of the pits. In this primitive fashion the
diamond beds of India were opened, and diamonds are to-day
won by these simple methods or others essentially similar.1
1 "A Treatise on Diamonds and Precious Stones," John Mawe, London,
1813. " A Treatise on Gems," Feuchtwanger, New York, 1867. "Precious
Stones and Gems," Streeter, London, 1892.
20 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
Color and size were the chief distinction in diamonds, as in
the other precious stones, in the early days before the advance
of the art of diamond cutting which has added so greatly to the
brilliancy and beauty of this gem. Centuries ran by before
the ancient lapidaries attempted more than the polishing of the
surfaces of the natural facets of the crystal, though the compara-
tive ease with which this hardest of stones may be split by fol-
lowing the natural cleavage lines may have been observed. Size
was rated so highly by the Hindoos in valuing a gem that the
conception of increasing the worth of a jewel by cutting away
the greater part of it would not have been tolerated even if it
had been feasible. When cutting to a limited extent began to
be practised in India, it was generally unsymmetrical and unsci-
entific, as the oldest known diamonds bear witness, and there
was comparatively little advance for many centuries, as every
celebrated gem of Indian workmanship plainly shows.1 But
even with imperfect cutting and crude polishing the inherent
beauties of the ancient stones were more or less fully disclosed.
In the mines of Panna there were four noted divisions in
grading. Clear and brilliant stones were in the class Motichul,
Mansk was the class name applied to diamonds of greenish tint,
Panna to light yellow, and Bunsput to sepia colored stones.2
In India at large there was a comprehensive divisional grading
corresponding to the main caste distinctions, — the "twice-born,"
priests, warriors, and merchants, and the " once-born," tillers of
the land.3 The Brahmans were the diamonds of highest range,
clear and colorless crystals ; the Kshatriyas, clear crystals, amber
tinted or of the color of honey ; Vaisyas, the cream colored ; and
the servile Sudras, the grayish white stones. Grades in rank
were more minutely marked in the rubies of the famous Badak-
shan mines in Persia, where the common people believed that
the precious stones were deposited in the " rag-i-lal " or parent
vein in successive layers. The outside layer contained the small
1 "A Treatise on Diamonds and Pearls," David Jeffries, London, 1751.
2 " Precious Stones and Gems," Streeter.
3 "Annals of India," J. Talboys Wheeler, Calcutta, 1881.
THE ANCIENT ADAMAS 21
and imperfect stones styled piadehs, foot soldiers ; the next, a
better class of stones called sawars, horse soldiers; and so on
through layers of amirs, bakshis, and vazirs until a single stone
was reached, transcending all in size and beauty, which the min-
ers polished dutifully, and took in tribute to their sovereign.1
With the expansion of Greek commerce and the entry of
Greek mercenaries into the employ of satraps in Asia Minor
(about 500 B.C.), the riches of the Orient were made known, and
precious stones began to pass into Europe. Herodotus, 484 B.C.,
was first of the early Greek writers 2 to mark particularly the dis-
plays of precious stones in palaces and temples — the signet rings
of Darius, the magnificent emerald in the ring of Polycrates, and
the marvellous show of the emerald column in the temple of
Hercules in Tyre, gleaming like a pillar of green fire at night.
This fiery column has a certain likeness to the traditional stone
as big as an ostrich egg, to which homage was paid as the " God-
dess of Emeralds" by the people of the Manca Valley in Peru.
Sceptics would clip the marvel of both by substitution of beryl,
or aquamarine, or colored glass ; but this trimming of legend
does not question the extraction of true emeralds from mines in
Upper Egypt, or the superb yield of the deposits in Peru and
New Grenada.8
The conquests of Alexander the Great (334-323 B.C.) made
the Greeks familiar with the precious stones of India as well as
of Western and Central Asia. His successors revelled in pro-
fuse displays of jewelled rings and bracelets, and wine cups and
candelabra, in luxurious banquets. Pliny tells a glowing tale of
a statue of Arsinoe, wife of Ptolemy Philadelphus (283 B.C.),
four cubits in height, made of topazon.4 The true topaz was
undoubtedly known to the ancient Egyptians, and is still obtained
at Risk Allah near the old emerald mines of Jebel Zabara ; but
the Oriental topaz is presumed to have been the yellow sapphire ;
1 "Oriental Accounts of Precious Minerals," Journal of Asiatic Society of
Bengal, August, 1832. 2 Rawlinson's "Herodotus."
3 Brun's "Travels." Rawlinson's "Herodotus," II. 44. Prescott's "Con-
quest of Mexico." 4 "Historia Naturalis," XXXVII, 32.
22 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
and the Greek topazios, the yellowish green chrysolite or the
peridot, of deeper green tint. The word is derived from T07ra£a,
" to seek," because the traditional source was an island in the
Red Sea, often difficult to reach through its envelope of fog.1
The loose use of the term by Pliny and other old writers makes
it impracticable to mark with any certainty from what greenish
hued stone Arsinoe's statue was cut. Still, in spite of current
exaggeration and confusion of distinctions, there can be no doubt
of the rising production and circulation of the precious stones.
With the spread of the Roman Empire prodigality in dis-
plays ran riot. After Pompey's victory over Mithradates,
(B.C. 66) precious stones and pearls poured into Rome and the
demand of vanity rose to a passion.2 Pliny writes : " We drink
out of a mass of gems crusting our wine bowls, and our drinking
cups are emeralds." To heighten the wonder he tells in his gos-
siping way how emeralds were set as the eyes of a lion sculptured
in marble on the tomb of King Hermias in the island of Cyprus.
So great was the size and so piercing the light of these emerald
eyes that the tunny fish in the surrounding sea were frightened
away until the fishermen of Cyprus put common stones in place of
the dazzling gems. Later scepticism would make these emerald
eyes of malachite, for copper ores were of common occurrence in
Cyprus8 and the glory of the emerald was scattered by loose usage
over green fluor spar, jasper, aquamarine, malachite, and perhaps
even green glass. There is also a shaking of the marvel of the cups,
holding a pint, that were made out of solid carbuncles ; for these
are supposed to be cuttings from the common garnets of the Bar-
bary coast, flowing out from Carthage in such profusion that the
carbuncle was called " the Carthaginian stone." 4
Beryl was largely used in the ornamentation of cups and
1 Diodorus Siculus, Lib. Ill, c. 38. Jameson's " Mineralogy," p. 48.
Kidd's " Mineralogy," I, 121. 2 << Historia Naturalis," XXXVII, 6-7.
' Cleaveland's "Mineralogy," p. 565. Theophrastus, " De Lapid.,"
c. 49.
4 "The Story of Carthage," p. 121, Alfred J. Church, M.A. "Story of
the Nations."
THE ANCIENT ADAMAS 23
for cameos ; l and carnelian was particularly prized as a base for
the engraving of seals or cameos, sometimes elaborately pictorial.
The great scarab in the Prussian cabinet, representing the five
heroes of Thebes, is a recognized masterpiece of old Etruscan
art, and a deep-cut carnelian once belonging to Michael Angelo
portrays the birthday festival of Dionysius.2 Amethyst ranked
with carnelian as a favorite stone with engravers, and it was of
peculiar traditional service in the fashioning of drinking cups,
from its supposed checking of drunkenness, whence its Greek
name, — a, " not," and fj.tdva), " to intoxicate." Opals were
placed in the first rank of gems, and Pliny tells of a senator,
Nonius, who bore banishment and the loss of all his estate
rather than the sacrifice of his opal ring to the greed of Mark
Antony.8
Pearls were even more highly valued and lavishly displayed
than any of the precious stones. Swelling the yield of the
Mediterranean shores there flowed into Rome a profusion of
still finer pearls from the Persian Gulf and Ceylon, to be set in
necklaces, bracelets, earrings, and clasps of all kinds. Rich robes
were bespangled with jewels, and it is reported that Lollia Pau-
lina, the wife of Caligula (A.D. 37-41), wore a dress covered with
pearls and emeralds. Cleopatra's famous pearls were said to
have cost her _£8o,ooo. Julius Caesar (B.C. 102-44) gave Servilia,
Cato's sister, a pearl valued at over ^50,000, and Nero dropped
handfuls of pearls in the laps of his mistresses (A.D. 54-68).
From personal adornments, the decoration of arms and trap-
pings, and the embellishing of banquets, the use of gems spread
to the mounting of pictures in frames studded with precious
stones, and the ornamentation of statuary. Nero viewed the
combats of gladiators in a mirror of jewels,4 and Constantine
1 " Historia Naturalis," XXXVII, 20.
2 "A Treatise on Gems," Feuchtwanger.
3 » Historia Naturalis," XXXVII, 21.
4 Ibid. XXXVII, 1 6. Beckmann thinks the mirror of Smaragdus in which
Nero gazed may have been green obsidian, green jasper, or even green glass.
"History of Inventions," III, 177.
24 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
challenged the splendor of Oriental monarchs by his entry into
Rome in a chariot of gold sparkling with precious stones
(A.O. 310-337).
Amid all this profusion, in which millions of sesterces were
lavished, the diamond is noted only by rare allusions. This is
probably accounted for by the check in the advance of lapidary
art on reaching a stone of such indomitable hardness. Even
the diamonds set in the clasp of the regal mantle of Charlemagne,
after the opening of the ninth century, show only a partial polish-
ing of the natural planes of the crystals. There was no scientific
cutting of facets to heighten the brilliancy of the stone until the
fifteenth century. When artificial shaping was attempted before
that time, it did not go beyond the production of a flat top or
table, or a convex surface, with a truncated pyramid as a base.
Even when a large number of facets were cut, as was sometimes
done by East Indian lapidaries, there was no scientific propor-
tioning, as was signally shown in the instance of the remarkable
stone known as the " Beau Sancy," which came into the posses-
sion of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy. It was the recut-
ting of this stone in 1465, by the true artist Louis de Berquem
of Bruges, that marks the rising of the modern art that has
enhanced so immensely the resplendence and beauty of the
diamond, and established its place securely as the chief among
gems that are prized for adornment.
Then begins the entry of the famous diamonds passing over
the face of Europe with meteoric trains of adventure. The
Beau Sancy glitters for a moment in the splendid array led by
Charles the Bold against the Swiss peasants. On the bloody
field of Granson (3d March, A.D. 1476) where the best knights
of Burgundy were killed or put to flight by the mountaineers,
the jewel that might ransom a king is trampled under foot in
the rout. A Swiss soldier picks it up. It is no more in his
eye than a bit of glass which he is well pleased to sell for a florin
to a priest. Philip de Commines says that the priest knew no
more of its value than the soldier, and thought he did well to
make a franc by selling the diamond to the burghers of Berne.
THE ANCIENT ADAMAS 25
There the diamond disappears. One current story makes it
reappear one hundred years later in the possession of the king
of Portugal, who pledges it with other jewels for a loan from
Nicholas Harlai, Seigneur de Sancy, and treasurer of the king
of France. M. de Sancy soon buys it outright for one hundred
thousand francs and loans it to sparkle for a time on the head
of his king, Henry III. (A.D. 1574-1589).
When Henry of Navarre comes to the throne
(1589), M. de Sancy sends the diamond to
him by a trusted servant. Thieves waylay
and kill the messenger, but the precious stone
is seemingly not in his keeping. So his body
is thrown into a grave hastily made by his
murderers. When the place of burial is later
searched out by direction of M. de Sancy, the lost diamond is
found in the dead man's stomach.
Undimmed in this ghastly adventure, it rises from the grave
to shine on the breast of Elizabeth of England (A.D. 1558-1603).
From the last of the Tudors it passes to the Stuarts, and one of
the few treasures that James the Second carries off in his flight
from his throne (A.D. 1688) is the brilliant Sancy. Louis XIV.
buys the gem from the king in exile (A.D. 1695), and it is held
as one of the most precious of the crown jewels until the Revo-
lution. In 1792 robbers break open the treasure chamber and
bear it off" with other plunder. Again it is beyond tracing for
years, till it reappears in the hands of a noble Russian family,
the Demidoffs, from whom it passes to London merchants, and
finally to the Maharajah of Puttiala. It may be that the adven-
tures of two diamonds are fused in this tale, but it is none the
less an outline of truth with the marvel of romance.1
Even Aladdin's wonderful palace, reared in a night by the
hands of obedient genii, scarcely outstripped the glittering show
of the court of the Great Moguls, enthroned in Delhi (A.D. 1526)
by the arms of the Sultan Baber and his grandson Akbar, of the
1 " A Treatise on Gems," Feuchtwanger. " Great Diamonds of the World,"
Streeter.
26 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
line of Timour the Tartar. Here embassies passed through the
main gate of the palace along a magnificent avenue to the grand
central square. Thousands of bodyguards in splendid dress lined
the way, and behind the ranks richly caparisoned elephants
were massed, waving flags of satin and silver. Dark eyes peered
through the crimson hangings of the howdahs and the gilded
lattices of the zenana cloisters bordering the square. Beyond
the cloisters gardens outspread, with beds of lovely flowers and
sheltering arbors and fountains splashing in sculptured basins.
The entrance to the durbar or audience hall was through a
pavilion hung with tapestries of purple and gold to a stately
marble chamber, whose pillars and walls gleamed with rainbow
hues. Under a canopy of flowered tissue on silver poles was set
the imperial throne, the matchless triumph of Indian art. There
strutted two peacocks fashioned deftly of jewels and gold to
depict every plume and hue of the living creature. The out-
spread tail seemed to flutter in mimicry of life with the sheen of
sapphires and emeralds. The body was of enamelled gold and
the eyes two radiant diamonds. Peacocks were emblems of the
sun and of the descent of the Great Moguls from the sun through
Chenghiz Khan. Ranged beside these splendid figures were
stands bearing masses of unfading flowers, for every stem and
leaf and petal was counterfeited in precious stones and metals.
When the Great Mogul took his seat on his throne of solid
gold studded with jewels, all bent low before his imperial
majesty attired in cloth of gold blazing with precious stones
in armlets and necklaces and crusted embroidery. Over the
entrance to the hall was engraven in letters of gold: "If there
be an elysium on earth, it is this." Here was at least a splendor
of luxury beyond all rivalry. Never was shown, in vain Babylon,
adventurous Tyre, or imperial Rome, any display as dazzling as
the jewels of Delhi.1
'"The Turks in India," Henry George Keene, London, 1879. "His-
tory of British India," Sir W. W. Hunter. Hunter's "Indian Empire."
"Tales from Indian History," J. Talboys Wheeler. "Travels in the East,"
Vol. Ill, Forbes.
THE ANCIENT ADAMAS 27
Here the Koh-i-nur, Mountain of Light, sparkled, a price-
less trophy. In the great battle of Pariput (April 2ist, 1526),
when the last emperor of the Afghan-Lodi dynasty, Ibrahim, was
beaten by Baber, the Rajah of Gwalior was " sent to hell," as
Baber wrote grimly, and his most precious jewel — valued "at
half the daily expense of the whole world" — came in tribute to
Humaiun, the great sultan's favorite son.1 Here, too, were the
Koh-i-tur, Mountain of Sinai, and the Darya-i-nur, Sea of Light,
and the Taj-e-mah, Crown of the Moon, and that prodigy of
diamonds, the Great Mogul, presented to Shah Jehan by the
Emir Jemla.2
These precious stones were coveted and hoarded with insane
passion when every other lure in the boasted elysium was as
Dead Sea fruit to the jaded senses.
Shah Jehan, dethroned and impris-
oned at Agra, sank to dotage, clasp-
ing his casket of jewels, and trickling
diamonds and rubies over his head
and breast. When his son, Aurung-
zeb, sent a messenger to borrow some
of this hoard, the resentful old man
threatened to break up the gems in
. i i 11 i i i c \ i The Koh-i-nflr. (Present Cutting.)
a mortar. Shah Kokh, the feeble son
of Nadir Shah, who broke the peacock throne of the Moguls,
was blinded by the Aga Mohammed in the vain effort to extort
the Koh-i-nur. Then his head was shaved and circled with a
ring of paste to hold boiling oil, but even this intensity of torture
only forced the surrender of a ruby plucked from the crown of
Aurungzeb. Shah Zaman, blinded by his brother Shuja, hid
the Koh-i-nur defiantly for years in the plaster of his prison
cell ; and Shuja, blinded by a third brother, Mahmud, yielded
up the priceless stone to Runjeet Singh, only to save his family
from agonizing death.
In the sack of Delhi by Nadir Shah in 1739, the wonderful
1 Memoirs of Sultan Baber.
2 "Voyages en Turquie, en Perse et aux Indes," Tavernier, Paris, 1676.
28 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
store of jewels in the court of the Mogul emperors was borne away
by the plunderers. It is supposed that the Great Mogul was
broken at that time, and other famous diamonds were beyond
tracing for years. The great gems were still more widely scat-
tered upon the assassination of Nadir Shah, and some of the finest
of the crown jewels of Europe have probably come from the
hoards of Delhi. The Darya-i-nur and Taj-e-mah were set in a
pair of bracelets which Sir John Malcolm saw at the court of
Persia,1 and they are still the most precious of the jewels of the
Shah. Some have seen in the Orloff or Sceptre diamond of the
Czar, the reappearance of the Great Mogul, but Streeter thinks
that the Great Mogul has never come to light since the loot of
the treasures of Nadir Shah by the Abdalli-Afghans.
When the Koh-i-nur came into the hands of Runjeet Singh,
he had the stone set in a bracelet which he wore proudly on
every parade day. On his death-bed he sought to propitiate
the gods by presenting this, the chief of his jewels, to the shrine
of Jaga-nath (Juggernaut), but his hand was too weak to sign the
warrant of delivery. So the gem descended to the young rajah
Dhulip-Singh, and was held until the
Indian mutiny and the seizure of the
Punjaub by the English forces. Then
the state property of the province was
confiscated to pay debts due to the East
India Company, but the Koh-i-nur was
reserved for the English crown, and on
June jd, 1850, this jewel, from earliest
The Orioff. tradition the emblem of conquest, was
placed in the hands of Queen Victoria by the messengers of
Lord Dalhousie.
Every precious stone of uncommon size has some adventure
to tell, though its tale may not be a drama of as many acts as the
Koh-i-nur' s career. What a strange story might be drawn from
the Orloff of the sights in the temple of Mysore, when it was
the eye of the Hindoo god, Sri-Ranga.2 There was no other
1 "Sketches of Persia," Sir John Malcolm, 1827. 2 Ibid.
THE ANCIENT ADAMAS 29
witness of the sacrilege of the French grenadier, masquerading as
a devotee on the black and stormy night when he plucked out
the precious stone eye and ran off through the British army lines
to Madras. Here the captain of an English ship gave him
.£2,000 for his prize, but it cost Prince Orloff more than fifty
times this sum when he bought it in Amsterdam to win back the
favor of the Empress Catherine.
The Regent lies in state, most lustrous and precious of the
gems of the old French crown. The slave who found it buried
in the bank of the Kistna River, A.D.
1701, cut his leg deeply to pouch
the stone in his flesh, and wrapped the
wound in a thick bandage. At the
first opening he ran away to the sea-
coast and found refuge on an English
merchant ship. But the lure of the
big diamond was too tempting to
the captain. When his ship was in the
open sea, he flung the slave overboard
to drown, and took the stolen diamond to sell to an Indian
merchant, from whom it passed to the governor of Fort St.
George, Thomas Pitt, grandfather of the great Earl of Chatham.
It was one of the largest of all known diamonds, the rough
stone weighing 410 carats, and Thomas Pitt would not suffer it
to be out of his sight or touch day or night, though he was
racked by the fear of thieves and murderers. While the alarm-
ful gem was in his keeping, it is said that he never slept twice
under the same roof, and moved from place to place in disguise,
at a moment's caprice, to cover his tracks. Fortunately for his
peace of mind, as well as his purse, he was able to sell his prize
for ^£135,000 to the Duke of Orleans, Regent of France in the
minority of Louis XV. (A.D. 1715-1723). So the splendid stone
made the fortune of the house of Pitt, and came to glitter in the
most prodigal and luxurious court of Europe. It was held by
the Bourbons until the French Revolution, and in 1792 it was
stolen by the robbers who carried off the Sancy and thrown into
30 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
a ditch in the Champs Elysees. Here it was picked up with other
plunder which the thieves did not dare to keep or offer for sale.
Then it was uplifted again to the French
crown and has held its place through
revolutions that have unmade kings and
emperors.
So it might be told how " The Flor-
entine " wandered from India through
Tuscany to the Austrian crown, — how
the " Piggott " saw Clive's conquests
(A.D. 1751-1767) and travelled to Eng-
land with the governor of Madras and
was crushed to powder by the dying Ali Pasha, — how the
" Star of the South " made its way from
the sands of Brazil to glitter on the
breast of the fantastic Gaikwak of Baroda
while he killed disagreeable people with
diamond dust, — and how banished con-
victs won their pardon from the Portu-
guese crown by the discovery' of the
Braganza, the largest diamond, if genu-
ine, that the world ever saw.1 ThePiggott.
No one can say of a true diamond
story, " it is closed " ; for diamonds
outlast dynasties, and their wander-
ings may be on the verge of renewal
when they seem to be ended. " A
jewel may rest on an English lady's
arm that saw Alaric sack Rome, and
beheld before — what not ? The
The Star of the South.
'"Great Diamonds of the World," Streeter. " Diamonds," W. Pole,
London Archzological Trans. , London, 1861. "Diamonds and Precious Stones,"
H. Emanuel, London, 1865. "Outlines of Mineralogy," J. Kidd, Oxford.
"Traite Complet des Pierres precieuses," Charles Barbot, Paris, 1838. "The
People of India," J. Forbes Watson and J. W. Kaye, Editors. " Gemmarum et
Lapidum Historia," etc., Boetius, 1647.
THE ANCIENT ADAM AS 31
treasures of the palaces of the Pharaohs and of Darius, or the
camp of the Ptolemies, come into Europe on the neck of a
vulgar pro-consul's wife to glitter at every gladiator's butchery
at the amphitheatre ; then pass in a Gothic ox-wagon to an Arab
seraglio at Seville ; and so back to its native India, to figure in
the peacock throne of the Great Mogul; to be bought by an
Armenian for a few rupees from an English soldier, and so, at
last, come hither."
The illustrations of the historic diamonds shown in this chapter have been
made from photographs of facsimiles of the stones, and are the exact sizes of the
originals.
CHAPTER II
IN TRADITIONAL OPHIR LAND
CHILD picking a shining pebble for a play-
thing from the gravel edging a river — was this
sport of blind chance the revelation of the mar-
vellous diamond fields of Africa? In narrow
fact, yes ; but in a wider, truer range of view,
this discovery was the crown that sooner or
later must reward the search of daring adventurers and the push
of stubborn pioneers into the dark heart of the continent.
There was no chance in the strain of pluck that braved
strange perils to reach traditional Ophir and the pits of King
Solomon's mines, that wandered far in quest of the golden cities
of Monomotapa, that tore the wilderness from the clutch of the
lion and vulture, and beat back the frantic impis of Tchaka,
Dingaan, and Umsilikazi. The ardor and the toil and the
courage and the blood of ten generations of explorers were
spent before it was possible for a little child to play pitch and
toss with the pebbles of the Orange River and clasp a rough
diamond in his heedless hand.
Two dominant motives were fused with the high-spirited zeal
for exploration that so signally stamped the fifteenth century, —
the opening of an all-sea route to the Indies, and the grasp of
the riches of lands behind the veil. In the unknown there is
space for any vault of fancy, and in that romantic age her soaring
wings were rarely clipped. One may be moved to smile at the
fantastic visions of the men who found the southern waterway
to the Indies, and added a new world to the old ; but there will
be no sneer in the smile of any one who can measure his own
debt to experience, and put himself back five centuries to stand
32
: _-SlT <
or
IN TRADITIONAL OPHIR LAND 33
on the deck with Cam, Bias, and Da Gama, or the still more
greatly daring Columbus.
Visscher's Map of Africa, 1662. (From the original in the British Museum.)
But who can to-day feel the hopes and fears that shook
those strong hearts ? Who can lay the course for their clumsy
caravels over the unknown stretches of ocean ? Who can sail
on with them day after day and night after night without a chart
34
THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
or buoy or beacon or surf-rocked bell ? Who can start from
fitful sleep to pierce the night with straining eyes or watch for
the glimmer of the dawn on sea-girt horizons ? Who can recall
their racking fears or the dazzling images ever forming and dis-
Africa, from an early Dutch Map.
solving in the alembic of their fancy ? With every daybreak
the isles of Atlantis might spring into view, or gardens fairer
than the golden Hesperides, or monsters more horrific than
dragons, guarding hoards beyond the dreams of avarice, or, per-
IN TRADITIONAL OPHIR LAND 35
chance, even the realms of some potentate accustomed to make
footstools of princes with stiffer necks than haughty Xerxes or
the terrible Tamburlane.
Amid the drift of such cloudy conceits there was one more
clearly shaped and persistent than the rest. Somewhere below
the equator, in the unknown expanse of Africa, tradition placed
the home of the Queen of Sheba, King Solomon's mines, and the
marvels of Ophir. Every adventurer skirting the South African
coast hoped to touch with certainty the shore of this delectable
country. The alluring recital in Kings and Chronicles glittered
before his eyes.1 In fancy he saw the gathering of the ships in
" Ezion-Geber, which is beside Eloth on the shore of the Red
Sea," and how this fleet came to Ophir and fetched from thence
gold, four hundred and twenty talents, and brought it to King
Solomon. He saw, too, the coming of the Queen of Sheba to
the king to prove him with hard questions, and the great train
that followed her with camels that bare spices and very much
gold and precious stones. Then it was told him how the queen
was overcome by Solomon's wisdom and grandeur until " there
was no more spirit in her," and she gave the king one hundred
and twenty talents of gold, and of spices very great store, and
precious stones. Following this tribute came the regular flow,
from Ophir to Judea, of gold and gems and almug trees in the
transports of Tyre. With such a fountain of supply, it was
easy to credit the wonderful tale of the targets and shields of
beaten gold, of the throne of ivory overlaid with gold, and of all
the other displays of Solomon's splendor. If the king's gold
made silver to be in Jerusalem as stones in the eyes of the
chronicler, it is not surprising that this vision came down
undimmed to the days of Da Gama.
But how to find the source of this flow was the puzzle that
faced the explorer. Unfortunately the old chroniclers had
omitted to give any landmarks of King Solomon's mines. Sur-
mise strayed down the eastern coast of Africa, and the close
commercial connection between southwestern Arabia and the
1 1 Kings ix., x ; z Chronicles viii., ix.
36 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
Outline Copy of the Catalan
(In the original the shore line has almost illegible names,
equatorial coast region of East Africa was unquestionable.
Herodotus declares that East Africa at its furthest known limits
supplied gold in great plenty as well as huge elephants and
ebony. The Alexandrian geographers mark rudely the East
African coast line to Zanzibar, and attest the relations between
IN TRADITIONAL OPHIR LAND
37
Mappermonde, 1375.
which, for the sake of clearness, have been omitted here.)
this coast and Arabia Felix. Eratosthenes observes that naviga-
tion extends down East Africa beyond Bab-el-Mandeb, " along
the myrrh country, south and east as far as the Cinnamon coun-
try, about five thousand stadia." Ptolemy, in the second cen-
1 Strabo, XVI, Chap. IV, 4.
38 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
tury A.D., describes quite accurately the east coast of Africa as
far as Zanzibar and Ras Mamba Mku. His information was
chiefly derived from Arabian merchants. But, as Schlechter has
closely pointed out in his admirable monograph,1 there is no
trace or hint anywhere during the Greek and Roman periods of
antiquity of any colony or emporium south of the Zanzibar
Outline Copy of the Portolano Laurenziano, 1351.
coast, and not long after the time of Herodotus the gold im-
ports of Arabia had shrunk, to inconsiderable importance. With
the decline of the Himyaritic Kingdom in Arabia, soon after the
second century of our era, there was a falling off of commercial
enterprise and intercourse with Africa, so marked that even the
1 " Periplus of the Erythraean Sea," Henry Schlechter, The Geographical
Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, July, 1893.
IN TRADITIONAL OPHIR LAND
39
notable map of the Arabian Edrisi, in 1154 A.D., shows how
slight and vague was the advance in the knowledge of the Dark
Continent from the days of the Alexandrian geographers. Still
this old chart gives some substantial proof of the communica-
tion of Arabian traders with the natives on the East African
coast. But on this map the African coast appears to curve
Africa de Mappermonde, Juan de la Cosa, 1500. (This map was made only fourteen years after
the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope, and is one of the earliest known maps giving the
entire contour of Africa with approximate accuracy.)
east continuously from the mouth of the Red Sea, and Edrisi
was plainly ignorant of the abrupt trend to the south from Cape
Guar-da-fui. Yet he shows rudely the islands lying off the east
coast of Africa, and, south of Sokotra, traces the African main-
land in three divisions, Zendj (Zanzibar), Sofala, and Vakvak.
With all its imperfections this Arabian map was in advance
of any European portrayal of South Africa. It was the prevail-
ing belief in the Middle Ages, " bequeathed from antiquity," as
40 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
Justin Winsor observes, that " owing to the impassable heats of
the torrid zone, it could not be discovered whether this region
were inhabited or whether land existed there." Map makers
plainly made the bounds of land and water beyond the equator
from sheer surmise, and the confession was commonly frank that
the land was terra incognita and the ocean a sea of darkness.
" Most famous of all these early maps" (of the Atlantic Ocean),
Dutch Ship of the XVIIIth Century.
says Winsor,1 " was the Catalan Mappermonde of 1375." It was
probably the one best known by the sailors sent out by Prince
Henry of Portugal, in the year 1413, to follow down the Atlan-
tic shore line of Africa. On this map, all known Africa is
bounded on the south by a line drawn eastward from Finisterra,
off the mouth of the Rio Del Oro, about 23° north of the
equator, nearly across the continent to the Egyptian Nile. In
the Portolano Laurenziano of 1351, the outline of Africa is given
1 " Narrative and Critical History of America," Vol. I, p. 55, Justin Winsor.
IN TRADITIONAL OPHIR LAND
Dutch Ships of the XVI Ith Century.
an approach to reality that is highly remarkable, but it is clearly
a happy stretch of guesswork.1
All of the region south of Cape Non was practically un-
known to the adventurers of the fifteenth century.2 Their ears
were filled with doleful tales of the calms and storms, the
Dutch Ships of the XVIIth Century.
1 " Life of Prince Henry of Portugal, surnamed the Navigator, and its Results,"
R. H. Major, London, 1868.
2 Chief of the charts in the fifteenth century were those of Andrea Bianco,
"Atlas," 1436, and " Carta Nautica." Justin Winsor, "Narrative and Critical
History of America," Vol. I, p. 55.
42 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
mud-banks and the fogs, of the Sea of Darkness. If by any
stretch of daring they might cross the equatorial line, they were
Dutch Ship of the XVI Ith Century.
burdened with the fear that they would begin to slide down an
inclined plane with a rush that would pitch them headlong into
Dutch Ships of the XVI Ith Century.
some bottomless abyss. The only assurance of a happier issue
was the bare tale of old Herodotus of some nameless Phoenician
IN TRADITIONAL OPHIR LAND
43
sailors who had skirted the coast south from the Red Sea in the
days of Pharaoh Necho (610-594 B.C.), and returned nearly
three years later through the Pillars of Hercules and the Medi-
terranean. These sailors brought back, with their load of ivory,
feathers, and gold, the report that during a considerable part of
this voyage they had the sun on their right hand. It is this
detail that now chiefly confirms the story, but this was beyond
the credence of Herodotus,1 and it would seem that this ancient
mariner's tale was soon generally disbelieved, for the special
Dutch Ships of the XVI Ith Century.
searches made in the Alexandrian library by Eratosthenes and
Marinus of Tyre in the third and second centuries B.C. brought
to light no other records or traces of the voyage. So it was not
with reliance on this alleged circumnavigation that the adven-
turers of Portugal groped painfully for seventy years along the
coast, until the daring Dias set his stone crosses at Angra
Pequena and Algoa Bay and sighted the turning point of the
path to the Indies in the frowning Cabo de Todos los Tor-
mentos. King John was quick to see the promise in the land
1 " Herodotus," Bk. 4, 42, Rawlinson.
44 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
of Dias and change the Cape of Storms to Cabo de Boa Espe-
ranza, but ten years passed before Vasco da Gama followed
down the trail and rounded the Cape in the immortal voyage
that reached the long-sought Indies six years after Columbus
had touched the island hem of the new world.1
Dutch Ships of the XVIIIth Century.
The completed circling of Africa by European adventurers
was a no less memorable achievement of Da Gama. He touched
at Mozambique on the first of March, 1498, and there saw gold,
in the hands of Arabs, that had passed up the coast from Sofala.
Nearly twenty years before, a Portuguese courtier, Pedro de
Covilhao, had reached Sofala in an attempt to pass to India by
way of Egypt.2
For many years and possibly for many centuries there had
been a trickle of gold from Sofala through Arab traders, and
Da Gama saw enough of it to move his king to lay his hands
upon it. In the expedition of Cabral, which followed in the
wake of Da Gama in 1500, the great captain, Bartholemeu
1 " Prince Henry the Navigator," C. Raymond Beazley.
2 "The Portuguese in South Africa," George McCall Theal. " South Africa
from Arab Domination to British Rule," R. W. Murray, editor, London, 1891.
IN TRADITIONAL OPHIR LAND 45
Bias, was specially commissioned to seek the source of the
gold stream. Bias was drowned in the storm which sunk four
ships of this fleet, but Cabral took a vessel carrying gold from
Sofala and sailed to Kilwa, where the Arab Ibrahim and his
forefathers had been drawing gold from Sofala for a long term
of years. Upon the report of Cabral, Ba Gama turned out of
his way to Mozambique in his second voyage, in 1502, to enter
Sofala and take possession of Kilwa, and three years later Pedro
da Nhaya sailed from Lisbon with six ships and built a fort
and trading station at Sofala.
Behind this persistent push to Sofala there was more than
the actual showing of gold. Here was one of the traditional
gateways to King Solomon's mines, and the Portuguese were
quick to embrace the tradition. They gave the glittering name
of Ophir to their fort. South of the fort there runs a river,
called by the Arabs Sabi, and this was pounced upon as a
Dutch Ships of the XVIIIth Century.
probable twist of the old Hebrew Sheba. From those days
Fort Ophir was the starting point of Portuguese adventurers
in search of the fountain head of Solomon's treasures.
The Portuguese then had uncommonly sturdy sea-legs and
asked nobody to show them the way over the ocean foam, but
46 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
(f.
o
u
o
X
H
Q
O
E
s
o
C/3
o;
u
ry
i v^-
IN TRADITIONAL OPHIR LAND
47
they were far less ready to weary their legs with trudging over
mountain ridges or scrambling through the dense thickets of
the rugged land west of Sofala. The Arab traders were more
ready to venture inland, but there is no evidence to show that
any of them went farther than a few hundred miles, at most,
from the seacoast. It was an exceedingly difficult country to
penetrate, and the savage natives were jealous of any approach,
if they did not stubbornly bar the way and murder intruders.
E B JI A N
EAST
F E I C .
Macloul
mm
BECHUANALAND
Map showing the Position of Ancient Ruins in Rhodesia.
The horrid death of the first Portuguese viceroy was a warn-
ing that struck deep into the hearts of the earlier adventurers.
Francisco d' Almeida, returning with his fleet from India in
1510, touched the African coast near the first landing of Diaz.
To resent some little clash with the nearest native tribe he led
a troop of soldiers inland to surprise their village, but was way-
laid in the bush and his troop was put to flight by a hail of
darts and stones. D' Almeida put his ensign in the hand of a
trusty follower, but in the next moment he was stabbed in the
throat by an assagai and his head was crushed by the swing
48
THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
of a knob kerrie. Sixty-five of his picked swordsmen fell with
him and the rest only saved their lives by abject flight, chased
to the shore by a little band of naked negro dwarfs.
This was the greeting of a weak and puny coast tribe. What
then might be feared from the rallying of the fierce and stalwart
blacks of the Bantu tribes, under some ruthless chief, in the
fastnesses of the mountain land encircling the gold of Ophir ?
Insiza Ruins.
Still there was an enticing trickle of gold dust and nuggets from
inland mines to Sofala, and the flow of resplendent stories was
vastly bigger than the golden stream in sight. So in 1569 it
was resolved to make an extraordinary effort to penetrate to the
source of the gold. The East African coast was placed under
command of a governor independent of the viceroy of India.
Francisco Barreto was made the first governor, with instructions
to raise a force of a thousand men and lead them on to the
capture of Ophir. The young cavaliers of Lisbon flocked
eagerly to Barreto's standard. He led the way up the Zambesi
with a high-spirited troop, but the gay soldiers were soon
IN TRADITIONAL OPHIR LAND
49
scorched by the sun, torn by thorns, and cast down by fevers.
The Kalangu tribe was then the strongest of any living between
the Sabi and Zambesi, and Barreto sought to win the good will of
its head chief by offering to beat his rival. This offer made him
Insiza Ruins.
welcome, and he kept his promise, but he was soon after obliged
to appoint Vasco Fernandez Homem to the command of his
troop and to return to the coast. Homem soon followed him
with the dispirited remnants of the adventurers. Barreto did
not live to see the return of his broken expedition, and Homem
50 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
succeeded him as governor. Then the new governor tried an-
other way of approach to the gold field, and finally pushed a party
through from Sofala to the foot of the mountain which the
Kalangu tribe called Kara and the Arabs Aufur, transmuted
forms, it was thought, of the Hebrew Ophir. Near the base
of this mountain were placers yielding nuggets worth from two
Insiza Ruins.
to three thousand dollars, but the ordinary toil of placer wash-
ing was so disgusting to the Portuguese visionaries that they
gloomily turned their backs on the mines of Abasia and the
rock mark of Ophir and wearily made their way back to Sofala.1
This disappointment dulled the glitter of some old stories, but
there were plenty of new ones to dazzle men's minds.
It is likely that the most accurate, as it certainly is the full-
est extant, account of the mining in Ophir land is given in the
story of the old Spanish author, Joano de Barros, whose life
spans the first three quarters of the sixteenth century.2 It is
too much to expect that his " Da Asia " should be free from
the coloring of the ardent fancy and the myths of the age, but
underlying his narrative there is, at most points, a credible
basis of personal observation and the current reports of many
witnesses. He held several high offices in the Indian and
1 "The Portuguese in South Africa," Theal. " Conferencias Celebradas na
Academia Real das Sciencias de Lisboa, Acerca dos Descobrimentos e Colonisa-
c,oes dos Portuguezes na Africa." [At Lisbon, 1892.]
2 "Da Asia," Joano de Barros (1496-1570).
IN TRADITIONAL OPHIR LAND 51
African establishments of Portugal, and had exceptional oppor-
tunities for preparing his remarkable memorial.
In his description the "mines of Manica" are placed "some
fifty leagues west of Sofala." The Portuguese league was 3.84
English miles, and De Barros was as loose as contemporary writ-
ers in the measure of distances. " All gold found there is in
dust," he writes, " and the workers have to carry the earth
which they dig to some place where water can be had. Nobody
digs more than six to seven spans deep (four to six feet), and if
they go to twenty, they come to hard rock."
Beyond the Manica placers, in positions not defined, were
the mines of Boro and Quiticui. There nuggets were found
Khami Ruins.
" embedded in reefs — some already cleared by the winter tor-
rents ; hence, in some of the pools, such as remain in summer,
the miners dig down and find much gold in the mud brought
up. In other localities, where are some lagoons, two hundred
men set at work to drain off about half the water, and in the
mud which they sift they also find gold, and so rich is the
52 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
ground, that if the people were industrious, great quantities
could be had ; but they are so indolent that stress of hunger
alone will keep them at work. Hence Moors (Arabs) who
visit those districts
have recourse to a
ruse to make them
diligent. They cover
the negro men and
women with clothes,
beads, and trinkets in
which they delight,
and when all are
pleased trust every-
thing to them, telling
Khami Ruins. faem tQ go tQ worlc
the mines, and on their return, they can pay for those advances ;
so that in this way, by giving them credit, they oblige them to
work, and so truthful are the negroes that they keep their word-
" Other mines lie in the district called Toroa, ruled by a vas-
sal of Benomotapa. These are the oldest known in that region.
They are in a plain, in
the middle of which
stands a square fortress,
all of dressed stones,
within and without, well
wrought and of marvel-
lous size, without any
lime showing the join-
ings. The walls of this
fortress are over twenty-
five spans high (18 to 19
feet) but the height is not so great compared with the thickness.
And above the gateway of that stronghold there is an inscrip-
tion which some learned Moorish traders who were there could
not read nor say what writing it was. And around this build-
ing are others on some heights, like it in the stonework, in
Gold Ornaments found in Ancient Ruins.
IN TRADITIONAL OPHIR LAND
53
which is a tower twelve bracas (72 feet) high. All these struc-
tures the people of the country call Symbaoe, which with them
means a royal residence. They stand west of Sofala, under
latitude 20° and 21° south, one hundred and seventy leagues
more or less in a straight line. ... In the opinion of the
Moors who saw them, they seemed to be very ancient and were
Khami Ruins.
built there to hold possession of those mines, which are very old,
from which for years no gold has been taken owing to the wars."
The latitude and position of the Symbaoe of De Barros cor-
respond closely with the site of the ruins of Zimbabwe, described
three hundred years later by the explorer Karl Mauch. Both
Zimbabwe and its antique form, Symbaoe, are plainly versions
of the local Bantu nzimba-mbuie, a house of the chief. It is
true that the Zimbabwe of Mauch is only two hundred and forty
miles west of Sofala, but the leagues of the old chroniclers were
not laid off with the tape line.
54 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
Who was this Benomotapa whose vassal was housed in such a
castle ? — the mighty black sovereign of whom Camoens sings —
" Ve do Benomotapa o grande imperio,
De Salvatica gente, negra e nua " ?
In dull fact Benomotapa was simply the corrupted plural
form of Monomotapa, signifying Lord of the Mountain, or by
a possible stretch of derivation, Master of the Mines.1 This
was one of the hereditary titles of the head chief of the Kalangu
Khami Ruins.
tribe, the largest and strongest of any then living between the
Sabi and Zambesi. His dwelling was at the foot of Mount
1 "The Portuguese in South Africa," George McCall Theal.
Bent says the name Monomotapa should be written Muene-matapa, or " lord
of Matapa," simply "a dynastic name, just as every petty chief in Mashonaland
to-day has his dynastic name, which he takes on succeeding to the chiefdom."
"The Ruined Cities of Mashonaland," p. 285. Both titles have in fact the same
meaning : the first components bena and mono being the still current Bantu words
bwana, bana, muene, mwana, that is 'lord,' 'master,' 'chief,' 'ruler.' The
second part, motapa, common to both, probably means a mine, from the Bantu
word ta/>a='to dig,' 'excavate.' "Africa," Vol. II, p. 372. (Stanford's
Compendium.) A. H. Keane.
IN TRADITIONAL OPHIR LAND
55
Aufur, which was held in such traditional reverence that the
chief would not permit the Portuguese to ascend it. There was
nothing of imposing
splendor in the huts
of the chief who re-
ceived the embassy
of Francisco Barreto,
but no lack of evi-
dence could prevent
romance from creat-
ing an African em-
pire under the sway
of Monomotapa.
Some corner-stones
for this structure were
found in the remains
of the works of a
people of far higher
civilization than any
of the existing native
tribes, and these relics
were prizes to a fancy
that clutched greedily at every drifting straw of report, tradition,
and myth supplied by Arabs and negroes.
Every one in the suc-
cession of romancers, in
the sober cloak of histo-
rians, of South Africa
would outdo his forerun-
ners in inflating the bal-
loon of the traditional
empire. The old Dutch
writer, Kleveer, finally
puffed it up to the bursting limit by bounding it " on the
east, south, and west by the Atlantic, and north by the king-
doms of Congo, Abyssinia, and the Zanzibar country. Even
Zimbabwe Ruins.
Zimbabwe Ruins.
56 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
Dapper,1 whose really great work is by far the most important,
comprehensive, and creditable presentation of the Africa of the
seventeenth century, jots down gravely most fantastic details of
the empire ruled by the royal line of Monomotapa. He paints
a mammoth palace with four grand gateways leading to a succes-
sion of halls and chambers, rivalling the handiwork of the slaves
of the lamp of Aladdin. All the ceilings of the rooms were gilt
or covered with golden plates. For the furnishing of sumptuous
„• A
Zimbabwe Ruins.
couches and chairs there was gilding and painting in rainbow hues
and artful inlaying with enamel. Ivory chandeliers, hanging on
silver chains, filled these resplendent halls with light. When his
majesty deigned to rise from his imperial bed, he was clothed by
his valets in garments of native silk. All his servants approached
him on bended knees and served him like dumb slaves. His
table service of the finest porcelain was decorated with wreaths of
gold, cunningly wrought in the fantastic forms of natural coral.
1 " Naukeurige Beschrijringe der Afrikaensche Gewesten," etc., Dr. O. Dap-
per, Amsterdam, 1668.
IN TRADITIONAL OPHIR LAND
Zimbabwe Ruins.
Two pounds of gold was daily spent in perfume for the royal
nose, and torches of incense flamed day and night around him.
When he took an airing, he was borne in a gorgeous palanquin
on the shoulders of four of his trembling nobles, and his head
was shielded from the profaning sun by a canopy studded with
precious stones. If he was impatient of this slow promenade, he
Zimbabwe Ruins.
THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
might mount on an elephant's back, but on nothing meaner, for
nobody in that wonderful country would ride on any other animal.
It is small wonder that the court of monarchs of this splen-
dor, and their golden cities of Davaque and Vigiti Magna, were
ardently hunted for by adventurers, thirsty for every romance
gilding the dismal stretches of sand and thickets and rocks
which encircled them with the threads of a trail to the glittering
realm of Monomotapa. But the expeditions of Barreto and
Homem were so painful, costly,
and discouraging that for many
years no more explorations were
undertaken by the Portuguese
crown. The spirit of chivalric
adventure drooped low after the
gallant young king Sebastian
fell in battle with the Moors
in 1578, and even the spirit
that had so greatly spread the
commerce of Portugal was los-
ing its vigor. There was a
- r"%1&?!£^Hl^^HH£H3l momentary arousal in the be-
ginning of the seventeenth cen-
tury, when some rich silver ore
was sent to Lisbon by the
governor of Mozambique. It
^^^ was believed that this ore came
f//'i . tEgfcv^^. ^feflBBI^BBlBB from veins in a region called the
Zimbabwe Ruins. Kingdom of Chicova, stretch-
ing north from the bank of the Zambesi ; but there was no
definite report of the location. Still there was such an impulse
in the sight of this silver that the order was sent to despatch
five hundred soldiers to Chicova. No such force could be
mustered, but Nuno Alvares Pereira set out from Mozambique
with a hundred men. Soon Pereira was the victim of jeal-
ous maligning, and was superseded in his command by Diogo
Sinoes Madeira. This commander succeeded in placing a few
IN TRADITIONAL OPHIR LAND
59
trading stations along the Zambesi, and made a pretence of
opening mines by shipping some little silver to Portugal ; but
Zimbabwe Ruins.
after a dozen years of costly maintenance, it was shown by the
search of Pereira that the pretended discovery of silver was a
Zimbabwe Ruins.
fraud, and disgusted Portugal abandoned the enterprise in I622.1
1 "The Portuguese in South Africa," Theal.
60 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
From that year nothing of note was attempted from the
stretch of seaboard loosely held by a few feeble garrisons.
Beyond the vague traditions and romances there were no guide-
books to the rich realm of any African monarch, and there was
no point on the South African coast outside of the Portuguese
strip where the least enticement was shown to any visiting ship.
Nowhere was there any evidence of an approach to civiliza-
tion, and there was not even the gilding of barbarism. The
shore tribes
were filthy,
famine-hunted
negroes, who
had, at most, a
little ivory or
a handful of
feathers to bar-
ter for trinkets.
There was an
intermixture of
blood and a
medley of
tribes and tribal
names that
confounds any tracing of distinction beyond a few blurred divi-
sional lines.
When the Dutch and English began to tread upon the heels
of the Portuguese in Africa, in the opening years of the seven-
teenth century, the tribes of the extreme south and along the
southwesterly Atlantic coast might be roughly grouped under the
name of Hottentots, or, as they called themselves with monstrous
conceit, Kwa-Kwa, men of men. In this assertion there is
plainly to be seen the origin of the Arabic Vakvak, the name
sketched in by Edrisi on his map beyond Sofala. The south-
east African coast was held by tribes of the wide-spreading
Bantu family, lumped together by the Arabs as Kafirs. Filtered
in between the Bantus and Hottentots were the pigmy Sana,
Zimbabwe Ruins.
IN TRADITIONAL OPHIR LAND
61
rudely bunched as Bushmen.1 There was endless wrangling
and fighting among the tribes, regardless of any common flow
of blood, and the Bantus and Hottentots were continually clash-
ing like wildcats. Their only union was in their hate of the
Bushmen, who were hunted
from cover to cover, to hide
in crevices in the rocks or in
holes in the desert sand, from
which they might sally, wasp-
like, with the deadly sting
of their poison-tipped arrows.
In view of the repulsive
face of the South African
coast lands it is not surpris-
ing that Francis Drake and
many other bold voyagers
circled the Cape of Good
Hope without landing to
seek for traditional treasures.
But with the opening of the
seventeenth century, Table
Bay became a regular stop-
ping place and refitting station for the ships of the English East
India Company. For twenty years this slight hold on the con-
tinent was maintained, but it was so lightly prized that it was
dropped in 1620 by a shift of the station to St. Helena. Thirty-
two years later the Dutch East India Company took formal
possession of the Cape and its adjoining bay without any chal-
lenging protest, and built their fort Good Hope as the first
stronghold of the Dutch dominion in southern Africa. With
this foundation the search for the golden realm of Monomotapa
was vigorously and persistently revived.
Jan van Riebeeck, the leader of the Dutch colonizing expe-
dition and the first commandant of the fort and settlement at
The Old East India House, Leadenhall Street,
London.
1 "South Africa," George McCall Theal, London, 1888-1893.
African Tribes," Sutherland.
South
62 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
Cape Town, was a man of ardent spirit and uncommon energy.
He had entered the company's service as a surgeon's assistant,
but his ambition and ability had soon pushed him to the front
and marked him as a man to fix and strengthen the grip of the
great trading company on the turning-point of the way to the
Indies. In his portrait dark, sanguine eyes are set under a
high, full forehead, crowned with thick waving hair of a cavalier
cut, in keeping with his trim mustache. His well-moulded
features and resolute chin have the stamp of refinement as well
as action. He quickly put his hand to every practical device to
make the new settlement productive and self-supporting. Nine
months after his landing the first crop of wheat was reaped at
the Cape. In the following year he set out vines from the
Rhine. In his own vineyard the muscatel grape grew luxuri-
The Landing of van Riebeeck.
antly, and a few years later he made the first Cape wine, a high-
flavored Constantia. In the same year, 1658, maize was brought
to the colony from the coast of Guinea and successfully planted.
To the introduction of the olive, particularly urged by the direc-
tors of his company, he gave unremitting pains, and succeeded
in rearing a fine grove of fruitful trees on his own plantation at
Wynberg. In his stretch of experiment he even tamed young
ostriches and stocked the neighboring islands with rabbits.1
Such a man was not likely to be heedless of the chances for
'"South Africa," Theal. "On Veld and Farm," Frances MacNab,
London, 1897.
IN TRADITIONAL OPHIR LAND
the possible enrichment of his company by penetrating to the
seat of the traditional empire and possibly to King Solomon's
mines. He reckoned that, in any event, his exploring parties
would be likely to succeed in uncovering ore beds of some use-
ful metal, if not of gold and silver. But he seems to have had
great confidence in the traditions of Monomotapa, and it is
known that he had before him the highly colored work of
the Dutch traveller and author, Linschoten, as well as current
Portrait of Johan Antonyse van Riebeeck.
First Commandant of the Cape of Good
Hope. Born 1618, died January 18,
1672.
Portrait of Maria de la Querellerie of Que-
rellerius, Wife of Johan Antonyse van
Riebeeck. Born October 28, 1629, died
November 2, 1664.
Portuguese books infused with the romance of Africa. His
calculation plotted the location of Davaque, the chief seat of
the splendors of Monomotapa, at a point 828 miles N.E. of
the Cape of Good Hope, and 322 miles W. from the Indian
Ocean, curiously near the present Witwatersrand. Davaque
was built by tradition on the banks of the river Spirito Sanctu,
flowing into the Indian Ocean at Delagoa Bay. Nearer still
to the Cape was another El Dorado, the city of Vigiti Magna,
which was confidently located on or near the meridian of 30° S.,
and not much more than three hundred miles from the Cape.
64 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
The first push into the unknown land north of Fort Good
Hope was made in 1657 by a little party headed by Abraham
Gabbema, Fiscal, and Secretary of the Council of the colony.
Gabbema led the way to the first big beacon in sight, a peak
with a grotesque flat top which the colonists had already chris-
tened Klapnuits, or night cap mountain. Skirting the base of
this peak he pushed to the next conspicuous landmark, bearing
toward the west, a mountain with bare rugged pinnacles of rock,
which the explorers dully called Great Berg, and gave the same
name to the river flowing below.
Constantly.
It was in the middle of October when the party set out, but
this was the prime of the springtime in South Africa. On the
lower slopes of the Great Berg herds were grazing that had
never seen the face of a white man nor felt the sting of a bullet.
Zebras capered over the hillsides, the unwieldy rhinoceros wal-
lowed in the high grass, and hippopotami plunged and snorted
in the turbid rivers. Every step of the way was a new wonder-
ment to the explorers, and when the rising sun struck the moun-
tain tops with its flame, two transfigured peaks gleamed like
prodigious gems in their eyes, and were forthwith distinguished
IN TRADITIONAL OPHIR LAND 65
as Paarl and Diamant. These sunlit crests were the only things
in sight, however, that had any glitter of the realm of Mono-
motapa, and after a little further advance into the unknown field,
Gabbema's party turned back.
The next excursion was more daring. By promising rich
rewards van Riebeeck formed a party of thirty volunteers headed
by Jan Danckert. They took along a small stock of bread on
three pack oxen, relying for their main supply of food on the game
which they might kill on their way. These hardy volunteers
plodded north, inclining to the west along the foot of the coast
range. They saw whirlwinds of dust and a few roving Bushmen,
but nowhere any trace of a monarchy except what they called " A
Kingdom of Moles," where the burrowed ground sank under
their feet and they could hardly flounder along. In December
they reached a river flowing toward the Atlantic, on whose far-
ther shore they saw a herd of more than two hundred elephants
feeding. So they called the stream Olifants River, a name
which it has borne since that day, and trudged back wearily to
tell their story to the commandant at the Cape. Within ten
days after their return, January 20, 1661, van Riebeeck, the un-
tiring, mustered another party, of thirteen adventurers and two
Hottentot attendants, and sent them away on the track of the
discoverers of Olifants River.
Corporal Pieter Cruythof led ofF this party, which succeeded
in crossing the river of the elephants and reaching the land of
the Namaquas, a Hottentot tribe of the highest class. Here the
explorers found natives who had rude copper ornaments twisted
in tufts of their hair, and wore rings of copper and ivory on
their arms. They entertained the white visitors with cheering
hospitality and gave a grand dance in honor of the embassy.
This was the nearest approach to the civilization of the tra-
ditional empire that had hitherto been reached by Dutch ex-
ploration, and the return of the adventurers on March n,
1 66 1, after forty days' wandering, was warmly welcomed by van
Riebeeck.
Before two weeks had passed he had another excursion under
66 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
way led by Corporal Meerhoff, which penetrated into Namaqua-
land farther than any white man had ever gone, but brought
back bitterly discouraging reports. It was learned that the
Namaquas had uncovered some veins of copper and iron ore
and had some crude process of smelting and working both
metals, but it did not appear to be practicable to undertake to
open mines at points so far from the Cape in a region that for
many months in the year was a torrid desert. There was no
trace of gold or rumor even of any distant land of gold. Over
every day's march was the hanging terror of death by thirst or
hunger or savage attack.
Still the unflagging commandant would not give up the
search, and in the following November Corporal MeerhofF
went back with another party of volunteers to Namaqualand, as
second in command under Sergeant Pieter Everaert. This
expedition was better equipped for exploration than any previ-
ous one that had set out from the Cape, and it was three months
before it returned to Fort Hope. Yet it had nothing new to
tell — only to repeat the same dreary story of painful tramps
over sun-scorched sands and jagged ridges of rock, of blinding
whirls of dust and the blare and clash and drench of terrific
thunder-storms, of sleep broken by nightly alarms, of lurking
Bushmen and prowling lions. One of the party had been gored
and trampled to pulp by an elephant, and his comrades counted
themselves lucky in reaching the Cape fort empty-handed,
gaunt, and footsore.
Even after this sickening rebuff, the next year saw a renewal
of the attempt to reach the elusive empire of Monomotapa.
Then Sergeant Jonas de la Guerre set out with a little troop of
adventurers not yet disheartened. But they were not able to
push their search into Namaqualand as far as former explorers
had gone, for they could not find a mouthful of water in the
desert sands, and were in imminent peril of dying from thirst.
This repulse was a crushing blow to the stubborn spirit that had
borne so many buffets. The enterprising van Riebeeck had
been transferred to the government of Java in the previous year,
IN TRADITIONAL OPHIR LAND 67
and his successor was a man of much fainter heart and energy.
So for nearly a score of years the search for the traditional
empire lagged, although there was a considerable show of less
venturesome prospecting. One notable undertaking was the
despatch of a party of expert assayers and miners from the
Netherlands to Cape Town in 1669 by tne Dutch East India
Company, with instructions to search for any promising outcrops
of ore in the region of the Cape. This party prospected for
several years, but found nothing to inspire any investment in
mining.1
A revival of the dazzling old visions came in 1681, with the
appearance at the Cape of a party of Namaquas bearing pieces
of rich copper ore. This exhibit spurred the East India Com-
pany to direct another exploration of Namaqualand. Then the
commandant at the Cape was a man of the stamp of van Rie-
beeck, commander Simon van der Stel. He was quick to
despatch a company of thirty soldiers, a draughtsman, and a
reporter to make the venture so often tried in vain. Again, after
months of struggle, the desert drove them back. Van der Stel
then resolved to make an effort far surpassing any put forth
before by adventurers from the Cape. He formed a party of
forty-two white men, soldiers, miners, and draughtsmen, with ten
Hottentot servants and guides. The expedition was provisioned
for four months, and equipped with two boats, a train of wagons,
several horses, and a herd of pack oxen. Ensign Olaf Bergh
was put in command and led his company on to Namaqualand.
But it was the same old story. No strength of men or oxen
availed against the desert. No rain had fallen in the wilderness
north of the Olifants River for twelve months, and the whole
region was an arid waste without a trickle of moisture. So
Bergh and his companions faced about in despair, and marched
back to report their failure. Sergeant Izaak Schuyver and
another forlorn-hope party tried their luck in the following
year, and pushed over the desert a little farther than Bergh, but
brought nothing back except a sack of copper ore on a pack ox.
1 " South Africa," Theal, Vols. I and 2.
68 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
As a last resort the unflinching commander van der Stel
resolved to head an exploring party himself. He obtained
special permission from the directors of the East India Com-
pany, and his expedition was ordered in keeping with his distinc-
tion as the head of the Dutch power at the Cape, and with the
labors and perils of the venture. He left the Castle of Good
Hope, August 25, 1685, with fifty-six white followers and a
troop of Hottentot attendants. Twenty-three wagons and carts
were packed with supplies. Besides the draught teams, there
were two hundred spare oxen, thirteen horses, and eight mules.
For the dignity and comfort of the commander there was a
coach, but this touch of parade was chiefly introduced to impress
the native tribes and possibly a negro emperor with the grandeur
of the sovereignty despatching such an embassy.
The time of year chosen for the start was precisely the same
as that picked for the expedition of Bergh two years before, but
the difference in the face of the country would amaze any one
who had never seen the magic of rain-falls on South African
deserts. Fresh, juicy grass and vernal flowers were sprouting
from a soil of seemingly lifeless sand. Birds were building
their nests in the leafy thickets, insects were creeping or buzzing
in swarms, and a myriad of butterflies were fluttering their gay
wings over the green sward and blossoms. After years of
drought there had come a season of heavy rains. The arid
sands were soaked, torrents foamed through the windings of
the dry water-courses, and the region north of Olifants River,
which had been an impassable barrier to so many explorers, was
quite easily penetrated by the cumbrous procession of van der
Stel. Van der Stel's farm and residence were near the present
town of Somerset West and not far from Stellenbosch, which
was named after him. His fine old house, " Vergelegen," is
still one of the remarkable landmarks of these sturdy old Dutch
settlers. They planted avenues of oaks, camphor trees, and
pines, which to-day tend to make Cape Town and its environs
one of the most charming spots on the face of the earth. The
old picture of van der Stel's house, " Vergelegen," shows it
IN TRADITIONAL OPHIR LAND
69
partly hidden by a huge camphor tree, which measures nine feet
in diameter.
As the expedition advanced, it found various promising
showings of copper ore, and the croppings were particularly rich
in a range lying a little below the meridian of 30° S., where one
peak was singled out as " copper mountain." Van der Stel had
succeeded in reaching the line of the supposed location of the
golden city of Vigiti Magna, and he pushed his search along
Vergelegen.
this line to the Atlantic, but he could nowhere pick up a trace
of the traditional city or any other vestige of the realm of
Monomotapa. He did not even meet with any strange mon-
sters or romantic adventures, except perhaps the charge of a
huge rhinoceros, which upset his coach and forced him to fly for
his life. After six months of travel his notable exploring party
came back to the Cape, without any tidings of good cheer to
the founders of the colony. The only relic of the tradition of
empire left in the lands it had traversed was the attaching of the
name of Vigiti Magna to the great river first shown on any map
in the chart of this exploration. It had found rich copper ore
in Namaqualand, but the deposits were too far from the base
70 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
of transportation and supply to warrant the undertaking of
mining.1
Van der Stel was fitly rewarded, four years later, by an ap-
pointment as the first governor of the Cape Colony, in recog-
nition of his exploring enterprise and other displays of energy ;
but his pricking of the painted bubble of Vigiti Magna was a
bitter disappointment to the Dutch East India Company, and a
grievous thing to all adventurers filled with the conceit of a cen-
tury of tradition. It was true that Davaque or some other glit-
tering city might lie farther to the east and north than any point
yet reached by Dutch explorers, but with the growing familiarity
with the land and natives of southern Africa there was a swelling
discredit of the fine tales of the Dutch and Portuguese roman-
cers. The myth of the realm of Monomotapa was practically
starved to death at the close of the seventeenth century, and
unfortunately the greatly persistent daring of the Dutch explor-
ers grew cold with its impulse. When adventurers began to
disbelieve in the marvellous empire and even doubt the location
of the mines of Solomon and the throne of Sheba, there was no
f
very potent lure in the dusty karoos and rocky ravines of South
Africa. No discovery of ore, except possibly of the precious
metals, was likely to be of any reward to a prospector, and it
was even questionable whether rich veins of gold or silver could
be successfully opened and worked at any considerable dis-
tance beyond the narrow range of the Dutch settlement at the
Cape.
So the credulous search for Ophir and the mythical realms in
Africa came to an end, and for more than one hundred and fifty
years there was little life in the tradition of King Solomon's
mines, until its embers were rekindled by the daring advances
and glowing fancies of the intrepid explorer, Karl Mauch. In
1858 Mauch marked the Lydenburg district as a probable gold-
1 "South Africa," George McCall Theal, Vol. I, pp. 370-380.
These copper mines came into possession of an English company known as
the Cape Copper Company in 1853, since which time copper to the value of
^11,000,000 has been produced.
IN TRADITIONAL OPHIR LAND 71
field, and in 1871 he won the honor of reaching and first clearly
describing the extraordinary ruins of Zimbabwe and its adjacent
gold-fields. Unfortunately for his credit as an archaeologist he
insisted on the fancy that the old building on the hill was a copy
of King Solomon's temple on Mount Moriah and that the lower
ruins reproduced the palace inhabited by the Queen of Sheba
during her stay of several years in Jerusalem.1 This does not
impair, however, the probable accuracy of his main contention
that he had revealed part of the ancient workings of the people
who furnished the flow of gold to Arabia and Judaea in the days
of King Solomon.2
^'The Ruined Cities of Mashonaland," J. Theodore Bent, London,
1896.
2 " It was really (Adam) Renders who first discovered these ruins three
years before Mauch saw them, though Mauch and Baines first published them to
the world, and they only described what the old Portuguese writers talked of
hundreds of years ago." E. A. Maund, " Geo. Proc.," February, 1891,
p. 105.
72 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
Entrance to Boschendal.
The extent of these old workings has been proved beyond
doubt by the reports of Hartley, Mauch, Baines, Nelson, and
later explorers, and a precise and graphic study of Zimbabwe and
other ancient structures
in Mashonaland was
made in 1891—92 by J.
Theodore Bent and his
associates in the expedi-
tion chiefly promoted by
the Royal Geographical
Society, the British Char-
tered Company of South
Africa, and the British
Association for the Ad-
vancement of Science. Bent's expedition located Zimbabwe in
latitude 20° 16' 30" south, longitude 31° 7' 30" east; slightly
differing from the position given by Mauch.1 Bent holds that
Zimbabwe is of Abantu origin and may be freejy translated
" Here is the great kraal,"
meaning the kraal of the
native head chief of the dis-
trict. This name, however,
marked only the native occu-
pation of the buildings, and
Bent sees in the ancient ruins
and workings " evidence of a
cult known to Arabia and
Phoenicia alike, temples built
on accurate mathematical prin-
ciples, containing kindred
objects of art, methods of
producing gold known to Boschendal.
have been employed in the ancient world, and evidence of a
vast population devoted to the mining of gold."
1 " List of Stations in Mashonaland astronomically observed, with Altitudes,"
by Robert M. W. Swan.
IN TRADITIONAL OPHIR LAND
73
74 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
Lekkerwijn.
Without entering into the varied researches supporting the
views of Schlechter, Keane, and other leading authorities, it may
be observed that the main conclusions pithily summarized by
Professor Keane are strongly
backed. Ophir was not a
source of gold, but its dis-
tributer, as the port on the
south coast of Arabia through
which the flow of gold came
by sea. It is identified with
the Moschaor Portus Nobilis
of the Greek and Roman
geographers.
Havilah was the land
whence came the gold of
Ophir, a great tract in
southeastern Africa, lying
north of the Limpopo and largely identified with the range of
the modern Rhodesia. The ancient gold workings of this region
were first opened by
the South Arabian
Himyarites, who
were followed (but
not before the time
of Solomon) by the
Phoenicians, and
these very much later
by the Moslem
Arabs. Tharshish
was the outlet for
the precious metals
and stones of Havi-
lah, and stood probably on the present site of Sofala. The
Queen of Sheba came by land and not over the seas to the
court of Solomon. Her kingdom was Yemen, the Arabia Felix
of the ancients.
Lekkerwijn. (Back view.)
IN TRADITIONAL OPHIR LAND
75
Bien Donne, Groot Constantia.
In a word, the "Gold of Ophir" came from Havilah
(Rhodesia), and was worked and brought thence first by the
Himyarites (Sabseans and
Minaeans), later by the Phoe-
nicians, the chief ports engaged
in the traffic being Ezion-geber
in the Red Sea, Tharshish in
Havilah, and midway between
the two, Ophir in South
Arabia.1
For sixty years from the
opening of the eighteenth cen-
tury there was no considerable
exploration, or even prospect-
ing of any consequence, in the
region north of the meridian
passing through the Olifants
River. Yet even in this ap-
1 A. H. Keane.
Overmantel and Old Dutch Relics. (Lekkerwijn.)
76 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
Bien Donn£, Groot Constantia.
parent cessation of enterprise there was a continuous progress,
almost essential to the successful advance of later exploration.
The Dutch settlement at the Cape was expanding. Year after
year pioneer settlers pushed out farther from the Castle, moving
up the river valleys, and cling-
ing at first to the base of hill
ranges where the essential sup-
ply of water was most surely
attainable. After the taking up
of the choice locations, later
comers passed on over the open
veld, and it was seen that there
were large tracts of land, un-
suited to agriculture, which
would serve well as ranges for
cattle and sheep.
For many years, however,
the raising of wheat was of prime
Donne, Groot Constantia. importance in the eyes of the
IN TRADITIONAL OPHIR LAND
77
Dutch farmers ; for this product fetched the highest price rela-
tively, and any surplus was eagerly called for by ships that
touched at the Cape or by the
demand for the supply of East
Indian settlements. In 1685
the first export of grain was
shipped, and strenuous efforts
were made to extend the area
of land in cultivation. A bo-
tanic garden had been one of
the early undertakings of the
company, to serve as a nursery
for European, East Indian, and
native plants, and under the
direction of Commander van der
Stel this nursery was made the
pride of the Cape as an exhibit
as well as a very serviceable
source of supply of seeds and
plants for the garden and farm lands. The growth of the olive
had been particularly urged, and it seemed at first to be likely
to flourish, but the
success of the grove
of van Riebeeck was
not attained by plant-
ers generally. There
was a considerable
advance in vine plant-
ing and the produc-
tion of wine, and in
1672 the distillation
of brandy was begun.
Doorway, Palmeit Vallei. J{ wag hoped that the
Cape wine could be made an export of consequence, but the taste
of the Dutch planters preferred a sweet, strong fermentation to
clear, light wines, and they lacked the skill or the strong desire
Farm House, Klein Drakenstein.
78 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
to modify their product to compete with French vine growers.1
So the only considerable consumption of Cape wine, outside of
, , the colony, was
from the crews of
visiting vessels.
There was no
lagging on the
part of the East
India Company in
efforts to stimu-
late the industries
of their colony.
Upon the revoca-
tion of the edict
A Wine Farm at Klein Drakenstein. of Nantes (Qct.
28, 1685) by Louis XIV., the steadfast Huguenots were forced
to seek new homes in foreign lands, and many were cordially
encouraged and aided to pass over sea to the young Cape Colony.
Muller's Farm, Achter Paarl.
Their expert knowledge of the growth of the vine and olive was
highly valued, and it was also desired to bring in tanners, har-
1 " On Veld and Farm," Frances MacNab.
IN TRADITIONAL OPHIR LAND
79
Dutch Farm House.
ness makers, wheelwrights, metal workers, and other artisans of
essential service to the spreading settlements of farmers. In
the allotments of land special care was taken to distribute
the influx of foreign blood
so that it must necessarily
fuse with the main body of
settlers. This design was so
well carried out that in a few
generations the only abso-
lutely distinct survival of
this Huguenot migration was
the perpetuation of the old
French family names. But
the combination of these two
strong strains of blood made
a compound of remarkable
character.
Besides this promoted Muller.s rarm> Achter Paarl.
8o
THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
immigration of men
there was an equally
shrewd effort on the
part of the company to
advance the breeding
of horses, cattle, and
sheep. Stallions were
imported from Persia
to improve the stock,
which had been falling
off in size and quality
though increasing in
uumber. Spanish rams
were used to lay the
foundation of the South
African breed of meri-
nos, and the Angora
goats bore transplacing
excellently, and soon
browsed greedily on the coarse grasses of the Cape.
By the advances of the voortrekkers or pioneer farmers the
range of settlement was extended so far in 1761 that the start of
Palmeit Vallei, Klein Drakenstein.
'V
Muller's farm, Achter Paarl.
IN TRADITIONAL OPHIR LAND
81
Mooi Kelder, Lower Paarl.
the first large exploring party since the return of the van der
Stel expedition was made in that year from a rendezvous near
the mouth of Olifants River. This party was led by Captain
Hendrik Hop of the burgher militia, and was made up of seven-
teen whites and
sixty-eight half-
breed Hottentot
servants. It
started in August
and advanced on
the track of the
former expedi-
tion, passing the
Copper Moun-
tains of Little Plaisis de Merle, Groote Drakenstein.
Namaqualand, and reaching the river Vigiti Magna on Septem-
ber 29. This river was familiarly called by the colonists the
Groote (Great) River, and held this name until both the tradi-
82
THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
tional and common names were supplanted by a new christening
in 1779, when Colonel Robert Jacob Gordon, commanding the
garrison at Cape Castle, led
another expedition up the
river, and named it Orange
in honor of the stadtholder.
Hop's exploring party met
a troup of giraffes soon after
crossing the Groote River,
and won the distinction of
furnishing the first skin of a
giraffe from South Africa to
the Museum of the Univer-
sity of Leyden. But except-
ing this novel chase there was
little to attract the explorers.
The sun scorched them relent-
Donkerhoek, Groot Drakenstein. i i • i i i
lessly in the open desert, and
they could nowhere find water except in the deep sand-pits dug
by the roving natives. Sometimes there was a shallow puddle
at the bottom of
one of these pits,
and even when the
sand was barely
moist, further dig-
ging to the under-
lying stone would
sometimes yield a
trickle of water.
Still they pushed
on stubbornly to
the farthest point
Vet reached from AWineCellar. H erd of Cape Goats.
the Cape, in latitude 26° 18' S., before turning back to bring
home their discouraging story.
It was thirty years before this advance was outstripped by
IN TRADITIONAL OPHIR LAND
Willem van Reenen, of the farm Zeekoevlei on the Olifants
River. This adventurous farmer set out in 1791 with four
fellow colonists and a number of Hottentot servants, and reached
on the 1 8th of November the end of the trek of Captain
Hop's party. Prowling Bushmen and lions beset their camps
continually, and in January, 1799, tne7 nad to beat off a fierce
swoop of a party
of Namaquas. Yet
they pressed on
until March 14,
when they came
to a little oasis
which they named
Modder Fontein,
or muddy spring.
Then they turned
back after a few
days' rest, and
plodded home to
the farm Zeekoe-
vlei, which they
reached on the
2oth of June.
They had killed
sixty-five rhinoc-
eros and six
giraffes, without
reckoning their
bag of smaller game, and brought back exultantly wagon loads
of copper ore, which they supposed to be gold until their hopes
were blighted by assayers at the Cape.1
The depressing reports from these expeditions were not the
least of the straws that finally broke the back of the Dutch East
India Company. For nearly a century and a half their colony
in South Africa had been a continual drain and burden. All
1 » South Africa," George McCall Theal.
Tatr, 1757.
84 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
An Old Farm House, Lower Paarl.
the expedients and efforts of the energetic directors of the com-
pany in the seventeenth century, and such faithful servants as
van Riebeeck and van der Stel, had failed to develop any mines
or any product for export of any considerable importance. With
the beginning of the
eighteenth century there
was an evident drooping
in the enterprise of the
company, and a drift
toward hopeless discour-
agement, which culmi-
nated in 1794 with the
declaration of bankruptcy.
The company's debt was
^10,000,000 sterling,
and its credit was utterly exhausted. It could no longer under-
take even to maintain a feeble garrison at the Castle for the
defence of its colony. Issues of depreciated and irredeemable
paper had driven out all gold and silver from circulation at
the Cape. Debts could be paid in this paper, which was legal
tender, but nobody would receive it in exchange for goods
except at such a discount that there was a general resort to
barter. Internal trade was para-
lyzed, and a little wheat, wine,
and tallow was all that could be
squeezed out of the colony for
export to Java and India. The
straggling settlers on the north-
ern frontier were continually
fighting with the Ishmaelite Farm House. Achter Paarl.
Bushmen, and the Kafirs on the northeast were still more
harassing and formidable. Every kraal was a rude fort and
every family a garrison. Ammunition was growing scarce and
costly, and there was no hope of succor from the Castle at the
Cape.
In view of this patent collapse, the stretching out of the
IN TRADITIONAL OPHIR LAND
strong arm of Great Britain to seize the Cape in 1795 should
have been as welcome as rescue to a wreck. Then for the first
time a power took hold of the way station of East Indian trade,
and its straggling offshoots, that had the strength and the skill
and the far-reaching conception to
do more than repress savage on-
slaughts and defend grazing
grounds, — to open great mines,
to convert arid karoos into irri-
gated plantations, to extend the
network of railways, and stretch
in time the steel band of civiliza-
tion across the darkest zone of
Africa. This Britannia has done
and is doing, either in her imperial
way, or by the hands of the sons
who have labored to make her
greater.
But the coming of this saving
and transforming power had the appearance, at the time, of a
hostile attack. The Netherlands, in 1793, were wholly under
the thumb of the new French republic, and war was declared
against Great Britain through controlling French influence.
There had been some revolting against the further collection
of taxes by officers of
the East India Com-
pany, but the colonists
as a body did not want
any foreign interference.
So the little garrison in
the Castle at the Cape
put on a defiant front,
Cape Cart. ancj raHJed tO itS Support
a number of burgher volunteers when a strong British fleet sailed
into Table Bay in the first week of September, 1795. It was ap-
parent, however, even to the boldest Dutch defender, that resist-
Brand Solder (Fire Loft). For the
prevention of fire.
86 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
ance was hopeless, and Cape Town, with its castle and garrison,
surrendered to Admiral Sir George Elphinstone and General Sir
Alured Clarke, on the sixteenth of September. So was ended
one hundred and forty-three years of rule of the Dutch East
India Company, and from this date British ascendancy in South
Africa began. There was a brief intermission, it is
true, some years later, when the treaty of Amiens
(1802) transferred the
Colony to the Ba-
tavian Republic.
But the breaking
out of war again
in the following
year ruptured the
treaty, and ex-
posed the Cape
Colony again to the hazard of capture, which actually followed
early in January, 1806, when Cape Town was retaken by Major
General David Baird. From that time the Cape was held con-
tinuously by the strong arm until the convention at London,
August 13, 1814, when all claims of the Netherlands to South
Africa were extinguished by cession, and Great Britain became
the heir of all the Dutch advances from the Cape of Good
Hope.1
1 "South Africa," George McCall Theal. " Precis of the Archives of the
Cape of Good Hope," H. C. V. Leibrandt. " South Africa," Augustus Henry
Keane. "Heroes of South African Discovery," N. D'Anvers (Henry Bell).
:
CHAPTER III
THE PIONEER ADVANCE
HEN Lord Charles Somerset came to the Cape
as the first Governor of the Colony after the
cession, how slight and infirm was the hold of
any civilization on the indurated barbarism
of the vast expanse of Africa south of the
equator! In the three hundred years that had
passed since Vasco Da Gama made known the bounds of the
continent, the outer rim of the traditional Ophir land had barely
been pierced. From the Atlantic side the Portuguese had not
pushed beyond a fringe of trading posts on the Lower Guinea
coast, and were clinging feebly to insignificant stations along the
shores of the Mozambique channel. The Dutch grip was more
obstinate, in spite of all disappointments, but the range of their
advance was only a few hundred miles from the Cape, and out-
side of Cape Town the population was a mere sprinkling on the
face of the land. When the British first wrested the Cape from
the Dutch, Earl Macartney, who held the government in 1797,
defined by proclamation the bounds of the Colony. It only ran
east to the Great Fish River and on the north to the Zuurberg
Mountains and the southern edge of Bushman's land, trending
up to the Kamiesberg, and thence along the coast to Buffels
River in Little Namaqualand. The total extent was roughly
120,000 square miles, merely the extreme tip of South Africa,
and the entire population, both white and black, was reported
to be less than 62,000, or about one person to every two square
miles. This was a petty fringe on the skirt of the dark continent.
Not only was the Colony weak in numbers, but it was seem-
ingly without any uplifting leaven of enterprise and ambition.
87
88 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
For generations the Dutch settler had been treading in the foot-
steps of his forefathers without any wish to stride ahead. What
they had done, he would do if he could. No new way of work-
ing or living or thinking was as good to his mind as the old way.
The pioneer farmer and grazier had often been constrained to
pack all his goods on the backs of oxen or in a wagon with his
wife and children. A little hut of " wattle and daub " sheltered
the family. Rude frames of wood overlaid with raw hide strips
were their bedsteads, and sheepskins, their bedclothes. They
cooked their food on the coals of wood-fires or boiled it in an
iron pot. They cut their meat with clasp knives and drank
from tin cups. A big chest served them for a table. Their
house floor was the bare earth, unless a strip was covered with
a wild beast's skin. Their children were brought up from their
birth in this habit of life and the lack of comforts was not to
them a privation. Their standard of living was scarcely higher
than that of the imported Guinea slaves who worked for them, or
of the native tribes that surrounded them. Their isolation from
civilized society and their life in the wilderness in familiar con-
tact with slaves and savages was inevitably degrading. When the
English took the Colony, there was not a bookstore or a single
good school in it, and outside of Cape Town almost the only
tutors were soldiers who were allowed to live with the farmers.1
Still there was one sustaining and universal spirit which kept
even the rudest grazier from sinking to the barbaric level. They
clung to the God of Israel and to the Bible as God's revelation.
They never wearied of searching the Scriptures, and they prayed
with the fervor and faith of the old Covenanters. Their creed
was the strait and narrow way of Calvinism and the synod of
Dordrecht, and they turned to the Old Testament as confidingly
as to the New for guidance. They recognized the holding of
slaves as a practice permitted to Israel, and they made bond ser-
vants of the Hottentots in their apprenticeship contracts. In
their eyes the Bushmen were Ishmaelites and the Kafirs Philis-
1 "South Africa," George McCall Theal. "Handbook to South Africa,"
S. W. Silver & Co.
THE PIONEER ADVANCE 89
tines, who were cumbering the ground that might be occupied by
God's favored people.1 But the settlers were phlegmatic and
peaceful by nature, content with their bare living, and with no
ardor for extending their bounds by conquest. An extraordinary
impulse was needed to convert them into adventurers and wan-
derers in the desert.
This impulse was given by the capture of the Cape, the influx
of jostling immigrants from Great Britain, new and vexing legis-
lation, and disasters to crops which exalted the comparative value
of pasturage lands.2 At the opening of the administration of
Lord Charles Somerset there was a marked effort on the part of
the Home Government to promote the growth of the Colony. A
regular mail packet service was established between England and
the Cape, and ^50,000 were voted by Parliament in 1819 to be
disbursed in aid of emigration to South Africa. This contribution
was a powerful stimulus, and it is estimated that nearly 5,000
new settlers of British birth were added to the population of
Cape Colony from March, 1820, to May, 1821.
Unfortunately the South African climate in 1820 and the
years immediately following was peculiarly aggravating. In 1819
there had been a heavy wheat crop and the consequent tempta-
tion to farmers to extend their wheat growing. So they did, but
the crop of 1820 throughout South Africa was fatally blighted.
The next year's crop fared no better, and thousands of farmers
were ruined and brought even to the verge of starvation. Rations
were distributed by the Colonial Government in the fall of 1821
to those who had no means to buy food, but the unrelieved
suffering was widespread. Following hard on this scourge of
blight came the prodigious floods of October, 1823, when it
seemed to the colonists in the eastern districts as if the heavens
were open for another deluge. Rain fell in torrents for days
without ceasing, and overflowing rivers ran foaming to the sea,
carrying millions of tons of earth in their turbid floods as well as
the shattered houses of settlers who had barely time to fly for
1 "Impressions of South Africa," James Bryce. "South Africa," Theal.
2 "Annals of Natal," John Bird, p. 505.
90 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
their lives. These staggering rebuffs in the face of the new emi-
grants were greatly demoralizing. Some fled from the Cape in
despair, and many more wrote home to their friends that the Col-
ony was hung between flood and famine, and that the greater part
of South Africa was a dismal Karooland. Still there was a notably
plucky rally and an immediate turning to other resources when
wheat cultivation was shown to be an uncertain reliance. Cattle
and sheep breeding was largely extended at once, and in 1828
hides and skins ranked only second to wine in the list of
exports.1
The failures in wheat growing and the resort to pasture land
were strongly moving influences urging on the advance of pio-
neer settlers from the southern river valleys north and east over
the veld into unclaimed territory. This natural flow of migra-
tion was greatly swelled and impelled by the clashing of the old
settlers with the newcomers from Great Britain, and by their
resentment of British control and administration measures. By
the census of 1819 the white population of the colony was
42,217, and outside of Cape Town this people was almost
wholly of Dutch descent or of the fused Dutch and Huguenot
strains. It was inevitable that a stock of such breeding and tra-
dition should be impatient of any ordinances or ways except its
own. It was peculiarly irksome to bow to a nation which had
captured the Cape by the strong arm, and was only represented
by a small minority of the settlers. The inevitable heart-burn-
ing was aggravated by the contact and rivalries of the new and
old settlers. Neither faction had the knowledge or temper to
recognize the best traits in the other and show tolerance for dis-
similar habits and prejudices. The Dutch boer has an old
Anglo-Saxon root and is simply correspondent to the German
bauer, a farmer or countryman ; but in the English mouth all
the Dutch colonists were lumped as Boers, and in the English
eye Boer was too often confounded with the clownish boor.
The Boers faced this contempt with a glowing resentment that
burned like a slow-match.
1 « South Africa," Theal.
THE PIONEER ADVANCE 91
In the new measures of government there was a succession
of vexations also to colonists attached to the old customs and
ordinances. The expense of the new colonial establishment was
a grievance. The adjustment of the currency aroused bitter
complaint. The substitution of English for Dutch in official
papers, and the abolition of the old Dutch courts, were heavy
humiliations. But the keenest resentment was excited by the
measures designed for the protection of Hottentot bond servants
and free natives, and the emancipation act of 1833. There had
been a rapid increase in the importation of slaves from Guinea
after the first conquest of the Colony by the British, but in 1807
the last cargo of slaves was landed at Cape Town, and the slave
trade was formally brought to an end by law in the following year.
Still the colonists continued to hold and breed slaves as their
fathers had done, and there were 35,745 slaves in the Colony
when the emancipation act went into effect on the first of Decem-
ber, 1834. These slaves were valued at _£3 ,000,000, but only
,£1,200,000 were appropriated as compensation to their owners.
The loss fell heavily on many owners already sinking under the
weight of mortgages, and there were rumblings and outpourings
of bitter indignation. The deficiency in compensation was called
Imperial confiscation, and the Boers resented it sorely, not merely
on the score of the loss measured in money, but as a crowning
instance of their political subjection.1 Alien Imperial rule was
the deep-seated grievance which was the underlying and impel-
ling cause of the extraordinary exodus from Cape Colony called
the Great Trek.2
In 1835 Louis Triechard led out the first pioneer company
of this migration, and his advance into the wilderness beyond the
bounds of the Colony was followed by a succession of slow-mov-
ing caravans pushing northeast to the head waters of the Orange
River and the terraces of Natal, and moving on, in course of
years, across the Vaal to the Limpopo water-shed. This out-
push of pioneers in large parties, overcoming all barriers of
1 " Annals of Natal." " South Africa," Theal. " The Great Trek," Henry
Cloete, her Majesty's High Commissioner for the Colony of Natal. 2 Ibid.
92 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
mountains and deserts, and fearlessly venturing into the strong-
holds of the fiercest native tribes, undoubtedly hastened and
secured the acquirement of the marvellous diamond and gold
fields of South Africa. The march of the caravans and the
winning of the land was a drama full of barbaric color and
movement.
At the time when the Cape first fell into the hands of Great
Britain, there was an insignificant tribe, the Amazulu, living in
kraals on the banks of
the river Unvolosi, which
flows into the Indian
Ocean at St. Lucia Bay.
In their name there was
an arrogance of high de-
scent, for its meaning is
" the people of the sky ";
but the Amazulu had then
nothing else to brag of,
and while their head chief,
Senzanzakona, lived, there
was no terror in the Zulu
name. But there was a
son born to Senzanzakona
in or near the year 1783 1
who made the Amazulus
masters of a region far
Zulu Chief Cetawayo and Part of his Family. , . . . r
exceeding any bounds of
the Kalangu Monomotapa, and stamped his name across it in
indelible blood.2
The boy was called Tshaka or Chaka, which, in the Sechuana
tongue, is " battle axe." There is another tracing of his name
to Cheka, a wasting disease afflicting his mother. In either
translation the name was ominous. But this chief's son had no
deformity that an eye could see. When he came to manhood,
a sculptor would have picked him as a model of his tall, athletic
1 "South Africa," Theal. "Annals of Natal." 2 Ibid.
THE PIONEER ADVANCE
93
race. He was more than six feet in height, and every inch was
pulsing with vigor. No rival could leap as high or hurl an
assagai as far. In later life his
shapely features were swollen with
ugly passions and debauch, and
his lithe body was overlaid with
fat, but he never lost the beauty of
his deep-set, brilliant black eyes,
fringed with their long, curved
eyelashes.
For some cause Chaka, while
only a lad, was forced to fly for
refuge to Dingiswayo, chief of the
Abatetwa, the master tribe of
the district. Under protection
of this chief he was made a sol-
dier, and took by craft the head-
ship of his own Zulu tribe when
his father died. Then he was Zulu Prince' Dinizulu'
able to betray and put to death his protector Dingiswayo, and
spread his mastery by force or
,~t terror over the surrounding
' ' * ''.''-'-' .. A I ' I
'/ tribes. As he grew in power he
showed an unfolding genius for
war and command. He pressed
every young and strong man
within reach into his army. He
marshalled his men in impis or
regiments. He discarded the old
bunch of assagais and armed each
man with a single, short-handled,
long-bladed unkonto or spear,
and protected him with a shield
of oxhide. He aimed with his
weapon to make every fight hand to hand, where every man
must kill or be killed. If a soldier lost his spear he was
Zulu Family.
94 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
doomed to die, unless he could show another in place of it, torn
from an enemy.
No barbaric figure was ever more terrific and martial than
the Zulu soldier in war-dress. Chaka's hair was cut close,
except on the top of his head where the thick, crisp locks were
matted or moulded into a ring made of a tree gum and polished
to the likeness of ebony. Thick folds of otter pelt were wound
round his head and great earrings of carved sugar-cane hung
from the cut lobes of his ears, which were covered with pads of
A Zulu and his Ten Wives.
jackal's skin. From this turban projected two feet or more a
jet-black crane feather, waving with every toss of his head. A
circlet of twisted monkey and genet skins hung over his breast
and back, and from his waist a thick flexible kilt of twisted skins
hung to his knees. Bands of short-cut white oxtails circled his
legs and arms, and the ruffles round his ankles made his bound-
ing feet oddly like the winged Mercury. In his right hand he
grasped his spear and swung at his left side his oval shield of
white oxhide. Now pin with thorns a dozen bunches of the
red feathers of the louri in the crisp tufts of his crown and scat-
THE PIONEER ADVANCE
95
Zulu Kraal and Huts.
ter some other brilliant feathers on a circlet above his breast,
and see Chaka dressed for parade.1
Then fancy the marshalling of an army of men like him, for
the chieftain in arms was one of ten thousand. When the lead-
ing division marched on in review, every man was more or less
closely the image of Chaka. These picked men were his Unbala-
bale or Invincibles, scarred veterans who had never been beaten.
They bore white shields marked, like their chief's, with a black
spot, and behind them followed in grade of honor divisions with
red-spotted shields, gray shields, and black shields. Only the
Invincibles had kilts of skins, the others wearing instead a trap-
ping of oxtails. As these fierce troops marched on before
Chaka's keen eye, the men of chief mark would bound from the
ranks and show a marvel of vaulting, darting to and fro, whirl-
ing of spears and mimicry of fight, in which few athletes could
compare with the supple Zulu.
In formation for battle Chaka curved the van of his impis
1 "Annals of Natal," pp. 90—100.
96 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
like a crescent. He called the end his horns and the centre his
breast. This was the old array of the warring Bantu tribes, but
Chaka greatly strengthened it by a formation behind in an
oblong block of men held in reserve to repel any break in the
crescent or reenforce it when wavering. His force of disciplined
soldiers ranged up to fifty thousand strong.
Zulu Hut in course of Construction.
With this prodigious engine of war shaped to his hand, he
overran all the country from Delagoa Bay to the Unzimvulu
River and far into the interior, scourging its face mercilessly.
Some of the terrified tribes in his way were blotted out com-
pletely. " There was a white mark from the Tugela to Thaba
N'chu, and that was our bones," said an old Hlubi to Theal, the
historian of South Africa. Sometimes stragglers escaped to lurk
in mountain recesses. These wretched survivors of the scourge
were covered by one new and pitiful name, Amafengu, because
their first cry to strangers was Fenguza, " we want." Only one
tribe held Chaka in check, the warlike Amaswazi, which stub-
bornly guarded their mountain paths and cliffs. Even the fierce
Amangwane were forced to fly before Chaka's resistless impis ;
but they kept massed together, and in their retreat drove off or
massacred most of the tribes between the Orange and the Vaal
rivers. Then the Amangwane, still hot pressed by the Zulus,
THE PIONEER ADVANCE
97
began to rub against the frontiersmen of Cape Colony. This
inroad was bravely met by a muster of a thousand soldiers and
Boers under Lieutenant Colonel Somerset, who finally put the
Amangwane to utter route in a sharp battle, August 27, 1828,
near the banks of the Bashil River.1
Chaka was a warrior capable of measuring the efficiency of
the white man's organization and firearms. When the Aman-
gwane were thrown back, the Zulu chief withdrew his own impis
without risking a collision with the whites. A few weeks later
he was murdered by two of his half brothers and his best-trusted
attendant. Dingaan, his half brother, and one of his assassins,
grasped the headship of the Zulus, but his succession was dis-
Zulu Woman grinding Corn.
puted by the commander of one of the chief divisions of Chaka's
army, the unruly Matabele. This revolting chief, Umsilikazi,
was the model of a Zulu warrior, tall, sinewy, shapely, and,
except in war dress, naked save for a cord around his waist
from which leopards' tails dangled. A string of little blue
beads was drawn about his sturdy neck, and three green feathers
of a paroquet were stuck in his crisp hair. His followers were
like him, and the wild charge of the legion of such men armed
1 " South Africa," Theal. » Annals of Natal."
98
THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
with their keen-bladed spears was a sight that would try the
nerve of any white soldier. How the rudely armed and undis-
ciplined Boers would face it was soon to be tested.
Umsilikazi, revolting from Dingaan, led his Matabele divi-
sion across the desert to fall upon the country north of the
Orange River and west of the Drakensberg, the Dragon
Mountains. Much of this country had been ravaged before
by the Amangwane, and the Matabele spared nothing that had
escaped slaughter and pillage. Dingaan sent an army of Zulus
in 1834 to dislodge his rival, but the warriors of Umsilikazi
Zulu Women.
beat back the attack. By the Zulu raids and massacres and
wars, the whole country from the seaboard of Natal nearly to
the junction of the Orange and Vaal was desolated, and the
native tribes of the region almost destroyed. Thus great tracts
of land were opened to the advance of the migrating Boers, but
the push of the trekking pioneers soon brought them in conflict
with Umsilikazi and Dingaan.
Then the remarkable traits of this peculiar people stood out
in high relief. To English immigrants, jostling the old settlers,
the ordinary Boer appeared a Dutch clodhopper, sullen and jeal-
ous, unkempt in person and dress, immovably set in his traditional
ways, pig-headed in his obstinate prejudices, a block to every
suggestion of progress, Pharasaical in his prayers, absurd in his
THE PIONEER ADVANCE
99
customs, and often clutching to the last penny.1 There were
some true lines in this partial portraiture, with a natural warping
Zulus smoking Indian Hemp.
of prejudice and lack of insight. In face of the foreign intru-
sion the Boer had something of the instinct of the turtle and
Old Zulu Women taking Kafir Beer to a Wedding.
1 "The Great Thirst Land," Parker Gillmore. "South Africa," George
McCall Theal. "South Africa; a Sketch Book of Men, Manners, and Facts,"
James Stanley Little.
ioo THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
porcupine. But in the heart of the wilderness, in his venture-
some trek over the pathless veld, and in the traverse of moun-
tains and deserts, he showed what scornful eyes had not seen, —
the self-reliance, the fortitude, and the pluck of the true pioneer.
He packed his wife and children and all his needful supplies
in a huge, low-bodied wagon under an arched frame covered with
waterproof canvas. To this stout
wagon sixteen strong oxen were
yoked to the chain or rawhide rope
forming a trektouw. Every ox was
a helpmate. Every one knew his
name and place and resented a
change in yoking. The Boer and
his Hottentot helpers spoke to them
all familiarly, and could cut at will
a fly from the ear of any one with
a flick of their long-lashed whip.
When these prairie-schooners lum-
bered ofF, creaking and swaying,
with a chorus of Dutch and native calls, the Boers and their
sons rode beside them on ungainly flea-bitten horses, trained to
herding and hunting, and often possessing uncommon bottom
and speed.
The Boer was by nature prudent and wary. For comfort
and safeguard the advance of the Great Trek was in companies,
camping at night on plain and hillside, with wagons ranged to
form a rough palisade and kraal. No morning or nightfall ever
passed without prayers and the reading or recital of Scripture.
For every step of his way he looked to his God for guidance,
and he felt that the old promises to the chosen people were
renewed to him. His faith in the literal inspiration of the Bible
was unwavering. He did not doubt that the sun stood still at
the call of Joshua, or wonder at the slaughter of Philistines with
the jawbone of an ass. In face of every privation and the direst
peril he was sustained by his certain reliance on the help of One
who could make a spring gush from the desert rock, or deliver
Zulu Girls.
THE PIONEER ADVANCE
101
any heathen host into the hands of a few faithful servants.
But with all this reliant devotion he never forgot " to keep his
powder dry," and used every opportunity to perfect his skill as
a marksman.
Back of his faith and prudence was an unflinching spirit. In
the uncouth Boer smouldered the fire of an ancestry that charged
at Ivry and starved at Leyden. Even the women and children
were dauntless at the
pinch of need. With
her white grease-cloth
wrapped about her face,
the Boer's vrouw was
an uncouth object, but
with her eye on the
sight of a rifle many a
fat old woman was a
guard to be feared.
No impediments
nor dangers stayed the
advance of these pio-
neers. When a heavy
wheel dropped into a
deep gully or earth-
crack or ant-bear hole,
it was pried out with un-
tiring patience. When
thunder-storms changed
the red soil to beds of
mire and the wheels were clogged masses of mud from nave to
felloe, the mud was laboriously scraped away and the wagons
tugged to firmer ground. When the violent wrenches and strains
snapped trektouws and wagon-poles and king-bolts like pack-
thread, the same inflexible temper relinked the broken touws with
riems of rawhide, chopped out new wagon-poles, and forged new
fastenings with rude blacksmith's art. No karoo was so forbid-
ding and no stream so swollen as to bar the onward march.
Native Laborers in War Dress.
102 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
The tired Boer snored serenely at night behind the bulwark
of his wagons, regardless of the wild beasts prowling and sniff-
ing outside. The giggling calls of the gray and brown jackals,
the doleful howl of the slinking hyena, even the deep breathing
sough of the lurking lion, did not open his eyes, and it must be
a fiercely menacing roar indeed that would lift his head. His
only haunting dread was the crippling of his march by the
deadly tsetse fly or the wasting diseases that made his horses
and oxen the prey of the vulture.
Trekbok (Springbok) Hunting.
In the passage of these pioneers the destruction of wild ani-
mals of all kinds was enormous, partly for the sake of needful
food, and partly for the skins, but much wantonly and waste-
fully, for the Boer would rarely let pass a living mark for his
rifle. Of lesser game there was no attempt to keep tally, but by
a common report thousands of lions were shot in the march to
the Transvaal. Any such reckoning must be largely guesswork,
though there is no doubt that few beasts within range escaped with-
out the sting of a bullet. But a foe more formidable than any
multitude of lions sought to bar the progress of the Great Trek.
The revolting Umsilikazi was the first of the great Zulu
chiefs to try the temper and the arms of these pioneers. One
THE PIONEER ADVANCE
103
of the larger divisions of the Great Trek, led by Hendrik Pot-
gieter and Gert Maritz, left the Cape Colony in August,
1836, and pushed north of the Caledon River.1 Some of the
pioneers in this advance were cut off suddenly and killed by
Umsilikazi. Flushed with this bloodshed, he made a swoop
with six thousand men upon a part of Potgieter's trek — a com-
pany of a few score men, women, and children. But the startled
Boers were now on their
guard. They ranged their
big, white-tented wagons in a
square, lashing the wheels to-
gether with rawhide riems,
and filling in the chinks in
their barricade with thorny
mimosa bushes. In the cen-
tre of this laager a few wagons
were placed as a cover for the
women and children.
Upon sight of the ad-
vancing Matabele, all knelt
and prayed. Then some of
the men rode out boldly to
meet the attack with their
heavy rifles. Their fire was
deadly, killing, at times, two
or three at a shot, when their
guns were loaded with slugs,
but the impis pressed on,
driving the Boers back to their laager in a sullen retreat, turning
to fire as fast as they could reload. Within the laager all was
made ready for a defence to the death. Back of every wagon a
little heap of powder and bullets was put on the ground, and the
women stood by to hand spare guns and reload. It was sternly
ordered that there should be no shrieking or crying by women
or children. In silence the rush of the Matabele was awaited.
1 The Caledon River divides Basutoland from the Orange River Colony.
Zulu in War Dress.
104 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
On came the impis in raging masses that dashed on every
side of the laager like surf on a reef, wrenching at the wheels,
clambering over the canvas, plunging through the thorns. The
heavy wagons were shaken and swayed, but the lashed barricade
held fast. The grim Boers met the shock with withering
volleys, piling up the blacks in bloody heaps around the laager.
Crouching behind the firing line, the women moulded bullets
and helped to reload.
The firing was so deadly and the laager so impenetrable that
the surges massed against it recoiled. But, after a moment of
rallying,on came the billows of men, flinging their assagais, and
howling like madmen as they crashed against the barrier which
shielded the Boers. They stabbed and slashed at the canvas
covers in frenzied efforts to cut their way over the wagons, and
wriggled through the crevices packed with thorn bushes, until
some, torn, bloody, and gasping, squirmed into the square, where
the Boer women killed them with knives and hatchets. The
Boers fired as fast as they could lift their rifles, not stopping to
use their ramrods, but grabbing handfuls of powder to charge
their guns, and dropping in slugs with scarcely any wadding.
So intense was the strain of that hour that even these men
of iron nerve were entranced. " Of that fight," wrote one,
" nothing remains in my memory except shouting and tumult
and lamentation, and a dense smoke that rose straight as a plumb
line upwards from the ground."1
Four times the black impis charged and four times their
onset was beaten back before Umsilikazi drew off his men.
The field around the laager was a fearful sight, and the white
tops of the barricade were slashed into strips and dripping with
blood. Seventy-two stabs were counted in the cover of one
wagon, and eleven hundred and seventy-two assagais were flung
through into the camp. But none of the stout defenders were
killed, and all joined devoutly in a psalm of thanksgiving.
In retaliation for this attack Hendrik Potgieter and Pieter
Uys led a troop of one hundred and thirty-seven in a swift
1 "Annals of Natal," p. 375.
THE PIONEER ADVANCE
105
march and onslaught upon the main division of Umsilikazi.
The attack was so well timed and aimed that the array of fierce
impis was shattered and their chief was driven in flight to the
wilderness beyond the Limpopo. There, in the present Mata-
beleland, Umsilikazi brought together the remnants of his
people, and ruled in awe of the pioneers until his death in 1870.
Hard upon the defeat of
Umsilikazi came the greater
clash with Dingaan, when the
trekking Boers crossed the Dra-
kensberg or Dragon Mountains
to the terraces of Natal. This
cunning and tricky chief made
smooth professions of friendship
to the Boers at first. He wel-
comed as allies the company
headed by Pieter Retief and re-
ceived the commander at his
kraal. The chief's house was a
spherical hut about twenty feet
in diameter. Its floor was pol- zuiu-jim cameei.
ished till it shone like a mirror, and its roof was supported by
twenty-two pillars of wood completely covered with beads.
Around this house were seventeen hundred ruder huts which
Dingaan used as barracks for his impis, and each hut would
cover twenty men.
After some parleying Dingaan signed a cession of the greater
part of the present territory of Natal to the Boers. To cele-
brate the compact he invited Retief to visit him again with his
companions. It was agreed as an exhibit of good faith that no
arms should be taken into the chiefs kraal. So Retief and
some sixty other Boers, with forty Hottentot attendants, piled
their arms outside the kraal, and came in before Dingaan, who
was sitting in an arm-chair in front of his hut. Two of his
impis were formed in a circle about him. The Boers took their
seats on the ground within the circle, and cups of utywala or
io6 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
native beer were offered them to drink. But when they put
their lips to the cup, Dingaan cried out, " bulala amatagati,"
" kill the wizards." At this cry his Zulus fell on their helpless
guests in overwhelming mass. A few Boers had clasp-knives,
and the others met the rush with naked hands, but all were
overpowered in a moment and dragged over the ground to a
hill near by, called Hloma Mabuto, or the mustering of the
soldiers. Here their heads were crushed with knob kerries,
and their bodies were flung into heaps. Retief was forced to see
the horrid murder of all of his companions. Then his heart
and liver were cut out and taken to Dingaan, and the mutilated
corpse was cast on the heap of dead.1
None of the Boers in the trap escaped, and after the mas-
sacre the Zulus poured out to raid the scattered camps of the
pioneers. They were finally beaten back at Bushman's River,
after they had killed many trekkers and carried off their cattle,
and the mounted Boers followed their retreat for days. But
the Zulus were quick to turn and strike again like fierce hawks,
and within two months they swooped down upon the English
settlers and native blacks of Natal and cut them off almost to a
man.
The trekking Boers were hard pressed. Pieter Uys was
killed in ambuscade, with his son, a boy of fourteen, and a num-
ber of his men. When Uys was fatally wounded, he urged his
son to escape by spurring his horse, and the boy rode on to
a place of safety, but turned and rode back deliberately to die
with his father.2 Potgieter drove back the Zulus after the fall
of Uys, but he did not venture to hold his ground, and with-
drew across the Drakensberg. Only a determined rally and
crushing blow could free Natal from the hanging menace of the
impis that Chaka had trained for the hand of Dingaan.
In December, 1838, a force of six hundred mounted Boers
was mustered to strike this blow under the command of Andries
Pretorius. It seemed an absurdly weak force for such an attack,
but the count in numbers did not measure its strength. Every
1 "Annals of Natal," pp. 214-218. 2 Ibid. p. 374.
THE PIONEER ADVANCE 107
man was a master marksman with the heavy rifle that had so
often broken the bound of the lion and stopped the charging
rhinoceros when to miss was death. In every one's heart was
a flame of hate for the ruthless Zulu. " Remember Retief "
was a mutter that ran from man to man as the troop rode on.
They longed for revenge as thirsty men crave water. They
advanced, too, with the spirit of the Israelites of old and of
Cromwell's Ironsides. They marched only between matins
and evensong. They prayed in their saddles and lifted their
voices in psalms. Surely the God of their covenant had the
power to confound any might of the heathen and deliver their
enemy into their hands.
When they drew near to the Zulus, Pretorius halted, and
with all his men offered a vow to the God of their fathers,
should He grant them the victory, "to raise a house in memory
of His great name wherever it should please Him, and note the
day in a book to make it known to latest posterity." 1
With this simple confidence in Divine protection there was
the shrewdest practical judgment in selecting the best possible
post to offset their comparative weakness in numbers and in-
trench their little force. Their laager was pitched at the junc-
tion of a broad river reach, called a sea-cow hole, with a deep,
dry water-course, covering both flanks. Here, on Sunday, the
1 6th of December, 1838, at five o'clock in the morning, they
were attacked by a force of many thousand Zulus and fought
for more than five hours. Impi after impi, reckless of life,
charged up to the rifle front belching smoke, flame, and bullets,
only to reel back before the deadly hail. When even this rag-
ing horde wavered, Pretorius with one hundred and fifty picked
horsemen circled about and struck their rear with a charge so fiery
that the Zulus were utterly routed. The Boers drove the blacks
to the river, shooting and trampling them under the feet of their
horses. " The Kafirs lay on the ground," said one horseman,
" like pumpkins in a rich soil that has borne a large crop." The
sea-cow hole was packed so full that " the water looked like a
1 " Annals of Natal," pp. 246-249, 448.
io8 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
pool of blood," and the stream thenceforward was known as
Blood River.1 Three thousand six hundred Zulus were left
dead on the field, and this decisive victory was gained without
the loss of a single life to the Boers. A few were slightly
wounded, but they thought nothing of their hurts in the com-
mon thanksgiving.
This signal triumph and salvation were humbly taken as the
answer of God to their prayers, and the vow before the battle
was faithfully ful-
filled, as the old
Dutch Reformed
Church of Pieter
Maritzburg, the
mother church
of Southeast Af-
rica, bears wit-
ness. The flying
Zulus were pur-
sued and the
kraal of Dingaan
captured, Febru-
ary jd, 1839,
where the bodies
of Retief and
his companions
were found and
mournfully buried in one grave. The Boers called the place
Weenan, the weeping, and so it is known to this day.
Dingaan fled north and hid himself in a concealed kraal
which he built. A Boer writer tells a story of his capture and
death with grim delight. Many of the tribes which had been
pressed in with the Zulus made peace with the Boers. One of
the Swazi chiefs, Sapusa, who had bowed to the tyranny of
Dingaan, found his late master's hiding-place. " On the first
day old Sapusa pricked his captive with sharp assagais, not
1 "Annals of Natal," pp. 246-249, 448.
A Zulu Laborer in War Attire.
THE PIONEER ADVANCE 109
more than skin deep, from the sole of his foot to the top of his
head. On the second day he caused him to be bitten by dogs.
On the third day Sapusa said to Dingaan, ' Are you still the rain-
maker, greatest of men ? The sun is rising, you shall not see
it set.' Then he took assagais and bored Dingaan's eyes out,
and when the sun set, Dingaan died, for he had had no food or
water for three days. Such was the end of Dingaan." l
So the Boers finally stayed the sweep of the Zulu scourge
which had laid waste a great stretch of land north of the Cape
settlements. Upon the defeat and flight of Umsilikazi, the vic-
torious commandant, Hendrik Potgieter, proclaimed that all the
territory overrun by this chief was forfeited to the pioneer
Boers. This claim covered the greater part of the late South
African Republic, and half, at least, of what is now the Orange
River Colony. In this assertion there was no recognition of
any sovereignty of Great Britain or attachment to the Cape
Colony. It was the view of the Boers that the land which they
took was theirs by right of capture and forfeit, and that they
were independent adventurers with no ties of allegiance. A
simple form of republican government was established for the
Boers, north of the Orange River, by a general assembly of the
pioneers at Winburg in June, 1837, and a few years later, on
the land won from Dingaan, on the other side of the Drakens-
berg, the republic of Natalia was declared to extend from the
Umzimbulu to the Tugela. Outside of these crudely organized
political associations there were from sixteen to twenty pioneer
companies, headed by field cornets, which were practically as
independent as the native tribes north of the Drakensberg.
Neither of the republican creations was recognized by Great
Britain, and, in 1842, Port Natal and the seaboard of the
republic were captured, though Andries Pretorius repulsed the
first British attack at Congella with heavy loss. In the follow-
ing year Natal was formally declared to be a British Colony, and
several thousand British immigrants were brought in to take the
1 Of the basic fact of the assassination of Dingaan by a Swazi there is no
question.
no THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
place of the retiring Boers who recrossed the Drakensberg. In
1848, by proclamation of Sir Harry Smith, her Majesty's High
Commissioner and Governor of Cape Colony, all the territory
between the Vaal and Orange rivers and the Quathlamba divi-
sion of the Drakensberg was formally declared to be part of the
British dominions under the name of the Orange River Sover-
eignty. The Boers had been spreading out towards the Vaal in
many trekking parties north of the Drakensberg, and the Brit-
ish supremacy was not recognized until it was forcibly asserted
by arms in the battle of Boomplatz, July 22, 1848. Then part
of the Boers sullenly submitted, but many, headed by Andries
Pretorius, preferred to pass beyond the farthest assertion of
English dominion by crossing the Vaal and entering the wilder-
ness stretching to the Limpopo.
There was then not even a glimmer of anticipation that the
great stretch of veld and karoo between the Orange and the Vaal
contained by far the richest diamond fields in the world. The
controlling ministry in Great Britain at the time did not even
consider it worth the cost of keeping and defending, and on
October 21, 1851, Earl Grey wrote to Sir Harry Smith that
" its ultimate abandonment should be a settled point in imperial
policy." The territory beyond the Vaal was rated still more
cheaply, and on January 17, 1852, the local independence of
the inhabitants of the Transvaal was formally recognized by the
Sand River Convention, signed by two assistant commissioners
for Sir Harry Smith, and by appointed delegates for the Trans-
vaal pioneers. The state organization of these settlers was first
christened Hollandsche Afrikaansche Republiek, but this name
was changed to Zud Afrikaansche Republiek in September,
1853. In the preceding month of July, Andries Pretorius, the
pioneer leader who broke the Zulu power, died, but his great
service was honorably recognized in the choice of his eldest son,
Marthinus Wessel Pretorius, as the first president of the new
Republic, and in the establishment of its capital of Pretoria.
On March 31, 1852, Lieutenant General George Cathcart suc-
ceeded Sir Harry Smith as High Commissioner and Governor
THE PIONEER ADVANCE m
of Cape Colony. The Transvaal had been already disposed of
by the Sand River Convention, but, immediately after his arrival,
May 13, 1852, General Cathcart issued a formal proclamation
confirming this convention. It appeared, too, that it might be
desirable to shift the charge of maintenance and local defence of
the Orange River Sovereignty to the shoulders of the pioneer
settlers. This conviction was confirmed by the outbreak of a
war with the Basutos, the most powerful native tribe in this terri-
tory, under a cunning chief, Moshesh. In November, 1852, Gen-
eral Cathcart led a little army of two thousand infantry and five
hundred cavalry to the Caledon River, but in the following month
his expedition was beset by an overwhelming force of Basutos
at Berea Mountain, and the battle was in effect a repulse to
the British. After leaving a garrison at Bloemfontein, General
Cathcart withdrew under cover of a fragile proclamation of
peace, but his report and the accompanying news were so dis-
couraging that the Duke of Newcastle wrote to him that " her
Majesty's Government had decided to withdraw from the
Orange River Sovereignty." In pursuance of this conclusion
a convention was signed February 23, 1854,31 Bloemfontein, by
Sir George Russell Clerk, special commissioner representing
Great Britain, and by the delegates from districts in the sov-
ereignty. By this convention the independence of the settlers
in the sovereignty was guaranteed, and the administration was
handed over to a provisional council, which took charge until
the first sitting of the Volksraad, March 28, 1854, and the
declaration of a republic in the following month under the name
of the Orange Free State. This independent state covered the
greater part of the territory comprised within the bounds of the
Orange River Sovereignty, excepting the large division between
the Caledon River and the Quathlamba Mountains, reserved
to the Basutos, and smaller reservations on the Vaal held by
the Griquas.
Within the limits of the whole district between the Orange
and the Vaal rivers there were then not more than fifteen thou-
sand whites scattered over a territory of many thousand square
ii2 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
miles. Except in the Caledon River districts little of this great
expanse was capable of supporting any clustered population or
even available for agriculture. The soil throughout was shallow,
and in the southern and western sections the rainfall was ordi-
narily light. There were a number of widespreading karoos, and
in the dry months the greater part of the veld was little better
than the desert. The so-called farms were chiefly cattle and sheep
pastures, where the yield of grass and herbage was so varying
that several thousand acres were needed for any fair assurance of
safety for a small herd. The total number of farms secured by
grant was only twelve hundred and sixty-five, but they extended
over eleven million acres. Of the farm owners only one hundred
and thirty-nine were Englishmen, and a number of these were non-
residents.1 In the abstract there was seemingly little attraction or
value to excite any flow of immigration or to make the province
a prize worth the cost of defending.
Not only the prospects of the Orange Free State and of its
neighbor on the other side of the Vaal seemed dull and incon-
siderable to most observers, but the condition of Natal and
i " South Africa," Theal.
THE PIONEER ADVANCE 113
of Cape Colony itself was little more promising. In Great
Britain the whole dependency was so lightly esteemed that it
was determined in 1849 to utilize it as a dumping ground for
convicts, after Australia had resentfully thrown off this burden.
The convict ship Neptune was actually sent out, but the indigna-
tion of the colonists was so demonstrative that no convicts were
landed, and the ship with its load was held for five months in
Simon's Bay, the present Naval Station, a little south of Cape
Town, until the recalling order was received, February 13, 1850.
The colony had not sunk so low as to submit to this mark of
contempt, but it was undoubtedly drooping in hopes and enter-
prise, and the progress of its industrial development was pain-
fully slow. There had been a pronounced diversion from
agriculture to cattle and sheep raising for reasons before noted,
and wool had become the chief and almost the only export of
consequence. Still the peculiar condition and vagaries of the
South African climate and seasons were hard to provide for or
overcome, and there were prevalent diseases that attacked horses,
cattle, and sheep, and greatly checked the rise of the pastoral
industry. Communication from one part of the colony to
another was very slowly improved. The roads were few and
bad, and in 1867 the only stretch of railway in all South Africa
was a bare forty miles from Cape Town to Wellington. The
total annual export of the Colony was a trifle over ^2,000,000
in value, and there was no diversification of industries and no
manufactures of any considerable extent.1 This was the situation
when the gloom was suddenly dispelled and the whole face of
South Africa changed by the discovery of the Diamond Fields.
1 " South Africa," Theal.
CHAPTER IV
THE DISCOVERY
EARLY two hundred years had passed since
the memorable expedition of van der Stel
made known to geographers the Groote River,
which, a hundred years later, was christened
the Orange. Before Great Britain took the
Cape, the daring van Reenen had penetrated
to Modder Fontein, unconsciously skirting the rim of a marvel-
lous diamond field. Since the beginning of the century scores
of roving hunters had chased their game over a network of
devious tracks, traversing every nook of the land between the
Orange and the Vaal, and often camping for days upon their
banks. Then the trekking pioneer graziers and farmers plodded
on after the hunters, sprinkling their huts and kraals over the
face of the Orange Free State, but naturally squatting first on
the arable lands and grazing ground nearest the water-courses.
So, in the course of years, in the passage of the Great Trek,
thousands of men, women, and children had passed across the
Orange and Vaal, and up and down their winding valleys, and
hundreds, at least, had trodden the river shore sands of the
region in which the most precious of gems were lying.
On the Orange River, some thirty miles above its junction
with the Vaal, there was the hamlet of Hopetown, one of the
most thriving of the little settlements, and a number of farms
dotted the angle between the rivers. Along the line of the Vaal,
for some distance above its entry into the Orange, there were
some ill-defined reservations occupied by a few weak native
tribes, — Koranas and Griquas, — for whose instruction there
114
THE DISCOVERY 115
were mission stations at Pniel and Hebron.1 For centuries
unnumbered the aboriginal tribes had been ignorantly trampling
under foot gems of countless price, and for years Dutch and
English hunters, pioneers, farmers, shepherds, and missionaries
trekked as heedlessly over the African diamond beds.
After the revelation of this fact, there arose, it is true, an
imposing tale of an old mission map of the Orange River region,
drawn as far back as the middle of the eighteenth century, across
whose worn and soiled face was scrawled: "Here be diamonds."'2
Even if this report were true, there was no evidence determining
the date of the scrawl, which might more credibly be a crude
new record than a vague old one. In any event, it does not
appear that there was even a floating rumor of the probable
existence of a South African diamond field at the time of the
actual discovery of the first identified gem.
There is nothing surprising in this oversight. When a
spectator beholds a great semicircle of artfully cut gems spar-
kling on the heads, necks, and hands of fair women massed in
superb array, and resplendent in the brilliant lights of an opera
house, or when one views the moving throng glittering with
jewels in grand court assemblies, it is hard for him to realize
how inconspicuous a tiny isolated crystal may be in the richest
of earth beds. No spot in a diamond field has the faintest
resemblance to a jeweller's show tray. Here is no display of
gems blazing like a Mogul's throne, or a Queen's tiara, or the
studded cloak of a Russian noble. Only in the marvellous
valley of Sindbad are diamonds strewn on the ground in such
profusion that they are likely to stick in the toes of a barefooted
traveller, and can be gathered by flinging carcasses of sheep from
surrounding precipices to tempt eagles to serve as diamond
winners.
It needs no strain of faith to credit the old Persian tale of
the discontented AH Hafed, roaming far and wide from his
1 " South Africa," George McCall Theal, London, 1888, 1891, 1893.
2 " South African Diamond Fields and Journey to Mines," William Jacob
Morton, New York, 1877.
n6 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
charming home on the banks of the Indus in search of dia-
monds, and, finally, beggared and starving, casting himself into
the river which flowed by his house, while the diamonds of Gol-
conda were lying in his own garden sands. It is probable that
the diamonds of India were trodden under foot for thousands of
years before the first precious stone of the Deccan was stuck in
an idol's eye or a rajah's turban. It is known that the Brazilian
diamond fields were washed for many years by gold placer
diggers without any revelation of diamonds to the world,
although these precious stones were often picked up and so
familiarly handled that they were used by the black slaves in the
fields as counters in card games.
If this be true of the most famous and prolific of all dia-
mond fields before the opening of the South African placers and
mines, any delay in the revelation of the field in the heart of
South Africa may be easily understood. For it was not only
necessary to have eyes bright and keen enough to mark one of
the few tiny precious crystals which were lying on the face of
vast stretches of pebbles, boulders, and sand, but the observer
must prize such a crystal enough to stoop to pick it up if it lay
plainly before his eyes. To the naked native a rough diamond
had no more attraction than any other pretty pebble. There
were millions of other white crystals and many colored pebbles
on the river shores which were equally precious or worthless in
his eyes. The roving hunters were looking sharply for game
bounding over the veld, and only glanced at a pebble-strewn
bank to mark the possible track of their prey. The stolid Boer
pioneers would hardly bend their backs to pick up the prettiest
stone that ever lay on the bank of an African river, even if it
were as big as the great yellow diamond so jealously guarded by
the Portuguese crown.1
It might be thought that some visitor to the fields would be
more expert in judging its character than natives, hunters, and
farmers ; but there were few trained mineralogists in South
1 "The Gold Regions of Southeastern Africa," Thomas Baines, F.R.G.S.,
London, 1877.
THE DISCOVERY 117
Africa, and it is doubtful if there was one who had ever examined
a diamond field personally or compared one field with another.
Even with this special experience an expert student of general
mineral formations might survey this particular field closely with-
out suspecting the existence of diamonds. This was demon-
strated in the visit of the colonial geologist Wyley to the
Orange Free State in 1856, when he investigated the alleged
discovery of gold in thin veins of quartz lining the joints and
crevices of the trappean rocks at Smithfield. In the course of
his exploration he went to Fauresmith, where diamonds were
afterward picked from the town commonage, and stood on the
verge of the farm Jagersfontein, later the seat of a prolific dia-
mond mine, yet it does not appear that he had even a surmise
of the existence of diamonds in the field of his investiga-
tion.1 It is but fair to him to observe, however, that the sec-
tion which he visited had no such close resemblance to any
known typical field as that which led Humboldt and Rose to
the revelation of the diamonds of the Ural from the similarity
of the ground formations to those of the Brazilian diamond
districts.
As a matter of fact nobody who entered the Vaal river region
conceived it to be a possible diamond field or thought of search-
ing for any precious stones. Probably, too, there was not a
person in the Orange Free State, and few in the Cape Colony,
who was able to distinguish a rough diamond if he found one by
chance, or would be likely to prize such a crystal. For the dis-
covery of diamonds under such conditions it was practically
necessary that a number of prospectors should enter it who
would search the gravel beds often and eagerly for the prettiest
pebbles. Were any such collectors at work in the field ?
One of the trekking Boers, Daniel Jacobs, had made his
home on the banks of the Orange River near the little settle-
ment of Hopetown. He was one of the sprinkling of little
farmers who was stolidly content with a bare and precarious liv-
1 "Among the Diamonds," by the late John Noble, Clerk of the House of
Assembly, Cape Town.
u8 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
ing on the uncertain pasture lands of the veld. Here his chil-
dren grew up about him with little more care than the goats that
browsed on the kopjes.
A poor farmer's home was a squalid hovel. It was roughly
partitioned to form a bedroom and kitchen, lighted by two small
windows smudged with grime. Dirty calico tacked on the
rafters made its ceiling. Its bare earthen floor was smeared
weekly with a polishing paste of cowdung and water. Father,
mother, and children slept together on a rude frame overlaced
with rawhide strips. The only other furniture in this stifling
bedroom was a chest of drawers and a small cracked mirror.
There was no washbowl or water pitcher, but in the morning
one after another of the family wiped their faces and swabbed
their hands on the same moistened cloth. Then they drew up
chairs with rawhide seats to a rough wooden table and ate corn
meal porridge, and sometimes a hunk of tough mutton boiled
with rice, and soaked their coarse unbolted wheat flour bread in
a gritty, black coffee syrup.1
When the sheep and goats were turned out of the kraal to
graze on the patches of grass and the stunted thorns of the veld,
the children ran away after them and roamed over the pasture
land all day long like the flocks. There was no daily round of
work for them. The black servants were the shepherds of the
flocks, and did the slovenly housework, under the indolent eye
of the Boer and his vrouw, for the poorest farmer would not
work with his own hands except at a pinch. His boys and girls
had never seen a doll or a toy of any kind, but the instinct of
childhood will find playthings on the face of the most barren
karoo, and the Jacobs children were luckily close to the edge of
a river which was strewn with uncommonly beautiful pebbles,
mixed with coarser gravel.
Here were garnets with their rich carmine flush, the fainter
rose of the carnelian, the bronze of jasper, the thick cream of
chalcedony, heaps of agates of motley hues, and many shining
1 " Life with the Boers in the Orange Free State," by a resident English physi-
cian's wife, New York, 1899.
THE DISCOVERY 119
rock crystals.1 From this party-colored bed the children picked
whatever caught their eye and fancy, and filled their pockets with
their chosen pebbles. So a poor farmer's child found playthings
scattered on a river bank which a little prince might covet, and
the boy might have skimmed the face of the river with one litcle
white stone that was worth more than his father's farm. Fortu-
nately for the future of South Africa, he did not play ducks and
drakes with this particular stone, which he found one day in the
early spring of 1867, but carried it home in his pocket and
dropped it with a handful of other pebbles on the farmhouse
floor.2
A heap of these party-colored stones was so common a sight
in the yard or on the floor of a farmhouse on the banks of the
Orange and Vaal, that none of the plodding Boers gave it a
second glance. But when the children tossed the stones about,
the little white pebble was so sparkling in the sunlight that it
caught the eye of the farmer's wife. She did not care enough
for it to pick it up, but spoke of it as a curious stone to a neigh-
bor, Schalk van Niekerk. Van Niekerk asked to see it, but it
was not in the heap. One of the children had rolled it away in
the yard. After some little search it was found in the dust, for
nobody on the farm would stoop for such a trifle.
When van Niekerk wiped off" the dust, the little stone glit-
tered so prettily that he offered to buy it. The good vrouw
laughed at the idea of selling a pebble. " You can keep the
stone, if you want it," she said. So van Niekerk put it in his
pocket and carried it home. He had only a vague notion that
it might have some value, and put it in the hands of a travelling
trader, John O'Reilly, who undertook to find out what kind of
a stone the little crystal was, and whether it could be sold. He
1 "The Diamond Diggings of South Africa," Charles Alfred Payton, Lon-
don, 1872. "South Africa Diamond Fields," Morton, New York, 1877.
"Diamonds and Gold of South Africa," Henry Mitchell of Kimberley, London,
1889.
2 "Among the Diamonds," 1870-1871. "South Africa," Theal, London,
1888-1893.
120 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
showed the stone to several Jews in Hopetown and in Coles-
berg, a settlement farther up the Orange River Valley. No
one of these would give a penny for it. " It is a pretty stone
enough," they said, "probably a topaz, but nobody would pay
anything for it."
Perhaps O'Reilly would have thrown the pebble away, if it
had not come under the eye of the acting Civil Commissioner
at Colesberg, Mr. Lorenzo Boyes. Mr. Boyes found on trial
that the stone would scratch glass.
" I believe it to be a diamond," he observed gravely.1
O'Reilly was greatly cheered up. "You are the only man
I have seen," he said, " who
says it is worth anything.
Whatever it is worth you
shall have a share in it."
" Nonsense," broke in
Dr. Kirsh, a private apothe-
cary of the town, who was
present, " I'll bet Boyes a
new hat it is only a topaz."
" I'll take the bet," re-
plied Mr. Boyes, and at his
suggestion the stone was
sent for determination to the
John o'Reiiiy. foremost mineralogist of the
colony, Dr. W. Guybon Atherstone, residing at Grahamstown.
It was so lightly valued that it was put in an unsealed envelope
and carried to Grahamstown in the regular post-cart.
When the post-boy handed the letter to Dr. Atherstone,
the little river stone fell out and rolled away. The doctor
picked it up and read the letter of transmission.2 Then he
examined the pebble expertly and wrote to Mr. Boyes : " I
congratulate you on the stone you have sent to me. It is a
1 Lorenzo Boyes (statement furnished to author), 1899.
2 W. Guybon Atherstone ; Lorenzo Boyes, 1899. " Among the Diamonds,"
1870-1871.
THE DISCOVERY
121
veritable diamond, weighs twenty-one and a quarter carats, and
is worth ^500. It has spoiled all the jewellers' files in Grahams-
town, and where that came from there
must be lots more. Can I send it to
Mr. Southey, Colonial Secretary ? "
This report was a revelation which
transformed the despised Karooland as
the grimy Cinderella was transfigured
by the wand of her fairy godmother.
The determination was so positive and
the expertness of the examiner so well
conceded that Sir Philip Wodehouse,
the Governor at the Cape, bought the Mr- Lorenzo Boyes-
rough diamond at once, at the value fixed by Dr. Atherstone and
confirmed by the judgment of M. Henriette, the French consul
in Cape Town.1 The stone was sent immediately to the Paris
Exhibition, where it was viewed with much interest, but its dis-
covery, at first, did not cause any great sensation. The occa-
sional finding of a diamond in a bed of pebbles had been
reported before from various parts of the globe, and there was
no assurance in this discovery of any
considerable diamond deposits.
Meanwhile Mr. Boyes hastened
to Hopetown and to van Niekerlc's
farm, to search along the river shore
where the first diamond was found.
He prodded the phlegmatic farmers
and their black servants, raked over
many bushels of pebbles for two
weeks, but no second diamond repaid
his labor. Still the news of the find-
Dr. w. Guybon Atherstone. ing of the first stone made the farmers
near the river look more sharply at every heap of pebbles in the
hope of finding one of the precious " blink klippe " (bright stones),
1 "South Africa," Theal. Lorenzo Boyes, 1899. "Diamonds and Gold
of South Africa," Theodore Reunert, 1893.
122 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
as the Boers named the diamond, and many bits of shining rock
crystal were carefully pocketed, in the persuasion that the glit-
tering stones were diamonds. But it was ten months from the
time of the discovery at Hopetown before a second diamond
was found, and this was in a spot more than thirty miles away,
on the river bank below the junction of the Vaal and Orange
rivers. Mr. Boyes again hastened to the place from which the
diamond had been taken, but he failed again to find companion
stones, though he reached the conclusion that the diamond had
been washed down stream by the overflowing of the Vaal.1
From the Orange River the search passed up the Vaal, where
the beds of pebbles were still more common and beautiful. The
eyes of the native blacks were much quicker and keener in
such a quest than those of the stolid Boer, who scarcely troubled
himself to stoop for the faint chance of a diamond. But no
steady or systematic search was undertaken by anybody, and it
was not until the next year, 1868, that a few more diamonds were
picked up on the banks of the Vaal by some sharp-sighted
Koranas.2 The advance of discovery was so slow and disap-
pointing that there seemed only a faint prospect of the realization
of the cheering prediction of Dr. Atherstone, which was scouted
by critics who were wholly incompetent to pass upon it. Even
the possibility of the existence of diamond deposits near the
junction of the Orange and Vaal was flatly denied by a preten-
tious examiner who came from England to report on the Hope-
town field. It was gravely asserted that any diamonds in that
field must have been carried in the gizzards of ostriches from
some far-distant region, and any promotion of search in the
field was a bubble scheme.
To this absurd and taunting report Dr. Atherstone replied
with marked force and dignity, presenting the facts indicating
the existence of diamond-bearing deposits, and adding : " Suf-
ficient has been already discovered to justify a thorough and
extensive geological research into this most interesting country,
and I think for the interest of science and the benefit of the
1 Lorenzo Boyes, 1899. "South Africa," Theal, London, 1888-1893.
THE DISCOVERY 123
Colony a scientific examination of the country will be under-
taken. So far from the geological character of the country mak-
ing it impossible, I maintain that it renders it probable that very
extensive and rich diamond deposits will be discovered on proper
investigation. This I trust the Home Government will author-
ize, as our Colonial exchequer is too poor to admit of it." 1
There was no official response to this well-warranted sug-
gestion, for it had hardly been penned when the announcement
of a remarkable discovery aroused such an excitement and such
a rush to the field that no government exploration was needed.
In March, 1869, a superb white diamond, weighing 83.5 carats,
was picked up by a Griqua shepherd boy on the farm Zendfon-
tein, near the Orange River.2 Schalk van Niekerk bought this
stone for a monstrous price in the eyes of the poor shepherd, —
500 sheep, 10 oxen, and a horse, — but the lucky purchaser sold
it easily for ^11,200 to Lilienfeld Brothers of Hopetown, and
it was subsequently purchased by Earl Dudley for _^25,ooo.3
This extraordinary gem, which soon became famous as " the
Star of South Africa," drew all eyes to a field which could yield
such products, and the existence and position of diamond beds
was soon further assured and defined by the finding of many
smaller stones in the alluvial gravel on the banks of the Vaal.
Alluvial deposits form the surface ground on both sides of
this river, stretching inland for several miles. In some places
the turns of the stream are frequent and abrupt, and there are
many dry water-courses which were probably old river channels.
The flooding and winding of the river partly accounts for the
wide spreading of the deposits, but there has been a great abrasion
of the surface of the land, for the water-worn gravel sometimes
covers even the tops of the ridges and kopjes along the course
of the river.
This gravel was a medley of worn and rolled chips of basalt,
sandstone, quartz, and trap, intermingled with agates, garnets,
1 W. Guybon Atherstone, 1868. 2 " Among the Diamonds," 1870-1871.
3 Ibid. (Accounts of this discovery differ somewhat.) Vide Theal's "South
Africa," Reunert's " Diamonds and Gold," etc.
124 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
peridot, jasper, and other richly colored pebbles, lying in and on
a bedding of sand and clay. Below this alluvial soil was in some
places a calcareous tufa, but usually a bed rock of melaphyre or
a clayey shale varying in color. Scattered thickly through the
gravel and the clay along the banks were heavy boulders of
basalt and trap which were greatly vexing in after days to the
diamond diggers.1
For a stretch of a hundred miles above the Mission Station
at Pniel the river flows through a series of rocky ridges, rolling
back from either bank to a tract of grassy, undulating plains.
Fancy can scarcely picture rock heaps more contorted and mis-
shapen. Only prodigious subterranean forces could have so
rent the earth's crust and protruded jagged dykes of metamor-
phic, conglomerate, and amygdaloid rocks, irregularly traversed
by veins of quartz, and heavily sprinkled with big bare boulders
of basalt and trap. Here the old lacustrine sedimentary forma-
tion of the South African high veld north of the Zwarte Bergen
and Witte Bergen ranges has plainly been riven by volcanic
upheaval. The shale and sandstone of the upper and lower
Karoo beds have been washed away down to an igneous rock
lying between the shale and the sandstone. It was along this
stretch of the river that the first considerable deposit of diamonds
in South Africa was uncovered.2
For more than a year since the discovery of the first diamond
there had been some desultory scratching of the gravel along the
Vaal by farmers and natives in looking for " blink klippe," and
a few little rough diamonds had been found by the Hottentots,
as before noted ; but the first systematic digging and sifting of
the ground was begun by a party of prospectors from Natal at
the Mission Station of Hebron. This was the forerunner of the
'"Diamonds and Gold of South Africa," Reunert, Cape Town, 1893.
"The Diamond Diggings of South Africa," Payton, 1872. "Among the
Diamonds," 1870-1871.
2 " Diamonds and Gold of South Africa," Reunert, 1893. " Among the
Diamonds," 1870-1871. "South Africa," Theal, 1888-1893. "On
Diamonds," Sir William Crookes, London, 1897.
THE DISCOVERY 125
second Great Trek to the Vaal from the Cape, a myriad of
adventurers that spread down the stream like a locust swarm,
amazing the natives, worrying the missionaries, and agitating the
pioneer republics on the north and the east.1
The first organized party of prospectors at Hebron on the
Vaal was formed at Maritzburg in Natal, at the instance of
Major Francis, an officer in the English army service, then
stationed at that town. Captain Rolleston was the recog-
nized leader, and after a long plodding march over the Drakens-
berg and across the veld, the little company reached the valley
of the Vaal in November, 1869. Up to the time of its arrival
there had been no systematic washing of the gravel edging the
river. Two experienced gold diggers from Australia, Glenie
and King, and a trader, Parker, had been attracted to the
field like the Natalians by the reported discoveries, and were
prospecting on the line of the river when Captain Rolleston's
party reached Hebron.2 Their prospecting was merely looking
over the surface gravel for a possible gem, but the wandering
Koranas were more sharp-sighted and lucky in picking up the
elusive little crystals that occasionally dotted the great stretches
of alluvial soil.
It was determined by Captain Rolleston to explore the
ground as thoroughly as practicable from the river's edge for a
number of yards up the bank, and the washing began on a tract
near the Mission Station. The Australian prospectors joined
the party, and their experience in placer mining was of service
in conducting the search for diamonds. The workers shovelled
the gravel into cradles, like those used commonly in Australian
and American placer washing, picked out the coarser stones by
hand, washed away the sand and lighter pebbles, and saved the
heavier mineral deposit, hoping to find some grains of gold as
well as diamonds above the screens of their cradles. But the
returns for their hard labor for many days were greatly disap-
pointing. They washed out many crystals and brilliant pebbles,
1 " South Africa," Theal, 1888-1893. » Among the Diamonds," 1870-
1871. 2 "Among the Diamonds," 1870-1871.
126 TIIK DIAMOND MINKS OK SOUTH AKRICA
hut never a diamond nor an atom of gold dust. Then they
pushed down the river more than twenty miles to another camp
at Klip-drift, opposite the Mission Station at 1'niel. Here too
they washed the ground for days without finding even the tiniest
gem, and were almost on the point ot abandoning their dishearten-
ing drudgery, when finally, on the seventh of January, 1870, the
first reward of systematic work in the field came in the appear-
ance of a small diamond in one of the cradles.1
This little fillip of encouragement determined their continu-
ance of the work, and a party from British KarFraria joined
them in washing the gravel in places that seemed most promis-
ing along the line of the river. It was agreed that the first
discovery of rich diamond-bearing ground should be shared
alike by both parties, but there was nothing to share for
some weeks. Then some native Koranas were induced to
point out to the Natalians a gravel-coated hummock or kopje
near the Klip-drift camp, where they had picked up some small
diamonds. When the prospectors began the washing of the
gravel on this kopje, it was soon apparent that a diamond bed
of extraordinary richness had been reached at last. Good faith
was kept with the company from Kingwilliamstown, and the
combined parties worked to the top of their strength in shovel-
ling and washing the rich bed. The lucky men kept their
mouths closed, as a rule, and did not intend to make known their
good fortune ; but such a discovery could not long be concealed
from visiting traders and roaming prospectors, and before three
months had passed some prying eye saw half a tumblerful of the
white sparkling crystals in their camp, and the news spread fast
that the miners had washed out from two hundred to three hun-
dred stones, ranging in size from the smallest gems to diamonds
of thirty carats or more.3
Then a motley throng of fortune-hunters began to pour into
the valley of the Vaal. The first comers were those living
nearest to the new diamond field, — farmers and tradesmen from
the cattle ranges and little towns of the Orange Free State.
1 " Among the Diamonds," 1870-1871. * ItiJ.
THK D1SCOVKRY 127
Some of these were stolid Boers, drawn to the fields as a novel
and curious spectacle, but disdaining the drudgery of shovelling
and washing from morning till night for the chance of a tiny
bright stone. They stared for a while at the laboring diamond
seekers, and then turned their backs on the field contemptuously,
and rode home sneering at the mania which was dragging its
victims for hundreds of miles, over sun-cracked and dusty
karoos, to hunt for white pebbles in a river bed. Still there
were many poor farmers who caught the infectious diamond
fever at sight of the open field and a few sparkling stones, and
they camped at Klip-drift or went on farther up or down the
river, to join, as well as they knew how, in the search for
diamonds.
Following this influx from the Free State came swarming
in men of every class and condition from the southern English
Colony, and from the ships lying in the coast ports. The
larger number were of English descent, but many were Dutch,
and hardly a nation in Europe was unrepresented. Black
grandsons of Guinea coast slaves and natives of every dusky
shade streaked the show of white faces. Butchers, bakers,
sailors, tailors, lawyers, blacksmiths, masons, doctors, carpenters,
clerks, gamblers, sextons, laborers, loafers, — men of every pur-
suit and profession, jumbled together in queerer association than
the comrades in the march to Finchley, — fell into line in a
straggling procession to the Diamond Fields. Army officers
begged furloughs to join the motley troop, schoolboys ran away
from school, and women even of good families could not be held
back from joining their husbands and brothers in the long and
wearisome journey to the banks of the Vaal.1
There was the oddest medley of dress and equipment: shirts
of woollen, — blue, brown, gray, and red, — and of linen and
cotton, — white, colored, checked, and striped ; trim jackets, cord
riding-breeches and laced leggings, and " hand me downs " from
the cheapest ready-made clothing shops ; the yellow oilskins
and rubber boots of the sailor; the coarse, brown corduroy and
1 "Among the Diamonds," 1870-1871.
THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
canvas suits, and long-legged, stiff, leather boots of the miner;
the ragged, greasy hats, tattered trousers or loin cloths of the
native tribesmen ; jaunty cloth caps, broad-brimmed felt, bat-
tered straw, garish handkerchiefs twisted close to the roots of
stiff black crowns, or tufts of bright feathers stuck in a wiry mat
of curls ; such a higgledy-piggledy as could only be massed in
a rush from African coast towns and native kraals to a field of
unknown requirements, in a land whose climate swung daily be-
tween a scorch and a chill, where men in the same hour were
smothered in dust and drenched in a torrent.
It is doubtful if a single one of this fever-stricken company
had ever seen a diamond field or had the slightest experience
in rough diamond winning, but no chilling doubt of them-
selves or their luck restrained them from rushing to their
fancied Golconda. Their ideal field was much nearer a mirror
of the valley of Sindbad than the actual African river bank, and
it was certain that many would be as bitterly disappointed by
the rugged stretch of gravel at Klip-drift as the gay Portuguese
cavaliers were at the sight of the Manica gold placers.
Everything in the form of a carriage from a chaise to a buck-
wagon was pressed into service, but the best available transport
was the big trekking ox-wagon of the Boer pioneer. This was a
heavily framed, low-hung wagon, about twenty feet long and five
and a half feet broad. In this conveyance more than a dozen
men often packed themselves and their camping outfit and food.
An exceptionally well-equipped party carried bacon, potatoes,
onions, tea, coffee, sugar, condensed milk, flour, biscuits, dried
peas, rice, raisins, pickles, and Cape brandy. The total weight
of load allowed, including the living freight, was limited to
seven thousand pounds.1
East London, the nearest port, was something more than
four hundred miles from the diamond field, and Cape Town
nearly seven hundred. Natal, Port Alfred, and Port Elizabeth
were almost equally distant, as the crow flies, approximately four
1 "The Diamond Diggings of South Africa," Charles Alfred Payton, Lon-
don, 1872.
THE DISCOVERY 129
hundred and fifty miles ; but the length of the journey to the
Vaal could not be measured by any bare comparison of air-lined
distances. The roads, at best, were rough trampled tracks,
changing, after a rainfall, to beds of mire. Their tortuous
courses rambled from settlement to settlement, or from one
farmhouse to another over the veld, and were often wholly lost
in the shifting sands of the karoo. It was a tedious and diffi-
cult journey by land even from one seacoast town to another,
and fifty miles from the coast the traveller was fortunate if his
way was marked by even a cattle path.1
When the rain fell in torrents with the lurid flashes and
nerve-shaking crash of South African thunder-storms, the dia-
mond seekers huddled together under the stifling cover of their
wagons, while fierce gusts shook and strained every strip of
canvas and water drops spurted through every crevice. In fair
weather some were glad to spread their blankets on the ground
near the wagon, and stretch their limbs, cramped by their pack-
ing like sardines in a box. On the plains they had no fuel for
cooking except what they could gather of dry bullock's dung.
Sometimes no headway could be made against the blinding dust-
storms, that made even the tough African cattle turn tail to the
blasts, and clogged the eyes and ears and every pore of exposed
skin with irritating grit and powder. Sometimes the rain fell so
fast that the river beds were filled in a few hours with muddy
torrents, which blocked any passage by fording for days and
even weeks at a time, and kept the impatient diamond seekers
fuming in vain on their banks. Payton's party was forty-six
days in its passage from Port Elizabeth to the Diamond Fields
without meeting with any serious delays, and journeys lasting
two months were not uncommon.2
Still, in spite of all obstacles, privations, and discomforts, the
long journey to the fields was not wholly monotonous and un-
pleasant. As there was no beaten way, the prospectors chose
1 "South Africa," George McCall Theal, 1888-1893.
2 " The Diamond Diggings of South Africa," Payton. " South Africa Dia-
mond Fields and Journey to Mines," William Jacob Morton, New York, 1877.
130 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
their own path, riding by day and camping at night as their
fancy led them. In ascending to the tableland of the interior
from Natal, there were shifting and stirring visions of mountain
peaks, terraces, gorges, and valleys.
On the higher terraces there was not the luxuriance of the
coast, — the huge tree ferns with feathery fronds, the towering
masses of palms, the drooping festoons of climbing vines, the
exquisite flowers : spiked ansellias with their pale yellow blos-
soms, barred and spotted with red, pure white, sweet-scented
clusters of mystacidium, and orchids of marvellous variety and
hue, — but even the highest upland tree growth had beauties of
its own. On the slopes of the Drakensberg the wild chestnut,
the Natal mahogany, the white pear and iron wood grow sturdily,
and the common yellow wood, stink wood, bogabog, and sneeze
wood flourish in spite of their rude names.1
Amid this varied scenery they could linger and wind about
as they pleased, and every turn of their path revealed new charms
of line and color. As they descended the mountain flanks some
marked how the lacustrine deposits of past ages had overspread
the face of the land with their covering of sandstone and shale,
even skirting the summits of the highest peaks at a height of
more than six thousand feet, as was plainly shown on the Com-
passberg.2 On the plateau below they saw how the craggy hills,
pointed spitz-kopjes, and columnar ridges of the trappean rocks
projected above the sedimentary cover of the karoo.
Throughout the Orange Free State, but especially in the
neighborhood of the valleys of the Orange and Vaal, these vol-
canic rock elevations are common, sometimes massed in irregular
rows and often rising in the most jagged and fantastic shapes.
" When we see them at the surface," wrote the geologist Wyley
in 1856, "they look like walls running across the country, or
more frequently form a narrow, stony ridge like a wall that
has been thrown down. The rock of which they are composed,
greenstone or basalt, is known by the local name of iron stone,
1 "The Colony of Natal," J. Forsyth Ingram.
2 "Among the Diamonds," 1870-1871.
THE DISCOVERY 131
from its great hardness and toughness, and from its great weight.
The origin of these dykes is well known. They have been pro-
duced by volcanic agency, which, acting from below upon hori-
zontal beds of stratified rock, has cracked and fissured them at
right angles to their planes of stratification, and these vertical
cracks have been filled up with the melted rock or the lava from
below. The perpendicular fissures through which it has found
its way upwards are seldom seen, nor should we expect to see
much of them, for it is precisely along the line of these that the
rocks have been most broken up and shattered and the denuda-
tion has been greatest."
Even in the crossing of the karoos there were curious and
awesome sights to attract and impress the mind of a traveller
beholding for the first time these desert wastes so widely spread
over the face of South Africa. They differ little in appearance
except in size. The Great or Central Karoo, which lies beneath
the foot-hills of the Zwarte Bergen range, has a sweep to the
north of more than three hundred miles in a rolling plateau,
ranging in elevation from two to three thousand feet. Day
after day, as the diamond seekers from Cape Town plodded on
with their creaking wagons, the same purpled brown face was
outspread before them of the stunted flowering shrub which has
given its name to the desert, spotted with patches of sun-cracked
clay or hot red sand. To some of the Scotchmen this scrub had
the cheery face of the heather of their own Highlands, and home-
sick Englishmen would ramble far through the furze to pick the
bright yellow flowers of plants that recalled the gorse of their
island homes.1 These common bushes, rarely rising a foot in
height, and the thick, stunted camelthorn, were almost the only
vegetable coating of the desert.
Straggling over this plane ran the quaint ranges of flat-
topped hummocks and pointed spitz-kopjes, streaked with
ragged ravines torn by the floods, but utterly parched for most
of the year. Shy meerkats, Cynictis penicillata, weasel-like crea-
1 Special correspondence London Chronicle and other English journals, Novem-
ber, 1 899.
132 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
tures with furry coats, peered cautiously from their burrows at
the strange procession of fortune-hunters, and from myriads of
the mammoth ant-hills that dot the face of the desert innumer-
able legions of ants swarmed on the sand along the track of the
wagons. Sometimes at nightfall the queer aard-vark lurked
upon the ant-heap and licked up the crawling insects by thou-
sands. Far over the heads of the travellers soared the preda-
tory eagles and swooping hawks, harrying the pigeons and dwarf
doves that clustered at daybreak to drink at the edge of every
stagnant pool.1
Even in the earliest years of the Dutch advance into South
Africa, when wild beasts browsed in troops on every grassy plain
and valley and the poorest marksman could kill game almost at
will, the karoo was shunned by almost every living creature
except in the fickle season of rainfall. The lion skirted the
desert edge warily, unwilling to venture far from a certain water-
brook or pool. There was nothing on the bare karoo to tempt
the rhinoceros from his bed in green-leaved thickets, and only
the wide-roaming antelopes (trekbok) rambled for pasturage far
over the sparsely coated and parched desert waste. If this was
true in the days when the tip of Africa was swarming with animal
life, it is not surprising that the diamond seekers in 1 869 and 1 870
rarely saw any living mark for their rifles when they journeyed
over the desert. Rock-rabbits, akin to the scriptural coney,
scampering to their holes, were often the largest game in sight
for days at a time, and it was counted remarkable luck when any
hunter put a bullet through a little brown antelope, a grysbok, or
springbok.2 The springboks still haunted the Great Karoo, for
they were particularly fond of its stunted bush growth, and in
the rainy season many droves of these antelopes could be seen
browsing warily or flying in panic from the spring of the cheetah,
the African hunting leopard ; but most of the bigger game, bles-
bok, haartebeest, koodoo, and wildebeest, that used to feed
1 "A Breath from the Veld," John Guille Millais, London, 1895. "Among
the Diamonds," 1870-1871.
2 "The Diamond Diggings of South Africa," Payton, 1872.
THE DISCOVERY 133
greedily on the same pasture, had been killed or driven away by
the keen hunting of the years that followed the taking of the
Cape by the English.'
Sometimes the clear sky of the horizon was blurred by the
advancing of monstrous swarms of locusts, the " black snow-
storms " of the natives, sweeping over the face of the land like
the scourge of devouring flames, chased by myriads of locust
birds, and coating the ground for miles around at nightfall with
a crawling, heaving coverlet. Then might be heard the hoarse
trump of the cranes winging their way over the desert and drop-
ping on the field strewn with locusts to gorge on their insect
prey. Or the travellers saw the slate-white secretary bird stalk-
ing about with his self-satisfied strut and scraping up mouthfuls
with his long horny bill.
More marvellous than the locust clouds were the amazing
mirages that deceived even the keen-eyed ostriches with their
counterfeit lakes and wood-fringed streams, so temptingly near,
but so provokingly receding, like the fruits hanging over the
thirsting Tantalus. Sometimes hilltops were reared high above
the horizon, distorted to mountainous size and melting suddenly
in thin air or a flying blur. Now a solitary horseman was seen
to swoop over the desert in the form of a mammoth bird, or a
troop of antelopes were changed to charging cavalry. No trick
of illusion and transformation was beyond the conjuring power
of the flickering atmosphere charged with the radiating heat of
the desert.2
When the prospectors crossed the karoo and entered the
1 " A Breath from the Veld," John Guille Millais, London, 1895.
2 Despatches of Julian Ralph and other special correspondents to London jour-
nals, October-December, 1899. "Sketches and Studies in South Africa," W. J.
K. Little, London, 1899. " Portraits of the Game and Wild Animals of Southern
Africa," W. G. Harris, London, 1840. "The Large Game and Natural His-
tory of South and Southeast Africa," W. H. Drummond, Edinburgh, 1875.
"Travel and Adventure in Southeast Africa," F. C. Selous, London, 1893.
"Kloof and Karoo," H. A. Bryden, London, 1889. "Days and Nights by
the Desert," P. Gillmore, London, 1888. "Gun and Camera in South Africa,"
H. A. Bryden, London, 1893.
134 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
stretches of pasture land which the Dutch called veld, the scenes
of their marches were much more lively and cheery. Little farm-
houses dotted the plains and valleys, rude cottages of clay-plas-
tered stones or rough timbers, but hospitable with fires blazing
on open hearths, big iron pots hanging from cranes and simmer-
ing with stews, and broad-faced, beaming vrouws and clusters of
chunky boys and girls greeted the arrival of an ox-wagon from
the coast as a welcome splash in the stagnant stream of their daily
life.1
At some of the halting places on the banks of streams, or
where plentiful water was stored in natural pans or artificial
ponds, the extraordinary fertility of the irrigated soil of South
Africa was plainly to be seen in luxuriant gardens, with brill-
iant flower-beds and heavy-laden fruit trees and vines. Here
figs, pomegranates, oranges, lemons, and grapes ripened side by
side, and hung more tempting than apples of Eden in the sight
of the thirsting, sunburnt, dust-choked men who had plodded
so far over the parched karoos. They stretched their cramped
legs and aching backs in the grateful shade of spreading branches,
and watched with half-shut eyes the white flocks nibbling on the
pasture land, and the black and red cattle scattered as far as the
eye could see over the veld. Tame ostriches stalked fearlessly
about them, often clustering like hens at the door of the farm-
house to pick up a mess of grain or meal, apparently heedless of
any approach, but always alert and likely to resent any familiarity
from a stranger with a kick as sharp and staggering as any ever
dealt by a mule's hind leg.
The interior of the homes in these oases was. not so invit-
ing, for the rooms, at best, were small and bare to the eye of
a townsman. But some were comparatively neatly kept, with
smoothly cemented floors, cupboards of quaintly figured china
and earthenware, hangings and rugs of leopard, fox, jackal, and
antelope skins and brackets of curving horns loaded with hunt-
ing arms and garnished with ostrich feathers. For the guests
1 " Among the Diamonds," 1870-1871. "The Diamond Diggings of South
Africa," Payton, 1872. "South Africa Diamond Fields," Morton, 1876.
THE DISCOVERY 135
there was probably the offer of a freshly killed antelope or sheep ;
but the farmer's family was often content with " biltong," the
dried meat that hung in strips or was piled in stacks under his
curing shed.
Near every house was the accompanying kraal or open-walled
circle for the confinement of the flocks at night, built of stones,
and usually so bedded and filthy with fresh dung that a heavy
percentage of the farmers' sheep died yearly from foot-rot or scab.1
Close to the kraal was the water reservoir for the flocks and the
household use, unless the farm lay on the bank of an unfailing
stream. These collections of water were commonly hill drainage,
stored in long, narrow ponds by rough dams across ravines, or
the drainage and rainfall filling shallow natural basins which the
Boers call "pans." In the early morning the birds flew from ail
quarters to these ponds. Wild ducks, geese, plover, sandgrouse,
and flocks of pigeons and doves hovered over the pools and
splashed and dabbled in the water, while the blue-gray Kafir
cranes stalked warily along the brink.
These basins are quite numerous in the country lying
between the Orange and the Vaal, as well as throughout the
Transvaal. The light earth washed down the hill slopes was
largely calcareous, and incrusted the grasses and roots of the
basin in a calc-tufa which is almost impervious to water. So
the pans became excellent natural reservoirs, though there was,
of course, a heavy loss from evaporation. No calamity is so
dreaded by the graziers as the failure of their water-supply, for
it has often caused the loss of a flock and the ruin of the poor
owner. Therefore the pans are highly valued and strictly re-
served, and the dams are daily inspected lest a burrowing land
crab should open the way for a rush of water that would empty
the reservoir.2 When a settler was fortunate in getting a tract
of land with a pan or a water-spring, he almost invariably gave
the name to his farm, as Dutoitspan, Dorstfontein, Jagersfontein,
1 " On Veld and Farm," Frances MacNab, London, 1897. "South Africa
Diamond Fields," Morton, New York, 1877.
2 " Among the Diamonds," 1870-1871.
136 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
Bultfontein, — names of inconsiderable little patches on the face
of South Africa, which were destined to become memorable by
approaching revelations.1
Attracted by the good pasturage and water and the sight of
flowers, fruits, and birds, even the eager diamond seekers were
not loath to linger for a day at one of these oases and rest them-
selves and their cattle before pushing on to the Vaal. As they
drew near to their goal the face of the country began to change.
After passing the Modder River, the grassy plains stretched
out wider and longer and more gently undulating, and the mirage
was more greatly magnifying and illusive. Herds of wild game,
chiefly springbok, blesbok, hartebeest, wildebeest, and koodoo,
were now frequently seen, and the ears of the travellers were
tickled with the cheery karack-karack of flying korhaan and
the pipes of red-legged plover. There are black headed or veld
korhaan and bush korhaan. These birds, which are very plenti-
ful along the Vaal River and about Kimberley, belong to the
smaller bustard species. The cock bird of the veld korhaan has
a black head with white spots on the sides. The top of the
head or crest is of a reddish gray color. The back is also red-
dish gray, the markings of the feathers being in rings or stripes.
The wings are black-and-white, and the legs yellow. The hen
birds have reddish gray heads, but otherwise are similar in feather
to the cock bird. The bird derives its name from the Dutch
word knor, to scold, and haan, hen or bird, on account of the
scolding noise made by the male bird as it rises from the ground.
The original word, knorhaan, has been corrupted into korhaan.
The bush korhaan has a gray head with a light blue patch on the
crown, just back of which is a pink-brown crest an inch and a
half long. The back is covered with brown-and-white feathers
with diamond-pointed markings. The lower part of the leg is
yellow and the upper part blue. The Dutch call one variety
1 " Achtzehn Jahre in Sud Africa," E. J. Karrstrom, Leipzig, 1899. " Seven
Years in South Africa," Emil Holub, London, 1881. "South Africa," A. H.
Keane, London, 1895. "South Africa of To-day," Captain F. E. Younghusband,
London, 1898. "Ten Years in South Africa," J. W. D. Moodie, London,
1835. "South Africa," George McCall Theal, 1888-1893.
THE DISCOVERY 137
of birds somewhat resembling the bush korhaan rudely " dik-
kops," thick heads, from their appearance when wounded ; but
they are none the less handsome birds, and they were eagerly
shot and eaten by the diamond seekers on the way to the fields
and in the camps on the river. There were great numbers, too,
of the paauw or cape bustard near the Modder River, and red-
winged partridges and Guinea fowl that gave a welcome variety
to the meals of the travellers.1
Over the rolling ground the prospectors pressed rapidly to
the Diamond Fields and soon reached the river border where the
plains ran into the barrier of ridges of volcanic rocks. Jolting
heavily over these rough heaps and sinking deeply in the red
sand wash of the valleys, the heavy ox-wagons were slowly tugged
to the top of the last ridge above Pniel, opposite the opened
diamond beds of Klip-drift, where the anticipated Golconda was
full in sight. Here the Vaal River winds with a gently flowing
stream, two hundred yards or more in width, through a steeply
shelving, oblong basin something over a mile and a half in length
and a mile across. A thin line of willows and cotton-woods
marked the edge of the stream on both banks. On the descend-
ing slope toward the river stood the clustering tents and wagons
of the pilgrims waiting to cross the stream.
In the dry season the Vaal was easily fordable by ox-wagons
at a point in this basin, and the ford, which the Boers call
" drift," gave the name to the shore and camp opposite Pniel,
— "Klip-drift," "Rocky-ford." When the river was swollen
by rains, the impatient fortune-hunters were forced to wait, fum-
ing, in sight of the diamond diggings until the flood subsided ;
but, a few months after the rush began, a big, flat-bottomed ferry-
boat, called a punt, was constructed to carry over the wagons
and cattle, while the men crossed in rowboats, making regular
ferry trips between Pniel and Klip-drift.
How stirring were the sights and sounds from the ridge at
Pniel to every newcomer while the swarming diamond seekers
were crossing the river and spreading out over the northern
1 "Among the Diamonds," 1870-1871.
138 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
bank! — the confused clustering at the ford — the rambling of
stragglers along the shore — the gravel cracking and grinding
under the hoofs of the horses and ponies racing along the bank
and rearing, plunging, and bucking at the check of the bits and
prick of the spurs — the outspanning and inspanning of hun-
dreds of oxen — the swaying and creaking wagons — the writh-
ing, darting lash of the cracking whips of the drivers — the
sulking, balking oxen, driven into long, straining lines that
dragged the ponderous, canvas-arched "prairie-schooners"
through the turbid water and over the quaking sands — the
whistling, shouting, yelling, snorting, neighing, braying, squeak-
ing, grinding, splashing babel — the scrambling up the steep
Klip-drift bank — the scattering of the newcomers — the
perching of the white-topped wagons and the camp-tents like
monstrous gulls on every tenable lodging place on bank, gully,
and hillside — the scurrying about for wood and water — the
crackling, smoking, flaming heaps of the camp fires — the
steaming pots and kettles swinging on cranes — the great placer
face, pockmarked with holes and heaps of reddish sand, clay,
and gravel — the long stretches of the miners' rockers and
troughs at the water's edge — and chief of all in interest, the
busy workmen, sinking pits and throwing out shovelfuls of
earth, filling buckets and hauling them up with ropes, loading
and shaking the rockers, driving carts full of heavy gravel to
the water troughs, returning for new loads, scraping and sorting
the fine, heavy pebbles on tables or flat rocks or boards spread
on the ground !
No labored, crawling recital can compass and picture in
print any approach to the instant impress on the eye and ear
of the moving drama on the banks of the Vaal. Observer after
observer groped vainly for graphic comparison. " Klip-drift is a
swarm of bees whose hive is upset," said one , " a bank lined
with ant-hills," wrote another, prosily ; " a wild rabbit warren,
scurried by a fox," ventured a third ; " an insane asylum
turned loose on a beach," sneered a fourth. It was a mush-
room growth of a seething placer-mining camp in the heart
THE DISCOVERY
'39
of the pasture lands of South Africa. To old Australian and
American miners it had a patent likeness to familiar camps and
diggings, but its local coloring was glaringly vivid and unique.1
1 " Among the Diamonds," 1870—1871. " The Diamond Diggings of South
Africa," Charles Alfred Payton, London, 1872. " South Africa Diamond Fields,"
Morton, New York, 1877. "To the Cape for Diamonds," Frederick Boyle,
London, 1873. "Diamond Fields of South Africa, by One who has visited the
Fields," New York, 1872.
Pniel Diggings.
CHAPTER V
THE CAMPS ON THE VAAL
EFORE calling to view the spreading of the
diamond seekers along the line of the Vaal
River, the rearing of successive camps, and the
growing pursuit of gems in the gravel, it is
essential to trace the progress of diamond
mining from its original development on the
water-shed of the Indus, and to account in great measure for
the blundering, confusion, and failures in the new Diamond
Fields by showing how crude and imperfect were any known
methods of winning the precious stones at the time of the South
African discoveries.
From earliest history there had been no change and no
prospect of change in the diamond mining of India (described
in Chapter i). In the Deccan diamond fields, as in the other
congested districts, there was such an influx of poor natives that
no labor-saving contrivances were sought for, and the diamond-
bearing gravels were lifted and washed by hand as they had been
by the first generation of workers. There had been no compe-
tition with the Deccan field, and no considerable production
outside of it, until the diamonds of the Brazilian fields were
made known to the Portuguese in the year 1728. As soon as
the Home Government learned of this discovery, the diamonds
in Brazil were declared to be State property, and for a hundred
years diamond mining was a Crown monopoly. This con-
dition was a clog to any possible advance in the methods of
mining. There was a constant drain on the industry without
any effort to develop it systematically, thoroughly, or economi-
cally.
140
THE CAMPS ON THE VAAL 141
The chief deposits were found, at first, in river beds and
ravines in a breccia of clay, quartz pebbles, and sand, charged
with oxide of iron. Some of the richest beds were opened along
the rivers Jequetinhonha and Pardo in the valley of Sejues, and
on the line of the rivers Aboite, Andaja, da Serreno, da Prata,
and San Francisco in the province of Minas Geraes.1
The diamond-bearing ground was worked under govern-
ment agents or leased to contractors. Quick returns were the
first object. So gangs of slaves were put on the grounds,
regardless of loss, if only the cream of the fields was skimmed.
In the dry season the beds of the smaller sierran streams were
nearly or wholly dry. Underlying the surface wash of sand in
the bed was the formacao or cascalho, heavy diamond-bearing
gravel intermixed with boulders. The alluvial soil was gen-
erally from eight to twenty feet thick, a silicious sand chiefly,
deep colored by ferruginous clay. The diamonds and other
minerals of high specific gravity were held in the bottom layer
of this alluvium, usually cemented in a coarse pudding-stone of
quartz and itacolumite — the cascalho. The sand was rudely
scraped away or carried off in pans, the boulders pried out, and
the cascalho exposed. Then the gravel was collected labori-
ously in pans and piled in heaps to await the rainy season, when
the streams filled the dry courses and there was water at hand
for washing the gravel.
Bacus or shallow pits were sunk in the sand along the brink
of the streams, and in these pits a few panfuls of gravel were
thrown. The bottom of the bacu was made to slope so that
the dashing of water on the gravel heap would readily wash away
the clinging sand and the lighter and larger stones. The expert
slaves washed the heaps in the bacus with splashes of water cast
1 "The Diamond Fields of Brazil," Report of United States Minister Bryan,
March i 2, 1 899, conveying report of American Secretary of Legation, Dawson.
"A Treatise on Gems," Lewis Feuchtwanger, M.D., 1867. "An Account
of Diamonds found in Brazil," James Castro de Sarmente, M.D. "Genuine
Account of the Present State of the Diamond Trade in the Dominions of Portugal,"
a Lisbon merchant, London, 1785. "Travels in South America," J. J. von
Tschudi.
142 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
from concave wooden plates with a peculiar whirl which has-
tened the separation of the heavier gravel. This concentrate,
containing most of the diamonds in the cascalho, was then
washed again in a batea, a wooden dish with a depression in the
centre. By dexterous shaking and whirling motions of the batea
filled with water and a few handfuls of gravel, the lighter gravel
Delports' Hope, Vaal River Diggings.
was carried to the rim and washed or scraped away, and dia-
monds mixed with heavier pebbles were collected in the hol-
lowed centre of the dish. A gentle tilt of the batea drained off
the water, and the precious stones were picked from the other
pebbles by hand.
Sometimes the formacao was deposited in an inclined mov-
able trough or cradle on whose face fifteen to eighteen pounds
were spread out at a time. Then a carefully regulated stream
of water was allowed to run through this deposit into a lower
trough and gutter while the cradle was rocked continually.
When the water ran off clear from the lower trough, the work-
ing negro would pick out the stones in the cradle with his fin-
gers, until only the finest pebbles remained, which he scraped
over and examined with the closest attention to detect the pos-
sible presence of diamond crystals.1
1 "A Treatise on Gems," Feuchtwanger, 1867. Report of United States
Minister to Brazil, March, 1 899.
THE CAMPS ON THE VAAL
This was a slow and tedious process, at best. The percent-
age of precious stones won from the gravel necessarily depended
on the care, expertness, and eyesight of the workers. Experi-
ence proved that fairly expert gold placer miners were not
equally competent in handling diamond-bearing gravel, and slave
labor was not diligent or trustworthy. The loss was increased
by the greedy pressure for big and quick returns, and the pre-
mium set on the extraction of large stones.
When, in the course of mining, streams were diverted from
their beds by dams and sluiceways, there was urgent need of
hurrying, for the frail dams could not bear the rush of a flood
in the rainy season, and it was necessary to remove the gravel
from the stretches of river beds before the heavy rains fell.
_""**--. _ , ^
^S :^x."*- " *"
^S3&^* *» «
:r^£b^^fe
-'* .;>"•« 'J Irw*?.
Diggers' Camps on the Vaal River.
Often the formacao was buried under thirty feet or more of
sand, and all this overlying mass had to be scooped up and
carried off as well as the layer of gravel. As the slaves had
nothing better than pans for this work, the beds were covered
with swarms of negroes bearing pans on their heads and nibbling
away at the ground like ants in the effort to reach the gravel
before the floods came. In the reckless haste many tracts of
144 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
diamond-bearing gravel were buried under ground too deep for
profitable working, or covered by the waste of flooded rivers.
As the mines advanced up the hillsides, following the course
of the mountain streams, it was seen that there were gupiaras or
deposits of diamond-bearing gravel along the steep slopes of the
ravines, and these were worked by carrying the gravel to the
banks of streams, or by cutting sluiceways to the deposits.
Finally, on the sierran ridges and plateaus the conglomerate beds
were reached, from which the deposits in the river beds had
been washed by the mountain streams. This conglomerate was
chiefly itacolumite,1 a micaceous sandstone, accompanied by
mica-schist and penetrated irregularly by quartz veins. This
was the prevailing composite in the Serro de San Antonio, in
which the Jequetinhonha rises in the Serro de Matta de Corda,
the fountain head of the Rio Francisco.1
Here the diamonds were not as thickly sprinkled as they
were in the cascalho concentrate, but the quantity was sufficient
to make extraction profitable, if the conglomerate could be dis-
integrated and washed. This was effected by collecting rain
water in pools at points above the conglomerate and carrying
down the water through ditches into gullies cut in the beds.
By the flow of the water, the formacao was separated from the
mass of rocks and sand. This device worked well, but owing
to the scarcity of water, the washing could only be continued for
a few weeks, at most, in the course of a year. In 1832 mining
in these fields was opened to the public, but the most accessible
and prolific beds had been worked, and there was little apparent
encouragement for the investment of capital in any large under-
taking which might have advanced the science of diamond
winning. It is said that more than half of the diamonds pro-
duced in Brazil were stolen by the workmen and sold to contra-
band dealers, by whom they were secretly sent out of the country.
Outside of the Indian and Brazilian fields no considerable
source of supply had been discovered anywhere. Some dia-
mond-bearing ground had been found in Borneo, which yielded
for many years a dribbling return, and in 1829 the first-known
THE CAMPS ON THE VAAL 145
diamond of Russia was discovered on the west flank of the Ural
Mountains by Humboldt and Rose, in a gold placer field near
the iron mines of Bissersk. Here the prevailing rock forma-
tion, like that in the upper diamond fields of Brazil, was itacolu-
mite, with an admixture of mica and iron pyrites.1 The debris
washed into a few valleys beneath this range yielded a meagre
return to the searchers, but there was nothing to inspire any
ardent working, and in Bohemia, Australia, Mexico, and the
United States, the picking up of a few isolated specimens was
noted as a curious occurrence rather than as the foundation of
any hope of a productive diamond field.2
So, at the time of the discoveries of diamonds on the banks
of the Vaal River, there was no known method for the extraction
of diamonds beyond the shovel of the Indian, the batea of the
Brazilian, or the cradle of the gold miner. There was no antici-
pation, on the part of the diamond seekers, of any formation in
Africa except the diamond-bearing gravel of alluvial deposits,
and the prospectors of the first rush did not seek for diamonds
beyond the gravel along the banks of the Vaal.
The Early Mining at Klip-drift, now called Barkly West.
The first waves of the influx from the southern country and
coast towns were warmly greeted by the small parties at work
on the Vaal. The diggers were squatters, without any legal
title to an inch of the river bank, as they very well knew. But
they relied on actual possession without contest, for their rocky
field was so apparently worthless that no farmer had cared to
secure it. They did not trouble their heads with any question-
ing whether the South African Republic covered their shore
line, or whether any native tribe laid claim to it, but they were
1 " A Treatise on Gems," Feuchtwanger, 1867. "Notices sur les Diamants
de 1'Oural," Parrot. "Transactions of the Imperial Russian Mineralogical Soci-
ety," at St. Petersburg, 1842. " De Novis quibusdam Fossilibus quae in mon-
tibus Uraliis inveniuntur," Gustav Rose, 1839.
2 "Gems and Precious Stones of North America," Kunz, 1890.
146 THE DIAMOND MINES OE SOUTH AFRICA
so weak in numbers that they had some fear of possible attack
from the neighboring Koranas and Griquas, or other natives
who might covet their oxen and arms and supplies, as well as
their hard-won gems.1 In view of the abject state of the few
surviving Hottentots on the Vaal, any dread of their hostility
seemed absurd, but the miners did not know how weak the
natives were, and their new-found treasure unsteadied their
nerves. So they were glad to see a rally of prospectors on the
fields large enough to scare off any menacing natives.
The. early comers picked out irregular patches of ground
here and there, to suit their fancy, and dug and strayed along
the river banks as they pleased, prospecting on any unoccupied
spot. There was no precise limit to the size of any claim. One
party would pounce on a whole hillock, like the prolific " Natal
kopje," and another would occupy a hundred feet or more of
shore line. There was no apparent need of jostling one another,
when any square rod for miles along a river bank was as thickly
sprinkled with diamonds as another, so far as any of the pro-
spectors could judge. Still, the known yield of the Natal kopje
drew preference to locations around it, and the product of other
neighboring placers was so enticing that the mass of diggers
concentrated at Klip-drift.
This massing made it necessary to agree on some defined
limits of ground which a man could reserve for his own work-
ing, or combine with the sections assigned to companions. To
fix and make this assignment a " Diggers' Committee " was
chosen by an informal mass meeting of the prospectors, which
made simple regulations controlling the working of the river
diggings. It was agreed that the size of a location should be
thirty feet square, and that title should be conveyed by a certificate
from the supervising committee. The water's edge along the
river was open to anybody wherever it was possible to set a
trough or a miner's cradle without interfering with other ground-
washing fixtures already in place, but locations might begin a few
yards from the river.2 So there was soon a close-set fringe of
1 "Among the Diamonds," 1870-1871, John Noble. 2 Ibid.
THE CAMPS ON THE VAAL
cradles and water-troughs at the bottom of the Klip-drift bank,
and the ridged and gullied slope for hundreds of yards inland
was pitted with holes from ten to thirty feet square, and ranging
in depth from four to twenty-five feet. If the river shore in
line with the parallel claim was too thick set with cradles to
admit a new washing machine, or if the claim was high up on
the bank, water for washing was sometimes carried up from the
river in carts to the working ground. Alluvial soil covered the
face of the basin, more or less thickly, for a stretch of half a
mile from the river, lying even on the tops of the kopjes, except
Diggings at Gong Gong, 1880.
where rugged boulders and blocks of basalt and trap protruded
stiffly above the coating of gravel.
The choice of location was largely determined by fancy,
rather than any solid reason. Some preferred light colored
patches of gravel to dark, but would have been puzzled by any
call to justify their choice. Others sought for tops of kopjes,
with a supposition that the rains had washed the light gravel
downhill and left the heavier deposit with the diamonds on the
crown of the hillocks and ridges.1 It was generally observed,
however, that diamond crystals were most plentiful in spots
1 "The Diamond Diggings of South Africa," Charles Alfred Payton, London,
1872.
148 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
where garnets and peridot were thickly deposited in the gravel,
and this observation was in accord with current accounts of
mining in other diamond fields. So the occurrence of these
red and green pebbles was commonly hailed as an assurance of
the presence of diamonds, and gravel so charged was washed
and sorted with exceptional care. But there was no concentrated
deposit in this field like the cascalho in the Brazilian river
valleys, and the labor of washing the thick mass of loose gravel
was necessarily great.
There were no appliances for handling and concentrating the
gravel marking any noticeable advance above the slow and labo-
rious methods of the Brazilian and Indian placer workers. The
deposit was a mass of gravel and sand, thickly sprinkled through-
out with heavy boulders of basalt and melaphyre which were
laboriously pried and dragged out of the shallow pits sunk by
the miners.1 The mixed gravel and sand was shovelled into
wheelbarrows or carts and taken to the river's edge, where it was
dumped into heaps on the ground, or in troughs sunk in the
bank. Then the gravel was washed in cradles, with two or
three screens of perforated iron, or zinc, or wire mesh, set to
form partitions with discharge holes so graduated that the larger
stones were held above the upper and coarser screen, while the
sand and lighter gravel flowed out through the upper and lower
screen holes. Meanwhile the cradle was more or less expertly
shaken to cause a deposit of the gravel of high specific gravity
on the bottom between the screens. The worthless stones in
the upper part of the cradle were then picked and scooped out
by hand and thrown away, while the concentrate was taken out
carefully and carried to the sorting table, an ordinary deal stand,
or any level wooden or iron structure, or to a flat stone. Here
the deposit was spread out thinly and sorted over inch by
inch with a short scraper of hoop iron, or any other thin strip,
while the appearance of a diamond was more or less keenly
watched for.2
1 "The Diamond Diggings of South Africa," Charles Alfred Payton, London,
1872. 2 Ibid.
THE CAMPS ON THE VAAL 149
Vaal River Diggings.
This washing machine was practically the same as the Aus-
tralian gold placer miner's cradle, or the American rocker, and it
had been used for years on the Brazilian diamond fields, though
the screening of the Vaal was probably more exact. But the
Brazilian negroes had become far more expert by long practice
and training than the green workers on the line of the Vaal, and
the handling of the concentrate in their bateas was extraordinarily
deft. It has been demonstrated over and over again in placer
fields that inexperienced washers cannot compete with trained
hands in concentrating gold dust, and even expert gold placer
workers often failed to handle diamond-bearing gravel efficiently.
So it is not surprising that many of the awkward adventurers
in the new fields lost heart completely at their failure to extract
any diamond from the masses of gravel which they dug and
washed so laboriously ; and it is practically certain that the per-
centage of gems saved, at first, was below the average winning
from the Brazilian sands.
The irregularity of the distribution of diamonds in the shore
bed was greatly perplexing and disappointing to the groping
locaters. The precious stones were strewed in the gravel in a
scattering way that defied any calculation. Here and there was
a rich patch of ground, while tracts all around it, precisely simi-
lar in a surface view, held only a few small diamonds or were
150 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
hopelessly barren. Even in the best placers there were apparent
freaks of deposit that sorely puzzled the diggers, and almost pro-
voked the belief in the dropping of the gems by whimsical genii
rather than by the play of natural agencies. One man, working
side by side with another for weeks in adjoining claims, would
not find one precious stone, while his neighbor was adding daily
to his little sparkling heap. Even when claims were so split up
that a digger could hardly turn about without brushing against
a comrade there was the like insolvable contrast of gem-studded
gravel and worthless pebbles. Often, too, when a claim had
been abandoned by an unlucky miner, the next man who jumped
into the deserted hole would unearth in a day a superb diamond,
and, perhaps, wash out in a week a score more of precious
stones.1
The miners were, as a body, so orderly, so tenacious of their
own rights under the established regulations, and so prudent in
restricting the possible extent of monopolized ground, that there
was little " claim jumping " or bitter wrangling. The provision
against loafing or the holding of unworked claims on speculation
was sufficiently sharp. The neglect to work a claim for three
days consecutively forfeited the holder's license, and the ground
was then open for the issue of a new certificate to the first claim-
ant. For many months all unoccupied ground in the Klip-drift
camp was greedily pounced upon by newcomers to the fields.
So this part of the river basin was continuously covered with a
busy swarm of workers, digging, washing, sorting, driving carts,
and stirring in all the daily occupations of camp life. Where
one man lost heart and went off prospecting up or down the
river, or plodded wearily homewards, another was ready to take
his place in a moment and continue the unflagging round of
work.
It was soon perceived that such diamond placer digging
was inevitably a gambling speculation, and few complained
loudly of their hard luck, or bitterly grudged the success of
their neighbors. When an unusually large stone was found,
1 "Among the Diamonds," 1870-1871, John Noble.
THE CAMPS ON THE VAAL 151
there was commonly a shout and a rallying of exultant friends
around the lucky finder, and all through the fields a redoubled
fervor of work from the spur of the signal success. Every one
felt that the good fortune of a comrade might be his own the
next moment, and,if this hope was cast down, the diggers toiled
on with indomitable pluck and sanguine spirit, ever lifting the
glittering image of better luck some day. So the rasping of
shovels, the splashing of gravel, the rumbling of carts, the
dumping of loads, and the rattle of cradles went on incessantly
with a lively din from morning till night.
River Diggings. Waldek Plant.
For the sorting of the concentrated gravel shady spots were
chosen beneath spreading tree-branches, where tables were set,
or under the cover of canvas screens stretched over posts.
Here the miners bent over the thin layer of gravel, scraping
along the pebbles bit by bit, and gluing their eyes to the sliding
stones in anxious search for the coveted tiny white crystals ; or
stretched out at full length on their stomachs, they scraped the
gravel over the face of the boards or iron sheets laid flat on the
ground. In this branch of diamond winning, where keen eyes
were essential, the native blacks were largely employed, some-
times under close watch of a white overseer, and sometimes
without any oversight. Part of the black sorters were strictly
152 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
Pniel Diggings, Vaal River.
faithful and honest, as was shown by test after test. One
boy brought straight to his master a diamond of eighty carats,
which his quick eye detected in the roots of an old stump that
he had been told to dump into the river. Another returned the
counterfeit stones that his employer had purposely dropped in
the concentrate.1 But all were not equally trustworthy, and
many fine stones were filched from the tables by nimble-fingered
sorters, even under the eye of a wary overseer. When the Boer
farmers came to the fields, they often brought their families with
them, and it was a common sight to see father and sons digging
and washing, while the mother and daughters sat on the ground
industriously picking over a layer of pebbles. Sometimes, too
Klip-drift, Early River Diggings.
1 "Among the Diamonds," 1870-1871, John Noble. " The Diamond Dig-
gings of South Africa," Payton, 1872.
THE CAMPS ON THE VAAL
'53
the wives and sisters of Knglish miners, even women who had
rarely soiled their white hands before, might be seen sorting
river gravel as ardently as any prospector on the line of the
Vaal.
When newcomers roamed about sight-seeing over the fields,
they were surprised to note how rarely their presence drew even
a fleeting glance. Scarcely any one of all the groping swarm of
diggers, washers, and sorters, white or black, men or women,
diverted an eye for a moment from the intent absorption of the
search for the tiny crystals embedded in the vast stretches of
gravel. Eternal vigilance is the watchword of diamond winning
as well as of liber-
ty. It was keenly
felt by the dia-
mond seekers that
a fortune might
slip through their
hands in the shift-
ing and twinkling
of an eye. So wan-
dering strangers
threaded their
way among the
burrows in the Gong Gong.
pitted bank and the diamond sorting tables without attracting any
more attention than stray pebbles rolling down the gravel heap.1
Whenever any one of this curious swarm found a big stone
he had a prize in his hands, for the precious crystals of the
Vaal river beds are exceptionally good and free from fractures.
There were few stones ranging over thirty carats, but ten carat
stones were not uncommon, and even the tiniest stones of one
carat or less were usually well shaped. Some were lightly tinged
with yellow, detracting somewhat from their market value, but
there was a large percentage of stones perfectly white, or so nearly
1 "Among the Diamonds," 1870—1871. "The Diamond Diggings of South
Africa," Pay ton, 1872.
154 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
colorless as to defy any scrutiny except that of experts. Deep
orange yellow stones were occasionally found, and shades of
yellow grading to the finest straw color were represented as well
as pale blue, brown, and pink, and other hues ; but any color
except white or yellow was rarely to be seen. The commonest
crystalline form was the octahedron, but perfect dodecahedrons
were not unusual, and twin stones or a conglomeration of crys-
tals sometimes appeared. There was no adhering film or enve-
lope such as commonly dulls the lustre of the Brazilian diamond
crystals. The stones of the Vaal are clear and bright.1
Digging for diamonds never becomes dull drudgery, for there
is always the glittering possibility in the mind's eye of upheaving
a king's ransom with the turn of a shovel, and it is far more
exciting to a novice than mining for gold or any other minerals.
But the diggers on the Vaal River fields soon learned that the
actual disclosure of a diamond on the face of the gravel which
he was shovelling was a very rare occurrence, for only the largest
stones were likely to be seen in a mass of earth and pebbles, and
few even of these were actually detected in the sinking of the
pits on the river banks. So the miners were rarely so absorbed
in their search that they worked without stopping to eat, but
they clung to the last gleams of the sun as the miners have done
in the rich gold pocket placers of America and Australia. The
diggers and washers went to work usually at the same hour,
about sunrise, took an hour off for breakfast, and for dinner or
lunch, and stopped work when the sun went down. In the
hotter weeks of the African summer season (the summer —
November, December, January, and February — is the hot as
well as the wet season) they did little or no work in the midday,
and when heavy rain and hail storms swept over the fields, all
sought for cover.
1 " South African Diamond Fields and Journey to Mines," William Jacob
Morton, New York, 1877. "The Diamond Diggings of South Africa," Payton,
1872. "Diamonds and Gold of South Africa," Mitchell, 1888. "To the
Cape for Diamonds," Frederic Boyle, London, 1873. "Diamond Fields of South
Africa, by One who has visited the Fields," New York, 1872.
s_>
$
THE CAMPS ON THE VAAL
Camping on the banks of the Vaal was rarely unpleasant to
any one accustomed to a life in the open country, and even the
townsmen found little to grumble about. As soon as they
reached the Diamond Fields, the prospectors looked about for
good spots on which to lodge their wagons and pitch their tents.
Some took to the fields small circular or " bell " tents, but the
greater part preferred a square or oblong " wall " tent, commonly
ten feet long and eight wide. From a central ridgepole,
propped at each end, the canvas roof was stretched to side posts
four feet high, from which flaps hung to the ground. This
shelter served as a home for two or three men, and a storehouse
for their stinted outfit. It was not spacious, but even a little
tent was a welcome change from the cramped bunking in mass
under a wagon cover, and the airy, clean, canvas chamber was
Washing Diamond Gravel by Machinery at Gong Gong, 1880.
much pleasanter than the ordinary farmer's sleeping room, as
many of the prospectors remarked from experience. Even when
the campers were obliged, for lack of tents, to sleep in their
wagons, the big arched wagon did not suffer by comparison with
any Boer's hut on the veld. The tents were pitched, sometimes
under the cover of the larger trees lining the river bank, and
sometimes on sheltered slopes, but the mass at Klip-drift were
bare to the sun, and exposed to the blast of every storm that
tore through the valley.
Often these storms were terrific, opening with the rising of a
156 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
yellow streak above the horizon, and the rapid spreading over
the blue sky dome of rolling masses of heavy, lurid clouds.
Lightning at Kimberley.
Then from the coppery bosom of this pall there came such blaz-
ing streams of lightning in sheets and contorted shafts, siich
rending explosions of thunder peals, that the awful flare and
crash would shake the nerves of hardened men. With this
Day View, Same Scene.
appalling discharge there poured from the clouds torrents of
rain, or a volley of huge hailstones rattling on the canvas roofs
THE CAMPS ON THE VAAL 157
and driving man and beast to the nearest shelter.1 As a safe-
guard from these electric bolts the miners commonly put iron
lightning rods alongside of their tent poles and insulated them
with the necks of glass bottles, but the insecurity of this shield
was evident in the occasional shattering of a tent and the killing
or maiming of its occupants.2
Except for these storms the climate of the Vaal valley was
generally agreeable. The winter days were particularly pleasant,
for the sun soon warmed the air even when the nights were so
cold that ice formed on the face of water-troughs. In midsum-
mer the days were often exceedingly hot, the mercury rising as
high as 100 Fah. in the shade; but the dry air was not nearly
as enervating as the humid atmosphere of summer days in
Europe or America, and the lightly clothed miners, avoiding the
midday glare, suffered little. There was a notable exemption
from sickness throughout the year, except for diarrhoea and
dysentery, and fever contracted in summer chiefly from the reck-
less use of unboiled and unfiltered river water.8
Plain food of some kind was plentiful and cheap, especially
maize meal, commonly called mealie meal, and mutton and game
were brought into the camp from the neighboring Transvaal and
Free State farming and pasture lands. There were many wild
fowls, too, that flocked to the valley of the Vaal, and several
kinds of food fish abounded in the river, especially one resem-
bling the voracious English barbel, or the catfish of America, and
the one which the miners called " yellow fish." The chief lack
in the food supply was cheap and wholesome vegetables — for
the dearth of these and the excess of meat caused a mild form of
scurvy to appear in the camp. Fuel for cooking was readily cut
from the trees along the river bank or from the thickets in the
ravines.4
When the choice locations on the Klip-drift bank were taken,
the influx, continuously moving to the new Diamond Fields from
the coast, spread up and down the river, and little camps sprang
1 The Diamond News, Klip-drift, Nov. 4, 1871. 3 Ibid.
2 "The Diamond Diggings of South Africa," Payton, 1872. 4 Ibid.
158 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
up at Gong Gong, Union Kopje, Delport's Hope, Forlorn Hope,
Niekerk's Hope, Blue Jacket, Waldek's Plant, Larkin's Flat,
and other placer diggings, extending from Hebron twenty miles
northeast of Klip-drift to Sefonell's, sixty miles west.1 It has
been estimated that ten thousand diggers, white and black, were
stretched along the river in this string of camps, and in roving
parties of prospectors.'2 Any possible reckoning of the extent
of a rush of thousands, which nobody could measure exactly or
tried to measure, was of course a rough guess, but it seems prob-
able that this guess was not very far from the fact. Such an
influx of restless adventurers, pouring along a river line in a
thinly peopled territory in the heart
of South Africa, as heedless as a
locust swarm of any questions of
state sovereignty, or native tribal
reservations, or mineral right titles,
was certain to raise a rumpus, if
any official authority in South Africa
undertook to drive them away, or
exact heavy license fees, or even to
hold them down under strict laws
The Largest River Diamond ever found • i r j T~M A
in South Africa. Weight, 3303 Car- rigorously enforced. The Austra-
ats; Value, £3,500. .;an gojd fiejdg J^J furnished Some
highly significant object lessons enforcing this certainty, but the
little Boer Republics were not disposed to learn any lesson
from the experience of English Colonies.
The South African Republic claimed the diamond placer bor-
der north and west of the Vaal as part of its territory, but it was
content, at first, with the bare assumption that the diggers on
the northern and western bank were within the confines of its
domain, without caring to assert its right of control by any
marked interference with the free proceedings of the diggers.
It did not regard the upturning of gravel on its border line as
any menace of serious intrusion within its territory, and the
1 "Among the Diamonds," 1870-1871.
3 " South African Diamond Fields," Morton, 1877.
THE CAMPS ON THE VAAL 159
neighboring Boer farmers were generally well pleased with the
opening of ready markets for their produce. Representatives
of the Republic were recognized as officers of the law at Hebron,
but there was little attempt to impress any recognition of its
authority on the camps farther down the Vaal.1
So the miners at Klip-drift went on digging and scraping the
gravel, under their own simple regulations, month after month,
until their busy camp burst suddenly into an uproar, when the
news came in that President Pretorius and the Executive Coun-
cil of the Transvaal Republic had granted to a firm of three privi-
leged persons the exclusive right to search for diamonds in the
territory of the Republic for a term of twenty years from June 22,
1870, subject to a royalty of six per cent upon the value of all
diamonds discovered.2 There were some old Australian placer
miners on the Vaal River Diamond Fields, and they doubtless
grinned at the thought of the reception that such a proclamation
would have met with at Bendigo and Ballarat ; but it was not
necessary for an adventurer to have had a rearing on any gold
placer field to fire his spirit to revolt against an edict of dispos-
session and monopoly. It is idle to debate the question of the
technical legal right of the administration of the South African
Republic to make this grant. This may be conceded without
affecting the countering facts of its gross partiality, inexpediency,
and practical futility. The whole regular army of the United
States would have been too small to enforce any such disposition of
its mineral lands after they had been occupied without protest for
more than six months by squatting placer miners, and bare com-
mon sense would have sufficed to inform the administration of
the little South African Republic that it could not give effect to
its paper monopoly without a succession of fights that would add
another " Blood River " to the face of South Africa.
The instant effect of the grant was a universal uprising and
mass meeting of the Klip-drift camp, and the declaration of the
foundation of another free and independent Republic on the Vaal,
1 "Among the Diamonds," 1870—1871.
2 "South Africa," George McCall Theal, 1888-1893.
160 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
of which Theodore Parker, one of the leading adventurers, was
chosen president.1 This was, on its face, a proceeding that
smacked of opera bouffe, but, like Janus, it had another face.
It was a flaunt of determination to cut off every shred of political
connection with the South African Republic, and hold possession
of a slice of rich mining land with a Colony which, at some future
time, if not immediately, Great Britain might be disposed to
welcome and incorporate with her imperial cluster on the coast.
If this hope was not openly avowed at first, it undoubtedly ex-
isted in the minds of many of the diggers, and no time was lost
in communicating the situation to her Majesty's High Com-
missioner at the Cape, Lieutenant General Hay.
It is, however, unlikely that there was any confident expecta-
tion of the endurance of the new Republic founded on a gravel
bank whose precious contents were fast fleeting, but the organi-
zation was set up as a handy resort, on the spur of the moment,
to make an imposing show of resistance to the authority of the
South African Republic, and with the idea of shunning the pen-
alty of forcibly contesting the execution of the monopoly grant
within a recognized district of its domain. Whatever legal
unsoundness there may have been in the construction of the
Klip-drift Republic, and in the notions of its framers, the shaky
ship of state served its main purpose. The administration of
the Transvaal Republic realized their grave blunder too late,
and being humane and peace-loving men, refrained from any
attempt to maintain their grant or their contested authority by
force of arms. But they complained earnestly to the British
Colonial authorities of the intrusion and illegal occupation and
insubordination of the squatting adventurers on the Vaal.
Meanwhile the diamond diggers did not concern themselves
with the remote vexation of the Boer President and Council, but
kept on ransacking the gravel. Early in the year there had
been some straggling prospecting on the Pniel bank opposite
Klip-drift, but the first continuous work on a south bank placer
'"South Africa," George McCall Theal, 1888-1893. "Among the
Diamonds," 1870-1871.
THE CAMPS ON THE VAAL 161
was begun in June by a party from the Klip-drift camp.1 Their
undertaking was an unwelcome intrusion on land claimed by the
Pniel Mission, and the diggers were warned of their trespassing
by the clergyman in charge. The Mission Station was several
miles from the diamond placer, and the diggers ignored the
notice, as they were not interfering apparently with the mission
work by washing river bank gravel. The placer ground proved
so rich that the diggers flocked to it rapidly, and the Berlin
Society which maintained the missions at Pniel and Hebron
was soon glad to obtain the license fee which it was generally
able to secure from the diggers on the Pniel field. The pre-
ferred locations on the Pniel bank were along a stretch in the
middle of the rising ground, a few yards from the water's edge.
In this tract diamonds were strewn so continuously as to suggest
the existence of a flow or stream of them, in the red drift gravel
between the boulders, to the eye of more than one observer.
This strip was soon honeycombed with shallow pits reaching
bedrock about twenty-five feet below the surface.2
The flow of prospectors continued to spread until the Pniel
camp, in a few months, rivalled Klip-drift in size, and the two
contained a population of four or five thousand people. Small
stone, brick, and iron buildings for stores and other business
uses were quickly put up in rows along a main street in the
heart of Klip-drift camp, which bore the name of Campbell
Street, and a few others of the same durable materials rose from
other spots in the fields, but most of the miners continued to
live in their canvas tents, or in reed huts plastered with clay.
The stone for building was readily obtained from neighboring
hillsides, and was neatly cut and laid, so that Campbell Street
soon compared favorably with any country town street in South
Africa. Butchers, bakers, and grocers opened shops ; restau-
rants offered good, plainly cooked food at charges so moderate
that it was reckoned that a man could be well fed at a cost of
2s. 6d. a day; a tavern and lodging-house, dignified by the name
of hotel, accommodated travellers and regular boarders; diamond
1 "Among the Diamonds," 1870-1871. 2 Ibid.
i6a THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
brokers sat ready to judge and buy rough diamonds for export ;
a music hall had a rude vaudeville show every week-day night;
members of the Masonic fraternity established a lodge ; and a
little brick church welcomed all comers to its Sunday services.1
Similar buildings were put up less regularly in the Pniel
camp too, and both sides of
the river showed the like med-
ley of iron, brick, stone, light
wood, and canvas stores and
dwellings. The first mining-
town newspaper in South Africa,
Views of Klip-drift.
the Diamond News, was started at
Pniel, — a little four-page sheet
that was chiefly filled with adver-
tisements of local tradesmen on
both sides of the river, and the local news and stir of the river
diggings. Rowboats of an established ferry made regular trips
across the river from one camp ground to the other, charging a
passenger sixpence for crossing. So there was easy communi-
cation, and the two camps were one in their common appearance,
1 "Among the Diamonds," 1870-1871. " The Diamond Diggings of South
Africa," Pay ton, 1872.
THE CAMPS ON THE VAAL 163
work and sympathy, though the Pniel camp did not pretend to
the dignity of an independent Republic, but submitted meekly
to the payment of license fees to the Berlin Mission Society and
to the assertion of the sovereignty of the Orange Free State,
represented by a local magistrate, with the adjuncts of a canvas
jail, whipping-posts, and stocks.1
Oddly enough, in view of the shallow gravel bed which was
the sole support of these camps, the approach of collapse was
not clearly foreseen. An observer of more than ordinary intel-
ligence visited the camp at the close of the year 1870, and noted
the exhaustion of the rich ridge gravel back of Campbell Street,
where more than two thousand diggers were at work a few
months before. Yet, while remarking the drift of prospectors
to outlying placers, he wrote, " Notwithstanding this, Klip-drift
flourishes, and together with Pniel will no doubt always continue
to be a head centre of the diamond-digging community." For
this sanguine view there was some justification in the general
ignorance of the actual extent of the diamond beds in the alluvial
deposit, and in the common declaration of a purpose to persist
in searching for diamonds, even by those whose hard luck
forced them to abandon the fields for a time. " Hope's blest
dominion never ends " to the most unfortunate laborer. This
visitor did not meet one of the many leaving the ground with
empty pockets who did not protest his resolution to return to
the diggings in the following March or April after the heat and
storms of the summer season on the Vaal were past.2 Fortu-
nately for these luckless adventurers, there was a new and phe-
nomenal development of other Diamond Fields, whose output
soon dwarfed all the returns from the shallow River Diggings.
1 "Among the Diamonds," 1870-1871. "South Africa," George McCall
Theal, 1888-1893.
2 " Among the Diamonds," 1870-1871.
CHAPTER VI
THE RUSH TO KIMBERLEY
HERE was a pretty green valley near the Free
State settlement of Fauresmith, hardly a mile
in width, but stretching for several miles to the
northeast through ridges of volcanic rock kopjes.
Fauresmith lay in the track of the stream flow-
ing from the coast ports to the diamond-bearing
valley of the Vaal, but there was no thought of a probable dia-
mond field on the plateau so far from a river bed. So for
months the adventurers passed on without pausing, except for
a night's camp, on their way to the Vaal. A Boer settler, Cor-
nelis Johannes Visser, had taken up a considerable part of the
neighboring valley in his farm of Jagersfontein, where his house
stood in the midst of a gay, blooming garden. He had died
before the discovery of diamonds, but his farm was held by his
widow, Jacoba Magdalena Cecilia Visser, and worked by an over-
seer in charge.
A little stream, flowing from the hills, ran through the valley
in the rainy season, though for the greater part of the year its
track was only marked by a spruit or dry water-course. De
Klerk, the overseer, noticed that many small garnets mixed with
pebbles of agate were sprinkled along the dry bed of this spruit,
and learned that the diggers on the Vaal believed garnets to be
an indication of the presence of diamonds. So he began pros-
pecting one day in August, 1870, on the line of the spruit, awk-
wardly sifting the dry gravel and sand in a common wire sieve.
At the depth of six feet he found a fine diamond of fifty carats,
and the news of his discovery was soon widely spread throughout
the Free State.1
1 "Among the Diamonds," 1870-1871.
164
THE RUSH TO KIMBERLEY 165
His neighbors flocked first to the farm, and the thrifty widow
Visser was pleased to welcome them, and permitted them to dig
in her spruit, on allotted patches of twenty feet square, for which
each paid her a license fee of £1 a month. The phlegmatic
Boers were not wildly excited by the prospect of fortune hid in
the spruit, but diamond hunting was an agreeable diversion from
dull farming, and they came with their wives and children in their
big canvas-covered wagons, and spread out through the green val-
ley like country folk at a picnic. The children delighted in their
search for pretty pebbles and soon filled their pockets with gar-
nets and agates ; but the digging in the spruit was often so labo-
rious that the farmers were content to squat on the ground and
puff their long pipes while their black servants did the digging
and rock heaving. When natives were not engaged as diggers,
the farmers and their sons indolently shovelled out the gravel in
heaps to be sorted by their wives and children.
Underneath the red surface soil filled with pebbles, there was
a layer of calcareous clay, varying in thickness from a few feet to
twelve or more, covering drifts and pockets of gravel thickly
sprinkled with heavy boulders of greenstone and basalt. It was
necessary to pry up and tug out these boulders in order to reach
the underlying gravel, and this task was no child's play. Then the
gravel was pitched out of the holes, rudely sorted by dry sifting
in sieves, and picked over by hand in search of the precious
stones. In some pockets there was quite a sprinkling of diamonds,
garnets and peridot, mixed with coarse gravel, and the returns far
exceeded the license charge ; but the diamond deposit was scat-
tered as irregularly as that of the Vaal River field, and many of the
workers toiled for weeks on their claims without finding anything
more precious than the jawbones and teeth of a hyena or jackal.1
Attention had hardly been called to the diggings at Jagers-
fontein when a still more remarkable discovery was made in the
month of September, 1870, at Dutoitspan,2 on the farm of Dorst-
1 "Among the Diamonds," 1870-1871.
2 The original and correct form of this name was " Du Toit's Pan," or the
pan or pond of du Toit, the name of the man who first owned the farm. Both Du
Toit's Pan and Dutoitspan are now used.
166 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
fontein, about twenty miles southeast of Pniel and Klip-drift on
the Vaal. Du Toit's pan was one of the curious natural land
basins before described, receiving the wash of the surrounding
ridges, and holding pools of water during the rainy season and
sometimes during the year. The title to the farm Dorstfontein
was granted by the Free State Government to Abraham Pauls du
Toit on the 4th of April, 1860. Du Toit sold the farm to
Adriaan J. van Wyk, who had built a little house near the side
of the " pan," where he was living indifferent to the rush of
prospectors to the Vaal River, until he was suddenly surprised
by the finding of diamonds a short distance from his house.
When the news of this discovery spread, coming, as it did, so
close upon the revelation at Jagersfontein, there was an instant
rush of prospectors from the Vaal to the new field, swelled by
the neighboring farmers and the influx still flowing from the
coast towns. Van Wyk demanded, at first, a royalty of one-
fourth of the value of all diamonds found on his farm, from
every prospector seeking to explore the new field ; but he soon
concluded to issue licenses at a charge of js. 6d. monthly for
every allotted claim of thirty feet square. The Orange Free
State government was aroused to assert its claim of sovereignty
by the spread of the discoveries, and attempted to restrict the
allotment of the claims on the farm land, for the benefit of its
own citizens, by an ordinance prohibiting the issuance of licenses
to any one except a Free State burgher or farmer ; but this
requirement was easily evaded at Jagersfontein and Dutoitspan
by the transfer of licenses granted to Free State citizens. Fur-
thermore, the spread of the news of the discovery and the result-
ant rush to the Diamond Fields was soon beyond any possible
restriction imposed by this little Republic.1 Van Wyk was pre-
vailed upon without much difficulty to sell his farm to the
predecessors of the London and South African Exploration
Company for ^2600, a fortune far surpassing any glitter of
pebbles in the ground, in the view of this simple farmer.
Side by side with the Dorstfontein farm lay the farm of Bult-
1 "South Africa," Theal, 1888-1893.
THE RUSH TO KIMBERLEY 167
fontein, divided by a public roadway. The spread of prospect-
ing soon passed naturally across the road to Bultfontein and to
other neighboring farms. Bultfontein was owned by a poor
Boer, Cornelis Hendrik du Plooy, and before the discovery at
Dutoitspan a thousand pounds would have been thought a
grossly extravagant price to pay for the whole farm and its live
stock. But the luck of van Wyk put a new face on the scrubby
farm lands near the Vaal, and an eager Free State speculator,
Thomas Lynch, did not wait over Sunday to buy Bultfontein,
but amazed the owner by driving out to his farm on the Lord's
Day, November 14, 1869, an^ offering ^2000 for his land. Du
Plooy accepted the offer on the spot, for such a sum in cash was
vastly bigger in his eyes than any possible return from farming
or picking up " blink klippe." It is said that diamonds had
been found on the farm previous to this sale, but Du Plooy was
not aware of any actual discovery on his land, and preferred cash
in hand to any gambling chances. The story is told that Bult-
fontein mine was discovered by the finding of a diamond in the
mortar used by du Plooy to plaster his house and the subsequent
search for diamonds in the pit from which the sand had been
taken. It is true that diamonds were found as reported, but it
was some time after the mine had been rushed.1
On the same day that du Plooy sold his farm to Lynch,
he was beset by Leopold Lilienfeld and others, who advised
him that the sale was illegal, being made on a Sunday, and
eventually Lilienfeld gave du Plooy an indemnity against all
damages if he would refuse to conclude the sale to Lynch.
On November 16, 1869, the sale of the farm was concluded
between du Plooy and Leopold Lilienfeld, Louis Hond and
Henry Barlow Webb for the sum of ^£2000. Hond sold his
one-third interest to Webb, who, with Lilienfeld, Edgar Eager
Hurley, and others, formed the " Hopetown Company."
Lynch brought action against du Plooy for ^10,000 damages,
and obtained a judgment for ^500 and costs on August 19, 1872.
In spite of his indemnity du Plooy was then obliged to sue
i" Among the Diamonds," John Noble, 1870-1871.
168 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
Lilienfeld and his associates, and obtained judgment for ^760
19^. id. and costs, February 12, 1893. In 1876, when the Land
Commission heard this case, the London and South African Ex-
ploration Company had been formed, and the title to the farm
was granted to that company, as successors of the " Hopetown
Company."
Bultfontein was linked to Dorstfontein by the acquisition of
both farms by one holder, and transfer in a subsequent sale to
investors associated as the London and South African Explora-
tion Company. The farm of Vooruitzigt, which lay bordering
on Dorstfontein and Bultfontein to the north, was bought for
_£6ooo shortly after by other speculative investors, — the firm of
Messrs. Dunell, Ebden & Co., of Port Elizabeth.
The correct record of these farms is as follows : —
Bultfontein was originally granted by the British Govern-
ment (then occupying the Free State under the name of " The
Orange River Sovereignty") to J. F. Otto, December 16, 1848,
under Warden certificate.
Dorstfontein was granted by the Free State Government to
Abraham Pauls du Toit on the 4th of April, 1860.
Alexandersfontein was granted by the Free State Govern-
ment to Johannes Cornelis Coezee on the jd of December, 1862.
That portion cut off by the Free State boundary from Griqua-
land West was granted to Philip Rudolph Nel and Willem
Gabriel Nel on the i6th of January, 1880.
Vooruitzigt was originally a portion of Bultfontein, and was
sold to D. A. and J. N. de Beer on the i8th of April, 1860.
At the time of these purchases the price paid for any ground
outside of a short stretch on the Dorstfontein farm was wholly
speculative. There had been no considerable discovery of dia-
monds except along the top of a sloping ridge or long kopje
lying north, at a distance of about a third of a mile, from du
Toil's pan. The total area of the three farms was about fifty-
eight and a half (58*^) square miles.1 The comparative ease of
1 The total area of the farms, Dorstfontein (6579 acres), Bultfontein (14,457
acres), and Vooruitzigt (16,405 acres), is 37,441 acres, equal to 58^ square miles.
THE RUSH TO KIMBERLEY 169
Kimberley, 1872.
working in the new fields was a pleasant surprise to the River
Diggers, who had been obliged to sink pits in heavy gravel thick
set with boulders. Now they found diamonds sprinkled through
a light surface soil of decomposed yellow ground, and many
stones were so thinly covered with earth that some little brilliant
crystals were washed free from sand after every heavy rain, and
lay shining on the ground, to be picked up by sharp-eyed dia-
mond seekers.1 The mines were not covered with basalt, but in
many cases with a layer of rather hard limestone or calcareous
tufa similar to that which covers a large part of the surface of
the country in this neighborhood, which has been metamorphosed
by the evaporation of water charged with carbonate of lime.
The first swarm of prospectors on the ground supposed that
the diamonds of Dutoitspan were simply a sprinkling strewn
through a sand wash like the river-shore deposit. When their
shovels struck an underlying stratum of limestone with streaks
of greenish shale, at a depth of two feet or less, they presumed
that this corresponded to the known bedrock of the placers
along the Vaal, and had no thought that it was a casing for any
precious stones. So they simply dug through the soil and
shovelled the ground into heaps to be sifted dry with common
wire sieves of coarse and fine mesh. There were no boulders
in this soil and few large stones, so that their claims could be
rapidly worked.2
The ground contained a plentiful sprinkling of small yellow-
ish diamonds and some larger stones, but the deposit was so
shallow that it soon was exhausted. In the course of a week or
two one digger with the help of a sorter shovelled and sifted all
the ground of his claim, thirty feet square, and moved to another,
or rambled off" prospecting over the farm lands.8 There seemed
1 '< The Diamond Diggings of South Africa," Payton, 1872.
2 Ibid. s Ibid.
1 7o THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
no prospect to him that the Dutoitspan ridge still held anything
to reward the labor of penetrating a rock bed. But after many
prospectors had ransacked the soil of their claims and abandoned
them, one of the workers on the ridge or elevated land had the
fancy to see what might possibly lie under the stratum of lime-
stone, and determined to cut a few feet, at least, through the rock.
He found that the limestone soon grew so soft and rotten that
it could be split easily by the stroke of a pick and the lumps
crushed by the blow of a shovel. This rotten rock fused soon
with a curious decomposed breccia of a yellowish color, and
the sifting of this ground showed, to his amazed eyes, the
presence of diamonds sparkling on his sieve or on the sorting
table.1
With the spreading of this discovery there came another
rush of diggers to the ridge that soon covered every patch of
unoccupied ground on its slopes. Foot after foot the mining
pits sunk through the soft cement, which was often so decom-
posed that -the point of a pick pierced it like a mass of dried
mud. Instead of decreasing in number, the quantity of gems
in a claim often increased with the deepening of the pits, and
the proportion of large rough diamonds was far greater below
the depth of a fathom than in the surface soil or the crust of the
limestone stratum. Payton says that fragments of volcanic
rocks — green trap and basalt chiefly — were scattered through
the limestone and yellow ground ; but there were very few large
boulders, and the work of mining was far less laborious than
any pit-driving in the river bank at Klip-drift and Pniel.2
Some cut adits at varying angles in the slope of the ridge,
and carried out their ground in buckets or wheelbarrows. This
method of mining shunned the toil of lifting heavy buckets out
of the pits, but it was dangerous from the frequent ground
slides and rock falls, and caused many a wrangle when adit lines
crossed or pits met the tunnels. Others opened their claims
by cutting a series of descending stages, diminishing in size step
by step, so that the pit bottom was reached by passing down a
1 "The Diamond Diggings of South Africa," Payton, 1872. 2 Ibid.
THE RUSH TO KIMBERLEY 171
rude rock staircase. This was a rapid and convenient mode of
opening ground at the start, but where claims were only thirty
feet square, it was clear that no single claim-holder could go far
down in this way without reaching a point where the bottom
step of his staircase would cover the floor of his claim. For this
reason many preferred to mine more slowly in small perpen-
dicular shafts, in whose side little niches, familiarly known as toe
holes, were cut, so that agile men could clamber up and down.
Or the shaft bottom was reached by means of a knotted rope or
riem of rawhide, dangling into the pit from a post set in the
ground near the mouth of the shaft. When a bucket was filled
with broken rock by a digger working on a pit floor, his mate
hauled up the load by winding a rope stretching from the handle
over a rude windlass, or by sheer lifting. When only one
digger was holding a claim, he was obliged to clamber out of
his pit and haul up his bucket whenever he filled it.
To extract the diamonds the broken rock was pulverized
by beating with shovels and then screened in a- common
round sieve of coarse mesh, to separate the larger stones
that were worthless. After this screening the ground passing
through the coarse wire mesh was carefully sifted, a second time,
in a rocking sieve of fine, strong wire. This sieve was set in
an oblong frame, usually about three feet long and two broad,
with handles at one end and deep notches at the other, gripping
a narrow strip of rawhide stretched between two upright posts
called sieve props. When this rocker was swung rapidly, all
the sand and dust fell through the wire mesh, leaving a concen-
trate of fine chips and little pebbles of limestone, talc, basalt, and
trap, carrying a sprinkling of garnets, peridot, and an occasional
diamond crystal. This concentrate was then taken to a sorting
table and scraped over in the same way as the river gravel.1
Diamond winning on the upland was easier, at first, than
working the river placers ; but there was one common annoy-
ance which was much more irritating on the new fields than at
1 "The Diamond Diggings of South Africa," Payton, 1872. "Among the
Diamonds," 1870-1871.
1 72 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
the river diggings. Hot winds blew the red dust from the sur-
rounding veld in clouds over the workers, and these dust blasts
were mixed with the powdered white limestone and pulverized
cement of the ridge, shaken through the sieves and blown in
the faces of the miners, inflaming their eyes, clogging their
noses, and even coating their skin through their clothes. So
fine was this powder and so sharply blown that it penetrated
even hunting-case watches, and few watches could be kept run-
ning after a month at the diggings of Dutoitspan.1
But this was comparatively a trivial concern to ardent dia-
mond seekers, winning the precious stones so frequently.
Every day swelled the rush of adventurers to the pan, bargain-
ing for halves, quarters, and even eighths of a claim on the
ridge, and roaming over every foot of ground of Dorstfontein
and the neighboring farms of Bultfontein, Vooruitzigt, and Alex-
andersfontein in search of new diamond beds. Oddly enough,
as the prospectors thought, no spot on the whole farm of Dorst-
fontein rewarded their search outside of the ridge near the pan,
and for months no better luck attended the hunting for dia-
monds over the neighboring farms. But where one party of
the ardent seekers failed to find diamonds, another followed on
its track and scoured the face of the farms with shovels and
sieves, with a persistence that was certain to be rewarded, in
time, if any diamond surface beds existed outside of the ridge
at Dutoitspan. In the frequent sinking of pits, also, in the
basins, for water, there was the further chance of piercing some
hidden bed of diamonds, for the search for springs was hardly
less keen than the quest for precious stones.
So, early in i8yi,2 diamonds were unearthed in the surface
soil close to the farmhouse of Bultfontein. This discovery was
followed in the first days of May by the discovery of diamonds
on de Beer's farm, Vooruitzigt, about two miles from Dutoits-
pan.8 Two months later a second diamond bed was uncov-
1 "The Diamond Diggings of South Africa," Payton, 1872. 2 Ibid.
3 Ibid. [These dates differ somewhat from those given by Theal and others.
Payton was on the ground in July, 1871, and his account should be most accurate.]
THE RUSH TO KIMBERLEY
173
ered on the same farm, lying on a gently sloping kopje, at a
distance from the first location roughly reckoned at a mile.
This kopje had been searched twice by prospectors, it is said,
without success, and one report says that the deposit was finally
discovered through the sinking of a well on the ground.1 The
diggers drove their well down seventy-six feet without finding
water, but at this depth one was amazed to see a diamond of
eighty-seven carats sparkling on the wall of his dry pit.
So many conflicting state-
ments have been made as to
the discovery of the first dia-
mond at this location, called
New Rush or Colesberg Kopje,
and afterward famous as Kim-
berley Mine, that I have been
perplexed to decide to which
story the most credence should
be given. The difficulty in ob-
taining trustworthy data arises
from the fact that few of the
original diggers are still alive,
and that most of those who
are still living are scattered to
all parts of the world. More-
over one cannot always rely
upon the accuracy of the mem-
ory of the old diggers now living upon the Fields as to dates
and details after the lapse of more than thirty years. After
diligent sifting of all reports and records, however, the following
conclusion may be said to be well determined.
Through the courtesy of Mrs. Grimmer, the widow of Dr.
Grimmer, a practising physician at Colesberg when the Diamond
Fields were discovered, I was enabled to meet Mrs. Raw-
storne, the mother of Fleetwood Rawstorne, then (1900) living
at Cape Town. She is a fine-looking old lady, as her portrait
1 "The Diamond Diggings of South Africa," Payton, 1872.
Mrs. Rawstorne.
174 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
shows, well preserved after a long and eventful life in South
Africa. She was eighty-two years old at the time of our meeting.
Her memory took her back to the days of the discovery, and
she related the incidents of the Fields as clearly as if they had
happened but yesterday. The photograph, here reproduced, of
the discoverer of Kimberley mine and his party was taken a few
days after the discovery of diamonds on Colesberg Kopje.
Fleetwood Rawstorne stands in the middle of the group (page
175), in the shade of a fine specimen of the camelthorn trees
which grew upon the mine. They
had only begun to dig prospect-
ing holes. The cut on page 176
shows the primitive method of
working the diamond - bearing
ground. I had the story of the
discovery also from Mr. T. B.
Kisch, who states that he is the
only one now living of the first
four locators.
Fleetwood Rawstorne, T. B.
Kisch, and two other diggers
were prospecting on this kopje
during the month of July, 1871.
Some of the party thought they
saw " indications " of diamond
deposits, and Rawstorne sent his
Kafir servant to prospect thor-
oughly the spot in view. The Kafir returned to his master with
a diamond of about two carats weight. This discovery was made
known at once to the other members of the party, and all went
immediately to the spot and marked and pegged off their claims ;
Rawstorne pegging three, two as a reward for discovery and one
as a digger. After the claims had been pegged off Rawstorne
went to the authorities and reported his discovery. On the
following day the government surveyor was sent to mark off the
claims and allot them according to the existing law or custom.
Mr. T. B. Kisch. (The only one now living
of the first party who located claims on
Kimberley Mine.)
THE RUSH TO KIMBERLEY
Kimberley Mine just after the Discovery, July, 1871.
The name of Colesberg Kopje was given to the hillock
because the lucky diggers, headed by Rawstorne, came to
the field from the town of Colesberg, near the Orange River.
The instant flocking of people to the two Vooruitzigt farm
diggings caused them to be roughly distinguished as " De Beers
Rush" or " Old De Beers," and " De Beers New Rush," or the
" Colesberg Kopje " — names which endured some months, until
the " New Rush " was rechristened Kimberley in honor of the
British secretary for the colonies.
This inroad of squatting prospectors was greatly vexing at first
to the owners of the diamond-bearing farms. It disturbed the
use of the ground for stock-raising purposes, and if there were
any diamonds on the land, the purchasing speculators wanted to
hold the beds for their own exclusive development and profit.
But it was soon evident that this design was impracticable. The
swarm that covered the ground could not be held in check by
any force at command of the owners, and stiffly refused to recog-
176 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
nize any assertion of legal claims that took the form of monopoly
titles. The first diggers on the Bultfontein farm were warned
off by the owners for trespass. There was a momentary hesita-
tion till the rush was swelled by numbers so large that the for-
bidden ground was "jumped" in an hour, and diggers upturned
the soil to the very door of the farmhouse. Then the owners
called on the Orange Free State police for help, and the miners
were driven away for some days ; but the certainty of another irre-
sistible rush was so ominous that, toward the end of May (1871),
the proprietors opened the field to all comers on payment of a
license of ten shillings a month for each claim of thirty feet square.1
In the grants of farms by the Dutch East India Company
there had been no reservation of mineral rights, but from the
time of the cession to Great Britain, MacNab says the grant of
lands did not carry a title to " precious stones, gold, and silver,"
which were explicitly excluded, and in 1860 it was enacted in
Kimberley Mine just after the Discovery, July, 1871.
1 " The Diamond Diggings of South Africa," Payton, 1872.
Africa," Theal, 1888-1893.
< South
THE RUSH TO KIMBERLEY
177
Parliament that no lands containing valuable minerals should
be considered waste lands of the crown for purposes of sale.
This did not apply to Griqualand West, as there was no min-
eral or precious stones act or ordinance in force in this terri-
tory until Ordinance No. 3 of 1871, of the Orange Free State
Government.1 Whether there were mineral reservations in the
diamond-bearing-farm deeds was
not questioned by the inrush-
ing diggers. They would not
suffer exclusion without a fight,
but they were willing to pay small
license charges to the farm own-
ers for the privilege of working
allotted claims. The size of these
claims was fixed by agreement
with representative " Diggers'
Committees," chosen by the pros-
pectors in mass meeting, and these
committees determined also the
simple mining regulations and
camp rules. One committee had
charge of the Dutoitspan and
Bultfontein mining camps, and
another directed the mining at
De Beers and the Colesberg
Kopje, pitching its official tent
midway between these two dia-
mond beds.2 Fleetwood Rawslorne.
The Orange Free State claimed the new diamond fields as
part of its territory, but its right of control was not vigorously
asserted in practice. There was a rising issue from the time of
the discovery at Dutoitspan touching the ownership of the
district containing the diamond-bearing farms and the diggings
on the line of the Vaal. The South African Republic claimed
1 "On Veld and Farm," Frances MacNab, London, 1897.
2 "The Diamond Diggings of South Africa," Pay ton, 1872.
178 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
the ground north and west of the river, as before noted, but the
miners at Klip-drift had continued to maintain their rude Republic
or independent camp, drifting into a condition verging on anar-
chy, under the doubtful control of a factious " Executive Commit-
tee," until December 13, 1871, when the camp gladly submitted
to the authority of a provisional magistrate, appointed by
Lieutenant General Hay, her Majesty's High Commissioner.1
This energetic official had his eyes widely open to the possible
value and extent of the new diamond-bearing field, and was not
only disposed to sustain the appeal of the river diggers against
the monopoly grant of the Transvaal Republic, but wrote
to President Brand, the head of the Orange Free State, in
September, 1870, questioning the title of the Free State to the
Dutoitspan fields and the river diggings at Pniel.2
At the time of the creation of the Orange Free State out
of the domain included in the Orange River Sovereignty, there
had been explicit recognition of reservations set apart for the
Basutos, Koranas, and Griquas, — native tribes dwelling within
the limits of the Sovereignty. But there was an apparent lack
of precision in the reservations or claims of the Koranas and
Griquas especially, which was accounted of little consequence at
the time, until the discovery of diamonds, on a tract otherwise
not worth contesting, aroused rival claimants. The Berlin
Mission Society claimed the diggings at Pniel on the strength of
a deed of sale of part of the Korana reserve. Nicholas Waterboer
and other Griqua chiefs, doubtless prompted by speculative agents,
set up their claim to a considerable stretch of ground, covering
Klip-drift and Pniel as well as the upper angle between the
Orange and the Vaal, containing the diamond fields of Dutoits-
pan and the surrounding farms. The Orange Free State did
not dispute the right of the natives to hold such reservations as
had been assigned to them by the British Government, but con-
tended that the stretch of the native tribal claims was wholly
unjustified, and that Pniel and Dutoitspan were clearly within
the bounds of its domain.8
1 " The Diamond Diggings of South Africa," Payton, 1872.
2 "South Africa," Theal. 3 Ibid.
THE RUSH TO KIMBERLEY
179
Some of the Native Chiefs dealt with by Mr. Richard Southey, Lieutenant Governor of Griqualand
West, during his Administration.
i8o THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
Sir Henry Barlcly succeeded Lieutenant General Hay early
in 1871 as her Majesty's High Commissioner and Governor of
Cape Colony, and was expressly instructed by Earl Kimberley,
the British secretary for the colonies (January 24, 1871), not to
countenance any annexation of territory outside of the uncon-
tested limits of Cape Colony, which the Colony would be
unable to govern and defend with its own unaided resources.
But the new High Commissioner — viewing the situation and
the course of his predecessor, which he cordially approved -
replied to his instructions bluntly that the British Government
" had already gone too far to admit of its ceasing to support the
cause of either Waterboer or the diggers." 1 He concluded an
arrangement, accordingly, for the transfer to Great Britain of
the claims of the native chiefs, subject to the ratification of the
Home Government, and his representations secured the consent
of the Ministry, in the following May, to the transfer, and to
the assertion of British sovereignty over the disputed territory,
pending the final decision of the special court of arbitration
which had been convened by the agreement of the contesting
claimants.
The court had been opened, in the previous April (1871),
in the village of Bloemfontein. After considering the evidence
presented, the
judges disagreed,
and the disposi-
tion of the terri-
tory depended
upon the award
of the referee,
Lieutenant Gov-
ernor Keate, of
Natal. This was
not rendered un-
til the 1 7th of October following, and it does not appear that
the decision was hurried or improperly influenced. But it was
1 "South Africa," Theal.
The first Government House and Buildings of the Colony of
Griqualand West.
THE RUSH TO KIMBERLEY
181
warmly denounced as partial in sweeping aside the claims of the
Orange Free State and the Transvaal Republic, and confirming
the alleged title of Waterboer and other native chiefs to a tract
covering 17,800 square miles, and including the Dutoitspan,
Bultfontein, De Beers, and Kimberley diamond mines, as well as
j^.
\ , I
s.^i+.^^JfJL**,-
Sir Richard Southey's Residence, Kimberley.
the diggings along the Vaal. Four days after this award had
been made, Sir Henry Barkly proclaimed the grant to the native
chiefs a part of the British dominions, as the Crown Colony of
Griqualand West, which was placed under the administration
of a Lieutenant Governor, Mr. Richard Southey.1 Thus the
control of the Diamond Fields was finally determined, and it is
impossible to doubt that this settlement was greatly contributory
to the extraordinary advance of diamond mining in these fields,
as well as to the uplifting and development of the Colonies, and
to the push of civilization into the heart of the dark continent.
It has been contended that the award was unjust to both
of the Boer Republics, and this contention has been supported by
the citation of a court decision rendered several years later, and
the allowance of ^90,000 to the Orange Free State by the Lon-
don Convention of 1876, in compensation for losses sustained
1 " South Africa," Theal.
i8i THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
through the creation of Griqualand West. But it has been
fairly pointed out by the leading historian of South Africa,
Theal, an earnest supporter of the rights of the Orange Free
State and her sister Republic, that the claims of both contest-
ants were weakly presented at the Bloemfontein court, and that
Lieutenant Governor Keate cannot be reproached justly for any
conscious unfairness in deciding the case upon the evidence
before him, in a manner unsatisfactory to the Republics on the
line of the Vaal.
There is, further, the practical view to present of the incor-
poration of the Diamond Fields in Griqualand West, — that this
was the only feasible solution of the situation, at that time,
which guaranteed to the irresistible rush of diamond seekers
from the Cape and all parts of the world a government so
strong that it could enforce its authority without recourse to
arms and bloodshed. Klip-drift had already revolted at the first
preposterous stretch of authority of the South African Repub-
lic, and maintained its independence until it submitted docilely
to the British High Commissioner. The seething influx on the
upland Diamond Fields was clearly on the verge of rebellion
against any Free State regulations restricting their right of
entry or supporting any monopoly title. Great Britain, with
all her array of Imperial power, would not have ventured to
assert such claims as had been set up by both of the Boer
Republics, and could not have enforced them without an army
on the spot. As a matter of fact, she prudently suffered the
miners to occupy the land without any attempt to maintain
crown reservations of mineral rights, even after her supremacy
was undisputed through the formation of the Crown Colony.
The Boer Republics, on the other hand, would have continued
to blunder, almost certainly, as they had been doing, if control
of the Fields had been turned over to them nominally by the
decision of the referee.
It did not appear at that time, either, that there was any
strong desire on the part of the authorities of these Republics
to assume the cost and responsibility and prospect of collision
THE RUSH TO KIMBERLEY 183
which the supported assertion of control of the Diamond Fields
would have involved. The founders of these states had sought
only the plain homes of farmers and shepherds on the veld,
under a government of their own choosing. Neither they nor
their children were greatly stirred by the uncovering of dia-
monds, or the prospect of finding more on their lands. They
disliked the spreading rush to the Diamond Fields, even when
it was presumed that their own mines were developing. The
plain, stolid farming folk, stiffly set in their old-fashioned ways,
had little in common with the sanguine adventurers, delighting
in stirs and surprises and novelties. Baines tells a story of the
mobbing of the first surveyor who tried to use a theodolite in
the streets of Potchefstrom, instead of stepping off the distance
in the good old way of the " veld-valkt-meester." He avers,
too, that he was himself made " vogel vrie," " free as a bird for
anybody to shoot at," for the crime of concealing a sextant
about his person.1 This may be a fanciful stretch of fact, but
there is no doubt of the ingrained conservatism of the Boers.
How could such a people sympathize with the impetuous and
ardent spirits that rushed to the Diamond Fields, and what pros-
pect was there of the docile submission of the one to the other !
It can scarcely be questioned, therefore, by a candid observer
that the conclusion of Lieutenant Governor Keate was the best
practical settlement, if not the most impartial and accurate.
It was not to be expected, however, that this significant
departure from the halting policy of former ministries, this for-
ward step of Greater Britain into the heart of a region hitherto
indifferently resigned to the migrating Boers, should be viewed
with resignation by the embittered Republics whose claims were
disallowed. Resentment ran so high in the Transvaal that
President Pretorius was forced to resign. His place was filled
by a clergyman, Thomas Fra^ois Burgers, and, after the short
sharp war for independence in 1 880-81, by Stephen J. Paul
Kruger, a marcher with the Great Trek from the Cape to the
Limpopo, a lion killer from boyhood as dauntless as David,
1 " The Gold Regions of Southeastern Africa," Thomas Baines.
184 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
a crafty politician and a religious exhorter, a Covenanter of the
Covenanters, a Boer of the Boers, uncouth, unschooled, con-
ceited, bigoted, grasping, bristling with suspicion and prejudice,
tickled with gross flattery, but a man of iron nerve, intensely
loyal to his people and their push for independence, self-contained,
self-reliant, bold, wary, cunning, ambitious, dominating, fore-
handed— masking his plans, biding his time, resolute in action,
and far-seeing in shaping the future of his Republic. In the in-
clusion of the precious diamond-bearing province in Griqualand
West, an inveterate antagonist of British Imperial extension was
raised to power, whose keen forecast was almost able to over-
balance the impulse of this great accession to the upbuilding of
Greater Britain in South Africa.1 On the coat of arms of the
Transvaal Republic a lion lay crouching, ready to spring. From
the day of Krviger's rise to head the Republic, the lion of the
Transvaal has never shut his eyes nor feared to show his teeth.
While this protracted controversy for the control of the
Diamond Fields was dragging on, the rush to the diggings had
been spreading and moving from the ports of Australia, India,
and China ; from California, Canada, and the Eastern Atlantic
states of the American Union — from Great Britain and Ireland
and the countries of Western and Central Europe ; from every
region of the civilized world, at length, where men of restless
and sanguine temper were living, who could command the price
of the passage to diamond-bearing placers, unmeasured in num-
ber, extent, and richness. The virgin fields of California and
Australia, once so glittering with gold and so potent in attraction,
had lost their glamour with the scouring of their sands and the
passing of their novelties. It had been demonstrated with plain,
cold figures and dismal accuracy that the average farmer was get-
ting far more from his wheat or potato patch than the average
prospector from his scramble in a gold-field. But who could
calculate, or even pretend to predict with any assurance, the pros-
1 "South Africa," Theal. "Impressions of South Africa," James Bryce.
" The Story of South Africa," William Basil Worsfold. " Cecil John Rhodes,"
Biography, " Imperialist."
STEPHEN J. PAUL KROGER.
(From a Photograph taken at Kimberley, 1884.)
186 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
pect of fortune in this African wonderland, so phenomenal in
character and so slightly explored ! Here was a strange, luring
beacon in the heart of traditional Ophir, where river banks were
apparently lined with diamonds, where diamonds were strewn
on the face of farms, where children had diamonds to roll like
marbles, where wells were driven through diamond beds, and
huts were plastered with diamond-studded cement. Who would
not rush to a region so sparkling in promise, so embalmed in
traditions of resplendent empire, where another Koh-i-nur might
be lying in wait in the dust for the first passer-by, and where a
lucky adventurer might stuff his pockets with gems far surpass-
ing the hoard of any extortionate nabob, and return home with
a treasure that he could carry as lightly as a full purse !
The river placers had not drawn largely outside of the south-
ern African colonies, but the discoveries at Dutoitspan, Bultfon-
tein, De Beers, and Kimberley were so unexampled, and the
mines on the surface were soon shown to be so marvellous,
that their magnetic attraction was felt all over the globe. Who
can wonder, then, that the flying, inflated, distorted rumors
from this African hot-bed puffed up ardent fancy everywhere as
tongues of flames in tinder, and that men of all nations, call-
ings, and characters were swept along in the rush to the South
African Diamond Fields ! Every sailing ship or steamer that was
bound for a South African port from any part of the world,
in 1871, bore some adventurers to the new fields. Some
had good outfits and supplies of money, while others had barely
been able to scrape together their passage costs. The seamen
on the ship caught the infectious diamond fever, and ran away
when the vessels were moored on the African coast, as their
mates had done, years before, in the ports of California and Aus-
tralia. Nothing but actual bonds could hold back the diamond
seekers, and these would not serve if there was any chance to
cut cords and break irons.
The swarming of adventurers over mountain terraces, veld,
and karoo was more motley and ardent than the first rush to the
Vaal, and every one was consumed by the fear that others ahead
THE RUSH TO KIMBERLEY 187
of him were dividing up the rich ground and a day's delay might
cost him a fortune. So never before was there such a scurrying,
reckless of lagging ox-teams and horses, blazing suns, and blind-
ing dust. What a fuming there was, too, on the river banks
when the sudden floods halted the rush with their impassable
torrents, and the pilgrims on nettles watched the yellow water
run surging, swirling, and whirling between them and their goal !
Most of the adventurers still plodded along with their bul-
lock wagons, but some who could afford to pay roundly (.£12)
for transport were carried to the Diamond Fields by the wagons
of the Inland Transport Company, an enterprising association
Coach leaving Kimberley for the Coast, 1875.
which undertook to run a regular coach-line to the Vaal from
Wellington, the terminus of the short Cape railway in 1870.
The carriage was a long, narrow wagon with five rows of seats
for fourteen passengers and a driver. Only forty pounds of
baggage could be carried by a passenger, but men who were
anxious to reach the mines were ready to start without even a
shift of shirts. Eight wiry horses dragged this rattling wagon
over the rough track at a lively rate, changing teams at relay sta-
tions, from thirty to forty miles apart, and making the trip to the
Vaal in eight or nine days when the way was not blocked by
floods. By this stride of progress the journey from Cape Town
was made in less than a quarter of the time required by the
crawling ox-wagons from the other coast ports, although these
1 88 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
towns were two hundred miles nearer the Diamond Fields. This
was proudly noted as an advance of rapid transit, which prom-
ised greater developments, and was one of the many stirring
impulses of the diamond discoveries. But as only one stage-
coach started weekly from Wellington, the chief contribution of
the new line to South Africa lay in its promise rather than its
performance.1 It was the first push of the enterprise which has
followed its hoof tracks through the African desert with the tire-
less race of the iron horse.
While this swarm was gathering from India, Australia,
Europe, and America, and pressing toward the diamond mines
through the southern Colonial ports, another swarm was enter-
ing the fields from inland Africa. To the native tribesmen the
opening of the diamond mines was a certain Golconda. For the
shovelling of gravel under a burning sun, for the heaving of
boulders, for the shaking of cradles in the midst of whirling dust,
for the quarrying in pits and the scraping on sorting tables,—
the wiry sinews, pliant muscles, nimble fingers, and sharp eyes of
Africans, inured to the scorch of the sun, the pelt of the rain,
and the blast of the sand, were greatly serviceable. So there was
a cordial greeting of the influx of natives, ready to work for the
barest pittance of pay while their masters lolled in the shade.
First came the neighboring Griquas, Koranas, and Batlapins,
with Basutos from their southern reservation, followed by a
stream of Zulus, Mahowas, Malakakas, and Hottentots, and
Kafirs of one hundred tribes, ranging east to the Indian Ocean
and far northwest into Namaqua and Bechuana lands and north-
east into Matabeleland and the regions lying beyond the Limpopo
and the Zambesi.2 There was every shade of dusky color in this
throng, from livid and tawny yellow to jet black. Some stalked
proudly over the veld in the full plumage of the Zulu veteran,
with flowing ox-tail girdles, armlets, and anklets, decked with
1 "Among the Diamonds," 1870-1871.
2 " The Diamond Diggings of South Africa," Payton, 1872. "South Afri-
can Diamond Fields and Journey to Mines," William James Morton, M.D., New
York, 1877.
THE RUSH TO KIMBERLEY 189
waving feathers and gleaming earrings and bracelets. Others
vied with this show in greasy red shakos, faded blouses, and other
cast-off equipments of soldiers and hunters. So the parade ran
down to the barest loin cloth or utter nakedness, through leopard
skin wraps, dirty karosses, ragged breeches, tattered shirts, and
every other meagre covering of the native hunter or shepherd.
Some of this drift to the mines tramped more than a thousand
miles over mountain ridges and sun-scorched veld, swimming
through rivers, scrambling down steep ravines, and plunging deep
in mud and desert sand, to reach their goal, as many did, gaunt
skeletons of men, with bleeding feet, and bodies scratched and
sore and tottering with weariness and hunger.1
Diamonds were no temptation to them. They would not
have walked a mile to pick up a Koh-5-nur. But the white dia-
mond seekers were willing to pay, for a few months' hunting for
little white pebbles, enough to buy a cheap gun and a bag of
powder and balls — most precious of all earthly things in the
eyes of a roving African. Then the white camps were lively,
humming social resorts, abounding with good food and tempting
drink, where black men were welcome and well protected. So
the natives swarmed in faster and faster as the mining progressed
and the news spread to distant regions. Some of this swarm could
be persuaded to remain at the mines for a year or more and work
quite steadily ; but most drifted away, at the end of a few months,
or as soon as they were able to get their coveted guns and powder
pouches. Thus while many thousands flocked yearly to the Fields
from their opening, the outflow kept the supply from swamping
the demand. As this influx from the dark continent met and
mingled with the rush from the outside world in the diamond-
mine workings and camps, how greatly vivid, unique, and stir-
ring were the kaleidoscopic shifts of this strange concourse !
Europe, Asia, Africa, and America had boiled over into a hotch-
potch, splashed on a diamond bed in the heart of South Africa.
1 "The Diamond Diggings of South Africa," Pay ton, 1872. "South Afri-
can Diamond Fields and Journey to Mines," William James Morton, M.D., New
York, 1877.
CHAPTER VII
THE GREAT WHITE CAMPS
OW quickly and marvellously was the face of
the little South African stock farms transformed
by this influx ! Open pasture land, where the
eye saw one day only a few scattered cattle
browsing on the thin grass and scratching their
sides against a stunted camelthorn, was covered
next day by swarms of roving prospectors, with shovels and
sieves, upturning grass roots and shaking dry earth through
their screens. White canvas camps, foaming with life, rose in a
Kimberley, before the Discovery of Diamonds.
night, with the seeming magic of Aladdin's palace, at the foot of
kopjes where, before, a burrowing meerkat was the only tenant.
Beyond the masses of tents ranged long straggling arches of
wagon tops and tethered troops of bullocks, horses, and mules.
190
THE GREAT WHITE CAMPS
191
Only a few months from the day when the first diamond was
picked up near du Toit's pan, the camp at Dorstfontein was
proudly claiming the title of the " City of the Pan." A spacious
market square was laid out on the ground between the pan
Dutoitspan. (From a very early Photograph.)
and the ridge covered with diamond diggers, and around this
square were ranged the white walls of the aspiring camp.
Streets radiating from the central square gave open access to the
market-place, and the white tent blocks were soon dotted near
the square with shops of brick and iron and wood, rivalling the
pioneer diamond-digging town of Klip-drift on the Vaal.1
Klip-drift struggled on with the best face possible, making
much of its position of vantage as the distributing market of all
camp supplies from the South African Republic ; but its day of
ascendancy soon flitted away never to return. In September,
1871, its chief standard-bearer, the Diamond News, moved to
the " City of the Pan," and there was no question from that time
of the preeminence of the " dry diggings," although a rival
paper, the Diamond Field, bore up for a time under the sinking
fortunes of Klip-drift. Before the end of the year 1871,
Dutoitspan boasted " many large hotels," " immense stores,"
1 "The Diamond Diggings of South Africa," Charles Alfred Pay ton, London,
1872.
192 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
THE GREAT WHITE CAMPS
'93
two churches, a hospital, and a theatre, and might have men-
tioned, besides, its less distinguished billiard room, "canteens,"
and dance halls.1 It was surely a wonderful birth of a smartly
growing infant city on the face of scrub-covered prairie in the
heart of South Africa.
The rise of the camps at De Beers and Kimberley was even
more rapid than the growth of the camp on Dorstfontein and
Bultfontein farms. There was no regular working in the De
Beers diggings before May, 1871, but the diggers could buy
Kimberley, 1871.
Christmas presents that year in rows of brick and iron stores
on the main roadsides, intermingled with " hotels " and saloons,
and a great white canvas town was spread out in a picturesque
medley of tents and marquees, straggling far over the veld, and
seeking the shelter of some stubbornly rooted mimosa or camel-
thorn.2 Kimberley's growth was still more surprising. Three
months after the rush began, the Colesberg Kopje was the centre
of an immense encampment in whose heart streets were irregularly
laid out, and neat stores built of iron and brick. In December,
1871, there were, by actual count, on the lower street of Kim-
1 "The Diamond Diggings of South Africa," Payton, 1872. - Hid.
o
194 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
berley, six stores, four hotels, and several butcher and shoe-
maker shops, besides a billiard room and saloon. On the upper
Kimberley Mine, 1871.
or main street there were three hotels, several diamond merchants'
offices, a wholesale spirit and provision store, a bakery and con-
fectioner's shop, a drug dispensary, butchers' shops, eating houses,
bars, club and billiard rooms, and other miscellaneous shops and
resorts. On the edge of these white-walled cities, and on the
slopes of all the neighboring hills, were scattered the huts of wood
or dirty canvas or mud-plastered stones, where the native blacks
huddled together. When even this cover was lacking, some
slept in tents, or in burrows scraped in the hillsides. How many
diamond seekers were massed in these camps at the height of
the rush can hardly be reckoned with any approach to exactness.
There may have been fifty thousand whites and blacks on the
Fields, for the flow to Dutoitspan is said to have mounted as high
as forty thousand shortly after the opening of the Vooruitzigt
farm mines.
THE GREAT WHITE CAMPS 195
When, after long weeks of plodding over rugged mountain
ranges, parched karoos, and rolling prairie, a traveller suddenly
saw rising before him these white camps, springing up like pro-
digious mushrooms in an African desert, even the dullest brain
was strangely disturbed. It was hard to realize that these exotic
plants were the work of men's hands, for they seemed rather the
fantastic conceit of the trance of an opium eater. Here were
such cities as the mirage shapes from clouds or as Solomon
might have built with the help of his docile genii. When they
lay outstretched and gleaming under the burning sun in the
full splendor of noon, they were weird creations to amaze the
beholder ; but who can conceive their impress at night, under
the towering sky dome sprinkled with stars, with their masses of
Around Kimberley Mine, 1871.
twinkling and sparkling lights on the black face of the veld, like
the tail of a fallen comet.1
1 "The Diamond Diggings of South Africa," Payton, 1872. "To the Cape
for Diamonds," Frederick Boyle, 1873. "South African Diamond Fields," Will-
iam Jacob Morton, 1877.
196 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
Outside of these three main camps tents were thickly
sprinkled around the farmhouse of Bultfontein, in a field where
a thousand diggers were at work in the first week of the rush,
after the ground was opened in May, 1871. Immediately south
of this diamond-bearing farm was the farm Alexandersfontein,
where many prospectors were also turning and sifting the ground.
By the determination of the limits of Griqualand West these
diggings, as well as the chief camps, became part of the British
Colonial domain ; for the boundary line separating the new Col-
ony from the Orange Free State ran just outside of this cluster
of farms, Vooruitzigt, Dorstfontein, Bultfontein, and Alexan-
dersfontein, — through the outlying farm of Benaauwdheids-
fontein, where no diamond mine had, as yet, been discovered.1
So all the known diamond fields of South Africa, except the
Jagersfontein farm within the bounds of the Orange Free State
and the shallow Vaal River placers, were bunched on a plateau
four thousand feet above the sea level, within the angle formed
by the junction of the Vaal with the Orange River, on a patch
with a radius of 1.72 miles at the crossing of longitude 24° 46'
east of Greenwich with latitude 28° 43' south of the equator.
The London and South African Exploration Company, by
its purchase of Dorstfontein, Bultfontein, and Alexandersfontein,
held a tight grip on the mineral rights comprehending the dia-
monds on all these farms, and leased the surface diggings under
licenses of IQJ. for every claim 30 feet square. Messrs. Dunell,
Ebden & Co., of Port Elizabeth, held the farm of Vooruitzigt,
and exacted the same license fee for working claims which were
laid out in squares 30 by 30 Dutch feet, or 3 i by 3 1 English
feet.2 Outside of the Colesberg Kopje or Kimberley mine all
the diggings were at first a jumble of holes, pits, and burrows,
with no attempt to secure any system or union in mining. But
the objections to this helter-skelter opening of the ground were
so apparent that a strict reservation of roadways to give access
to all parts of the surface of the mine was insisted upon by the
1 "Diamonds and Gold in South Africa," Theodore Reunert, 1893.
2 "The Diamond Diggings of South Africa," Payton, 1872.
THE GREAT WHITE CAMPS
197
Orange Free State Inspector of Mines, in the laying out of
claims on the Colesberg Kopje. His authority was then so far
recognized that his direction controlled the survey and opening,
on July 21, 1871, of the diggings since famous as the Kimberley
Diamond Mine.
Roadways, 15 feet in width, running approximately north
and south, were carried across the longer axis of the diamond
bed, at a distance of 47 feet from one to the other. Kach road
cut 7.', feet of surface ground from the side of the bordering
Kimberley Mine, 1872.
claims, so that the working surface of each allotted claim was
31 by 23^ feet. Fourteen of these roadways crossed the mine,
whose ground surface permitted the laying out of about 430
claims of the allotted size, 3 1 feet square. A great many more
claims had been granted to license-holders before the survey,
for there had been no accurate measurement of the kopje, and
there was a consequent overlapping and conflict of locations and
spreading of claims beyond the limits of the diamond-bearing
ground. In the settlement of contests the claims were split up
by concessions, bargains, and sales, until there were not less than
1600 separate holdings of claims, and fractional parts running as
small as -3^, or about 7 square yards. A lucky claim-holder
198 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
would sell off parts of his claim or the whole at high prices; for
bidders were ready to pay large premiums beyond the license
fee of los. exacted from every working owner, whether his claim
was full size or a paring. The competition for a share in the
riches of the ground was only less keen at De Beers, and there
was a like subdivision of claims there, and not infrequently at
Dutoitspan and Bultfontein.1
It was obvious from the start, without any stretch of fore-
sight, that these minute subdivisions of claims and individual
working were only practicable in open cuttings whose depth
must depend on the character of the ground and the cooperation
of the miners. But at the outset of the mining in these Fields
no one could forecast the unknown continuance in depth of the
diamond deposits, and few supposed that the new beds differed
essentially from any before uncovered, and were vastly more im-
portant than the shallow gravel wash along the banks of the
Vaal. It was commonly expected that some barren stratum
would be reached not far from the surface, corresponding to the
" bed rock " of the river diggings, and that this must terminate
the hope of the diamond seekers.2 So the rush for the surface
claims was the keener, in view of the belief that a few months'
work at most would exhaust the precious deposit, and nobody
paused to consider what he would do if he was unable to sink
an open pit deeper.
Beneath the red surface soil at Dutoitspan a thin layer of
calcareous tufa3 had been exposed, below which lay the dia-
mond-bearing breccia which the miners called " yellow ground "
from its prevailing color.4 At De Beers and Kimberley there
was comparatively little limestone beneath the red soil, for the
1 "The Diamond Diggings of South Africa," Payton, 1872. 2 Ibid.
3 I look upon the calcareous tufa which covered the diamond mines as only
the altered yellow ground which had been metamorphosed by the evaporation of
water highly charged with carbonate of lime. The calcareous tufa which covered
the Premier mine was diamond bearing. This is the only one of the mines
whose surface ground has come under my personal observation.
4 "The Diamond Diggings of South Africa," Payton, 1872.
THE GREAT WHITE CAMPS 199
rich " yellow ground " rose nearly to the surface under a thin
coating of chalk. It appeared in exploring the yellow ground in
most of the openings that the deposit was enclosed in an oval-
shaped funnel of shale, or decomposed basalt resting on shale,
which the miners called " reef." This reef contained no dia-
monds and marked the limits of any profitable prospecting.
The surface area of the yellow ground within one of these fun-
nels ranged from about ten acres at Kimberley to twenty-three
acres at Dutoitspan, and on these patches all the diamond-bearing
claims of the Fields were located.1
When the bottom of the " yellow ground " was reached at a
depth of from fifty to sixty feet below the surface, it was sup-
posed at first that diamond digging in the funnels had come to
an end ; but the hard underlying rock was cut by experi-
menters, and it was found, to the delight of the miners, that
this also was diamond bearing. It was a breccia composite,
essentially like the " yellow ground " above, but much more
compact and hard, and of a prevailing bluish slate color, so
that it was familiarly known as " blue ground." Exposure to
the air, sun, and rain decomposed it so rapidly that most of the
rock could be readily pulverized after a few weeks, and its
precious contents extracted by sifting. The whole mass of the
ground in the funnels was diamond-bearing, in greater or less
extent, except in occasional streaks and masses of barren shale,
floating reef, floating shale, or non-diamond-bearing volcanic
mud, and volcanic rocks. So the pit sinking was widened to
the extreme limits of the claims, and the entire area of yellow
and blue ground excavated in open quarries.
The work was pushed with feverish energy and remarkable
rapidity in view of the bare hand labor and crude mining appli-
ances, but there was no uniformity of method or extended
cooperation. Every claim-holder cut down his patch with pick
and shovel, and lifted the broken ground in a way that suited
his individual notion. Some set stout windlasses in the surface
ground near the edge of their claims, and hoisted buckets filled
1 "The Diamond Diggings of South Africa," Payton, 1872. 2 Ibid.
200 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
THE GREAT WHITE CAMPS 201
on the working levels. Others carried up buckets and tubs
and rawhide sacks to the surface, climbing ladders resting on
successive terraces, or mounting flights of steps cut in the rock,
or trundling wheelbarrows up plank inclines. Around the edge
of the mines there was a mustering of carts, and barrows, and
carriers, to bear off the quarried ground to depositing places,
where it was dried, pounded, and sifted.1
The open quarries, swarming with workers, buzzed like pro-
digious beehives. The upsetting of the tower of Babel would
scarcely have poured out such a medley of tongues and sounds.
From the vast amphitheatres scooped in the rock there rose in
the air the clicking of picks, the rasp and clatter of shovels, the
cracking of rock, the rattle of gravel, the thud of bucket-filling,
the creaking of windlasses, the tramp over planks, the thump of
wheelbarrows, the rolling of carts, the lowing of bullocks and
braying of mules, mingled with calls and chatter and chants
of whites and blacks in an indescribable din. Diggers in rough
working dress, and natives almost stark naked, bent and heaved,
and scrambled and climbed, side by side, reeking with sweat
and grime, in an ever shifting, restless swarm that covered the
face of the quarry like flies in some monstrous sugar bowl. The
flocking in of the native African tribes — joined with the white
diamond seekers in opening the strange funnels of crystal-
sprinkled breccia — made a compound of color, feature, and
character never before assembled in any mines on the face of
the earth.2 The sinewy negroes proved themselves such willing
and sturdy workers in the dust and heat of the sun-scorched
quarries, that the claim-holders were glad to hire them and
confine their own work to the task of overseers, directing the
digging and hauling, and the sifting and sorting. No blaze of
the sun and no whirl of the dust could subdue their bubbling
spirits, breaking out in wild whoops and chants, and yelling in
pack when any big diamond was found, revelling in every
chance diversion, — the fall of a bucket, the slip of a ladder, the
1 "The Diamond Diggings of South Africa," Payton, 1872. "South Afri-
can Diamond Fields," Morton, 1877. 2 Ibid.
202 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
THE GREAT WHITE CAMPS 203
tumble of a climber, and convulsed with laughter whenever they
could set mules capering, or bullocks shying or balking by shrill
whistles and screams, and mimicry of a driver's call: "Yek!"
and " Trek ! " " Ah now ! " and " Whoa ! " and so through the
range of cries, Dutch, English, and African.1
Almost all the natives were barefooted, and most were bare-
headed, barebacked, and barelegged, except in the coldest weather.
Some had ragged trousers, and others ragged shirts, but few put
both on together. A greasy, gaudy handkerchief twisted around
Kimberley Mine, 1872.
a black head, and party-colored bunches of rags, or moochies
made of the tails or skins of wild animals, dangling from a waist-
belt of rawhide, were a camp parade dress too precious to use
in the quarries. Mingled with these wild Africans, the white
miners worked soberly and arduously, bearing the pains of
diamond digging stoically, in the hope of its rewards. Their
working clothes were commonly plain suits of brown corduroy
or other coarse cloth adapted to the season, and when the sun
shone they wore generally broad-brimmed straw hats, or pith
helmets, with light muslin " puggarees." 2
It was long before there was any notable advance in the pro-
1 "The Diamond Diggings of South Africa," Payton, 1872. 2 Hid.
204 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
cess of separation of the diamonds from the ground, beyond the
cradle for dry sifting, constructed to take the place of the com-
mon hand-sieve at Dutoitspan. Level spots were sought on
the veld near the mines, or patches of ground were levelled
sufficiently to serve as dumping places, where the broken dia-
mond-bearing breccia was piled and spread out. The "blue
ground " exposed to the air crumbled away by degrees, but the
miners were rarely patient enough to wait for this disintegration,
preferring quick returns by pulverizing the ground with their
shovels and mallets. This was hard work and costly, from the
loss in imperfect pulverization. But the diamond seekers were
Roads in Kimberley Mine, 1871-1872.
poor men who could scarcely afford to hold any stock of blue
ground for the sake of increased returns, even if they had been
able to guard their depositing floors from theft. After pound-
ing the broken rock it was sifted in the midst of dust clouds by
rockers swung on riems of rawhide, and the concentrate was
then scraped over and sorted.1 In July, 1871, a large cylindri-
cal revolving sieve, driven by a small steam engine, was put at
work by some American miners, and this sifting machine was
said to be an efficient and rapid separator. The pulverized
ground was thrown into the upper end of the screen, which was
1 "South African Diamond Fields," Morton, 1877. "Diamonds and Gold
in South Africa," Reunert, 1893.
THE GREAT WHITE CAMPS
205
rapidly revolved, and the concentrate passed out through the
lower end, falling upon a sorting table. The cylinder, covered
with fine wire mesh, sifted out the dust thoroughly, and its opera-
tion was so rapid that thirty cartloads of diamond-bearing ground
were screened daily. Its owners claimed to be able to sift all
the ground in a claim thirty feet square to a uniform depth of
thirty feet in three weeks. The machine attracted a curious
crowd at first, when the steam whistle blew off and the cylinder
began to throw off thick clouds of dust, but for some reason its
Kimberley Mine. (Showing workings in 1872. Subsidence cracks appear in the foreground.)
use was not long continued. Probably the fine mesh was too
light to bear the strain and friction of the revolving rock
fragments.1
The amount of ground which any one man could work, was,
of course, very small, but there were so many workers on the
Fields that the aggregate extent of ground sifted was enormous,
and the breccia in spots was so thickly sprinkled with crystals
that many miners won rich rewards. When Payton was leav-
ing the field in November, 1871, it was estimated that from
forty to fifty thousand pounds' worth of diamonds were taken
1 " The Diamond Diggings of South Africa," Payton, 1872.
206 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
weekly from the Colesberg Kopje alone, and he states that the
best claims had risen in value from ^100 or less to ^4000^
It was clearly shown, too, that even the highest price paid
for a claim might be cheap, for one poor Dutchman, " Smuts,"
who bought half a claim for ^50, is said to have found dia-
monds in two months' working to the value of ^£1 5,000 or
more. Another digger found, in a few months, no less than
730 stones in his claim, one of which weighed 156 carats.2
Such great good fortune was rare in the other mines, and many
miners won little or nothing from months of hard work in their
claims, but in the Colesberg Kopje, or Kimberley mine, the
prizes were so common and exciting that every foot of ground
was covered by diamond seekers. When the rubbing of shoul-
ders was too close for comfort, one or more of the partners in
a claim would be pressed to sell out and start again prospect-
ing. Sometimes a share in a claim, worth many hundreds of
pounds, would be risked on the toss of a penny.8
In the heat of the search and extraction many fine diamonds
were fractured, and many of the smaller stones ran through the
sieves into the tailings, as was afterward demonstrated when
the waste heaps were reworked with better appliances.4 The
Kimberley mine produced some stones of large size, running
sometimes over one hundred carats, but the mass of crystals ran
under five carats. A yellowish tinge was more marked in the
diamonds of the uplands than in the river stones, and many
otherwise superb crystals were so decidedly " off color " that
their value was greatly impaired.
It was early noticed that the diamonds of one mine often
differed materially from those of another, and even in the same
mine diamonds of one section were unlike the yield of another.
Thus, in the west end of the Kimberley mine the diamond crys-
tals were exceptionally perfect octahedrons, or exceptionally white
" glassy stones," as the miners called them ; while elsewhere in
the mine the crystals had,more commonly, rounded and bevelled
1 " The Diamond Diggings of South Africa," Payton, 1872. * Ibid. * Ibid.
4 "Diamonds and Gold in South Africa," Reunert, 1893.
THE GREAT WHITE CAMPS
207
ao8 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
Kimberley Mine,
edges, and, more or less, a yellowish tinge, and there was a large
proportion of split, flawed, and spotted stones, and boart. The
De Beers mine crystals resembled the Kimberley stones, but
their quality ran a little below the Kimberley mine. Dutoitspan
produced comparatively few stones, but the average weight was
notably large, and the crystals were of fine color. Bultfontein
stones differed greatly from those of the other mines. Here
the diamonds were chiefly small, rounded octahedrons, many of
them so pocked and spotted that the crystals had a cloudy
appearance.1 These crystals were greatly inferior to the " glassy
stones " of Kimberley or the large diamonds of Dutoitspan ;
but the Bultfontein surface ground yield was so uniform at
first, that many diggers held and worked claims for the sake of
sure, if small, returns to defray their expenses, while they counted
on their Dutoitspan claims for the occasional large stones that
richly rewarded a lucky digger.
All the crystals in the blue ground were encased in a smooth
bed of the same material which did not adhere to the diamonds,
so that their lustre, when extracted, was quite bright or glassy.
1 "South African Diamond Fields," Morton, 1877.
THE GREAT WHITE CAMPS
209
1872, looking South.
Amid the mass of white and light yellowish stones in all the
mines were scattered some of varied color. Brown was the
most common of these ; next came the deeper yellow shades,
and pale blue stones were sometimes uncovered, as well as the
black diamond (boart) used for setting drill-crowns. Pink,
mauve, and green diamonds were occasionally found, but were
less common than in the river diggings.
As already mentioned, it has been estimated that the rush
which built up these mining camps and covered the surround-
ing farms with prospectors brought fifty thousand men to the
new Diamond Fields in the first year, though the shifting popu-
lation of the Fields did not rise as high as that at any one time.1
The influx of native Africans was not so large at first, but
increased from year to year. Morton says that there was a flow
of thirty thousand natives annually to the field for seven years
after the discovery of the mines.2 This is a credible estimate, at
least, in view of the constant drifting away from the field of the
native workers, after a few months' stay, when they had earned
1 "The Diamond Diggings of South Africa," Payton, 1872.
2 " South African Diamond Fields," Morton, 1877.
p
210 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
sufficient money to buy their coveted guns and ammunition, and
wives, cattle, blankets, etc.
The bulk of the general merchandise was hauled slowly from
the coast ports in ox-wagons. Algoa Bay (Port Klizabeth) was
the chief port of supply at first, and the transport to the Dia-
mond Fields was a trip ranging from thirty days, at least, to six
months.1 Certain kinds of food — beef, mutton, poultry, game,
dried venison, commonly called " biltong," 2 and maize meal
(mealie meal) — were furnished quite cheaply and plentifully from
the neighboring Free State and the South African Republic,
through the Klip-drift distributing market. Tobacco, butter,
eggs, and honey were less freely supplied from the country, and
commanded a ready sale. Ordinary beef and mutton sold for
4</. a pound in 1871, with an additional charge for choice steaks.
A whole sheep could be bought at wholesale for 4^. Game,
chiefly springbok, blesbok, and wildebeest, was as cheap as
mutton. Chickens and ducks ranged from 2s. 6d. to ys. 6d.
apiece. The price of eggs ran high, ranging from is. 6d. to 4^.
a dozen, and butter was sold at from is, 6d. to 5^. per pound.
For " Boer meal," a coarse wheat flour, the charge was from
35-T. to $os. per muid, about 183 pounds ; white flour brought 6d.
a pound; rice 9^.; sugar and tobacco 9^. to is. ; oranges and
onions were sold at IQS. per hundred, and dried fruits at from
3*/. to yd. per pound.8
The most urgent calls were for fresh vegetables, and the
supply was so meagre that the prices shot up to exorbitant fig-
ures. From 5-f. to js. was freely given for a bucketful of
potatoes, and the wholesale price for a bag of a hundredweight
was from ^£2 to £1 ids. Haifa crown (sixty cents) was often
paid for a small cabbage or a handful of onions. Choice forage
for the horses and mules was almost as costly as vegetables. A
bundle of five pounds of unthreshed oat hay was sold for as high
1 "The Diamond Diggings of South Africa," Payton, 1872.
2 Biltong is made of meat of any of the antelope species, but that made from
the springbok is considered the best.
3 "The Diamond Diggings of South Africa," Payton, 1872.
THE GREAT WHITE CAMPS 211
as 2J. Dry cut fuel was as high priced as forage. Bundles of
light sticks sold from yd. to is. per bundle, and ^3 was charged
for a load of good firewood. There was a considerable forest
growth on the hills near the Vaal River, and many thickets
on the ridges nearer the camps, but the cost of cutting and haul-
ing was so great that many diggers contrived to make their fires
of dried bullocks' dung (buffalo chips as they were called by the
emigrants crossing the American plains), as they had learned to
do when crossing the karoo.1
Market auctions were the common and popular mode of
selling food and ordinary miners' supplies. Criers swinging bells
rang up the drowsy camps for the early morning market, where
meat, eggs, butter, fruit, and vegetables were offered from wagons
and stalls in the open market squares. These sales and gather-
ings of bidders and lookers-on formed one of the liveliest camp
scenes, especially on Saturday, when thousands of whites and
blacks flocked to the auctions, surrounding the stands with dense
masses of jovial bargainers. How strange and curious to a
newcomer's eye was the market show, — carcasses of big brown
shaggy wildebeests hanging up in line with sides of beef, ante-
lopes with slender legs stretched out stifHy among the slaughtered
sheep and lambs, strips of biltong and freshly killed kids,
little long-legged hares, party-colored bustards, red-wing par-
tridges, red-legged plovers, guinea fowl, ducks, geese, and other
wild fowl, mingled with the poultry from country farmyards !
Here were lines of huge tent-covered wagons filled with hides,
and wool, and meal, and wood, driven to market by the stolid
Boers or Hottentot servants grinning from ear to ear. Potatoes,
and beets, and carrots, and onions, and cabbages were piled in
heaps, tempting the last shilling of scurvy-haunted men. The
gobbling of turkeys, the crowing of cocks, the quacking of
ducks, swelled the chorus of chatter and laughing and singing
and badinage, that smothered, at times, the brisk calls of the
auctioneers and the offers of the diggers and the hotel and shop
keepers.2
1 " The Diamond Diggings of South Africa," Payton, 1872. 2 Ibid.
212 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
THE GREAT WHITE CAMPS
213
In the afternoons special sales of tents, miners' tools, guns,
and general merchandise were frequently made by auction, and
large stocks were sometimes sold off completely in this way.
Often in the flurry of competition these goods brought absurdly
high prices, when the market was overstocked with like articles
in the stores. It was observed as a curious fact that scarcely a
bid could be got for revolvers, which many adventurers had sup-
posed to be an indispensable part of their outfit. There were
very few outbreaks of ruffianism in the camps, where the great
Markel
body of miners was disposed to be orderly, and occasional sprees
were the chief disturbances. The swaggering bullies, and cheating
gamblers, and lurking garroters, who infested the seething camps
of Nevada and Colorado, rarely drifted as far as these isolated
Diamond Fields, and the few who came in were held in check.
The crying need of the camps was good water. The Du-
toitspan basin did not always hold out through the dry season,
and besides, this pan was filled by drainage and was not whole-
some ; but two rude dams were built that served to store up
drainage water longer than the natural reservoirs. To eke out
the supply the " Diggers' Committee " at Dutoitspan and Bult-
fontein sunk several wells which furnished some additional water,
214 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
and a digger was licensed to draw two bucketfuls daily upon the
payment of one shilling a month for his water rights. This
privilege was so keenly sought for that there was always a little
crowd of men with buckets, waiting their turn, at the mouth of
a well in the daytime. The water was muddy, but it was never-
theless eagerly drunk, and the stinted supply was too precious for
washing. Following this push of the committee, prospecting
water shafts were sunk by private enterprise, and when water was
reached, the well was opened to a limited number of subscribers
upon payment of a monthly fee of four shillings.1
At Kimberley, water, for months, was so dear that it was sold
for threepence a bucket, and a daily washing of face and hands
was a stretch of luxury. A stinted bath at Dutoitspan cost two
shillings and sixpence, and bathing at the other camps was
rarely attempted. When the coating of grime grew unbearable,
the best resource was a ride or tramp to the Vaal and a plunge
in the river. In the dry season, when the air was full of floating
dust from the claims and cradles, and when hot winds from the
veld blew in clouds of red sand, the dearth of water was bit-
terly felt, and no joker was safe who ventured to recall the " old
oaken bucket " and other vain visions of cool, bubbling springs.
Often the dust-storms passed beyond the aggravation of
thirst and discomfort, driving sand-whirls so furiously in the
faces of the workers that the hardiest men were forced to drop
their picks and shovels, and buckets and cradles, and run to
cover. Then, for hours, storms would rack the tents, straining
every cord and stitch of canvas to the snapping point, and often
tearing rents in the walls, or pitching over tent-poles and all in
utter wreck. Even when the stout posts, braced and guyed
against a hurricane, bore the strain unyielding, the sheltered
miners had to swelter in a mist of dust that was blown through
the crevices into every fold of bedding and clothing, and coated
every inch of their skins with irritating powder.
Next to this pest of dust was the plague of flies, little and
large, black and green, that swarmed over the camps in countless
1 "The Diamond Diggings of South Africa," Payton, 1872.
THE GREAT WHITE CAMPS 215
myriads in the summer season, tainting every morsel of food, and
settling on every bare face or body with a dash so bold and per-
sistent, and a grip so malignant, that it hurt like a sting. No
possible device could clear the tents completely, or keep out
these swarms ; but the miners armed themselves with big whisks
of wildebeest and ox tails, and got some relief by constantly flick-
ing and slashing, or when they were forced to use both hands
at work on the cradles or sorting tables, "fly flappers" stood by
to brush back attacks.
Hot days in the dry diggings on the bare veld were more
keenly felt than the same days on the tree-fringed Vaal, and some
midsummer days were too scorching even for the endurance of
the seasoned black diggers. But, except at midday, few work-
ing hours were lost when the sun was shining. The swooping
thunder-storms were scarcely less terrific than the storms in the
river valley, striking the camps with drenching pelts of rain and
heavy hail, hurled from cloud banks blazing and bellowing with
monstrous forks of lightning and stunning thunder peals.
The clear winter days were greatly invigorating. At break
of day it was often so cold that jugs of water were skimmed
with ice and a hoar frost covered the ground. But when the
bright sun mounted the sky, the chill air was so warmed in a
few hours, and so pure on the breezy veld, that the miners
gained fresh spirit with every breath, and went through their
monotonous round of work with unflagging life and good humor.
The actual record of a week at the mines, in August, 1871, gives
a clear idea of the winter shifts of temperature.1
DAY. NIGHT.
Highest Temperature. Lowest Temperature.
Aug. 21 83° Fah 40° Fah.
" 22 85° " 35° "
" 23 83° " 30° "
" 24 92° " -. 33° "
" 25 93° •• , 28° "
" 26 56° " . . . . . \ 28° "
1 "The Diamond Diggings of South Africa," Payton, 1872.
216 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
The health of the camps was usually good, except in mid-
summer, when " low " fever, diarrhoea, dysentery, and colic were
prevalent. The impure drinking water was the most persistent
cause of sickness and the most difficult to combat. Inflamma-
tion of the lungs from the fretting dust, and mild scurvy, were
the other common ailments, occasioned by the conditions of life
at the diggings.1
It was not all work and no play in these diamond diggings.
Saturday afternoon was commonly taken as a half holiday in
addition to the Sunday rest and recreation. In the springtime,
or the beginning of the rainy season, fresh flowers sprang into
bloom on the face of the veld, and birds built their nests in the
grass and thickets. Little dusky black-and-white birds, recall-
ing the English linnet, were sweetly trilling songsters, and were
so fearless and sociable that they flew everywhere over the dig-
gings, in the midst of the dust and stir, perching on heaps of
broken rock, or even on the diggers' cradles, comically fluttering
their tails, and chirping so musically that the wearied men were
charmed to watch and listen. There was good shooting, too, for
wild fowl and small game on the open veld ; and not far from
Dutoitspan there was a large stretch of thickets and scrub where
korhaans and paauws and partridges and plovers and hares
abounded. The stately Kafir cranes shook their bluish gray
plumes on the brink of the vleis, or water holes, where they
came to drink, and were shot by the hunters who lay in wait.
Their flesh was not unpalatable as a change from biltong, but
the hunters who pushed toward the Vaal brought back better
eating than cranes in their bags, — wild ducks and geese and
guinea fowl, and even a nimble springbok or queer-headed wilde-
beest or hartebeest. The swift leopard, too, was occasionally
shot near the river bank, and the rambling diggers found some
fun in unearthing porcupines, or chasing a jackal with dogs, or
lying in wait for the shy head of a meerkat to pop out of a
hole. A string of fish, that could readily be caught in the river,
1 "The Diamond Diggings of South Africa," Payton, 1872. " To the
Cape for Diamonds," Frederick Boyle, 1873.
THE GREAT WHITE CAMPS 217
made a welcome meal ; and a run to the Vaal, with a few
camping under the willows and long swims in the swirling
current, was a gay streak of diversion from dusty diamond
digging.1
Within the camping grounds there were always, in the day-
time and evening, stirring scenes to attract the eye, — antics of
ponies and mules ; the passage of straining bullock teams with
carts piled high with diamond-bearing ground, or wagons loaded
with country produce ; the rambling of pedlers with packs
and trays ; the groups of native tribesmen in trappings of skins
and feathers or comical old clothing, chattering or singing or
whooping or dancing ; the clustering of black women, washing
on the edge of the water pools ; the rallies of amateur minstrels
and travelling shows ; the merry-go-round, ridden by laughing
children or solemn country clowns ; the rattling of pins in the
bowling alleys and clicking of balls on pool tables, the crowded
" canteens," and all the other lively sights and sounds of the
fermenting camps.
Fortune-tellers and wizards, who professed to be able to see
through the earth, did not need to dig diamonds. Credulous
prospectors filled their laps with silver and gold. Payton tells
of one whose tent in Dutoitspan was thronged, day and night,
with eager dupes, showering shillings upon her, and her income
was reckoned at ^30 a day. Many of the Boers had unshak-
able faith in her. When she told a poor Dutchman that there
was nothing in his claim, he could not be persuaded to dig any
longer. If she promised diamonds and none were found, she
had an easy defence : " The niggers must have stolen them."
Then the wrathful claim-holder would pounce on his Kafirs and
haul them to the " tronk," the police station of the camp, where
the blacks were searched to the tips of their toes. Sometimes the
wizard guessed right, for diamond stealing was common, and
precious stones would be brought to light with joy to the owner
and credit to the fortune-teller.2
1 "The Diamond Diggings of South Africa," Payton, 1872.
2 Ibid.
218 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
The whipping-post was soon set up in the new camps and
freely used to chastise theft and other offences. The whipping
was not very severe, and it was remarked that the " cat " was not
as heavy as the one at Klip-drift. Many of the natives would
steal anything that they could carry off, and put on a brazen
face that would impose on a police court judge. A story is told
of two Hottentots who took the sheepskins off a man's bed and
tried to sell them back to their owner as soon as his eyes were
open in the morning. They took fifteen lashes on their bare
Natives resting, on their Way to the Mines.
backs without a whimper. Small fines were imposed for slighter
breaches of the camp regulations, and roaring drunkards were
occasionally clapped into the " tronk," a weak little jail, but the
whipping-post was necessarily the main dependence for punish-
ment of natives.
Strangest and most interesting of all features of the camps to
a newcomer were the habits and antics of the marvellous collec-
tion of savages, streaming into the Fields from the heart of
Africa. No mining camp on earth before ever held such a mot-
ley swarm of every dusky shade, in antelope skins and leopard
skins and jackal skins and bare skins, — with girdles and armlets
THE GREAT WHITE CAMPS 219
of white ox-tails, and black crane plumes and gorgeous bird
feathers, and dirty loin cloths, and ragged breeches, and battered
hats and tattered coats. With and without the fire of rum they
might dash off at any moment into some wildly whirling reel
or savage dance, gabbling in a hundred dialects, whooping with
weird cries, and chanting plaintive, gay, and passionate strains,
now dissonant, now sweet. Whenever a new party of "raw"
natives came in from the wilderness, weary, grimy, hungry, shy,
trailing along sometimes with bleeding feet and hanging heads,
and bodies staggering with faintness, a howl of jeers was a
common greeting, and a pelting with rotten fruits and stones
was likely to follow the scared troop up the street of the camp,
though the natives were not churlish at heart, and might, after-
ward, share their last crust with the strangers.
Their savage habits clung to them long in camp. Some
delighted to smoke in the old native way, by making a little
funnel in the wet ground with a slender stick and sucking the
smoke through one end while the tobacco leaves burned in a
hollow at the other. As a rule all the natives from Delagoa
Bay and districts to the north of that part smoked cigars with
the fire end in their mouths. When sheep or bullocks were
killed at market, the natives hung about and returned exulting
if the obliging butchers gave them the entrails to hang in fes-
toons about their necks and carry off smeared with filth. They
fed content day after day on a few handfuls of mealies or ground
maize with an occasional chunk of refuse meat. They had
little use for water except to drink, and they much preferred
Cape brandy. After working all day, and roving about and sing-
ing at night, they could sleep as soon as their heads touched the
ground, on the bare earth, without shelter, or in a squalid hut
with a dirty sheepskin wrapped around them. These quaint
Africans, mingling in a kaleidoscopic show with adventurers
coming from the ends of the earth, made a unique, moving
drama on the stage of the Diamond Fields that cannot be
forgotten by any spectator.
CHAPTER VIII
OPENING THE CRATERS
N ever present danger hung over the miners
from the very outset of their pit digging in the
diamond-bearing funnels. The yellow ground
was a breccia so loose and friable that it was
constantly caving in upon the heads of the
diggers. Then the pits were sunk so close
together that the walls gave way and slipped, crumbling into the
claims below. A loaded cart, passing along the edge of a road,
would often topple over and sometimes plunge with driver and
mule into the pit below.
Prospecting on the Alexandersfontein farm was not long con-
tinued ; but the diggings at Dutoitspan, Bultfontein, De Beers,
and Kimberley were ardently opened by swarms of diamond
seekers. The surface area covered by claims was very much
larger than the diamond-yielding ground, whose total extent
was, approximately, seventy acres. When the claims were con-
solidated by purchase, many years later, the Kimberley open
mine surface was figured to be 33 acres; De Beers, 22 acres;
Dutoitspan, 45 acres; and Bultfontein, 36 acres. These meas-
urements more than cover the extent of the original locations,
which were as follows: Kimberley, 470 claims, equal to 10.37
acres; De Beers, 622 claims, equal to 13.72 acres; Dutoitspan,
1441 claims, equal to 31.79 acres; and Bultfontein 1067 claims,
equal to 23.54 acres. Only a few scattered diamonds were
found outside of the rim of "reef" enclosing the diamond-
bearing craters.
To present clearly the progress of mining in the several
funnels, it is desirable to trace the advance of each separately
OPENING THE CRATERS
221
through the period of the open mine working, to show the dif-
ferent methods employed, and how one mine profited by the
costly experience of another. The superior richness of the
diamond-bearing ground in Kimberley mine urged forward its
opening more rapidly than the development of the others,
and this may properly be outlined first. The plan of min-
ing, with the reservation of roadways determined by the Free
State inspectors, proved a poor makeshift at best, before the
sinking of claims had progressed many feet below the sur-
The Breaking-up of the Roads, Kimberley Mine, 1872.
face. The bordering-claim owners undercut the roadways cross-
ing the mine, in working to the bounds of their allotments,
and these reserved roads soon began to cave away in places to
an extent that made the passage of carts very risky. It was
doubtless convenient to have ready access to every part of the
surface of the mine, and it was a moving spectacle when four-
teen parallel roadways were covered with files of plunging mules
and rumbling carts, goaded by the cries and whips of many hun-
dreds of half-naked Kafirs or white drivers ; but it was a piti-
ful burlesque of mining when the roadways cracked and crumbled,
and crevasses were bridged with sliding planks, and mule carts
222 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
Miners going to Work.
and men staggered and slipped over the roadsides into abysses.
Yet in spite of all risks and accidents, the roads were patched
up and maintained in some shape long after it was evident that
they were doomed. At length no possible patching and bridg-
OPENING THE CRATERS
223
The Hand Drums used for Winding-up the Blue Ground.
ing could arrest their fall. One after another, before the end
of the year 1 872, had crumbled away and slipped into the great pit.
The mine was then an open, oval quarry, about a thousand
De Beers Mine, 1873.
feet in length and six hundred feet in extreme width. The
broken blue ground on the face of the rough jumble of terraces
124 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
had been hoisted to the surface usually in buckets, by means of
a rope passing around a windlass and through a pulley fixed
in a pole set near the edge of the claim, but in 1872 a simple
device of haulage over two grooved wheels was largely intro-
duced. One wheel was set on the pit bottom, and the other on
the surface, with a handle attached by means of which one or
more stout natives could wind up a rope passing from wheel
to wheel, carrying up a loaded bucket and lowering an empty
Kimberley Mine, 1873.
one. This crude device served the purpose as long as a wheel
could be set near the edge of a claim on unbroken ground, or
along the roadway ; but when all the claims were at the bottom
of one huge open pit, it was obvious that only the outer tier of
claims could be worked by this method.
Then a haulage system of really remarkable ingenuity was
contrived. A massive timber staging was set completely around
the mouth of the mine, carrying two, and in parts three, plat-
forms, one above the other. The upper platform was connected
by strongly anchored ropes with the claims in the middle of the
mine, and the lower platform in the same way, with the claims
OPENING THE CRATERS
225
Kimberk-y Mint-, 1874.
nearer the margin of the mines. Where there was a third inter-
vening platform, ropes were stretched to claims lying between
the outer and inner circle. Windlasses were set on the plat-
Anotlier View of Kimlierley Mine, 1874.
226 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
Natives carrying Ground out of Dutoitspan Mine in Buckets.
forms, together with guide wheels over which hauling ropes
passed, dragging the buckets swiftly from the bottom of the
mine on little overhead runners, rattling over the stationary
roped inclines. When the loaded buckets reached the platform
levels they were dumped into chutes carrying the contents into
bags, which were readily carted away to level depositing grounds,
or "floors," as they were technically termed, where the blue
ground was sifted and sorted. The empty buckets were easily
W
Back View of the Staging with Grooved Wheels, at Kimberley.
OPENING THE CRATERS
227
returned, running back by force of gravity over the ropes to
the claims. The buckets were of rawhide, for this material
was found to be more lasting than iron, and the ropes were at
first largely of hemp or twisted rawhide ; but iron and steel
wire gradually replaced all other material.
So thickly together were these lines set, that the whole face
of the vast pit seemed to be covered by a monstrous cobweb,
shining in the moonlight as if every filament was a silver strand.
Never has any eye seen such a marvellous show of mining as
Kimberley Mine, 1875.
was given in this grand amphitheatre, when the huge pit was sunk
far below the surface level ; when the encircling wreath of the
chasm rose sheer and black like the walls of a deep, gloomy
canyon, or the swelling round of a demon's caldron ; when a
downward glance from the perch of a platform made weak heads
reel ; when thousands of half-naked men, dwarfed to pygmy
size, were scratching the face of the pit with their puny picks
like burrowing gnomes ; when thousands more, all grimy and
sweating and odorous, were swarming around the pit's mouth,
dragging up loads of diamond-sprinkled ground and carrying
off their precious sacks ; when hide buckets were flying like
228 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
Snow in Kimberley Mine, June 21, 1876.
shuttles in a loom up and down the vast warp of wires, twanging
like dissonant harp-strings, with a deafening din of rattling
wheels and falling ground ; and where every beholder was won-
der-struck at the thought that this weird creation in the heart of
Method of Hauling, De Beers Mine, 1873.
OPENING THE CRATERS
229
South Africa had been evolved by men for the sake of a few
buckets of tiny white crystals to adorn the heads and hands of
fanciful women.1
The First Horse Whim, Kimberley Mine,
With the deepening of the mine, " horse whims," first intro-
duced in 1874, were gradually substituted for hand tackle in
hoisting and lowering the buckets, which were enlarged tubs
Hauling Gear and Jumpers,
1 When Lord Randolph Churchill visited the diamond fields, while looking at a
huge parcel of diamonds he remarked, " All for the vanity of woman." A lady,
who heard the remark, added, " and the depravity of man."
230 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
A Nook in Kimberley Mine, 1874.
holding five or six cubic feet of blue ground. These whims
were timber wheels from fourteen to eighteen feet in diameter,
set near the edge of the mine, to revolve horizontally about
OPENING THE CRATERS
231
eight feet above the surface level. To turn the whim an iron
hoop, projecting from the wheel, was attached to the harness of
a horse or mule. The hauling rope was wound above the hol-
lowed rim of the wheel, and each end of the rope was fastened
to a tub, one hauling up the load of blue ground, and the other
lowering the empty tub.
In the following year, 1875, tne ^rst steam winding engine
employed at the mines was transported to Kimberley to take
the place of horse power in moving the whim, and the first
The Horse Whims, Kimberley Mine, 1875.
application of modern mining methods to the South African Dia-
mond Fields was made. This seemingly tardy development was
due less to a lack of enterprise than to the heavy charges of
freight transportation from the coast, ranging for years over
^30 per ton, and to the scarcity and cost of fuel, combined with
the lack of any positive assurance of the continuance in depth
of the diamond-bearing ground. Such a deposit of diamonds
as had been uncovered in the South African farm lands had
never been opened before, and the erection of costly machinery
for its extraction was naturally deemed an unwarranted risk.
232 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
Hauling Gear, Dutoitspan Mine, 1876.
But as the cutting passed farther and farther down through
the reef-circled funnels without disclosing any barren stratum or
break in the body of breccia, the surmise rose gradually to the
point of conviction that the funnels were craters of extinct vol-
canoes, filled by successive eruptions of steam or gas under great
pressure with a diamantiferous breccia, carrying fragments of vol-
canic and sedimentary rocks and crystals of many kinds of min-
erals. This conclusion, however, was hardly more than one of
several varying assumptions in advance of the thorough re-
searches and analyses of later years, when the prosecution of
deep mining works determined positively the existence of craters,
the character of the breccia, and the composition of its encasing
reef. So the progress of mining on the Diamond Fields was
long a hesitating and tentative advance, groping step by step
into the depths of the blue ground.
After the device of staging and hoisting ropes had solved,
for a time, the problem of open excavation in the Kimberley
mine crater, and the caving of the blue ground was no longer
a terror to the diggers, the collection of water in the pits was a
serious annoyance. Most of this water was surface drainage,
OPENING THE CRATERS
233
Surface Loading Boxes.
Aerial Trams and Surface Chutes, De Beers Mine, 18
234 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
flooding the lower levels in the rainy season, but never sufficient
in quantity to have been any considerable obstacle, if the mine
had been equipped with the ordinary pumping machinery erected
in other mining districts. The lack of any such machinery,
compelling for years the bailing and hoisting of the water in
buckets or tubs by hand or horse power, was no slight draw-
back to the progress of sinking. Hard upon this impediment
came the much graver trouble occasioned by the crumbling,
cracking, sliding, and falling of the encasing reef of decom-
posed basalt and shale. The unstable walls of these soft rocks
caved rapidly upon exposure to air and moisture into the open
pit, and the fracturing and slipping were aggravated by the
imprudent vertical cutting of the mine, removing the entire
body of blue ground without cutting away the reef in compara-
tively stable terraces or slopes. Obviously no single claim-holder
would undertake the cost of removing the dangerous reef for
the common benefit, and it was difficult to secure the general
cooperation and subscriptions so urgently required for this work.
What is everybody's business in theory has too often been
nobody's business in practice. The mean and short-sighted
Hauling Gear, Kimberley Mine, 1885.
OPENING THE CRATERS
235
hope to be protected without cost by the enterprise of the more
liberal and prudent ! The central claim holders counted on the
distance of their claims from the reef to assure their safety, and
the outer circles of claim-holders hung upon luck to shield their
ground. But the frequent recurrence of reef falls and slides,
The French Company's Sling Gear, 1885.
together with the gathering of troublesome water pools, so
emphasized the necessity of combination that a Mining Board
was organized in 1874 by general concurrence of the claim-
holders, with power to levy a comprehensive assessment to cover
the expense of keeping the mine clear of water and fallen reef.
This board took the place of the original " Diggers' Committee "
which had hitherto been charged with the execution of the crude
code of mining regulations.
The creation of this new administrative board was a move
in the right direction, but unfortunately it did not go far
enough. The opening of so large a number of small separate
claims by individual holders barred the essential application of
system to the sinking of the great pit. The Mining Board
lacked the means, if it had the foresight, to undertake the
236 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
checking of the reef slides by cutting back the vertical reef
walls, and it attempted little practically besides the removal of
the drainage and spring water and the clearing away of fallen
reef from the face of the blue ground. This was slipshod
mining at best, for the bare extraction of the reef, which had
slid and fallen over the claims, actually exposed the mine to
further reef slides, and this disaster was aggravated by the utter
lack of system in
clearing off the
fallen debris.
Every claim-
holder was per-
mitted to clear
off his own claim
independently,
and credited with
an allowance of
45. for every load
of 1 6 cubic feet
of broken reef
removed. The
clearing of the
face of one claim
or a cluster of
claims was no
security against
repeated reef slides, and barred the possibility of developing
any section of a mine in an economical and well-planned way.
The practical impossibility of opening a little claim, whose
surface area was only 961 square feet, beyond a limited depth
forced the consolidation of claims in spite of the original pro-
hibition of "claim blocking." The poorer sections of ground
were the first to feel the pressure for the enlargement of hold-
ings, and, to secure the continuance of working, permission was
granted in 1874 by the Kimberley Mining Board for the hold-
ing of ten claims by a single owner. This concession led to
Loading Tubs at Bottom of Kitnberlev Mine, 18
OPENING THE CRATERS
237
further combination and consolidation of claims in the hands
of partners and stock companies, but the comprehensive union
essential to the proper development of the mine was far too long
delayed. The mining operations of a number of individual
claim-owners, firms, and companies — whether in keen rivalry
or in varying degrees of energy and listlessness without any sus-
BHH
The Standard Company's Claim, Bottom of Kimberley Mine, 1885.
tained concert of views and means — could not be prosecuted
efficiently and prudently within the small area of a diamond-
mine crater. Unluckily for the advance of diamond mining
and the fortune of many struggling claim-holders, this irresist-
ible conclusion was not made clear to the mass of miners until
it was demonstrated after long years of costly fumbling in the
diamond-bearing funnels.
In view of the subdivision of ownership, the incoherence of
the mining operations, and the lack of essential funds, the
Mining Board can hardly be charged with a great part of the
238 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
Bottom of Kimberley Open Workings.
burden of responsibility for the failure to save the mine from
disaster through reef falls. The open pit working was not its
design, but the inexperienced undertaking of a mass of diggers
who could not be prevented from extracting the diamond-bear-
ing ground in their own rude way. They scooped out the
crater to a depth that made reef falls inevitable, and pushed on
their cuts through the body of blue ground, in spite of all warn-
ing falls and slides, long after it was apparent to any mining
engineer that the open pit sinking could not be continued with
safety to the workers or with profit to the owners.
But it is impossible to approve the relief measures of the
Mining Board. It could only check the reef falls at best, tem-
porarily and partially, but it failed to do even this. It set up
expensive hoisting machinery on the surface level at opposite
ends of the mine, and sunk a large vertical shaft (Kendric shaft)
in the reef at a point two hundred yards from the northeast edge
of the crater, with the apparent intention of removing reef rock
through this opening or determining the continuance of the blue
OPENING THE CRATERS
239
ground by a drift to the crater below the pit bottom. The shaft
was driven down to the depth of 286 feet, when a stratum of vol-
canic rock was reached, so hard that the work was abandoned.
No use whatever was made of this costly shaft, and no consid-
erable attempt was made to cut back the dangerous reef wall.
Even with the stinted means at the command of the Board,
something might have been done to preserve the mine, and an
energetic and well-directed push to this end would have com-
manded at least the confidence and support of the more in-
telligent claim-holders. So, when the caving of the reef cast
enormous heaps of debris upon the claims in the pit, the lack of
foresight of the Mining Board was discreditably apparent. The
cost of removing the reef rock was then vastly increased, and
the burden was the heavier because the reef falls prevented the
extraction of the buried blue ground.
Two of the larger companies, the French and the Central,
holding claims in the mine, were the first to undertake the re-
moval of the solid reef on any extensive scale, by sinking shafts,
in 1878— 1879, at points several hundred feet distant from the
Pumping Engine in Kimberley Mine, 1875.
440 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
north and south sides of the mine. By this means considerable
reef was removed, and a third shaft was sunk in 1882 through
the northeast reef border to check the imminent peril at that
edge of the mine. To supplement the service of these shafts
inclined tramways were opened on the west and east sides of
the mine to cut back the upper reef walls, while wire tramways
were stretched from the bottom of the mine to the surface edge
to carry off the fallen reef in large tipping tubs, holding from
1 6 to 32 cubic feet of broken rock. At the end of 1881 tram-
ways, aggregating 19 miles in length, had been constructed by
Incline Tramway for Hauling Reef, 1878.
the claim-holders and the Mining Board. Steam pumping
engines had been put in to pump out the influx of water, and
this obstacle was, at last, easily overcome. To hasten and
cheapen the extraction of blue ground, drilling and blasting were
substituted for hand labor with picks, and the work of mining
was pressed with incessant energy. But the sliding, falling reef
mocked every effort to withstand it.
The work of removal was undertaken too late. The reef
slipped faster than the tram cars and tubs could haul it out.
In 1878 more than a quarter of the surface of the claims in
the mine was covered by fallen reef. The cost of removal,
at the original allowance rate of 4^. per load of 16 cubic feet,
OPENING THE CRATERS
241
mounted so high that the Mining Board was constrained to cut
down the allowance to is. 6d.y but even with the rate reduced
the expenditure for reef work and drainage in 1879 and 1880
ran over ^£1 50,000 a year, and in 1881 it rose to over ^£200,000.
Still, the need of stimulating extraordinary exertion was then so
apparent that the rate was put up to ys. yd. a load in October,
1 88 1, and for the eighteen months following fifty-six million
cubic feet of broken reef were hauled away by the claim-holders
Hauling Reef, Kimberley Mine, 1873.
alone, at a cost to the Board of over ^650,000, without reckon-
ing the amount extracted by the operation of its own tramways.
This stupendous charge was obviously too heavy to be
borne even by the richest diamond mine, and no assessment
scheme could sustain it. The Board struggled for months
under the load, issuing notes when it had no cash in hand ; but
in March, 1883, its issue of outstanding notes or " reef-bills " was
so great that its book showed a debit balance of over ^£2 50,000,
and the local banks would extend no further credit. The Board
was bankrupt, reef extraction was stopped, perforce, and the
242 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
claim-holders were face to face with an appalling situation ; for
in spite of all efforts and the outflow of money like a water-
spout, the resistless reef was unchecked. The mine walls con-
tinued to fall in faster than they could be hauled out, and even
central claims in the mine were buried. The gloomiest forebod-
ings fell like a black cloud on the spirits of claim-holders. In
the judgment of
many observers, the
great Kimberley dia-
mond mine was
doomed beyond hope
of resurrection.
The open pit had
been sunk to the
depth of something
over four hundred
feet, in the lowest
working, at the end
of the year 1882. In
order to haul out one
million loads of blue
ground during that
year, three million
loads of reef had
been raised. The
cost of hauling was
increasing with the
Reef Falls, Kimberley Mine, 1881. deepening of the
mine, and owing to the reef falls, the production of diamonds
was disastrously sinking. In 1883 tne 'ac'c °f funds only per-
mitted the lifting of one and a half million loads of reef at a cost
of ^250,000, and the output of blue ground sunk to 350,000
loads. In November of that year a long portended reef slide
cast 250,000 cubic yards of shale upon the face of the pit, piling
its mass on the claims half across the mine. This was seemingly
a crushing infliction. It was, at least, a conclusive proof that
OPENING THE CRATERS
243
244 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
open pit sinking was no longer feasible even for the richest
claim-holders. About four million cubic yards of reef had been
hauled at a cost of nearly ^2,000,000, yet there was no check
to the reef falls and slides. At the close of the year the Inspec-
tor of Mines reported
that " only about fifty
claims had been regularly
worked during the past
year." The field for the
operation of individual
claim-holders was deci-
sively closed. The only
hope for the mine was in
the prosecution of deep
and extensive under-
ground works by the
combination of claims in
hands able to conduct
such operations success-
fully.
In advance of such
an undertaking the yield
of the mine was fortu-
nately sustained by an
The Central Company's Shaft, Kimberley Mine, 1885. CXDCrt makeshift. IVIr.
Edward Jones, a trained mining engineer, had been one of the
leading contractors for the removal of reef, and had given close
study to the problem of the continuance of the extraction of blue
ground. Through his design and insistent confidence, in spite of
all doubts and sneers, a shaft was sunk through the mass of fallen
reef at the bottom of the deepest part of the mine by lowering a
square timber frame and shovelling out the loose rock from the
inside of the enclosure. The frame was constructed in sections on
the plan of a coffer dam, adding section to section from the top until
a stout timber shaft passed entirely through the broken shale and
entered the underlying blue ground. The shaft was then read-
OPENING THE CRATERS
245
ily extended, and drifts from this opening were made through
the blue ground. The peculiar service of this device was its
saving of hundreds of feet of costly shaft cutting through the
solid reef to reach the blue ground — a very desirable contribu-
tion at a time when the richest claim-holders were sharply pinched
by the failing mine and the discouragement of capital. The cost
of all development work was defrayed by the blue ground
extracted in opening the drifts and cross-cuts, so that there was
no further delay in resuming operations in the mine. The first
shaft had been sunk on the ground owned by the Central Com-
pany, and it was soon copied by a number of similar shafts in
other parts of the mine. This brought about a most welcome
s
The Bottom of Kimberley Mine, 1885.
revival of mining, and was so far highly beneficial to the labor-
ers, claim-owners, and townspeople of Kimberley, though it was
not designed for permanent service.
While the blue ground was being removed through shafts
sunk in the bottom of the open mine, it was apparent to all that
246 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
the life of these shafts must be very short. Preparation was
therefore made for future work by sinking shafts outside the
margin of the open mine, and at sufficient distance from it to
insure them against any probable caving of the surface ground
in their vicinity. Vertical shafts were sunk by the Central and
French companies, and tunnels driven from them. The plan
of Kimberley mine, 1883, shows these tunnels.
.WMBERUr
Before describing the subsequent application of engineering
science to underground mining, it is desirable to trace the prog-
ress of the other mines on the fields to the period in develop-
ment reached by the leader. The claim-owners in De Beers
mine profited greatly by the object lessons given in the opening
of the great pit of Kimberley. For the first twelve years after
the discovery of the mines, the Kimberley mine ran far ahead of
the others from the superiority of its yield for some distance
below the surface. The fatal error of the neglect of the claim-
OPENING THE CRATERS
247
Reef Slips, Kimberley Mine, 1874.
Kimberley Mine, showing how the Ground cracked before Subsidence.
248 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
owners and Mining Board to cut back the mine walls was appar-
ent in time to save many thousands of pounds to De Beers.
This mine was also fortunate in the comparative hardness and
stability of the basaltic rock stratum overlying the shale and
forming the marginal top of its pit walls. By cutting back the
reef in terraces, the De Beers Mining Board saved the mine
from any serious rock falls for a con-
years. Only two hundred and fifteen
of reef were removed in the five
1882, but this sufficed to
the time. The cost of
siderable number of
thousand cubic yards
years ending with
protect the mine for
its removal was only
slight burden com-
the charges at Kim-
mine, and showing a
The Central Compan
cost per yard or per load of reef raised much less than the Kim-
berley average. This was a signal demonstration of the advan-
tage of prudently cutting away the reef before it fell into the pit
and buried prolific claims and increased the hauling charges.
This precaution, however, did not suffice to shield the mine
from disaster when the pit was greatly deepened after the reef
falls at Kimberley had diverted mining enterprise to De Beers.
Over one hundred and forty thousand cubic yards of solid
and broken reef were removed in 1883 and 1884, but reef slides
were fast increasing, and it was judged necessary by the Min-
ing Board to stop any further outlay for reef hauling when the
mine bottom was 350 feet below the surface. The diamond-
bearing ground had then been scooped out of the larger part of
OPENING THE CRATERS
249
The Last of Open Working, Kimberley Mine, 1889.
the funnel, but there was still a large area of yellow ground at
the west end which had not yet been extracted because it con-
tained so few diamonds compared with the other parts of the
mine. The falls of reef had covered the eastern end of the
250 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
mine, and early in 1885 the west end yellow ground caved in,
and an enormous mass of nearly five million cubic feet fell in
one day to the bottom of the mine, overlapping the fallen reef
and burying the claims still open for work. This disastrous fall
forced the stoppage of mining for six months until some part of
the reef and yellow ground could be taken out, and mining was
then resumed in a partial and half-hearted way in the open pit,
though it was evident that further pit sinking in the face of such
disasters was irrational mining.
The only possible resource
was the introduction of a system
of underground mining, and the
first attempt in this direction was
made in 1884 by the opening of
a large circular shaft at a point
1000 feet from the north margin
of the mine. This shaft was sunk
vertically about 320 feet in the
reef and then abandoned as too
costly. In its place an incline
was sunk, starting from a point
about 150 feet from the west
side of the claims, and entering
the mine at the edge of the amyg-
daloidal trap underlying the basalt
and shale, so as to avoid the expense of cutting through this
hard rock. This work was begun none too soon, for before the
end of the year 1887 further open pit working was proved to
be utterly impracticable, and was wholly abandoned when the
deepest open digging had been carried in three years only fifty
feet farther than the depth of 350 feet reached in 1884.
Dutoitspan mine opening was practically the same as the
course followed in Kimberley and De Beers. Owing to the com-
parative poorness of the diamond-bearing ground, pit sinking
was not pushed as rapidly as it was at Kimberley, and, in 1874,
most of the miners went over to Kimberley and were glad of the
R. D. Atkins. (Manager of Kimberley
Mine in the earlier days.)
OPENING THE CRATERS
251
No. 2 Incline Shaft, De Beers Mine.
chance of working over the " waste ground " which had been
cast away from the cradles and sieves of the early diggers. Two
years later, when improved methods of handling the ground
were coming into use, the miners flocked back to the abandoned
ground and took out fresh claims. Warned by the experience
of Kimberley, a circle of solid blue ground was left as a buttress
against slides and falls of the encasing reef of shale, and for ten
years this expedient served to shield the miners.
But this safeguard failed when the open working had reached
a few hundred feet in depth. Warning surface cracks had been
Eldorado Road, Dutoitspan Mine, 1874.
252 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
noticed on the northern margin of the mine, but the ardent
diamond seekers kept on digging recklessly, until one day in
March, 1886, when a huge mass of blue ground and reef broke
away suddenly from the northern end of the mine and rolled
over like the surge of a monstrous breaker, falling hundreds of
feet with a fearful crash upon the doomed men at the bottom of
Claims in Dutoiispan Mine.
the pit. The loss of life would have been frightful, but happily
for the miners the fall was at the noon dinner hour, when the
work of hoisting blue ground was stopped and blasting in the
mine was begun. Most of the workmen had left the mine, but
eighteen poor fellows — eight white men and ten Kafirs — had
taken shelter from the blasting in a pumping engine house in
the pit. The avalanche of rock fell on the house, and every one
in it was fatally crushed or scalded by the escaping steam. One
hundred thousand cubic yards of shale and blue ground buried
the claims on the pit bottom, and this fall was followed by others
which ruined the open workings in 1887, when the mine had
reached a depth of 400 feet.
In Bultfontein there was only another variation of the same
tale of open pit working and final wreck. The work of extract-
ing the yellow and blue ground was well planned at the outset,
under existing circumstances, by the cutting of inclined road-
ways over which the ground was hauled in bullock carts. In
OPENING THE CRATERS
253
1880 effective hauling machinery was substituted for the carts,
and the precious ground was extracted so rapidly that the depth
of about five hundred feet was reached in the open working, a
point probably beyond any attained in the other pits. Here,
too, as at De Beers, there was an effort to protect the mine by
cutting back the reef in terraces ; but this safeguard was tried
too late, and in any event it could only have deferred for a few
years the fate of the mine. Before the close of the year 1889
almost the whole of the pit bottom was covered with fallen reef
and only four engines were at work hauling blue ground.
The Extraction of the Diamonds
While the sinking of the pits was progressing with improved
mining appliances, there had been a considerable advance in the
methods of concentrating the diamond-bearing ground and win-
Bultfontein Mine, 1879.
ning the diamonds. For the first three years after the opening
of the mines, the handling of precious ground was exceedingly
crude and wasteful. The broken ground taken from the craters
was crushed more or less finely by pounding with shovels and
154 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
mallets and clubs. Then it was sifted in rocking troughs, fitted
with sieves like the placer miners' cradles, and the concentrate of
pebbles and crystals and coarse rock grains was spread on tables,
or sheets of iron and wood laid on the ground, where it was
scraped over by hand, and the gems picked out. In this rough
process a third and perhaps a half of the smaller crystals were left
in the waste ground, and the losses from theft were enormous.
In 1874 there was a change for the better in the introduc-
tion of water in concentrating. By building dams and sinking
The First Rotary Washing Machine.
wells the water supply of the camp was increased materially, and
it was possible to divert a portion for the diamond-washing
appliances. Most of the early machines for this purpose were
simple cradles with riffles or ridges set at intervals on the
bottom, and a sieve at the end. The pulverized ground was
dumped into a cradle with a sufficient flow of water to carry off
the slime, while the rocking shook the ground, and caused a
settling of the heavier mineral deposit at the bottom. With one
of these rockers from six to thirteen cartloads of ground were
washed in a day. Another device was a circular trough or pan,
OPENING THE CRATERS
255
fitted with a revolving set of iron teeth like a comb, that stirred
the ground and water and caused the settling of the concentrate.
Another Early Washing Machine, 1874.
This puddling trough would concentrate from twenty-five to
thirty-five cartloads in a working day and cost at first, about
^250, while the simpler cradle could be bought for ^£15, or
less. There were other more elaborate devices, but their cost
put them out of the reach of the ordinary digger. All were
based on one adaptation or another of the puddling principle,
and the fall and separation of minerals of different specific
gravities.
The sorting of the concentrate from the
puddling troughs was done by the same
method employed after the dry sifting,
but there was some improvement in the
Horse-power Washing Machine, 1875.
256 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
OPENING THE CRATERS
257
.
258 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
precautions against loss by theft. The natives, who were com-
monly employed in scraping and picking over the mineral de-
posit, were more carefully watched. Some were lodged in tents
and sheds adjoining the stables belonging to claim-owners, and
there was some oversight of them by night as well as by day.
When the claim-owners combined in companies, their workmen
were frequently kept together in enclosures called "compounds,"
where they were furnished with food and shelter at moderate
charges deducted from their pay. This sepa-
ration and partial restriction was of undoubted
service, not only in diminishing the oppor-
tunities for successful theft and disposal
Washing Gear, Bultfontein Mine.
of stolen diamonds, but in checking the drunkenness of the black
workmen and the outbreaks in the canteens and streets.
Progress was made, too, though much too slowly, in the
more perfect pulverization of the blue ground. It was soon
observed that the broken ground would crumble upon exposure
to the air, and after some weeks or months, according to its
hardness, a mass of breccia, thinly spread out and raked over,
would be very largely decomposed to fine sand fit for washing,
without further treatment. This natural pulverization was far
cheaper and better than crushing with mallets ; but the burden
of accumulating and storing great quantities of ground was too
heavy for the ordinary claim-holder, who was dependent upon
quick returns : so only the larger companies maintained stores
OPENING THE CRATERS
259
of ground on their depositing places or " floors," and none of
these, even, were disposed to wait for the adequate pulverization
of the ground by the natural agencies of the sun, air, and rain.
Still the floors were gradually enlarged on the veld, and were
frequently fenced in with wire. Year by year an increasing
proportion of blue ground was pulverized. The average yield
of a truck load, or sixteen cubic feet of blue ground, from Kim-
steam Washing Gear, Kimberley Mine.
berley mine, was computed to be one carat in diamonds, a valu-
ation ranging from twenty-eight to thirty-six shillings, according
to prevailing market rates.
The mining camps changed, year by year, more completely
to the appearance of thriving mining towns. De Beers fused
with De Beers New Rush in the town of Kimberley, while
the town of Dutoitspan rose on its camp site two miles away.
The connecting roadway was lined with straggling houses.
There was little available timber fit for building purposes, but
galvanized iron was very largely substituted for the canvas tents
during the first ten years, and, from 1880 on, many brick build-
ings were erected at Kimberley. Outside of the main business
street there was little attempt at first, to lay out regular avenues,
260 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
and the diggers shifted their tents or " tin houses " to any
vacant place that suited their fancy. The little galvanized iron
buildings were so light and strongly riveted that they could be
picked up and carried away by a few strong Kafirs. But with
Webb's Washing Machine, 1878.
the growth of the towns stands became more valuable, and title
and possession were more sharply looked after. In 1876 the
valuation of the town of Kimberley for assessment or taxation
purposes was $5,151,500. Churches, schools, banks, hotels,
theatres, concert rooms, and stores and offices of various kinds
were erected to answer the demands of a prospering mining town.
Sidewalks were laid along the principal streets, and after 1874
there was a regular appropriation for street watering. The
houses grew in size and stability. Verandas and porticoes were
added in place of the roof projections that gave a little shade to
the early diggers, and many of the dwellings were set with a
fringe of garden in front or on the sides, in which fruit trees and
vines and choice flowers were planted.
With the advance of the diggings in depth, the combination
OPENING THE CRATERS
261
of claims, and the ending of widespread prospecting, the influx of
whites to the camps fell off greatly. The shifting population
of prospectors dropped to the number that could find employ-
ment in the mines or in the dependent towns. It was estimated
in 1876 that the white population of Kimberley was about eight
thousand, and the native from twelve to fifteen thousand. In
Dutoitspan and Bultfontein there were perhaps six thousand
more of whites and blacks.
The character of this population has been most absurdly
decried. " The Diamond Fields of South Africa," writes one
flighty reporter, " have been hot-beds of rowdyism. The liber-
tines, forgers, bird-catchers, and other outcasts of Europe have
found a refuge there as in Alsatia of old. The Houndsditch Jew
and the London rough reign supreme." Thousands of wit-
nesses might be summoned, if necessary, to refute this nonsense.
Libertines and forgers drift elsewhere for prey than to hot, dusty
Cape of Good Hope Company's Washing Gear, 1878.
mining camps in the midst of the karoo ; though dainty folk
might shrink from the roughness and grime of the diamond dig-
gings, and weak nerves might be shaken by the boisterous exu-
berance of the bustling camp, the restless crowd tramping the
streets, the uproarious canteens and music halls, and the capers
262 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
of motley diggers and wild Africans. Liquor drinking ran to
excess, as it always does in a prosperous mining camp, and the
natives especially were given to drunkenness ; but the wildest
sprees rarely threatened danger to life, for the hot spirits were
blown off in yells, chants, and dances. Every accurate record
shows that murder and robbery and the more flagrant and brutal
crimes were notably rare compared with the showing of the early
American and Australian mining camps ; and when the turbu-
lence of the rush was over, and the bubbling camps simmered
down to the comparative order and steadiness of the working
Washing Gear, Dutoitspan Mine.
mining towns, there was little disturbance from any outbreak
of ruffianism. In spite of all demoralizing influences, the con-
servative and civilizing agencies and public spirit that advance
communities and exalt good citizenship gained in force year by
year on the Diamond Fields.
Notable progress was made in the provisions for the health
and security of the towns. The most crying need, from the
first, had been pure and abundant water. The average rainfall
of the mining field was only 17.5 inches, and the suffering from
the lack of water in the dry season was scarcely endurable.
Much was done to improve and increase the supply by the sink-
ing of wells and extension of natural reservoirs and the more
OPENING THE CRATERS
263
general introduction of filtering appliances. Dr. Morton noted
in 1876 a marked advance in the health of the population on
the Fields. The death rate at Kimberley, he said, was exceed-
ingly small. The most sickly months of the year were August
and January, marking the effect of the extremes of cold and
heat. Outside of the ailments incident to the dust and exposure
and sudden variations of temperature, there was little disease,
and he particularly observed the complete immunity of the
field from hydrophobia, though every man, woman, and child
appeared to have a dog at their heels.
Washing Gear, Bultfontein Mine, 1878.
It was soon perceived, however, that a more certain and
sufficient supply of water must be obtained to meet the growing
demands of the towns and mines. This was secured through
the enterprise of the men associated in the Kimberley Water
Works Company, by the construction of a pumping station at
Riverton on the Vaal River and the laying of a main sixteen
miles in length to a reservoir on a ridge of the Bultfontein
farm, near Kimberley. The water from the river was raised in
three stages by powerful compound condensing engines, and car-
ried to the large reservoir on the ridge, five hundred feet above
264 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
the river level. From this reservoir it was distributed by a pipe
and hydrant system to the towns and the mines. Since the
construction of this fine plant, the towns have been supplied with
filtered water at a cost of is. per 100 gallons ; and mines using
great quantities have a concession materially lowering this rate.
The amount of water sold to Kimberley annually has run as
high as 230,000,000 gallons and more than 300,000,000 have
been supplied to the mines. The cost of the machinery and plant
was over ^300,000. Mr. E. A. Cowper, the consulting engi-
neer of the Water Works Company, designed the machinery, and
Mr. George Buchanan, C.E., was the constructing engineer in
the erection of the plant.
The maintenance of peace and order on the Diamond Fields
was helped forward materially by the construction of " com-
pounds," providing good lodging and food for the natives, check-
ing their drunkenness, promoting steady industry, and enforcing
restrictions essential to the common security. The police force
of the towns was from the start so small that the tolera-
tion of this condition attests the comparative rarity of brutal
crimes on the Fields. Its very marked improvement with the
growth of the town, in later years, was rather due to the rising
demand for advance in every civic and social condition than to
any increase in disorderly conduct or the commission of crimes.
Diamond stealing and illicit diamond buying were, beyond
all question, the worst plague of the camps and towns. Outside
of this line of operation there was practically no opening and no
temptation for the professional thief and receiver of stolen goods ;
but the opportunities were unfortunately too apparent and easy
for filching and disposing of diamonds. The sharpest oversight
could scarcely prevent nimble-fingered workers from slyly secret-
ing tiny crystals in picking over the concentrates on the sorting
tables or in handling the deposit in the rockers and puddling pans.
While the natives were allowed to rove about freely after their
day's work was done, they had little difficulty in transferring the
diamonds to the hands of the sharpers, who were always in wait
for the chance of buying stolen stones for little money.
OPENING THE CRATERS 265
Offices were opened by diamond buyers in the mining towns,
either as independent merchants or as representatives of large,
foreign wholesale dealers and diamond cutters, and besides these
established purchasers, there were a number of traders who made
regular rounds through the diggings, buying from claim-owners
in their tents or houses or at the sorting table. These peripa-
tetic dealers were familiarly known as " kopje wallopers," for
kopjes were the sites of the chief surface digging. No doubt
there were dishonest men among these dealers, small and large ;
for the frequent temptations were too strong for slight scruples,
and it is certain also that many diamonds were bought under
cover by saloon and shop keepers and other speculative traders
who came into familiar contact with the diggers.
It is plain that it was impossible to trace or identify a stolen
diamond, even when the theft was known, and great quantities
of gems were secretly bought and carried to the coast towns
for sale or forwarded stealthily to foreign markets. It has been
estimated that fully fifty per cent of the diamonds taken from
the diggings in the early years were secreted and sold specula-
tively. This is undoubtedly an extravagant reckoning, but
there is no question that a large percentage were filched away.
To give some idea of the enormous quantity of diamonds
that were stolen in the early days of the fields, and before the
compound system was adopted, the following notice is repro-
duced : —
NOTICE
The undermentioned rough and uncut diamonds having from time
to time been recovered by this Department, notice is hereby given to all
whom it may concern, that unless proof of the bona fide right to the
possession of such diamonds be given, or a proper permit for the same
be produced within ten days from the date hereof, such diamonds will be
sold and the proceeds of such sale carried to the account of the Govern-
ment.
JOHN FRY,
Chief of Detective Department of Griqualand West.
MAY 24th, 1883.
266 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
Underneath the notice was a schedule showing —
The number of carats. From whom recovered. How acquired.
The number of carats ranged from half a carat to 6375
carats, which were found in the possession of one man. The
total number reached 8443 carats, which were recovered from
fifty persons. Two days later a similar notice appeared stating
that 1573^ carats had been recovered, having been found in the
possession of a well-known dealer in illicit diamonds. The
total value of these two lots would amount to £30,000 or
.£40,000.
The practice of illicit diamond buying was so persistent and
obnoxious that it was curtly styled I. D. B., and the strictest
possible regulations were made to check it and punish offenders.
A Special Court was established in 1 8 So1 to try cases of this kind,
and a special police force formed with warrant to make the most
rigorous search of suspected thieves and receivers. Under the
Diamond Trade Act every parcel of diamonds taken from the
Fields must be formally described and registered, and every
transfer recorded from the date of discovery till the final ship-
ment from the Cape Colony. No person was permitted to deal
in diamonds unless he held a formal license, and his record books
of purchase and sale were always open to police inspection.
Thefts of diamonds and illicit purchasers were punished with all
possible rigor.
1 A Special Court was established under ordinance No. 8 of 1880. A barrister
was appointed as special magistrate to act with the resident magistrate and the addi-
tional resident magistrate. Under Act No. 48 of 1882 the special court for min-
ing offences consisted of three persons, of whom at least one was a judge of the
Supreme Court. The other two were usually the resident magistrate and the civil
commissioner. By proclamation No. 144, dated September I, 1882, the districts of
Kimberley, Herbert, Hay, and Barkly were within the jurisdiction of the Special
Court. Act No. 34 of 1888 provided that the Special Court should consist of three
members, two of whom must be judges of the Supreme Court. Persons convicted
by the Special Court might appeal to the Supreme Court.
CHAPTER IX
THE MOVING MEN
N the rush of adventurers over the Diamond
Fields the individual was inevitably merged in
the mass. He might feel the pulse of latent
powers, the unslaked thirst of ambition, but
he must be for the time no more than a drop
of water in the rapid, a locust in the swarm.
He was one of a myriad which exulted in the enforced equality
of living and opportunity.
There can scarcely be a purer democracy than an infant
camp in such a field. Imperial sovereignty or feeble state asser-
tion barely cast a shadow of authority over the stretch of " No
Man's Land," the chrysalis of the Colony of Griqualand West.
One man here was as good as another in his own mind, and free
to maintain it. In the seething stream of humanity that poured
into the Diamond Fields it mattered not whether one was to the
manor born or cradled in a manger, the son of a peer or a beg-
gar's brat. In the hot scramble for diamonds in the dirt, all
ranks were levelled. The rough sailor jostled the captain, the
university graduate swung his pick side by side with the navvy,
and the last of the Vere de Veres snored in his sheepskin kaross
back to back with a hopeless Japhet. The representative
" Diggers' Committee " was merely the executive hand of the
body of prospectors, the instrument of the will of the masses.
The distribution of the diamond beds from the start marked
the strain for equality, the hostility to aggrandizement ; and the
relation, of demand to supply compelled the division into little
patches of holdings. It was years before the acquisition of more
than two claims by one person was tolerated, and only imperious
267
268 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
necessity forced the further consolidation of claims when the
mines had reached a depth that made patch-working impracticable.
In this mass movement and equalizing of opportunity, the
rise and display of strong individuality were necessarily subdued
and slow to appear. In the years of the rush and the early
advance of the mines, it is the life of the mass and not of the
fractional unit that makes the history of the Fields. But with
changing conditions, as the years rolled on, the way was opened
for individual assertion, influence, and distinction. Then the
men, hitherto unmarked, stood up preeminent. Then the brains
that were capable of great conceptions and great performances
found pressing occasion for all their foresight and energy. The
history of the great mines that have explored the diamond-bear-
ing craters so far beyond the pitfalls of the prospecting diggers
is very essentially a story of remarkable men.
In July, 1873, a young Hebrew, Barnett Isaacs, took passage
from England to Cape Town at the call of his brother from the
new Diamond Fields. His
grandfather was a learned and
honored rabbi, and the good
standing of his family was
marked by the marriage of
his father, Isaac Isaacs, to a
relative of Sir George Jessels,
Master of the Rolls. But the
son of the rabbi was only a
small, plodding, frugal shop-
keeper in London. His sons,
Henry and Barnett, were
trained in the excellent He-
brew Free School in Spital-
fields,but both boys left school
at the age of fourteen to help their father in his shop. Henry
was drawn away in the current of the early rush to the Diamond
Fields in 1871, and had such success as a kopje walloper that he
wrote home to urge his brother to join him.
Barnett Isaacs.
THE MOVING MEN 269
To the restless spirit and purely speculative mind of Barnett
Isaacs there was magnetic attraction in such a field with its
novel and gleaming opportunities. With instant decision he
took the steamer for Cape Town, and made the tiresome trip
over veld and karoo to Kimberley with unfailing pluck and
good temper.
He was only twenty years old, and outwardly no more than
a light-hearted boy, bubbling over with high spirits and comical
conceits. But his fondness for athletic sports, theatrical extrava-
ganzas, and practical jokes, and his contempt for conventional
restraints, were merely the surface froth covering invincible
energy and facile grasp of opportunities. He had an unshak-
able self-reliance, a quick perception, and a fertile resourceful-
ness that bore him up when feebler men sank. One could
scarcely cast him in any society or any place on earth, where his
nimble wits would not win him a living.
The impulse to go ahead was in his blood. " It has always
been a superstition with me," he said, " never to turn back."
He grew apace with the calls upon his powers. He did not pro-
fess to know more than he knew, but he was never content to
know anything that interested him by report. " I must look
into everything that concerns me for myself." This determina-
tion was a safeguard. He once boasted, in a rare fit of parade,
that he had never made a mistake in his investment of money
in his life. But his incessant activity was fatally wearing. He
could not dawdle. He could hardly rest. For many years his
extraordinary vitality and endurance kept him running. He
had the precious faculty of dropping off to sleep at any moment
of relaxation, and awaking after slumbering for a few moments.
Nevertheless no creature of flesh and blood could endure the
strain which he bore and recklessly courted. " Some day such
a bundle of quivering nerves must snap, either life or brain must
go," said one of his closest friends. But when young Barnett
Isaacs wandered into Dutoitspan, "fit for anything," as he him-
self declared, after his long tramp and meals of porridge and
biltong, nobody saw in him the raw material of one of the
I7o THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
remarkable financiers of the century, or forecast, even dimly, the
meteoric career of Barney Barnato.
His brother Henry had fancied and taken the name of Bar-
nato, as a professional shift from his own family name, when he
first came to the Diamond Fields and tried his luck first as a
conjurer and vaudeville performer, relying upon the sleight of
hand proficiency which he had gained in boyish practice to
amuse his friends. Henry soon turned his hand to the more
profitable business of a diamond trader, but his stage name stuck
to him, and passed naturally to his younger brother, who accepted
it with easy indifference. So young Barnett Isaacs became
familiarly known as " Barney Barnato," and for the first year
or two of his life on the Diamond Fields floated along in the
current as " Harry Barnato's brother." But his head never
sank below the surface for a moment. His first buoy was
a cigar box. He had money enough to buy sixty boxes of
cigars after paying his way to Kimberley. With this working
capital he went into partnership with Louis Cohen, another new-
comer, who had started as a kopje walloper. The two young
Hebrews picked out a shanty to their liking for an office. It
was a little tin shed, eight feet by six, owned by an Irishman
who offered it for rent at a guinea a day.
" That is ridiculous," said Cohen.
"I don't know that," said Barnato. "The situation is good,
why not pay a guinea a day if you can make thirty shillings ? "
This keen measuring was typical. Barney Barnato never
counted cost alone if he wanted anything, but weighed it instantly
against probable profit. He was never a thoughtless or reckless
buyer. He did not shut his eyes to the risks of loss. On the
contrary, he reckoned risks with exceptional accuracy and pre-
cision of detail, but he reckoned profits with the same even-
balanced judgment. Hence he was not afraid to venture when
others shrank back. He was naturally sanguine. He had faith
in himself, and put all his working force into everything that he
undertook. So his high-pressure energy, persistently maintained,
won success where a weaker and idler man would have failed.
THE MOVING MEN 271
There was no peculiar luck in his favor. Thousands around
him had equal chances or better. He went to the front because
he had the brains to choose aright and the working powers to
make his choice profitable. He made mistakes as men of his
sanguine temper must, but he did not make many mistakes, and
no fatal or even greatly damaging ones.
There is no business without risks. The most prudent man
cannot engage in mining or in trading in mineral products with-
out risks. If hot-headed speculation has swamped fortunes in
such a field, it is no less certain that overstrained caution has
failed to win anything memorable. There is a happy and rare
mean of sagacious judgment in mining operations, and Barney
Barnato proved his possession of such judgment incontestably.
His mind worked so quickly, and his mental calculations were
so exact and minute, that it was often supposed that he jumped
at conclusions. " Barnato's snap judgment," sneered a man
whom he outbid in competition ; " Barnato's sheer luck,"
growled the man who saw his judgment turn to gold.
The young partners, Barnato and Cohen, worked hard, early
and late. Barnato's keen eye gained a valuable business con-
nection in a way that suggests his kinship to Sherlock Holmes.
One of the most successful " kopje wallopers " (a name given
to men who visited the various miners' huts for the purpose of
buying diamonds) made regular rounds through the diamond
fields on an old, lame, yellow pony, calling on men who had
the best bargains in diamonds to offer. Barnato and Cohen
tried repeatedly to follow him, but his track was soon lost in
the labyrinth of tents, huts, and sand heaps. However, Barnato
was able to see that the trader's pony had the habit of stopping
at places where choice bargains were made, and when the broken-
down beast was offered for sale one day by its owner, Barnato
snapped at the chance to buy him for £17 IQJ., an enormous
price for the old pony as a steed, but a great bargain for the
keen diamond broker, for the walloper's business went with his
pony, as he afterward saw to his chagrin.
Soon Barnato became known as a " walloping walloper,"
472 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
and in the third year of his push into the Fields he was able
to crown a new ambition by the purchase of a block of four
claims in one of the best-paying sections of the Kimberley mine.
His savings were then about ^£3000, and he put nearly every
pound he was worth into his purchase. His seemingly risky
investment was quickly justified by the yield of his claims.
With the help of this great investment he came swiftly into
prominence. Entering into partnership with his brother, he
established the firm of Bar-
nato Brothers in 1880, as a
London and Kimberley firm
of diamond dealers and brok-
ers in mining properties, and
crowned a further ambition
by combining his own claims
with adjoining holdings in his
first mining stock organiza-
tion, " The Barnato Diamond
Mining Company."
He was one of many
quick-sighted and resourceful
men who perceived that the
day for any profitable work-
ing of individual claims had
passed, while the body of
miners was still struggling
along blindly in the great cav-
ing chasms. He brought about a highly desirable amalgamation
of the claims which he controlled with those of the Standard
Company, one of the strongest organizations in the Kimberley
Mines, and later these claims were amalgamated with the hold-
ings of the Kimberley Central Company, in which he became a
large shareholder. It was at this stage in his fortunes that he
came into keen rivalry with the only competitor that could make
headway successfully against him, Cecil John Rhodes.
There was a singular likeness in some respects in the careers,
C. J. Rhodes, when a Student at Oxford.
THE MOVING MEN
273
conceptions, and calculations of these extraordinary men, although
they were so markedly dissimilar in personal appearance and
temperament. Cecil John Rhodes was the younger son of a
Hertfordshire clergyman, and came as a sickly boy to South
Africa in 1871, in the first flush of the diamond fever, to join
his brother Herbert on a small plantation in Natal. The raw,
dusty Diamond Fields were apparently one of the spots least
likely to attract a youth whose health had broken down, and
whose tastes were bent from early childhood toward a scholar's
Cape Town.
life in the cloisters of a university appealing to every high imagi-
nation in its memorials of every age since the dawn of letters
in Britain. So indeed it seemed when young Rhodes turned
his back on the fresh glitter of the new mines and entered his
name on the rolls of Oriel College in 1872. But the same year
saw his return, because of a lung fever that threatened his life,
and made the shift from misty England to the mild clear air of
the terraces of Natal an imperative prescription. Shortly after
his return Herbert Rhodes slid into the current setting to the
Diamond Fields, but Cecil stayed on the plantation until the
following year, 1873, when his brother's report and his dawning
274 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
success as a claim-owner drew him, somewhat reluctantly, over
the long sun-baked stretch to Kimberley.
So unknown to each other and blind to their future clash
and union, Cecil John Rhodes, the clergyman's son, and Barney
Barnato, the London shopboy, started abreast in the race for
fortune on the same track. An ordinary observer of the two
young men would probably have picked Barnato as the winner
on such a track as the new Diamond Fields. Any one could see
at a glance that the young Hebrew was unsinkable, and pecul-
iarly fitted to make a good living in the stirring towns by his
business training, quick wit, and racial genius for trade, while
the English college student had no apparent fitting for success
either as a digger or a business man. Kipling has told of the
straining of the new ship, as a living thing, in the trial to find
herself, and this fine conception has literal truth in the applica-
tion to young manhood. So Cecil John Rhodes was forced to
find himself, as he did, when he put away his books to plunge
into the whirling life of the Great White Camps.
Tall, gaunt, shy, the stripling sat at the diamond sorting
table, overseeing the Kafirs who scraped over the pebbles from
his brother's claim, on a little " floor " near the edge of the big
Kimberley pit. Roughly dressed, coated with dust, disdainful
of any foppish touch, peculiarly self-contained, full of novel ideas
and aspirations rising, turning, and shaping themselves in his
mind, he was not one to mingle, like Barnato, in every stir
of the froth in the camps, or ready to jump, like the London
shopboy, into any gush of speculation, from a bet at cards to an
auction sale. Externally the two young men could scarcely be
more unlike than the little, chunky, bullet-headed, near-sighted,
mercurial Hebrew, taking a hand in current sport or traffic, and
the tall, thoughtful, young overseer, sitting moodily on a bucket,
deaf to the chatter and rattle about him, and fixing his blue eyes
intently on his work, or on some fabric of his brain.
Yet both were alike in their expanding ambition and power
to grapple and mould in their distinctive ways the opportunities
about them. Both had keen foresight, and extraordinary com-
THE MOVING MEN
275
Silver Trees. (These trees grow only on the slopes of Table Mountain.)
prehension of great financial undertakings. Both had, too, the
essential poise and accuracy of judgment that shuns pitfalls
and punctures illusions. With variant motives they sought the
same end of great riches : one for the sheer satisfaction of money
making, of unfolding great schemes of production and flotation,
of proving to the world that he was a master of finance ; the
other chiefly as a means to reach ends of Imperial scope, to
throw the searchlights of civilization into every cranny of the
Dark Continent, to lift the prodigious dead weight of unnumbered
276 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
bygone ages of barbarism, to make the waste lands fruitful and
open the arteries of traffic, to create a Greater Britain than the
most daring fancy before him had conceived, and stretch the
hand of his Queen over a realm transcending the farthest sweep
of the Macedonian or the Roman.
Both realized very keenly the practical necessity of effecting
combinations of the claims covering the diamond mines in order
to provide a uniform and efficient development and to secure
a scarcely less essential control of the diamond output. The
patent collapse of the open pit mining forced the undertaking
of underground works, and compelled the further consolidation
of holdings ; but
for too many years
there was no com-
mon realization of
the urgent need of
the systematic de-
velopment of the
mines as a united
property, and not
as a complex col-
lection of discord-
A Cape Can. ant parts. The
working of the parts was at best cramped and conflicting. The
prosecution of any well-designed plan was heavily handicapped
by the lack of cooperation in adjoining properties.
This was sharply etched in by Barnato after Rhodes had
successfully pressed the amalgamation of the variant interests.
" I think I can prove to you, gentlemen," he said, in addressing
a shareholders' meeting in 1889, "that in order to work the
underground system, you must have the mines intact. You all
remember the trouble and friction that took place when the De
Beers mine was being worked by the De Beers Company, the
Victoria, the Oriental, the Elma, the Gem, and others. Why
was the underground system not a success in this case? Because
one company was working against another ; that is to say, if one
THE MOVING MEN
277
company was on the five hundred feet level, the opposing com-
panies could go and eat into each other's boundary walls and
pillars to such a dangerous extent that the entire mine was in
a condition which threatened collapse at any moment."
This was so patently true, and more particularly in Kimber-
ley mine, that it may seem surprising that the disastrous conflict
was so long maintained. But it must be borne in mind that
the average shareholder was not as quick to see and prompt to
move for a remedy as Rhodes, and comparatively few had his
intimate and comprehensive knowledge of the condition of all
the mines in the Fields. A very large proportion of the investors
in these mines were men who had never been on the Fields at all,
or whose acquaintance was limited to a sightseer's visit. Many,
too, had bought shares simply as a gamble in the stock market,
and only welcomed such information or reports as were calculated
to boom their speculations.
It was obviously labor lost to attempt to interest such men
in any far-reaching plan for the union and systematic develop-
ment of all the mining claims in the craters, and most of them
would have sneered it away as a mere chimera if it had been laid
before them. This was indeed a project which might well have
appalled an ordinary man, even if he had the clear sight and
comprehension of the position essential to a true judgment.
Anybody might dream of such a gigantic combination, and some
day-dreamer might babble about it to his gossips, but what man,
or association of men, would have the foresight and patience, the
perseverance and tact, the integrity and fulness of talent, to push
forward toward it for years, to thrust aside or crush blocks in
the way, to harmonize discordant and jealous interests, to open
the eyes of narrow-sighted selfishness, to win the confidence of
the distrustful, to design a scheme of union that would make all
holders of good working claims common shareholders on a basis
of equity and assured profit to all, and finally to provide the
enormous capital necessary for the consummation of the scheme,
and the development of the great diamond mines in a really
great way ?
278 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
Here was a task of such tremendous magnitude and difficulty
that men of good ordinary judgment might well question its
feasibility. What man in or out of the Fields would dare attempt
it ? Who could do it, if he dared to venture ? There is a mighty
fillip to the conceit of man, that in such great exigencies as these
— in times when some prodigious undertaking is imperatively
needed — the man or men who can carry it on to completion
are almost always forthcoming. " Nothing is impossible nowa-
days," said the " Bonanza King," Flood, when doubts were
raised of the practicability of piping water from the Sierra
Nevada Mountains to the Comstock Silver Mines on the
Virginia range ; " the only question is, will it pay ? " That
seems, indeed, the only touchstone which men of such pith and
temper are disposed to apply to any object. It was again made
evident on South African Diamond Fields how far the possible
stretches when men with Flood's touchstone are the adven-
turers. The moving men, who could comprehend the need for
union and effect it, came irresistibly to the front in the Fields.
The undertaking to which they set their hands should be
clearly set forth. In spite of the ruin of the open mine work-
ings in the competing development scramble, and in spite of the
continuing conflict and recurrent disasters in the underground
mining so cogently enforcing the call for union, there were
still, at the end of 1885, no less than ninety-eight separate hold-
ings in the four mines. In Kimberley mine there were eleven
companies and eight private holdings; in De Beers there were
seven companies and three private holdings ; in Dutoitspan, six-
teen companies and twenty-one private holdings ; in Bultfontein,
eight companies and twenty-four private holdings. Thus the four
mines were operated by a total of forty-two companies and fifty-
six private firms or persons, all clashing within a surface area
of 70 acres. The original location claims, aggregating 3600,
had been united to this extent, merely, at the close of fourteen
years of mining on the helter-skelter plan.
It is hardly just to credit Rhodes and Barney Barnato with
an equal perception of the imperative call for the union of all
THE MOVING MEN
279
Mr. C. D. Rudd.
the discordant interests in the diamond mines. Each reached
the conclusion that it was no longer possible to continue to
work the mines divided into small
holdings which were controlled by
men antagonistic to one another.
Rhodes's interests were mostly in
De Beers mine, and Barnato's
largely in the Kimberley mine. In
the same year, 1880, in which Bar-
nato floated successfully his first
diamond-mining corporation, "The
Barnato Mining Company," con-
sisting of a few claims in a rich
section of the Kimberley mine,
Rhodes and others founded the De Beers Mining Company,
on the contiguous diamond-bearing crater.
It is of interest in this connection to trace the origin of De
Beers Mining Company through
the early years of De Beers mine.
In 1 873 Rhodes united his claims
in De Beers mine with those of
C. D. Rudd, and they slowly in-
creased their holdings. Robert
Graham joined them in 1874,
and later Runchman, Hoskyns
& Puzey took part with them in
the purchase of Baxter's holdings.
This combination, in addition to
mining their own ground, took
pumping contracts to drain the
mine. Besides the above combi-
nation there were other competi-
tors for the purchase of claims,
such as Dunsmure & Alderson,
Stow & English, and these three firms gradually acquired all the
best ground in De Beers mine except the Elma Company, owned
Mr. Robert English.
28o THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
by Thomas Shiels and others, the Victoria Company in which
J. Ferguson was then the leading spirit, and the United Dia-
mond Mining Company.
The De Beers Mining Company was formed on the ist of
April, 1880, with a capital of ,£200,000, by the union of the
three firms first mentioned. It progressed with extraordinary
success, extending its range of ownership, absorbing step by step
its floundering neighbors, and finally standing out preeminent
in March, 1885, with a capital of ^841,550, upon which divi-
dends of ~i\ per cent had been paid during the last fiscal year,
in spite of the heavy charges of development work and the un-
avoidable hampering of its mining operations. Mr. Rudd states
that at one time Rhodes and he had the offer of the entire De
Beers mine for ^6,000, and they walked about a whole day
talking it over, but finally decided they could not finance it.
The licenses at that time were so costly that it was thought wise
not to risk the purchase. Money was not very plentiful among
these men in those days, as is shown by one of the first checks
of the De Beers Mining Company, which was drawn by Rhodes
in his own favor for ^5, "as an advance against his salary as
secretary."
It is possible that Barnato may have tried to bring about a
further consolidation of some of the various interests in Kim-
berley mine, but there is nothing to show that he contemplated
any broad scheme.
For nearly six years Rhodes concentrated his efforts in the
Diamond Fields toward obtaining complete control of De Beers
mine by himself and his chosen friends, and he brought about
this consolidation of all the holdings in May, 1887. His
master mind was steadfastly bent on the attainment of the con-
trol of the development and output of the four great diamond-
producing mines of South Africa, and his work of first uniting
all the interests in De Beers mine was but the beginning of his
great dream. The range for amalgamation of the four mines
was so great that no single man, however ambitious, could hope
to cover it by any single-handed effort. The consolidation of
THE MOVING MEN 281
all the companies in De Beers mine was on the lines conceived
by Rhodes, and carried out by the support given him by the
leading men who were interested in the various companies.
Up to this time there was no rivalry between Rhodes and
Barnato, for no measures had been taken by Rhodes to obtain
a footing in Kimberley mine. The first steps taken in this
direction were to try to purchase the claims in the west end of
the Kimberley mine held by the Cape of Good Hope bank,
and known as W. A. Hall's claims. This was in the beginning
of May, 1887. Unfortunately, however, for Rhodes's scheme,
these claims had already been offered to a syndicate in London,
headed by Sir Donald Currie, and were purchased by that syndi-
cate for £i 10,000. The plan which Rhodes had in his mind
was to purchase these claims, and also to purchase the claims
of the " Compagnie Fran9aise des Mines de Diamant du Cap
de Bon Esperance," known as the " French Company." The
"French Company" held a block of claims which ran nearly
across the mine from north to south, and divided the holdings
of the Central Company. It also held a block of claims adjoin-
ing those of W. A. Hall, but these were not connected with the
main body of their claims, being separated by the intervening
claims of the Central Company. These two companies were
so antagonistic to one another that neither would allow the
divided blocks of ground to be worked by means of tunnels
driven through the diamond-bearing ground of the opposing
company. The Central Company worked its claims by two
separate shafts sunk in the blue ground at the bottom of the
open mine, and the ground hoisted in the shafts was sent to the
surface by means of aerial trams, while the " French Company "
was compelled to drive tunnels into the walls of the mine adjoin-
ing the claims and connect them by a cross tunnel, as they were
working through one shaft only.
To create a powerful company in Kimberley mine was sub-
stantially all that the leading men in that mine had been work-
ing for, but this was far from satisfying Rhodes. Barnato viewed
the situation as a speculator and investor. Money making
282 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
« M
_ : v ^L_i£il ^y f
THE MOVING MEN 283
through mining on a sound basis was avowedly the limit of his
scheme, apart from a natural pride in figuring as the foremost
operator in these marvellous Diamond Fields, and a rising star
of the first magnitude on the London Stock Exchange. But the
assurance of money making was, at most, a minor consideration
with Rhodes. He, too, valued money highly, but not for the
bare delight in piling it up or for the luxuries which it would
purchase. Great wealth was to him the essential means for the
furtherance of great plans. He wanted millions in hand, or the
assured control of millions, to push his design for the lighting-up
of the Dark Continent by the torchbearers of civilization, for the
carrying of the flag of Greater Britain from the Cape to Cairo.
A man of kindred spirit, but of far more quixotic temper,
the great soldier, General Gordon, once told him of the offer of
a roomful of gold by the Chinese Government for his extraordi-
nary services in subduing the Tai-Ping rebellion.
" What did you do ? " said Rhodes.
" Refused it, of course," said the disdainful Gordon. " What
would you have done ? "
" Done," said Rhodes, " why, I would have taken it, and as
many more roomfuls as the Chinese would give me. It is no
use to us to have big ideas, if we have not got the money to
carry them out."
The range of his plans and how he pursued them will be
presented in detail in the chapter dealing with the far-reaching
undertakings of the great Chartered Company which he con-
ceived and brought into existence. It is sufficient to note at
present that he pushed the development of his grand political
aims apace with the means at his command, from the very begin-
ning of his appearance as a prominent factor in the development
of the diamond mines. He entered the Cape Parliament as
a member for the district of Barkly West, almost coincidently
with the formation of the De Beers Mining Company. From
the day of his entrance into the political field, he worked un-
waveringly for the extension of British dominion into the heart
of Africa.
284 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
THE MOVING MEN
285
The northern boundary of the province of Griqualand West,
formed by the inclusion of the new Diamond Fields, had not
been determined by careful surveying, and the location of the
line was disputed by the Batlapin chief, Manlcoroane, who
claimed control of the territory which is now Lower Bechuana-
land. Rhodes prevailed on the Cape Government to form
and send out a Delimitation Commission for the settlement of
Avenue of Oaks, Cape Town. House of Parliament at the Left.
the dispute, and his appointment as one of the commissioners
was a natural recognition of his interest and competence.
Shortly after he reached the frontier he was able to satisfy
himself that the complaint of the chief was well founded. Some
seventy farms belonging to Mankoroane's tribe had been in-
cluded in error within the bounds of the British province, and
justice demanded this acknowledgment. But instead of aban-
doning the ground, Rhodes saw that restitution might be
made in a way to accord with his aim for the extension of
286 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
British sovereignty, and his cogent appeal persuaded the
Batlapin chief to place all his territorial holdings, covering half
Bechuanaland, under British protection by cession to the Cape
Colony. To his mortification, however, the Colony declined
the offered cession with its contingent obligations. Then
Rhodes appealed to the Home Government, and finally suc-
ceeded in obtaining the establishment of a Protectorate over
Lower Bechuanaland in 1884.
But it was only by the most pressing insistence that this
advance was maintained. The Cape Colony was so stubborn in
its refusal to bear the expense of any new acquisition, and the
Imperial Government was so doubtful and sluggish in grasping
its opportunities, that Rhodes was forced to the conclusion that
the only assurance of the accomplishment of his aims must
come from his own private enterprise, — through the forming of
some great corporation, whose capital and interests might be
engaged in his undertaking for the control and development of
the resources of the vast barbaric interior of Africa. It was
for this cause chiefly that he was so unflaggingly insistent upon
the farthest possible stretch of amalgamation in the control of
the diamond mines, though it must justly be observed that the
thorough amalgamation of conflicting interests in the Fields was
very highly desirable, if not absolutely essential, for its systematic
development and the marketing of its output. A possible com-
bination, with which Barnato would have rested content, would
have wholly failed to accomplish the end which Rhodes had so
deeply at heart.
In the year 1887, shortly after taking charge of the De
Beers Mining Company, Mr. Rhodes requested me to write to
two of my friends in London, Mr. Hamilton Smith and Mr.
E. G. De Crano, who founded the Exploration Company of
London, and who were intimately connected with the Messrs.
Rothschild, and request them to ask Lord Rothschild if he
would supply the funds for the purchase of the French Com-
pany in the Kimberley mine, provided Rhodes could come
to some agreement with that Company for the purchase of the
THE MOVING MEN
287
property. Before any answer could be received, even by cable,
Rhodes, who had gone from Kimberley to Cape Town to
attend the Session of Parliament, became very impatient about
securing this property, and wired me to join him, and we sailed
from Cape Town on the 6th of July. In my letter to Messrs.
Smith and De Crano I put before them the plan which Rhodes
proposed to carry out, and the object he had in purchasing the
French Company's property, viz., to prevent the amalgamation
of all the interests in that mine, which might be set up as an
independent company in conflict
with the interests of De Beers.
On our arrival in London we
met Lord Rothschild, and Rhodes
discussed the plan with him. In
the meantime, while we were on
the water, Rhodes's scheme had
been presented to the late Mr.
Tite and to Mr. Carl Meyer of
Messrs. N. M. Rothschild &
Sons, who were very favorably im-
pressed with the business, and had
discussed it with Lord Rothschild.
Mr. De Crano had made several '.
trips to Paris, and had already Mr. carl Meyer.
paved the way for a conference between Rhodes and the directors
of the " French Company."
At the close of the interview, Lord Rothschild said, " Well,
Mr. Rhodes, you go to Paris and see what you can do in refer-
ence to the purchase of the French Company's property, and in
the meantime I will see if I can raise the _£ 1,000,000 which you
desire."
On leaving the room Lord Rothschild stopped Mr. De
Crano for a moment, and said to him, "You may tell Mr.
Rhodes that if he can buy the French Company, I think I can
raise the million pounds sterling."
The same evening Rhodes, Mr. De Crano, Mr. Harry
288 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
Mosenthal, and myself left for Paris, and after several meetings
with the French Company's directors, we settled upon the terms
for the purchase of their property, which they valued at that time
at about _£ 1,400,000, including all their assets. On returning
to London Mr. Rhodes arranged with Lord Rothschild that he
should furnish him with ^750,000, which would be sufficient for
the time being to complete the arrangements that he had made
with the French Company. In my letter of the i8th of June,
it was mentioned to Messrs. Smith and De Crano that Rhodes
would be willing to issue De Beers shares in payment of the
loan at ^i less than the ruling market price of the shares at the
date the money was paid, and would pay Messrs. Rothschild a
handsome commission for transacting the business.
The final arrangement made for the payment of this money
was the issue of 50,000 De Beers Mining Company's shares at
^15 per share, and a syndicate was formed to take up these
shares with the able assistance of Mr. Ludwig Lippert, of Ham-
burg. It was agreed between Lord Rothschild and Rhodes
that the profit on the rise of the shares between ^16 and .£20
during the next three months should be divided between the
purchasing syndicate and the De Beers Company. The shares
rapidly rose, and, before the expiration of the time, had already
reached ^22 per share. The De Beers Company received
^100,000 as their portion of the profit on the rise of the shares.
Shortly after the completion of this business Rhodes returned
to the colony and awaited the result of the French Company's
shareholders' meeting to confirm the sale which had been made
to him by the directors of that company. Barnato and others
interested in the Kimberley Central Company, upon hearing of
the transaction that had taken place, determined to use every
effort to prevent the consummation of this sale, and threatened
to offer the shareholders of the French Company at their gen-
eral meeting ^300,000 more than the amount for which the
directors had pledged the company to Rhodes.
As a general of a great army is obliged to have the assistance
and cooperation of competent lieutenants to carry out the plan
THE MOVING MEN
289
of campaign which his superior mind has conceived, so Rhodes
looked about for the strongest and ablest men to join him in
repelling the vigorous attack which was being made against him.
The first check which he gave his opponents seemed at first sight
to be a complete surrender to them. Instead of allowing Bar-
nato and his colleagues to bid against him for the purchase of
the French Company, Rhodes arranged with them that he should
complete the purchase upon the lines agreed upon with the direc-
tors of that company, and promised to unite the interests so pur-
chased with the Kimberley Central Company, in which Mr. Francis
Baring-Gould, who was the chair-
man, Barnato, and others held the
controlling power, taking shares in
the Central Company in payment.
In this, as well as in subsequent
transactions, Rhodes was most ably
assisted by Mr. Alfred Beit, the
Kimberley representative of Jules
Forges & Co., who started business
in Paris as diamond merchants in
1869. The men who from time to
time have been connected with Mr.
Forges and the successors to him,
Messrs. Wernher, Beit & Co., took
the keenest interest in Rhodes's scheme, and assisted him more
than all others in bringing about the consolidation of the dia-
mond interests. As early as 1871 Mr. Julius Wernher went
out to Kimberley in the capacity of diamond buyer for Jules
Forges & Co., and became partner in the firm in 1878. The
firm grew in importance, and became owners in some of the
largest companies in the four mines. They were the founders
of the Griqualand West Diamond Mining Company in Kim-
berley mine, which was afterward re-formed into the " French
Company." Mr. Alfred Beit came to the fields in 1875 as a
diamond buyer for the firm of Lippert & Co., of Hamburg, and
after a few years established himself in business as a diamond
Mr. Alfred Beit, while a Resident of
Kimberley.
290 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
buyer on his own account. In the year 1882 he joined the firm
of Jules Forges & Co., as their representative in South Africa,
and became a partner in the firm in 1886.
In 1889 Mr. Forges retired from the firm, which was re-
formed as Wernher, Beit & Co., Mr. Max Michaelis joining
the firm. Mr. Michaelis came to the Fields in 1878, and went
into partnership with Mr. S. Neumann. He organized the Cape
Diamond Mining Company in Kimberley mine. In 1880 he
entered into an arrangement with Jules Forges & Co. to carry on
his diamond business on joint account with them, which arrange-
ment remained in force until Mr. Forges retired, when he became
a partner in the new firm. Mr. Michaelis assisted in bringing
about the fusion of several of the large claim-holders in the
Kimberley mine, such as Baring-Gould & Atkins, and Baring-
Gould, Price & Tracy, with the Kimberley Central Company.
The great initiative and business capabilities of Mr. Beit
were heartily recognized by Rhodes, and he was very largely
instrumental in building up the diamond-mining industries, and
bringing the dreams of Rhodes into practical shape and on
business lines.
At a special general meeting of the shareholders of the De
Beers Mining Company Limited, held at Kimberley on the jist
of March, 1888, for the purpose of considering
firming an agreement entered into between the
and con-
respective
The Diamond Market, Kimberley, 1875. (First Office of Mr. Alfred Beit at the Left.)
THE MOVING MEN 291
Boards for the amalgamation of the De Beers Mining Company
with De Beers Consolidated Mines Limited, Mr. Rhodes gave
his reasons for the necessity of acquiring either the control of the
Kimberley mine or of entering into some arrangement with the
directors of the Central Company, who controlled the mine, by
which the output of both De Beers and Kimberley mines could
be regulated. He saw that by skilful and systematic mining
on the underground system, the output of the mines could be
increased far beyond the world's requirements. It was clear,
too, if these two mines were run in opposition to one another,
it would result in the flooding of the market with diamonds, and
a consequent depreciation of their value, with a fall in market
prices almost ruinous to both companies. He saw that the out-
put of diamond-bearing ground could be made almost unlimited,
and in referring to this he said: "We had to face either an arrange-
ment with the Kimberley Central Company, or obtain control
of the Kimberley mine. We approached the Kimberley mine
management in every possible way we could conceive. I valued
the De Beers mine higher than they did, but I was willing to
give way in order to obtain control. I was met simply with
smiles and obdurate statements. I was met with the arguments
of the gentleman at ' the corner,' who said the Kimberley mine
was worth three times as much as De Beers. We had to choose
between the ruin of the diamond industry or the control of the
Kimberley mine. We saw this, that you could never deal with
obstinate people until you got the whip hand of them, and that
the only thing we had to do to secure the success of our industry
was to get the control of the Kimberley mine."
As soon as Rhodes had bought the French Company and
amalgamated his interests with the Kimberley Central Company,
he found that the management of that Company was headstrong
in its determination to run the Kimberley mine in rivalry with
De Beers. This was diametrically opposed to his conviction
that monopoly was the essence of success in diamond mining ;
for, as he said, " Our engineers had long ago shown us that, by
underground working, Kimberley and De Beers mines could
292 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
THE MOVING MEN 293
produce far more diamonds than the world would take." By
the purchase of the French Company, De Beers Company held
one-fifth of the capital of the Central Company, and after many
attempts to bring about a friendly union of the two mines,
Rhodes came to the conclusion that the only feasible plan
was to buy a sufficient number of shares in the Central Company
to obtain control. To accomplish this would take at least
^2,000,000 sterling. Fortunately Mr. Alfred Beit, whose com-
mand of capital for such great undertakings was unequalled in
South Africa, stood fast by him in determined cooperation. In
answer to Rhodes's natural question, " Where is the money to
come from ? " Mr. Beit said pithily, " We will get the money
if we can only get the shares."
Then ensued a most keen contest. Mr. Beit and Rhodes be-
gan buying all Central shares that could be secured with apparently
limitless means. Both were leaders in the contest, but Mr. Beit
furnished most of the money. Meanwhile Barney Barnato was
bidding against them with unfailing pluck for the control of the
Company. The price of shares mounted by jumps, but never
too high for Barnato, who was persistent in his claim that the
Kimberley mine was worth two of De Beers. Rhodes's version
of the story of this struggle is that in his purchase of shares he
had the support of the loyal directors and shareholders of his
Company, while his principal opponent was handicapped by the
fact that he was forced to buy out his own largest shareholders.
There is little doubt that Barnato felt this apparent lack of loy-
alty keenly, but he was too strenuous a fighter to concede defeat.
As a matter of fact, he came to terms with his antagonists only
when the price of shares had been bulled to a figure that seemed
out of reason even to his sanguine estimate, while the price of
diamonds had been forced down unprofitably by unobstructed
competition. After many and long conferences, Rhodes made
Barnato one last offer, which he accepted. For his interest in
the Kimberley Central Company he was paid with De Beers
shares at the current rates of shares on the day of the sale. By
this purchase De Beers' holding of Central shares was brought
294 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
up to eleven thousand out of seventeen thousand shares. Under
the trust deed of the Central no amalgamation could be made
unless half the capital was present at a meeting called for the
purpose, and no new resolution could be carried without a two-
thirds majority of those present. The bargain with Barnato
gave De Beers the control.
So having finally obtained the control of the Kimberley mine
by purchase for .£5,338,650, Rhodes turned his attention to
what he called the poorer mines, Dutoitspan and Bultfontein.
At a meeting of De Beers shareholders he said he was reminded
of a story he had read about a certain mine, of which it was said
" it was too rich to leave and too poor to pay," and he would
thus describe the mines alluded to. " Nothing," he said, " was
so extraordinary as the way in which the people would hold scrip
from year to year that never pays, but it was always said, ' Oh,
next year it will pay,' and so it went on from year to year." He
wished to state " that so far as the amalgamation of the diamond
mines was concerned, it would not help the poorer mines, but
rather the other way. It was generally noticed in mining
matters that following upon one success a number of unsuccess-
ful ventures were floated. And this was why they had secured
these interests in Dutoitspan and Bultfontein mines." He did
not look upon the purchase of properties in these mines as a
good investment, with diamonds at the price they were bringing
at the time of the purchase ; but as these two mines were large
factors in the production of diamonds, their yield, even if mined
at a loss, would affect in a very large degree the price which
could be obtained for the product of the richer mines.
Although Dutoitspan mine could not be worked at a profit at
the market price of diamonds, and the mine had already begun
to be troubled with reef falls burying the blue ground below,
still he considered it necessary to get control of the principal
companies in this mine. In Bultfontein mine, where the reef
troubles had already begun, there was still a large portion of the
mine in process of working, and he described it as being " on
the margin of cultivation." If the reef remained standing, and
.--.:
THE MOVING MEN
295
oiuwn MNva 3dOH 0009
296 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
the price of diamonds was fair, the mine could be worked at a
small profit.
Rhodes continued the purchase of the properties in both
these mines until the whole of the two mines came into the
possession of the corporation organized as De Beers Consoli-
dated Mines. He showed the shareholders in the various
companies that the fate of the poorer mines lay in his hands,
because he could produce twice the amount of diamonds the
world required from De Beers and Kimberley mines alone.
Even at the low rate of fourteen shillings a carat, he made it
clear that the richer mines could pay to the shareholders divi-
dends which would satisfy them. " The poorer mines, ' on the
margin of cultivation,' would have to accept our offers, or fight
us on two grounds, larger output and lower rates."
In his speech at the annual meeting of the De Beers Min-
ing Company, held at Kimberley on the i2th day of May, 1888,
Rhodes bore tribute cordially to the essential cooperation of
Mr. Beit in his great undertaking.
In moving a vote of thanks to the chairman, his former
antagonist, Barnato, briefly referred to the struggle which was
closed by the purchase of his shares in the Kimberley mine.
He said " no person knew better than he did the labor Mr.
Rhodes had to convert him into the De Beers Mining Company."
He could say that day after day and night after night Mr.
Rhodes was laboring to get him to take De Beers for Centrals.
He gave way .when he saw diamonds down to eighteen shillings
a carat, and on those conditions he joined Mr. Rhodes. It is
only just to Barnato to note in closing that he was as loyal in
his later cooperation as he had been persistent in his antagonism.
It is sad to recall how his brilliant and versatile mind gave way
under the enormous strain brought upon him by the various
obligations incurred through his numerous investments and
flotations in the gold fields. His tragic death was a distressful
close to his phenomenal career. On his way to England from
the Cape, in June, 1897, he suddenly sprang overboard and was
drowned.
CHAPTER X
THE ESSENTIAL COMBINATION
T has been told why and how the conflicting
interests on the Diamond Field were fused in
one dominant organization. The signal ser-
vices of this amalgamation are now too obvious
for dispute. By the formation of De Beers
Consolidated Mines Limited, it became practi-
cable to design and conduct mining operations systematically
and economically and to regulate the output to the market de-
mand. It was soon apparent, too, that the organization of this
extraordinary joint stock company was the creation of a power
of yet unmeasured service for the development of the resources
of South Africa and the push of civilization through the Dark
Continent.
The only approaches to the far-reaching conception of this
organization must be traced back to the old Dutch and English
East India companies, or the visionary project of John Law,
exploding in air as the Mississippi Bubble. At the outset, on
the 1 2th of March, 1888, a seemingly unpretentious joint stock
company was formed and established at Kimberley with a capital
of _£ 1 00,000 sterling, divided into twenty thousand shares of
^5 each. Authority was granted, however, in the articles of the
association, to the shareholders of the company to increase this
small capital in general meeting, from time to time, for the
acquisition of new property, by creating new shares to any
extent, or, in the exact words of article 39, "such amount as
may be deemed expedient." No provision for expansion and
acquisition could be more liberal, and the particular specifica-
tions of the articles of the association show that " new property,"
297
298 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
in possible range at least, was not confinable to the Diamond
Fields or Cape Colony, or even, perhaps, the scope of the whole
Dark Continent.
It was remarked somewhat caustically at the time, but with
undeniable keenness, that it was much easier to tell what this
amazing Company could do than to determine what it should
not do under its articles of association and trust deed incorpo-
ration under the limited liability laws of the Cape of Good
Hope. It might shift its head office from Kimberley to any
other place on earth. It might " acquire by purchase, amalga-
mation, grant, concession, lease, license, barter, or otherwise any
houses, lands, farms, tracts of country, quarries, mines, mining
or other claims, rights and privileges, water rights, waterworks
or other works, privileges, rights and hereditaments, diamonds
and other precious stones, gold and other minerals, ores, coals,
earth, and any other valuable product or substance, machinery,
plant, utensils, trade marks, patents for invention, licenses to
use any patented invention, and other movable and immovable
property of any description in Africa or elsewhere." Under
this liberal license, the only apparent obstacle to its ownership
of the face of the earth is the declination of other holders to sell
or give it away.
It was further specifically authorized to carry on a mining and
general trading business in any part of the globe, and to con-
struct, maintain, and operate any tramways, railways, roads, tun-
nels, waterworks, canals, gas works, electric works, reservoirs,
water-courses, furnaces, stamping works, smelting works, fac-
tories, and in general, "any other works and conveniences which
the Company may think conducive to any of its objects." It
might also become interested in, promote, and undertake the
formation and establishment of such institutions or companies
(trading, manufacturing, banking, or other) as may be considered
to be conducive to the profit and interest of the Company, and
to carry on any business, in short, "calculated directly or indi-
rectly to render any of the Company's properties or rights for
the time being profitable." There was also provision for the
THE ESSENTIAL COMBINATION 299
possible acquirement of any tract or tracts of country of any size
in Africa or elsewhere, together with any rights that might be
granted by the rulers or owners thereof, and the expenditure of
any sums deemed requisite and advisable in the development
and maintenance of order and good government in such acquisi-
tions.
In view of the enjoyment by the shareholders of such privi-
leges and liberties, it was only natural that the directors of the
Company should not be grudgingly confined. This was, indeed,
the case, and two specifications of powers, in particular, have
proved to be highly serviceable in practice, for there has been
no abuse of discretion. The directors were authorized " to pur-
chase, hire, or otherwise acquire for the Company any share in
any kind of joint stock company, property rights, or privileges
which the Company is authorized to acquire, at such price and
generally on such terms and conditions as they may think fit;
also to sell, lease, abandon, or otherwise deal with any shares,
property rights, or privileges to which the Company may be
entitled, on such terms and conditions as they may see fit, and to
amalgamate with any other company or companies having objects
altogether or in part similar to the objects of this Company."
They were further empowered " to found, promote, float, and
acquire interest or shares in any companies, undertakings, or in-
stitutions, as they may deem advisable in the interests of the
Company ; also to acquire interests in, promote, aid, or subsidize
any useful industry or undertaking in any country where the
Company may be carrying on business."
At the outset, De Beers Consolidated Mines Limited was
preeminently what is termed a close corporation. Four men
held all but twenty-five shares of its stock. These, in the order
of their subscription to the articles of association, were Alfred
Beit, holding 4439 shares ; Barnett I. Barnato, holding 6658 ;
Cecil J. Rhodes, holding 4439 ; and Frederick S. P. Stow, hold-
ing the same number as Beit and Rhodes. These four, by the
articles, were practically authorized as shareholders to create " five
life governors or permanent directors of the Company, four
300
THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
of whom shall be Cecil John Rhodes, Barnett Isaac Barnato,
Frederick Samuel Philipson Stow, and Alfred Beit." If "so
minded," these four had the power by unanimous resolution of
themselves or their survivors to appoint the fifth authorized
" life governor," and to fill any vacancy occurring in their
number by reason of death or otherwise. These four were
further constituted the first directors of the Company, and had
A Group of Directors, De Beers Consolidated Mines Lt'd. (Mr. Frederick Samuel Philipson
Stow in the centre, holding a book.)
power to appoint other directors, if they so desired, to act in
conjunction with them until the first ordinary general meeting
of the Company, when the shareholders were called upon to de-
termine how many directors there should be besides the life
governors, and to elect "such number as they determine to be
necessary."
From the point of view of ordinary investors in ordinary
stock companies the unlimited sweep of this unique organization
and the powers confided to its controlling directors may be
THE ESSENTIAL COMBINATION 301
summed up in the familiar outcry of Dominie Sampson. They
are indeed " prodigious," but the phenomenal success of this
combination is a stubborn fact that must be faced in any conten-
tion that its scope and method of conduct were unwarrantable
and unadvisable. Its base of operation was not Lombard Street,
but the heart of South Africa, in a field so unique, in a situ-
ation so perplexing, in unavoidable touch with such far-rang-
ing and conflicting interests, that ordinary limitations, hampering
freedom of expansion and action, would have been crippling and
possibly disastrous handicaps. The powers of the directors are
great, but who can justly deny that they have been greatly used
for the reconciliation of jarring interests, the comprehensive and
rational development of the diamond mines, the safety and com-
fort of the miners, the profit of the shareholders, the promotion
of allied industries, and the general welfare of South Africa ?
The possible range of expansion of the interests of the corpora-
tion is a bugbear to some good people, who would prefer the
harmlessness of the deserted village to the risk that civilization
might " git forrid sometimes upon a powder cart." But what is
there to show, to-day, of the actual stretch and exercise of the
corporate powers beyond the judicious limits of profitable in-
vestment, sagacious development of tributary resources, and dis-
charge of patriotic obligations ?
The expansion of the original corporate foundation was
rapidly pushed. The plan in detail was presented by the chair-
man of the corporation, Mr. Rhodes, on March 31, 1888, at
the special general meeting of the shareholders of the De Beers
Mining Company. The programme thus presented was unani-
mously endorsed by the shareholders of the Company, accepting
it without alteration as the best feasible proposition for the con-
solidation of the diamond-mining interests.
At this general meeting of the shareholders the De Beers
Mining Company was formally merged in the new corporation.
The shareholders of the old Company received two fully paid
^£5 shares in De Beers Consolidated Mines Limited for every
fully paid ^10 share in the old Company. Having effected
302 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
this acquisition, transferring the whole of De Beers mine, and the
interests of the late De Beers Mining Company in all outside
mining properties, the Consolidated Mines pushed forward stead-
ily their undertaking of a comprehensive consolidation. The
first and most important step was the securing of the whole of
Kimberley mine, the greatest producing factor next to De Beers.
The method by which the property of the Kimberley Central
Diamond Mining Company was finally turned over to the Con-
solidated Mines has been described in the preceding chapter.
In the acquisition of Dutoitspan and Bultfontein mines a
different plan was adopted. These mines, at the time, were not
profitable producing properties, and it was practically certain that
they could not be operated to advantage in view of the output
from the greater and richer mines. For several years each of
these mines had produced diamonds to the value of over half a
million carats annually ; but this production was rapidly declin-
ing, owing to the unresisted falls of reef. Among the assets
taken over from the old De Beers Company were a number of
shares in the Griqualand West Company of Dutoitspan and
in the Bultfontein Consolidated Company. By the influence
secured through this acquisition, it was not difficult to effect
permanent working agreements with De Beers Consolidated
Mines, by which the new corporation attained complete posses-
sion of both mining properties in consideration of the payment
of a fixed annual dividend. During the second year after the
incorporation, the Consolidated Mines purchased the property
of the Anglo- African Mining Company, the Compagnie Generate
(including its interest in the Conivieras mines in the Brazils),
the Sultan Diamond Mining Company, and the United Diamond
Mining Company, representing nearly all the properties of ma-
terial consequence and extent in Dutoitspan mine except the
Gordon Company's holdings. During the same period the
Consolidated Mines bought in the Bultfontein Mining Com-
pany, the Spes Bona Diamond Mining Company, and the South
African Diamond Mining Company, comprising a considerable
part of the properties in the Bultfontein mine.
THE ESSENTIAL COMBINATION
303
304 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
The actual cost of the properties thus acquired by the Con-
solidated Mines was approximately ^14,500,000. There would
have been no difficulty in expanding the capital of the corpora-
tion by the issuing of shares to an amount sufficient to cover
this immense acquisition, but a more conservative course was
adopted. It was decided not to increase the capital of the cor-
poration beyond ^£3, 950,000. The purchases in excess of this
issue were provided for by the issue of debentures. The adop-
tion of this plan necessitated a provision for covering very heavy
fixed charges in the early years of the operations of the Consoli-
dated Mines ; but this obligation was undertaken with confidence
in view of the assurance of the control of the diamond market,
brought about through the consolidation, and the actual return
in the rapidly increasing output of the mines with systematic
and scientific development.
During the financial year following the completion of con-
solidation, De Beers produced 2,195,112 carats of diamonds.
This product, including the proceeds of diamonds from debris
washing, realized in the market ^£3, 287,728. In that year the
total weight of diamonds produced by all the mines in the
Kimberley division was 2,415,655 carats. Thus approximately
ninety per cent of the total production was then furnished by the
Consolidated Mines. The net profit of the operations for the
year exceeded _£ i ,000,000 sterling, and two half-yearly dividends
of ten per cent each were paid to the shareholders. The actual
cost of winning over 2,000,000 carats of diamonds, including
all expenses at the mines and office charges, was a little over a
million sterling, or roughly IQJ. per carat. The difference
between the estimated net profit and the costs of operation
was expended in the payment of interest on debentures and
obligations and in provision for their redemption, and in the set-
ting aside of an exceedingly liberal provision of over ^500,000
as an offset for depreciation of plant, etc.
The directors of the De Beers Consolidated Mines could
point with high satisfaction to this profitable showing in contrast
with the records of disastrous competition and conflicting mine
THE ESSENTIAL COMBINATION 305
operations. No exact statistics are obtainable of the production
in the early years, when no official returns from the mines were
made. The late Barney Barnato, who made a special study of
the probable rate of production, estimated the product from
1873 to 1880 as ranging annually from a million to a million
and a half carats. After 1880 there was a considerable increase,
and in 1883, when official returns were first rendered, the quan-
tity of diamonds produced was 2,319,234 carats. The average
value of this product was reckoned at los. ^.\d. giving a total
of ^£2,3 59,466. In 1884 the product was 2,264,786 carats,
valued at ^2,562,623, showing an average of 23^. i\d. per
carat. This was the top notch in market value, for in the
following year, 1885, the diamonds produced amounted to
2,287,261 carats, with an average value of only igs. $^d. per
carat. In 1886 the production reached the high total of
3,047,639!- carats, but the demand increased in proportion, so
that the average selling price was fully is. higher per carat than
during the previous year. In 1887 and 1888, through the
increased facilities for production in De Beers and Kimberley
mines, the total output rose to 3,646,889 carats, and 3,565,780!-
carats successively. The average price during these two years
ranged from iis. 6d. per carat to 12s. \\d. but the market was
flooded, and prices were falling perilously close to the cost of
production even in the richer mines. There was no assurance
of any far-sighted regulation of the output and market prices,
and, lacking this, diamond mining properties were commonly
reckoned as little better than gambling ventures. It has been
clearly shown how this disastrous condition was at once changed
to stable assurance and prosperity by the control of the new
organization.
To the shareholders in the mines, after this reorganization
was effected, the returns were unprecedented. This profit was
largely due to the complete control of production, systematic
operation, and regulation of the output ; but the comparative
showing was also greatly enhanced by the shrewdness of the
financiering in the organization, and the withdrawn! of inflation
306 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
from the stocks of the various mining properties included in the
new incorporation and its leased holdings. The capital of De
Beers Mines before consolidation was ^£2,009,000. The capital
of the Central Company was .£1,779,650. De Beers stock at
the time of consolidation was selling at £40 a share, represent-
ing a capital 0^8,036,000. The stock of the Central Com-
pany, controlling the Kimberley mine,
was selling at £50 for each £10 share,
making a total valuation of £8,898,250
for the mine. At this market estimate
the valuation of the two great mines was
£17,934,250. The capital of the Du-
toitspan was approximately £3,500,000,
and of Bultfontein, £2,000,000 nomi-
nally, making a gross valuation for the
four mines of £23,434,250. By consoli-
dation the capital stock was compressed
to £^,950,000, and almost absolute con-
trol of the mining in all four of these great properties was se-
cured at an annual charge of about ^320,000 for interest on
debentures and for leases of two companies, one in Dutoitspan
mine and one in Bultfontein mine. The business of the Com-
pany grew so rapidly that it was necessary to establish transfer
as well as general business offices in London.
Mr. E. R. Tymms, Secretary of
the London Board, De Beers
Consolidated Mines Lt'd.
CHAPTER XI
SYSTEMATIC MINING
UST acknowledgment has been made in a former
chapter of the essential service rendered to the
diamond mine owners by the device of Mr.
Edward Jones for underground work beneath
the fallen reef covering the bottom of the open
pits. 'This was, however, confessedly only a
temporary makeshift, enabling the claim-holders to defray the
heavy costs of sinking shafts through the hard rock outside the
craters, and pursuing some systematic plan for the extraction of
the diamond-bearing breccia by underground workings. Deep-
shaft sinking was undertaken with renewed heart by several
companies owning claims in Kimberley and De Beers mines,
but for some years there was an obvious lack of essential
cooperation and unity of method. Eight shafts were sunk, or
were under way, in 1885, within and without the craters, for
opening De Beers and Kimberley mines, and through these
shafts the blue ground was extracted by four different methods
of stoping, none of which was satisfactory. The system insti-
tuted by the Central Company, the largest operator in Kim-
berley mine, illustrates sufficiently the inherent defects in all.
Here galleries fifteen feet wide were driven to the right and
left of a main tunnel, with pillars fifteen feet thick between
them. Passages or winzes for broken ground were sunk
at short intervals to a tunnel below. The ground was stoped to
the height of fifteen feet above the main tunnel, and then below
it until the stope reached the next level. The passes became
filled frequently with large pieces of ground, and had to be
cleared. Under this system the mine was assuming the shape
3°7
308 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
of a section of a gigantic honeycomb cut in two longitudinally,
the spaces for the honey representing the worked-out part of the
mine, and the comb, the support for the superincumbent mass
of debris. After a short period of working, the pillars began to
show signs of crushing, and the mine was considered too danger-
ous to allow the men to remain in it. They were withdrawn
just in time to prevent a disaster, for the whole underground
The Last of Open Mining, Kimberley Mine.
works collapsed shortly after the last man had left the mine.
Fortunately no one was killed. The mine had to be reopened
from top to bottom, for every underground excavation was filled
up at the close of the year 1888.
The errors in engineering were further accentuated, during
the early stages of underground mining, by the jealous bickering
of rival owners, which was constantly impeding the progress of
the workings, and it was seemingly impracticable to agree upon
any plan securing concert of operation and expert opening of the
SYSTEMATIC MINING
3°9
ROCK SHAFT
PLAN OF DE BEERS MINE
7OO FEET LEVEL
SYSTEM OF WORKING 1887
THE SQUARES REPRESENT CLAIMS
81 FT* BY 81 FT.
ROCK SHAFT
n
PLAN OF DE BEERS MINE.
800 FT. LEVEL
SYSTEM OF WORKING. 1888
310 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
mines. At the end of the year 1885, although the need of
amalgamation of claims was obvious and imperative, there were
still, as has been noted, ninety-eight separate holdings in the
four mines. Prior to the consolidation of the holdings in De
Beers and Kimberley mines, the underground workings were
prosecuted with the general design of withstanding pressure and
sliding of the reef by leaving sufficient solid blue ground, in the
form of " floors " or " roofs," between the series of levels, sup-
ported by buttresses and pillars of blue ground. Costly experi-
ence by frequent collapses of the roofs and crushing of the pillars
SECTION THROUGH DE BEERS MINE LOOKING NORTH
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proved that the levels were too near one another, and that gal-
leries driven full size from the offsets were difficult to maintain
and unsafe for the workmen.
The heavy expense of sinking vertical shafts and driving
tunnels through the hard rock surrounding the mine had led to
the adoption of inclined shafts in order to reach the blue ground
more quickly ; but, for several reasons, these inclines were not
adapted for the prosecution of deep underground works. The
chief defects may be briefly summarized. They were difficult
to maintain, as they were sunk obliquely through the horizontal
strata of the shale, which frequently gave way and crushed the
shaft timbers. Secondly, being inclined to the horizon (De
Beers 56°, and Kimberley Standard Shaft 32°) and situated not
far from the margins of the mines, they soon reached blue ground.
SYSTEMATIC MINING
H
o H
M
Ul Ul
Q ^
o z
BHWE
mmjj
Milt
i
K«
312 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
and were continued down in this breccia, which must sooner or
later be mined. Some of these shafts, as at De Beers, had a
uniform slope from top to bottom, while others, as at Kimberley
mine, changed to a steeper slope in depth and in one case to
a vertical shaft. De Beers No. 2 worked well to the depth of
800 feet, and the Standard shaft, Kimberley mine, was fairly
serviceable to the depth of 845 feet. The shafts were not sunk
with the view of putting in proper pumps, and when steam was
taken into the mines through them, for pumping purposes, the
conn
OUR
PLAN OF KIMBERLEY MINE
1000 FT. LEVEL
natives had to pass up and down the same shafts by means of
ladders. As all the inclined shafts were upcasts, the heat was
insufferable.
When I took charge of De Beers mine, in the year 1887, it
was worked under what was then known as the Gouldie system,
which had been copied from the hematite mines of Cumberland,
and first introduced in the Kimberley mine by Mr. Joseph
Gouldie, then manager for W. A. Hall, and afterwards mine
manager of De Beers Mining Company. At De Beers mine an
inclined shaft had been sunk to the foo-foot level, with inter-
mediate levels 30 feet apart between the jSo-foot and 5OO-foot
levels.
SYSTEMATIC MINING
SECTION OF KWBERLEY MINE
LOOKING NORTH
10060 0 «po 800 SCO 400 600 «00 FT.
6CALE
SECTION OF KIMBERLEY MINE
LOOKING EAST
100 50 0 100 800 800 400 BOO FT.
SCALE
3H THE DIAiMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
The plans on other pages illustrate the manner in which
the various levels were laid off. Tunnels were driven across the
crater at De Beers mine from west to east, about 120 feet apart,
and galleries 18 feet wide and 18 feet high were opened every 36
feet along the main tunnels, and were worked up to within 12
feet of the loose ground in the top levels. Pillars of solid blue
ground 18 feet thick were left between the galleries, but later
on first the roof and then the pillars were taken out.
This method of mining was fairly successful for a time ;
but, as already stated, as depth was attained, the roofs of the
galleries or rooms became unsafe before the galleries were
opened through to those on the next level above, and they fre-
quently gave way, thus making the extraction of the blue ground
exceedingly difficult. This system was both expensive and
dangerous. No timber was used except in the main tunnels or
drifts, the nature of the blue ground being such that the roofs
and sides of the excavations stood fairly well for a short time,
provided they were well ventilated.
In other parts of De Beers mine various companies were
working or trying to work underground ; but as no regular sys-
tem of mining could be carried on owing to the irregular shape
of their holdings, and the more or less temporary methods
adopted, it was clearly impracticable to devise and carry into
effect any comprehensive system of operation for the rapid and
economical handling of the diamond-bearing breccia in the
craters, until the union of all the claims through the formation
of one controlling company permitted the installation of a single
uniform system of mining.
It has already been narrated how this was effected for
De Beers mine during the year 1887, by the combination of all
the holdings in the mine into one company, and the organiza-
tion of De Beers Consolidated Mines Limited, in March, 1888.
Kimberley mine came formally into the possession of this great
corporation on the ist of June, 1889, and controlling interests
in the other two mines, Dutoitspan and Bultfontein, were also
secured. The assured control of all the mines and their opera-
SYSTEMATIC MINING 315
don by De Beers Consolidated Mines Limited enabled its
directors to institute and conduct successfully a single broadly
comprehensive plan for extracting the diamond-bearing rock
and for disposing to the best advantage the total product of
their mines.
This system of mining was devised and applied by me
shortly after my appointment as general manager of the
De Beers Consolidated Mines Limited, and was based essen-
tially on a method suggested by the miners themselves and
without reference to any other system. Instead of attempting
to withstand, even for a time, the pressure of the superincum-
bent mass of broken reef, the new system contemplated was a
caving in and a filling of the excavations, after the precious blue
ground had been extracted.
In order to make the output of diamond-bearing ground as
great as possible, the levels in De Beers mine were at first
opened up in the new system according to the following plan : —
When the numerous small tunnels had been driven to the
margin of the mine, i.e. to the point where they reached the sides
of the crater, the blue ground was stoped on both sides of and
above each tunnel until a chamber was formed extending along
the face of the rock for 100 or more feet, with an average width
of about 20 feet, and about 20 feet high. The roof of the cham-
ber or gallery was then blasted down or allowed to break down
by the pressure of the overlying mass of broken diamond-bear-
ing ground or debris. I mention diamond-bearing ground here,
for in the early stages of underground mining there was an
enormous amount of this ground which had been left behind
when open mining was discontinued, and had been crushed
either by the moving sides of the immense opening or by the
collapse of the underground pillars when mined by the old sys-
tem. It happened frequently, after breaking through to the
loose ground above, that clean diamond-bearing ground would
run down as fast as it was removed for weeks or months at a
time. The galleries would at times become blocked with large
pieces of blue ground, which had to be blasted, and then a
316 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
further run of blue ground would follow. When the blue
ground was worked back toward the centre of the crater, larger
boulders or fragments of basalt, which had come down through
the loose reef from the surface, would be met with. This sys-
tem of working would be continued until reef alone came
down, the waste or reef removed being sent to the surface by
itself and dumped on the reef tips ; it formed, however, only an
inconsiderable proportion (one to four per cent) of the total
output. It will be remembered that, when the roof caved in,
the gallery was nearly full of blue ground. By the work which
followed, only a part of this ground was removed by the men
working on that level, the miners preferring to take it out on the
next level below. This process of mining was repeated from
level to level until finally there was no more loose ground to be
recovered. The cost of extracting blue ground while loose
ground existed was very low.
PLAN OF DE BEERS MINE
8OO FT, LEVEL
VICTORIA SHAFT
Now all this has changed, and the plan of opening up new
levels has altered somewhat, but the system remains the same.
By referring to the plan, given above, it will be seen that the
•> d *--•- "* > TK'"\ "
* *S*~ ::- \ kF*t \.
XJ ^^^^
SYSTEMATIC MINING 317
levels were opened around the east end of the mine. When the
underground works had reached the depth of 800 feet or more,
a new danger appeared. It will be borne in mind that the huge
open mines are filled with debris from the sides, caused by the
removal of the diamond-bearing ground by open quarrying to
depths varying from 200 to 500 feet. As the supports were
removed, the sides caved and filled the open mine. This debris
was composed of the surface red soil, decomposed basalt, and
friable shale, which extended from the surface down to a depth
of about 300 feet. In addition to the debris from the surround-
ing rocks there were huge masses of "floating shale," resembling
indurated blue clay more than shale. Large heaps of yellow
ground and tailings, which the early diggers deposited near the
margin of the mines, and west-end yellow ground contributed
to the mud-making material. The black shale which surrounds
the mines disintegrates rapidly when it falls into them. It con-
tains a small percentage of carbonaceous matter, and a large
amount of iron pyrites. When the huge masses of shale fell
into the open mine, they frequently ignited, either by friction or,
more probably, by spontaneous combustion, as they have been
known to do on the reef tips, and burned for months and
even for years at a time. These masses of burned shale become
soft clay and form a part of the mixture which fills the open
crater. This debris moves down as the blue ground is mined
from underneath it, and becomes mixed with the water which
flows into the open mine from the surrounding rock and with
storm water, and forms mud. This overlying mud became a
menace and danger to the men working in the levels below.
Frequent mud rushes occurred suddenly, without the least warn-
ing, and filled up hundreds of feet of tunnels in a few minutes,
the workmen being sometimes caught in the moving mass. It
became evident that the method of working shown on the plan
was dangerous in case a mud rush took place, the men being
sometimes either shut in or buried in the mud coming from
the opposite side of the mine. It was decided, therefore, to work
the mines from one side only, and to have the offsets to the
3i8 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
rock connected one with the other at as few points as would still
allow the ventilation of the working faces. The plan illustrated
PLAN OF DE BEERS MINE
1OOOFEET LEVEL
in the above figure shows the method which was then adopted
and is still in use. Kimberley mine is worked on about the
same general system.
SYSTEMATIC MINING
3'9
The method of laying out the workings is also here shown.
Main tunnels are driven across the crater upon its longer axis,
Sloping.
and, at right angles from these, small tunnels are driven out
every 30 feet until they reach the hard rock on the south side of
the mine. These tunnels are widened, first along the rock until
they connect one with another, and, at the same time, the roofs,
or " backs," are stoped up until they are within a few feet of the
SKETCH SHOWING METHOD OF STORING
PLAN I
SECTION I
SECTION
STORES CONNECTED
320 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
loose ground
above, thus
forming long
^ galleries, filled
more or less with
blue ground,
upon which the
men stand when drilling holes in the backs. The working levels
were at first 30 feet apart vertically, but, for greater economy,
Method of Sloping, Vertical Section.
SYSTEMATIC MINING
321
the distance was soon changed to 40 feet. The broken blue
ground lying in the galleries is taken out, as a rule, before there
are any signs of the roof giving way. At times this is impos-
sible, and the roofs cave upon the broken ground, and the blue
ground is covered with reef. As the roofs cave or are blasted
down, the blue ground is removed, and the loose reef lying above
it comes down and fills the gallery. Tunnels are often driven
Timbering Tunnels.
through this loose reef, and the blue ground, which has been cut
off and buried by debris, is taken out; but it is sometimes left
for those working the next level below to extract.
After the first " cut " near the rock is worked out, another
cut is made, and in this manner the various levels are worked
back, the upper level in advance of the one below, forming ter-
races as shown in section on page 320. In De Beers mine there
are now eleven levels on which work is progressing, commencing
at the depth of 800 feet and extending down to the 1 2oo-foot
322 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
Timbered Tunnels at the zooo-foot Level, Kimberley Mine.
level. At Kimberley mine nine levels are being worked, from
the I2oo-foot to the 1520-1001 level inclusive. The galleries are
not supported in any way by timbers, but all tunnels in soft blue
ground are timbered
with sets of two props
and a cap of round
timber, and are cov-
ered with inch and a
half lagging.
Soft blue ground
is drilled with long
jumper drills sharp-
ened at both ends.
In hard blue ground,
drills and single-hand
Natives drilling, De Beers Mine. hammers are USed.
The native workers become very skilful in both methods of
drilling, and do quite as much work as white men would do
under similar conditions.
SYSTEMATIC MINING
323
Winding Shafts
The grand winding shafts and plant by which the enormous
output of diamond-bearing ground is brought to the surface are
illustrated in accompanying figures. The present working shafts
are all vertical. De Beers rock shaft was the first large vertical
shaft of any importance, from the present mining point of view,
which was sunk in any of the mines. It is 20 feet by 6 feet in
size inside timbers, and contains four compartments, two for
skips lifting blue ground, one for a cage for taking men and
material up and down, and one for pumps and ladderway. A
Detail of Sets for Rock Shaft.
balance weight for the cage runs in the pump compartment,
which is also the downcast shaft through which the whole mine
is ventilated.
No. i is the upcast shaft. It has two compartments for
skips, two for cages, one for pipes, etc., and a double ladderway.
At Kimberley mine the rock shaft is a duplicate of De Beers
rock shaft, except that the pump compartment is larger.
At De Beers, tunnels 1 1 feet wide by 8 feet high have been
driven from the rock shaft at the 800, 1000, 1200, 1400, and
1720-foot levels, and from No. i shaft at the 380, 800, and
i4OO-foot levels.
324 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
At Kimberley mine the rock shaft is connected by similar
tunnels with the mine on the 1000, 1200, 1520, 1840, and 2160-
foot levels. The present depths (1902) of De Beers shafts are
1720 feet and 1400 feet respectively, and of Kimberley rock
shaft 2160 feet.
Trucks holding 16 cubic feet transport the blue ground in
the mines from the loading places to the main chutes or passes,
and from these to the shaft. The trucks are hauled by an
A Shaft Station.
endless chain which rests upon V-shaped clips fastened to the
trucks, the motive power being supplied by engines driven by
compressed air, carried through pipes from the surface. At the
shaft there is a large station cut out of the solid rock, some 30
feet wide, and extending back toward the mine for a distance of
70 feet to the point where the tunnel (8 by 1 1 feet) commences.
There is an extension on one end of the shaft for a small cage-
way to bring up any ground that may spill over the skips while
being loaded. This prevents delays in the skip hoisting. The
shaft is also lengthened for a few feet at the pump end, where a
set of pumps is put in.
SYSTEMATIC MINING
325
As one descends the shaft in the cage in pitch darkness and
suddenly comes to a large opening brightly lighted with numer-
ous electric lamps, the scene is weird and confusing. A score of
natives, half dressed, each vying with the other in shouting his
own comments upon the visitors as they come forth from the
cage ; the whirl of heavy iron trucks as they go to and fro ; the
banging of the tippers as they turn over and deposit the contents
of the enclosed truck into a chute below, — all present a picture
unique in itself and only to be seen in passing through the shafts
at De Beers and Kimberley mines. Those who have travelled
through the native centres, or have seen the negroes loitering
about the towns, and have thought them lazy, indolent, beer-
drinking beings, should visit the diamond mines, and especially
the scene upon the "flat sheet" as described above, and they
will get a new impression of the working capacity of these
despised black men. The natives working in the diamond
326 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
mines, if they are old hands in the service, are uniformly active
and industrious men, while natives fresh from the kraals are soon
taught their duties, which they learn to perform with nearly as
much skill as most European miners.
INVERTED PLAN
PLAN OF SKIP FOR SIX LOADS.
328 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
No more rapid handling and extraction of the blue ground
seems possible than is effected by the aid of these alert workers
and the perfected mechanical devices. As soon as the loaded
trucks reach the shaft, they are tipped into loading chutes hold-
ing six truck-loads (96 cubic feet). As the skip reaches the
bottom a door is opened, and the contents of the chute run into
the skip and are hoisted to the surface. Experience has shown
that the best results are obtained by sending up loaded skips
from one level at a time. The simple and efficient device early
adopted in the mines for tipping the loads from the trucks into
the skip at No. i incline of De Beers consisted of an iron
chute. Four end-tipping trucks were placed close against the
edge of the chute and the catches loosened. As soon as an
empty skip was lowered past the chute the trucks were tipped
and the loads ran into the chutes so rapidly that the engine-
driver frequently received a signal to hoist before his engine had
been stopped. The skip in this incline held 64 cubic feet, or
four truck loads weighing 1600 Ibs. each.
SYSTEMATIC MINING
The time of the journey through the shaft now varies only
a little with depth, being from thirty-five to forty seconds from
the i2OOor 1520-foot levels. On reaching the surface, the blue
ground is tipped automatically from the skips into loading boxes.
The "self-dumping" skips in present use were introduced by
me in 1888, and were made from drawings supplied by the Union
Iron Works of San Francisco, and are similar to the skips used
in the mining districts of the Pacific Coast. (On page 327
are shown the plans for
the skip and the manner
of tipping into the surface
chutes.) From these chutes
the blue ground is loaded
into side -tipping trucks
holding 20 cubic feet each.
The average weight of the
blue ground in a surface
truck is 2000 pounds. The
trucks used underground
hold 1 6 cubic feet, and are
end-tipping in the inter-
mediate levels where the
ground is dumped into
passes, but have solid ends
on the main levels where
revolving tippers are Used. The Rock Shaft, De Beers Mine.
From the depositing surface boxes at the winding shafts, the
ground is taken by means of an endless wire rope haulage to the
" floors," where it is treated as described in another chapter.
Record Hoisting
With alert and orderly handling of the blue ground in the
mines, the rapidity of extraction has advanced to extraordinary
record points. During the month of July, 1889, 142,567
loads were hoisted through a single shaft in No. 2 incline,
De Beers mine. The best day's work of 24 hours was 6222
330 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
VERTICAL TANDEM COMPOUND CONDENSING WINDING ENGINES
loads of 1 6 cubic feet, or 4977 short tons. For an hour at
a time hoisting was carried on at this shaft at the rate of five
skip-loads every three minutes, or 400 truck-loads an hour,
lifted from the 7OO-foot level,
a distance of 840 feet through
the inclined shaft. The total
amount of blue ground
hoisted during the fiscal year
from April i, 1889, to March
31, 1890, was 1,355,089
loads, aggregating 1,084,071
tons of 2000 pounds. This
remarkable record was made
under unfavorable condi-
tions, because the hoisting en-
gine was small, nominally of
70 horse-power, and not de-
signed for such rapid service.
With the construction of new shafts and the setting up of
engines and fittings of the
best and latest designs, the
efficiency of operation was
greatly increased. Two types
of winding engines have been
erected, and it is interesting
to follow the changes which
have been made in this por-
tion of the plant. The first
large engine erected by the
De Beers Company was the
one at De Beers rock shaft.
Its cylinders were 24 inches
in diameter, with a stroke of
5 feet. It had two drums,
each 4 feet 4^ inches in width
and 10 feet 6 inches in diam-
VERTICAL TANDEM COMPOUND CONDENSING WINDING ENGINES
SYSTEMATIC MINING
VERTICAL TANOEM COMPOUND CONDENSING WINDING ENGINES
eter, with a grooved tread to prevent friction
on the rope. This engine was built by well-
known makers of winding engines, whose
works are too near the cheap coal centres
of England. The engine was what is
called in America a "sawmill engine."
In the timber districts of America, the
boilers are fired with slabs cut from the
round logs in squaring them. Enor-
mous quantities of these slabs accu-
mulate about the mills, where they
must be consumed in some way, or
carted away at a considerable ex-
pense. To get rid of the slabs
engines that consume the
greatest amount of steam
are those most sought after.
In South Africa, on the contrary, the extraordinary consumption
of steam was a heavy drawback. Welsh steam coal then cost
_£8 ioj. ($41.25) per ton of 2000 pounds, delivered at Kim-
berley, so this "sawmill" engine was converted from two high-
pressure cylinders to a cross compound, with cylinders of 26
inches and 40 inches diameter, and the consumption of fuel
dropped more than 30 per cent. After several years of con-
stant service, the engine was stopped June n, 1896, the old
drum and crank shaft, weighing 32 tons, were taken out bodily,
and a new set, weighing 40 tons, substituted and made ready
for service in less than 48 hours. (See illustrations.) With
this new outfit there was soon a series of record-breaking per-
formances, which are given below.
At the Kimberley mine, the main or rock shaft was started
on the north side of the mine in March, 1889. I" tne &rst Year
this shaft was sunk to the depth of 699 feet, and, in the following
year, it was pushed to the depth of nearly 1300 feet. The driv-
ing of the tunnel to the mine from this shaft on the looo-foot
level showed how exactly vertical was the wall of the crater,
332 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
\Vinding Engine, Kimberley Mine.
for the tunnel, at this depth, entered the blue ground 1134 feet
from the shaft, corresponding almost precisely to the distance
from the mouth of the shaft to the edge of the melaphyre at the
depth of 300 feet. For hoisting
service at this shaft, a winding-en-
gine plant was especially designed
by the late Mr. Louis I. Seymour,
mechanical engineer for De Beers
Consolidated Mines Limited, and
constructed by James Simpson &
Co., of London, England. This
plant consisted of a pair of vertical
tandem compound engines driving
two reels. These engines were de-
signed to hoist six truck-loads in
one skip, from the looo-foot level,
in 45 seconds, including filling,
Mr. Louis i. Seymour. starting, stopping, and discharging;
SYSTEMATIC MINING
333
but in practice they pulled up the skip carrying this load
from the icoo-foot level in from 30 to 35 seconds. Flat ropes
were used, at first, on the reels, but when the shaft was sunk
some hundreds of feet deeper, round ropes were substituted by
the adoption of the " Whiting system," first used by Mr. S. B.
Whiting, general manager of the Calumet and Hecla Copper
Company of Michigan. The dimensions and description of the
engines are given in Appendix II.
tE-BEERS CONSOLIDATED MINES LTD.
PLAN OF 600 FT. LEVEL
BULTFONTEIN MINE
The only excuse I can offer for having adopted flat ropes
for winding is that I was persuaded to do so against my own
judgment by a number of American engineers, and experience
proved that I erred in so doing. Leaving all other disadvan-
tages aside, and they are many, the extra cost of ropes per load
is sufficient to condemn the flat rope. The average cost per load
for flat ropes was .6 of a penny against .076 of a penny with the
334 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
present Whiting system, the saving amounting to more than
j£2ooo per annum. This system as modified in the diamond
mines is as follows : The round winding rope, made of the best
plough steel, extends from the skip over the sheave on the pit-
head frame down to the reel on the crank shaft of the engine,
thence four times around this reel and a corresponding reel on a
lay shaft (centres of shafts being 12 feet apart) ; thence the rope
passes around an idler sheave, the shaft of which runs on bear-
ings set upon a movable frame, which is attached at each end to
a carriage by means of trunnions. The carriage in this case
runs upon a track 50 feet long. From the idler or tension
sheave the rope passes around a second reel which is loose
upon the crank shaft, the centre of which is in line with the
second sheave upon the pit-head frame.
By the completion of the new plant the output of blue
ground from the Kimberley mine was greatly increased. Dur-
ing the fiscal year ending June 30, 1893, I>453>152 loads were
taken from the mine as against 1,310,994 loads, the output
for fifteen months previous, an increase almost wholly due to
the new hoisting facilities, for fully three-fourths of the yield
was drawn through the main shaft. The product of De Beers
mine for the same year was still greater. The total quantity
hoisted was 1,637,031 loads, of which 1,403,060 loads were
drawn through the main or rock shaft, and only 233,971 loads
through the No. 2 or west end incline shaft.
Drainage
Thorough drainage is of manifest importance in the opera-
tion of any mine, but it is peculiarly essential in these diamond
mines. At the commencement of underground mining the
inflowing water was removed by steam pumps. The use of
such pumps was an error, for the resultant heat and moisture
caused the blue ground to crumble, and made the ladderways
so hot that they were at times impassable.
As soon as the vertical shafts were completed at De Beers
SYSTEMATIC MINING 335
and Kimberley mines, Cornish pumping plants were put in, by
means of which all the water is now pumped from the mines.
The average quantity of water taken from De Beers mine is
435° gallons per diem, and from Kimberley, 8385 gallons.
Nearly half of the latter influx comes from a crevice at the junc-
tion of the quartzite with an intrusive dike of igneous rock
which was struck while driving the iioo-foot tunnel at a dis-
tance of 600 feet from the mine. While no water is found in
the blue ground or mine itself, that which flows into the mine
from the surrounding rock mixes, as before described, with the
debris which has fallen into the worked-out portion of the
De Beers and Kimberley mines, and makes mud. Enormous
quantities of this mixture are from time to time forced suddenly
into the working parts of the mine, which are connected by tun-
nels with the loose debris. At times hundreds of feet of tunnels
were filled in a few minutes. Mud rushes became so frequent
that the working of the mines was seriously interfered with, and
the loss of life was very great.
At Kimberley mine, large springs of water flowed into
the open works at the junction of the melaphyre with the
shale. Only a small part of the melaphyre was then exposed
to view, and the position of the other part was unknown.
A tunnel was started from the Standard shaft, and driven to
the south around the mine. Another tunnel was started from
the Harvey shaft and driven to the west end around the mine
in the opposite direction until the two tunnels met. The
total length was 2097 feet. Through these tunnels all the
surface water and all water coming into the mine above the
melaphyre was taken up and led to the pumps by means of
pipes. All water which enters the mine in the deeper work-
ings is taken down in passes, sunk in the rock outside of the
mine. By these precautions mud rushes have been completely
stopped in Kimberley mine, and none have occurred for many
years past.
De Beers mine has not been so fortunate, and mud rushes
are of frequent occurrence, although the quantity of water in
336 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
this mine is only about one-half that of the Kimberley mine.
The following work is being done with the view of preventing
them. A tunnel is being driven around the mine at the hard
rock (melaphyre) level, about 380 feet from the surface, in
order to take up the water which flows into the open mine
below the shale. Tunnels are also being driven on the 1000-
foot level on the south and east sides of the mine, which will be
continued until they meet. Diamond drills are at work making
holes between levels, with the view of tapping the water.
Everything feasible will be done to free De Beers mine from the
plague of water as perfectly as it has been done at Kimberley
mine. The problems are not the same, however, for in Kim-
berley mine the debris had followed down as the blue ground
was extracted, and had left the hard rock more or less exposed
to view, and one could see in places where the streams of water
flowed into the open mine ; but in De Beers no hard rock has
been exposed until lately, and one must grope in the dark, as it
were, to find out where the water enters the open or worked-out
portions of the mine.
The pumping plants for freeing the mines from water have
kept pace fully with the advance in the hoisting plants. For
the service of De Beers mine, a new pumping engine was
erected at the rock shaft in 1889. This is a compound sur-
face-condensing engine made by James Simpson & Company,
of London. Its high-pressure cylinder is ''4^4 inches diam-
eter, and its low pressure, 21 inches, with a stroke of 30 inches,
It is capable of developing 120 horse-power. With this engine an
average of nearly 6000 gallons an hour was readily drained from
the mine from the start, and no difficulty was experienced in lift-
ing over 8000 gallons an hour at times. The cost of pumping
is largely offset by using the water drained from the mine for
washing the pulverized blue ground. By combining this sup-
ply with that obtained from surface reservoirs, enough water
was obtained for the use of the concentrating plants, except in
very dry seasons. For the Kimberley mine a Cornish pumping
plant of 400 horse-power, from designs by the late Mr. L.I.
SYSTEMATIC MINING 337
Seymour, was erected in 1891. This is a vertical triple-expan-
sion condensing engine, with cylinders 15^ inches, 23^ inches,
and 37 inches in diameter, and a stroke of 36 inches. The gears
for this engine were made by Fraser & Chalmers, of Chicago,
Illinois, and the crank shafts by Sir J. Whitworth, of Manches-
ter, England, but the main constructors were James Simpson
& Co. Ltd., of London. (See Appendix III.) With this
plant an average of over 12,000 gallons a day was readily
pumped from the mine in the first year after its erection,
and since then there has been no further difficulty in handling
the influx of water into the workings.
Compressed Air
For all underground service in the mines, in driving sinking
engines, mechanical haulages, rock drills, and any other machin-
ery where power is necessary, steam has been supplanted by
compressed air. Electricity has also been used for some of these
purposes, and is the cheaper and better power for many of the
uses for which steam and compressed air have been used.
Lighting
For lighting, the application of electricity has already proved
to be almost indispensable. All tunnels and ladderways through-
out the mines are lighted by electricity. In the stopes and other
working faces candles are used. Electric lights have been found
to be of the greatest assistance in enabling the men to get away
from rushes of mud. These occur at times when some of the
galleries are " hung up " (to use a miner's expression), which
means when the tops of some of the galleries are choked with
huge pieces of blue ground. The roof suddenly gives way from
the pressure of mud above, and all open lights, such as candles,
are put out by the force of the concussion of the air, and, were
it not for the electric lights, the tunnels in the vicinity of the
mud rush would be in total darkness.
338 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
Other Electric Service
Electric bells are in use throughout the mines, and have
very greatly promoted the rapidity of hoisting through the
shafts. Owing to instantaneous communication between the
man in charge of loading the skips and the engine-driver, hun-
dreds of loads more are sent to the surface daily than could
be forwarded under the old " pull bell " system. For instant
additional communication between the surface and the under-
ground work telephones have been installed, and the same rapid
communication extends to the depositing floors, concentration
works, and offices of the company.
Natural Ventilation
The Kimberley mine is ventilated in a somewhat peculiar
manner. The rock shafts at both De Beers and Kimberley
mines are downcast, i.e., the air for ventilation goes down these
shafts, along the bottom tunnels and thence up through the
various levels, and it is fortunate for the men working in the
mine that it is so, for the cool air comes in at the bottom and
ventilates the mine much better than if the rock shaft drew the
heated air down through all the lower workings. The upcast
in Kimberley mine is through the Harvey shaft, the top of
which is 300 feet below the top of the rock shaft. This shaft,
with which the various levels of the mine are connected, extends
down to the I2oo-foot level, and a similar shaft or winze situated
near it extends from the I2oo-foot to the levels below. As the
top levels in the mine are the hottest, the current of air ascends
through the Harvey shaft. The usual direction of air currents
in mines with two shafts and natural ventilation is down the
shorter shaft and up the shaft the mouth of which is situated at
the greater height on the surface. The reverse is the case at
Kimberley mine. The quantity of air which passes down
De Beers rock shaft was 33,300 cubic feet per minute until
1898, when the enlargement of the upcast shaft was completed,
SYSTEMATIC MINING 339
and the air current was increased to 45,000 cubic feet per
minute. In the Kimberley mine the influx of air per minute
is 25,500 cubic feet.
Temperatures
At De Beers, with temperature of the air on the surface
79° F., the temperature ranges from 75° to 77° in the tunnels
leading to the mine on the 1000, 1200, and i4OO-foot levels.
The temperature of the air as it leaves the mine on the 8oo-foot
level is 84°. The temperature of the mud after a mud rush
was on one occasion 85° F. Temperatures at Kimberley mine
in the i2oo-foot tunnel were, for the air, 71°. 5; for the rock,
72°. i ; for the large spring of water 78°. 9 F. The quantity of
water flowing from this spring, which is about 600 feet from the
crater, is 3500 gallons an hour. The temperature in the work-
ing galleries on this level is 87°. Springs of water on the 1520
and i84O-foot levels gave 83°. 8 and 8i°.9 respectively, the
water in the lower level being the cooler.
The Output of Slue Ground
The table of statistics (Appendix V) gives the amount of
blue ground produced from De Beers and Kimberley mines since
the formation of the De Beers Consolidated Mines Limited.
In the same table of statistics will be found the average cost
of production per load. It will be seen that the lowest cost was
for the year ending June 30, 1894, — 6s. 6.8d. per load. This
includes all charges from the mining of the ground to the
delivery of the diamonds to the valuators. All mine charges,
including shaft-sinking, tunnelling, etc., are charged to current
expenses. It is interesting to note in the same table the great-
est output of each mine through a single shaft for various
periods of time. The maximum amount of blue ground pro-
duced in one year was 1,746,240 loads from De Beers mine for
the year ending December 31, 1897. This ground was raised
from a depth of 1000 feet from the beginning of the year until
June 14, when winding commenced from the isoo-foot level.
340 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
At Kimberley mine, the maximum output from one shaft was
1,600,422 loads for the year ending December 31, 1893, hoisted
from a depth of 1000 feet. These figures do not include the
waste or "reef" which is taken out, amounting to 100,651 loads
from De Beers mine and 64,799 loads from Kimberley mine
during the year.
During the month of November, 1898, 208,013 loads of
blue ground equal to 166,410 tons of 2000 pounds, were hoisted
through the two skip compartments of De Beers rock shaft and
from a depth of 1200 feet. The winding stops from Saturday
night at eleven o'clock until Monday morning at six. The
average number of loads of blue ground hoisted per hour was 349.
The average daily output for a full day's work was 8376 loads,
and for Saturdays 5933. The best day's record was 9790 loads,
the best week's record was 50,450. In the above records no ac-
count has been taken of stoppages during working hours nor is
the quantity of waste, which was 11,992 loads during the month,
taken into account. Previous to this the best month's produc-
tion was from De Beers mine, in November, 1897, a total of
197,173 loads from the I2oo-foot level. In Kimberley mine,
the best records for a month were in November, 1893, when
157,847 loads were taken from the looo-foot level, working
three shifts of eight hours each per day, and 108,627 loads from
the i2OO-foot level in May, 1895, working twelve hours per day.
The best week's record from Kimberley mine, winding by
day only, was 27,418 loads in sixty-nine hours from the 1520-
foot level for the week ending September 22, 1897. No account
has been taken of any lost time.
From the above figures it will be observed that all records
have been broken for winding ground through a single shaft with
two skip compartments.
Labor and Wages
The following table shows the average number of men
employed in and about the mines worked by De Beers Consoli-
dated Mines Limited, during the year ending June 30, 1897 : —
SYSTEMATIC MINING
EMPLOYES
The average number of persons daily employed is as follows : —
DE BERKS.
KlMHfcRLEY.
PREMIER.
WORKSHOPS.
ON THE ESTATES
AND ELSEWHERE.
Whites.
Blacks.
Whites.
Blacks.
Whites
Blacks.
Whites.
Blacks.
Whites.
Blacki.
Above ground
Underground
477
212
1851
2OOI
187
•83
925
1322
46
>°5
423
489
388
211
28
118
TOTAL.
Above ground
Underground
Grand total .
Whites.
Blacks.
1126
500
3528
3812
1626
7340
The average number of white men employed has increased to over 2000 and the num-
ber of natives to over 11,000.
NATIONALITIES OF WHITE EMPLOYES
PERCENTAGES
IN AND ABOUT THE
MINES AND FLOORS.
AT THE WORKSHOPS.
1894.
i897.
,894.
1897-
English ........
52.2
46.5
41.5
37-'
Scotch ........
6.2
7-2
23-3
2O.6
Irish
4.8
5.6
2.4
2.8
South Africans ......
33-i
36.8
27.1
33-3
European .......
1.8
'•5
4.2
4-7
Other Nations ......
1.9
24
'•5
'•5
100
100
IOO
IOO
WAGES
The following figures give about the average wages paid for various kinds of
labor at the mines : mechanics, ^5 to £j per week ; miners, from ^5 to £6
per week ; guards and tallymen, from £$. to £$ per week ; engine-drivers, ^6
to -£j per week ; natives in the underground works, from y. to $s. a day.
Overseers, from ^3 1 2s. to ^4 zs. ; machine men and assorters, from _-£$
to £6 ; natives (ordinary laborers), ijs. 6d. to 2 is. per week; drivers, from
2$s. to zjs. 6d. per week. Every employe has a percentage on the value of
diamonds found by himself. On the floors the white employes receive is. 6d. and
the natives ^d. per carat. Nearly double these amounts are paid for stones found in
the mines.
342 THE DIAiMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
Dutoitspan and Bultfontein Mines
If operations were not pushed with the like energy and lib-
erality of outlay in Dutoitspan and Bultfontein mines, it was
simply because of sound economic considerations, and impedi-
ments unreasonably placed in the way of projected developments.
Heavy falls of reef had very greatly damaged the open work-
ings in Dutoitspan mine before it came into possession of the
Mount Ararat before Blasting. (Removal of a piece of " Floating Reef," Bultfontein Mine, 1901.
It was 150 feet long, 50 feet wide, and 120 feet high. 180 holes were drilled in it and charged
with 1050 pounds of No. i dynamite.)
De Beers Consolidated Mines. In spite of this obstacle, work
was carried on actively for a time, until it became certain that no
profit could be made by working this mine and the continuance
of operations would have caused great loss directly to the con-
trolling corporation. If diamonds were like gold and there was
an unlimited demand for the product, Dutoitspan mine would
assuredly have been worked as long as it paid expenses and the
barest margin of profit. But, seeing that the demand for dia-
SYSTEMATIC MINING
343
monds, or any other precious stones, is practically limited to the
amount marketable without breaking down the prices dis-
astrously to the producer as well as to every dealer and cutter,
work in Dutoitspan mine was suspended at the close of 1889.
The mine is still idle, but a large shaft was started in 1901 for
the purpose of working it at some future date.
Shots Fired.
Bultfontein mine might have proved more profitable, but in
1889 an immense fall of reef, covering nearly the whole bottom
of the mine, made open work impossible, except over a very small
area. In face of this situation shafts would have been started
and underground work on a systematic plan prosecuted, had it
not been for obstacles set in the way by the lessors, the London
and South African Exploration Company. It was not antici-
pated that there would be any profit in instituting these costly
344
THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
underground works at that time, but the directors of De Beers
mines desired to furnish employment to miners out of work,
and the mine would have been opened and explored on a return
of bare expenses, if the lessors had seen fit to make reasonable
terms. As their demands were considered exorbitant, work in
this mine was also stopped in 1889, and was only commenced
A Second after Firing.
again in 1900. Plan on p. 333 shows how the mine is being
opened. There are nearly 13,000,000 loads of blue ground
in sight above the 6oo-foot level.
Premier Mine
In December, 1891, the farm, Benaauwdheidsfontein, adjoin-
ing Kimberley, and lying on the border line between Griqualand
West and the Orange Free State, was purchased in full by the De
SYSTEMATIC MINING 345
Beers Consolidated Mines. On this property the Wesselton or
Premier mine, situate about four miles from the town of Kimber-
ley (plan at pages 316-317 gives its position relative to the other
mines), had been discovered in September, 1890, by a Dutchman,
Fabricius, who was prospecting for an old resident of the dia-
mond fields, Mr. Henry A. Ward, who had a bond on the Wes-
sels' estate, or an option to purchase the property for ^175,000
within a stated period of time. When a man has no money,
The Mine Filled with Smoke.
and Ward had little or none at that time, it matters very little
to him what amount he has to pay for such a property, for he
does not want the farm unless he finds a payable diamond mine,
and if he does find a mine, some one else supplies the funds. In
this case the mine was found, but it was one chance in a million.
Only a small portion of Wessels' farm was in the Cape Colony,
and it was upon this portion that the mine was discovered.
Scores of sanitary pits had been sunk within a stone's throw
of the mine before the prospector Fabricius sunk a hole at ran-
346 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
dom, without any apparent reason, through ten feet of limestone
and found yellow ground. It was soon noised about, and the
mine was rushed and jumped by a crowd from Kimberley and
Beaconsfield, consisting to a great extent of members of the
Knights of Labor. Hundreds of claims (30 feet by 30 feet)
were pegged off, and holes averaging 3 feet by 6 feet were sunk
all over the place, looking far more like open graves than pros-
pectors' shafts ; in fact, they proved to be the graves of the
After the Smoke has cleared away.
hopes of the reckless jumpers of private property. Many of
the holes were sunk outside of the area of the present mine.
Ward had the sole right of prospecting for minerals upon
this farm, which was held under his agreement with Wessels;
but for some time the jumpers held their ground regardless of
its legal ownership, and their contest was the more bumptious
from the fact that the mine was only a few hundred yards from
the boundary line between the Colony and the Free State.
Title to Wessels' farm was originally granted by the Free State.
SYSTEMATIC MINING 347
By the laws of this State all minerals belong to the owners of
the farms upon which they are found. In the settlement of the
boundary line between the Free State and Griqualand West it
was agreed that the farmers who had held titles to their farms
under the laws of the Free State should retain the right to any
minerals that might be found upon them. After months of
wrangling, Ward's claim was established beyond dispute. Ward
was without means to continue prospecting, and parted with half
his rights for ^3,000. When the mine was discovered, De Beers
Consolidated Mines bought the interest which Ward had sold,
for which they paid ^120,000. Ward disputed De Beers owner-
ship to an undivided one-half interest in the property. The
case came to trial in the Supreme Court of the Cape Colony,
the mine having been discovered in that part of the farm lying
within the Colony. Judgment was given in favor of De Beers,
and that Company became joint owner with Ward in the prop-
erty, now called the Premier Mine, named by Ward in honor of
Rhodes, who was at the time Premier of the Colony, and with
whom he had conducted most of the negotiation in relation to
the purchase of the mine and the final disposition of his interest.
In the meantime Ward had obtained an extension of his
option for an additional sum of ^125,000. The directors of
De Beers mines were in no way consulted in this matter. The
time for taking up the option was drawing to a close, and as
Ward did not have the money to pay for his half, it was mutually
agreed that De Beers should pay the purchase price of ^300,000,
Ward becoming responsible for the repayment of his half.
After considerable negotiation Ward agreed to cede his interest
in the mine on the following conditions : that he should take
over the mine for a period of five years, during which time he
had the right to take out 5,000,000 loads, equal to 4,000,000
tons of diamond-bearing ground. Diamond-bearing and blue are
not synonymous terms here, for Ward took out yellow ground
to the depth of about 60 feet. The mine was surveyed as
accurately as possible. An allowance of 8 feet in depth was
made for the surface limestone which covered the mine and
348 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
SYSTEMATIC MINING 349
which was supposed to be »o«-diamond-bearing. It was also
agreed that a load of ground in place should be 9.6 cubic feet,
but this was afterward increased to 10.6, as it was found that
9.6 cubic feet of yellow ground would not make a load when
broken. From the preliminary washing of ground taken from
various parts of the mine, it was estimated that the mine would
yield about 16 carats per hundred loads washed. Ward took
possession of the mine, and through contractors erected a
large washing plant capable of washing 4,000 to 5,000 loads
daily. During the five years Ward mined and washed the
5,000,000 loads to which he was entitled. The yield was about
20 carats per 100 loads by means of the first sortings, and pos-
sibly two or three carats more were obtained by subsequent sort-
ing, so that the total number of carats obtained reached about
1,100,000. As to the price realized for these diamonds and the
cost of producing them, I have no knowledge, but one may
assume that the average value of the diamonds was about i8j.
per carat, and that the cost of mining and washing did not
exceed is. 6d. per carat, if it reached that figure. The first 60
feet were easily mined, as the ground was decomposed and could
be sent direct to the washing machines from the mine. At the
present time, under De Beers management, blue ground is mined
and deposited, harrowed and watered, and then loaded and sent
to the washing machines for a cost of about is. id. a load.
From the year 1871, when the four mines at Kimberley
and the Jagersfontein mine were discovered, a period of twenty-
one years elapsed during which no paying diamond mine was
found, although continuous prospecting was carried on. The
Premier mine was covered for an average depth of eight
feet with lime, which for the most part was diamond-bearing.
The formation of the lime seems to have been the result of the
evaporation of water highly impregnated with lime, or possibly
springs existed in the localities, whose waters were highly impreg-
nated with carbonate of lime, which was deposited by the evapo-
ration of the water. Water, in many of the lime-covered dis-
tricts, is found very near the surface. On the Wesselton estate
350 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
SYSTEMATIC MINING
$52 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
it shows itself in numerous " fonteins " or springs. Below the
lime coverlet the diamond-bearing yellow ground extended to a
depth of sixty feet, where it changed to blue ground. The
work which had been done proved the area of the mine, and it
was found to contain about 1162 claims of diamond-bearing
ground, equal to about 24 acres.
Under Ward's administration the diamond-bearing ground
was removed by means of trucks drawn by an endless chain
haulage, which delivered them at the top of a large washing
plant, where it was at once treated.
In January, 1896, Ward's lease expired, and from that time
work in this mine has been constantly carried on by the
De Beers Consolidated Mines. An incline with a grade of one
foot in five was constructed in 1896; the drainage water from
all parts of the mine was concentrated in a sump, and a pump-
ing plant erected capable of handling the great influx of water,
averaging 42,726 gallons an hour in 1896, or about 7,178,000
gallons a week. At the end of that year the new works were
so far advanced that 271,777 loads of blue ground had been
raised. For the economic working of this mine, a complete
mining and washing plant, with compounds, machine shops,
stores, and other necessary buildings, was installed soon after
the mine was turned over to the Company by the lessee.
The incline mentioned above was made through the marginal
reef, and down to a depth of 185 feet. At present the diamond-
bearing blue ground is hauled from the mine by means of an
endless wire rope haulage (see illustration opposite) driven by an
engine on the surface. The mine is being worked in sections of
50 feet in depth. The ground is broken by drilling deep holes
(12 feet) with jumper drills and blasting with dynamite. The
average number of loads broken per case of dynamite (50 Ibs.
net) is 416, equal to 333 tons. The breaking of the ground
was formerly done by contract, and cost tfad. per load delivered
upon the " flat-sheets " near the mine end of the wire rope
haulage. This mining is now done by the Company. Loading
is done in the mine upon the contract system, by paying the
SYSTEMATIC MINING
353
Premier Mine, looking up the Incline.
natives i$s. for 100 loads. The cost of hauling and depositing
is about 6d. per load. In open mining the natives are paid i$s.
per 100 loads (80 tons) for loading and delivering to a flat-
sheet from 100 to 150 feet from the place of loading. On
the floors, after the ground is pulverized, I2s. per 100 loads is
paid for reloading. The ground is treated in the same manner
as at De Beers and Kimberley mines, which will be described in
the following chapter.
There is a large body of floating reef in the mine, which
measured about 350 feet by 200 feet on the surface, but, at the
depth of 500 feet, it has been nearly displaced by diamond-bearing
ground. As already mentioned, these large blocks of floating
reef are portions of the country rock which have broken loose
2 A
354 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
during the time the craters were being filled, and were not
incorporated in the breccia of which the blue ground is com-
posed. In some instances the "floating reef," or "islands," is
One of the Early Washing Machines.
the same as the amygdaloid rock or melaphyre, which surrounds
the mines at a depth varying from 300 to 400 feet, but, as a rule,
somewhat altered. It will be noticed that the aerial gear is not
used at the Premier mine, and the reason is that for shallow
depths, or for depths down to 200 feet, inclines, either open cuts
SYSTEMATIC MINING
355
or shafts inclined to as great an angle as it is practicable for a
wire rope haulage to work, are more economical.
Up to the present time the difficulties of falling reefs, which
caused so much trouble in the other mines, have not yet arisen.
A belt of blue ground some seventy feet in thickness has been
left standing in places to support the friable decomposed basalt
and shale with which the mine is surrounded. This is but a
temporary remedy, and one which does not recommend itself to
One of the Present Washing Plants.
the engineer, owing to the value of the ground which is being
temporarily sacrificed. It is my intention to combine the open
with the underground system, and to remove the blue ground
which lies adjacent to the reef in the same manner as it is now
done in De Beers and Kimberley mines, and at the same time
to work the remaining portion of the mine in the open, as at
present, so long as open mining can be safely and economically
carried on. Owing to the enormous flow of water from the reef
into the mine (the blue ground itself contains no water), it will
be necessary to sink a shaft, and to drive tunnels to tap these
large springs, and lead the water away from the mine. The
356 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
SYSTEMATIC MINING
357
average quantity of water pumped from the mine is about
40,000 gallons per hour, or more than three times the quantity
which is pumped from De Beers and Kimberley mines com-
bined. In order to make use of this water, it is pumped to
De Beers floors for washing the blue ground, and to the village
of Kenilworth for irrigation purposes.
The average yield of diamonds for several years past under
De Beers management has been three-tenths of a carat per load.
No. 2 Washing Plant, De Beers Floors.
The value of the Premier mine diamonds as compared with
those from De Beers and Kimberley mines is about twenty per
cent less, owing to the greater proportion of boart and small
diamonds. The diamonds from this mine show distinctive char-
acteristics, and a parcel of them can be easily distinguished from
those produced from other mines. It is estimated that the
production of this mine could be raised to 1,000,000 carats
per annum. The mine is being developed for the commence-
ment of underground mining. Plan on page 318 shows the
shape and size of the mine on the 5oo-foot level. It is
estimated that there are 13,000,000 loads, equal to 10,400,-
ooo tons, of blue ground in sight above this level. The
Premier mine may, therefore, be looked upon as a mine of
very great value, and one which will play an important part in
the future history of the diamond-mining industry.
358 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
Jagersfontein
Mention has been made previously of the Jagersfontein
mine. It was the first of the so-called " dry mines " discov-
ered. The mine is very large, containing 1 1 24 claims. The
average yield of the ground is about twelve carats per one hun-
dred loads. The quality of the diamonds far surpasses the
yield of any other crater. The mine is noted for its large blue-
white diamonds, and, now and again, an exceptionally large stone
is found. One stone cut as a brilliant weighs 239 carats and is
without a flaw.
Two full-size reproductions are here given of the largest dia-
mond found in the mine, its weight being 969^ carats. For
many years after their
discovery, the richer
mines of Kimberley
offered greater induce-
ments to the digger as
well as to the investor,
but the fever for con-
solidation attacked the
directors of some of the
principal companies in
this mine, and the New
Jagersfontein Mining
and Exploration Com-
pany Limited was
incorporated in 1888,
about the same time
as De Beers, and the
various interests were
gradually absorbed.
The mine is still worked in the open, and during the last few
years has had some difficulty with falls of reef, which is quartzite
from the surface down. In 1900 the mine had reached a depth
of 450 feet in the lowest workings.
Excelsior Diamond, 969} Carats. (Found in Jagersfontein
Mine. Actual Size.)
SYSTEMATIC MINING 359
The output of blue ground for the year ending jist March,
1899 (the last full year's work before the war) was 2,600,000
loads, and the diamonds produced amounted to 289,000 carats,
which realised about ^500,000. The dividends paid during
the same period amounted to ^£ 150,000, equal to fifteen per
cent on the capital.
Another View of the Excelsior Diamond.
CHAPTER XII
WINNING THE DIAMONDS
T has been shown how resourceful engineering
mastered the problem of the extraction of the
diamond-bearing deposits swiftly and systemati-
cally, without injury to the mines. It was
no less essential to advance and perfect the
process of the winning of the diamond from
the mass of extracted blue ground with corresponding speed and
efficiency. For the handling of the mammoth bulk of breccia,
through which the tiny, precious crystals were sprinkled in a
proportion so infinitesimal, there was a practical call for every
feasible stretch of invention in transportation, concentration,
assorting of sizes, and final separation of the gems. The indis-
pensable reconciliation of thoroughness in extraction with rapidity
in working over the ground made the task greatly perplexing.
It was only through years of experimenting and progressing from
imperfect to improved designs that the present great diamond-
winning plant of the mines was evolved. If this is still short
of ideal suitability to the work, it is simply fair to observe how
vast is the stride that has actually been made in a few recent
years in diamond-winning methods, from the primitive Indian
wooden shovels and drying mats, and the water holes and shak-
ing plates of the Brazilian.
As fast as the blue ground is dumped automatically from the
skips into the ore bins, it is carried away in trucks by an endless
wire rope haulage, driven by steam, to the depositing floors.
These floors are made by removing the bush and grass from
fairly level stretches of ground. After clearing the face of the
ground, it is hardened and smoothed with heavy rollers until it
360
WINNING THE DIAMONDS
361
is fit for use. Receiving grounds are laid out separately for each
of the diamond mines on the four farms, and cover an area of
several thousand acres. The most extensive of any are the
De Beers floors, which are laid off in rectangular sections, six
hundred yards long and two hundred yards wide, on the farm,
Kenilworth, adjoining the mine. They begin about a mile from
the mines and extend for three miles in the easterly direction and
a mile to the west.
The main tramway line from the mine is three miles in
length, with two branches, one mile and three quarters of a mile
De Beers Mine and Floors. (Showing Haulage from Mine to Floors.j
in length respectively. The speed of the running trucks ranges
from 2.5 to 4 miles an hour, and they are counted and greased
automatically as they are sent on to the floors. There is a slight
down grade from De Beers and Kimberley mines which is of
material service in lightening the drag of the loaded trucks.
When the trucks reach the floors, they are drawn by horses or
mules over auxiliary tram lines at right angles to the main haul-
age line to any desired point of deposit. A full truck contains
about 1 6 cubic feet of blue ground, weighing 1600 Ibs. approxi-
mately; but it was found more convenient to supplant these
end-tipping trucks by 20 cubic feet side-tipping trucks. The
362 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AERICA
WINNING THE DIAMONDS
364 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
De Beers Floors.
old unit of measurement, 16 cubic feet, has been retained, and
the automatic counters are so geared that every time four
20-cubic-feet trucks pass them, five truck-loads are registered.
Each of the rectangular sections of the De Beers floors holds
about 50,000 loads. The Kimberley floors are nearly as large,
and substantially the same method is employed in covering
them. On the depositing ground a truck-load is spread out to
I — '-
Mechanical Haulage, Kimberley Mine.
WINNING THE DIAMONDS 365
cover about 2 1 square feet. So over the miles of floor surface is
outstretched an enormous carpet of " blue " somewhat less than
a foot in thickness, and sprinkled with invisible diamonds. It
may appear to the reader that the word "invisible" is used to
convey the idea that the diamonds are very small, but such is
not the case, for many of the diamonds lying buried are as big
as filberts, and it is not unusual to find them as large as walnuts.
What is meant is that the diamonds contained in the blue
ground are invisible to one walking casually over the floors even
De Beers Floors.
after the ground has pulverized. During the fifteen years of
my charge of De Beers mines I have never found a diamond on
the floors.
It will be seen that no pains have been spared to hasten and
cheapen the flow of ground to the floors. After the blue
ground has been spread out, it is necessary to wait patiently
until the sun and the rain have contributed their service in dis-
integrating the breccia. The effect of the exposure of this curi-
ous compound to heat and moisture is very remarkable. Large
pieces of blue, which are as hard as sandstone when freshly taken
from the mine, soon begin to crumble on the depositing floors.
To hasten the disintegration, the bed of blue is harrowed several
366 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
times to turn up the bigger lumps and expose fresh faces of
the ground to the sun. Spans of mules were originally used to
De Beers Floors.
drag the light harrows used in those days, but steam traction
engines are now employed to draw wheeled harrows with huge
Kimberley Floors.
teeth to and fro across the floors. So the great spread of the
floors looks like some vast ploughed farm where the laborers
are preparing the soil for seed.
WINNING THE DIAMONDS
367
The length of time required to effect the desired degree of
pulverization depends on the season of the year and the amount
Harrowing Blue Ground with Steam Traction Engines.
of rainfall. It is curious to note, also, that there is a marked
difference in the rapidity of disintegration of the blue ground in
each of the four mines. The blue from Kimberley mine
becomes well pulverized in three months with heavy rains in
the summer season, while the De Beers blue requires double
that time. The longer the ex-
posure, the more complete the
pulverization, and the better
for washing. The long con-
tinuance of droughts, which
are of frequent occurrence,
causes very costly delay.
During a period of more
than eight months in 1897
there was not sufficient rain
to wet the blue ground.
_. . r . Harrowing Blue Ground.
The lack or rain water was
offset, in a measure, by artificial means ; but as the blue ground
upon De Beers and Kimberley floors covers 2000 acres of land,
368 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
the difficulty of any approach to complete watering may be
readily imagined. Under normal conditions soft blue ground
becomes sufficiently pulverized in from four to six months, but
it is better to expose it for a longer period, even for a whole year.
Traction Engine for Harrowing Blue Ground.
A certain percentage of the blue ground is not affected by
exposure on the floors. This intractable ground, which is called
hard blue, makes up about 5 per cent of the product of De
Beers mine. The large pieces of hard blue are removed from
the floors to be crushed in rock breakers and rolls, and large,
worthless boulders and stones embedded in the blue, as well as
large pieces of basalt and shale which fill the open mines, and
WINNING THE DIAMONDS
369
have become mixed with the blue ground during the process
of mining, are picked out to be thrown away. Then the well-
disintegrated blue ground is taken from the floors in trucks by
endless rope haulages to the washing machines and put through
the first stage of concentration.
The ground is dumped from the trucks into hoppers, at
the bottom of which are small revolving tables upon which the
ground is divided and fed automatically into two revolving
cylinders. This automatic feeder, which was devised by Mr.
Robeson, late mechanical engineer to De Beers Company, not
Loading Pulverized Blue Ground.
only divides the ground equally between two rotating washing
machines, but delivers it regularly, so that the machines can-
not become overcharged, which would result in loss of diamonds.
2 B
370 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
Washing Machine, De Beers Mine.
After leaving the automatic feeders, the ground is mixed with
puddle (the name applied to the thick muddy water which flows
out of the washing pans) and a quantity of clear water is added.
No. 2 Washing Plant, De Beers Floors.
WINNING THE DIAMONDS
This mixture serves to bring the fresh supply of blue ground in
the pans to the proper consistency for washing, for experience
proves that diamonds and the heavy minerals with them separate
from the mass of lighter material much better in a fairly thick
puddle than in comparatively clear water. From the chutes
below the feeders the mixture flows into a revolving cylinder
covered with perforated steel plates with holes i^ inches in
diameter. All lumps larger than the holes pass out of the end
of the cylinder, and are carried by a pan conveyor to crushing
rolls for further treatment. Worthless stones carried in the
ground are picked out by hand as the lumps move along on the
conveyor.
The pulverized ground which passes through the screen holes
of the cylinders is fed into shallow circular pans, divided so as to
form an annular space, four feet in diameter, between the outer
and the inner rim (see figures on pages 372-373). Here the
ground is swept around by revolving arms attached to a vertical
shaft, and carrying wedge-shaped teeth (see figure). These teeth
are set to form a spiral which forces the diamonds and other
heavy minerals to the outer side of the pan, while the lighter
372 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
material flows out of the discharge situated upon the inner
rim. Fifty per cent of De Beers ground, when well pulver-
DETAILS OF ROTARY
ized, will pass through a screen with holes -^ of an inch
square, and 66 per cent of Kimberley ground will pass
through the same screen. The big pieces of hard rock, which
were brought out of the mines only a few months before, have
crumbled almost to dust, which, during every working day in the
year, passes through the pans in a flowing stream for ten hours a
WINNING THE DIAMONDS
373
day, leaving its treasure behind. When the bare statement is
made that nearly five million truck-loads, or more than four mill-
ion tons of blue ground, have been washed in a year, the mind
only faintly conceives the prodigious size of the mass that is
annually drawn from the old craters and laboriously washed and
sorted for the sake of a few bucketfuls of diamonds. It would
form a cube of more than 430 feet, or a block larger than any
cathedral in the world, and overtopping the spire of St. Paul's,
WASHING MACHINE.
while a box with sides measuring two feet nine inches would
hold the gems.
When the day's work is completed, the pans, through each
of which three hundred loads have passed, are emptied or
" cleaned up," and the concentrated deposits of diamonds,
mingled with the other heavy but valueless minerals, are then
374 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
sent to the Pulsator in trucks with locked covers, where they are
sized by passing through a cylinder covered with steel sieving with
holes from one-sixteenth to five-eighths of an inch in diameter.
The five sizes which pass through the cylinder flow upon a com-
bination of jigs, termed at the mines the pulsators, and the name
Pulsator, which originally applied to the one set of jigs only that
did all the work for the De Beers Mining Company in 1886, is
still applied to the large concentrating plant and machinery where
the final concentration is done and the diamonds sorted from the
worthless minerals with which they are associated.
De beers Crushing Mill, Back View.
Before tracing the diamonds through the Pulsator, it is desir-
able for the sake of clearness to sketch the treatment of the hard
blue ground taken direct from the depositing floors. For the
handling of this portion of the product of the mines an elaborate
and costly plant was erected on one of the old tailing heaps.
The driving power of the crushing mill is a compound vertical
engine of 1 100 horse-power. The whole plant is divided into four
sections, and provided with friction clutches so that any portion
of the machinery may be stopped without interfering with the
running of the rest of the mill.
WINNING THE DIAMONDS 375
An endless wire rope haulage carries all the refractory ground
to the mill, where it is put through a series of crushing machin-
ery. The first or " comet " crushers reduce the ground so that
the largest pieces will pass through a two-inch ring. From these
crushers the ground passes through revolving screens which sep-
arate the finely crushed from the coarse pieces. The fine size is
conveyed to the washing pan, and the coarser ground passes from
the end of the screen to revolving picking tables, where diamonds
of the larger size may be seen and removed without risk of
crushing by further pulverization. From the picking tables the
ground is scraped automatically into two sets of rolls, and the
pulverized product screened again and graded into three sizes.
The finest size, passing a half-inch screen, goes to the washing
pans, and the two coarser sizes to jigs. Large diamonds which
have been separated from their envelope of blue are retained in
the jig. The ground still holding the smaller diamonds passes
out of the end of the jig and then through a series of rolls,
screens, and jigs until the finished product is drawn from the bot-
tom jigs into locked trucks running on tramways to the pulsator
for further concentration and sorting.
From beginning to end of this process the crushed ground
is carried by water, and the plant requires a flow of 400,000 gal-
lons an hour. After leaving the last jig the water is separated
from the fine ground by a revolving screen and the tailings are
taken away in trucks to the tailing heap. Within the past three
years the ordinary rotary pans have supplanted the jigs, and are
found to be more economical.
The coarse ground, which passes out of the end of the revolv-
ing cylinders of the washing plants, is called " lumps." As the
lumps leave the end of the cylinders they fall upon a conveyor
and are taken to the end of the washing machines, where they
are reduced by a similar, though smaller, crushing plant, with the
exception that pans only are used for saving the diamonds.
Thus the screened and sized product from the washing pans
and the crushing machines reaches the final stage of concentra-
tion in the Pulsator. This is a combination of jigs with station-
376 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
The Pulsator.
ary bottoms covered with screens with square meshes. The
meshes are a little coarser than the perforated plates of the
cylinders that size the concentrate for the jigs. Upon the jig
screens a layer of leaden bullets for the finer sizes and iron for
the coarser sizes is spread, forming a bed that prevents the
deposit from passing through the screen too rapidly. The
heaviest part of the deposit with the diamonds passes through
the screens into pointed boxes, from which the deposit is drawn
off and taken to the sorting tables. The lighter material or
refuse flows over the ends of the jigs into trucks, which are
hauled away and dumped on the tailing heap.
Only one per cent of the total amount of ground washed, or
one in a hundred loads, goes to the Pulsator in the form of con-
centrate. Eight and a half per cent of this passes through the
screens below the five-eighth inch size, thirty-three and a half
per cent is above that size, and the balance, fifty-eight per cent,
flows over the jigs as waste. Formerly, for every hundred loads
washed, five-twelfths of a load passed over the sorting tables,
WINNING THE DIAMONDS 377
ordinary wooden tables covered with steel plates. Here the dia-
monds were picked out by hand, first by white men while the
deposit was wet, and later, when dry, by native convicts. The
concentrate was worked over as long as the cost of handling was
repaid by the gleaning of diamonds. The size of the stones
which reached the sorting tables ranged from one-sixteenth of an
inch to one and one-eighth inches.
Sorting Gravel for Diamonds.
Mixed with the diamonds in the concentrates are a number
of other minerals of high specific gravity, and some of notable
beauty though they have no marketable value. Among these
are the rich red pyrope, the flesh-colored zircon, the blue
disthene, bright green chrome diopside, pale green rhombic
pyroxene, and olivine occasionally in large, polished pebbles.
Some of the garnets are of fine quality, and one was recently
cut which resembled a pigeon-blood ruby, and attracted an
offer of ^25. The complete list of minerals found on the
sorting tables includes: (i) pyrope, having a specific gravity
378 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
of 3.7 and containing from 1.4 to 3 per cent of oxide of
chrome; (2) zircon (specific gravity 4.41 to 4.7), in flesh-colored
grains and fragments, but no crystals — this mineral is com-
monly known on the Diamond Fields as Dutch boart ; (3) dis-
thene, or cyanite (specific gravity 3.45 to 3.7), discernible by its
blue color and perfect cleavage ; (4) chrome diopside (specific
gravity 3.25 to 3.5), in fragments bright green in color and con-
taining, according to Knopp, over two per cent oxide of chrome ;
(5) enstatite or bronzite with pale green rhombic pyroxene (spe-
cific gravity 3.1 to 3.3); (6) mica (specific gravity 2.7 to 3.1);
(7) magnetite (specific gravity 4.49 to 5.2), occasionally found in
octahedron crystals; (8) non-magnetic iron ore (specific gravity 4.5)
containing chrome and titanium in varying quantities ; that is to
say, sometimes it is chrome iron, and sometimes titanium iron
ore : according to analysis by Knopp, it contains from 13 to 61
per cent of oxide of chrome and from 3 to 68 per cent of titanic
acid; (9) hornblende (specific gravity 2.9 to 3.4); (10) barite
(specific gravity 4.29 to 4.3) ; (n) calcite (specific gravity 2.7) ;
(12) pyrite (specific gravity 4.83 to 5.2); (13) olivine (specific
gravity 3.3).
The work of picking out the diamonds by hand from the
concentrate on the sorting tables was, of course, necessarily slow
and tedious. It was the only division of diamond mining and
winning which seemed beyond the application of blind and
unconscious machinery. But men to-day are not inclined to
admit that anything greatly worth doing is impossible.
A series of experiments was initiated by me with the object
of separating the diamonds from the heavy valueless concen-
trates with which they are associated. An ordinary shaking or
percussion table was constructed, and every known means of
separation was tried without success. One of the employes of
De Beers, Mr. Fred Kirsten, was in charge of the experimenting,
under the supervision of the late Mr. George Labram, the man-
ager of the large crushing plant, and afterward mechanical engi-
neer to the company. Notwithstanding the fact that the specific
gravity of the diamond (3.52) was less than that of several of
WINNING THE DIAMONDS
379
the minerals associated with it, so that its separation would seem
a simple matter, it was found in practice to be impossible owing
to the slippery nature of the diamond. The heavy concentrates
carried diamonds, and diamonds flowed away from the percus-
sion table with the tailings. When it seemed that every resource
to do away with hand sorting had been exhausted, Kirsten asked
to be allowed to try to catch the diamonds by placing a coat of
thick grease on the surface of the percussion table with which the
Automatic Diamond Sorter, called the Greaser.
other experiments had been made. Kirsten had noticed that oily
substances, such as axle grease and white or red lead, adhered to
diamonds when they chanced to come into contact, and he argued
to himself, if these substances adhered to diamonds and not to the
other minerals in the concentrates, why should not diamonds adhere
to grease on the table and the other minerals flow away ? In
this way the remarkable discovery was made that diamonds alone
of all minerals contained in the blue ground will adhere to grease,
and that all others will flow away as tailings over the end of the
percussion- table with the water. After this was determined by
380 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
thorough experiments, more suitable shaking tables were con-
structed at the Company's workshops. These were from time
to time improved upon, until now all the sorting (except for the
very coarse size) is done by these machines, whose power of dis-
tinction is far superior to the keenest eye of the native. Since
the discovery of the affinity of grease for diamonds, experiments
have been made with rubies and sapphires from Burma, and it
was found that grease caught these gems with the same certainty
that it catches diamonds.
After a thorough trial a number of these unique diamond-
catching tables (see cut, p. 379) were constructed, and are now
working on De Beers concentrates. Each shaking table is
made of corrugated cast-iron plates in five sections, with a drop
of about an inch from one division to another. Thick grease is
spread on the plates to cover them to the top of the corrugations.
The concentrates are conveyed from the jigs upon a con-
veyor belt and deposited into hoppers, where the load is elevated
to revolving cylinders covered with perforated steel plates.
Through the graded screens of these cylinders the concentrates
pass into small hoppers, one above each table, fitted with auto-
matic feeders, — cast-iron cylinders with grooves corresponding
to the graded sizes of the concentrates, — and are distributed
evenly across the upper portion of the shaking tables, and car-
ried down by a flow of water from a trough fixed behind the
feeders. During the time the table is working it is rapidly
shaken from side to side by an eccentric placed on a shaft under
the table.
Strange to relate, the descending diamonds stick on the face
of the grease while all other minerals pass over it. Only about
one-third of one per cent of diamonds is lost by the first table,
and these are recovered almost to a stone when the concentrates
are passed over the second table. The discrimination of this
sorter is surely marvellous. Native workers, although experi-
enced in the handling of diamonds, often pick out small crystals
of zircon, or Dutch boart, by mistake, but the senseless machine
is practically unerring. It will catch rubies, sapphires, and emer-
WINNING THE DIAMONDS 381
aids as well as diamonds, but so far as it has been tested, it will
not cling to anything but a precious stone. The grease which
is used loses its power to catch diamonds after a few hours' work,
owing to its becoming more or less mixed with particles of
water. It is then scraped off the tables, together with the dia-
monds adhering to it, placed in a kettle made of finely perfor-
ated steel plates, and steamed. The grease passes away to tanks
of water, where it is cooled and is again fit for use. The dia-
monds, together with small bits of iron pyrites, brass nails from
The Manager of the Pulsator, Mr. James Stewart, through whose Hands ^3,000,000 to
,£4,000,000 Worth of Diamonds pass every Year.
the miners' boots, pieces of copper from the detonator used in
blasting, which remain on the tables owing to their high specific
gravity, and a very small admixture of worthless deposit which
has become mechanically mixed with the grease, are then boiled
in a solution containing caustic soda, where they are freed from
all grease. The quantity of deposit, from the size of five-eighths
of an inch downwards, which now reaches the sorting table, does
not exceed one cubic foot for every 12,000 loads (192,000 cubic
feet) of blue ground washed. As already stated, one-twelfth of
one per cent of the whole mass of blue formerly passed to the
382 THE DIAMOND MINES Of SOUTH AFRICA
WINNING THE DIAMONDS 383
sorting tables; or, from 12,000 loads, which is about the daily
average of the quantity washed at De Beers and Kimberley
mines, 160 cubic feet had to be assorted by hand.
The first question usually asked by visitors is, What is the
cause of this amazing discrimination ? This is a very difficult
question to answer with positive assurance. It is possible that
the secret of the affinity may lie in the fact that water adheres
to or enters into all minerals composing the concentrate except
precious stones. These present comparatively dry faces to the
grease and quickly adhere to it, while the wet stones flow over
the table. The grease has no affinity for a piece of glass, which,
when dropped on the table, flows away in the tailings.
From the sorting tables the diamonds are taken daily to the
general office under an armed escort and delivered to the valua-
tors in charge of the diamond department. These experts clean
the diamonds of any extraneous matter, such as small particles
of adhering blue ground, by boiling them in a mixture of nitric
and hydrochloric acids (aqua regia), or, still better, in fluoric
acid. When the stones are cleaned, they are carefully assorted
with reference to size, color, and purity, and made up in parcels
for sale, formerly to local buyers, who represented the leading
diamond merchants of the world. For several years past De
Beers Company has sold in advance its annual production to a
syndicate of London diamond merchants who have representa-
tives residing in Kimberley.
A Day's Diamond Wash.
CHAPTER XIII
OBSTACLES AND PERILS
N the open workings the imminent hazard of
maiming and death by reef slides was ever
hanging over the heads of the miners. In
view of the rashness with which the pit sink-
ing was pressed, it was a marvel, indeed, that
the actual loss of life was, on the whole, so
small. No complete or accurate records were ever kept of the
men injured or killed in prosecuting the work before the advent
of systematic mining.
In the journals of the Diamond Fields the most noteworthy
casualties were recorded, and it is seen that in the years immedi-
ately following the undertaking of underground mining, the
principal loss of life occurred from the falls of loosened pieces
of blue ground or reef. This is expressly noted in the report
of the Inspector of Mines at Kimberley to the Assistant Com-
missioner of Crown Lands on August 27, 1885. Underground
mining operations in Kimberley and De Beers mines were then,
he observed, becoming very hazardous. In both mines, but
especially in the Kimberley mine, " some of the underground
working places in diamantiferous ground are huge caverns of
from 25 to 52 feet in height and 20 to 30 feet in width. The
roofs of these workings, from exposure to atmosphere, shocks
of blasting, and inherent weakness of the blue or diamantiferous
ground, are becoming extremely unsafe ; occasionally pieces of
the ground or rock fall from the high roof or sides, to the immi-
nent danger of persons working on the floors. During the last
and current months there have been three deaths in under-
ground working places directly due to the dangerous operations
384
OBSTACLES AND PERILS 385
in the mines," and in view of this danger and loss of life, the
inspector urgently recommended the limitation by the govern-
ment of the height and width of the underground workings.
" Main tunnels to be used only for traffic not to exceed 8
feet in width and 8 feet in height.
" Working chambers or stalls from which the blue or dia-
mantiferous ground is excavated in bulk, not to exceed 18 feet
in width by 20 feet in height to the highest point.
" Partitions or pillars not to be of less thickness than half
the width of the contiguous chambers or stalls.
"The roof of ceiling between one level and the next above
to be not less than 20 feet in thickness at the highest point of
the lower workings."
This recommendation had in view obviously the precautions
enforced in the working of coal mines, and would doubtless
have afforded an increased measure of protection, but the
method of working proposed was not well suited to the develop-
ment of the diamond-bearing ground, as was later conclusively
determined. The slaking and crumbling of the diamond-bear-
ing breccia upon exposure to air and moisture make roof falls
and slips from the sides especially frequent and disastrous.
The ground is full of soapy seams, and pieces of considerable
size drop without a moment's warning, so that it is necessary,
in places, to keep the tunnels timbered as near the working face
as possible. Risk from this cause cannot be wholly obviated in
such mining, but the introduction of the new system adopted
for the working of the mines, shortly after they came under my
management, has greatly diminished this peril, and the resultant
loss of life or injury to the workmen. By the new system the
levels are worked back from the surrounding hard rock or reef
in sections, formerly 30 feet, now 40 feet apart, as before partic-
ularly described, in a series of terraces, extracting the ground
from the uppermost level downward in succession. This
method did away with any danger of collapse in the under-
ground works, and by successively robbing out the roof and
sides of the tunnels on each descending terrace, the caving of
z c
386 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
the unstable ground was systematically anticipated and restricted.
No feasible care in the direction of men working in such shifting
ground can entirely do away with casualties. Some are scarcely
to be avoided, but most are attributable, more or less, to the
miners' heedless disregard of the warnings of overseers and
proper precautions.
There was another serious risk in mining in the upper
levels of the mines, where shale is heavily impregnated with
bituminous matter, and no device could wholly prevent the
gathering of carburetted hydrogen, which, mingling with air,
forms the " fire damp " that has been so deadly a peril to miners.
When sinking shafts or driving tunnels in the shale, miners are
prohibited by the strictest injunction of the management, and
the formal regulations of the Government Inspector of Mines,
from carrying any lighted candle into passages where there is
any possibility of this gas having gathered; but no prohibition
has ever been able to prevent an occasional stretch of reckless-
ness on the part of some careless miner. Locked safety lamps
are provided abundantly for testing the atmosphere in such
parts of the mine workings, but neglect of this precaution has
caused startling explosions, scorching and striking men down,
and in a few cases causing death. In 1883 there was a slight
explosion of accumulated gas in the reef workings of the
French Company, Kimberley mine. Here thin bands of coal
had been struck in the black shale, and in an upward drive
to meet a pass, some gas had collected in the interval from
Saturday to Monday. A naked flame set fire to this gas and
caused the explosion. Prior to this time two other cases were
on record, in both of which workmen were severely injured.
Perhaps the most notable instance of the gathering of this gas
was in a heading of the workings of the Gem Company in De
Beers mine in July, 1885. One of the workmen had his face
and hands badly scorched by an explosion at the end of the
heading, and a second explosion occurred shortly afterward,
when the managing director and an overseer attempted to exam-
ine the heading, taking candles to light their way. The director,
OBSTACLES AND PERILS 387
Mr. George McFarland, was severely burned by this blast of
gas, which was described as a "fizz" almost noiseless. Since
the workings have been carried down below the level of the
shale, there has been no danger from fire damp, and the acci-
dents from this cause have ceased to occur in the deeper mines.
The strictest precautions are enjoined in the storing and
handling of explosives used in the diamond mines, and the
need of such stringency was signally emphasized in the destruc-
tive explosion that wrecked a dozen magazines near the com-
pound of the Victoria Mining Company on October 31, 1884,
three years before I took the management of De Beers. The
shock was felt from Dutoitspan to the farthest limits of the west
end of the camps, and terror-stricken people rushed out of their
houses to see a vast heaving cloud of smoke rising hundreds of
feet into the sky.
The magazines were dashed to pieces, as the Kimberley
papers reported, by the terrible power of the explosives. In
most instances the galvanized iron was broken into tiny atoms
as if by myriad hammers, and cartridges were scattered far and
wide through the debris, exploding in volleys or scattering blasts
for many minutes after the explosion. One large stone was
thrown as far as the Central Company's offices, a distance of
two miles, and smaller ones to the West End, three miles from
the magazines. In the most distant parts of the camp there
was a startling breakage of windows, lamps, and chandeliers, and
the hotel bars and canteens were so heavily pelted that " the
floors were swimming with what we might call dynamite cock-
tail, composed of every liquor under heaven from Cape Smoke
to Heidseck and Pommery." Witnesses of the explosion thought
that hundreds had been killed and injured, but almost miracu-
lously, as it seemed, only two persons were killed, one a white,
the other a black, both bodies being horribly mutilated. A
third sufferer was taken up and tenderly cared for, a poor native
deeply gashed and with broken ribs.
No other accidents in the mines have ever approached in
loss to life the terrible disaster from the outbreak of fire in De
388 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
Beers mine in July, 1888. When the Consolidated Mines took
over the property of De Beers Mining Company, nearly all the
blue ground was hoisted from the foo-foot level, through the
first large working shaft constructed, known as No. i west end
incline. In July, 1888, another shaft, No. 2 incline, had just
been completed to the yoo-foot level, and skips in the y-foot
compartment were used in hoisting the ground broken on this
level. In addition to these working shafts a small vertical pros-
pecting winze, called the Friggin's shaft, had been sunk from
the foo-foot to the yoo-foot level. When a tunnel connec-
tion was opened between No. i and No. 2 inclines on the yoo-
foot level, the prospecting winze
was no longer needed, and it
stood abandoned except as a
ladderway. There was a small
disused engine room on the 500-
foot level a short distance from
the winze. With the sinking
and connection of both working
shafts on the yoo-foot level, the
output of the mine increased
until a total of 104,089 loads
was attained during the month
of June, 1888.
On the 9th July following,
large skips in No. 2 incline be-
gan carrying blue ground from
the yoo-foot level, and continued hauling until the morning of
the nth, when one of them jumped the rails, either because the
hoisting was being done at too rapid a pace, or from some
obstruction in the shaft. Examination showed that both skips
were off the rails, and that the shaft timbers had been consider-
ably damaged. In bringing up one of the small skips in the
manway, this was also derailed by the debris in the shaft. The
necessary work of repair was begun at once and continued during
the day. During the changing of the shifts in the evening, the
Mr. Lindsay, Mine Manager, killed in
De Beers Mine Fire, July II, 1888.
OBSTACLES AND PERILS
389
mine manager, Mr. Lindsay, reported that the work was pro-
gressing as fast as practicable and that the shaft would be in run-
ning order within a few hours.
At about half-past six o'clock in the evening Lindsay and
six miners went down the shafts in one of the small skips.
A few minutes later an alarm of fire was given just as I was
about to drive to my home from the works. It was reported
to me through the telephone that the Friggin's shaft was on
fire. It is probable that one of the native miners had sneaked
Fire in De Beers Mine, July II, 1888.
off to the disused engine room on the 5oo-foot level, and placed
a lighted candle so carelessly that the flame ignited the timbers,
perhaps while the lazy savage was snoring on the floor. The
precise cause of the fire was, however, never determined, but
from the time of its starting, it spread with such swiftness that
it could not be stifled.
Within a few minutes after the outbreak of the fire both of
the incline shafts were filled with dense smoke, as both shafts
were upcasts, and the passage of any of the men through these
exits from the mine workings was hopelessly shut off. When
the alarm was given, there were 685 men at work in the levels
below the fire, and our anxiety for their safety may be readily
conceived. At the first warning of danger two men were sent
390 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
down No. 2 incline to notify Lindsay and his companions
of the outbreak of the fire, but the smoke came up through
the shafts so heavily that both were driven back gasping for
breath, and barely reached the surface before they fell on the
floor completely exhausted. For several minutes there was a
tension of waiting for some signal to hoist from Lindsay, or one
of his party, but none was given. Lindsay and his comrades
must have been close to the skip in the shaft when the fire
started, and a signal bell wire ran through the shaft close at
hand. There was time enough for one of the party who went
down the shaft in the skip with Lindsay to climb up the
shaft by means of the timbers, a distance of 150 feet, and in
view of this, the failure of these men to get into the skip and
ring a signal to hoist is inexplicable. Seeing at once that ascent
through No. 2 incline was probably hopelessly blocked by the
outpouring smoke, I hastened to the mouth of the other shaft
(No. i incline shaft). The smoke was also streaming out of
this shaft in dense volumes.
The signal to hoist men by ringing three bells was repeatedly
given, but I hesitated to give the order to hoist the skip, which
was at the 6oo-foot level, as the risk of hoisting a skip-load of
men through the stifling smoke was appalling. On the other
hand, it was impossible to know at the surface in what desperate
straits the men might be on the 6oo-foot level. So, before giv-
ing the signal to hoist, I took measures to revive the men who
would be overcome by the smoke in ascending the shaft, and
water was provided to dash on them if they came up with their
clothes on fire. It was a moment when no balancing of proba-
bilities could determine the decision. There was a desperate
chance of safety in the swift pulling up of the skip. I could
not let the piteous appeals go on apparently unheeded. I gave
the signal to hoist at top speed in response to the last pleading
signal. When the skip was about 300 feet from the surface, the
wire winding rope parted. The broken end came whizzing up
through the shaft, but the skip with its load of four poor victims
fell crashing down to the sump at the bottom of the shaft, a
OBSTACLES AND PERILS 391
little below the 6oo-foot level. When the rope was examined, it
was found that the flames from the burning timbers had made
it so hot that the tension of the skip drew out the wires to fine
needle points which snapped under the strain. When the first
signal to hoist was given, there were ten or twelve men in the
skip, but the majority left it when the signal to hoist met with
no response. It was impossible for the men at the 6oo-foot
level to know that the shaft through which they wished to be
hoisted was on fire a hundred feet above them, nor could we on
the surface know what was happening 500 feet below.
The mine was ventilated at the time through an outlet into
the old open workings, and through the Gem shaft on the east
side of the mine. The Gem shaft was a small, old working
shaft that had been sunk from a terrace in the blue ground.
Unfortunately it had been partially closed by a recent ground
slide in that part of the mine. It was, however, still sufficiently
open to be of invaluable ventilating service at this crisis, and it
could have been opened for the rescue of the men in the mine
if there had been no other means of escape through the outlet
into the open workings. During the hours of fearful anxiety
that followed the closing of the two main shafts, the outlet from
the mine to the open workings was intently watched, and daring
parties penetrated far within it in the hope of communicating
with miners escaping from the range of the fire. Almost all of
the men in the mine were well acquainted with this passage to
the surface, and it was confidently hoped that many, at least,
would contrive to grope their way upward through this outlet
to safety. Fortunately the air draught through this passage
was downcast, and the inrush of air cleared the passage from
smoke.
To the immeasurable relief of all, so anxiously expectant,
one white man and six native miners came climbing through
this passage into the open workings at about ten o'clock on the
night of the fire. This showed that a practicable way of escape
from the mines was open, but many hours of fearful suspense
followed throughout that night and the following day, while the
392 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
miners were groping their way to the surface through the same
opening. Forty-two white men and 441 native miners were
thus rescued, but 24 whites and 178 natives lost their lives
in levels and passageways charged with deadly smoke. The
downcast draught through the Gem shaft was the salvation of
the greater part of the rescued men, who spent this fearful night
on the level close to this shaft, which was free from smoke.
During the afternoon of the following day, July 12, a party of
heroic men penetrated far into the mine through the entrance
No. 2 Incline Shaft, looking East.
in the open workings, and rescued a number of natives who
were cowering stupefied by the smoke, or paralyzed by fear. In
this rescuing party were some who had passed the night in this
frightful prison, but who were, nevertheless, among the first to
volunteer to go down again in the desperately hazardous venture
to save their comrades.
No. i incline was completely burned out and caved in during
the night of the fire. During the night of the I2th No. 2
incline caved in also for a distance of about 40 feet, near the
junction of the shale with the hard rock, shutting off" all com-
munication with the mine. Before the latter shaft could be
.4*
OBSTACLES AND PERILS
393
394 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
reopened, the water in the mine rose to a depth of 20 feet, filling
all the tunnels on the yoo-foot level.
Several days after the fire I went down the shaft accompanied
by Captain Hambley, Assistant Inspector of Mines, and one of
the overmen. I arranged to lower the skip gradually down the
incline to make the first inspection. As we went down, an
insulated signal wire was lowered, and provision was made so
that I could keep the bell ringing continually, and instructions
were given to haul up the skip at the moment the ringing
stopped, for I feared that we might drop into foul air so sud-
denly that we would not be able to signal in the usual manner.
So we went down in the skip slowly to a point about 150 feet
above the crushed ground in the shaft. At this point, some 250
feet below the surface, we saw the body of one of the men who
went down with Mr. Lindsay just before the breaking out of
the fire. We did not stop, for the moment, but kept on signalling
until the skip was lowered to the ground which closed the shaft.
Our search for any further trace of the lost miners was fruitless,
for we could find no more bodies. Mr. Lindsay and his remain-
ing companions were buried beneath the debris when this part of
the shaft caved in. Finding that the further descent of the skip
was cut off, I then gave the signal to hoist, and on reaching the
surface, gave instructions for men to go down and remove
the body seen in the shaft. The poor man had climbed up to
the point where he died, in a desperate effort to escape. The
other men, as well as the skip in which they went down, were
buried deeply under the mass of crushed ground.
The work of repairing No. 2 incline could not be begun
until July I9th, for the smoke and heat from the mine made
work in the crushed portion of the shaft unendurable. Even
then it was only practicable to advance very slowly, and the shaft
was not opened until the jd of August, when the large skips
were at once employed to bail out the water. Eight days later
the mine was drained, and the reopening of the workings could
be undertaken.
It was originally intended that the large skips in No. 2 in-
OBSTACLES AND PERILS
395
396 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
cline should be used in hauling blue ground from the yoo-foot
level only, as there were ample facilities in No. i and in the 7-foot
compartment of No. 2 for hoisting all the blue ground taken
from the 6oo-foot level and the levels above. Consequently no
stations had been made ready for the larger skips on the latter level.
It was necessary, therefore, to open tunnels, sink passes, and put
in chutes to connect the 6oo-foot level with the surface, besides
excavating a pump chamber and erecting new pumps, before the
regular output of blue ground could be resumed. During the
month of August only 8613 loads were hauled, and this was
mostly of poor quality from excavations of the west end of the
mine. During September the output was increased to 57,408
loads, in October to 87,225 ; but it was not until the following
month of November that the output reached 104,285 loads, or
approximately the same amount as in the month before the fire.
This brief sketch may serve to show to the general reader
something of the terror, the peril, and the disaster which an out-
break of fire in any great mine may cause. As soon as practica-
ble after this fire, the previously designed systematic and thorough
opening of the mine was advanced. In addition to No. 2 incline,
the rock shaft (elsewhere particularly described) was completed
and connected with the mine by a tunnel on the 8oo-foot level. A
vertical escape shaft was sunk from one of the terraces in the
open mine to the yoo-foot level. It had a ladderway and a
single cage compartment, and was connected with seven levels in
the mine. The Oriental shaft, situated on the east side of the
mine, was connected with it at the 5Oo-foot level, from which
all parts of the mines were reached by ladderways. This shaft
serves to ventilate the mine, and as an important passage for
escape in case of need. Besides these four shafts there was a
tunnel into the open mine, which was connected with the lower
workings by a double ladderway. The Oriental shaft and No. 2
incline were upcasts. The rock shaft, escape shaft, and the
tunnel into the open mine were downcasts.
The first consideration in working a mine is to have a safe
exit for the workmen, in case a fire breaks out or the mine
OBSTACLES AND PERILS 397
becomes flooded by suddenly tapping a large quantity of water,
and at the diamond mines this precaution is strictly carried out.
In the early days of underground mining, when many of the
levels had exits into the open mine, it was necessary, in pro-
viding numerous escapes for the workmen, to guard against sly
sallies of natives when there was no danger, because they could
leave the mine with stolen diamonds, or could go out for the
purpose of obtaining intoxicating drink, and bring back bottles
of Cape brandy, called " Cape Smoke," into the mines with
them. Although the numerous escapes from the mine were
guarded by watchmen, the dusky Kafirs would come, at times,
in squads, and overpower the guards and make their escape. An
ingenious device was invented by our electrician, Mr. Drum-
mond, by placing a small copper rod directly above the iron
rungs of the ladders, and connecting both with a battery. Then
when a man placed his hand or foot upon the copper rod, it bent
down, completing the circuit, and rung an alarm bell in the
mine and on the surface. The natives could never quite under-
stand why they were always met by a posse of white guards at
the particular place where they were trying to escape.
In later years, since the mines became deeper, all workmen
are taken in and out of the mines by means of cages. There
are double ladderways in the shafts which may be used in case
of emergency, but there is always a sufficient number of white
men employed about the tops of these shafts to prevent the
escape of natives.
In view of the responsibility resting upon me from my
acceptance of the General Managership of De Beers Mines in
the year preceding this great disaster, and the common duty of
all connected with the mines to do everything practicable to
save life, to prevent the outbreak of fire, and to guard against
all contingencies, it is proper to note the warmly appreciative
recognition accorded by the presiding chairman, Mr. Barnett
Isaacs Barnato, at the adjourned first annual meeting of the
shareholders of the De Beers Consolidated Mines Limited.
Mr. Barnato said in his address to the shareholders : —
398 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
OBSTACLES AND PERILS 399
" I suppose you all remember about the sad calamity by
which so many poor fellows lost their lives. At this point I
feel I must pay a tribute of respect to the brave men who
worked and risked their lives on behalf of those poor fellows
who perished in the disaster. I remember on that sad occasion,
which will never be effaced from my memory, and from the
memories of many who lived in Kimberley at the time — I
remember seeing our respected and able general manager, Mr.
Gardner Williams, a gentleman to whom I believe no person
can attach the least blame, working night and day, and doing all
he possibly could for the relief of the sufferers. That calamity
was an act of God, or at least we must conclude so, for on the
very day of the disaster there was an accident in No. 2 shaft,
which blocked it up to some extent, and the Gem escape shaft
gave way only a week previously. I, therefore, think that
calamity was an act of God, and I hope a similar disaster will
never again be witnessed in Kimberley or elsewhere. In paying
a tribute of respect to Mr. Williams, who worked all through
the night when the fire broke out, and to the brave men who
went into the mine, to try and save their fellows, we must not
forget that those men risked their lives, that they went down
into the mine, when millions and millions of loads of reef were
hanging over them, to open up the shaft so that the men might
escape. And the result of their work, we know, was that out of
about seven hundred men in the mine, five hundred escaped.
Therefore, in passing this tribute of respect to Mr. Williams
and the men, I feel sure that it will be universally indorsed by
the shareholders. [Applause.] No more need be said about
this matter, except that the state of the mine after the calamity
necessitated a considerable expenditure of money. I think it
took us three months to get the mine in proper working order,
and we lost three months' labor, at a cost of something like
,£250,000. The balance sheet only shows about ^30,000, but
by the loss of blue, etc., the loss to the company was, as I have
stated, not much short of a quarter of a million of money."
Providentially, and by the exercise of every feasible precaution,
400 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
there has been no serious spread of fire in the mines since the
occurrence of this great disaster.
The chief peril to life and damage to the workings of the
mine, for a number of years, has come from the destructive
" mud rushes," as the miners call them. There is no water in
the blue ground or the mine itself, but the water flowing into
the mine from the surrounding reef made a muddy mixture
of the disintegrated shales, decomposed basalt, floating reef, and
low grade blue ground, which had fallen into the worked out
section of the open mines. At times the tremendous pressure
of the shifting ground above forces this mud in vast quantities
into the working levels of the mine, and the miners do not have
time to escape this inrushing mass even by instant flight. On
several occasions tunnels in the mine have been filled to the
extent of thousands of feet by these rushes in a few minutes.
As the work in the mines reached the deeper levels, these rushes
became so frequent that the working of the mines was seriously
interfered with, and no watchfulness could avert the loss of life.
In June, 1897, one of the worst mud rushes known in the
record of the mines occurred in De Beers mine, filling up almost
instantly a large number of tunnels on the looo-foot level. Two
native miners were overtaken by the rush, and shut up in a
drainage passage that was in progress to tap the water in that
section of the mine. For a stretch of 28 hours they were held
fast in this narrow prison chamber, momentarily dreading a fur-
ther rise of the mud that would bury them alive. Meanwhile
the most daring efforts were made to rescue them from their
stifling prison, and two heroic men, Thomas Brand and John
Brown, finally burrowed through 200 feet on the top of the mud,
and brought the two natives out safely at an appalling risk to
their own lives. The rescue was barely in time, for the next
morning another rush followed, filling up the tunnels again still
further, and rising to the top of the passage that had given
breathing room to the imprisoned men. For this signal heroism
medals of the Royal Humane Society were very fitly given to
Brand and Brown.
OBSTACLES AND PERILS
401
4-02 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
In May, 1898, there was another great mud rush through
the ii2o-foot level, from which a whole gang of native workers
barely escaped alive. On this occasion "Jim," one of the best
of the "baas" boys, was almost buried alive with his gang of 15
men. The rush shut this working party up in a narrow passage
on this level for more than 64 hours. When the men were
rescued at length from their stifling quarters, where they were
imprisoned for more than two and a half days, without a morsel
of food to eat or a drop of water to drink, all were greatly
exhausted, as might be supposed. But in spite of his sufferings,
the brave leader, Jim, went back at once into the mine to
grope back over the mud in search of one of his gang whom he
supposed was missing, and he would not return to the surface
until he learned beyond doubt that all had been rescued.
The endurance of the native miners under such circumstances
is remarkable. In July, 1898, a Basuto boy, "Joseph," was
almost buried in a mud rush, and was completely shut in the
" dead end " of a tunnel, on the 96o-foot level. The attempt
to clear a passage to rescue him was begun at once, and the work
was pushed without a respite night and day, but it was late on
the third day before the place of his entombment was reached.
He was found lying crouched beneath some timbers resting on
an overturned truck, around which the mud had risen to the
depth of two and a half feet. The rescue party had given up
all hope of finding him alive, and were about to blast the envel-
oping mud in order to pull out the truck, when a faint cough
was heard, apparently coming out of the dense mass of mud.
The natives at work were badly frightened at this weird sound,
and called up the contractor in charge, who finally succeeded in
digging out the poor Basuto boy nearly lifeless. One of his legs
had been pinned beneath the truck so heavily that the circulation
of the blood was stopped, and mortification set in, necessitating
its amputation. The boy bore the operation with the charac-
teristic fortitude of his race, and is stumping about to-day with
a wooden leg. He had been shut up for more than three days
in a little hole in the ground wholly without food and drink,
OBSTACLES AND PERILS
403
and with only a few cubic feet of compressed stagnant air to
breathe.
When a tunnel is being driven there is only one way of
escape, and the working face is called a dead end, though not
on account of its deadly nature in cases of a mud rush, for
it is a common term in miners' parlance. In point of fact
these dead ends are the safest places in the vicinity of a
mud rush. The mud, which first fills the mouth of the tun-
nel, forces the air ahead of it, and compresses it to such an
extent that it checks the advance of the mud. Hence, if a
native is hemmed in, he has sufficient air to breathe until
he can be rescued. On more than one occasion when natives
have been caught in the rush of mud, their narrow cell would
not have held sufficient air to keep them alive had it not
been that a large quantity of air was compressed into the small
space.
On one occasion two natives were shut up in the dead end
of a tunnel for ninety-five hours. They had no food, but man-
aged to obtain a small quantity of water as it trickled down from
the roof and sides of the tunnel after finding its way through the
blue ground from the level above. These men had more air
space than is usually the case, and the temperature in the ends
of the tunnels ordinarily ranges from 75 to 90 degrees. When
rescued they were greatly exhausted, but after a few days of
medical treatment they were quite fit again, and resumed their
work in the mine. At another time, when natives were shut in
for nearly two days, they swallowed small balls of soft mud, and
when rescued it took a considerable time to bring their diges-
tive organs back to their normal condition. On several occa-
sions the white miners have been victims to similar experiences,
and now and again a white miner has lost his life by being
overtaken and enveloped in the mud. The longest period of
time that a white man has been confined in the end of a tunnel
is about two days, and there were a dozen or more natives with
him. By giving the usual miners' signal of tap-tap — tap-tap-
tap, on the walls of the tunnel, we knew he was alive, and it
404 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
may be imagined that no time was lost in extricating him and
his men from their perilous position.
Of recent years the measures described in the preceding
chapter have proved effective in freeing Kimberley mine from
this peril. The water which finds its way into De Beers mine
has not yet been entirely taken up, but by driving tunnels around
the mine to tap the water the danger has been minimized. On
the ist of October, 1899, s'x natives were overcome by a mud
rush and killed. Wherever there is the least sign of mud, the
workmen are withdrawn, and the places fenced off until the mud
has come out or the water is drained off, leaving the places safe
for the miners to reenter them.
As there have been from ten to twelve thousand men employed
in the mines and workshops and on the depositing floors, three-
fifths of whom are underground workers, who are to a greater
or less extent raw and untrained natives, the percentage of deaths
and injuries has not been excessive.
In the painstaking and valuable reports of Dr. C. Le Neve
Foster, H. M. Inspector of Mines, he compares the returns of
casualties in the South African mines with the like statistics of
mines in which trained Englishmen are employed. This com-
parison bears hardly in its application to the diamond mines, in
view of the fact that the great majority of the native workers in
these mines are "raw hands." There is probably a change of
half the workers in the mine every year, and the men coming
in to offset the outflow are mostly natives who have not worked
in the mines, and are familiarly known as "green hands." In
time these men are trained to a fair measure of proficiency, but
it is to be expected that the proportion of accidents to the
numbers of such workmen will be greater than the average in
English mines.
From the carefully prepared statistics of Sir Frederic Augus-
tus Abel, covering the loss of life in English mines,1 it appears
that the greatest loss occurs from falls of the roof and sides
1 Supplement to Forty-fifth Annual Report of the Registrar General of Births,
Deaths, and Marriages in Great Britain.
OBSTACLES AND PERILS 405
of mine workings, amounting to 40.77 of the total. The loss
of life from explosions comes next, with a showing of 23.17 per
cent. In the records of fires in mines from all causes, it is
shown that only a very small percentage of men are actually
burned to death, fully 90 per cent of the deaths resulting from
suffocation.
Contrary to the popular impression, it has been shown by
Dr. C. Le Neve Foster, that the ore miner has nearly as danger-
ous an occupation as the coal miner; and in Cornwall and some
other metalliferous districts the average losses from accidents
were higher than in coal mines. Dr. Ogle has pushed this com-
parison farther by his statistical demonstration that, in spite of
accidents, the death rate of coal miners is not high. In com-
parative mortality these miners ranked only thirtieth in a list
of ninety-four occupations ; but the mining in Cornwall, at
the time of this report, was exceptionally perilous, standing
ninety-first on the list. In other words, only three of the ninety-
four occupations exceeded the mining in this district in deadli-
ness. This peculiarly high mortality was ascribed to inadequate
ventilation and excessive climbing of ladders from deep mines.1
These conditions, of late years, have been bettered.
1 Supplement to Forty-fifth Annual Report of the Registrar General of Births,
Deaths, and Marriages in Great Britain.
406 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
CHAPTER XIV
THE WORKERS IN THE MINES
OWHERE else on the face of the earth is there
an assemblage of workers of such varied types
of race, nationality, and coloring as are to be
seen in the South African Diamond Fields.
There is hardly a nation of Europe or Colony
of the British Empire that has not some repre-
sentatives. There are adventurers from the United States,
Mexico, and South America; and white men from all the Colo-
nies of South Africa mingle with the masses of native Africans
of every shade of dusky hue shown by the tribes that range
from the Cape to the equator. Even the American Indian is
not unknown in the fields, one specimen at least having resided
there for many years. Add to this motley throng a sprinkling
of dark East Indians, Malays, and Chinese, and the kaleido-
scopic shifts and coloring of this babel in the
Diamond Fields may be dimly conceived.
Only about a sixth of the workers in the
mines are whites, and the larger part of these
are employed above ground on the floors, in
the workshops, and in the offices of the mining
companies. The majority of the white miners
are of English descent, largely coming from j. M. jones, Manager,
Premier Mine,
the hematite mines of Cumberland, and the tin,
lead, and copper mines of Cornwall. They come to the fields
in search of employment, which is given as occasion arises.
Experience in other kinds of mines is soon adapted to the
conditions in the Diamond Fields, and the men in the De
Beers mines show a high average of efficiency. The nationalities
407
4o8 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
of the mechanics, engine-drivers, and others working about
machinery are Scotch, English, and colonial, with a sprinkling
of Americans and other nationalities. Those working on the
floors and about the washing machines are largely of colonial
birth — English and Dutch, — the balance being mostly home-
born Englishmen.
The majority of the white workers above and below ground
have their homes in Kimberley and the other neighboring min-
The Engineers, Mechanics, and Workmen who built De Beers Crushing Plant.
ing towns. Wages paid to European day laborers on the surface
range from IQJ. to 15^. a day; mechanics receive higher pay,
which ranges from i6s. %d. to £i per day, and white miners are
paid the same rate. Miners who prove their competence are
given contracts for specified work, by which their earnings
are usually materially increased. Since 1892 all underground
work has been done by the men working eight-hour shifts.
The length of the working day above ground varies with the
class of work done. Engine-drivers and men employed in gen-
eral service at the mines work from ten to twelve hours daily.
THE WORKERS IN THE MINES
409
On the depositing floors work begins in the summer at six
o'clock in the morning ; time is given for breakfast, which is
brought to the men, an hour's rest is allowed
at noon, and work generally ends between 5
and 5.30 in the afternoon. All mechanics work
54 hours in the week, stopping at i o'clock on
Saturday, at which hour all work on the surface
ends for the day. Sunday is a full holiday
above and below ground for every one except
those in charge of pumping engines, pumps, Frank ManilX' Mana-
ger, De Beers Mine
boilers, man cages, etc., which must have atten- Compound.
tion on Sundays as well as week days, and a few hands employed
underground on necessary repair work to the shafts and mines,
which cannot be done during the week while the mines are in
full work. Kxtra time is allowed mechanics, miners, and others
working under exceptional conditions. The pay of the men
enables them to live comfortably in the mining towns, and as
they are little given to dissipation, the thrifty are enabled to add
to their savings yearly, as the work, except for the interruption
by the war, is continuous and regular.
Employes' houses in Kimberley are scattered through the
city, and many of them own their own homes. Some of the
miners' houses cost ^500 or over. They are commonly made
of brick, or with corrugated iron sides and roofs — the division
walls being of unburnt brick and the outside walls being of the
same material. The rental of a house in town
ranges from £4. to _£8 per month. The price
of board at the boarding houses is about 25^.
per week. The price of meat has commonly
been about 6d. or ^d. per pound, although since
the war, and owing to the devastation caused
by rinderpest, the price of beef has nearly
R. G. Scott, Superin- j 11 j T-> 11 . j r
tendent, De Beers doubled. 1 o supply the urgent demand tor
convict station. cheaper meat, the De Beers Company has
erected large cold-storage plants at Cape Town and Kimberley,
and is now importing meat for sale to butchers at Kimberley.
4io THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
Beef and mutton make up the bulk of the meat sold. From
March to August the markets are well supplied with game,
chiefly springbok, stembok, guinea fowl, partridges, bustards,
korhaan, and sand-grouse. Vegetables of all kinds are fairly
plentiful and to be had at reasonable prices. For potatoes the
current charge is from 155. to yos. per sack of somewhat less
than 200 pounds. Cabbages, cauliflower, beets, beans, parsnips,
carrots, onions, sweet corn, and celery are among the vegetables
chiefly sold. Melons and fruits of all kinds are also plentiful in
season. All vegetables and fruit brought from the neighboring
Rinderpest.
farms to Kimberley for sale are taken to the market square and
sold under the supervision of the market master to green-
grocers, East Indian hawkers, and the public generally. Flour
has nearly a fixed value, being cheaper when the production
in Basutoland and other grain-producing districts is plentiful,
but never exceeds a certain price, fixed by the competition for im-
ported flour upon which the government levies a duty. The flour
chiefly used by the natives and by many of the white people as well
is what is called Boer meal, which makes a brown bread, for only
the bran has been removed. There are a number of roller mills
in the country that produce flour which compares favorably with
THE WORKERS IN THE MINES
411
412 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
imported flour. There is an understanding between the Govern-
ment, the local dealers, and De Beers, that De Beers Company
shall only sell the necessaries of life to the natives in the com-
pounds, and that the price shall range about the same as local
prices in town. Any profits derived from these sales is to be
distributed among public institutions and charities.
Chiefs of the Batlapin Tribe.
In the mines operated by the De Beers Company alone,
more than eleven thousand African natives are employed
below and above ground, coming from the Transvaal, Ba-
sutoland, and Bechuanaland, from districts far north of the
Limpopo and the Zambesi, and from the Cape Colony on the
east and the south to meet the swarms flocking from Delagoa
Bay and countries along the coast of the Indian Ocean, while a
few cross the continent from Damaraland and Namaqualand,
and the coast washed by the Atlantic. The larger number are
roughly classed as Basutos, Shanganes, M'umbanes, and Zulus,
but there are many Batlapins from Bechuanaland, Amafengu,
THE WORKERS IN THE MINES 413
and a sprinkling of nearly every other tribe in South Africa.
Many travel hundreds of miles, and some more than a thousand
miles, in order to reach the Diamond Fields, and many of these
arrive half starved, and so weak and emaciated that they are
almost worthless as laborers for weeks afterward. The natives,
as a rule, are generally muscular, sinewy men, but not fleshy.
Their feet are broad and flat, but their legs and arms are com-
monly well rounded, and their thigh and shoulder muscles are
large. The living skeletons who come in from the far interior
districts of Africa gain flesh, as rapidly as lean cattle do in green
pastures, when they reach a field flowing with meat and por-
ridge. In the early years of the mines, the raw recruits were
hooted at and sometimes pelted with stones by their kinsmen
at the mines, as before noted, but of late years this rough greet-
ing and hazing has very largely passed away.
For the lodging and feeding of this great force of native
Africans, special provision is made by the erection of large
walled enclosures, called compounds, at the mines and on de-
positing floors. There are seventeen of these compounds on
the Diamond Fields, twelve of which are owned by the De
Beers Company. The largest of all is the one at De Beers
mine, and the description of this will serve for all, as they are
essentially alike, except in size.
Fully four acres are enclosed by the walls of De Beers Com-
pound, giving ample space for the housing of its three thousand
inmates, with an open central ground for exercise and sports.
The fences are of corrugated iron, rising ten feet above the
ground, and there is an open space of ten feet between the fence
and the buildings. At the northern end of the compound there
is an entrance gate. Iron cabins fringe the inner sides of the
enclosure, divided into rooms 25 feet by 30 feet, which are
lighted by electricity. In each room twenty to twenty-five
natives are lodged. The beds supplied are ordinary wooden
bunks, and the bed clothing is usually composed of blankets
which the natives bring with them, or buy at the stores in the
compound, where there is a supply of articles to meet the sim-
4H THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
THE WORKERS IN THE MINES
__^ U
416 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
pie needs of the natives. Besides these stores there is a hospital
and dispensary, where any needed medical attention is promptly
given, and a church for religious services, conducted by mission-
aries delegated by the various church denominations. During
week days this church is also used as a school for the instruc-
tion of the natives. Compartments, with entrances opening
through the walls, are set apart for latrines, and cared for with
strict attention to sanitation. In the centre of the enclosure
there is a large concrete swimming bath, in which most of the
natives are at times found diving and swimming, as is vividly
shown in the accompanying illustrations (see also page 440).
If any fail to show the necessary regard to cleanliness, they are
compelled to keep themselves clean.
A competent manager is in charge of the compound, and
his assistants are intrusted with the charge of preserving order
and enforcing the compound regulations. The natives look
upon the manager as their great white chief. He settles any
disputes which may arise among them, and in conjunction
with the mine manager investigates any complaints in reference
to the amount of pay which has been allowed them, or any
punishment or ill treatment by their white " baases," which,
needless to say, is contrary to the regulations.
The compound is lighted by electricity, arc lights being
hung within and without the enclosure. When a newcomer or
a number of natives, for they usually come in little troops,
apply at the gate of the compound for employment, the appli-
cants are admitted into the compound only by the immediate
direction of the manager or his assistants. As soon as they
enter, their clothes are searched to prevent the smuggling in of
liquor, playing cards, or other forbidden articles; then the
officer in charge of the dispensary examines each separately and
carefully. No diseased man is given work, and any suffering
from contagious diseases are sent at once to a quarantine build-
ing outside the compound, where a temporary provision for
such cases has been made. Within twenty-four hours, a second
examination of every one admitted who shows any symptoms
THE WORKERS IN THE MINES
of disease is made by a physician in the employ of the company,
who daily visits the compound.
To enter the service of the company, each applicant must
sign a written contract, binding himself to live in the compound
and work continuously and faithfully for a period of at least
De Beers Compound.
three months, or longer if he so desires. At the expiration of
a contract, the applicant may leave if he chooses, or his contract
may be renewed indefinitely. Some of the natives in De Beers
Compound have been employed continuously for ten years or
more in the service of the company, for the more industrious
prefer the certainty of wholesome food and steady pay to the
418 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
THE WORKERS IN THE MINES
419
u
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O W
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420 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
shifting to any other occupation that is open to them, or to
return to their old savage life. All contracts are filled out in
behalf of the natives by an officer delegated for this purpose by
the Registrar of Natives, a Government Official, in order to keep
a record of all additions to the inmates of the compound, and
provide assurance that the contract is signed with a full under-
standing of its provisions. In consideration of this service the
native pays a registration fee of a shilling, and a shilling per
month during the term of his employment. All receipts from
De Beers Compound Musical Band of Natives.
this source, except the registration fee, go to the Kimberley
Hospital Fund for the care of sick and wounded natives. As
the company provides for the natives in its own hospitals, where
free medical attendance and nurses, as well as free food, are
furnished, the Kimberley hospital receives a very large monthly
contribution without being at any expense for the care of sick
natives in the compounds. After his signature or mark has been
affixed to this agreement, a native cannot leave the compound
until the specified term has expired, except by the permission of
the compound manager, which is rarely given because of the
opportunities that would be opened for taking out diamonds.
THE WORKERS IN THE MINES
421
A Fireside Gathering, Kimbcrley Compound.
Underground work in the mine is carried on both day
and night by three shifts, under the supervision of the mine
manager and overman and three assistant overmen, one of whom
is detailed to take charge of each shift. The shaft is reached
through an underground passage leading from the compound,
and a partition in this passage gives separate entry and exit
ways to and from the mine. All laborers are taken up and
down the shafts in cages. Each " boy " wears a number on his
wristband for easy identification, and when he passes into the
mine his number is taken by a guard, and a tally machine
records each native as he leaves the compound to go to work ;
on his return, daily, he brings a ticket noting in what working
gang he was employed and what pay he had earned for the day.
The natives commonly work for the contractors, who mine and
tram the diamond-bearing ground at a price per load which is
arranged by tender, and the natives are paid a fixed wage per
diem ; but a worker must drill a certain number of feet of holes
for blasting, which in soft ground is about twelve feet, or he
must load a fixed number of trucks, in order to earn his daily
pay. The natives usually work in the mines in gangs num-
bering from ten to thirty men and boys. The limit of age
422 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
for the employes in the mines is fixed by government regu-
lation, which provides that no boy under twelve shall be
employed. Another regulation prohibits the employment of
females in mining work. It is further provided that no native
shall be employed underground, or in any of the compounds,
except under the responsible charge of a white employe of the
Natives making Coffee, Kimberley Compound.
company. The handling of the dynamite cartridges used in blast-
ing is intrusted solely to white employes, and all work done by
the native gangs is laid out and directed by white overseers.
The drilling in the blue ground is done for the most part
with long hand drills, — jumpers, — which are sharpened at both
ends, and which the natives readily learn to use effectively; where
the blue rock is hard, the natives use single hand hammers.
Their sinewy frames and powers of endurance enable them to
THE WORKERS IN THE MINES
423
labor day in and out without any apparent injury to their health.
As a matter of fact, nearly all gain strength and flesh in the
mines. All the "drill boys" in De Beers mines are now
natives, and are scattered through the mines on various levels
Open Mine Workers, Kimberley Compound.
while working, the number at any one point depending upon
the size of the working face or stope of blue ground. At points
half a dozen boys may be working together with drills, indus-
triously pecking away at the diamond-bearing ground. Natives
are also employed in clearing away the excavated ground, and
loading the trucks, which run on tramways to the hoisting shafts
424 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
when working on a main level, or to chutes on the intermediate
levels. If the roofs of the levels were transparent and a view
were possible of the workers, — whites and blacks, — toiling day
and night in these underground passages and stopes, gleaming
with the white rays of electric lamps, or plunged in darkness,
only relieved by the flickering yellow flame points of straggling
candles — this vast underground hive of workers would be a
greatly stirring and impressive sight. As it is, some conception
Kimberley Mine Compound.
of the great mine may be built up piecemeal in the mind's eye
by combining the illustrations of the men at work which artists
in the mines have been able to make, some of which are given
in the pages of this work.
There is a certain racial resemblance in the temperament,
character, and often in the speech of all these native miners, but
there are also marked tribal distinctions. The natives are clan-
nish, and it is rare to see members of two different tribes lodg-
ing together. " Boys " of the one tribe always prefer working
together, and this natural liking is humored to some extent in
THE WORKERS IN THE MINES
425
Natives drilling in the Open Mine.
selecting gangs to work, although the mixing of the tribes in the
mines is inevitable, and often desirable. The Zulu, sprung from
the warlike tribes
moulded by
Chaka, is one of
the best of the
native workmen,
tall, straight, and
erect in bearing,
proud of the tribal
traditions of the
Ama/ulu, " the
people of the
sky," and, but for
an exceptional fit
of passion, a good-
tempered, cheery,
and ever willing and capable worker. The Amashangaans, com-
ing chiefly from Portuguese East Africa, are closely akin to the
Zulus, and resem-
ble them in form,
temperament, and
working efficien-
cy. The Trans-
vaal Basutos rank
with the other two
as workmen, for
most are indus-
trious and capa-
ble, and form the
most obedient
class of native la-
borers, and nearly
The Last of Open Mining in Dutoitspan Mine. &JJ ljeCQme skilled
in drilling. The men of most of the native tribes range over
5 feet 8 inches in height. Many are fully 6 feet tall, and several
426 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
of the old hands are from
6 feet 4 inches to 6 feet 6
inches in height. To this
high range the Batlapins
from Bechuanaland are the
most notable exception, for
they often are not much
larger than the dwarfed
Bushmen of the Kalahari
desert. They are not fa-
vorites at the mines with
the other tribes, or with the
whites, for they are often
impudent and meanly self-
ish, and difficult to in-
struct in underground
work.
The ordinary dress of the natives in the compound is a wool-
len shirt, trousers, and shoes. They rarely wear any under-
clothing, and when at work in the mines, a pair of ragged
Native drilling Underground.
Drilling Underground.
THE WORKERS IN THE MINES
427
trousers, a blanket, or old breech cloth will often be their only
covering. Occasional visitors to the mine are startled by the
native disregard for cover ; but the natives are commonly alert to
pass the word " umfas " (woman) from one to another when a
lady visitor is seen in the mines, and then the native workers on
the level ahead scramble for cover or hiding.
The Midday Meal.
When any injuries happen to the men from accidents in the
mines, the suffering natives show remarkable fortitude in bear-
ing pain and enduring the necessary surgical operations. Their
blood is warm and pure, and cuts in their flesh, or bruises, heal
very rapidly. They suffer most from diseases of the lungs,
especially phthisis and pneumonia, which are common maladies
of the native tribes outside of the mines, as well as within the
compounds. They can readily obtain fresh vegetables and
fruit, but the common choice of food, such as mealie meal and
meat, exposes them to attacks of scurvy. In spite of the care-
ful and repeated medical examinations before men are admitted
to the compound, cases of leprosy are occasionally found.
In such cases provision is made at once for the isolation of the
sufferers. The Government officials are notified, and the dis-
eased men are transferred to Robin Island, where the Govern-
ment has a permanent leper station. Outbreaks of other
contagious or infectious diseases are met by the isolation of the
patients in a special lazaretto outside of the town, which is under
the supervision of the board of health. Natives suffering from
428 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
any disease that is not infectious are cared for in the hospital
of the compound, which has several wards, — one for cases of
fever, one for convalescents, and one for surgical treatment.
A qualified dispenser is in charge of the hospital and dispen-
sary, and physicians engaged by the Company are in daily
attendance.
At the shops in the compound any articles of food and cloth-
ing which the inmates commonly want are supplied. The staff
of life is corn, or mealie meal in some form, sometimes baked
in hoe cakes, but generally made into porridge. A consid-
erable quantity of brown bread made from Boer meal is also
eaten, with meat, vegetables, and fruit in season. Meat is com-
monly cooked by boiling or by roasting over wood fires. The
prices are never permitted to be in excess of the common market
prices in Kimberley. If a " boy " does not want the trouble of
cooking for himself, he can buy ready cooked food, which is sup-
plied by the company or at any one of a number of coffee shops
in the compound. One of the favorite resorts belongs to a
Zulu, popularly known as " Roast Beef," who had the misfor-
tune to lose his leg in an accident in the mines. He does his
cooking over an open wood fire with the aid of a few kettles and
pans ; and a bare wooden table, usually made from dynamite
cases, serves for his dishes ; but he is a chef in his line, in the
eyes of the compound, and is making more money than he
earned before he was crippled.
There are a number of native tailors on the ground, who can
fit and make a suit to order, or repair one, with no little dexter-
ity. Native mining suits are usually made of the English cloth
known as moleskin, and the tailors, in accordance with South
African custom, put large patches on the seat and around the
foot of the trousers. Sewing machines are commonly used,
which the natives buy in Kimberley through the compound
manager. Some work in the mines during the week, but like
to earn additional shillings by cloth cutting and sewing during
their leisure hours, when their machines may be heard clicking
from morning till night.
THE WORKERS IN THE MINES
429
430 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
There are native barbers and hair-dressers, also, of whom
the chief is " Sandy," a Cape boy, who struts about on Sunday
in a khaki jacket with the airs of a tonsorial artist on the crest
of fashion, and is reputed to make more on his holiday with his
clippers than he can earn in a week with the drill below ground.
He has not as much range for his art as a French barber, for
most of his patrons want their hair cut off close to the scalp ; but
Native making Bangles.
.
he is justifiably vain of the speed with which he lops off one
bushy head of hair, and makes room for the next to fall.
Pedlers of all sorts, dealing in cakes, tobacco, and ginger beer,
have their stalls in the moving throng, especially on Sundays
and other holidays, and here and there are to be seen workers
in Kafir adornments, principally in armlets or bangles, and bands
for the legs. These are usually made of fine copper and brass
wire rolled upon rings of horse hair. The rings are about one
eighth of an inch in cross section and from four to five inches
THE WORKERS IN THE MINES
431
432 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
in diameter, varying with the size of the hands over which they
must be slipped. The wire is wound round the hair very skil-
fully. European visitors occasionally supply gold wire to these
workers, which the natives wind around the hair centres into
fanciful bangles, some of which are very pretty.
All the workers in the compounds are supplied with Bibles,
printed in various tribal languages, which the natives are taught
to read by missionaries. At any and all times De Beers Com-
pounds are open to these teachers, who are specially delegated
by English and German missionary societies.
When a " boy " is once moved to apply his mind to any
study, he will commonly plod on persistently, and there is among
the natives generally an unfeigned respect for teachers, and pride
in the attainment of any advance in learning. There is only the
crudest notion of religion in the minds of these negroes, and
the missionary must have unwearied patience who seeks to
impress them with the idea of an invisible, omnipotent, omni-
present God and Father of all. It is very difficult for the mis-
sionaries to prove by the Bible that these savages should have
only one wife, and this has been a great stumbling-block in
teaching them Christianity. The native argues that, if he has
only one wife,she is continually wrangling with him, but if there
are two or more, they occupy themselves by wrangling with one
another. And again, he says, the more wives he has, the more
crops he can raise. The women do all the work at the kraals,
and the men idle their time away in peace and plenty.
The preachers at the compound chapel or elsewhere in the
compound often call together their flocks with stirring notes of
drum and trumpet, and at gatherings of natives lime-lights and
lantern slides are also effectively used in vivid and telling illus-
trations. Sometimes an interpreter stands at the preacher's
elbow, to make his meaning clear to native listeners, for the
tribal dialects in the compound are like the confusion of tongues
in Babel. The missionaries are somewhat vexed by the Kafir
" doctors," who keep before the natives the vision of old super-
stitions, as they squat on the ground in the compounds, sol-
THE WORKERS IN THE MINES
433
emnly laying out their "bones" and muttering incantations.
They are so tricky with their impostures that it is difficult to
bring any of them patently into contempt.
Almost all of the natives are fond of sport. They have
plays of various kinds which may be seen every day in the
compound, but the chief show is naturally on Sunday, the holi-
day for all. Then a number of the tribes put on their native
dresses, and there are vivid
spectacles of native dances,
chants, and games. The Zu-
lus often arm themselves with
clubs or wooden assagais, or
any long canes which they can
brandish and strike upon their
ox-hide shields, while they
circle about in a ring, mark-
ing time with a stamp of the
foot that makes the earth
quake. It is the traditional
report that no one is admitted
to this war dance who has not
killed a man ; but the chances
are that, in recent days, un-
questionable evidence of this
qualification is not strictly
required. Nevertheless, the
pretence of bloodthirstiness
is very exciting, as warriors
spring forward, one after another, swinging their assagais or knob
kerries, and advancing their shields, while they show a pantomime
of attack upon an imaginary enemy almost as vivid and thrilling
as actual battle. When this dance begins, a circle of native spec-
tators gathers about, shouting and crying with the passion of the
scene, till the noise at times is deafening. Other natives, less
particular than the Zulus, dance about in rings and crescents,
waving any kind of stick in their hands, from a miner's candle-
'Mshangaan in War Attire.
2 F
434 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
THE WORKERS IN THE MINES
435
stick to a twig or old hatchet. Among these figure the fantastic
Machopis, dancing to the music of native imbilas, or Basutos
blowing their little reed or bone whistles and swaying about with
strange contortions, accompanied by monotonous tapping on a
crude drum made by stretching a raw ox-hide over the end of a
barrel. The 'Mshangaans chant while dancing, but the Basutos
are not gifted with
musical voices and
have no evident
ear for music, al-
though they are
so fond of their
own harsh and
discordant blow-
ing that they will
pipe away on their
hollow bones and
dance for hours at
a time on Sunday
to their own pip-
ing.
Among the
other native tribes
there are many
boys with fine
voices, sweet
toned or robustly
sonorous, ranging
from the highest tenor or falsetto to the deepest bass ; and some
are readily trained to part singing. In De Beers and other of
the larger compounds there are native choral societies under the
charge of white instructors. The most popular songs are the
familiar American negro minstrel and concert hall melodies.
These are freshly ludicrous to one who pictures the black singers
"climbing the golden ladder" and "wearing the golden slipper"
on their big flat feet. The climax is reached when the high
'Mshangaans in War Paint.
436 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
voices sing, " What are you goin' to wear ? " and the reply comes
from the deep bass voices, " I'se goin' to wear a standin' collar."
Native African chants are rarely heard in the compound, except
sometimes as an accompaniment of native dances.
At all hours of the day, until the stir and buzz throughout the
big compound are hushed in the sleep of its thousands of inmates,
the rattling and humming and squeaking of imbilas and gubos,
and various other crude instruments of native fashioning, are to
be heard, more or less widespread. The "imbila" is the same as
the maninba noted by Dr. Livingstone in his travels in Africa.
In the native villages it is made by fixing strips of board across dry
calabashes. By grading the size of these gourds, different notes
are produced when the overlaid strips are struck by a drumstick
with an elastic gum knob. In the compounds empty dynamite
boxes with tin cans fastened underneath the strips of wood sup-
ply the lack of calabashes, and the striking knob is imitated by
twisting a piece of rag tightly round the end of a stick. The
native "gubo," as the Zulus call it, is an instrument also common
throughout South Africa. This is a bow of bamboo with a tightly
stretched string. The player holds the end of the bow against
his parted lips with one hand and strikes the tight string with a
slip of split bamboo. A peculiar effect is obtained in playing on
this bow in the compound by attaching a calabash to the back of
the bow, and holding this improvised sounding-board against the
breast. These are the favorite instruments, but there are others,
like the bone whistles of the Basutos, which are much cruder, and
grate far more harshly on the ear of listening white men.
That the native African has an inborn fondness for music is
signally shown by its persistent pursuit in the compounds, even
through refuse boxes and bones. It may advance in time, with
education, to high artistic appreciation and accomplishment.
Even at its present barbaric stage the Kafir may be greatly
moved by the art of a great singer, as was evident when Madame
Albani came to the diamond mines, for she never saw an audi-
ence so passionately enraptured as the black men massed about
her within the walls of De Beers Compound.
THE WORKERS IN THE MINES
437
438 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
A Quiet Game of Cards.
There would probably be a common resort to gambling as
well as to music, if the practice were not sharply restricted by
the compound regulations and oversight. It was necessary to
prohibit the playing of cards, because native sharpers were fleec-
ing the tyros too unmercifully. There is still, probably, some
covert card playing, for many of the natives understand a few
of the games familiar to white men. Faro was played with the
top of an empty dynamite box as a table, upon which cards were
tacked. The game was probably introduced by natives from the
Portuguese possessions. The native African has only a few
games of his own devising. The most popular of these in the
compounds, and Africa at large, is "umtshuba" or "chuba,"
the Syrian "mancala," or, as the Nubians call it, "Mungala."
The widespread knowledge of this game is noted by Schwein-
furth as one of the links of evidence of " the essential unity that
underlies all African nations " ; and it has been shown by the
investigations of Mr. Stewart Culin for the Smithsonian Institu-
tion of the United States,1 and by other reports, that the same
1 "Mancala, the National Game of Africa," by Stewart Culin, 1896.
THE WORKERS IN THE MINES
439
Natives playing Chuba.
game with essential variations is played throughout Africa and
extends along southern Asia as far as the Philippine Islands.
For this game a long strip of board is provided, edged with two
parallel rows of holes scooped in the wood. When a board can-
not be procured, the rows of
holes are made in the ground.
The number of holes in a row
varies widely, the Nubian
"Mungala" having sixteen,
while the board common on
the Diamond Fields has from
thirteen to seventeen holes and
four rows. Each player has
about two dozen pebbles in hand, and the play is in shifting the
pebbles from one hole to another. Stanley calls the game an
African " back-
gammon," and
speaks of the
board as a
"backgam-
mon" tray. The
word " mun-
gala" is of Ara-
bic origin, de-
rived from
" nagal," " to
carry from one
place to an-
other." There
is no apparent
interest in the
game to the
ordinary white man's eye, but native players in the compounds
and African negroes generally will keep on moving the little
stones for hours at a time with evident satisfaction, taking up
their opponents' pebbles, as certain combinations occur, until
Natives playing Mancala.
440 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
one or the other has won all. The spectators usually offer
advice to the players.
There is some running, jumping, and wrestling in halting
imitation of English athletic sports; and on special holidays, like
Christmas, they have obstacle races, sack races, walking the
greased pole, which lies horizontally over the swimming bath,
and other comical features for the general amusement of the
native and white spectators. But the workers in the mines are
rarely nimble enough to figure with any distinction in these
sports, and the only English games that can be called popular in
the compounds are the counterfeit of cricket and football. The
native wickets are made of empty paraffin tins, and the fine points
of the game are not in evidence ; but there is plenty of hard
swiping and sharp bowling, to the delight of the native players
and the spectators. Christmas is the great holiday of the year
for all, for everybody in the compound then receives for his
Christmas box a loaf of bread, a bottle of ginger beer, and a piece
of meat, and sports of various kinds are specially provided for
Swimming Balh, De Beers Compound.
THE WORKERS IN THE MINES
441
Natives smoking Indian Hemp.
their amusement. Grabbing and diving for money thrown into
the swimming bath by the directors and managers form a lucra-
tive sport for the natives, and amusement for the lookers-on.
At every gathering for dances, sports, or games of any kind
there are more lookers-on than participants, for the African
dearly loves a spectacle of any kind, and is commonly well
pleased to stand or loll on the ground where he can get a view
of the contributors to his entertainment. Some of these indolent
ones will be smoking cheap cigars, and more rarely pipes. A
native usually puts the lighted end of a cigar in his mouth, inhal-
ing and blowing out the smoke, and shifting the hold of his teeth
as the tobacco burns. Sometimes sets of boys are seen squatting
on the ground and passing from mouth to mouth a lighted pipe
filled with dry dagga, a native herb similar to the Indian hemp,
that burns with pungent and stupefying fumes. The natives
inhale the smoke, and, after a few puffs, a fit of violent coughing
comes on which brings tears to their eyes. The use of this herb
is not so extended as to cause any serious ill effect, but the native
becomes stupefied for a time, though he soon recovers.
<
442 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
There is some tribal jealousy and vanity, but the inmates of
the compounds live together on good terms, as a rule. In their
occasional fights they use bottles or stones or clubs, or anything
they can lay their hands on quickly ; but, as soon as the guards
come up, they hurry off to their rooms, where they are put
under strict oversight for a time. Even these short encounters
often leave many with sore heads and bruised bodies. Only
once has there been the threat of a serious insurrection in the
compound. This was at Christmas time, when the compound
manager was absent for a few days. After the usual Sunday holi-
day several hundred natives, chiefly from Kaffraria, refused to go
to work on Monday morning, as the following day was Christmas,
demanding the grant of Monday also as a holiday. I went at
5 A.M. to the compound and urged the leaders of the strike to
take their followers into the mines. The Basutos were willing
to support me, and offered to drive the reluctant Fingos, or
Amafengu, underground. After some protracted but ineffec-
tive appeals, I sent word to Mr. Rhodes, who happened to be
at Kimberley, that the Fingos refused to go to work, and sug-
gested that he might come over and try his persuasive power
on them. So he did, but after an hour of fruitless parley-
ing we determined to try the demonstration of force, for the
Fingos not only refused to work themselves, but barred the
other natives from entering the mine. As they numbered from
five to six hundred, they were rather a formidable barrier at the
underground entrance.
We then decided to call in the assistance of the police and
our own guards, Mr. Rhodes riding to the police station, while
I rode to a station where a number of extra guards were posted.
When we came back into the compound with a force of fifteen
men armed with carbines, the Fingos instantly began to pelt us
with bottles and stones, and anything else which would serve as
a missile. At this outbreak I asked the officer in charge to fire
a few blank shots at the crowd of rioters, and in less than a
minute there was not a native to be seen in the open area of the
compound, for all scurried off like frightened sheep to their
THE WORKERS IN THE MINES 443
rooms. We then went around the compound, picking out the
ringleaders, thirty-three in all, ranged them in line, and sent
them to jail. They were soon brought up before the magistrate
and each was fined ^3, which they obtained by a little beg-
ging from their brothers in the compound. Meanwhile, it was
difficult for us to restrain every native left in the compound
from going to work that day on the first shift.
After the ringleaders came back to the compound, they wanted
a meal, but they were forced to go underground and work eight
hours before any food was provided. Then they were singled
out and led around the compound, one by one, as an exhibition
or warning to others, before they were finally discharged from
the employ of the Company and sent away from the works.
One of our interpreters had been taken along with the rioters
by mistake. He was so vociferous that some one put him in
with the other noisy boys. A few days later, when I wanted an
interpreter, the unlucky one said, " All right, Baas, I don't mind
interpreting for you, but I don't want to be run in for it."
No corporal punishment of the natives by white employers
is allowed. If a boy is unruly, he may be placed in a room by
himself until he can be taken to jail, and charged with whatever
offence he has committed. The most common offence is petty
thieving. There can be no doubt that the covert purloining of
diamonds would be a frequent practice, and cause heavy losses
to the diamond mining companies, if it were not for the com-
pound system, which makes it impossible for natives to take any
diamonds out of the compounds with them.
A fine wire netting is stretched over the top of the com-
pound to prevent the sly tossing of precious crystals over the
walls, to be picked up by confederates outside the mining
areas. Precautions are also taken to prevent the smuggling
away of diamonds from the compounds, and all communication
by the natives with persons outside the walls is carefully
restricted. Until the expiration of his contract, no native can
go through the compound gate, except by special permission,
or when he is taken under guard before a magistrate for some
444 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
offence. If convicted, when his term of imprisonment expires,
or after he has paid his fine, he must return to the compound
and complete his contract. Before leaving the compound his
clothes and person are thoroughly searched to prevent the dis-
appearance of diamonds with them. Gems were sometimes
found secreted in clothing, or shoe heels, or canes, or cans with
false bottoms, in fact, in anything that the natives were allowed
to take out with them. Even this close inspection did not bar
the practice of steal-
ing, and there was an
inexplicable trickle
of fine diamonds
from unlooked-for
quarters, until it
became known that
natives on the point
of leaving the com-
pound were swal-
lowing diamonds
and conveying them
away.
In 1895 one na-
tive had the nerve
and capacity to swal-
low a lot of dia-
monds worth ^750,
and did not appear
to suffer by this strain upon his digestion. There has been only
one authentic instance where a native has embedded diamonds in
his flesh — this was done by a native in De Beers Convict Station,
who made an incision under the shin bone and concealed several
small diamonds wrapped in a rag. This native had symptoms of
tetanus, and the visiting physician (Dr. Otto) searched the man's
body, and, finding an ugly-looking wound on his leg, cut it open,
and to his great surprise found a rag full of diamonds. The na-
tive soon recovered, a wiser, if poorer, man. The largest yield
Diamonds which a Native had swallowed, and which were
recovered by the Guards in the Compound,
DIAMONDS SWALLOWED BY A NATIVE AT ONE TIME, AND ALL RECOVERED
AFTER FOUR DAYS. TOTAL WEIGHT, 348 CARATS; VALUE, £1067:4:6.
446 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
of diamonds which a native had swallowed is represented by
the illustration on page 445, each diamond being drawn the
Diamond Thief.
Diamond Thief.
exact size of the original. There is no apparent fear of
swallowing any stone which can be forced through the throat,
Diamond Thief.
Diamond Thief.
and in one instance a diamond as big as a large chestnut and
weighing 152 carats was hidden for over seven days by this
means.
THE WORKERS IN THE MINES
447
Diamond Thief.
The swallowing of a rough diamond is evidently so easy,
but so difficult to detect, that it was necessary to put an end to
the practice by providing a longer
period of detention and search.
At the close of their contracts, na-
tives whose terms of service have
nearly expired are placed together
in a commodious room capable of
holding two hundred men or more.
They enter this room entirely
naked. Their clothes and bag-
gage are deposited in sacks marked
in accordance with the number on
the arm band. Blankets are sup-
plied for clothing, and as wraps
when sleeping. They are fed, and
generally well cared for, free of
cost to themselves. While in the detention room they are
under strict supervision of white guards, so that any diamonds
they may have swallowed must be left
behind before they leave. Natives have
been known to keep diamonds in their
bodies for over seven days. At the
end of five days of detention, generally
on Saturday morning, they are released.
Meanwhile, the clothes placed in the
sacks have been thoroughly searched ;
and departing natives are not allowed
to take away with them anything but
soft goods. In fact, they are even re-
quired to leave their boots behind, for
cunning smugglers used to insert dia-
monds in their boot heels so neatly that
the trick could not be detected without
Diamond Thief.
cutting away the greater part of the sole of the boot. Boots and
shoes, and other articles which are not allowed to be taken from
448 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
the compound, are sold or given away to customers or friends
before their owners leave.
It may be that De Beers Compound is a " Monastery of
Labour," as was wittily said by a lady visiting the fields as a
correspondent of the London Times ;
but the testimony of all careful ob-
servers on the ground affirms the
beneficial effect of the restrictions
from dissipation, and the general
good cheer of the workers. Mr.
Thomas H. Leggett, an entirely
independent and competent Ameri-
can witness, wrote of his inspection
of the men in the compounds,
in Cassier's Magazine, September,
1898 : "These chaps are well cared
for, contented, and happy, as proven
by the fact that many have been
there for years ; and the secret of it
lies in their not being able to get drink."
Occasionally a visitor at the fields is less observant and can-
did. One such was a member of the Legislative Assembly of
Cape Colony, who came to Kimberley to investigate the con-
ditions of life and treatment of the natives in the compound.
On arriving at De Beers Compound, in company with his wife,
he first impressed upon the natives whom he met that he was a
member of the Cape Colony Legislative Council. He had come
to the fields in their behalf, and he wanted them to tell him
freely everything of which they had to complain. With the aid
of an interpreter he interviewed a number of natives in the com-
pound, asking searching questions about their treatment. One
native told him that he had been working for eight years in the
mines and had been outside the compound only three or four
times in all that period. When asked if he was well treated in
the compound his answer was, " If I didn't like it, Baas, I
wouldn't be here." The visitor's wife meanwhile kept tugging
Diamond Thief.
THE WORKERS IN THE MINES
449
at his coat continually, saying in Dutch, " They treat the Kafirs
altogether too well here ; they will be spoiled by such good treat-
ment as this." Before leaving, the legislator said that he was
glad to have the opportunity to inspect fully the operations of
the compound. From what he had heard he had been much
opposed to compounds, but he now saw with his own eyes that
he was wrongly informed, and henceforth he should be a strong
advocate of the system. Yet a year or two later, when ques-
tions affecting De Beers Company and the compound system
arose in the Upper House, this gratified member was one of the
first to denounce the system in an intemperate speech.
Ue Beers Machine Shops.
2G
CHAPTER XV
THE MINING TOWNS
Kimberley
IMBERLEY, the largest of the cluster of dia-
mond towns on the Fields, is, like the rest, the
natural efflorescence of the mines near which it
is situated, and from which it derives its birth
and being. Its mushroom growth must have
withered like so many other pretentious upstarts
from the mining fields, had it not been for the fact of its rising
on ground of such sustained richness and promise. While the
diamond-studded blue ground continues to show a persistent
extension in depth and in richness, and while man's energy and
art avail to pierce and extract it, the Kimberley of the surface
will surely continue to flourish.
It might indeed be said, without any stretch of imagery, that
the modern Kimberley is literally as well as essentially built up
on the yield of the mines. This has been brightly noted by the
late Rev. James Thompson in his pleasing sketch of the modern
Kimberley. "Kimberley, as we know it," he says, "with its
streets and warehouses, and shops and schools and churches, is
largely built upon that strange mixture known as debris, every
atom of which has a story to tell if it could only speak. As in
any English town you can go down foot after foot through the
different strata representing the pavements or pathways upon
which successive generations of ancestors pressed their feet ; so
in Kimberley we have beneath the present surface of our road-
ways the red soil on which our fathers pitched their tents, and
which their labor soon covered up by spreading out all around
them the heaps thrown out of that great hole which now looks
45°
THE MINING TOWNS
so desolate, but which was once the centre of activity and throb-
bing life which made Kimberley famous throughout the world." '
Dr. Thompson marks the middle age of Kimberley as the
period when decent buildings of iron and wood, with here and
there more pretentious brick, had replaced the age of canvas ;
but when there were no softening or beautifying surroundings,
when every tree and bush had been cut down, and when the
veld once dotted with thorn trees had become a vast expanse
Snow in Kimberley, 1876.
of wind-swept dust as gray as the iron dwelling places which
alone seemed to convert the desert into a town. This was the
period preceding the introduction of an abundant and pure
water-supply that wrought such a transformation in the appear-
ance of the city. Now the upspringing of flowers of varied hue,
and green thickets and vines and trees in the gardens that now
surround nearly every house in town outside the business
quarter, has made during many months of the year a beautiful
country town of the old and barren Kimberley.
In spite of the visible yield of the mines and the consequent
prosperity of the town there was, for many years, a prevailing
1 Christmas number, D. F. Advertiser, 1898.
452 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
Theatre Roval.
distrust of the permanency of the diamond-bearing deposits and
the consequent stability and future of the city that was founded
upon them. But later, as systematic development gave sub-
stantial assurance of the endurance of the mines, the advance in
the architectural beauty of the residences and public buildings in
Kimberley has been marked. Now many of the residences of
the more wealthy townspeople are not only substantial, but dis-
tinctly ornate in character, with widespreading verandas rising
in the midst of green lawns and lovely gardens. Some of the
public buildings already erected or in process of erection need
not fear comparison with any like structures in any city of its
size in the world.
THE MINING TOWNS
453
Among these structures is a handsome and well-appointed
theatre, built of burnt brick with stone facings, excellently situ-
ated for the accommodation of theatre goers. This building, the
Theatre Royal, was designed to introduce all the latest improve-
ments in theatrical construction, and its acoustic properties are
particularly fine. The commodious stage has a face of 54 feet
and a depth of 38 feet, and is so arranged that the whole stage is
Theatre Royal Interior.
in full view of the audience in the box stalls, dress circle, family
circle, and gallery. The theatre is lighted by electricity, and its
fire exits are so complete and well placed that in case of need
the whole audience could leave in a very few minutes.
The Town Hall is another building that deserves special
mention. It was erected by resolution of the borough council
on the Market Square after the destruction by fire of the old
town hall. This building is designed in the Roman-Corinthian
style and its appearance is notably pleasing. Its site is in the
454 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
centre of the Market Square, a particularly convenient position.
There are three entrances to the main hall, which is finely pro-
portioned,— 105 feet in
length, 50 feet in width,
and 35 feet in height. At
one end there is a stage
25 feet wide, and a hand-
some proscenium and
space for the orchestra is
also provided.
There are emergency
The Town Hall. • • • , ,
exits opening into large
yards that afford abundant protection in the event of the out-
break of fire. Passages along the building lead to suitable ad-
ministration offices for the borough engineer, market master,
Dutoitspan Road, Kimberley.
sanitary inspector, and native officials. At the back of the main
hall extends the market house, over 83 feet wide and running
the full width of the building. In the east wing of the building
is a council chamber, 50 feet long by 26 feet wide, and, opening
THE MINING TOWNS
455
Kimberloy Hospital.
out of the chamber, rooms for the mayor and councillors. In
the other wing of the building, accommodation is provided for
the town clerk and his assistants. The building is substantially
constructed of the best burnt brick covered with cement and
enriched with cornices.
On the site of the old Kimberley Hospital, established in
1871, a new and spacious building has been erected, with sev-
The Kimberley Club.
456 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AERICA
eral outlying wards. The main building, about three hundred
feet long, contains the operating rooms, convalescent room,
and the Merriam, Victoria, and Lanyon wards for the reception
Hall of Kimberley Club.
of European patients only. The detached buildings comprise
native medical and surgical wards, each containing fifty beds ;
the Southey ward for colored women and children ; and isolation
THE MINING TOWNS
457
wards for infectious cases ; male and female contagious disease
wards, and mortuaries. The offices of the resident officials, a
dispensary and doctors' quarters, nurses' home and chapel, with
a further provision of European and native kitchens, make the
hospital complete and comfortable. This hospital has accom-
modations for 250 patients, European and colored, and from
the day of its
erection it has
been of indispen-
sable service.
During the single
year of 1897,
2683 patients
were admitted,
798 of whom were
Europeans, and
the remainder na-
tives and persons
of color. Six hun-
dred and sixty-
three patients
were admitted
free, or on sub-
scribers' letters.
Besides this ser-
vice it should be
noted that the
number of day
patients treated during the same year was 1220; one of the hos-
pital doctors is in attendance in the day-patients' room for an
hour every morning to give advice without charge to the poor.
To all who cannot afford to pay for treatment, medicines are fur-
nished free. Every subscriber is entitled to give a letter of ad-
mission to one patient for every £1 2s. subscribed, upon the sole
stipulation that the person receiving the letter must be too poor
to pay for his or her own treatment. The staff of the hospital
Horns of South African Antelope.
458 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
consists of two resident house surgeons and a visiting body of
seven local practitioners. The matron and forty-two nurses con-
stitute the nursing staff. A recent addition has been made to
the original hospital, in which will be the maternity ward, for the
sake of providing the needed accommodation and the training
of experienced midwives. The cost of this hospital with its
enlargements has
been upwards of
/3 0,000.
The Kimberley
Club has a commo-
dious and finely
furnished house on
Dutoitspan Road.
This building was
erected in 1896 on
the ashes of two
predecessors which
had been unfortu-
nately destroyed by
fire. It possesses
a unique collection
of trophies of the
chase, and its list of
visitors bears the
name of many of
the most notable
men in the British
Empire.
Besides these structures a government building of massive
stone and brick on the north side of the Market Square de-
serves mention as one of the conspicuous edifices in the city.
Here the High Court of Griqualand is held. The magis-
trates' courts are arranged on either side of the entrance, and
rooms are provided for the Civil Commissioner, Judges, and
Magistrates.
Horns of South African Antelope.
THE MINING TOWNS
459
The Kimberley Public Library is a well-built building, con-
taining three large rooms, of which one is free to the public, and
the others reserved for subscribers. Smaller rooms are provided
for the librarian and committee. It is especially notable for its
remarkable store of reference works, which is esteemed to be the
best in South Africa. It contains in all twenty-two thousand
books, many of
which would be
irreplaceable if
destroyed. The
building up of this
library is justly
credited to the
fostering care of
Mr. Justice Law-
rence, the Judge
President.
Midway be-
tween Kimberley
and Beaconsfield
stands the Kim-
berley Sanatorium,
a superb structure
erected by the
liberal contribu-
tions of De Beers
Consolidated
Mines Limited at
a cost, with its fur-
nishings, of ^"26,000. Its fine enclosing grounds, the gift of
the London and South African Exploration Company, were
artistically laid out under the direction of Mr. Fenner of the
De Beers Forestry Department. The larger part of the build-
ing is designed for the accommodation of guests, and the smaller
block contains the billiard room, smoking room, kitchen, ser-
vants' and store rooms. The buildings are of burnt brick, two
Horns of South African Antelope.
460 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
stories in height, with ample verandas and balconies ; all the
rooms are large, lofty, and handsomely furnished, and in the
construction the best sanitary knowledge has been applied.
The building is lighted throughout by electricity, and abundantly
supplied with pure water.
The Masonic Temple was erected in 1889 by the combined
lodges of the city. Its main hall is spacious and admirably
lighted by elec-
tricity, and the in-
terior throughout
is very handsomely
decorated and fur-
nished. At the
top of the staircase
there is one of the
finest stained glass
windows in South
Africa, which was
presented to the
lodges by Mr.
Rhodes.
The post-of-
fice, police bar-
racks, and railway
station have no
special pretension
to architectural
beauty, but they
are serviceable
The offices
Horns of South African Antelope.
structures for the uses to which they are applied,
of the De Beers Company are in the centre of the business sec-
tion of the town, and are, as might be expected, excellently
designed buildings, and stand out notably among the business
edifices that surround them.
The South African School of Mines was established at Kim-
berley in 1896. The first two years' studies are taken at the
THE MINING TOWNS
461
South African College, Cape Town, or at similar colleges at
Grahamstown and Stellenbosch, the third year at Kimberley,
and the fourth at Johannesburg. The object of the school is to
train young men in South Africa as mining engineers. Suitable
buildings were erected at Kimberley at a cost of ^9000, De
Beers contributing on the pound for pound principle with the
Educational Depart-
ment of the Colony.
There were twenty
students in attendance
during the year 1901.
De Beers mines and
workshops are open
to the students, where
they are given practi-
cal instruction in min-
ing and mechanical
engineering. Their
theoretical training is
under the supervision
of Professor J. G.
Lawn, assisted by
Professor Orr. The
management of the
school is entrusted to
a local committee,
consisting of the four
members of Parlia-
ment representing the
Kimberley district, the member of the Legislative Council for
Griqualand West, the Inspector of Mines, the Mayors of Kim-
berley and Beaconsfield, the Chairman of the Public Schools
Committee, and myself. I have the honor of being chairman
of this committee.
There are six distinct church establishments in Kimberley,
— the Anglican, Presbyterian, Baptist, Roman Catholic, Wes-
Horns of South African Antelope.
462 THE DIAMOND MINES OE SOUTH AFRICA
Professor J. G. Lawn, Kimberley
School of Mines.
leyan Methodist, and Griqualand
West Hebrew Congregation. The
Anglican denomination has three
churches in Kimberley, St. Cyprian's,
St. Augustine's, and De Beers, besides
churches at Beaconsfield and at St.
Matthew's, Barkly Road. The larg-
est church provides accommodation
for 650 attendants. The first edifice
of the Church of England was built
at Dutoitspan, the pioneer town on
the fields, and subsequently trans-
ferred to Beaconsfield. When Kim-
berley became the principal city of population, St. Cyprian's
Church was erected on Church Street and removed to its present
position in 1878. Kimberley became part of the diocese of Bloem-
fontein, and
gave its name
to an Archdea-
conry compris-
ing Griqualand
West and Be-
chu analan d.
The Archdea-
con of Kim-
berley is the
head of the
church organi-
zation in this
part of the dio-
cese.
The Kim-
berley Presbv- Professor Orr, Kimberley School of Mines.
terian Church was founded in September, 1877, and has over
four hundred enrolled communicants and a still larger number
of adherents.
THE MINING TOWNS
463
Sir Alfred Milner passing the Offices of De Beers Consolidated Mines Limited on his First Visit
to Kimberley,
De Beers Offices decorated in Honor of the Governor's Visit.
464 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
Kimberley Public Library.
In 1889 the Rev. James Hughes, of Port Elizabeth, at the
invitation of the Baptist Union of South Africa, came to the
Diamond Fields and held the first denominational meetings in
the Good Templars Hall in Kimberley. Through his efforts a
The Sanatorium.
church was formed, and in 1892 the foundation stone of the
present commodious Baptist Church in Dutoitspan Road was
laid.
THE MINING TOWNS
465
The foundation stone of St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church
was laid on the feast of All Saints, 1879, by the Vicar Apostolic
of Natal and Griqualand West. For many years previously
a Catholic Church had been maintained on the fields, but its
building was too small for the growing congregation. The
foundations of the new building had just been completed, in
August, 1879, when the old building was levelled to the ground
by a terrific hail-storm. This was looked upon as a significant
Masonic Temple.
warning to replace the iron sides of the new church with brick,
and the present edifice was accordingly erected, which will
accommodate about five hundred people. It is adorned with
stained glass windows, paintings, and oak altar and reredos, the
gifts of its parishioners.
Wesleyan Methodist missionaries were probably the first to
visit the River Diggings in 1869, and representatives of this
energetic denomination were among the first also that flocked
to the Dry Diggings at Dutoitspan and Kimberley. The first
regularly appointed minister of this church came in 1871, and
2 H
466 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
the succession since that year has been unbroken. The Metho-
dists erected their first church at the West End, but as the
town moved eastward, a new church, Trinity, was built to meet
.
The Post-office, Kimberley.
the call from that quarter. The original Trinity Church was
blown down by one of the fierce gales sweeping over the Fields,
but a second Trinity has now taken its place. There are now
in Kimberley three Wesleyan churches for whites, two for
natives, and one for other people of color, and a missionary
is in daily attend-
ance at the com-
pounds. It is esti-
mated that there
are probably not
less than three
thousand persons
under the charge
of these seven min-
isters. At a very
Nazareth House, Kimberley. . , . .
early date in the
history of the Fields the foundation stone of the Hebrew
Synagogue was laid on the Dutoitspan Road, occupying a site
donated by the London and South Africa Exploration Com-
pany.
OF r .
»:./fO 4*2.-
THE MINING TOWNS
467
The Author's House at Kimberley. Wistaria in Bloom.
Another View of the Author's House and Garden.
468 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
Experience has shown that Kim-
berley has special attractions as a
health resort in spite of the occasional
intense heat of its summer days and
the blasts of its high winds laden with
dust. It has the pure atmosphere of
the high karoo plateau, and even in the
hottest days the bright starlight even-
ings are usually cool and refreshing,
inviting the people to live for the
greater part of the year in the open air
on verandas and balconies. During
the winter months the nights are often
extremely cold, and well protected
dwelling rooms are essential for com-
fort and health ; but during the day the atmosphere is commonly
clear, and so still that the severity of the cold is not felt, and all
kinds of active outdoor exercise are agreeable in the bright sun-
light of the unclouded skies. It is noted by the medical officer
of health in Kimberley that the number of days of unbroken
"Smell my Flowers." (The au-
thor's daughter, Dorothy, and
Jim, a good specimen of Basuto
boy.)
Kimberley Race Course.
THE MINING TOWNS
469
miij!!!!}!!!!"1 •»!'»"
The Grand Stand, Kiniberley Race Course.
sunshine are particularly enjoyable to newcomers. They will find
that the air they breathe is never heavy, damp, or oppressive,
but always dry and light, and, outside of the centre of the town,
pure and invigorating. The heavy thunderstorms that occa-
sionally occur bring deluges of rain, but the water rapidly flows
off the surface, and as vegetation is scanty, the soil remains
exceptionally dry.
It is this marked climatic attraction which, in connection with
the pleasure resorts of the city, suggested the establishment of the
Kimberley Sanatorium.
Beaconsfield
Dutoitspan, as before noted, was the original town on the
Diamond Fields. When crowds flocked to the Fields and a
demand for greater accommodation arose, the London and
South Africa Exploration Company laid out the town of
Beaconsfield, which adjoins Dutoitspan on the north. It was
laid out as a business town, and has grown to be a place of
470 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
considerable size containing several thousand inhabitants. The
town limits extend to the farm Dorstfontein, but the business
and residence quarters are all within the farm Bultfontein. The
main street in Beaconsfield leads direct to Kimberley. Many
of the houses are of brick and iron, but the larger number are
of unburned adobe brick, made of clay dug directly from the
soil on which the house stands. With few exceptions all are
unpretentious, one-story buildings.
The town originally belonged to the London and South
Africa Exploration Company, the organization which laid out the
town, but together with all that company's property passed into
the hands of the De Beers Company in 1898. According to
the common practice houses are put up by the tenants on lots
leased from the Company. Beaconsfield is laid out in wards,
and has a distinctive Municipal Government of its own, consist-
ing of a Mayor and Town Council and the usual town officers.
The Mayor is a member of the Council and elected annually.
Although Beaconsfield has thus a distinctive individuality, the
business firms are very largely branches of corresponding firms
in Kimberley. The town transacts considerable business, chiefly
in stocks which are carried for the use of the mines ; but there is
also a large number of shops which carry supplies of all kinds
for the consumption of the white residents as well as for the
native population which lives in locations near the town.
Wesselton
Close adjoining to Beaconsfield lies the little village of Wes-
selton. This was laid out by the owner of the Wessels estate
on Benaauwdheidsfontein farm. Its buildings resemble those
of Beaconsfield, but are commonly of a poorer order of adobe
brick structures, built like the Beaconsfield houses on leased lots.
Wesselton has now only a few hundred inhabitants, mostly
natives and East Indians. The natives are chiefly workers for
debris washers about Dutoitspan and Bultfontein mines, while the
East Indians are commonly kitchen gardeners and small shop-
THE MINING TOWNS
471
keepers and pedlers. The various vegetables that are raised
are sold in the little greengrocer stores, or hawked about by the
pedlers in handcarts. Some of the East Indians also peddle
clothing and knickknacks more or less industriously.
Kenilworth
On Kenilworth farm, about two and a half miles from Kim-
berley, the so-called model village of Kenilworth is built. This
Bachelors' Quarters, Kenilworth Village.
village was planned in the latter part of 1888 by Mr. Rhodes,
and laid out under his general direction by the late Mr. Sydney
Stent, an architect then residing in Kimberley. It covers a
space about half a mile long and a quarter of a mile wide, upon
land owned by De Beers Consolidated Mines.
The land was divided up into lots of about 80 by 100 feet,
and upon these lots semi-detached houses were built, of brick
with corrugated iron roofs, by De Beers Company. Nearly all
of the houses are built of red burnt brick made at the brick-
472 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
fields in the neighborhood of Kimberley. The cottages rent
from £1 IQS. to ^5 a month. The houses occupied by the
Passenger Train for Workmen and their Families.
unmarried men contain six rooms, and the other houses occupied
by families contain from four to seven rooms. In the unmarried
men's quarters each occupant has a room to himself. Nearly
The Road to Kenilworth, and Kenilworth Reservoir.
all of the houses are built with verandas, and all the lots are
planted with fruit trees, vines, and flowers, supplied by the
Company. Most of the residents take a keen interest in their
THE MINING TOWNS
473
gardens and have added largely to their beauty by purchasing
plants on their own account. In laying out the town, the vil-
lage was originally planned with four main avenues, bounded on
the north by a bordering avenue, on the south by the main
road to Kimberley, and intersected by a central avenue. Only
two of the avenues are at present completed. They are broad,
well-made roads lined with blue and red eucalyptus, beefwood
and pepper trees, and provided with wide sidewalks fronting
the semi-detached villa-like residences. These avenues are finely
macadamized and the streets watered by distributing carts.
Kenilworth Club-house.
Supply pipes are laid out along the streets and every garden is
supplied with free water for irrigation from the Premier mine or
Kenilworth reservoir. Separate pipes are laid to carry water for
drinking purposes, and for this water a light charge is made,
averaging about los. for 1500 gallons.
A circle at the junction of No. i and Central Avenues
divides the residences of the married people from the quarters of
the single men, who occupy a row of houses on the south side of
the circle in the heart of the village. One of the main houses
on this circle is occupied by the Cape Government for a post-
office, telegraph-office, and post-office savings bank. On the
other side of the circle bordering on the central avenue is a club-
474 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
house, a large brick building containing a reading room, dining
room, kitchen, and manager's rooms. This building, like the
residences, has a veranda in front, and is surrounded by trees.
It is open to any white employe of the Company, but it is, of
Kenilworth Village, the School in the Foreground.
course, principally used by those living in Kenilworth. Citizens
of Kimberley may visit it, and join in the social gatherings
arranged by the residents in the village. On the north side of
Central Avenue, opposite the club-house, is a schoolhouse con-
taining three rooms, in which the library of the town is placed,
and this is open after school hours for the distribution of books.
The library has its own store of good books, but in addition to
this stock, the Kimberley library contributes books by special
arrangement, and it is practically operated as a branch of the
Kimberley library. The school of Kenilworth is a primary
school connected with the Kimberley public schools, and the
children of the village are taught the usual elementary studies
ranging up to the common English grammar school. When
this grade is attained, arrangement is made for the attendance of
THE MINING TOWNS
475
the children at the higher schools in Kimberley. To assist them,
the Company provides free monthly tickets to and from Kenil-
worth via the Kimberley-Kenilworth tram line.
The village is wholly given up to residences ; there are no
stores or shops of any kind. All supplies come from Kimberley,
and by special arrangement the schoolhouse is used on Sundays
for worship and mission work, and on evenings during the
week by the various philanthropic and social organizations.
The village is lighted by a few large arc lamps, and the houses
by paraffin candles and kerosene.
Arrangements are made by which the unmarried men take
their meals at the club-house at a cost averaging about 255. a
Kenilworth Village, with Meteorological Station on the Left.
week. The men come in from their work to dinner, which they
take in the dining rooms of the club ; their breakfast and lunches
are sent out to the depositing floors or other places of work.
The breakfast at the club is like that served at the better class
of miners' boarding houses at Kimberley, consisting of bacon
and eggs, chops, or steaks, or other substantial dish, bread and
476 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
butter, coffee or tea. Lunch consists usually of a meat dish
with bread, vegetables, fruit, and tea or coffee. Dinner is the
main meal, at which roast beef, roast mutton, and vegetables
of all kinds are served.
The shade and fruit trees of Kenilworth and adjoining plan-
tations are the special pride of the village and of the De Beers
Company, which has been indefatigable in introducing, acclima-
tizing, and maintaining every variety that will thrive. Just
View of Kenilworth Village.
adjoining Kenilworth on the north is the orchard of the Com-
pany, containing about 8000 trees, — oranges, lemons, apricots,
peaches, plums, pears, apples, quinces, and other fruits, as well as
shade trees and grapevines. Most of the grapevines are trained on
trellises. The first one built by the Company was 975, and the
second 1 800, feet long. On these trellises all the best varieties
of grapes are grown. The ripening season is from the end of
December until the end of February, or during the summer
months of a season stretching from October to May. Grapes
and fruit from these orchards are largely distributed to employes,
THE MINING TOWNS
477
and sent to hospitals and charitable institutions. Some fruit is
sold in the compounds to natives at a price hardly reaching the
cost of production. At times apricots have been sold at a shil-
ling a hundred from the trees, and for sixpence when they were
picked off the ground. In favorable seasons trees and vines are
very prolific.
The difficulties met with in raising fruit are frost in the early
part of the season, when the trees are blossoming, and hail-storms
Preparing Trenches for planting Vines and Trees.
in the beginning of the year, when the fruit is young. Locusts
come in millions and at times devastate the whole orchard, leav-
ing the fruit exposed to the sun and at times badly eaten. There
are two kinds of these locusts : one comes and stays for a day or
so, doing what damage it can for the time being ; the other one
alights on the trees for permanent occupation. They first ap-
pear in the early spring as small insects. The little dark-brown,
wingless creatures are commonly known as voetgangers (walkers),
and come out of the ground when they are hatched, hopping
along in countless myriads. The locusts plant their eggs in the
478 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
sands to hatch during the months of September and October.
Sometimes all Kenilworth and the adjoining fields are swarming
with these insects. In order to protect some of the gardens from
young locusts, sheets of corrugated iron twenty-six inches wide
are placed along, and leaning against, the fences. The locusts
cannot climb up the smooth surface of the iron. In that way
many residences are also protected. Sometimes servants are
employed continually from morning till night in driving away
the insects. They destroy all the vegetation over which they
pass. The natives are very fond of eating them. They go out
into the veld in large parties, and drive the voetgangers from
all directions upon blankets, and then empty them into sacks
which they carry to their huts. Flying locusts develop in about
six weeks from the dark-brown little insects. The other variety
that scourges the fields is a species of locusts with red wings, and
their damage is the greater from the fact that they stay in one
place until every green plant upon which they alight is destroyed.
Swarms of these locusts occasionally appear, at times darkening
the horizon, and following the wind. For the past seven years
these swarms have been very troublesome. During one season,
after consuming all the leaves, the leaf and fruit buds on the
trees were entirely eaten off by these pests, destroying the fruit
not only for that year, but for the following season. In spite
of these drawbacks to fruit raising, the efforts of the Company
have been unflagging.
CHAPTER XVI
FORMATION OF THE DIAMOND
The Diamond-bearing Deposits
VER the basin now extending as an arid karoo
for hundreds of miles to the south of the Kim-
berley Diamond Fields the waters of a great lake
once spread. It is apparent that the diamond
mines are on the northerly rim of this basin,
for the beds of shale that everywhere under-
lie the basaltic trap surface or country rock are notably thinner
in the northern mine openings than they are farther south at
Bultfontein and Dutoitspan,1 and shortly after passing Kim-
berley fields the shale terminates at the edge of the " bed rock "
of the Vaal River diggings, an amygdaloidal trap which Dr.
Stelzner'2 determined to be olivine diabase.
By the great open excavations and the extension of the un-
derground workings, the rock formations of the karoo basin are
very clearly revealed. The red soil that covers the surface of the
country to the depth of from one to five feet is evidently the
result of the decomposition of the friable face of the under-
lying basalt, which is scattered in fragments over the country in
jutting bouiders and rounded stones. This rock at De Beers and
Kimberley mines is from twenty to ninety feet in thickness, but
very much decomposed throughout. Below the layer is a bed
of black shale, ranging in thickness from two hundred to three
hundred feet. In this bed there is a considerable amount of
carbon and a large quantity of iron pyrites.
1 "Diamonds and Gold in South Africa," p. 19, Theodore Reunert, M.E.
2 Dr. A. W. Stelzner, Professor of Geology at the Freiberg Mining Academy.
479
480 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
SCALE
100
JOO
KIMBERLEY
FT. IN.
Geological sections of Underlying the shale
DE BEERS AND KIMBERLEY ROCK SHAFTS. . , . , . c .
is a thin bed of conglom-
erate, composed of small
stones,some well rounded
and others angular, and
firmly cemented together.
Its thickness, measured
in the rock shaft in the
Kimberley mine, did not
exceed ten feet. This
band has been styled by
Professor A. H. Green
the basement conglom-
erate of the Kimberley
shales,1 and it is assumed
by Mr. E. J. Dunn to
be of the same origin as
the Dwyka conglomerate
belt on the northern base
of the Zwarte Berg and
Witte Berg mountains,
forming the southern
boundary of the old lake
basin.2 He holds that
this conglomerate is a
glacial deposit marking
the shore line of the an-
cient lake.
Below the conglom-
1 "A Contribution to the
Geology and Physical Geogra-
phy of the Cape Colony."
Quar. Jour. Geol. Soc., Vol.
44 (1888), p. 245.
2 " On the Mode of Occurrence of Diamonds in South Africa." Quar. Jour.
Geol. Soc., Vol. 30 (1874), pp. 54-59.
FORMATION OF THE DIAMOND 481
erate is a very hard amygdaloidal rock, called melaphyre by
M. A. Moulle,1 which was finally determined by Dr. Stelzner2
to be olivine diabase. Its mineral composition is the same as
melaphyre, — plagioclase, augite, and olivine, but one is granu-
lar and the other porphyritic. It is about four hundred feet
in thickness and is very hard. Underlying the amygdaloidal
rock is quartzite, the thickness of which is not yet determined.
The Kimberley rock shaft has passed through fourteen hun-
dred feet of it, and the bottom of the shaft is still in the same
formation. All these strata lie nearly horizontal, but dip
slightly to the north. They are graphically presented in the
sectional views of the rock shafts of De Beers and Kimberley
mines shown on page 480.
Through these layers of rock extend from an unknown
depth the huge pipes containing the diamond-bearing deposits,
or blue ground, which is a breccia filled with fragments of shale
and other minerals. These immense funnels are obviously
extinct craters filled with volcanic mud from below. All evi-
dence to hand points to an aqueous formation, and the upheaval
is shown by the upturning of the enclosing shales at various
places in contact with the blue ground.3 Many boulders are
found in the blue ground of the same composition as the sur-
rounding rock, but others have undoubtedly come up from
greater depths than have yet been reached by the sinking of
shafts. It is, however, highly remarkable that there was almost
no apparent overflow in the filling of these craters, for the
diamond-bearing ground is either level with the surrounding
surface, or rises, usually, only a few feet above it in kopjes or
hillocks. Outside of the mouths of the craters no diamonds
have been found except at Dutoitspan, where the upheaval
formed quite a hill, and some diamonds have been taken from
the surrounding ground within a few yards from the margin of
1 " Memoire sur la geologic generale et sur les mines de diamants de 1'Afrique
du Sud." Annales des Mines, 8th Series, Vol. VII (1885), p. 193.
2 Dr. A. W. Stelzner, Professor of Geology at the Freiberg Mining Academy.
3 Still to be seen at De Beers Mine.
z i
482 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
De Beers Diamond. Found March 28, 18
Weight, 428} carats.
the mine. It is also evident that the mines were not all fi led
with the same material at one and the same time. Each mine
has its distinctive character-
istics, and even in the same
mine all the blue ground does
not seem to have been forced
up at one time. This is par-
ticularly demonstrated by the
striking fact that, in both De
Beers and Kimberley mines,
the west side blue ground is
wholly unlike the other por-
tions of the mines, and carries
fewer diamonds, and these are
unlike the diamonds that are
found in other parts. The
blue ground which filled the west ends of these mines must
have come up first, filling
the whole crater. Afterward
there was a second upheaval
which filled the eastern parts
of the craters with a richer
deposit. The reason why
the west end was not mixed
with the better blue ground
was because the west end
parts of the mines formed
benches, and were not ver-
tically above the second
boiling mass. Mr. Rhodes
suggested this solution, and
I quite agree with him. This Another view of the De
peculiarity is noticeable in
the other mines.
The composition of the blue ground, which is the principal
filling of the volcanic pipes, has been carefully determined by
Diamond. After
cutting, its weight was 228$ carats, and it was
sold for ,£13,600.
FORMATION OF THE DIAMOND
483
Dr. Stelzner. This ground, he says, must be designated as a
breccia. Most of the small or large angular-edged or rounded
fragments of this breccia are composed of a green-black or blue-
black serpentine-like mass. Fragments of rock which are found
in the karoo formation, such as sandstone, shale, and diabase,
are to be found in the blue ground. There are also other rocks
in the shape of boulders of greater or less size, which are not
known in the karoo formation, and have doubtless come from
a much greater depth than the karoo beds, possibly from rocks
upon which these beds lie. The mass of blue ground consists of
olivine more or less changed
by oxidation, with the follow-
ing minerals : chromic diallage,
bronzite, pyrope containing
chromium, flesh-colored zir-
cons (locally called Dutch
boart),cyanite,biotite,chrome,
titanium, and magnetic iron,
and also small crystals of
perofskite.
In the Jagersfontein blue
ground corundum is said to
have been found. This was
for a time held to be cordierite.
The existence of small crys-
tals of tourmaline and rutile is also reported. Professor J. G.
Lawn, Kimberley School of Mines, reports that he discovered
rubies and sapphires of inferior quality in the Frank Smith mine
near Kimberley. Iron pyrites and barytes are found in the
deposit resulting from washing the blue ground. The pyrites
come from the country rocks, and become mixed with the
diamond-bearing ground during the process of mining. The
barytes is a secondary formation of small veins in the blue
ground, or at its junction with the country rock. Beautiful
crystals of doubly refracting or Iceland spar are occasionally
found also near the junction of the blue ground and the rock.
The Largest Diamond ever found in the Kim-
berley mine. It weighed 503 carats, but was
full of spots.
484 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
In Professor Lewis's discussion of the genesis of the diamond
in 1886, he designated the blue ground variously as "dunite
porphyry," "Saxonite porphyry," and " diamantiferous perido-
tite." His application of the term " Kimberlite," now generally
accepted by geologists, first appears in his paper of the following
year, 1887, at the British Association meeting at Manchester.1
Dr. Stelzner thought this name should be adopted as concisely
covering "a porphyritic volcanic peridotite of basaltic structure."
In the mass of diamond-bearing blue ground in De Beers
mine there is a curious dyke of igneous rock which extends from
the southeast part of the mine around the east and north sides,
and is lost in the unexplored poor blue ground of the west.
Owing to its taking a serpentine course across the mine, it has
received the local name of " snake." The upper end of this
snake is at or near the surface, and the body extends down to
the lowest workings. It does not adhere to the blue ground,
and is very easily separated from it. It stands like a vein,
nearly vertical, varying in thickness from two to seven feet. No
diamonds have been found in it, yet Dr. Stelzner's investigations
show that its composition is substantially the same as the sur-
rounding breccia. It was difficult to obtain slides of the blue
ground for microscopical observations and comparison, but
after many trials Dr. Stelzner succeeded in getting a few sections
which revealed these interesting facts : —
" The main body of the blue ground is entirely analogous to
the snake rock, naturally more decomposed, but in essential
points the microscopic features of blue ground and snake (not
taking into consideration the numerous little slate fragments in
the blue) are in an extraordinary degree alike. It therefore
impresses upon one's mind that the "snake" is a younger erup-
tive formation coming from the same volcanic source as the blue
ground." 2
1 "The Matrix of the Diamond," Henry Carvill Lewis, M.A., F.G.S.,
Professor of Mineralogy in the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, U.S.A.,
at meeting of British Association at Manchester, August and September, 1887.
2 Letter of Dr. Stelzner addressed to Gardner F. Williams.
FORMATION OF THE DIAMOND 485
On the looo-foot level of Kimberley mine a tunnel driven
in the quartzite outside the margin of the mine shows several
dykes of similar rock. Wherever these dykes exist there is a
considerable quantity of water at the junction of the dykes and
quartzite.
There was a large mass of country rock in De Beers mine,
which in the upper levels covered several claims, or approximately
an area of 3000 square feet. It continued down to a depth of
about 750 feet. It was an olivine diabase, and was the same as
the amygdaloidal rock, except that it was filled with numerous
veins of zeolites. The " Island," as it is called, was a gigantic
horse of country rock embedded in blue ground, and has disap-
peared in depth. Islands of the same rock appeared in the Kim-
berley mine near the surface and at a depth of 1200 feet, and near
the surface in Dutoitspan, Bultfontein, and Premier mines, where
they have been left standing as the blue ground which sur-
rounded them has been removed, and form huge islands in a
sea of blue ground, which are locally known as Mount Ararats.
Floating shale appeared at or near the surface of the mines
and covered many claims. This was originally volcanic mud,
and it contained no diamonds. It gradually became smaller in
depth, and has disappeared in the lower levels.
In the early descriptions of the mines fossil wood and plants
are reported to have been found in the blue ground. I am of
the opinion that these came either from the shale surrounding
the craters, which was constantly falling into the open mines, or
from the pieces of shale which became embedded in the blue
ground at the time the craters were filled. The only fossils which
have been found in the mines since they have been under my
management are the fish which are shown in the illustration on
page 486. They are embedded in sandstone which was found
on the 1 85-foot level of Premier mine.
The surface shales and basalt surrounding the pipes are
called reef, and the masses of shale and igneous rocks, scattered
through the blue ground in the upper levels of the mines, are
commonly spoken of as floating reef.
486 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
After careful microscopical observations, Dr. Stelzner and
others have reached the conclusion that the blue ground is of
volcanic origin, and was forced up from below. This conclusion
accords with the opinion which I formed of the origin of the
Fossil Fish from Premier Mine.
diamond-bearing deposit, during my visits to the Diamond Fields
in 1884 and 1885. I then thought that the filling of the pipes
was due to aqueous rather than igneous agencies, possibly to
something in the nature of mud volcanoes.
The Genesis of the Diamond
The chemical composition of the diamond has long been
determined, at least approximately. Sir Isaac Newton conjec-
tured it to be of vegetable origin and combustible, but it was not
until 1694 that Newton's assumption of its combustibility was
actually proved by the famous burning glass experiment of the
academicians of Cimento, at the prompting of the Grand Duke
Cosmo III.
Lavoisier, Guyton de Morveau, and others practically deter-
mined, later, that the burning of a diamond with a free supply of
oxygen converted it into carbon dioxide ; and, finally, the ex-
periments of Sir Humphry Davy, in 1816, showed that the
diamond was almost entirely pure carbon. Davy's conclusions
FORMATION OF THE DIAMOND 487
have been confirmed by Dumas, Stas, Friedel, Roscoe, and
other eminent chemists, apparently fixing with extreme precision
the chemical composition of the diamond. It is, however, note-
worthy that the diamond is a non-conductor of electricity, while
graphite and charcoal, substances so closely similar in chemical
composition, are excellent electrical conductors. By the applica-
tion of friction the diamond can be positively electrified, but
Streeter says that it loses its electricity completely in the course
of half an hour.1
So much, it may be claimed, we know ; but the process of
the formation or crystallization of the diamond carbon is still
uncertain. The proofs are most conclusive that the diamonds
in the South African mines were not formed in situ, but have
come up from below with blue ground. The frequent occur-
rence of broken crystals embedded in the blue is sufficient
evidence that the diamonds are not in their original place of
crystallization, for it is impossible for nature to produce a frag-
ment of a diamond.
The late Dr. W. Guybon Atherstone, F.G.S., whose identifi-
cation made known the first diamond of the South African
Fields, presented his theory at a meeting of the South African
Geological Society, as follows : —
" The succession of the strata in the Kimberley mine is pre-
cisely the same as that of the lacustrine sedimentary beds, begin-
ning from the quartzite base of the carboniferous rocks and
shales, through the ecca and karoo formation, the coal-bearing
shales of the Stormberg, to the dolerite, capping and protecting
the surface, as proved by the rock shaft recently sunk out of the
influence of the Kimberley mine to a depth of one thousand feet,
where a thickness of four hundred feet of amygdaloidal lava with
the trappean ecca conglomerate above it represents the prevailing
rocks of the Vaal, Riet, and Orange rivers for a great distance
below Hopetown. Incredible as it was deemed at the time, my
story of the small rounded river stone which fell out of the
unsealed letter placed in my hands by the post-boy, has since
1 "Precious Stones and Gems," p. 58.
488 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
proved to have been the key that has unlocked the vast under-
ground wealth of South Africa.1
" The story I have now to tell of its birthplace and subse-
quent history will, I know, appear still more incredible, as fabu-
lous indeed as was that of Sindbad, the Arabian voyager, who,
with the talisman and magic lamp of Aladdin the Seer, unlocked
the caverns of Africa's fairy land, and viewed in prophetic vision
Irregular Crystallization of Diamonds.
the vast stores of buried treasures, — gold, diamonds, and other
gems, — just as we see them now with our magic electric lamp a
thousand feet down in the dark recesses of the extinct volcano,
yielding millions of the purest gems upon earth.
" How came the diamond there in its hard blue matrix of
ashes and lava, with its accompanying gems, — garnets, rubies,
sapphires, agates, and other gems, — the products of solution and
1 Geological Magazine, Vol. VI, p. 208, May, 1889.
FORMATION OF THE DIAMOND 489
heat ? For a substance to crystallize, its molecules must be free
to move under polarizing and other metamorphic forces influenc-
ing crystallization ; but the diamond we know is neither soluble
Irregular Crystallization of Diamonds.
nor fusible. It is the element carbon crystallized, and is con-
sumed by heat. How, then, could it survive as a crystal in the
crater of a volcano ?
" The key to solve this mystery was placed in my hand over
half a century ago, by one of the greatest philosophers of the
490 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
age, whose lectures I had the privilege of attending. But it was
not until I had examined a diamond mine in South Africa and
speculated upon the apparently irreconcilable phenomena attend-
ant upon the origin of the diamond in its matrix, that the prac-
tical application of Faraday's discovery began to dawn upon me.
' Hold out your hand,' said he, at the close of the lecture that
fairly electrified the world of science, as with a loud hiss a snowy
substance, burning like a coal but in reality intensely cold,
escaped into the palm of my hand from the strong iron vessel
in which, with a pressure of fifty atmospheres, he had liquefied
carbonic acid gas — the very gas resulting from the combustion
of the diamond, consisting of
one atom of carbon and two
of oxygen.
" I have shown that the
sedimentary beds deposited
from this vast freshwater lake
attained a thickness of about
eight thousand feet. The
lake itself, therefore, prob-
ably equalled that depth. (?)
Now the experiments of
Wyville Thomson and Car-
Crystal of Diamond, showing Rounded Edges. penter, made during the
voyage of the Lightning and the Porcupine, proved that at a
depth of three to four hundred fathoms, the pressure is equal to
half a ton on the square inch ; at a mile to one hundred and
fifty-nine atmospheres, and at seven thousand feet it amounts to
two hundred atmospheres, or four times the pressure under which
Faraday liquefied carbonic acid gas, the temperature at such great
depths being very few degrees above freezing point. In the
carbonic acid gas generated from the carbonaceous shales by
heat, and interspersed as gas bubbles in the cavities of the viscid,
ferruginous amygdaloid, and in the admixture of steam, lava, and
ashes known as the ' Kimberley Blue ' — reduced to the liquid
state by the enormous pressure in the subaqueous volcano — we
FORMATION OF THE DIAMOND
491
have the constituents of the diamond in a form admitting of
crystallization, and the subsequent absorption of its oxygen by
the iron always present in its containing walls during long inter-
mittent periods of volcanic inactivity. There are proofs in the
Kimberley mine that such alternating periods of activity and
repose have occurred at long intervals, as shown by the four or
Twin Crystal Formations.
five distinct and separate layers of diamonds lining its walls, of
varying size and quality, known and recognizable by diamond
buyers."
In this presentation, which Dr. Atherstone seemingly re-
garded as conclusive, there is a lack of the clear, logical reason-
ing which in other discussions has distinguished his views. He
dogmatically puts the carbonic acid gas evolved from the car-
492 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
bonaceous shales into cavities of the amygdaloidal rock which
lies outside of the volcanic pipes. Then he reduces this gas by
enormous pressure to a liquid state, and, having gotten it into a
form, as he thought, admitting of crystallization, he absorbs the
oxygen of the carbonic acid by the iron in the containing walls
of the craters. Now, as a matter of fact, there are no cavities in
the amygdaloidal rock underlying the shales, for all interstices
are rilled with silica in the form of agates, or with calcite. Fur-
thermore, if carbonic acid had been left in the olivine diabase to
crystallize, then the resultant diamonds would have been enclosed
in this formation, which is also contrary to fact, for no diamonds
have ever been found in the amygdaloidal rock. His main con-
tention, too, is the derival from the shales of the carbon necessary
for the formation of diamonds. It will be made clear, subse-
quently in this discussion, that this assumption is not justified.
The late Henry Carvill Lewis, M.A., F.G.S., Professor of
Mineralogy in the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia,
U.S.A., advanced the proposition that the diamond is the result
of the intrusion of igneous rocks into and through the carbo-
naceous shales, and the crystallization of the carbon throughout
the rocks, as it cools, from hydrocarbon, distilled from the
shales that had been broken through.1
In support of such a theory, it is claimed that the diamonds
in the various mines or pipes have different characteristics. It
is quite true that large parcels of diamonds from the various
mines have distinctive characteristics, and it can be easily told
from which mine a parcel of diamonds comes ; but it is very
difficult to tell in which mine a single stone may have been
found, though each mine has stones in a great measure peculiar
to itself. Some observers claim that the broken diamonds
which are extracted are broken during the process of winning
them. It is admitted that diamonds may be broken in the
process of mining and the subsequent operations of winning,
but these cases are exceptional. Fragments of diamonds are
very frequently found embedded in the blue ground, and there
1 "Gems and Precious Stones of North America," George F. Kunz.
FORMATION OF THE DIAMOND 493
is no doubt in the mind of any one who has had practical
experience in finding these fragments that they were not crystal-
lized where they are found. The fact that no diamond has
ever been found embedded in the shale itself strikes one as
conclusive proof that Professor Lewis's theory is wrong.
Diamonds of Regular Forms.
Again, would not the intrusion of an igneous rock through
carbonaceous shales have altered these shales in the vicinity of
the igneous rock? There is, however, no difference that can be
detected between the shales at the junction of the pipe and at a
distance of one thousand feet. Moreover, would not the frag-
ments of shale enclosed in the blue ground have changed, and
have lost the carbon which they contain, if diamonds were
formed from them ? One sees no difference between the shale
which forms the country rock, and the fragments embedded in
the blue ground. If such a theory as is attributed to Professor
Lewis by Mr. Kunz had a shadow of foundation, it is dis-
pelled by the occurrence of diamonds in the Jagersfontein mine
in the Orange Free State, some eighty miles from Kimberley.
In this mine there are no carbonaceous shales surrounding the
diamond-bearing deposits. The pipe, as far as developed, is in
quartzite, and it is apparent that the shales never existed here, or
494 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
were denuded before the formation of the diamond-bearing pipe.
If such denudation had taken place after the filling of the pipe
with a diamond-bearing matrix, the alluvial deposit of the coun-
try surrounding this mine must contain diamonds, but no such
discovery of diamonds has been made.
The Jagersfontein mine is not the only diamond-bearing pipe
that has produced diamonds without having shale as a country
rock. Other pipes or veins have been found both in the Free
State and the Transvaal, which are, however, of little commercial
value, owing to the small quantities of diamonds found in them,
but they are most useful in refuting existing theories, if not in
the determination of the genesis of the diamond.
An important contribution to this discussion was made by
Professor Molengraaf, state geologist of the South African
Republic, in a monograph on the diamonds at Rietfontein in
the Transvaal. He stated that "the diamond-bearing breccia on
the farm was of the same nature as the well-known blue ground
of the Kimberley mines. The geological position of the volcanic
chimney at Rietfontein was very different from that of the other
diamond pipes in South Africa. The latter, of course, all oc-
curred in a higher or lower horizon of the karoo formation,
whereas the chimney at Rietfontein seemed to occur in the upper
parts of the Pretoria beds in a system of strata overlying the
Magaliesberg quartzite. If that position, which was almost cer-
tain to his mind, was proved to be correctly determined by a
later and more careful geological survey of the surrounding
country, this fact would be of high importance in the discussion
of the genesis of diamonds. Of the different theories regarding
this genesis he would only mention three principal ones.
" He would take up first the theory agitated by Messrs.
Stanislas Meunier,1 M. Chaper,2 and in a somewhat modified form
1 " Composition et origine du sable diamantifere du Du Toils Pan, Afrique
australe." Comptes rendus de 1' Academic des Sciences de Paris. Vol.
LXXXIV, No. VI, p. 250. " Examen mineralogique des roches qui accom-
pagnent le diamant dans les mines du Cap de Bonne Esperance." Bulletins de
P Academic Royale de Belgique, jd series, Vol. Ill, No. 4.
2 " Note sur la region diamantifere de 1' Afrique australe." Paris, 1880.
FORMATION OF THE DIAMOND 495
lately by Professor Gamier. They denied the igneous origin of
the blue ground and the diamonds in it, and considered the blue
ground to be a kind of mud, or peculiar alluvial deposit, which
had been forced up by a hydrostatic process. That theory, to
his mind, had already been proved untenable by several eminent
geologists. The two remaining theories agreed as far as the
igneous origin of the blue ground. According to one of these,
the diamonds belong to the primary constituents of the eruptive
rock itself, and had crystallized at a great depth under very high
pressure and high temperature, before an eruption of an explo-
sive character brought the igneous rock to the earth's surface.
"According to the second theory, which was discussed by
Mr. Harger at a meeting of the Geological Society of South
Africa, the diamonds were formed in the blue ground, during
its ascension, from carbon borrowed from the carbonaceous
shales through which the eruptive rock forced its way. Now,
that theory, although rather weak in his opinion, had been main-
tained, hitherto, mainly because the geological position of the
known diamond pipes was such that it could be proved, or, at
least, be accepted as very probable, that the blue ground had
forced its way through carbonaceous strata. The discovery at
Rietfontein deprived that theory of its strength. As already
pointed out, the chimney at Rietfontein was found in the upper
Pretoria beds. But in the Pretoria beds, as well as in the forma-
tions underlying these, strata containing any notable quantities of
carbon were nowhere to be found in the Transvaal ; so that the
conclusion might safely be drawn that the igneous blue ground, in
forcing its way from great depths toward the place where it was
found, could not borrow any carbon from the surrounding strata
in order to convert it into diamonds. The discovery at Rietfon-
tein might afford a valuable argument in favor of the formation
of diamonds as a primary constituent in breccia, or ultrabasic
magma at great depth, and geologists were entitled to derive
from it an argument in favor of the following more general
thesis : ' The elements of carbon, under the conditions of heat
and pressure ruling at great depth in the interior of the earth,
496 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
Diamonds of Irregular Forms.
can only exist and crystallize in the modification called diamonds.'
This thesis was, of course, in perfect harmony with the latest
scientific discoveries, especially with the famous experiments of
Moissan."
FORMATION OF THE DIAMOND 497
It was the opinion of the late Dr. Stelzner that the diamond
was crystallized at great depths and came up with the magma or
matrix. The following liberal translation from a lecture de-
livered by Dr. Stelzner before the Isis Society in Dresden on
April 20, 1893, gives the views of this celebrated geologist : —
" Before I give my own opinion, may I be allowed to recall
three well-known geological facts : first, that various minerals
which compose many of the eruptive rocks, for instance the
olivine of certain basalts, contain liquid carbonic acid, and we
must come to the conclusion that the molten magma under some
circumstances must have been impregnated with carbonic acid ;
second, that the blue ground of Kimberley, as already mentioned
by Lewis, has a known resemblance to many meteorites ; and,
third, that a modified form of carbon, besides graphite, similar
to the diamond, has been met with recently in meteorites.
" If we take these three facts into consideration, and also
remember that in most of the localities in which diamond-bear-
ing alluvial deposits appear (Ural, India, Borneo, New South
Wales, and in the United States), serpentine (especially perido-
tite) is to be found, we come to the conclusion that the carbon
of the diamond itself crystallized when this molten mass, rich in
magnesium silicate, became cool. In support of this opinion we
find that in some instances diamonds and garnets (pyrope) are
found together, showing that they have the same origin."
For the illumination of the problem of the formation of
diamonds the experiments of Mr. J. B. Hannay of Glasgow, Pro-
fessor Dewar, and M. Moissan, and later of Sir William Crookes,
are of the greatest interest to the scientific world.
The conversion of a diamond into graphite was effected by
Professor Dewar, publicly, in London, as far back as 1880. Sir
William Crookes repeated the same experiment in a lecture at
the Royal Institution of Great Britain, on June n, 1897, by
placing a diamond in the electric arc where the temperature was
3600° C., when it was converted into graphite.
Among the first attempts to make artificial diamonds may
be mentioned that of Mr. J. B. Hannay of Glasgow, who com-
2 K
498 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
menced his experiments in 1879, anc^ after many trials, some of
which resulted in violent explosions, he is said to have succeeded.
The method adopted by Mr. Hannay is described as follows: —
" A tube twenty inches long by four inches in diameter was
bored so as to have an internal diameter of half an inch. In the
tube was placed a mixture of ninety per cent of rectified bone oil,
and ten per cent of paraffin spirit, together with four grammes
(about sixty-two grains) of the metal lithium. The open end of
the tube was welded air-tight, and the whole mass was heated to
redness for fourteen hours ; on opening it a great volume of gas
rushed from the tube, and within was a hard, smooth mass
adhering to the sides of the tube. It was quite black, and
appeared to be composed of iron and lithium, but on a closer
inspection small transparent pieces were found embedded in it.
The mass was dissolved, and the small transparent pieces proved
to be ' crystalline carbon,' exactly like diamonds but almost
microscopical.
" Out of eighty complex and extensive experiments only
three succeeded. Violent explosions were frequent, steel tubes
burst, scattering their fragments around, and furnaces were blown
up. ' The continued strain on the nerves,' writes Mr. Hannay,
' watching the temperature of the furnace, and in a state of ten-
sion in case of an explosion, induces a nervous state which is
extremely weakening, and when the explosion occurs it some-
times shakes one so severely that sickness supervenes.' '
Sir William Crookes attributes the possibility of making
artificial diamonds to the facilities afforded by the enormously
high temperatures which are obtainable in recent years by the
introduction of electricity. While electricity has, no doubt,
played an important part- in the scientific researches during the
last decades of the nineteenth century, Mr. Hannay's experi-
ments would indicate that it is not absolutely essential to have
enormous temperatures or pressures to produce artificial dia-
monds. Still, Sir William Crookes shows that by means of
these high temperatures substances such as carbon obey the
1 Glasgow News.
FORMATION OF THE DIAMOND 499
common laws which govern other substances, and can be made
volatile and fusible under certain conditions. He has demon-
strated that the temperature necessary to volatilize pure carbon
is about 3600° C., and that it passes into the gaseous state
without liquefying, and he infers that, if sufficient pressure were
applied with the high temperature, liquid carbon would be pro-
duced which upon cooling would crystallize in diamonds. For
this product the absence of oxygen is absolutely necessary, as
the carbon would readily unite with it in the form of carbonic
acid. It is a well-known fact that iron when melted dissolves
carbon, and while Moissan discovered that other metals effect
this dissolution, he found that iron was the best solvent.
Sir William Croolces went through the process of producing
diamonds before the eyes of his audience, but was only able to
show them the result of this experiment by reproducing a lantern
slide of microscopical diamonds which he had made in the same
way previously, for it takes a fortnight to separate them from
the iron and other substances in which they are embedded.
The scientific principle upon which this experiment rests, accord-
ing to Sir William Crookes, is that molten iron absorbs carbon,
and as iron increases in volume as it passes from the liquid to
the solid state, if the outer crust of the iron is suddenly cooled
and the centre remains in a liquid state, the enormous pressure
caused by its expanding while cooling affords the two factors neces-
sary for the crystallization of the diamond — heat and pressure.
Authorities differ somewhat as to the exact moment when
molten iron expands on cooling, but it is the generally ac-
cepted theory that expansion takes place at the moment of
solidification. It is also a well-known fact that shrinkage or
contraction takes place as the solidified metal cools. It is there-
fore possible to obtain enormous pressure in the molten centre
of a casting by the contraction of the outer shell which has been
rapidly cooled and the expansion of the inner mass just as it
begins to solidify.1
'American Society Mechanical Engineers, Vol. XVIII, pp. 419 and 431.
American Institute of Mining Engineers, Vol. XVII, 126 and 1015.
500 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
Sir William Crookes says further, that it has been " conclu-
sively proved that the diamond's genesis must have taken place
at great depths under enormous pressure. The explosion of
large diamonds on coming to the surface shows extreme ten-
sion." According to my own experience, a diamond never
explodes. Light brown, smoky diamonds often crack on expo-
sure to the dry air, but they will remain intact if kept in a
moist place. The cracking is, therefore, more probably the
result of heat or drying than of tension or inward pressure. It
is possible, however, that the greater heat to which the diamond
is exposed when brought to the surface may expand contained
gases sufficiently to crack the stone.
Sir William holds the same view of the formation of the dia-
mond-bearing pipes which I suggested at the time of my visit to
the Diamond Fields in I885,1 — that these pipes were volcanoes
which were filled with the mixture which they now contain while
it was in the form of mud. My reasons for this theory are fully
set forth upon another page. Continuing in his lecture, Sir Will-
iam says : " The ash left after burning a diamond invariably con-
tains iron as its chief constituent, and the most common colors
of diamonds when not perfectly pellucid show various shades of
brown and yellow from the palest ' off color ' to almost black.
These variations accord with the theory that the diamond has
separated from molten iron."
I have a collection of diamonds of all colors, see colored
Plate opposite, and recently made exhaustive tests in order to
ascertain whether they contained any iron either in the metallic
or oxidized state. These experiments were made upon a mag-
netic separating machine, the field magnets of which attracted
any mineral which contained iron in a metallic or oxidized state.
Although some of these diamonds had the appearance of being
coated with iron in some form, and others were colored dark
brown and deep yellow, they were in no way attracted by the
magnet even when excited by a strong electrical current. These
1 Transactions of the American Institute of Mining Engineers (October meeting,
1886), Vol. XV, pp. 392-417.
FORMATION OF THE DIAMOND
501
experiments do not, perhaps, disprove the existence of iron in
the diamond, but they do establish the fact that, if iron does exist
in an oxidized state, the quantity is infinitesimally small.
One more theory of the deposit of diamonds in the South
African fields is deserving of special mention, more for the pur-
pose of showing to what heights of imagination the human mind
may soar, than for any scientific value it may have. This is an
assumption that the diamond deposits came from a fall of meteors,
"a direct gift from heaven," and was first advanced to notice,
it is said, by Meydenbauer. Such a theory seems highly fan-
tastic and is the most improbable of all. The occasional inclu-
sion of black diamonds in meteorites is well attested, but these
occurrences are very far from accounting for the formation of the
South African diamond-bearing deposits. " Bizarre as such a
theory may appear," says Sir William Crookes, " I am bound
to say there are many circumstances which show that the notion
of the heavens raining diamonds is not impossible." The
"Ava" meteorite which fell in
Hungary in 1846 contained graph-
ite in cubic crystalline form which
G. Rose thought was produced by
the transformation of diamonds.
Later Weinschenk found trans-
parent crystals (diamonds) in the
Ava meteorite.
Since it became known that
diamonds (infinitesimally small, it
is true, but nevertheless diamonds)
occur in meteorites, a general
search has been made for the minute crystals in meteorites from
Australia and Russia, and from Canon Diablo, Arizona, and dia-
monds and graphite have been found.1
From the above facts and from observations which Sir Will-
iam Crookes made at Kimberley, he concludes that the genesis
of the diamonds found in the South African mines was by crys-
1 Sir William Crookes's lecture.
A Microscopical Diamond (magnified
zoo times) from a Meteorite from
Canon Diablo.
502 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
tallization of pure carbon in molten masses of iron which form
a part of the internal regions of the earth.
The theory that the diamonds must have crystallized in
a matrix of iron is not new. That small diamonds have been
produced in this way there is no doubt, and in the absence of
further proof to the contrary one might assume that such was
the origin of the diamond. Iron in the form of magnetite and
other similar minerals forms a considerable part of the concen-
trates from the washing machines ; but all proof that these
minerals, which may have been derived from metallic iron
by oxidation, were the matrix in which the diamonds originally
crystallized is wanting. As a matter of fact, I am positive that
neither the iron nor, as others have asserted, the olivine found
with the diamonds is the original matrix of the diamond ; and my
assurance rests upon the fact that no diamonds, however small,
have ever been found in the iron combination, or in the other
minerals which accompany them, although these concentrates
have passed daily under the eyes of hundreds of keen-eyed
sorters for more than thirty years, and thousands upon thousands
of tons have been looked over, not once, but at least four times.
The pieces of the iron minerals and especially of the olivine are
often very large, quite large enough to contain diamonds weigh-
ing several carats, which in many cases would have been exposed
to view had these minerals been the original matrix. We must,
therefore, look to other sources for the genesis of the diamond.
I have been of the opinion that diamonds crystallized in very
much the same way as quartz or other minerals, but under
peculiar circumstances possibly of pressure and heat. Professor
Crookes states that diamond crystals are almost invariably per-
fect on all sides. As a rule this is the case. Quartz crystals
have been found which have been formed without any attach-
ment to other substances, that is, with both ends showing pyram-
idal facets. The same formation may be seen in a great many
other minerals, and this is usually a characteristic of the diamond,
but diamonds are found which have been crystallized with some
portion of the surface resting upon or adhering to some other
FORMATION OF THE DIAMOND
503
substance. The several reproductions of the various forms and
sizes of diamonds will give the reader some idea of the eccen-
tricities of these stones.
The experiments of Herr W. Luzi1 of Leipsic in the pro-
duction of artificial figures of corrosion on rough diamonds are
of exceeding interest in the light which they throw on the crys-
tallization and the probable matrix and genesis of the diamond.
Until lately the only appearance of chemical corrosion upon
the surface of rough diamonds was the regular, triangular, nega-
tive pyramids, which were pro-
duced through heating the
diamonds in the open air, or
under oxygen flame. Herr
Luzi has succeeded in pro-
ducing different and peculiar
kinds of figures. He discov-
ered that the breccia from the
South African diamond mines
(that is, the matrix or blue
ground), when in a molten
condition, possesses the prop-
erty of absorbing the diamond
or of changing its shape.
He describes his experi-
ment as follows : A small quantity of blue ground was melted
in a crucible placed in a Fourquinon-Leclerq furnace at a tem-
perature of 1770° R., which was the highest temperature attain-
able. A diamond with perfectly smooth natural faces was
submerged in this molten mass. A further quantity of blue
ground was then added to the contents of the crucible until it
was completely filled. A tightly fitting cover was placed on
the crucible, which was placed in the furnace and again exposed
for thirty minutes to the greatest heat attainable. When the
crucible was cooled the diamond was removed and found to be
1 "Artificial Figures of Corrosion on Rough Diamonds," Berichte der Deut-
sche n Chemise hen Gese Use haft, 1892.
Smooth Surface of Diamond dissected by Com-
bustion. (Magnified loo times.) From a
photograph by Sir William Crookes.
5o4 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
covered with irregular oval and half-round grooves of various
depths. In one experiment, the diamond was found to be
deeply eaten away on one side, so that the depression nearly
penetrated through the stone.
Diamonds thus magmatically corroded have a similarity, as
regards the appearance of the corrosion, to hornblende and kin-
dred materials. A small spot or scar was, at times, found at the
bottom of a large indent. The diamonds were usually found,
after the experiments, to be blackened, or covered with a red
coating, which proved to be oxide of iron.
Diamonds of Irregular Forms.
Some of the diamonds showed little black or greenish black
balls located exactly in the centre of the holes. The formation
of the balls is doubtless connected with the creation of the
grooves. These little balls are magnetic, and when treated with
hydrochloric acid, in which they are only partly soluble, they
evolve a gas.
The quantity of these balls was too limited to permit of any
very exact investigation of their nature. Herr Luzi presumes
that they are transformed diamond-carbon, i.e. a different modi-
fication of carbon, which contains either oxide of iron or metallic
iron reduced out of the oxide. He was, however (owing to the
FORMATION OF THE DIAMOND
505
cost of the material to be experimented upon), unable to deter-
mine positively what chemical action took place during the time
the diamonds were
heated in the com-
plicated silica flux.
Some of these partly
absorbed diamonds,
upon which Herr
Luzi experimented,
are deposited in the
mineralogical mu-
seum of the Leipsic
University.
Herr Luzi fur-
ther remarks that
perhaps other
molten silica combi-
nations, or those of
a similar nature to
the blue ground,
may have the same
power of attacking
the diamond.
The knowledge
that diamonds can
be absorbed by a sil-
icate magma makes
one inclined to in-
vestigate further the
genesis of the dia-
mond, which many
claim was formed
under great heat and Two Views of the Face of a Rough Diamond, as seen through
T - the Microscope. (Magnified 100 times.)
pressure. It such
was the genesis of the diamond, Herr Luzi's experiments would
indicate that the original matrix was not a silica combination
506 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
such as the present blue ground. They tend to prove, rather,
the theory, which I advanced more than sixteen years ago, that
the blue ground which contains the diamond owes its formation,
as it at present exists, more to aqueous than igneous agencies. If
the diamond is unable to withstand the corroding influence of the
silica magma at the comparatively low temperature given above,
— how could it possibly have retained its forms of crystallization
and perfect faces at the far higher temperature and pressure which
must have existed under the volcanic or igneous theory ?
It seems a pity that Herr Luzi did not state the exact weight
of the diamonds upon which he experimented both before and
after his experiments. The burning or absorption of the dia-
mond in its matrix would be a strong argument against the
diamond having been crystallized in situ, or that it came up in its
present matrix when such matrix was in a molten state. If a
diamond, subjected in its own matrix or magma in an ordinary
graphite crucible to a temperature of 1770° R., changes its shape
and appearance as described by Herr Luzi, — could it be expected
that many diamonds in our mines should be found perfect in
shape, without a flaw or spot, and with clear, transparent sides,
so smooth that they have the appearance of having been pol-
ished ? Nevertheless, such is the appearance of nearly all South
African diamonds. It would seem from the evidence brought
forward that only one conclusion is possible, namely, that the
blue ground in its present state is not the magma of the dia-
mond. What the original magma or matrix was is unfortu-
nately far less certain. Some years ago a diamond, weighing 28|
carats, was found at Kimberley. The external surface of the
diamond was smooth and crystallized, showing no other mineral
except the diamond itself. The interior of the diamond was
white, but not transparent, and, owing to its peculiar appearance,
the valuator broke the stone in order to satisfy his curiosity.
The result of the breaking is shown in the full-size illustration
on page 507. A small perfect octahedral diamond was en-
closed in the centre of the larger diamond. Nor was this all.
There were flakes of a white mineral, not diamond, attached to
FORMATION OF THE DIAMOND 507
the fragments of the broken diamond. A few grains of these
were collected and analyzed by Professor Lawn, of the Kim-
berley School of Mines. In appearance the flakes were white,
translucent, and crystalline, and about as hard as the steel blade
of a knife. When heated in a closed tube, moisture was
given off. The mineral was very slightly effervescent, prob-
ably due to a trace of carbonate of lime. It fused readily on
platinum wire to a white bead.
Diamond bearing a Smaller Crystal in its Centre.
The mineral was determined to be apophyllite, a silicate of
lime and potash with 16 per cent of water. If a mineral, which
is fusible at the ordinary temperature obtained with a blowpipe,
and which contains 16 per cent of water, was formed at the same
time the diamond crystallized, it is certain that this did not take
place under the condition mentioned above, i.e. under enormously
high temperature. How, then, one may ask, did the apophyllite
become a part of this stone ?
Von Tschudi describes a beautiful crystallized Brazilian dia-
5o8 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
mond, in the centre of which is a little gold leaf. He had the
information from Dr. Mills Franco, who maintained that there
was no deception in its being gold.1 Occurrences of this nature
tend to veil the genesis of the diamond in still further mystery.
Professor T. G. Bonney lately obtained specimens from the
Newlands mines, some forty miles northwest of Kimberley, of a
coarsely crystalline rock studded with garnets, technically " holo-
crystalline allied to eclogites," which were embedded, as he says,
in typical blue ground. In this eclogitic rock he found a num-
ber of small but perfectly formed diamonds. At a meeting of
the Royal Society in July, 1899, ne presented his conclusions:
"The blue ground is not the birthplace, either of the diamond
or of the garnets, pyroxenes, olivine, and other minerals, more
or less fragmental, which it incorporates. The diamond is a
constituent of the eclogite, just as much as a zircon may be a
constituent of a granite or a syenite.
" Though the occurrence of diamonds in rocks with a high
percentage of silica (itacolumite, granite, etc.) has been asserted, the
statement needs corroboration. This form of crystallized carbon
hitherto has been found only in meteoric iron (Canon Diablo),
and has been produced artificially by Moissan and others with
the same metal as matrix. But in eclogite the silica percentage
is at least as high as in dolerite ; hence it is difficult to under-
stand how so small an amount of carbon escaped oxidation.
" I had always expected that a peridotite (as supposed by
Professor Lewis), if not a material yet more basic, would prove
to be the birthplace of the diamond. Can it possibly be a deriv-
ative mineral, even in the eclogite ? Had it already crystallized
out of a more basic magma, which, however, was still molten
when one more acid was injected and the mixture became such
as to form eclogite ? But I content myself with indicating a
difficulty and suggesting a possibility ; the fact itself is indispu-
table : that the diamond occurs, though rather sporadically, as a
constituent of an eclogite, which rock, according to the ordinary
rules of inference, would be regarded as its birthplace.
1 "Travels in South America," by J. J. von Tschudi.
FORMATION OF THE DIAMOND 509
" This discovery closes another controversy, viz., that con-
cerning the nature of the ' hard blue ' of the mines (kimberlite
of Professor Lewis) in which the diamond is usually found. The
boulders described in this paper are truly water-worn. The
idea that they have been rounded by a sort of ' cup and ball '
game played by a volcano may be dismissed as practically im-
possible. Any such process would take a long time, but the
absence of true scoria implies that the explosive phase was a
brief one. They resemble stones which have travelled for several
miles down a mountain torrent, and must have been derived
from a coarse conglomerate, manufactured by either a strong
stream or the waves of the sea from fragments obtained from
more ancient crystalline rocks. . . .
" The presence of water-worn fragments, large and small, in
considerable abundance, shows the blue ground to be a true
breccia, produced by the destruction of various rocks (some of
them crystalline, others sedimentary, but occasionally including
water-worn boulders of the former), i.e. a result of shattering
explosions followed by solfataric action. Hence the name kim-
berlite must disappear from the list of peridotites, and even from
petrological literature, unless it be retained for this remarkable
type of breccia.
" Boulders, such as we have described, might be expected to
occur at the base of the sedimentary series, in proximity to a
crystalline floor. The karoo beds in South Africa . . . are
underlain in many places by a coarse conglomerate of consider-
able thickness and great extent, called the Dwyka conglomerate,
which is supposed to be Permian or Permo-carboniferous in age.
It crops out from beneath the karoo beds at no great distance
from the diamond-bearing district and very probably extends
beneath it. If this deposit has supplied the boulders, the date
of the genesis of the diamond is carried back, at the very least,
to Palaeozoic ages, and possibly to a still earlier era in the earth's
history." 1
1 Proceedings of the Royal Society, Vol. LXV, pp. 235, 236, July 27, 1899.
"The Parent Rock of the Diamond in South Africa," Prof. T. G. Bonney.
510 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
I cannot accept the contention that the boulders came from
any strata through which the pipes have been formed, unless
these strata lie very deep and below the quartzite.
The conglomerate which lies between the shale and mela-
phyre is only a few feet thick, ten to fifteen at most, and does
not contain large boulders such as are found in the blue ground ;
besides, the quantity of boulders or conglomerate which could
have been contained in the area of the mine would not have
supplied the amount of stones already found in the blue ground.
These must, therefore, have come up from below with the dia-
mond-bearing ground. If the boulders came from the Dwyka
conglomerate, it must lie very deep beneath the surface, for
nothing of the kind has been found at a depth of over twenty-
one hundred feet.
Professor Bonney says above that the statement of the occur-
rence of diamonds in itacolumite l needs corroboration. There
is no doubt in my own mind that diamonds in Brazil have been
found in itacolumite, and the consensus of opinion is that it is
not the original matrix, but that the diamonds were washed from
their volcanic origin and became bedded in this sandstone when
it was being formed.
I have been frequently asked, " What is your theory of the
original crystallization of the diamond ? " and the answer has
always been, " I have none ; for after seventeen years of thought-
ful study coupled with practical research I find that it is easier
to ' drive a coach and four ' through most theories which have
been propounded than to suggest one which would be based
upon any more unassailable data." All that can be said is that
in some unknown manner carbon, which existed down deep in
the internal regions of the earth, was changed from its black and
uninviting appearance to the most beautiful gem which ever saw
the light of day.
1 Brittle quartz sandstone of slaty (schistose) character. — Heusser.
CHAPTER XVII
THE DIAMOND MARKET
N preceding chapters the extraction of the blue
ground and the winning of the precious stones
have been fully described. It remains to trace
the handling of the diamonds from this point
until they reach the hands of the jewellers and
are spread broadcast in glittering array over the
face of the world, or applied to uses less showy than adornment.
After the diamonds are separated and collected at the Pul-
sator, they are cleaned and sent under guard to the diamond
office, which is in the general offices of the Company. Here
the crystals are boiled in a mixture of nitric and sulphuric acid
to remove any particles of earth which may adhere to them.
They are then thoroughly rinsed with clear water to get rid of
the acids, and finally washed in alcohol and spread out on tables
to dry. The alcohol seems to clean the diamonds and leaves
them brighter than when water alone is used.
The daily productions of diamonds are put away in parcels
until there is an accumulation of about 50,000 carats of De
Beers and Kimberley diamonds. The diamonds from these
two mines are mixed and are known locally as " pool goods."
When the requisite quantity is at hand, the mixed stones are
screened to grade the sizes, after first taking out the larger
diamonds by hand. They are then ready to pass to the hands
of the sorters, who separate and classify them for accurate valua-
tion. The chief classifications in use are —
i. Close goods. 2. Spotted stones. 3. Rejection cleavage.
4. Fine cleavage. 5. Light-brown cleavage. 6. Ordinary and
rejection cleavage. 7. Flats. 8. Maacles. 9. Rubbish. 10. Boart.
5"
5i2 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
" Close goods " are pure, well-shaped stones ; " spotted
stones " are crystals slightly spotted ; and " rejection " stones
seriously depreciated by spots. Broken stones are grouped
under the head of " cleavage." Flat crystals formed by the
distortion of octahedra are classed as flats, and flat triangular
crystals, which are in reality twin stones, are marked as maacles.
" Rubbish " is the refuse, ranking a little better than the lowest
grade of all, ordinary " boart " the material used for polishing
purposes. Round or shot boart is found in the mines at
Diamond Sorters and Valuators, through whose hands ,£4,000,000 worth of Diamonds
pass annually.
Kimberley and is very valuable for use in diamond drills since
the Brazilian carbonado has become so scarce. Well-formed
shot boart, averaging about the size of peas, sells readily for £6
a carat.
After this separation has been made, the first eight classes are
each further subdivided according to their shades of color. The
scale is given below in descending order of purity —
Blue White, First Cape, Second Cape, First Bye, Second
Bye, Off Color, Light Yellow, Yellow.
Only the first grade, or close goods, are carefully distin-
guished by separation of all eight shades. For other classes a
THE DIAMOND MARKET 513
smaller number of shade divisions is noted. It may be per-
ceived that the minute distinctions of this separation can only be
made by the trained eyes of experts. No magnifying glasses
are used by the sorters, all being able to make the distinctions
with the naked eye. Ten sorters are employed, all Europeans,
two women and eight men. To replace any who leave, ap-
prentices are trained to the work at Kimberley. The sorters
determine the quality of diamonds with notable accuracy and
speed.
De Beers mine is noted for yielding an exceptionally large
percentage of ordinary " yellows," a very small percentage of
very " dark yellows," a limited number of brilliant " silver
Capes," and considerable " light-brown cleavage " of a delicate
shade. The very " dark yellows " are ranked as " fancies " and
highly valued, and the "silver Capes" are also rated highly, as
they have great lustre when cut as brilliants, but absolutely
white or colorless stones are rarely found in this mine.
Kimberley mine yields a fair proportion of " white crystals,"
a good percentage of " white cleavage," and quite a remarkable
percentage of large " maacles." It also produces a fairly large
proportion of " yellows," generally somewhat lighter in color
than those from De Beers.
Dutoitspan mine yields some very fine blue-white stones,
" silver Capes " and ordinary " white " stones and " cleavage "
of comparatively fine quality, together with large " yellows,"
showing an exceptional proportion of large stones, and a com-
paratively small percentage of very minute crystals.
Bultfontein's product is very largely composed of white
stones, but many of these are spotted more or less ; its diamonds
are also comparatively small, usually ranging from two to three
carats downwards.
The diamonds from Premier mine are mostly octahedron
crystals, or fragments of these, with a large percentage of rub-
bish and boart. Beautiful, deep-orange colored diamonds are
frequently found, and blue-white stones are not uncommon.
When the sorting has been completed, the diamonds are
2 L
THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
placed in little heaps on a long table covered with white paper.
In all cases, except in small sizes and boart, where the weight
and value only are recorded, the number of diamonds in each
heap and their average weights and values are carefully recorded
in a book kept for that purpose. This exhibit was previously
made also for the benefit of buyers calling at the diamond office,
who could thus readily value the stones ; but of late years the
entire product has been sold to a syndicate composed of the
leading diamond merchants of Holborn Viaduct and Hatton
Garden, London. The careful sorting and arrangement are
nevertheless continued in order to determine precisely what the
relative quality and value of the diamonds are in passing from
level to level as the mine grows deeper. The buyers know the
exact value of every shipment they make, and the De Beers
Company must also be informed of any changes for better
or for worse in the value of its production, so as to take ad-
vantage of them in the former case, or make allowances to
the syndicate upon the renewal of the contract, in case the
quality should become poorer. These are perhaps remote con-
ditions, for, up to the present time, the average monthly or
annual production of diamonds has been remarkably regular in
quality.
For the safe-keeping of the gems in the Company's office
there is a strong room or vault, built of very thick concrete
walls, which are fire and burglar proof. The door of the vault
is secured by several bank locks of the latest and best design.
The keys fitting these locks are kept by several officers in the
secretary's department of the Company, who must all be present
at the opening and closing of the strong room. Inside the
strong room are burglar-proof safes, with doors also secured by
several locks, which can only be opened by two or more persons
having separate keys. In addition to these safeguards, the
strong room is protected by the application of an electric alarm
system. Two armed guards are on duty at the offices at night,
and connections are made by which they can signal for help
should an attempt be made to break into the building. Even
THE DIAMOND MARKET
if both men should be overpowered before they could give
a signal, no robbery could be effected ; for, as soon as they
should cease to send test signal reports at regular intervals, an
armed force would soon arrive on the ground and frustrate any
attempted burglary. Under existing conditions for the sale of
diamonds only a small quantity of precious stones are kept at
the diamond office ; but, in former years, the quantity, at times,
has been very large and the most stringent precautions were
A De Beers Group.
necessary. It may be noted further that adequate measures
have been taken also to protect the office from assault in the
daytime.
Of late years, with improved methods of working, a larger
percentage of small diamonds has been recovered from the blue
ground. In order to have an average quantity of these in
each parcel made up for the buyers, a fixed percentage of small
stones is included in the parcel. If there is any surplus, it
is valued in the ordinary way and sold to the buyers at a valu-
ation agreed upon between the seller and buyer. After the
5i6 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
diamonds are sorted, they are put into square tin boxes, fitting
into tin cases like despatch boxes, which have tightly fitting,
locked covers. A despatch box will contain about forty tin
boxes.
All De Beers diamonds are delivered to the buyers at the
diamond office of the Company and paid for at once in cash or
in bills on London, as the Company may prefer. After delivery
to the buyers the diamonds are sorted over again for the London
market, which desires a classification of the stones for different
purposes than valuation simply.
They are reasserted according to quality into from 350 to 400
different parcels. Each parcel is put into specially made papers
bearing on their face a description of their contents. Then
these parcels are packed in tin boxes which are securely wrapped
in cloth-lined packing paper, carefully sealed and delivered to
the post-office, which forwards them to Europe as registered
mail. All diamonds so forwarded are insured with insurance
companies in Europe.
Classification is made into —
Pure goods "i
Brown goods I Completely formed
Spotted goods or crystallized stones.
Flat-shaped goods J
Pure cleavage "1 „
„ . . ' Broken crystals
bpotted cleavage > ..
_* or split stones.
Brown cleavage J
XT A/I i f Flat, triangular crystals,
Naats or Maacles •{ . .. ° . J
[_ m reality twin stones.
fUncuttable diamonds used mostly
for splitting and polishing more
perfect crystals.
Most of the above classifications, except rejections and boart,
are subdivided into six or seven colors, and each color is again
subdivided into eight, ten, or twelve sizes.
THE DIAMOND MARKET
Si?
THE PERCENTAGES OF DIAMONDS IN THE VARIOUS CLASSES
DE BEERS AND
KlMBEKLEV
MINES
POOL GOODS.
PREMIER
MINE.
JAGERSFONTEIN MINE.
Pure
Stones
Spoiled
Cleavag
one ef
Chips, i
under
Chips, s
under
Maacles
pure a
Rejectio
descri
Boart, d
cutlim
' Close goods, stones over
4-i%
1.6%
3-1%
1.6%
8.1%
38-8%
I. %
12.6%
4-3%
17-5%
7-3%
8.7% all sizes
4- %
4-2%
6.6%
0 \ including
28-2imaacles
1.2%
5-5%
16.2%
254%
( all sizes, and includ-
ii.7%-j ing slightly colored
I and brown stones
204% fa" Sizes and de-
( scnptions
39- %
10.6%
4-3%
3-5%
10.5%
Irregular shapes of all
Melee o( all sizes under
,. Brown stones of all sizes.
Stones of all sizes . . .
ss, pure and spotted, over
rat ...
>ure pieces of all sizes
one carat
potted pieces of all sizes
(Naals) and Flat Stones,
nd spotted, all sizes . .
ns, lowest quality of above
ptions
iamonds not suitable for
r
100. %
too. %
100. %
When the diamonds arrive in London, they are again re-
assorted for sale, i.e. in the manner that will best suit the customs
and requirements of the trade. The London importers sell
(a) to merchants of rough diamonds, who again resell the goods
in their rough state, (b) to merchants of brilliants who get their
purchases cut and polished for sale, (c) to actual manufacturers
who, buying for their own account, cut and polish the goods and
then resell with profit as compared to the manufacturer who
works for a fixed cutting charge.
It is of interest to compare the present elaborate method of
assorting and valuing with that obtaining in the eighteenth cen-
tury and previously in the European market. It was the custom
then to forward diamonds from India in " bulces " or parcels
neatly wrapped in muslin and sealed by the sellers. The largest
stones were never offered for sale, but reserved by the native
owners, as David Jeffries observes, to aggrandize their families.
He states further that "the head of the family has a small shal-
5i8 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
low hole drilled in the surface of the stone, and when he dies
the next chief does the same, and so from one to another, and
the more of these holes a stone has the higher it is in esteem,
although such holes may prejudice it if it were to be manufac-
tured ; but as that is never intended, they do not regard such
prejudice ; and these stones are never parted with, let what will
happen, and if they foresee any ruin to the family ... in such
cases they bury these stones, so that they never appear again."
The other stones, comprising the small and middle size and some
of the large ones, were put in the parcels for sale unassorted and
The Officials who manage the Benefit Society, De Beers Consolidated Mines Limited.
" valued by the lump, as they weigh one with another, by the
rule." In the European markets such parcels were generally
bought, he states, " by the invoice, that is before they are opened,
it being always supposed they contain the value which they were
sold for in India; and the buyer here gives the merchant such a
profit as contents him. The diamonds being thus bought, the
buyer opens the parcel, separates them, and then values them
separately as his judgment directs ; making to himself likewise
such a profit upon the whole parcel as he thinks proper."
This expert jeweller notes with regret that at the time of his
1 "A Treatise on Diamonds and Pearls," David Jeffries, London, 1751,
pp. 1 1 8, 119.
THE DIAMOND MARKET
520 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
writing, in the middle of the eighteenth century, there was no
uniform standard of valuation and that the purchase of large
stones in particular was essentially a gambling speculation. In
the East Indian market there was a persistent effort to maintain
fixed prices, and there was comparatively little fluctuation in the
market rates of the East Indian stones, but the diamonds of
Brazil were thrown irregularly on the market, so that the supply
ranged from a dearth to a glut, and the prices were so greatly
fluctuating that any investment in these stones was extra hazard-
ous. Mr. Jeffries marked clearly the disastrous consequences
of greatly varying products and prices in the marketing of
precious stones. He reached the conclusion " that to maintain
as invariable a price of these jewels [diamonds] as is possible
must be of the greatest utility to the public," and gave high
praise to the owners of East Indian diamond fields and diamond
merchants because they did not flood the market regardless of
the diamond, like the Brazilian producers. He notes a shift of
fully 33 per cent in the market rate of diamonds in a single year.
In 1733 the value of Brazil diamonds fell to a point below 20
shillings per carat for rough diamonds, and within 20 years ran
up to more than treble this price.
One of the simplest and oldest divisions in grading and in
the measure of values of diamonds and other precious stones is
in accordance with their weight. The transmitted measure of
weight is the carat, derived from the Greek Kepdnov, the fruit
of a variety of acacia, whose remarkably uniform seeds served as
convenient measures of value of diamonds and other precious
stones, and is equivalent to 4 grains avoirdupois or 3.174 grains
troy weight. In market quotations from year to year and in
contracts for sorted diamonds the valuation is expressed in a
stated price per carat. Von Tschudi states that the word carat
is derived from kaura, an African creeping plant, whose red
seeds specked with black were used for weighing gold in Africa
and diamonds in India. On the supposition that £1 may be
reckoned the general or average price of a rough diamond of
one carat weight, Mr. Jeffries gives two methods or formulas
THE DIAMOND MARKET 521
for computing the values of " wrought," or as we would say
" cut," diamonds. First, the weight of the cut stone should be
doubled, to offset the loss of one-half in working ; then this
figure or figures should be squared, and the product multiplied
by the price per carat. Thus a cut stone weighing one carat
would be valued by multiplying 2 by 2 by 2, or at ^£8, and a
stone weighing 5 carats by multiplying 10 by 10 by 2, or at
^200. By the second method, the calculation is made on the
basis of the valuation of a cut stone weighing one carat, at _£8,
as before determined. Then to find the value of a stone of any
given number of carats, multiply the number by 8, and the multi-
plicand will be the estimated value of every carat in the stone.
The total value may then be reached by multiplying the number
of carats by this multiplicand. For example, if a given stone
weighs 5^ carats, the value of every carat in the stone will be
found by multiplying by 8 to be £^\. Then multiply ^41 by
5^ and the result will be ^210 is. 6d. ; the estimated value of
a cut stone weighing 5^ carats. It was the expectation of Mr.
Jeffries that the general adoption of his method of valuation
would go far to fix the price of diamonds, and it did prevail for
more than a century before falling into disuse.
Production of Diamonds
De Beers Consolidated Mines. During the eleven years end-
ing June 30, 1899, the yield of De Beers Consolidated Mines
has been 24,476,000 carats of diamonds in round figures, which
would measure about 72 cubic feet, showing an average of some-
thing more than 2,200,000 carats annually. Compared with
this product, the production of the other diamond fields of the
world, with the exception of Jagersfontein, is comparatively un-
important, not exceeding 5 per cent of the total.
The Orange River Colony. The principal diamond-producing
mine in this colony is Jagersfontein, which has averaged about
250,000 carats annually for several years past. The Jagers-
fontein mine is controlled by the syndicate which has for many
years purchased the total production of De Beers Company.
522 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
There are a few other diamond mines in the Orange River
Colony, but the yield of diamonds from all of them combined
is small in comparison with Jagersfontein. The total output of
diamonds from Jagersfontein up to March, 1901, was 2,168,399^
carats, valued at ^£3,923,940.
P«UI h.,,.
•-*•', men-
Photograph of a Book with the Leaves cut out in the Centre, used by an Illicit Diamond
Dealer to send Diamonds through the Mails to England.
Transvaal. There are alluvial diggings along the banks of
the Vaal River a few miles above the river diggings in Griqua-
land West, Cape Colony. The town of Christiana is situated
near these diggings, lying just outside the jurisdiction of the
Cape Colony and the late Orange Free State (now Orange River
Colony), in which Colonies the Diamond Trade Act, which for-
bids dealing in rough diamonds except by licensed dealers, is in
THE DIAMOND MARKET 523
force. A large illicit trade has been carried on at Christiana for
many years in diamonds stolen in Kimberley and the river dig-
gings in the Cape Colony. A few years ago the Government of
the late South African Republic passed certain laws in reference
to the registration of diamonds, but these laws were not stringent
enough to stop the illicit traffic. Diamonds have also been
found at Rietfontein, near Pretoria, but up to the present time
the total yield has been very small. A few years ago there was
a remarkable occurrence of diamonds in the conglomerate gold
ores from the mines at Klerksdorp, when several green diamonds
were found in the battery box. As the conglomerate is a sedi-
mentary formation, the diamonds must have been washed into
it from some crater in a similar manner to the depositing of
diamonds in the itacolumite of Brazil.
Outside of South Africa the diamond fields of any deter-
mined value are in Brazil, India, New South Wales, and Borneo.
Brazil. There was a revival of the diamond-mining industry
to some extent in the Brazilian fields, owing to the diminution
of the South African product by the Transvaal War. The State
places a duty of 16 per cent on the valuation of all diamonds
produced, and there is in addition a tax of i per cent demanded
by the municipalities. Owing to the tax evasion, it is difficult
to determine the total annual product. The value of exports
from Minas Geraes during the first half of 1900 was reported
at 250,000 milreis, $140,000.
Mr. A. de Jaeger has estimated the total production of
Brazilian stones from the time of the discovery of the diamond
fields at 12,000,000 carats, valued roundly at $100,000,000.
It is stated, however, in "The Mineral Industry," presenting
probably the best extant record, that the best available statistics
show that the total output of Brazil, up to and including 1898,
was 13,105,000 carats.1
Dr. Le Neve Foster, one of his Majesty's inspectors of
mines, in his Annual Report on Mines for 1899, says: "Com-
pared with the output of Kimberley, the total production of
'"The Mineral Industry," 1899, p. 222.
524 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
diamonds in Brazil for the year, estimated at 40,000 carats, is
at present insignificant. . . . The most important diamond dis-
tricts in Brazil are Diamantina, Grao Mogul, Chapada Diaman-
tina, Bagagem, Goyaz, and Matto Grosso."
India. In the same report the quantity of diamonds pro-
duced in India for 1898 is given at 170 carats, valued at 10,873
rupees, and for 1899, 124 carats, valued at Son rupees.
New South Wales. The existence of diamonds in New South
Wales was made known as early as 1859, by Rev. B. W. Clarke,
who received in that year several specimens from the Macqua-
rie River, Burrendong, and Pyramul and Calabash Creeks. It
was not, however, until the rush for the gold diggings, seven or
eight years later, that any considerable number of diamonds was
found, when the gold digging along the Cudgegong River, about
nineteen miles northwest of Mudgee, brought to light diamonds
in an old river drift, generally covered with a layer of basalt.
The diamonds were sparsely distributed through the gravel,
and were usually small, the largest of the stones, a colorless
octahedron, weighing only £|- carats. Later, other diamond
fields were opened near Bingera, on the river Hoclon, and in
the tin-mining districts near Inverell. The diamonds occur in
alluvial gravel wash in the beds of ancient rivers. This gravel
carries tin ore or gold in places, and usually one or both of
these are won with the diamonds. These ancient river channels
resemble those in California, in which diamonds were occasionally
found with the gold. Many of these rivers lie buried beneath
lava hundreds of feet thick, and the diamonds are won by driv-
ing long tunnels and drifting out the gravel lying on the bed rock.
Dr. C. Le Neve Foster gives the production in New South
Wales for 1898 as 16,493 carats, valued at ^"6060, and for
1899, 25,874 carats, valued at .£10,350. These figures give an
average value per carat of seven shillings and four pence and
eight shillings respectively, as compared with forty shillings per
carat for De Beers and Kimberley mines.
Borneo. The estimated production of diamonds in Western
Borneo was 1190 carats for 1897, anc^ I95° carats for 1898.
THE DIAMOND MARKET 525
British Guiana. Some attention has been drawn of late to
the reported diamantiferous deposits in British Guiana. It is
stated that there was a shipment of 282 specimens from this
field to London early in 1900, and, later in the year, 400 small
stones were brought to Georgetown. The location of the de-
posits is reported to be on the Mazaruni River, about 250 miles
from its mouth. The diamonds have been found in an alluvial
formation, consisting of sandy clay mixed with pebbles and frag-
ments of ironstone, quartz, and felsite.1
Importation of Diamonds
In the importation of diamonds the United States leads, and
England, Germany, France, and Italy follow in the order named.
The increase in the demand of the United States has been ex-
traordinary, showing an advance of fully 2000 per cent in the
last fifty years. In 1899 the valuation of the total import of
precious stones was $17,208,531. In 1900 there was a falling
oft" of about 13,850,000 owing to the interruption in the supply,
but the records of the year 1901 indicate a probable importation
exceeding $20,000,000, the total for the first two months of the
year reaching $3,870,359.31, an increase of $2,674,787.88 over
the import of the corresponding months in 1900. The importa-
tion is a close measure of the total sale, as the production of
precious stones in the United States only reached a valuation
of $185,770 in 1899, and this was larger than in any previous
year. Nearly five-sixths of this native product is made up of
sapphires and turquoises.
Rubies, emeralds, sapphires, and pearls are the gems most
commonly used in settings in combination with diamonds. It is
estimated by Mr. George F. Kunz, of New York, an expert of
international reputation, that the value of the diamonds imported
into the United States is approximately 75 per cent of the valua-
tion of all precious stories and pearls imported, and it is judged that
this consumption fairly represented the percentage in other coun-
tries. The changes in settings from year to year and even from
decade to decade are not very pronounced. The resetting of
1 " The Mineral Industry," 1900.
526 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
stones is an appreciable fraction of the jeweller's business, but in-
considerable in comparison with the setting of newly cut stones.
The World's Stock
Diamonds are so highly prized and so imperishable that the
amount of these gems in existence to-day may almost be reck-
oned as the total of the world's production, ranging in value
through hundreds of millions of dollars. Mr. Kunz does not
estimate a loss of 5 per cent in a hundred years, and the South
African Diamond Fields alone have contributed over $400,000,-
ooo, or ;£ 8 0,000,000, in value to the world's stock. Yet the
demand advances apace with the world's growth in wealth, and
no diversion of the world's fancy is apparent. The plunder of
Delhi by Nadir Shah in 1739 has been estimated at $300,000,-
ooo,1 and a great share of this was precious stones. There may
never again be such a collection in the hands of any monarch or
nabob as the store amassed by the Great Moguls, but the crown
jewels and private treasures of the leading courts of Europe
to-day are of immense value and are growing greater.
The crown jewels of France were estimated at $6,000,000
(;£ i, 200,000) more than a hundred years ago, and even this great
amount is far exceeded by the value of the Russian crown
jewels. The crown of Ivan Alexiowitch contained 88 1 brilliants,
the Empress Catherine had 2536 brilliants in her crown, and
the purchases of succeeding Czars have been enormous. At the
London Industrial Exposition in 1851 a firm of Russian jewellers
exhibited a superb diadem on which were mounted 1 1 beautiful
opals, 67 rubies, 1811 brilliants, and 1712 rose-cut diamonds.2
The British crown jewels do not equal the Russian in num-
ber or value, though there are other magnificent gems among
them besides the Koh-i-nur, whose romantic story is told in a
former chapter. The crown specially made for the coronation
of the late Queen Victoria, in 1838, was regarded as a superb
showing of the art of the leading jewellers of London as well as
1 "Great Diamonds of the World," Streeter.
2 "A Popular Treatise on Gems," Feuchtwanger, New York, 1867.
THE DIAMOND MARKET 527
of the gems displayed. It is fashioned of hoops of silver en-
closing a cap of deep blue velvet. Precious stones completely
encase the hoops, which are surmounted by a ball covered with
diamonds and bearing a Maltese cross of brilliants, with a splen-
did sapphire as the central jewel. The rim of the crown is
clustered with brilliants and Maltese crosses. On the cross at the
front of the crown is set the magnificent heart-shaped ruby, which
was worn by Edward, the Black Prince, and beneath this ruby in
a circular rim is an oblong sapphire of extraordinary size and
beauty. Clusters of drop pearls add to the resplendent effect of
the massing of the diamonds, emeralds, rubies, and sapphires.
The exquisite beauty of the jewels of Queen Isabella of
Spain has been particularly noted. At the London Exhibition
in 1851 two sets of her jewels were shown. One consisted of
a diamond necklace, in the form of a ribbon, interlaced with
foliage of emeralds. Brilliants were arranged also to form a
bouquet of lilies with emerald leaves, encircled with ribbons of
brilliants and pendants of pearls. A ribbon of brilliants, inter-
laced with emeralds, formed a bracelet, and the crown of this set
was of the like combination of gems, with aiguillettes of flowers
whose stamens were pearls. The second set of jewels was made
up entirely of diamonds and sapphires of the finest quality and
most artfully matched.
It is scarcely to be expected that any private collections of
gems should rival in extent the treasures of sovereigns, whose
crown jewels may be the display of centuries of accumulation,
but some of the noble families of Europe and other wealthy
owners have gems that any monarch in the world might covet,
and there are a considerable number of collections ranging in
value over a million dollars. In the United States it is esti-
mated that there are at least half a dozen such collections, one
of which contains a necklace valued at $^io,ooo.1 At every
leading court reception, or grand ball or opera, the display of
jewels may be measured in millions of dollars, and the diffusion
of gems is constantly spreading with the extension of wealth.
1 George F. Kunz.
CHAPTER XVIII
CUTTING AND POLISHING
T has been shown in the opening chapter of this
work that fancy has still, and probably must
forever have, a free range for its surmise when
and how the first diamond crystal was picked
from the river-shore wash of the Indo-Gangetic
plain. Equally vague and conjectural must be
any effort to fix the period when a rough or natural diamond was
first artificially ground or polished. It is only certain that some
rude polishing, at least, was essential to the revelation of any
notable beauty in the diamonds of India ; for the surface of
these crystals is covered with a grayish white film or incrustation,
veiling their refulgence so completely that the rough stones
are scarcely more ornamental than common quartz pebbles.
It was in view of this obscuring that the apostle of deport-
ment, the Earl of Chesterfield, wrote to his son : " Manners
must adorn knowledge and smooth its way through the world.
Like a great rough diamond, it may do very well in a closet
by way of curiosity and also for its intrinsic value." A con-
temporary of this high authority, Dr. Samuel Johnson, was able
to controvert this dictum by demonstrating that knowledge can
rise from obscurity without any adornment of manners, but
polish is indispensable to the revelation of the latent beauties
of the rough diamond.
Indian tradition runs back romantically five thousand years
to the first gleam of the Koh-i-nur or "Mountain of Light"
in the serpench of a chief who fell in the great battle described
1 Letters of the Earl of Chesterfield, July I, 1748.
528
CUTTING AND POLISHING
529
in the epic poem " Mahabharata " ; ' but nothing more solid
than tradition sustains this tale. If it were true, it would
demonstrate incontestably a very ancient proficiency in the art
of grinding and polishing a rough Indian diamond, as the figure
of the Koh-i-nur on page i shows, illustrating the appearance of
this famous gem before it was recut by modern lapidary art to
Examination of the Diamonds before and after Cutting.
hold the foremost place in the jewels of the British crown.2 The
Italian, Augusto Costellani, is the mouthpiece of another tradi-
tion, little firmer than a floating pipe-bubble, that a certain King
Carna of India, who lived some three thousand years before
the Christian era, possessed a diamond whose natural planes or
1 "Indian Epic Poetry," Sir Monier-Monier Williams, 1863.
2 "A Popular Treatise on Gems," Dr. Lewis Feuchtvvanger, 1867, Plate
VIII, No. i 5 and No. i 53,
2 M
530 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
facets were polished ; but what the good king did with his
sparkling treasure, or where it has wandered, is unfortunately
left to the drift of fancy.
It has been shown that the earliest known catalogues of
gems do not include the diamond, and that the references to it
in the Hebrew Scriptures and other writings before the Christian
era are far from decisive, in view of the likelihood that the
white sapphire was the ancient adamas.1 The failure to bring
to light any diamond in the exhumation of ancient gems is
further significant.2 If it be true that a genuine diamond, bear-
ing the engraved head of the philosopher Posidonius, exists in
the collection of the Duke of Bedford, as reported by Streeter,8
this is a solitary instance, so far as is known, of the application
of engraving to this adamantine surface at a date probably prior
to the birth of Christ, for Posidonius was a Tyrian Greek, living
in the second and first centuries B.C.4
It is, however, highly probable that the genuine diamond
crystals were discovered in India hundreds, if not thousands, of
years before the Christian era, and partially polished, at least, in
the primitive method of rubbing or striking the planes of one
crystal against the other, or even by laborious friction with grit-
stone by hand or a grinding wheel.
It is certain that revolving stones or metallic wheels for grind-
ing gems were in use in remote antiquity, perhaps two thousand
years or more before the Christian era. From the softer stones,
carnelian, onyx, and jasper, the ancient workmen advanced to
harder gems, preparing their face first chiefly by a smooth pol-
ish for the sculptors of cameos and intaglios.5 Their mode of
1 "Precious Stones noted in the Sacred Scriptures," R. Hindmarsh, 1851.
"Precious Stones and Gems," Edwin William Streeter, 1880.
2 The Story of the Nations, " Phoenicia," George Rawlinson, M.A., 1894.
"Ancient Mineralogy," N. F. Moore, 1834.
3 " Precious Stones and Gems," Streeter, p. 46.
4 The Story of the Nations, " Phoenicia," George Rawlinson, M.A., 1894.
"Ancient Mineralogy," N. F. Moore, 1834.
5 " A Treatise on the Ancient Method of Engraving Precious Stones," Lauren-
tius Natter, London, 1754. "A Treatise on Diamonds and Precious Stones,"
John Mawe, 1813.
CUTTING AND POLISHING 531
working was very simple, as Feuchtwanger notes.1 The pol-
ishers prepared the stones on a plate by means of the powder of
harder stones, either round, oval, flat, or in shield form, accord-
ing to the designed subjects, and the sculptors cut the engraving
with iron tools or diamond splinters mounted in iron.
The Egyptians taught the art of carving to the Phoenicians,
Etrurians, and Greeks. The Indians and Persians learned to
carve and polish gems perhaps as early as the Egyptians. Repre-
sentations of the adored beetles or scarabs were the earliest known
Egyptian engravings, while the Persians engraved chiefly mytho-
logical animals or figures of their priests. Cabalistic devices and
Arabic letters on gems formed the doubly precious "talismans,"
and even without talismanic lettering, marvellous or supernatural
origin and powers were attributed by current superstition to all the
notable gems.3 Alexander's seal typified the sovereignty trans-
ferred to his vicegerent, Perdiccas. Augustus Caesar cherished
his seal engraved with a sphinx as a token of his divine authority.2
In the carving of cameos, precious stones with layers and
veins were employed with great skill, bringing out contrasted
effects, as where a face is shown in one color and the hair and
dress of a figure in different colors. Sometimes certain colors
were made typical. Thus Bacchus was carved in amethyst, the
color of wine, while Neptune or nymphs of the sea were cut in
aquamarine.8
Such surface polishing and engraving antedated, however,
very far any grinding or faceting of the harder gems, and the
intractable diamond especially, for uses of ornament. Pliny
writes, "The polished hexahedral Indian diamond thins to a
point." 4 As the crystallization of the diamond is much more
1 "A Popular Treatise on Gems," Feuchtwanger, 1867.
2 «« De duodecim Gemmis in Veste Aaronis," Epiphanius, 1565. " Gemma-
rum et Lapidum Historia," Boetius, 1647. Theophrastus — " History of Stones
and Modern History of Gems," Sir John Hill, 1746. "Precious Stones and
Gems," Streeter. "A Popular Treatise on Gems," Feuchtwanger, 1867.
3 " A Popular Treatise on Gems," Feuchtwanger, 1867.
4 "Naturalis Historia," Caius Plinius Secundus, 23 A.D.-J^ A.D,
532 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
commonly octahedral and dodecahedral than cubical, the adamas
of Pliny may have been the white sapphire crystal, a hexagonal
prism.1
Long before the days of Sindbad the sailor,2 when the true
diamond was unquestionably known and prized, and when the
lucky adventurer filled his pockets with the choicest crystals,
copper had been substituted for lead in revolving wheels used
by the most skilful lapidaries for grinding the harder stones ;
and powdered stone, moistened with oil or water, was sprinkled
on the grinding wheel or pressed into furrows on its face. Cut-
ting in the scientific method of the modern art was of compara-
tively recent development. The grinding or cutting of the
Indian stones by native lapidaries was, at first, only a surface
polish of natural planes, and later proficiency did not extend
beyond an irregular and unsymmetrical fashion, which rarely
ventured the risk of cleavage. There are perhaps no known
samples indicating with certainty a higher proficiency in the art
at the beginning of the Middle Ages than the four large diamonds
now to be seen on the buckle of the mantle of the Emperor
Charles the Great,3 which were planed and polished on their
natural faces.4
There is a particular Oriental cut of diamonds, still followed,
which had its origin about the year 1000 A.D. This bears the
distinctive name of " Indian " or " Lustre of India." It had
four rectangular plates and one upper facet in the form of a
parallelogram. The stone was polished highly on all surfaces
except the under side, which was left in its natural state. It is
thought that the wandering merchants of the East, who travelled
1 "De Gemmis Plinii," Ernst Friedrich Glocker, 1824. "Precious Stones
and Gems," Streeter.
! Ninth century A.D. "Origin of Tales of Voyages," " Cyclopaedia of
India," Balfour.
3 " Charles the Great, King of the Franks and Emperor of the Romans," 742—
814 A.D.
4 " Great Diamonds of the World," Edwin William Streeter, 1882. " Hand-
book of the Arts of the Middle Ages, ' ' Jules Labarte, London, 1855.
CUTTING AND POLISHING
533
by caravan, brought these stones, or a knowledge of their style,
from the far Orient to Constantinople, whence they were made
known to France, Italy, and Holland.1
That such forms of gems were made in Paris and in Venice
as early as the thirteenth century is certain. In 1290 A.D. a
society of lapidaries was formed at Paris, and at the close of the
fourteenth century there were professional diamond cutters of
somewhat higher skill in Nuremburg. In 1365 A.D. an inven-
tory of the jewels of Luigi d' Angio was made, which mentions
a diamond having eight facets and another shaped like a shield.
The facets here spoken of may be only flat sides such as any
true octahedral crystal presents.1'
One of the first, if not the first, of European workmen to
attain any distinction as a diamond cutter was named Hermann,
living in Paris about 1407 A.D., and it seems to be certain that
from his time or the beginning of the fifteenth century the busi-
ness of polishing and developing the diamond became an estab-
lished industry in western Europe. Gems in the rough were
somehow finding their way from India and Borneo, and were
coming into the market not only among kings and the members
of the royal households but among noblemen and burghers of
great wealth. In 1465 A.D. there were three registered diamond
cutters living in the city of Bruges. Perhaps these cutters were
associated with Louis de Berquem, a native of that city, who an-
nounced in that year a new method of cutting diamonds and
established a guild of diamond cutters.
The method which he pursued and the forms which he
evolved were deserving the name of a new discovery of which he
was truly the inventor. With whatever assurance others may
claim to have invented the art of faceting or of cutting diamonds,
1 "Precious Stones and Gems," Streeter. "A Treatise on Diamonds and
Precious Stones," Mawe, 1813. "Treatise on Diamonds and Pearls," David
Jeffries, 1750—1751. "On Gems and Precious Stones," Robert Dingley, Phil.
Trans. Abi. IX, 345, 1747. " Le Grand Lapidaire," Sir John Mandeville, Paris,
1561. " Les Merveilles des Indes Orientales," etc., Robert de Berguen, 1661.
" Voyages en Turquie, en Perse et aux Indes," Tavernier, 1676. 2 Ibid.
534 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
it is very evident that none before him had done so on any sci-
entific basis of geometrical relations. Berquem was not merely
a craftsman ; he was an accomplished mathematician, highly
versed in optical science, and he had determined the true angles
at which the planes of each facet should lie in reference to its
crystallization and to its size, in order to make its reflections of
light most perfect and its color most complete.
He discovered that in the development of the octahedral
form there are certain measurements of relation which must be
preserved in the trimming of the diamond for the perfect re-
flection of all the light which enters the crystal. By this scientific
formation he completely changed the basis for estimate of the
value of diamonds. Under his treatment the diamond of largest
size and weight was not most valuable, but the gem which was
transcendent as a light producer or reflector and as a crystal of
symmetrical parts. The connoisseur, the artist, and the thrifty
merchant alike have vastly profited by the principles evolved by
Berquem. He raised the craftsmen of his day from the common
plane of gem polishers to the higher position of artists and
skilled lapidaries. The successful lapidary of to-day — to whose
cutting is intrusted the gems of India, Brazil, and Africa — must
be a close student of optics as well as a dexterous stone cutter.
Fig. i. Fig. 2. Fig. 3.
Figs, i and 2 above represent the simple octahedral form of
diamond crystallization. By the second figure it will appear
that if two pyramids of four triangular sides were joined together
at their bases, we should have a diamond form with eight trian-
gular surfaces, or an octahedron. Fig. 3 is the same octahedron
with its corners either rounded or ground flat as additional
facets. The diamond's natural edges are not often so straight
and sharp as here represented, but are usually convex, that is,
CUTTING AND POLISHING
535
bowing outward ; but when mechanically trimmed to perfect their
shape, each line and angle must be unerringly true.
Fig. 4 is a cube of six faces having its corners rounded or
flattened, and Fig. 5 is a double cube or dodecahedron, having
twelve equal rhombic faces. Some diamonds can
readily be made to receive these shapes with
little loss of substance. Fig. 8 represents a
gem shaped as a parallelogram with a facet
Fig. 4-' on one upper corner, the lower side showing F'g-s-
its natural state. It is called " Indian " or " Lustre of India."
Figs. 6 and 7 represent the oldest and simplest form of gem
cutting, called the " table cut." It suits the other precious gems
much better than the pure dia-
mond. A celebrated " table " a/_
diamond was given by Prince
George (afterwards George IV.)
Fitzherbert. She had it split along the line from
a to b, and used each half to fit in the face of a locket ; one
holding her own portrait, and the other
that of her princely lover. The diamond
with the portrait of Mrs. Fitzherbert was
buried with the old king in the locket
which hung on his neck.1
The first and simplest modification of
the " table cut " of a diamond is called the " Old English sin-
gle " or the "star single cut." By this arrangement the table
cut diamond had its top part planed down about the edges to
represent an eight-pointed star whose centre figure was an
octagon, or elongated octagon, if the stone was longer than its
width. This style of cutting appears in sets of old diamonds
for crown jewels or ordinary wear. These sloping triangular
faces were ground upon the edge of the upper surface of the
stone only, reaching from the flat part, which is then technically
called the "table," to the central line which is called the
"girdle," and these cut surfaces are called "facets" or small
1 "Macaulay's Essays," Thomas Babington Macaulay.
Fig. 8.
536 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
faces. Their size and shape are most accurately measured and
most exactly ground.
Figs. 9 a, 9 b, 9 c represent, successively, side or girdle, top
or table, and back or culet of the next most simple cut of
Fig. 9 a. l''^. 9 /'. Fig. 9 c.
modern date, which is of a scientific cast. It is called the
"single cut brilliant," a modification of the simple table cut.
Fig. 10 below represents a single cut having sixteen triangular
facets on its upper section and twelve facets on the under
Fig. 10.
I-'i". 12.
section, plus eight long facets. Figs. 11 and 12 show one of
half that number, but both belong to the style here described —
the single cut brilliant. Indeed, with very small stones, the
single cut has but four faces above and four below. In com-
mercial circles they are called " single sets."
Fig. 13. Fig. 14.
The two figures above present another modification of the
simple table cut of India. It is called the "step cut." In this
style the plane above the girdle is only half as thick as that
below the girdle. From Fig. 13 it appears that the part
above the girdle has been bevelled off at two different angles,
making two "steps" besides the table. The other figure
CUTTING AND POLISHING 537
represents the part beneath the girdle, which being twice as
thick as the upper section is cut with six steps instead of
three. In closely studying this step cut and the table cut it
was discovered that the diamond crystallized in thin laminae
or plates, and that it might be split into very thin sections
resembling plates of mica. By taking advantage of these
" lines of cleavage," as they are called, many large diamonds
were split into thin leaves and used as faces of small pictures
enclosed in lockets. At Queen Victoria's coronation this thin
sheet diamond was so common that many distinguished guests
were favored with a gift of their own likene.sses encased in golden
frames and covered with a diamond instead of a glass face.
In the plates below, Fig. 15 and Fig. 16, facets of the "rose
cut" pattern are represented. It will be seen that the bottom
of the diamond is flat, though not unpolished,
while all the facets lie above the girdle. This
design, which is called the " Hol-
land," groups twenty-four facets,
but a simpler style known as the
Fig. 15. "Antwerp rose" shows facets Fig. 16.
ranging from six to sixteen. This rose cut is a very convenient
style to adopt for fragments which have been cleft from large
stones, or for diamonds which are imperfect in their crystal-
lization on one side. If well proportioned, the depth of the
rose must be one-half its breadth at the base.
In the rose cut diamond every facet is a triangle and all
meet at the central apex, forming a cupola. When the facets
on large stones number thirty-two, the dealers call it " fiam
minghi " or " half brilliant." A common practice of the trade
is to obtain a second " fiam minghi " of the same size, but cut
in quartz crystal or even in glass, and glue their bases together
with gum mastic, thus forming the " briolet " or " brilliolet,"
which is palmed off for a pure diamond. Briolets are pear-
shaped or oval stones, having neither table, culet, nor edge, but
covered with triangular-shaped facets, sometimes pierced at their
points of greatest diameter, to be suspended on an axis.
538 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
It has been told how the diamond by Berquem's talent was
first cut in harmonious and systematic proportion and regular
facets at such an angle to its axis and to each other that the
fullest play of reflected light is secured from every surface on
which it strikes. His art produced the single cut brilliant, the
highest achievement of the lapidary of his day. Near the close
of the seventeenth century a Venetian engraver, named Vincenzo
Peruzzi, while experimenting to get rid of obnoxious color in
small diamonds, invented the double faceting which is now known
as the "brilliant." It is regarded as the perfection of the lapi-
dary's art, and is adopted in cut-
ting the most costly gems now
put upon the market. There are
thirty-two facets in its upper sec-
tion, and twenty-four below the
girdle. A diamond cut in this
style is shown in Figs. 17 and 18.
The usual double cut brilliant has only fifty-six facets, but,
of late years a supposed improvement has been made by adding
eight star facets around the culet, which makes a total of sixty-
four facets. The proportions of measurements for the perfect
brilliant diamond do not hold for other colored gems whose
depth increases or diminishes their color. The triangular facets
on the bezel, which touch the table, are named " star facets,"
while those which touch the girdle are " skill facets.'"
Fig. 17.
Fig. 19.
Fig. 21.
In order to show the names of lines and the geometrical re-
lations of diamonds as a lapidary sees them, the above figures
may prove helpful. Fig. 19 shows the side view of an ordi-
nary octahedral or eight-sided diamond. Fig. 20 shows first the
CUTTING AND POLISHING 539
line at a cutting off the upper point of the diamond. When
this is accomplished, the flat top surface is called the " table."
The line at c, which is the largest girth of the diamond, is called
its "girdle." The space b, between the girdle and its "table,"
is called the " bezel." The line at e cuts off the sharp lower
point, and its flat surface is the " culet." The space between
the culet and the girdle is called the " pavilion."
Cleaving Diamonds
There are three distinct processes in the treatment of dia-
monds by the lapidary — cleaving, cutting, and polishing. To
split the diamond successfully demands a thorough knowledge
of its individual character as well as of its generic crystallization
and lines of cleavage. The skilled lapidary takes in hand a large
rough diamond. If it is an Indian or Brazilian stone, it is coated
or partly coated with a hard dull crust. Its corners are perhaps
abraded. It may have defects or cracks in its surface, unequal
coloring, or black deposits in its interior. He must needs re-
move the crust, correct the distortion of the crystal, remove or
conceal its defects, and decide what is the largest perfect gem
which can be cut from the rough stone. He must be able to see
the priceless jewel through its shrouding veil, and determine on
which surfaces of the stone its prominent corners must rest.
Having decided what shape will best befit the stone, he must
know whether the rejected portions can be split off safely or
whether they must be ground off. Grinding away the rejected
portions is probably the safest procedure, but it is the slowest
and most expensive. The quickest method is to split off the
surplus material. The process will be easy if the proposed frac-
ture is in the direct line of cleavage in that particular stone. If
not, his attempt at splitting may ruin a gem of countless price.
Shall he make the attempt? He must be both an expert and a
man of nerve. If he be so, a single feat of successful polishing
may bring him fortune and the reputation of a master, while a
single disastrous venture may quite undo him.
540 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
The early lapidaries dared not attempt the splitting of a stone
to correct its faults or alter its natural form. Every stone was
estimated according to the impression it made upon the scales.
Hence its facets were only smooth flat surfaces ground upon the
rounded exterior, — an unmitigated rose cut of trivial triangles,
or a terraced surface of rings and bands. The master of his
craft to-day must make his diamonds perfect reflectors of light at
Cleaving.
all hazards. If any excrescence exists,he must cut it away, or the
light which enters a flattened surface may be so entangled that it
will never emerge. When he takes up a cross-grained, defective
stone,he will reject it. Like a true surgeon he will quickly dis-
cern how he may remove most safely a defective part, and will
proceed boldly with his task. His first step in the work is to
scratch the surface round the part to be split off with another
diamond. Having made the diamond fast in a cement bed com-
CUTTING AND POLISHING
posed of brickdust and resin, he applies the edge of a steel knife
to the scratched surface, and strikes a quick, hard blow with a
slender rod. If he has struck the lines of cleavage, the external
scale is at once removed, for the diamond, despite its hardness, is
quite easily fractured. Then the split surface must be polished.
If no other scale or marked inequality needs removing by
splitting, the next operation is that of grinding.
Cutting
As the diamond is the hardest of all known substances, it is
evident that much patience and strength are required in reducing
Cutting.
its size or altering its rough figure by grinding. The ordinary
file would serve to reduce some other gems, but it will not touch
the diamond. Diamond cut diamond is not merely a current
phrase, for diamond dust is now invariably used in polishing or
grinding this precious stone.
For cutting and polishing purposes the lapidary has a table
above which a flat steel wheel revolves horizontally. On the
upper surface of this wheel are fine grooves or striae, cut angling
542 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
from its centre to its perimeter. By means of belts beneath the
table, the grinding wheel is made to turn at a rate from three to
four thousand revolutions a minute. Diamond dust mixed with
olive oil is applied to the upper face of the wheel, and against
this erosive surface is held the diamond to be ground or cut.
For this object the diamond is set in a fusible solder on the
end of a copper cupel which is held firmly against the surface of
the wheel by a small projecting arm and clamp. By adjusting
this holder, the lapidary presses the exposed face of the stone on
the revolving wheel until the desired amount of material has
been ground away and the proper angles turned. Such work in
its finishing stages cannot be intrusted to a tyro or experimenter.
Unusual patience and steadiness of nerve are required for such a
task. When the facet is finished, the workman wipes the dust
off and tests its smoothness and finish, after which he resets the
diamond, leaving the uncut facet exposed which he intends to
cut next.
Most of the " skill " facets and " underskill " facets are made
by grinding, while the lozenge and larger faces are first shaped,
when possible, by cleaving. If the stone is thick enough to
form a brilliant, the lapidary first forms the table, and then suc-
cessively the adjacent facets and lozenges. The table must be
absolutely flawless and smooth, while all the surrounding facets
in an ideal brilliant must hold the same precise angles and have
their shape correspond to the thousandth of an inch. After
completing the bezel, the pavilion is next developed. The
underskill facets of the pavilion must match exactly at the girdle
with those of the bezel, and the girdle when finished should be
as sharp as a knife. Some lapidaries leave the girdle blunt, but
with a great sacrifice of brilliancy in the gem. The triangles
and lozenges of the pavilion must, of course, be much larger
than those of the bezel.
There is a still simpler method of cutting diamonds by a
device attributed to Berquem. Two uncut stones are cemented
into the ends of two sticks resembling penholders in shape.
Then the operator grasps these handles and presses the stones
CUTTING AND POLISHING
543
544 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
against each other with a rubbing motion over a trough. Con-
siderable leverage is obtained for the rubbing by resting the
holders against projectors at the sides of the trough. The ex-
posed face of the stones is coated with diamond dust to advance
the process. In this laborious way facets may be ground, and
the cutting may be completed by repeatedly refixing the stones
in the cement. Expert handling is necessary to keep the dia-
monds from becoming overheated by the constant friction.
Polishing
The third process is that of polishing. The method em-
ployed does not differ materially from that adopted in cutting,
described above ; but as this is the finishing process, all irregu-
larities in faceting must be corrected and the practised eye of the
artist must detect and remedy every defect. Each line and angle
must be made geometrically correct; each facet and lozenge must
be shaped to perfection. The colorless stone must glisten pure
as a dewdrop sparkling in the sun, producing the colors of the
prismatic spectrum ; the gem of red or blue or green color must
flash forth its hue with intense brilliancy.
Such exact and delicate alignments are not the work of a
day, though the time required has been greatly shortened by
modern methods. The patience of weeks and even of months
must be expended in perfecting these tiny crystals. It is said
that it was the work of two years to cut the celebrated Pitt dia-
mond, now among the French jewels, and the lapidary received
for his skill and labor the sum of ^3500 or 117,500. The last
cutting of the Koh-i-nur by Coster of Amsterdam in thirty-eight
days was unusually rapid. The ablest workmen in Holland
were engaged continuously on it and the wheel was driven by
steam power ; yet it cost 140,000 to do the work and the
diamond lost eighty-four carats in weight.1
1 " Great Diamonds of the World," Streeter, 1882.
CUTTING AND POLISHING
545
546 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
Loss in Cutting
No general rule can be stated covering loss which occurs in
cutting gems. The waste depends on the character of the stone,
— its perfect natural form and crystallization, its purity, and
the style of the cut adopted. Perfect octahedrons lose two-fifths
of their weight, if cut as brilliants. Rhombohedrons will lose
over half of their weight in taking the same form, and stones of
other shape will lose as much or more. The following figures
will show at what cost of substance some of the natural gems
have been perfected in the process of their cutting: The
Mogul in its rough outer coat weighed originally 780^
carats ; when cut it weighed only 279^ carats, a loss of nearly
two-thirds. The Regent weighed 410 carats and was reduced
to 136^ carats. The weight of the Koh-i-nur was originally
793 carats. It was first cut unskilfully by Hortensio Borgio to
1 86^ carats, and a second cutting reduced it to 102^- carats, — a
loss by both processes of the astonishing amount of 690^- carats,
or more than six and a half times its present weight. The
L'Etoile du Sud shrunk from 254^ carats to 124^% carats in
the process of cutting.1 The average loss of South African
diamonds by cutting is from one-half to three-fifths of their
gross weight. The 428^ carat diamond found in De Beers
mine lost 200 carats in cutting.
It has been demonstrated in cutting that diamonds are of
different degrees of hardness and that the same stone may
exhibit different degrees on different faces. The Koh-i-nur is
a signal example of this fact. In cutting the facet near a yellow
flaw, the section grew noticeably hard, until six hours' grinding
at a speed of 2400 revolutions a minute produced only the
faintest change. A speed of 3000 revolutions was necessary to
cause any perceptible loss of material on that facet. A speed of
4000 revolutions a minute is about the average now in vogue
at Amsterdam.2
1 " Famous Diamonds of the World," Streeter, 1882.
2 Description by Messrs. Veder and Rozelaar, dated 6th March, 1902.
CUTTING AND POLISHING 547
There is another material loss occurring in cutting or in the
handling of rough diamonds from a curious infirmity of some of
these crystals. The explosion of diamonds sometimes occurs,
and the loss is the greater because large stones are more liable to
explode or fly into pieces than small ones. This phenomenon
is attributed to the heat of the hot solder, or frictional heat of
the revolving disk.
The Lapidaries
Early handlers of the diamond were hardly more than pol-
ishers, striving to produce an even, glistening surface, and satisfied
to retain the natural face of the stone, or to grind away some
upper portion of the crust. This clearly appears from the many
old, half-polished stones that have been found in treasuries of
gems. A signal instance is shown on the royal mantle of Charle-
magne, still preserved in the French National Collection. In
the clasp of this robe are diamonds whose natural octahedral
faces have been simply polished. In ancient church furnishings
diamonds have been found with an upper table and four polished
borders, and the lower sides cut as four-sided prisms or pyramids.
Streeter quotes this inventory of the Duke of Anjou's jewels
exhibited in 1360 A.D. : (i) a diamond of a shield shape, from a
reliquary ; (2) two small diamonds from the same reliquary, with
three flat-cut, four-cornered facets on both sides; (3) a small
diamond in the form of a round mirror ; (4) a thick diamond
with four facets ; (5) a diamond in the form of a lozenge ; (6) an
eight-sided, and (7) a six-sided plain diamond.1 We must allow,
of course, for the mistakes and the ignorance of those who may
have catalogued rock crystals for diamonds, but granting that
some were diamonds, their existence shows what forms were then
prevalent and the real development of diamond cutting.
Previous to the success of de Berquem as a lapidary, there
were polishers and cutters in Paris and at Nuremburg, as has
been noted. A guild was organized in Paris in 1290 A.D., and
the table cutters joined in a guild with the stone engravers in
' "Precious Stones and Gems," Streeter, 1880.
548 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
Nuremburg, which became a primitive Lapidaries' Union. They
received and taught the apprentices on the strict condition of
their contract to serve for five or six years before undertaking
business for themselves. The artist Hermann won for himself
an honorable name in France as early as 1407 A.D., and Guten-
berg, the originator of the art of printing from block type, learned
the lapidary's art at Strasburg in 1434. At a dinner given by
the extravagant Charles the Bold, the Duke of Burgundy, to the
king of France, he bestowed upon his guests eleven diamonds
partially cut and mounted in gold. Undoubtedly these jewels
were declared in the height of the fashion by European artists.
But it is from de Berquem's day that the profession reckons its
firm establishment, and his contemporaries have acknowledged
him as the father of his art.
Though many Europeans have become skilful workers at
this trade, the most successful lapidaries have been of Hebrew
stock. The Jews had, at one time, the monopoly of the trade
in diamonds in Portugal, and their especial centre of business was
Lisbon. The old " Lisbon cut " of diamonds has never been
surpassed for perfection and beauty of workmanship. But un-
fortunately for Portugal and for the Jews, religious bigotry
kindled the fires of persecution against this ancient people, and
they were expelled from the kingdom. Hospitable little Hol-
land opened her doors to receive the exiled merchants and
lapidaries, and Amsterdam has since become the central mart
for the diamond merchant and his comrade, the diamond cutter.
Out of thirty-five thousand Jews who reside there, at least a
third are engaged in one department or another of the diamond
industry.
The settlement of some of de Berquem's pupils at Amster-
dam was probably the reason why the exiled Jews selected that
city as their home; but others went to Antwerp and some made
their homes in Paris. The descendants of these expatriated
Jews received especial encouragement and protection from Car-
dinal Mazarin two hundred years later. Twelve of the largest
crown jewels were intrusted to them to be recut on Berquem's
CUTTING AND POLISHING
549
550 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
principle. Their success was so marked that these stones were
afterwards known as the " Twelve Mazarins." Unfortunately
these rare gems were poorly guarded and all but the tenth had
disappeared by 1791. The French cutter Jarlet gained an inter-
national reputation in the seventeenth century by cutting one of
the notable jewels of the Russian crown weighing 90 carats, but
the industry withered in France in spite of its special encourage-
ment by Mazarin and other powerful ministers.
England and Holland had secured almost exclusive trade
relations with the East, from whence the diamond supply was
obtained. Hence the Hebrews of these countries secured con-
trol of the diamond industry, and French lapidaries sought
employment in vain. Then the revocation of the Edict of
Nantes flooded Holland with French refugees. Of the seventy-
five diamond cutters whom Mazarin had so carefully guarded,
only five remained in 1775. Inquiry showed that the total rough
diamond stock in Paris, just before the outbreak of the Revolu-
tion of 1789, was only 3832 carats, and there was little employ-
ment obtainable in recutting old stones. During the Revolution
and the troubled Napoleonic reign, the industry was fatally
paralyzed, and diamonds were sent out of France to Antwerp for
cutting.
In the eighteenth century there was a determined push in
England to foster the diamond-cutting industry, and some ex-
pert workmen, headed by Ralph Potter, made a stout struggle
to hold the home trade. The so-called "Old English style"
was developed on strict mathematical lines, and gems cut by
these artists are still eagerly sought as models of the lapidary's
art; but the centralizing drift to Holland was too strong for
competition until the discovery of the South African Diamond
Fields. In the last twenty years the languishing art has
raised its head in England, and become, without doubt, a well-
established industry. A hundred and fifty years ago London
was accounted the chief centre of business for lapidaries, and
it is not beyond expectation that its former preeminence may
be reestablished. Even now it is thought that diamond crystals
CUTTING AND POLISHING 551
are cut in London town as well as the work can be done in Am-
sterdam.
In the United States the late Henry G. Morse of Boston
was the pioneer in establishing the lapidary business on a suc-
cessful footing early in the last (nineteenth) century. He opened
his workshop in Boston in 1866, and made several important
improvements upon the cumbrous machinery in use in Europe.
His business was confined, at first, to recutting and polishing
damaged gems; but the influx of South African diamonds brought
about speedily an enlargement of his works and the employment
of thirty expert hands. At the start only foreign workmen were
engaged, but Mr. Morse succeeded in training American women
to a height of proficiency as lapidaries which rivalled the best
foreign work. Among the fine gems cut and polished in his
shop were four weighing fifty carats each, and he later scored a
notable success with the cutting of a superb South African dia-
mond weighing 125 carats. The brilliant fashioned from this
stone weighed 77 carats, and has been greatly admired by con-
noisseurs as a specimen of exquisite beauty and purity developed
by perfect workmanship. The cutting and finishing of this gem
was a work occupying three and a half months.
In spite of this well-designed and ably pushed venture of
Mr. Morse, American lapidaries have struggled continuously
under serious handicaps. The United States is not a producer
of diamonds, and Europe is the established mart for rough stones
from India, Africa, and Brazil. Moreover, the business of dia-
mond cutting has been so firmly rooted in Europe that the work
naturally gravitates to these older establishments. Foreign lapi-
daries and dealers enjoy a further advantage in the fact that the
banks of England and Holland make loans on uncut stones,
knowing that the finished diamond is much enhanced in value,
while American bankers do not grant such assistance to Ameri-
can cutters and dealers. Nevertheless, the work of diamond
cutting has been so persistently developed that over half of the
diamonds imported now enter as rough stones.1
1 George F. Kunz.
A Group of Directors, General Manager, and Secretary of De lieers Consolidated Mines Ltd.
CHAPTER XIX
AN UPLIFTING POWER
HAT a change came over the dismal face of
South Africa with the discovery and develop-
ment of the diamond mines ! In a former
chapter it has been shown how dragging had
been the advance from the few scattered settle-
ments on the coast up to the year when the
revelation of diamonds drew the first rush of prospectors to the
banks of the Vaal. The yield of this marvellous field was,
from the first, of material consequence in the sum of South
African products, but it was of far greater importance in the
stimulus which it gave to the flagging and stinted enterprises
and the sinking hearts of the colonists.
The bits of iron hoop that scraped the diamond-bearing
ground were as transforming as magicians' wands. The river
552
AN UPLIFTING POWER
553
wash of the Vaal glittered like the diamond-strewn valley of
Sindbad. No Man's Land had the sparkle of diamond founts.
No part of the world was too remote to be dazzled by the vision
of the novel Golconda, and the black face of the despised karoo
changed in a twinkling to one of transcendent promise.
Then came the rush from every quarter of the globe of
ardent visionaries and fortune-hunters, streaming over the desert
Natives riding Bullocks.
sands of South Africa from every coast port to the Diamond
Fields, while from far inland the tribesmen flocked to the same
glittering beacon. Bitter experience rubbed the glamour from
the eyes of thousands of visionaries, who trooped back dis-
heartened, but the plucky and the lucky held their ground and
thousands came streaming in to take the places of the faint-
hearted. It followed naturally, too, that thousands who would
never have come to South Africa except at the beckoning of the
554 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
diamond lure, remained in the country even after the blasting
of their hopes of diamond winning. Many were ashamed to
Pioneers Trekking.
run away with the confession of failure ; many were too poor
to get away, and many were keen to see the profitable openings
in other occupations for their work and savings. So every
industry in the colonies gained new headway with the influx
A Prospecting Expedition to Mashonaland.
of capital and labor. Supplies of all kinds were needed for the
bustling diamond camps and the flow of travel between the
mines and the coast.
AN UPLIFTING POWER
555
Trekking on the Veld.
This demand was quite enough to stir the pulse of produc-
tion in every part of South Africa, and the heartening impulse
thus given was sustained and advanced far beyond the stretch
of this novel requirement by the rising faith in the possibilities
and future of South Africa as a field for investment, which now
began to lift the drooping spirits of the colonists and to attract
the cooperation of the home country and the leading nations
of the world. Hopeful prospectors rambled off farther and
farther over the deserts and ranges, or followed the water-
courses, testing the sands for diamonds or gold, and picking
at every promising ledge in their search for ore. Pioneer
Trekking on the Veld.
556 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
graziers trekked to new pasture grounds with their flocks and
herds. Abandoned farms were reoccupied and virgin soil
upturned for crops. Manufactures of various kinds began to
spring up and multiply. Not only Cape Town but little coast
ports were thick set with steamers busily discharging cargoes
on piers or in lighters and bidding for exports at rates highly
stimulating to the products of the Colonies.
The march of development was signally marked in the con-
The first and only Load of Cotton raised in South Africa.
struction of railways to meet the pressing demands for inland
communication and transportation, and especially the imperative
call of the Diamond Fields. The progress of mining was
greatly handicapped from the start by the heavy cost of drag-
ging supplies in lumbering ox-wagons for hundreds of miles
from the coast ports, and the patent impossibility of moving
any large plant in this way for mine opening or diamond win-
ning. The pioneer railway from Cape Town to Wellington
barely covered a twelfth of the stretch from the coast to the
AN UPLIFTING POWER
557
mines, and the little lines from Salt River to Wynberg, and
from Port Elizabeth to Uitenhage were of no service in the
advance of transportation.
However, capital was wary and loath to invest in any of the
projects for railway building into the heart of South Africa, until
the continued working of the Diamond Fields for three years
convinced investors that rich diamond deposits were indeed
Zebra.
open, whose continuance in depth might reasonably be antici-
pated. When the export of diamonds in 1872 amounted to
over ;£ i, 000,000, the Cape Government authorized the pur-
chase of the sixty miles of railway then in place in the colony
and sanctioned the extension of the existing line and the con-
struction of railways from Port Elizabeth and East London.
It was a heavy strain to raise capital for the extension of all
simultaneously ; so the advances were groping and slow. At
558 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
Coach leaving Kimberley for the Transvaal Gold Fields before the Day of the Railway.
some points, too, there was even an obstinate fight against any
railway extension in their direction. Little towns that had been
centres of distribution for surrounding districts feared that the
Cape Town and Table Mountain from Table Bay.
AN UPLIFTING POWER
559
railroad would divert some trade and shake their preeminence.
It was further contended that the whole scheme was chimerical
and that the uncertain yield of the South African farms and the
wide-ranging pasture lands could not pay interest on the cost
of construction and maintenance. One of the most persistent
objectors, the town of Worcester, actually sent in five petitions
against the extension of the railway line to that point.
A Group of Well-known Kimberley Men.
There was further protracted disputing over the proper gauge
for adoption after an extension had been determined. The short
line already constructed from Cape Town to Wellington was of
the standard English gauge, 4 feet 8J inches, but the continuance
of this gauge was generally opposed. It was urged that the light
traffic of the country would not warrant the heavy outlay requisite
for the construction of lines of the standard adapted to the require-
ments of a thickly settled country like Great Britain, and that only
narrow-gauge lines were practicable. Some would have pushed
this reduction of gauge to 2 feet 6 inches, or even less, in view
of the fact that some of the lines might be reduced to the necessity
of resorting to tram car and mule service, but the final conclusion
560 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
was the adoption of a standard gauge of 3 feet 6 inches. It was
properly recognized that uniformity of gauge, at any rate, was
essential for intercommunication, and whimsical notions of con-
struction were not suffered to break this uniformity. Time has
shown the fallacy of these pessimistic predictions as well as the
adoption of the 3 feet 6 inches gauge.
There was, however, one essential error in the whole scheme
of construction. The pressure of the demand of widely separated
points for railway construction was so hard to resist that the Par-
Eland.
liamentary authorization for railway extensions was far in excess
of what was feasible at the time in view of the limited capital that
could be secured for the prosecution of the scheme. The rivalry
of the principal ports was too keen to permit of the drafting of any
cooperative plan of extension, for the superior accommodation,
even temporarily, accorded to any one port would be challenged
by others as injurious favoritism. So, instead of carrying forward
a single main line by the most direct or feasible route to the Dia-
mond Fields to meet the most pressing demands for communi-
cation, there was for many years only a crawling advance from the
AN UPLIFTING POWER
561
562 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
Table Mountain, from the West.
competing coast ports, Cape Town and Port Elizabeth. Neither
of these competing lines were able to pay any adequate return
upon the capital invested, and the common aim of reaching the
Diamond Fields was blocked and greatly delayed. Kimberley was
distant only 485 miles from the nearest outlet on the coast, Port
Elizabeth ; but 1600 miles of converging railway lines were actu-
ally built before one was extended from De Aar to Kimberley,
in November, 1885, then first putting the richly productive
diamond mines in railway communication with the coast.
All the lines in operation at this time were single lines, with
the exception of the Cape Town-Wynberg line, and the first six
miles of the Port Elizabeth-Uitenhage line. The most difficult
engineering in the course of this railway extension was in the
crossing of the barrier range of mountains forming the ridge of
the karoo plateau. After repeated surveys an entrance for the
AN UPLIFTING POWER
563
line from Cape Town was effected through the Hex River Valley
with a gradual ascent to Hex River Kast, where the line begins
to climb the mountains by sweeping curves and zigzags, piercing
some of the spurs in tunnels, and spanning gulleys with viaducts,
until it attains its highest elevation of 3588 feet at Pieter Meintjes
Fontein, 77 miles from Worcester. This is a trifle higher than
the summit of
Table Mountain,
which rises in air
3582 feet above
Cape Town. For
a stretch of more
than 20 miles in
the ascent of this
ridge, the gradients
are one in 40 and
one in 45, with
curves of five chains
radius.
In the year fol-
lowing the exten-
sion to Kimberley
there was a fortu-
nate impulse to the
extension and oper-
ation of all the lines
by the discovery of
the Witwatersrand
Gold Fields. Then first appeared some substantial prospect of
profit for all the competing lines by the addition of another great
centre of attraction and production. The junction of the Cape
Town and Port Elizabeth line at De Aar, in March, 1884, had
largely diverted the flow of freight and passenger traffic between
the Diamond Fields and the coast, which, for some years, had
been passing principally along the line through Graaff Reinet; but
the rise of Johannesburg offset this loss to the Port Elizabeth,
His Excellency Lord Milner, Governor of the Cape Colony.
564 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
Graaff Reinet, and East London lines. The linking of the Dia-
mond and Gold Fields by direct railway communication from
Kimberley to Johannesburg was apparently of high importance ;
but this extension has been blocked for years by the action of the
Orange Free State in refusing to build the line themselves or to
allow either the Cape Government or private corporations to
construct it. Several years were passed in dilly-dallying before
sanction was given to the Cape Government for an extension of
a connecting link of the Cape Town and Port Elizabeth lines
Donkey Transport.
from Naauw Port across the Orange River at Norvals Pont,
thence to Bloemfontein and the Vaal River at Vereeniging, where
it connected with the Netherland Company's system of the
Transvaal. It was not until September, 1892, that the first
through train from the Cape reached Pretoria, but after the
essential link was constructed, the Cape Town and Port Eliza-
beth lines contrived to secure the greater share of the Transvaal
traffic for the next three or four years.
While these two lines were delayed in reaching out for the
business of the Gold Fields, a more favored competitor, the
Netherlands Railway Company, was actively building an eastern
AN UPLIFTING POWER
565
line from Portuguese territory through Middleburg to Pretoria,
and shortly afterward running radial lines southeast to Natal
and southwest to Klerksdorp. By the extension of these well-
designed lines the first through train from Delagoa Bay arrived
in Johannesburg in November, 1894, a"d the first train from
Natal in December, 1895. More than two years later, in
March, 1898, the dragging extension of the Graaff Reinet line
was opened to Rosmead Junction, on the main line to Port
Elizabeth, and was then in a position to assist in carrying
merchandise from the coast to the Diamond and Gold Fields.
A South African Farm.
While these railway extensions essential to the development
of the existing States and Colonies in South Africa were more
or less efficiently accomplished, the grand project of Mr.
Rhodes for a railway running far north into the heart of Africa
was most energetically prosecuted. By the advance of his
exploration and colonization plan, to be hereafter described, the
range of British territory was extended from Table Bay to the
shores of Lakes Tanganyika and Moero.
The line from Kimberley was opened to Vryburg, 774 miles
from Cape Town, December i, I89O.1 Thus far the conserva-
tive government was prevailed upon to proceed, but the profit
1 Report of the General Manager of Railways, Cape of Good Hope, 1898.
566 THE DIAMOND MINES OE SOUTH AFRICA
from any further extension seemed so essentially speculative
that it is very doubtful if any further advance would have been
made, had it not been for the daring enterprise of the Bechuana-
land Railway Company, an organization promoted and financed
by Mr. Rhodes and his far-sighted associates. Following hard
upon the heels of
the pioneers in
Mashonaland and
the conquest of
Matabel eland the
line from Vryburg
was opened to
Bulawayo in No-
vember, 1897.
When the
grand importance
of this railway
advance became
clear, even to the
doubters, the Brit-
ish Government subsequently guaranteed a loan of ^2,000,000
to carry the line 800 miles farther on to Lake Tanganyika.
With the rate of progress attained it was expected that Aber-
corn at the foot of Lake Tanganyika would be reached in four
years, but the outbreak of the war with the South African States
was an unlooked-for clog to this advance. As soon as the line
has reached Lake Tanganyika a further extension of 600 miles
to Uganda through the Congo Free State has been guaranteed
by an appropriation of the needed funds by vote of the share-
holders of the African Transcontinental Railway Company.
Besides this main line of advance, the Beira Railway, which
was constructed with a gauge of two feet, had been completed
and engines were running as far as Salisbury over a stretch of
line 375 miles in length before the close of 1900. The narrow
gauge of two feet was soon found to be unworkable, and the line
has already been relaid from Beira to Umtali with heavier rails
Natives shearing Sheep.
AN UPLIFTING POWER
567
and with the standard South African gauge of 3 feet 6 inches,
the remaining stretch from Umtali to Salisbury having been
originally laid with the broader gauge.
In spite of the lack of cooperation and capital, and all other
impediments and delays in view of the character of the country,
the advance of railway systems in South Africa has been phe-
nomenal in the last few years. Including the six or seven short
private lines constructed for the advance of mining operations
and suburban and other local traffic, there were 2264 miles of
railway in Cape Colony at the close of the year 1898. The
Transvaal came next with 777 miles, followed by Rhodesia with
604 miles, Natal with 465 miles, and the Free State with 361
miles. Besides this aggregate, 256 miles had been constructed
Dutch Farm in the Karoo.
in Portuguese territory, making a total of 4727 miles of railway
actually opened and working in South Africa, and more than
half as much more in process of construction, or guaranteed by
appropriations.
In the struggle to reach the goal of the Diamond Fields, with
the handicap of the lack of capital, it is not surprising that much
of the roadways and the rolling stock fell below any high modern
standard. The light rails and rickety cars answered the purpose
568 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
Beaufort West, a Little Town on the High Veld.
of the day, however, fairly well, and have since been largely
replaced by a plant that will bear wear and tear, but is still not
up to the requirements. Makeshift bridges were soon sup-
planted by durable structures, and other engineering works on
the lines of the various systems have also been greatly improved.
The engineers who advanced the pioneer lines deserve, on the
whole, high credit for their energy and talent in piercing or trav-
ersing the barriers in their way. At the time when the first
train reached the Witwatersrand Gold Fields, at the close of
1892, there were somewhat more than 8500 bridges, culverts, and
cuts to be counted on the various lines. Some of this bridge
construction, especially the bridges across the Orange and Vaal
rivers, was of a high order of excellence. The Orange River
bridge on the Kimberley line has a length of 1230 feet, with
open spans of 130 feet each between the piers. The Bethulie
bridge is 1486 feet long, and the Norvals Pont bridge,1 the
longest of all, has 13 spans of 130 feet, and a total stretch
closely approaching 1700 feet. The total cost of this fine
bridge was ^76,593. At Fourteen Streams,2 on the Vaal River,
there is a bridge often spans of 133 feet that is fittingly classed
with the chief Orange River bridges.
1 See photograph, Chapter XX, of this bridge after destruction by the Boers. 2 Ibid,
AN UPLIFTING POWER
569
For rapidity of building railways the palm has heretofore been
claimed by America, but the best American records have been
challenged repeatedly in the advance of the African Transcon-
tinental Railway, and it is now claimed that the world's record
for rapid construction and bridge building has been captured by
The Patent Shaft and Axletree Company, of Wednesbury, Eng-
land. The Boers had effected the isolation of General White
and his men in Ladysmith by blowing up the two railway bridges
on the Tugela River at Colenso and Frere, and, promptly on
learning of the destruction of these bridges, the Natal Govern-
ment took steps for their rebuilding. The crossing over the
Tugela at Colenso was designed in five spans of 105 feet each,
and the crossing at Frere of two spans of the same length. The
call for the utmost haste in construction was imperative, and
tenders were invited, both in England and America. The con-
tract was awarded to The Patent Shaft and Axletree Company
upon its undertaking to deliver the first span in six weeks from
the day of the
contract. The
order was given
on the 2 ist of
December, 1899,
and the first span
was finished on
the ijth of Janu-
ary, 1900, or in
nineteen working
days. When the Norvals Pont Bridge.
order was received, nothing was in stock at the company's works
from which the structural steel was rolled, yet at five o'clock on
the afternoon of the day of the order 100 tons had been rolled at
the company's works, and tested and approved by the engineer
of the Natal Government. Each of the spans weighs 105 tons,
or a ton to the lineal foot of the bridge. There was about 7500
feet of planing work, and 69,000 rivet holes were drilled in
each span; yet on January 19, two of the spans had been built
570 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
and work begun on three more, while the material for the whole
seven for both bridges had been rolled, cut to size, tested, and
approved.1
Besides government railway building, important private lines
have been constructed for the operation of large mining works,
and local or suburban traffic. The oldest of these lines was the
undertaking of the Cape Copper Company, covering a stretch of
100 miles from Port Nolloth to Ookiep. Some of the grades
on this line are very notably steep, exceeding any others where
ordinary steam-engine traction is employed. For this service
special engines were constructed by Litson & Co. of Leeds, which
have been working very successfully since October, 1890. On
Klipfontein mountain there is a rise of 1330 feet in 7-^ miles, and
in several sections the gradient reaches the extreme of i foot
in 19. This line was built for the development of the Nama-
qualand copper mines, one of the most profitable undertakings
in the Colony. The Cape Copper Company owns most of the
paying mines, and has been extracting annually about 30,000
tons of ore, averaging nearly 20 per cent in copper.
The Indwe Railway Company's line is only second to this,
with a length of 66^ miles. This line was opened in 1896 to
reach the Indwe coal mines, and is operated by the Cape Gov-
ernment as a branch of the Eastern System which it joins at
Sterkstroom. It was built by the Indwe Company with the
material assistance of De Beers, which subscribed .£75,000 to its
working capital. The Company owned all its rolling stock, but
it was operated under the supervision of the Cape Government
Railway Department. This railway has been lately sold to the
Cape Government, and is to be extended to Natal.
It is computed that the lines owned and operated by the
Cape Government have cost, with their rolling stock, about
^20,000,000, representing the investment of about ^£7200 per
mile. The capital invested in the Natal lines was ^6,750,000 ;
showing an outlay of ^£1 5,000 per mile. The 777 miles of
1 The Engineer, London, England, February, 1900. The Scientific American,
February 24, 1900.
AN UPLIFTING POWER
571
Netherlands Company cost nearly £9,000,000, or .£13,500 per
mile. This gives a total of £"38,000,000 for the construction of
3500 miles of railway, not including lines owned and operated
on private account. With all lines included, it is estimated that
there is a total outlay of £$6 per head of the white population
of the country, which does not average more than 163 to the
mile of railway opened.
In 1896 the earnings of
the Cape Government rail-
ways came to something over
^£4,000,000, of the Natal rail-
ways £1,000,000, and of the
Netherlands Company nearly
.£3,000,000. The net profit
after paying interest on capital
in the Cape was .£1,221,675 > m
Natal £"464,762 ; and in the
Transvaal ,£1,328,424, making
a total of over ^£3, 000,000,
not including the Free State
share of profit, which for 1896
was ^289,553.
Five extensions were au-
thorized by the Volksraad reso-
lution of the Free State in
October, 1896. One line
through Fauresmith was to serve the diamond mines of Jagers-
fontein and Kofiyfontein and place them in direct communication
with the coast ports. In 1898 the Free State decided to build a
railway by concession from Bloemfontein to Kimberley, and to
extend the Springfontein-Fauresmith line to join the Bloemfon-
tein-Kimberley line at a point near Petrusburg. The Springfon-
tein-Fauresmith line forms a direct route between East London
and Kimberley, shortening the present route by 100 miles, mak-
ing East London 40 miles nearer to Kimberley than Port Eliza-
beth. The Bloemfontein-Kimberley line will reduce the present
His Excellency Sir Walter Hely Hutchinsen,
Late Governor of Natal.
572 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
distance by rail between Kimberley and Johannesburg and Cape
Town. The war has, for the time being, stopped this work.
The Natal Government is also proceeding with the construc-
tion of north and south coast lines : one through Verulam to
Zululand, and the other to the Cape border, where it will connect
with the extension of the Storkstroom-Indwe line.
Twenty-five years ago only 781 miles of telegraph were open
in all of South Africa. A message of twenty words from Cape
Town to East London cost ijs. 6d. At the outbreak of the late
war 19,000 miles of wire were working in Cape Colony, and
probably 10,000 miles in other states and colonies. The march
of the telegraph through South Africa will be later detailed.
In addition to the railway and telegraph, several thousand
miles of excellent roads have been made, and every river of mag-
nitude has been spanned by substantial bridges. The great
Zwarte Berg Pass, which rises 3400 feet in eleven miles from
base to summit, is one of the finest monuments of road con-
struction to be seen in any country.
At every port the shipping accommodations have been ex-
tended and improved, and approaches to the coast have been
made safer by construction of numerous lighthouses.
The impulse given by the Diamond Fields development for
prospecting for mineral deposits of all kinds led to the discovery
of the mines of Lydenburg, De Kaap, and the Rand. In the
year preceding the discovery of diamonds Thomas Baines had
led a party from Durban to prospect for gold in Matabeleland,
and secured a concession from Lobengula in April, 1870, to
dig for gold in the district between the Gwelo and Ganyona
rivers. But Baines's party found no largely promising deposits,
and without the excitement of the rush to Kimberley there would
hardly have been any considerable and determined effort to push
prospecting far beyond the Vaal. Luckily, shortly after the
rush to the Diamond Fields in 1871, reef gold was found by pros-
pectors at Eersteling and Marabastad, and, two years later, gold
placers were discovered about thirty-three miles east of Lyden-
burg, at Pilgrim's Rest.
AN UPLIFTING POWER 573
These discoveries were greatly magnified in the fever of
speculation excited by the opening of the diamond beds, and
companies were formed in Natal and England to develop these
gold-fields, while daring adventurers pushed still farther on, to
the region north of the Limpopo, seeking the traces of the
ancient mining works that were known to exist. Upon the
report of the discovery at Lydenburg some fifteen hundred pros-
pectors flocked to this field, and a year or two later gold was
found in the Kaap Valley, fifty miles south of Lydenburg. The
returns from the placers were hardly tempting enough to hold
the gold seekers, and conflicts with the natives, followed by the
outbreak of the war with the South African Republic in 1880,
were further discouraging to any development in this region.
After the war the exactions imposed by the South African Re-
public upon the prosecution of mining in the Lydenburg district
were a check to outside prospecting.
In 1882 an Australian digger, Charles Durnin, found some
very rich patches of gold-bearing ground on the Kantoor plateau
in the Kaap Valley, and the rush to the Duivels Kantoor and
Moodies brought to pass the first considerable undertaking of
gold quartz mining in South Africa. Some gold mines showing
great richness of ore were soon developed in this district, and
the bustling mining town of Barberton marked the centre of a
field which was thought to be of marvellous promise. Unfortu-
nately the booming of the district ran to a pitch of insane and
fraudulent speculation that was greatly damaging to the reputa-
tion of this field of investment, and gold mining undertakings
in South Africa would commonly have been reckoned as
"bubbles," had it not been for the uncovering, at this juncture,
of the astonishing riches of the Rand.
Nearly twenty years before, the famous elephant hunter,
H. Hartley, after marking the gold-bearing ground in Matabele-
land and the region of the Zambesi, made his home on a farm
in the Witwatersrand, unconsciously settling on the face of
deposits of gold far more marvellous than any tradition of King
Solomon's mines. Hartley died without any vision of the treas-
574 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
ures over which he and others were tramping day after day.
It was soon noticed by roving prospectors, and by settlers in
the district, that there was gold-bearing sand in the beds of the
little river and creeks rising in the Witwatersrand, but no note-
worthy search for gold was attempted until an Australian mining
man, Armfield, a reputed expert, was sent to prospect in this
region during the British occupation from 1876 to 1880. He
made some tests of quartz ledges on a farm adjoining Paarde-
kraal, but found nothing of value.
The credit of the first important revelation of gold in the
district undoubtedly belongs to Mr. Fred Struben, who had
given his earnest attention to the gold developments in the
Transvaal, and who prospected the Witwatersberg district in
1883, and found traces of gold in creeks and reefs, as well as
ancient workings for copper. In the following year his elder
brother, Mr. H. W. Struben, purchased two small farms on the
northwestern end of Witwatersrand, and both the Strubens
continued their prospecting energetically during the year. In
the summer of 1884 a gold-bearing vein or reef was discovered
and traced for several miles by Fred Struben. Ore shoots and
pockets were found which assayed over one thousand ounces of
gold and silver to the ton. The rich ledge, named the Confi-
dence Reef, was supposed to be of prime importance ; and the
Strubens erected a five-stamp battery on the ground to crush
the ore of this and neighboring ledges. Several samples of the
ore were tested in the stamp mill, but the best ore yielded only
eight pennyweight to the ton. Work on the Confidence Reef
was greatly disappointing, for the gold-bearing rock was soon
proven to be a small deposit.
In August, 1885, I visited a small mine called Kromdraai,
situated about twenty miles, in a northwesterly direction, from
the present site of Johannesburg, but at a much lower elevation,
near the old Pretoria and Kimberley wagon road. A small reef
of gold-bearing rock was being mined, and the ore crushed in a
little mill in the immediate vicinity. I also spent a few days
looking over the Confidence Reef, with the Strubens, who were
AN UPLIFTING POWER
575
Entrance — Groote Schuur.
at that time the most enthusiastic and energetic prospectors, as
well as the most enlightened and progressive men, in the Trans-
vaal. Mr. Henry Struben owned large estates near Pretoria.
The Strubens had spent over £i 1,000 in their mining opera-
tions in the Witwatersrand, and their venture seemed a losing
576 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA.
one, when, in the spring of 1886, one of their employees, Walker,
found the rich reef, now known as the Main Reef Leader, on
the farm Langlaagte, about two miles west of the present Johan-
nesburg. In July the first sample of the conglomerate from the
reefs on the Langlaagte farm was panned in Kimberley. The
showing was so remarkable that Mr. J. B. Robinson, backed by
Mr. Alfred Beit, who saw the panning, started on the following
day for the Rand. The Kimberley-Pretoria coach road ran
through Potchefstroom, and thence northeast, leaving the little
pioneer town called " Ferreira's Camp " (now Johannesburg)
some fifteen or twenty miles to the east ; but Robinson drove in
a cart from Potchefstroom to the little sprawling camp that was
the first sprout of Johannesburg. Within a day or two after his
arrival he bought the Langlaagte farm for ^7000. Scoffers,
who posed as experts, told him bluntly that " a fool and his
money were soon parted " ; but he did not take heed of their
gibes, and, before the end of the year, bought the whole of the
ground comprised in the holdings of the " Robinson " Company
for ^13,100.
Messrs. Rhodes, Porges, Beit, and other enterprising men
of Kimberley shortly followed Robinson in the pioneer work of
the Rand. In January, 1897, tne development work on the
Robinson mine consisted of a hole in the ground, fifty feet deep,
which was full of water. Robinson, who had been somewhat
unfortunate on the Diamond Fields, went " nap " on the Gold
Fields, and the rivalry between him and Rhodes was very keen.
One story, with some foundation of fact at least, will show this.
While Rhodes was trying to buy a farm from the Dutch owner,
and they were parleying in the orchard, Rhodes conversing in
English and bad Dutch, and the Boer in Dutch and bad English,
Robinson arrived on the ground. He went direct to the farm-
house, and at once opened negotiations for the purchase of the
farm with the Boer's vrouw. His familiarity with the " Taal,"
South African Dutch, was a telling advantage in his competition
with Rhodes, and he reckoned shrewdly that the wife would jump
at a bargain more quickly than the husband. So he slapped
AN UPLIFTING POWER
577
a handful of golden sovereigns on the table, saying smartly,
" Those are for you." The old vrouw clutched greedily at the
gold and called shrilly to her husband to come to the house. He
obeyed the call dutifully, and when he entered the door he found
that his wife had already sold the farm to Robinson. Even a hen-
pecked man might have grumbled at such a sale, but when the
simple Boer saw the heap of glittering sovereigns on the table,
Groote Schuur, after its Destruction by Fire.
he could not hold out stubbornly against a man who had so
kindly presented his vrouw with so great " a mark of respect."
While Rhodes stood in the orchard, Robinson got the farm.
In the early rush to the Rand, farms and mines were bought,
not so much for any phenomenal richness, as for the fact that
they showed more gold distributed over a greater stretch of
country than had ever been disclosed in South Africa. The first
two or three years were very disappointing, for the total output
did not cover the taxes levied upon the mines by the Govern-
ment. A large percentage of the gold was lost in working the
2 P
578 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
ores, for the precious metal was so extremely minute that it
floated away with the water, and, at no considerable depth, a
portion of the gold was held in the pyrites, and could not be
recovered by means of the ordinary process of amalgamation.
Some other process was needed that would save the minutely
fine gold which became suspended in the water owing to the
attachment of globules of air. When the Rand was discovered,
no such process had been developed beyond the experimental
stage. MacArthur and Forrest, of Glasgow, were experiment-
ing with a solution of cyanide of potassium, which was known
to be a solvent of gold. They found that the ores from the
Rand readily yielded their gold when treated by this process,
which soon came into general use. This was the saving of the
Rand, for without such treatment only a few of the richer mines
would to-day be paying properties.
A little more than a year after Robinson bought properties
on Witwatersrand, the despised " cabbage field" of the Lang-
laagte farm was floated with a capital of ^£450,000, and yielded
^950,000 in gold in the next five years, with a profit of nearly
seventy-five per cent in dividends on the par value of the capital
stock. The holdings of the Robinson Company, in the same
time, produced over ^£i, 400,000 in gold and paid ,£570,937 los.
in dividends to shareholders.
By the discovery of the diamond mines in Griqualand West,
a product ranging over ^80,000,000 in value in less than thirty
years had been added to the meagre output of South Africa, and
the gold mines of the Witwatersrand began, about fourteen years
ago, to swell this great exhibit of the mineral riches of the land
by the addition of gold already aggregating over ^70,000,000.
The annual flow from the diamond mines has averaged, for
years, over ,£4,000,000 in value and the Rand has greatly out-
stripped even this rich showing. Prior to the discovery of dia-
monds, the total tally of South African exports and imports
combined was not ^6,000,000 in value. In 1898 it was nearly
^50,000,000, and, of the total exports, eighty per cent were
mineral products.
AN UPLIFTING POWER
579
Pioneers Trekking in Mashonaland.
With this general survey it is now practicable to trace with
more clearness the essential and special services rendered in this
grand development by Rhodes and his associates in De Beers
Consolidated Mines and other organizations. Viewing, as he
did, the control of the Diamond Fields very largely as the inter-
mediary step toward the attainment of an aim far grander, the
consolidation of the chief diamond mining properties had hardly
been effected when Rhodes took action swiftly to extend and
intrench the range of British influence north of the Transvaal
by obtaining the concession of the mineral rights in Lobengula's
kingdom of Matabeleland, through the adroit agency of Messrs.
Charles D. Rudd, Rochefort Maguire, and Frank Thompson, in
return for an annuity of ^ 1200 and a coveted stock of rifles and
ammunition. Lobengula made the grant which gave to Rhodes
the needed nucleus for the creation of the grand exploring and
developing agency which he pressed for incorporation as the
British South Africa Company.
There was a natural hesitancy on the part of the public in
580 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
supporting this scheme at the outset, for the Matabele conces-
sion seemed to investors at large little more solid than a moonlit
cloud bank, and even venturesome speculators shrank from buy-
ing shares in a prospecting license in a country held by savage
blacks, trained in the school of Chaka to pillage and murder.
But this incredulity was anticipated by Rhodes, and a solid back-
ing was given to the enterprise by the subscription of De Beers
Consolidated Mines for more than ^200,000 of the working
capital. This was a demonstration of good faith and practical
intent so convincing that the British Government granted a
charter formally to the new company in October, 1889, and it
has since been popularly known as the Chartered Company.
The government was reluctant to extend the working scope of
the charter north of the Zambesi, but Rhodes's aim was not pent
up in Matabeleland, or Ma-
shonaland, and by his forceful
representations the British
South Africa Company was
left unrestricted in its range to
the north, as far as it could
advance without infringing on
other concessions, or entering
territory acquired by Germany
or other nations of Europe.
There seemed, at first,
some likelihood of competi-
tion and possible conflict of
interests in the race of exten-
sion with another adventurous
association, that applied for a
charter as the African Lakes Company. But the risk was fore-
stalled by Rhodes's foresight and promptness of action. The
promoters of the African Lakes Company had spent all the capi-
tal they could raise, and were so dangerously near the verge of
collapse that they welcomed the helping hands of Rhodes and his
friends without much quibbling over the terms exacted. At once
Khama, a Noted Chief whose Country lies just
South of Rhodesia.
AN UPLIFTING POWER
581
^20,000 were subscribed by the organizers of the British South
Africa Company to float the African Lakes Company, and a fur-
ther subscription of ^9000 a year was pledged in return for the
right under certain conditions of merging the subsidized com-
pany in the British South Africa Company.
Then, with his unhampered charter and its range cleared to
the source of the Nile, Rhodes was ready, like Davy Crockett,
Khama's Town.
to go ahead. After consulting with Frank Selous, the famous
African hunter, and others familiar with the field, he pitched
upon Mashonaland as the first base of operations. Dr. L. S.
Jameson was deputed to go to Bulawayo and get Lobengula's
express license for this undertaking. The envoy made all pos-
sible haste in his mission, and won the king's favor so quickly
by his tactful bearing that the entry to Mashonaland was con-
ceded. Rhodes lost no time in taking advantage of this oppor-
tunity. A force of five hundred armed men were enlisted under
the chartered right to an adequate "police," and two hundred
pioneers were hired to make a passable wagon road to Mashona-
land. Colonel Pennyfather was placed in command.
Meanwhile, the fickle Lobengula changed his mind when
Dr. Jameson was no longer by his side to persuade him, and sent
582 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
a message to the expedition, forbidding the road-making. The
messenger of the king met the British at Tuli, but the men
picked by Rhodes were not of a temper to be checked or fright-
ened away, and the road was pushed ahead as fast as possible
through the thick brush and woods of the lowland, where the
peril from attack was most to be dreaded. Dr. Jameson rode
in the van with forty of the best mounted men as an advance
Khama's Hut.
guard. Selous led the pioneers and marked the roadway. Fin-
ally, on the 1 3th of August, 1890, the road-makers came to the
great plateau of Mashonaland, through an easy mountain pass,
and a heavy weight was lifted from the minds of the leaders, for
on this open plateau hostile attacks were no longer to be dreaded,
and a few hundred well armed and mounted men might well defy
a horde of marching Matabeles. It is probable that this daring
advance would not have been made unmolested, if Lobengula's
attention had not been artfully distracted by a feint of entry in
another quarter made by a body of Bechuanaland police on the.
AN UPLIFTING POWER
583
southwest border of Matabeleland. Thus was the first grip of
civilization secured on the rich territory which now bears fitly
the name of" Rhodesia," in lasting commemoration of the grand
foresight and enterprise of its redeemer from barbarism, Cecil
John Rhodes.
No sooner was this entry effected than Rhodes's untiring
energy sought further extensions of British control. By treaty
with the native chief, Umtasa, the neighboring Manica was
brought under the same protecting power as Mashonaland, and
Matabele Women, Carrying Water.
a footing was gained with the like expedition in the native prov-
ince of Gazaland. It was obvious that no extended develop-
ment of the resources of this territory or stable colonization
could be effected without railway connection with the Cape, and
Rhodes at once undertook the provision of capital for the es-
sential extension of the Transcontinental Railway through Ma-
feking to Mashonaland. He raised the money required, besides
drawing heavily upon his private fortune, at the same time, for
the Beira Railway extension. He contributed also four-fifths
of the capital of the Transcontinental Telegraph, and, all this
584 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
A Group of Visitors at Groote Schuur.
while, bearing in great part the extraordinary expenses, amount-
ing to ^£2 50,000 annually for the first two years, of the develop-
ment of the undertaking of the British South Africa Company
in Mashonaland.
Fortunately, by the extraordinary executive ability of Dr.
Jameson, who was appointed Administrator for the Chartered
Company in 1891, the immense outlay required of the company
was reduced to only ^30,000 annually. The thriving town of
Victoria was founded and the settlement of the country was most
energetically pressed in spite of every obstacle. But when the
way for the profitable advance of the company's operations
seemed to be clearing, its Colony was menaced in 1893 with utter
destruction by the attack of the fierce Matabeles.
Lobengula had viewed the entry of the Rhodes expedition
into the territory north of his kingdom with rising disgust,
accentuated by his failure to stop it, but it was two years before
he came to the point of open attack. He had been accustomed,
all his life long, to regard the district occupied by his neighbors.
AN UPLIFTING POWER
585
the weak and unwarlike Mashonas, as convenient harrying
ground for his brutal forays. Marauding troops of freebooters
were constantly harassing the poor Mashonas, and oftentimes
the king would send his robbing and murdering expeditions to
scourge the land, just as he sent his impis to take Ugami, — to
despoil and enslave and massacre the Batuwani, — and, across
the Zambesi, to raid the Mashukulumbwe or the Barotse.
To the sorely persecuted Mashonas the coming of the Eng-
lish was an assurance of protection which was greatly welcomed,
Great Kafir Kraal, Mochudi, Matabeleland.
but even the presence of the bold white men and the unfolding
of the British flag did not stop the marauding. Dr. Jameson
protested over and over again to Lobengula, but the king was
deaf. Finally, in July, 1893, parties of the Matabeles pushed
their ferocious raids contemptuously up to the very bounds of
the township of Victoria, and the English could not look on
unmoved. Then Dr. Jameson sent a squad of police to warn
off the marauders. The Matabele insolently fired on the guard,
and the police charged and drove them flying.
586 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
This wholly rightful rebuff upset the temper of Lobengula,
who was stuffed with barbaric conceit. His impis began pour-
ing over the border, and the infant Colony was threatened with
extinction. The menace was met by a heroic response. There
were only a handful of police at the time in Mashonaland, but
the settlers were men who could defend themselves.
It was judged best to meet the roving assaults by a direct
counter attack on Lobengula's stronghold, his capital of Bula-
wayo. The Chartered Company's funds were drained out ; but
Rhodes, as ever, rose to the occasion, and raised the money im-
peratively needed to arm and conduct the little force that was to
make the daring venture into the heart of the most savage and
warlike province in South Africa. With this backing Dr. Jame-
son raised a force of about nine hundred men, and, placing himself
at their head, as Commander-in-chief, marched on Bulawayo.
Just after crossing the Shangani River, his little army was at-
tacked by the Matabele in force, but beat off their assailants.
With the encouragement of this success the English pushed
on to the Imbesi.
Here they were attacked again in the old Zulu fashion by
desperate charges of seven thousand frantic blacks in rank after
rank of impis upon the well-prepared English camp. It was
a fierce fight, but the issue did not hang long in doubt. The
Matabele were as dashing and reckless as the impis that had
fallen like breakers of surf on the laagers of the Boers during
their " Great Trek." But they were overmatched by the cease-
less belching of machine guns and repeating rifles, mowing them
down swath by swath when they charged within close range. At
last they broke and fled, and Dr. Jameson's little army marched
on to Bulawayo, which was entered without further fighting, for
the disheartened Lobengula abandoned his capital.
The British pursued him hotly, for it was highly important
to put a decisive end to the war by his capture before the
advance of the rainy season. Unfortunately this pursuit was
too daringly pressed. Major Wilson, with a little force of less
than forty mounted men, nearly plucked Lobengula out of the
AN UPLIFTING POWER
5«7
588 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
midst of his retreating impis. His impetuous rush reached the
cart that carried the king; but the desperate Matabele flung
themselves upon this little troop in such masses that its advance
was checked. Messages for help were sent to the main troop
in pursuit, under Major Forbes, but succor was cut off by the
rising of the Shangani River. Flight would have saved most of
them, but Wilson and his men who were able to ride off scorned
to abandon their wounded comrades. So, hard pressed by the
Matabele on all sides, they made a barrier of their horses, living
and dead, and
held their ground
until their last
cartridge was
fired. Then they
stood up defiantly
and fought hand
to hand until the
last man was cut
down and tram-
pled under foot
in the crush of
the savage blacks.
The troop under
Major Forbes was
forced to retreat,
and suffered much privation before it was met by a relief party
headed by Rhodes, who rode out from Bulawayo.
The loss of Major Wilson and his gallant men was deeply
mourned ; but the campaign as a whole was a most brilliant
success. Lobengula's power was completely broken, his impis
scattered, and he soon afterward died a fugitive. The royal
city of Bulawayo was made the capital of Rhodesia, the province
of the Chartered Company, and Dr. Jameson took his seat there
as Administrator. The rich mineral ground near Bulawayo soon
attracted a considerable influx and made a rising town, which in
less than three years boasted of its banks, clubs, newspapers,
Major Wilson's Grave.
AN UPLIFTING POWER 589
electric lighting, and water-works. The brave colonists who
made up the force of " Jameson's Volunteers " were disbanded,
and began to prospect for gold and pick out farms in the new
province.
With the fall of Lobengula, a standing menace to the march
of settlement was removed, and the attractions of Rhodesia
began to come out in a brighter light. It was the settled pur-
pose of the Chartered Company, from the outset, to do every-
thing that was feasible to encourage investigation and the taking
up of farms by honest and thrifty colonists. This was regarded,
by Rhodes at least, as transcending in importance even the
development of the mineral riches of the country, though the
latter was naturally the chief object with most investors. Par-
ticular pains has been taken, in directing the colonization, to
harmonize relations between the men of different races and
nations, and to draw as closely as possible all together in a com-
mon bond of union as Africanders.
Considerate and elevating treatment of the natives has also
been a notable feature of „ the determination and policy of the
Chartered Company. The relief of Mashonaland from the
ferocious forays of the Matabele was a memorable service
which will be credited at the outset to this company. It has
further given to all within its jurisdiction the fullest protection of
English law, and safeguarded all working in service from abus-
ive treatment by their employes, prohibiting the use of the lash,
and enforcing other humane regulations. The sale of liquor to
the natives is forbidden by stringent laws, and the most discred-
itable and demoralizing influence in South Africa is barred out
of Rhodesia, at least.
To determine the extent of arable and pasture lands, deputa-
tions of experienced farmers were appointed to inspect and report
by public meetings in the Cape Colony and Orange Free State.
Their examination of less than half the area of Mashonaland and
Matabeleland reached the conclusion that at least 40,000 square
miles were well adapted for colonizing purposes. It may further
be noted that highly favorable reports of the agricultural and
590 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
mineral resources in the vast territories of the British South
Africa Company, north of the Zambesi, have been furnished by
Joseph Thomson, Alfred Sharpe, and other well-known ex-
plorers. Actual experience and the medical officers' reports have
shown that the climate is not unhealthy for any white man who
will avoid undue exposure and observe a few simple precautions.1
Victoria Falls, Zambesi River.
The advance of immigration and development has been
remarkable in view of existing conditions. There were inevitable
hardships and discouragement to check the first rush of gold
seekers. The gold-fields were only slightly explored and lay far
from any base of supply. There was lack of resources and
means of communication to develop even the most promising
1 " Minutes of Progress in Mashonaland," by the Secretary of the British South
Africa Company. "The Ruined Cities of Mashonaland," pp. 405-412.
AN UPLIFTING POWER
openings. Yet, in spite of all obstacles, prospecting has been
pushed far enough to show the range of gold-bearing ground
and ledges for hundreds of miles. Convincing evidence of the
mineral richness of the country is given to the extent of the
ancient workings that have been traced through Mashonaland
far beyond the southern end of Lake Tanganyika. There can
be no doubt that an enormous amount of gold has been taken
Victoria Falls.
from this region both by placer washing and quartz mining.
There are no other ancient workings, on the face of the Old
World at least, of like extent, and this undeniable evidence
weighs heavily for the contention that the flow of gold from this
source was the main supply, for centuries, of Arabia and Asia
Minor. In view of the superiority of modern appliances for
mining and the extraction of gold, it would seem, at least,
probable that the yield of this territory may, in time, be large.
There are apparently well-verified reports also of the dis-
592 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
covery of extensive copper and iron deposits in North Rhodesia
and in the region lying along the western shores of Lake Tan-
ganyika. The missionaries of the Roman Catholic society
/ UKITlVlI .pi
/ CE.VrilAL I V.\
i >«»? Iw
iiiuri V;
{ KULANTYfTE
,,^>i4. i»r»«o ^VR*
5^A^£r;s*$$ r
--t. Zv-voHh&B in^Si^. .. n
A MAP
TO ILLUSTRATE
THE RHODESIA RAILWAY SYSTEM
COMPLETED, UNDER CONSTRUCTION,
AND PROJECTED.
1902
SCALE OF MILES
Riilwiji completed •
" under conatructloa*
known as the White Fathers have long been at work on the
shores of Lake Tanganyika, and a report of their explorations
has been published lately in Petermanns Mitteilungen. It is
AN UPLIFTING POWER
593
noted that great quantities of iron ore have been found along the
banks of the rivers flowing into Tanganyika, particularly along
the Lufuko and Miobosi.
The wide-ranging Marungu district is said also to be exceed-
ingly rich in copper ores ; and the copper areas, better withstand-
ing denudation than the surrounding country, are reported to
stand comparatively high
above the general level and
to be easily recognizable.
Agents of the Chartered South
Africa Company have also
reported the discovery of a
rich copper field, estimated
to cover 40 square miles, in
north Rhodesia. This field
lies about 150 miles north of
Victoria Falls, near the Congo
Free State, and runs over the
border. De Beers Company
has already taken an active
part in the development of the
copper mines of Namaqua-
land, and the new field may
prove to be of even greater
importance.
The rapid extension of the
railway lines of the Bechuana-
land Railway Company from
Vryburg to Bulawayo was mainly due to the aid given by Mr.
Rhodes and his associates in the Chartered Company. This
line reached Bulawayo, a total distance of 1360.4 miles from
Cape Town, in 1897, and has since been extended northward
about 30 miles. The war has interrupted this work during the
past two and a half years. The main line north, it is expected,
will reach the enormous coal beds at Wankie, 200 miles north
of Bulawayo, in about eighteen months, and will be pushed on
Victoria Falls.
594 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
AN UPLIFTING POWER 595
to the Victoria Falls on the Zambesi and thence north as rapidly
as possible to tap the rich copper districts.
The telegraph line running ahead of the railway was carried
across Rhodesia and reached Lake Tanganyika, from which it is
fast extending to Uganda, so that Cape Town and Cairo will soon
be in direct overland telegraphic communication. The inspira-
tion of this work of the Transcontinental Telegraph Company
was due to Rhodes, and the greater part of the capital needed to
extend it was contributed by him personally. The postal ser-
vice already effected is as remarkable as the telegraph. Even
from points hundreds of miles beyond Bulawayo, which, eight
years ae;o, was the heart of savage Matabeleland, the pioneer can
send a letter home to England for twopence halfpenny, and the
settler on the remote shores of Lake Moero can get by mail a
pound package of tea from Liverpool at the cost of a shilling.
Already the Chartered Company has carried the work of
exploration and expanding control to Lakes Tanganyika, Moero,
and Nyassa, and made treaties with the native chiefs north of
Rhodesia, as well as with Lewanika, king of the Barotse, to the
west. The range of British influence and civilizing advance
now reaches to the heart of Africa from the south, embracing all
the country not within German control in the west, and the Portu-
guese domain in the east. The grand aim of Rhodes has been
swiftly advanced in realization even beyond sanguine expectation.
Another undertaking, less far-reaching and impressive in scope,
but of evident material importance to the development of the in-
dustrial resources of South Africa, was liberally and energetically
supported and advanced by De Beers Mines. The cost of import-
ing coal was from the outset, and still continues to be, a crippling
handicap upon the advance of the mining and manufacturing in-
dustries of the South African Colonies. Persistent searches for
coal deposits throughout the country were made, but no coal
seams of high quality were uncovered. The best apparent pros-
pect for opening deposits that might compete in the market with
imported coals was shown in the Stormberg and neighboring hilly
districts lying between Queenstown and the Orange River.
596 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
Summer House at Groote Schuur.
Progressive colonists developed the outcrops in the Storm-
berg district, and in the face of grave discouragements opened
seams of importance in the Molteno and Cyphergat mines, but
it was impracticable to work these mines with any prospect of
profit until railway communication was opened from Stormberg
Junction via Steynsburg to Middelburg, connecting the East
London and the Midland or Port Elizabeth lines. The possi-
bility of supply from this district was immediately grasped by
De Beers Company, both for the sake of an eventual saving in
the cost of its fuel, and the public-spirited object of cooperating,
so far as was feasible, in the development of a resource of such
importance to the colonies.
The Stormberg coal was so mixed with shale that even the
shipping coal after sorting held about one-third waste, which
clogged the furnaces. But special grates were designed to burn
this coal, and by this resort it was practicable to use a supply
from this field at the diamond mines. De Beers Company was
soon taking by contract practically the entire product of the Storm-
berg seams at a price of about 2OJ. per ton at the shipping point.
Not long after the opening of the Stormberg mines, coal
seams of much greater width and promise were discovered at
Indwe, a point about seventy miles east from Molteno and
Cyphergat. Here the prospective returns from energetic devel-
AN UPLIFTING POWER
597
opment were really very bright, but, to market the coal, the con-
struction of an expensive railway line from Indwe to the East
London or Eastern systems was indispensable. In spite of the
unwearied and cogent representations of Colonel Schermbrucker
and his associates in control of the Indwe field, the Cape Gov-
ernment was reluctant to defray the cost of building this line.
The scheme was a dragging one for years, until De Beers Com-
pany came forward
with a subscription
of ^£7 5,000 to the
shares of the Indwe
Railway Collieries
and Land Company,
organized to extend
the necessary railway
lines and operate the
mines.
In view of this
essential backing of
capital, coupled with
the cogent appeals of
Rhodes and his as-
sociates, the Cape
Government was
moved to contribute
a grant of ^£50,000
toward the expense
of construction, with
an additional allow-
ance of 50,000 acres of land, worth about one pound an acre.
Then a line of sixty-six miles was laid at half the rate per mile that
was paid for building the lines under Government Administration,
and the mines were opened very successfully. It was supposed
by the projectors of the scheme at the outset that the main busi-
ness of the company would be the supply of coal for steamship
use at East London ; but it was soon demonstrated, upon the com-
' Stoep," Groote Schuur.
598 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
pletion of the railway, that De Beers Company was the principal
customer, consuming about 5500 tons of the average monthly
production of 12,000 tons. This coal supply was delivered to
De Beers by agreement for i$s. per ton at Sterkstroom, the
point of junction of the Indwe and Eastern system lines. In
spite of the inferior quality of the coal, compared with Welsh
coal, the South African coal at this price was a good bargain for
De Beers, and the very profitable record of the Indwe Company
proves that the interests of its shareholders were not sacrificed in
making the bargain. The mines of the Stormberg district are
still continuous producers, and supply about 1000 tons monthly
to the mines at Kimberley not under control of De Beers
Company.
Coal mining in the Orange Free State has not been carried
on very energetically on account of the distance of the coal meas-
ures from the existing railways. But the developments in this
field are already promising, and the Kroonstad Coal Company,
in particular, has opened up a bed of very good coal. A rail-
way is in course of construction from the main Free State line
to the Kroonstad coal fields. When this line is completed these
mines will be in a position to compete with any others, and if
the long-promised line is constructed from Branford or Bloem-
fontein to Kimberley, Kroonstad coal can be delivered at the
diamond mines cheaper than any other coal yet discovered.
Beyond these undertakings is the opening of the promising coal
mines in Natal to which De Beers Company has liberally con-
tributed. (See Appendix IV.)
Other enterprises, too, of public service are worthy of
mention. De Beers Company is steadily furthering fruit and
stock farming, and has constructed storage buildings in various
locations in order to prevent a monopoly of the meat supply
which was threatening South Africa. It is constructing, also,
one of the largest dynamite factories in the world, near Cape
Town, under the able superintendence of Mr. W. R. Quinan.
Of course Rhodes could not foresee the marching steps of
this progress in varied lines, but it is none the less certain that
AN UPLIFTING POWER
599
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 ex-
alting. His heart
was set on the
making of Greater
Britain by expan-
sion and loyal
federal union. In
the Dark Conti-
nent, beyond the
confines of civili-
zation, he saw the
open field for Brit-
ish occupation and
development, and
was unresting till
it was grasped.
How great this at-
tainment was in
actual stretch of
territory may best
be comprehended,
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."
A Corner in Mr. Rhodes's Library.
6oo THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
That this annexation has been, and will be, greatly to the
advantage of the territory and its occupants will not be seriously
questioned. Its material advance and the security to life and
property stand already in bright contrast to its barbaric state
— a land which knew only the rudest tillage and was ravaged at
the whim of savage chiefs. It is too early yet to think of meas-
uring its resources and probable advances, but enough is known
to warrant high confidence in its future, with the assurance of
alert grasp of its openings for immigration and capital.
Another View of Mr. Rhodes's Library.
To any eye the gaining of Rhodesia was a long step forward
toward the attainment of Rhodes's hope of carrying British
dominion from the Cape to Cairo. But the ordinary observer
would not mark, as intently as Rhodes did, the force of this
acquisition in determining the control of South Africa. Seven-
teen years ago, in addressing his constituents, at Barkly West,
he declared publicly, as a settled conviction: "I came to the
conclusion that the key to the (South African) puzzle lay in the
possession of the Interior, at that time an unknown quantity.
In a humble way I have been mixed up with the politics of the
AN UPLIFTING POWER 60 1
Interior during the last four years, and such politics, I contend,
will be in future most intimately connected with the settlement
of the South African Question, for I believe that whatever State
possesses Bechuanaland and Matabeleland will ultimately possess
South Africa." It was his view, asserted in repeated conversa-
tions with Mr. Edward Dicey, that the taking of Rhodesia
necessitated the creation of a predominant South African Con-
federacy, which would be brought to pass by the force of cir-
cumstance. In the interest of South Africa and Great Britain
Rhodes sought the inclusion of this Confederacy in the British
Empire.
It is plainly to be seen that Rhodes's view of the interests
of South Africa and the drift of his anticipated confederation
were inevitably antagonistic to the attitude and policy of the
men controlling the South African Republic. In stretching
the arm of Great Britain over Mashonaland and Rhodesia,
Rhodes unquestionably blocked the extension of the Transvaal
State and the schemes of Kriiger. In this brief marking of
progress and attainment I would not attempt any measuring of
responsibility for the collision that finally resulted in the war
just closed. South Africa is now completely under British Im-
perial control. Whatever view may be taken of the conflict,
its practical outcome plainly clears the way for the systematic
development of this vast territory under liberal colonial insti-
tutions.
Cecil John Rhodes did not live to see the ending of the
contest so long maintained by the unyielding temper of the
Boers. He died on March 26, 1902, near Cape Town, of
the disease of the heart which had long clouded his hope of
life.
His visionary political projects ran far beyond any exact
defining or determination of method, but, in the main, " the
lay of his ideas," to use his own phrasing, is clear. He would
urge the union of all English-speaking people to dominate the
world, transform barbarism to civilization, do away with poor
and hampering government, maintain enduring peace, and pro-
602 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
mote universal progress. His last will and testament has proven
that the advance of this union was at the core of his heart. The
image of his fancy may never come into being, but he has, at
least, done something for an uplifting union in the gathering of
young scholars, representing all English-speaking people, in the
ancient mother university, to recall their common inheritance
and join their hands.
APPENDICES
APPENDIX I
THE MINES BESIEGED
THE siege of Kimberley was one of the striking episodes of the late
war. As an interruption to the peaceful progress of diamond mining in
the South African Fields, it has a place apart from the industrial story.
Yet no history of the Diamond Fields would be complete without some
A Boer Commando.
account of its course, and my personal view may be of interest in the
possible emphasis of the part taken by De Beers in the maintenance of
the defence. I would mark, too, precisely how the war affected the work-
ing of the mines, and tell from my own observation how the call to arms
made soldiers of men accustomed to the use of drill, pick, and shovel, and
caused our mechanics to turn their hands to the making of ordnance.
605
606 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
For some time previous
to the actual outbreak of
the war (October 1 1,
1899), it was apparent to
us who were living upon
the border of the Orange
Free State that both the
South African Republic and
the Orange Free State were
making preparations for
war with England, and that
the invasion of the Cape
Colony was but a matter
of a short time. These
preparations had been going
Lieut. Col. Kekewich and Staff of Imperial Officers. Qn for many years until the
magazines and arsenals of the Transvaal were filled with the finest
munitions of war that the works of Schneider at Creusot or of Krupp
at Essen could produce. The Mauser with which the Boers were armed
was as good as the small arms of any
Continental power, and better than
the Lee-Metford which the British
brought against them.
In July, 1899, Major Scott-Tur-
ner came to Kimberley,. and Lieu-
tenant Mclnnes, Royal Engineers,
followed him shortly after. Colonel
Trotter, R. A., Chief Staff Officer,
also came to stay a short time. He
had made a report on the defences
of Kimberley as early as 1896, and
an accurate military map had been
prepared of the town and surround-
ings. Major O'Meara came later as
Intelligence Officer. The Imperial
Government sent these officers to
Lieut. Col. Robert George Kekewich, Com-
mandant of Kimberley during the Siege.
prepare for the defence of Kimberley, and on the I3th of September,
shortly before the war was declared, there arrived a half regiment of the
Loyal North Lancashires (infantry), and a battery of Royal Artillery,
APPENDIX 1
607
consisting of six muzzle-loading seven-pounders of obsolete pattern, and
some Maxims.
On the 30th of September the Governor of the Cape Colony gave
his consent to the formation of a Town Guard, " solely for local defence
in case of attack from without." The radius of the circle in which the
Town Guard must confine their operations was eight miles, with the
market square as the centre. Lieutenant Colonel Robert George
Kekewich was appointed commandant. Lieutenant Colonel Harris,
V. D., a director of De Beers, was second in command and was placed
in charge of the Town Guard. Major Peakman, an officer of the local
Fort on Tailings Heap, Kimberley Mine Floors.
volunteer force, who had had a considerable amount of experience in the
Kafir wars, was appointed Staff Officer. On the 4th of October the
local volunteers, five hundred strong, were called out by the Governor,
and went into camp.
On the 5th of October the first serious disturbance of the work at
the mines occurred. An alarm was sounded at one o'clock in the morn-
ing of that day, and all the forces in town, including the men working in
the mines, were called out to do military duty, as it was rumored that
an attack was contemplated by the Boers, who were massing commandoes
in the Orange Free State, only a few miles distant. It had been arranged
that the whistles (sirens), commonly called " hooters," at the various engine
608 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
houses of De Beers Company, should be blown in case an alarm had to
be given. The first alarm caused great consternation throughout the
whole town. Men were running, helter-skelter, in the dark, seeking
their various redoubts, the moving guns and ammunition wagons rattled
through the streets, and the gardens of the houses were filled with men,
women, and children, anxiously awaiting some news as to the cause of the
alarm. The screeching of the hooters was appalling. These sirens,
which in times of peace could " blow the boilers dry " and not disturb
the quiet morning slumbers of the dwellers of the Diamond City, had,
all in a moment, become a nerve-shattering mechanism. In later days
the roar of the Boer artillery and the bursting of shell all over the town
did not so frighten the mass of people. The horrifying effect was so last-
ing, that when work at the mines was resumed after the siege, many people
One of the many Redoubts, looking East.
in the town asked me to discontinue the use of the hooters, and, in compli-
ance with' their wishes, the old whistles were for a time put into service.
Kimberley, as may be imagined, was quite unprepared for an attack on
the 5th of October, as war had not been declared. The Intelligence De-
partment had received some false reports, and those in charge thought it best
to have every man at his post ; hence the alarm. The proven falsity of
the reports did not, however, dispel the menace of the situation, and it
was considered necessary to make better preparations for the defence of
the town. Our miners were called out to drill during a part of each
day. Our tailing heaps, which formed natural defensive positions,
were taken possession of by the military. Strong forts and redoubts were
constructed on the tops of these heaps, and mines of dynamite were
laid at their bases.
Sir Edwin Arnold, writing in the Daily Telegraph, said: "There is
something singularly picturesque and suggestive in the thought of the
Diamond City of South Africa being defended by her own waste heaps.
APPENDIX I
609
View from the Conning Tower, looking Northeast.
Z R
610 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
Since Syracuse was fortified against Nicias with the columns of her own
white marble temples, and the breaches of Badajoz were filled up with
the empty wine casks, there has been no such curious use made of local
The \VuU-r\\ urks Company's Reservoir as a Fort.
material. Strange, indeed, is the destiny of matter. It may turn out
that the blue clay will prove more valuable to Mr. Rhodes, to the isolated
garrison, and to the little city, than all the diamonds she ever dug up."
Fort Rhodes, on Top of No. 2 Tailings Heap, De Beers Floors.
Other defensive fortifications were made upon the ground lying
between the tailing heaps. The labor necessary to do this work was
drawn from the mines and works. Nearly all the men working in and
about the mines joined the various military organizations, and slept in the
APPENDIX I
611
forts and redoubts. Owing to this distraction, work at the mines pro-
ceeded very slowly.
Rhodes, accompanied by Dr. Smartt, member of the Legislative As-
sembly, arrived in Kimberley a few days before the investment. He took
No. 2 Redoubt, near Kimberley Mine.
up his residence at the Sanatorium. Mr. and Hon. Mrs. Maguire
arrived a day or two later and were his guests during the siege. Upon
his arrival at Kimberley, Rhodes realized at once the gravity of the situa-
tion, both as regards the defence of the town and the food supply. Orders
for large quantities of provisions were wired to Cape Town, Port Eliza-
A Barrier on the Road leading to Kenilworth.
beth and East London, with the hope that we might be able to add to the
seemingly large stock already on hand — but these supplies never arrived.
The siege of Kimberley commenced on the night of the I4th of Octo-
ber, a little before ten o'clock, when the wires to the south were cut, the
612 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
The Sanr.torium in Time of Peace.
The Sanatorium during the Siege,
APPENDIX I
613
wires to the north having been cut about an hour before. The last train
from the south arrived at Kimberley about 1 1 P.M., bringing several
truck-loads of supplies which were at Modder River Station, destined for
the Free State Boers.
Colonel Kekewich at once issued a proclamation, declaring the
district in a state of siege. The war had actually begun. The various
fortifications were made stronger, military organizations were increased
in numbers, a mounted force of four companies, known as the Kimberley
Light Horse, was formed, and on all sides there was the greatest activity
Mounted Camp, Kimberley.
in making Kimberley a strongly garrisoned town. When all the military
organizations were completed, the forces at the disposal of Colonel
Kekewich were as follows : —
The Imperial Garrison consisted of the 23d Company of Royal
Artillery, one section of the yth Field Company Royal Engineers, and
four companies of the 1st Royal North Lancashire Regiment. There
was also a small detachment of the Army Service Corps. The total
strength of the regulars was about 600 officers and men. Volunteer
companies had been enrolled from the early days of the Fields,
and at one time comprised a very considerable force of men, but of late
years the community had lost nearly all interest in the volunteer service.
614 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
Still the organizations had been kept up, and when the muster roll was
taken, shortly before the siege, it showed the following numbers : One
battery, Diamond Fields Artillery, consisting of six seven-pounder muzzle-
loading guns, with 3 officers and 90 men, in charge of Captain May; the
Kimberley Regiment (infantry), under Lieutenant Colonel Finlayson, with
14 officers and 285 men; the Diamond Fields Horse, Major Rodger, 6
officers and 142 men. The total force of regulars and volunteers was
about 1 100.
The Town Guard was organized, and the men were drilled in the
use of the Lee-Metford rifle. At the beginning of the siege this force
numbered about 1200 men, but both the volunteer corps and the Town
Camp of the Royal North Lancashires.
Guard were soon increased until the total strength of the garrison
reached 4500 men. This included the Cape Mounted Police, number-
ing about 360 officers and men, and unmounted police to the number
of 175. The limit of the defence force was gauged by the number of
rifles in Kimberley — which had been considerably increased during the
previous year by the importation by local merchants of 1000 rifles and
six Maxims, together with a considerable amount of ammunition for the
use of the rifle clubs.
Our forts and redoubts were in many ways unique and picturesque.
The waterworks reservoir was surrounded by a huge fortification, made
of grain and coal sacks filled with soil. The forts on the tailing heaps
were made with rows of the trays of trucks which in times of peace
APPENDIX I
615
convey the diamond-bearing ground to the floors. The trays were filled
with tailings, banked up on the outside with the same material, and
coped with sand bags. Large shelters were made within the forts for
Officers of the Diamond Fields Horse.
the protection of the garrisons. As tents were not to be obtained,
spacious houses with roofs of corrugated iron and sides of canvas were
constructed as sleeping and eating rooms, and for protection against the
tropical sun and violent thunderstorms. When the supply of corrugated
The Diamond Fields Horse at Kenilworth, during Siege of Kimberley.
iron gave out in town, for even the enormous stock of De Beers did not
prove equal to the demand, the iron fence which surrounded the race-
course was taken down and carted to the various fortifications.
616 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
A Group of the Town Guard.
Barriers were constructed around Kimberley to check any sudden
attack upon the town. The roads leading from the town were strongly
guarded and barricaded with barbed-wire entanglements, with mining
trucks filled with earth, and with camelthorn trees. Of late years the
outskirts of Kimberley had begun to assume quite a parklike appearance,
by the growth of young trees from the roots and stumps of those that
had been cut down during the early days of the Fields. It seemed a
pity that the little natural beauty which these afforded should be destroyed;
but the preservation of the town was of first importance, and all the trees
were cut down and dragged into long lines of fences, where they were
interlaced with barbed wire, making most formidable barriers. When
Defence Guns and Maxims massed in the Gardens,
APPENDIX I
617
the siege was over, these fences disappeared, almost in a day, to supply the
inhabitants with firewood, which had been cut down to the scantiest
allowance, — a week's supply being barely sufficient to do a day's cook-
ing. The defences were in places supplemented with dynamite mines
planned by the Royal Engineers, and carried out by the electrical depart-
ment of De Beers. On one occasion the officer in charge gave instruc-
tions to put down ten pounds of dynamite every thirty feet, and returning
Headquarters Staff, Cape Mounted Police.
later in the day he asked if his instructions had been carried out, and
received the reply, "Yes, sir, we have put down thirty pounds of dynamite
every ten feet."
Premier Mine
Premier mine occupied a unique position during the siege. It was
isolated from Kimberley and Beaconsfield, the former town being about
four miles, and the latter two miles, distant. There is a large, disused
tailing heap near the mine, on the top of which is a small reservoir, into
which water from the mine is pumped for distribution to the washing
plant and floors. Around this reservoir a fort was built and made almost
impregnable. Large shell-proofs were made for storing supplies and
618 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
ammunition for a local siege, should communication with the Kimberley
and Beaconsfield defences be cut off. One of the three searchlights
which De Beers Company uses on their "floor" for preventing theft
of diamonds by night was placed at this fort. The Boers called these
Kimberley Waterworks Reservoir, with Royal Artillery.
searchlights "Rhodes' eyes." About 150 of De Beers employes and
one hundred regulars, with two seven-pound guns and a Maxim, were
constantly on duty at this fort.
The pumping plant which supplied Kimberley was down in the open
mine. This plant, as well as all the machinery of the mine, was pro-
tected with sand
bags. In heaps
about the mine, and
in all the buildings
on the side of the
mine adjoining the
Free State, mines
were laid, with wires
leading from them
to the fort. One
of the powerful elec-
Premier Mine Fort, Royal Artillery in Action.
trie searchlights was placed in the fort, and so arranged that it could be
lowered out of harm's way during the daytime. Connections were made
between the two sets of boilers and the pumping and electric light plants,
so that, in case a shell damaged one set, the other could be used. A large
APPENDIX I
619
number of hand grenades filled with
dynamite, with fuses and detonators
fixed, were made and kept in the
magazine. An underground hospital
for the wounded was constructed.
In fact, everything necessary was
done to make this fort independent
and secure. There was apparent
need for these precautions, for the
Boers constructed the most formi-
dable fort of any about Kimberley
on a low range of hills about three
miles distant, where they kept two
guns and a pom-pom, which they
fired nearly every day during the
siege, except Sundays.
Great credit is due to the man- Premier Mlne Searchlight-
ager of the mine, Mr. J. M. Jones, and to Captain O'Brien, who was
in charge of the garrison, for the manner in which the defences were
constructed, and to all who occupied the fort during the long, weary four
Canvas House erected for Protection from the Sun and Thunderstorms.
months, for their courage and patience. On several occasions lightning
struck the wires connecting the mines and exploded them. One explo-
620 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
sion carried away part of the mine compound, and another wrecked the
end of the large stables. Fortunately no harm came to any of the gar-
rison or to any of the machinery of the mine. Although it was isolated
from Kimberley, the Boers never made an attack upon it nor came within
rifle range.
A few days after the commencement of hostilities the Boers took pos-
session of the Kimberley Waterworks Company's plant on the Vaal
River, some sixteen miles distant, and cut off the water-supply. Con-
nections were made between Premier mine pumping system and the
Kimberley Waterworks Company's reservoir, and a supply of eight to
Railway Bridge over the Vaal River at Fourteen Streams, destroyed by the Boers.
ten million gallons of water per month was delivered by De Beers, free
of cost to that Company, on the understanding that only half rates
should be charged to the inhabitants of the town. The water was per-
fectly clear, pure, and wholesome.
As the supplies of food in hand seemed ample for any emergency
that was thought possible, there were practically no restrictions upon
the consumption of supplies during the early part of the siege, except
that the amount of meat was fixed at one pound per diem for each adult,
and one-quarter of a pound for children under fifteen years of age. As
there were no restrictions as to prices, the speculating part of the com-
munity soon took advantage of the situation. Few had laid in stocks
of food, and, as the greater number of people had not the means of mak-
ing large purchases, they saw starvation staring them in the face. It
APPENDIX I
621
Boer Laager, near Kimbedey.
was impossible for many even to purchase their daily requirements at
the fabulous prices to which the necessaries of life suddenly rose. Par-
affin, which usually sold for 15 shillings a case, jumped to 100 shillings.
Naturally the community rebelled against this extortion, and the daily news-
paper was full of complaints. As some of them put it, they had taken
up arms to defend the very people who were starving their families by
putting the prices for the necessaries of life beyond their means. Colonel
Kekewich was equal to the occasion, and wisely issued a proclamation
fixing the price of all supplies at the same figures as formerly existed.
For the support of people too poor to pay even for the barest neces-
saries of life, thoughtful provision
was made by Rhodes in the institu-
tion of a soup kitchen in De Beers
convict station. The details of the
work were ably carried out under
Captain Tyson, Dr. Smartt, and the
Hon. Mrs. Maguire, the latter at-
tending to the distribution at Bea-
consfield. The soup was excellent,
being composed of beef or horse-
meat (with now and again a donkey
or a few Angora goats thrown in),
and a variety of vegetables from Group of Typical Boers.
Kenilworth, and thickened with Boer meal or mealie meal. Captain
Tyson carried pockets full of small bottles, the contents of which would
be emptied in the brew, "just to make it a little more appetizing, don't
you know." The allowance of meat was a half pound for two days,
622 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
which could be exchanged for soup. Long rows of people stood for
hours awaiting their turn to be served.
When the siege commenced, De Beers had 8000 tons of coal in
stock and also about 2000 tons of wood. There were about 1500
cases of dynamite belonging to merchants, and De Beers had several
hundred cases in stock. Owing to the dangerous proximity of the mag-
azine to the town, it became necessary to remove nearly all the dyna-
A Group of Mercenaries, fighting with the Boers.
mite to a magazine at Dronfield, about six miles north of Kimberley,
from which, for a time, supplies were drawn ; but these magazines were
subsequently blown up by the Boers.
In order to do as much work as possible while the supply of coal and
dynamite lasted, permission was obtained from the officer commanding
for the miners to resume work in the mines, on condition that substi-
tutes were found to take their places in the forts. A company of men
was organized at De Beers and Kimberley mines by the assistant general
manager, which was known during the siege as the Permanent Guard, and
was composed mostly of refugees. Work was continued at Kimberley
mine until the 3d of November, and at De Beers mine until the 4th of
December, when it was thought advisable to discontinue work and save
the supply of coal for pumping water for the use of the town and prevent-
ing the mines from being flooded. The amount of ground hoisted at
Kimberley mine from October 14 to November 3 was 60,396 loads,
and at De Beers mine to December 4 was 173,447. The pumps in
APPENDIX I
623
both mines were kept going until a few days before the siege was raised,
and started again before the water had filled the tunnels in the rock out-
side the mines proper. While the pumps were stopped a gang of natives
were kept busy at each mine picking out pieces of coal from the old ash-
heaps to supply the boilers with fuel. Fortunately all damage by flooding
to the underground works was prevented.
Communication was kept up between Kimberley and the nearest mil-
itary post, which was at the Orange River bridge on the Kimberley-De
Aar railway, by despatch riders who evaded the Boers and found shelter
and remounts at several farms of friendly colonists. The distance was
f
' /4^/v<- f+t
t-f .1 j rtAf
TV" '" 'v r~*«'* —".,"-,>
UK t a, t f ^.'jttr', "'•"'•-y -t'-,. ,
<&*/£& ££,1 ,-.'"t""",7'f.^ffS'. ' '' "^
;
x ' .„ , ' u. .-i.
Code Dispatches received during the Siege.
eighty miles. Trooper Brown of the Cape Mounted Police carried the
first despatch, and covered the distance in thirteen hours. Great credit is
due to these men, who went to and fro at great peril to themselves. Fore-
most among them were Brown, Cummings, Hambly, and Harding, but
there were many others who did good work. The remuneration paid by
the military was very small — ^5 for the round trip, but in many cases,
where private letters were carried, this sum was largely increased by pri-
vate donations. Later, when the investment of the town was closer, it
became very difficult to get through the Boer lines, and despatch riders,
carrying private despatches, were paid as high as ;£iOO for a round trip.
Many of these men were captured and taken to Bloemfontein as prisoners
of war.
624 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
How zealously and efficiently Rhodes took part in the preparations for
the defence of Kimberley has been particularly noted by Mr. George A.
L. Green, editor of the
Diamond Fields Advertiser
in his able and accurate
description of the siege.
" The need for mounted
troops to watch the ene-
my's movements was early
felt. The formation of
a new corps, to be called
the Kimberley Light
Horse, was one of the last
things authorized by the
High Commissioners be-
fore Kimberley was cut
off, but the trouble was
Typical Boer. tQ fin(j {he horses Mr.
Rhodes came to the rescue, and in a few days presented the corps with
five hundred admirable mounts ; he also did some good work as recruit-
ing sergeant. Largely through his
efforts the mounted arm of the de-
fence forces was thus increased to
nearly nine hundred men. Major
Scott-Turner was appointed with the
local rank of lieutenant colonel to
command the mounted corps, which
now comprised Cape Mounted Police,
Diamond Fields Horse, and Kimber-
ley Light Horse.
" It was Mr. Rhodes's pleasant
custom to go round asking the ques-
tion, ' Do you want anything ? '
Needless to say he rarely met any one
who did not want something.
" One evening, while Major Cha- MaJ°r w" H" E" Murray'
mier was dining with Mr. Rhodes, they were discussing the artillery
branch of the defence forces, when Mr. Rhodes asked him if he needed
anything for his artillery. The Major replied quickly, ' Yes, I want
APPENDIX I
625
to make my guns mobile. [Note. — It is mentioned elsewhere that
these guns were small mountain guns without limbers.] I require, to do
that, 43 horses, 62 mules, 7 buck wagons, and 4 Scotch carts.' It was a
tall order, but Mr.
Rhodes made a men-
tal note, without
any comment, and
three days later
Major Chamier
found that the
whole requisition
had been delivered
at the artillery
camp. All he could
say, when he saw what had been done in so short a time, was, ' What
a wonderful man Mr. Rhodes is.' It was an object lesson to the military
officers to see how quickly provisions of this kind could be made by a
civilian who was in no way handicapped by official red tape."
From the first threat of the outbreak of hostilities, the resources of De
Beers were at the command of the garrison for any needed service. At
Armored Locomotive.
Armored Train, constructed at De Beers Workshops.
De Beers workshops several engines and trucks were armored in the
manner shown in the accompanying illustrations.
These trains were useful in many ways, and of very great service in
keeping the lines of communication open. Those running between
Kimberley and De Aar were manned in part by De Beers men. The
2 s
626 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
military organization known as Scott's Railway Guards was also mostly
made up of De Beers men, with Lieutenant Colonel R. G. Scott, one of
the officers of De Beers Company, in charge.
The first encounter with the attacking Boers was on the 24th of
October, ten days after the investment of Kimberley. Shortly after the
water-supply had been cut off, Lieutenant Colonel Scott-Turner made a
reconnoissance in the direction of the pumping station, but took the pre-
caution to follow the line of the railway as far as Macfarlane's farm,
which lies eleven miles to the north of Kimberley. His force consisted of
detachments of the Kimberley Light Horse, Captain R. G. Scott, V. C. ;
Cape Mounted Police, Major Elliott ; and the Diamond Fields Horse,
Major Rodger. The armored train, in charge of Lieutenant Webster,
Railway Bridge at Modeler River, both ends of which were blown up by the Boers.
Loyal North Lancashires, supported the troops. On arriving at the farm-
houses at Macfarlane's, which stand on a knoll from which the country
recedes in all directions, the troops halted and had breakfast. Immedi-
ately afterward Lieutenant Colonel Scott-Turner with 1 80 men proceeded
on his mission, but soon after his departure Boers were seen in several
directions.
Upon the appearance of the enemy Lieutenant Colonel Scott-Turner
took up a strong position with his men. In a short time the Boers sent
a few of their number under a flag of truce. Major Elliott of the Cape
Mounted Police met them, and was told that if he and his command were
on police duty the Boers would not molest them, but if he was there for
a fight, they would put a bullet through his head. Major Elliott returned,
however, without hindrance. In the meantime the armored train had
APPENDIX I
627
Effect of a Nine-pound Shell.
proceeded beyond Macfarlane's, but was soon recalled, as the Boers were
evidently trying to cut it off. Later in the morning Boers continued to
arrive from the north and east, and came within rifle range of Macfarlane's
farm, not knowing
that it was occu-
pied by the Brit-
ish. The patrol
opened fire on them,
and several of them
were seen to fall
and their riderless
horses ran across
the veld. The
Boers retreated hel-
ter-skelter. Shortly
afterward five Boers
from another com- Effect of a Nine-pound shell.
mando came forward, bearing white flags, and were met by Major Elliott,
who received the same message as before. The Boers evidently had
little knowledge of the proper use of the white flag.
628 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
Trophies of the Siege — The Author's Collection.
In pursuing his advance Lieutenant Colonel Scott-Turner fell into
an ambuscade, for, owing to the very long grass, which was nearly waist
high, he was unable to detect the position of the Boers, who were strongly
posted behind the wall of a dry reservoir in numbers greatly exceeding
the British force. Not a shot was fired until the British came within
easy rifle range, when they were met with such a fusillade from the maga-
zine Mauser rifles that they sought the nearest cover. In this repulse the
losses on the British side were three killed and nine wounded, and four-
teen horses were killed or disabled. The wounded men were taken up
and carried back with the retreating force, but the dead were left behind,
to be brought in two days afterward, as the searching party failed to find
the bodies, on the first day, in the tall grass.
Lieutenant Colonel Scott-Turner had heliographed to the conning
tower to have two mountain guns and two Maxims sent out. These
were despatched at once, and the armored train took out 150 of the
Loyal North Lancashires under command of Major Murray. The Boers
were seen to be moving toward Dronfield, a ridge halfway between
APPENDIX I
629
Kimberley and Macfarlane's. The armored train proceeded beyond
Dronfield, but was ordered back to that place, and the troops left the
train near the siding. In the meantime Captain May, with two guns,
had reached a position just south of the siding, when the Boers opened
fire on him at short range, having allowed his scouts to come close to the
place where they were in ambush. Captain May quickly unlimbered his
guns under a hot fire, and began to shell the Boers in return. Fortu-
nately for him most of the Boer bullets went over the heads of his men,
while he fired his guns with great precision, riddling the gamekeepers'
houses, behind which the Boers had taken shelter, and soon driving them
to the rocky ridge beyond.
Hearing that the guns and regulars had
gone out, I drove to a position north of Kenil-
worth, where this part of the engagement was
in full view. Captain May fired eighty rounds
at the Boers, and his men behaved splendidly
under a rain of bullets from the enemy, only
a thousand yards distant. Out of a total of
twenty-six men and eighteen horses, he had
seven men wounded, three horses killed and
nine wounded. Gunner Payne, who was
wounded in the foot early in the fight, con-
tinued to lay his gun until the end of the fir-
ing ; and bugler Dickinson, who was wounded
in the right hand, changed the bugle to his left
hand and finished his notes.
While this fight was going on Major Mur-
ray had taken his men from the train near
Dronfield, and had begun to ascend the hill.
At his first advance the Boers opened fire.
Forming his men in skirmishing order with all
possible speed, he led the way up the rocky
ridge where the Boers were lying closely under
cover. Fortunately for the Major and his troops, the ascent of the Dron-
field ridge on the north was comparatively easy, being over a gently rising
country covered with small brush, with here and there a shallow ravine
which gave a little shelter to his men. While they were moving for-
ward, three men, not in uniform, rode up to him. At first he took them
for Boers, but the Northumberland accent of the first who hailed him
Boer 9 Ib. Shrapnel, % Actual
Size, showing Time Fuse.
630 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
was convincing. They were men in charge of De Beers farms, and when
the firing began they were looking after the large herd of De Beers cattle.
One of these keepers, Dott, guided the troops up the hill, taking
them out of sight of the enemy as much as possible, and shouting
"This way, Mr. Officer!" "This way, Mr. Officer!"
British and Boer Shells, fired within and around Kimberley and Beaconsfield.
Their scramble up the hill was very plucky. In front lay the Boers
hidden in the rocks, and on their left was a magazine containing 1500
cases — 37 y^ tons — of dynamite, which might explode at any moment
should a Boer bullet strike it, as it was protected only by a thin sheet of
galvanized iron. Two firing parties of twenty-five each went ahead gallantly,
with the main force, a hundred strong, following close behind. The men vol-
APPENDIX I 631
leyed and ran forward alternately, until they reached the crest of the hill,
when they saw Commandant Botha and two or three companions standing
near the large Griqualand West triangulation beacon which stood upon
the summit. Most of the Boers made their escape by clambering over
the precipitous ridge which forms the south and east boundary, but
their brave commander, who held his ground to the last, was killed.
The mass of Boers reached their horses, which stood among the trees
below the ridge, and rode off pell-mell over the ridge in the distance,
with shells from Captain May's guns bursting over them.
Site of Cronje's I^aager, Magersfontein.
In this engagement only one of the Boers beside Botha was killed,
but seven were wounded. Major Murray had two officers and two men
wounded. Colonel Scott-Turner and his men returned to Kimberley with-
out meeting with any further opposition.
It was fortunate that this reconnoissance was made, for the following
despatch was taken from the body of Commandant Botha : —
" HOOF LAGER, OCTOBER 23, 1899.
"VELDCORNET BOTHA, Bakinkop, Weledele Heer.
" In reply to your inquiry about the taking of cattle in the neighbor-
hood of Kenilworth, I am ordered by the Head Commandant Wessels
to assure you that he considers it highly desirable that the same should
be captured as soon as possible.
" I am, &c.
"J. B. M. HERTZOG."
The success of this engagement was encouraging, but the fast-increas-
ing numbers of the Boer besiegers and the extension of their lines soon
632 THE DIAMOND MINES IN SOUTH AFRICA
Colonel Kekewich,
mandant Wessels's de-
obtain possession
vited to effect
an operation
the military
The
put a check on such excursions. Early in November Commandant
Wessels offered to receive all Africander women and children into his
own camp, and at the same time offered safe-conduct to all other women
and children to the Orange River. The first part of his despatch was
made public, but not the last. Wessels's despatch contained the following
passage, " And whereas it is necessary for me to take possession of the
town of Kimberley, i therefore I demand of your Honour that upon
receipt of this you, as k^. Commanding Officer, shall forthwith
hand over the town of •flH Kimberley with all its troops and forts."
in acknowledging receipt of Com-
spatch, wrote, " Your desire being to
of Kimberley, you are hereby in-
the occupation of this town as
\ of war by the employment of
forces under your command."
invitation was a challenge.
On the morning of the
6th of November, the Boers
fired two shots at Premier
mine, and on the following
day the first actual bombard-
ment began, from a position
about five thousand yards
from the mine. As the
compound, containing over
Conning Tower, De Beers No. I Shaft. twQ thousand natives, was
close to the fort and in the direct line of fire, all these men were taken
down into the open mine, where they were protected by an embankment
150 feet high.
On the same day other Boer guns commenced to bombard Kimberley
from a ridge nearly five thousand yards distant. The British guns replied
intermittently with a few shots. Kimberley had no ammunition to waste.
The distances were so great that the little popguns in the Kimberley
forts frequently " turned turtle," owing to the great elevation at which
they had to be fired in order to carry the distance. The projectiles fell
more like meteors out of the sky than shells from modern guns. For
the first few days the Boer shells fell short of the inhabited part of Kim-
berley. On the nth a shell burst in Dutoitspan Road, in front of the
Catholic church, and killed an old Kafir woman, which was the only
APPENDIX I
633
634 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
Boer Trenches at Magersfontein.
casualty from the two hundred shells fired into the town on that day.
Seventy shells were fired by the Kimberley artillery during the day.
The Kimberley mounted troops also engaged the Boers on the same
day near Otto's Kopje mine, and troops under Major Peakman attacked
the Boers on Car-
ter's Ridge on
their left flank.
The cessation
of active hostilities
on Sunday made
it a welcome day
of rest to all the
besieged, and no
doubt to the be-
siegers as well.
It gave both sides
the opportunity of
praying long and
hard that their enemies might be confounded. The first bombardment
continued for five days, with no further serious casualties on the British
side, and the townspeople, appalled at first, began to make light of the
danger. More than half the shells fell without exploding, and many
children as well as grown people ran
up, after each shell struck, to carry
off a trophy. These prizes and the
fragments and fuses of exploded shells
found ready purchasers. The military
authorities issued an order forbidding
people from collecting these shells
and fragments, while a bombardment
was going on, owing not only to the
risk of death or maiming from the
exploding shells, but to the greater
danger of the explosion of the dyna-
i_ • i_ i • j j Plan Through Tomb.
mite mines which were laid around
the town. The prohibiting order carried this warning, " These mines
are at all times ' live,' that is, the fuses and firing arrangements are so
arranged that the mines can be fired either automatically or by obser-
vation, and they might under certain circumstances be ignited by the
APPENDIX I
635
enemy's shells." This order should have frightened the average Kim-
berley urchin, but its apparent effect was to make him all the more eager,
for he seemed to think that he had a chance of finding a prize in one
of those dynamite mines
about which everybody was
talking.
As the siege dragged
along, some of the Imperial
officers began to grow impa-
tient. Anticipating the ap-
proach of Lord Methuen,
they planned a sortie on the
25th of November which
was fairly successful ; for
they took Carter's Ridge,
some three miles to the west
of Kimberley, and captured
thirty-three Boers, including
nine wounded. The fighting
continued all day, and re-
sulted in a loss to the garri-
son of six killed and twenty-
nine wounded, including Colonel Scott-Turner, and Captains Bowen
and Hickson-Mahony. Towards evening the Kimberley troops re-
turned to town, as their ammunition was giving out and it was getting
too late to send for more. This was
the first fight that many of these men
had been in, and their gallantry was
greatly creditable, though they were
unable to hold the ground they had
won. The Boers published their losses
as nine killed, seventeen wounded, and
fifteen missing, instead of thirty-three
who were brought into Kimberley.
On November a8th another attempt
was made to drive the Boers from Car-
Plan Through Columns. ter's Ridge. Shortly after noon there
was great activity in town, and troops were moving in various directions
making ready for a sortie. The centre of the advance, commanded by
The Honoured Dead Memorial.
636 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
Colonel Scott-Turner, moved out in the direction of the reservoir and
thence along a ridge which gave a little cover. The first Boer redoubts
were quickly taken, and then Colonel Scott-Turner sent for two guns to
support him. He drove the Boers back until they reached their last
redoubt, a small fortress dug in the rock, with a coping of sand bags
arranged with loopholes. Colonel Scott-Turner led his last charge and
took cover in a small redoubt, only sixty yards from the Boers. There
the Boers had their Armstrong gun. The Diamond Fields Artillery
were obliged to cease firing, owing to the danger of shelling Colonel
Scott-Turner and his little body of men.
" Long Cecil" as a Mild Steel Billet.
While this engagement was going on, a small troop of the Diamond
Fields Horse attacked the Boer camp in the rear of their redoubt. This
attack was successfully carried out by Captain Shackleton, who dealt the
Boers a severe blow. He captured 149 loaded shells, a considerable
quantity of gunpowder, a wagon and span (16 oxen), a Cape cart, and
the limber of the gun which Colonel Scott-Turner was trying to take.
Among the prizes was a baboon, which proved to be the mascot of the
company of Cape Mounted Police stationed at Vryburg, left behind when
they evacuated the town somewhat hurriedly.
Meanwhile Scott-Turner and his men were in a most awkward posi-
tion, lying in a shallow redoubt with its side partly exposed, for the re-
doubts occupied by the two opposing parties both faced east toward
Kimberley, but the one occupied by the Boers was much larger and bet-
APPENDIX I
63?
ter built. It was impossible for any of the attacking party to show
their heads without receiving a volley from the Boers, and thus one after
another of these brave men fell back dead, until finally Scott-Turner
took a rifle and was about to fire, when he fell, shot through the head.
Major Peakman fought his way with a small force to one of the redoubts,
within speaking distance of the survivors. Here he learned that Scott-
Turner had been killed, and he at once assumed command as senior
officer. He sent a message asking for reinforcements, but, before they
"Long Cecil" in course of Construction.
arrived, darkness had come on, and he decided to withdraw his men to
Carter's farmhouse. On the following morning, ambulance wagons
were sent out in charge of Captain Robertson under a flag of truce, to
collect and bring in the dead. It was then ascertained that Kimberley
had lost twenty-two killed and twenty-eight wounded, one of the latter
being mortally hurt.
In these encounters, as in all other occasions of their service during
the siege, the ambulance corps was notably efficient, and the Kimberley
doctors, as a body, did excellent service, both in the field under fire and
in the hospitals. Particular mention may fitly be made of Drs. Heber-
den and Ortlepp, who were attached to the mounted forces, and of Drs.
Ashe, Mathias, McKenzie, and Watkins.
638 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
The fierceness of this engagement may be judged from Rhodes's state-
ment at a De Beers meeting, held shortly after the siege, " I take this
opportunity of placing it on record that seventy citizen soldiers of Kim-
berley went to take the position, and out of that number there were only
twenty who were able to creep away alive or unwounded after nightfall."
The agth of November will long be remembered as the saddest day
during the siege, when the brave men killed in this action were buried
with military and civic honors.
In order to meet the wants of the women and children whose bread-
winners had fallen in battle, a fund was started ; to this De Beers gen-
" Long Cecil," just before it was taken out of the Workshops.
erously gave the sum of .£10,000, and is now erecting a monument on
one of the most elevated parts of the town, where the heroes who fell in
the defence of Kimberley are to find their last resting-place.
The object of these demonstrations was to detain as many of the be-
sieging force as possible from leaving to join General Cronje at Modder
River, and in this way to assist Lord Methuen in his advance to the
relief of Kimberley. On December ist Lord Methuen's first search-
light message reached Kimberley. This opening of communication was
highly elating and all were eagerly expectant of the news. Word by
word this message was spelled out, " Please inform the Remount Depart-
ment, Wynburg, the number marked on the hoof of horse issued to Sur-
geon O'Gorman of the Kimberley Garrison."
Imagine the disappointment upon receiving this seemingly frivolous
APPENDIX I
639
o
UJ
O
03
•z.
o
o
ID
tr
te
z
o
o
640 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
LJI
APPENDIX I
641
I
2 T
642 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
message after the long ten weeks' investment. It was later reported that
this communication was simply a test to ascertain whether the signals were
passing between friends or enemies.
On December nth Lord Methuen met with his first reverse in his
march to Kimberley, where he was defeated by Cronje. I watched this
battle from the conning tower, but, as the distance was about sixteen
miles, one could see only the bursting of the shells, the big yellow cloud
when a Lyddite shell exploded, and the captive balloon giving information
as to the position of the Boers. One could hear the roar of the cannon,
which sounded like the breaking of the sea against a cliff. We waited
" Long Cecil " and the De Beers Men who made it.
anxiously for news of the battle, but for days none came. The sus-
pense was the more racking from the spread of the report that, as soon
as Lord Methuen arrived, there would be an enforced exodus of all the
women and children and male non-combatants from Kimberley. The
carrying out of an order to this effect would inevitably have been attended,
in my judgment, by great and needless suffering, and the reported deter-
mination was rightly resented by all the citizens who had borne so pluckily
the strain of the siege.
At length, on December i8th, a week after the battle, we received
the first authentic news that Lord Methuen had been defeated at Magers-
fontein. This unlooked-for reverse, so blighting to sanguine hopes, cast
a deep gloom over the beleaguered town, but there was no lack of heart
APPENDIX I
643
" Long Cecil."
in its stubborn defence. Christmas came, and with it the " Best wishes
for Christmas Day and in the coming New Year," from the High Com-
missioners, and also one from the Queen, " I wish you and all my brave
soldiers a happy Christmas ; God protect and bless you all." These
messages cheered the garrison and were given a most enthusiastic
reception.
On New Year's Day the mayor sent the following message on behalf
of the citizens of Kimberley : " The inhabitants of Kimberley humbly
beg to send your Majesty New Year's greeting. The troubles they have
' Long Cecil " firing at the Boers on Carter's Ridge.
644 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
passed through, and are still enduring, only tend to intensify their love
and loyalty towards your Majesty's throne and person ; " to which the
Queen replied, " Am deeply touched by your kind message and New
Year's greetings. I watch with admiration your determined and gallant
defence, though I regret the unavoidable loss of life incurred."
For some time after the repulse of Lord Methuen, siege life dragged on
from day to day, with nothing very stirring to break the monotony. The
various corps had their "At Homes," when tea would be served, and the
Kimberley Regimental Band would enliven the throngs with martial music.
Every little diversion from the dull routine of camp life was welcome.
1. " Long Cecil," made in Kimberley.
2. Royal Artillery Gun sent to defend Kimberley.
To provide employment for as many of the inhabitants as possible,
avenues were laid out and macadamized within the municipality of
Kimberley and Beaconsfield, which add much to the convenience and
beauty of the towns. In addition to this street work, Rhodes decided to
make an avenue in commemoration of the siege and to be known as
"Siege Avenue." Years before he had planted rows of grapevines
ranging from 1000 to 2000 feet in length, which were trained upon
trellises, but Siege Avenue was designed to outdo anything in the line of
vine and tree planting that had been done in South Africa. Fourteen
trenches, each over 6000 feet long, were dug. The two centre
trenches were for vines and were 14 feet apart. There were trenches
APPENDIX I
645
Casting Shells for Seven-pounders, De Beers Foundry.
The Soup Kitchen.
646 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
on either side and at suitable distances for planting orange trees. The
three outside trenches were for ornamental evergreen trees, such as
the pepper, eucalyptus, Australian beefwood, and cypress, to serve as a
protection to the vines and orange trees from the prevailing winds.
Since the siege the vines and trees have been planted, and the wooden
trellis has been erected, at a cost of nearly .£3000.
When the work of digging the trenches was first started, several hun-
dred natives were employed. These trenches were about a mile from
the nearest fort. As soon as the Y. A. O. (young artil-
lery officer) in charge saw them, he telephoned about in
these words to the O. C. in the conning tower; "A
large party of Boers digging trenches just north of
Kenilworth. Shall I open j^ fire on them ? "
The reply came, "Wait ^l^k and ascertain if
they are Boers." Y. A. J| A O. to O. C., " I
don't think they are A £' ?• Boers." A min-
234 S
i. Boer loo-Pounder. 2. Boer o-Pounder. 3. Boer Pom-Pom. 4. De Beers " Long Cecil,"
28-Pounder. 5- De Beers 7-Pounder.
ute later Y. A. O. to O. C., " They are De Beers workmen digging
trenches to plant trees."
The old vines and fruit trees at Kenilworth were of incalculable
value to the people of Kimberley, for they bore immense quantities of
splendid fruit, which Rhodes sent to the hospitals, to the military camps,
and to the citizens generally as far as it would go.
In my own garden there must have been a ton and a half weight of
beautiful grapes, which daily reminded one of the old saying, " It is more
blessed to give than to receive," as one saw the look of joy on the faces
of the women and children as they left the garden. My mulberry trees
were also loaded with fruit, which was eagerly called for. Some substi-
tute for butter or lard was particularly wanted, for neither of these was
APPENDIX I
647
Notice on the Market Buildings during the Siege.
procurable in the town. De Beers again was able to meet this call. In
the great warehouses of the company were thousands upon thousands of
gallons of lard oil kept in stock — beautifully clear and sweet winter-
strained lard oil. Hundreds of people came to the Company's stores
daily for this supply. They fried their meat and bread in the oil, and
found it much sweeter than most South African butter.
In view of the now obvious certainty of the prolongation of the siege
and the call for a gun of greater range and efficiency than any at the
command of the garrison, the extraordinary task of the construction of the
really formidable piece aptly named " Long Cecil " was undertaken by
De Beers Company. It was designed by Mr. George Labram in De
Beers workshops. Mr. Edward Goffe, chief draughtsman to the com-
pany, describes the making of the gun expertly : —
" Long Cecil" was made from a mild steel billet, lof inches diam-
eter and 10 feet long, weighing 2800 pounds, this being turned and
rough bored to form the inner tube.
The breech rings were forged from 6 inches x 2^ inches Lowmoor
iron. They were turned and bored, and then shrunk on in place, nine
648 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
forming the first row shrunk on to the tube direct, and four more the
second row over the breech, shrunken over the first row. The trunnion
ring, carrying the trunnions or bearings, was forged in one piece without
weld, from a length of 6 inches square Lowmoor iron, and was shrunk
on against a shoulder left on the tube. The final boring was done
after all the rings were shrunk on, the calibre of the gun being 4.1
inches. The barrel was then ready for rifling. The rifling is a poly-
groove increasing twist, consisting of 32 grooves, each ^ inch wide and
JJT inch deep, which, starting with a pitch of I in 100 at the breech end,
Inhabitants of Kimberley waiting (or their Daily Allowance of Four Ounces of Horse Meat.
and increasing to a pitch of i in 32 in a length equal to 18 calibres —
73.8 inches, are uniform at that pitch for the remainder of the length.
The curve of increase is the semi-cubical parabola.
The breech block was made of mild steel, screwed to fit the breech
with a " V " thread, flattened top and bottom, of | inch pitch. The
" De Bange " system of obturation was adopted, the mushroom-headed
bolt being of mild steel, annealed in melted tallow, and bored for the
friction firing tube. The pad was made of rings of sheet asbestos
soaked in melted tallow.
The carriage was made of steel plates ^ inch thick, cut to shape, and
riveted together in pairs, with gun-metal blocks between, for trunnion
and axle bearings. The wheels were taken from a portable engine,
bushed with gun metal and bored to fit the axle, whose ends were covered
with brass dust-caps.
APPENDIX I
649
The shells weighed 29 pounds each, loaded with their bursting charge
of one pound of powder, and were fitted with the percussion fuse devised
by Mr. George Labram.
The making of the gun was begun on the 26th of December,
1899. It was proved on the igth of January, 1900, and went into
action January 23. From then up to the date of the relief of Kim-
berly 255 shells were fired from the gun, mostly at ranges approximately
5000 and 6000 yards, the distances of two of the positions of the
enemy, which were easily reached with elevations of 12° and 15° re-
Band of the Kimberley Volunteer Regiment playing at the Mounted Camp during the Siege.
spectively, with powder charge of 5 Ibs. With the same powder charge
another position 8010 yards distant was effectively reached with an ele-
vation of 24° 15'.
The illustrations on previous pages show graphically how " Long
Cecil " was made.
The cut on page 643 represents the finished gun ready to go into
action. On page 639, the upper figure shows the general construction
of the gun barrel ; the lower figures on the same plate show the breech
block and obturator. The rifling device is given on page 640, and on the
same plate the boring and rifling tools are represented.
The upper figure on page 641 gives the details of the construction
of the shells and fuse for " Long Cecil," and underneath is shown the
shell made for the 2. 5-inch popguns with which Kimberley was defended.
650 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
The Mafeking " Long Tom," manned by Mercenaries.
The manufacture of these small shells was undertaken in November, and
many were thrown into the Boer camps " with C. J. R.'s Compliments "
stamped on them.
The powder for charging these shells was fortunately at hand. The
old Central Company of Kimberley mine had a large stock of black
powder which was used for blasting in the open mine, as far back as
1888. When De Beers Consolidated Mines took over this Company,
the powder was removed and placed in a magazine on the veld, a mile
" Long Tom," en route to Kimberley.
APPENDIX I
651
The Boer loo-Pound
Shell and the Imperial
9-Pound Shell.
beyond the Company's washing machines. Shortly after the opening of
the siege I had stock taken of the contents of outlying magazines and
brought to light three and a half tons of good black
powder of various grain. This discovery was of
much service, for it enabled the garrison to respond
more frequently to the fire of the Boers, and made
the construction and use of " Long Cecil " possible.
At first, the shells cast in our foundry were not
all perfect, and the bursting of some of them led to
greater care in testing all under hydraulic pressure.
Ring shells made by De Beers are shown on page
641. Rings with jagged or saw-toothed edges were
first cast ; these were stacked one over another
in the mould, and the outer shell cast around them.
When the bursting charge of powder exploded, these
rings were broken into a hundred pieces and thrown
in all directions.
The Boers evidently resented the firing of" Long
Cecil," for on the 24th of January they kept up a fierce cannonade,
throwing about five hundred shells into Kimberley. A French officer,
who was at Kampfersdam during a part of the siege, says
that " Long Cecil " did good practice, and with one shell
killed seven Boers, only two less than the Boers killed
with eight thousand shells. The heavy and continuous
firing which took place on the 25th of January and fol-
lowing days caused many to build " shell-proofs " for the
protection of the women and children.
On the morning of the 8th of Feb-
ruary, at about eleven o'clock, I was
in the conning tower, and noticed an
immense volume of smoke belched
forth from a gun on Kampfersdam
tailing heap. I remarked to those
near me that the Boers had brought a
" Long Tom " against us at last. In
a few seconds the bang of the gun
was heard, followed a little later by a sound almost indescribable as the
shell came whizzing through the air. It has been likened not unfitly to
the roar of an express train passing at full speed. Then a cloud of red
Showing Interior of Boer loo-Pound Ring
Shell and Shrapnel combined.
652 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
dust was seen where the shell had struck, shortly followed by the crash
of the explosion. In the vicinity the air was filled with fragments of
the shell or bullets of the shrapnel, which flew on with a singing " ping,
ping, ping." Twenty-five of these shells were fired on that day, many
of which did not explode. One was brought in and measured, and found
to be fifteen centimetres, or about six inches, in diameter.
The " Long Tom "
which was brought to
Kimberley was a cap-
tured piece which had
been struck by a shell
on the muzzle and
broken. This gun was
taken to Pretoria or
Johannesburg, where the
broken part of the muz-
zle was cut off and a
band shrunk on the in-
jured end. The illustra-
tion of this gun on page
650, on a railway truck
en route from Pretoria
to Bloemfontein, shows
the method of moving
these guns without a
limber. The gun was
noted for bad shooting.
On the afternoon of
Premier Studio, showing Effect of loo-Pound Shell. ^j^ „ ^ Qf February
the Boers turned the gun on the herd of cattle which were being driven
in for the night. This shot missed the cattle by half a mile to the left.
Three more shots were fired, all falling wide of the target at which they
were aimed. The illustrations here given of the effect of these shells
are more graphic than words.
On the first day the big gun was fired, the Buffalo Club was struck
and sustained considerable damage, and a few private buildings were
more or less injured. On the gth the firing of " Long Tom " com-
menced at daybreak, and was continued at intervals throughout the day
until six P.M., when 'the last shot was fired. This shot killed George
APPENDIX I
653
Effect of a loo- Pounder.
Effect of a loo-Pounder.
654 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
Labram, one of the most able men in the service of De Beers Company.
He had entered his room in the Grand Hotel only a minute before. The
shell passed through the roof
and three brick walls before
reaching Labram's room. Dur-
ing the same day the wife and
son (fifteen months old) of Mr.
Robert Solomon were struck by
the fragments of a shrapnel shell,
which burst as it came through
the outer wall of the building in
which they were temporarily
staying. The child was killed
instantly, but the poor mother
was taken to the hospital, where
she died, thirty-six hours after-
ward, from her injuries.
During Saturday the firing
continued, and buildings in every
quarter of the town were struck.
The peril of the unprotected
people was appalling. There was the greatest activity in building shel-
ters for the women and children. The tailing heaps were tunnelled, and
the miners erected long rows of tunnel timbers against the debris em-
bankments, and covered
them with corrugated iron.
Gangs of natives soon pro-
tected these galleries with
debris several feet deep.
Still there were thousands
unprovided with any shelter
except the thin roofs and
walls of their houses, which
were absolutely useless
against a hundred-pound Mr Compton.s Drawing-room barricaded for Shelter
shell travelling at the rate of from Boer 9-Pounders.
a thousand feet a second. When firing ceased, about midday, there was
a sigh of relief from many hearts, for it was thought that firing would
not be resumed until Monday morning.
Effect of a loo-Pounder.
APPENDIX I
655
The funeral of Mr. Labram was timed to leave the hospital at eight
o'clock in the evening, as it was thought unsafe to have the funeral by day.
He was buried with full military honors, and, as the hour for departure
from the hospital approached, the streets were thronged with anxious and
sorrowful people. The troops consisted of regulars, the various volunteer
corps, and members of the Town Guard. My carriage contained Colonel
Kekewich, Mr. Rhodes, Mr. Pickering, and myself. Other carriages
followed, and hundreds who were unable to procure conveyances, owing
to the scarcity of horses, joined on foot.
Precisely at eight o'clock the procession moved from the hospital, but,
before it had gone a hundred yards, the bugler in the conning tower
Shell-proof, constructed by the Public Works Department.
gave the well-known notes which meant that the big Boer gun had been
fired. The band was playing the funeral march at the time, so that few
people in the immediate vicinity of the hospital heard the warning notes.
Shortly, however, the boom of the cannon was heard, followed by that
never-to-be-forgotten hiss of the shell passing through the air. Traitors
in the town had given the Boers information as to the time of the funeral,
and doubtless signalled from some elevated place to the besiegers at
Kampfersdam the moment the procession started. There was a sigh of
relief as the fearful shell passed over the heads of the multitude, and fell
harmless in vacant land behind the hospital. Colonel Kekewich gave
orders for the band to cease playing, and that all carriage lights be put
out. It was a grim and silent funeral. Shot after shot came thundering
656 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
over or into the town, as the procession passed through it. At last, as we
approached the cemetery, we could see the flash of the gun as it was fired.
Excavations in the Tailing Heaps at Beaconsfield, used as Shelters.
While the last rites were said, the voice of the venerable archdeacon
was drowned by the roar of the gun and the hissing of the shells.
When the ceremony was over, every one hastened home to seek what-
ever cover could be found. Crowds of people were massed for hours
behind flimsy walls,
which could not pro-
tect them, but even
this slight pretence
of shelter was com-
forting. The terrible
night of the loth of
February, 1900, will
never be effaced from
the memories of
those who passed
through it.
So great was the
Shell-proof, after the Siege. strain upon the
nerves of the people that it was necessary that some one should come to
their help, and as usual that "some one" was Rhodes. Early on Sunday
morning he came to my house and said : " You told me, some time ago,
that you could put a lot of people down in the mines, and I think the
APPENDIX I
657
time has now come when we
must do it. Will you get your
mines ready so that the people
can be sent down this evening?"
I supervised the work at De
Beers mine, and my son was its
director at Kimberley. Tunnels
one thousand and twelve hun-
dred feet below the surface were
cleaned out — sanitary arrange-
ments were provided, and, early
in the afternoon, both mines were
ready for occupation. Rhodes
had sent a notice about town
which is given as an illustration
011 page 658, and Speaks for itself. Shell-proof at the Convent.
Attention was called to it by the ringing of a bell. Crowds flocked to
both shafts during the afternoon and evening ; and before midnight
nearly three thousand women and children were safely housed, deep
down in the subterranean passages of the mines. There was discom-
Wf*mwjftf?W^*fi
*' ''£/ T/ ' ••'&ii' wi/jOi
pR'/* iij ' y i i-'iH \ ^ i i-' i
>' /" > '• ;,!' • '>)'<
-. . -
- ^-
Shell-proof Dugouts.
fort, of course, in this rude lodging, but all were happy in the thought
that they were beyond the sound of screeching shells, and out of danger.
I have never seen so much patience and pluck shown by women as
was shown by those in the mines. There was no sign of fear in going
2 u
658 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
down in the rough mine cages, and when they reached the station, they
found to their joy that the tunnel was like a beautiful arcade, brilliantly
lighted with electric rays. Food was served several times a day, and time
went so quickly that dates were lost sight of and days and nights be-
came hopelessly mixed. One lady asked me, " Is this yesterday or to-day
or to-morrow ? " When the glad news was brought to them that Kim-
berley was relieved, they scarcely believed it, and many preferred to re-
main in the mines rather than take any chances of hearing " Long Tom "
PUN DAY
JANaCHILDREN VVHO.DESI BE
I COM PLE TE.SH ELTE R.TO.PROCEi
TO.Kl MBERLEXAN D.DE-BEEf
SHAFTS. THEY.WILUBE.LOWEF
8 O'CLCCH.THROUGHOUT.T
LAMPS.&CU1DeS,WILL.B
PROVIDED. r J R
Notice sent round the Town during the Shelling by the Boers' loo-Pound Gun.
give a parting roar, or the awful screech of a flying shell. On Friday
morning all were brought to the surface, thankful for the few days of
peace and safety.
The illustration on page 660 shows the people at the shaft waiting to
be sent down. That all were taken down into the mine and brought up
again without the least mishap speaks well for those who carried out the
details at each mine.
The Boers fired a few shots between eleven and twelve o'clock on
the 1 5th, from "Long Tom." They knew before we did that a British
column was nearing Kimberley, for they had telegraphic communication
between all their camps ; and while the column was slowly advancing they
were using every effort to remove the big gun, which they did success-
APPENDIX I
659
fully. Over eight thousand shells had been fired by the Boers into Kim-
berley and its fortifications, with the result that, out of a total population
of fifty thousand, only nine were killed, and the majority of these were
women and children.
At two P.M. a huge cloud of dust rose in the distant southeast, and
shortly afterward one could see mounted troops advancing, and a helio-
graphic message informed the officer commanding Kimberley that it was
the relief column. The news spread like wildfire, and from every place
which afforded a view, thousands of eager eyes were scanning the veld
Too Late ! These two Siege Guns arrived after the Siege.
660 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
The United States Consulate.
Women and Children waiting to be lowered down De Beers Mine.
APPENDIX I
66 1
for a glimpse of the troops. The few public conveyances which were
left in Kimberley were quickly taken to convey people to meet the
column.
As soon as I received the news, I made an effort to obtain a cab, but
found it impossible. A small spring wagon drawn by a mule and driven
by a Kafir passed my door at this time. Recognizing it as a De Beers
fruit and vegetable wagon, I commandeered it, and in company with Cap-
tain Bowen was driven to the Sanitorium, which afforded a good view of
Double-decked Cage loaded with People and their Bedding being hoisted from the I2oo-foot
level of De Beers Mine.
the advancing troops. With my field glasses I saw the troops slowly
advancing, and as they rounded a hill near the farmhouse on De Beers
farm, Benaauwdheidsfontein, the Boer gun at Olefantsfontein, southeast
of Premier mine, fired a few shots, but the relief column had a battery
which soon silenced the Boer gun. Having telephoned for my light car-
riage and horses, I soon joined the great crowd which thronged every
road leading toward the advancing troops. It was seven o'clock before
they got into camp. Thus Kimberley was relieved after a long and event-
ful siege of 124 days. My old friend, Colonel Rimmington of Rimming-
ton's Scouts, was among one of the first arrivals. Thinking that I was doing
662 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
him a good turn, I put him up at my house. I am sure he enjoyed the bath,
but when I went to call him the next morning, at four o'clock, he was gone.
Missing the bedclothes, search was made in the garden, and there the
poor old tired soldier, wrapped up in clean sheets and blankets, was lying
on the ground, sleeping as only a weary soldier can sleep. He had found
the house too stuffy after sleeping so long on the veld.
General French moved at daybreak the morning after his arrival, tak-
ing with him about half of his column and four batteries of field guns.
He gave battle to the Boers north of Kimberley, and cleared them out of
their late haunts. The Boers left one gun behind, an old Armstrong
gun, the limber of which was captured November 25th. On Saturday
morning at daybreak General
French left for Paardeberg,
taking those of his troops who
had rested on Friday, and the
others followed the next day.
It has often been asserted
that Rhodes interfered with
the military. He did suggest
to Lord Methuen that there
were more ways into Kim-
berley than the one over the
Magersfontein and Spytfontein
kopjes, and mentioned the
route over which General
French came when he relieved
Kimberley. He proposed that
Boer Gun captured at Dronfield.
small forts be built, every three or four miles, advancing from Modder
River and keeping up the base of supplies at that place. His plan
was substantially the blockhouse system, which the army later adopted,
only that forts, instead of houses, would have been necessary, as the
Boers then had cannon. The only reply to this suggestion was an order
to the officers commanding Kimberley to have no communication what-
ever with Mr. Rhodes on military subjects.
Fortunately for the defence of Kimberley, Rhodes's energies were
unflagging, in spite of rebuffs. Throughout the siege no appeal for assist-
ance was ever made to him, nor even a want intimated on the part of the
garrison, that he did not do all in his power to meet at once. The forma-
tion of the Kimberley Light Horse was due to him. So, too, was the
APPENDIX I
663
fortification of the village of Kenilworth and the outlying washing
machines. The making of the gun, " Long Cecil," was by his order.
The employment of thousands of idle hands in street-making in and
around Kimberley was at his suggestion, and paid for by De Beers
Company, thus assuring a support more welcome than charity. The
undertaking of the soup kitchen was his proposal. From the great De
Beers dairy milk was supplied to the hospitals, the sick at home, and to a
depot where it was distributed under the supervision of a committee.
Surrender of General Cronje. Reproduced by kind permission of Mr. L. S. Amery.
Fruit and vegetables from De Beers gardens were sent to the hospitals, to
the camps, and to the poorer families of the town. New gardens were
started to enlarge the supply. The ice plant was kept constantly
running, and ice furnished to the hospitals, the garrison, and the citizens
generally. In everything contributing to the efficiency of the defence
and the welfare of the people of Kimberley, Rhodes took the keenest
interest, and, whenever possible, a most active part.
A few days before the relief column came in, there was a meeting of a
considerable number of the leading citizens of Kimberley, with the object
of sending a message to Lord Roberts to inform him of the situation and
664 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
ascertain whether there was any immediate prospect of relief. Rhodes,
the mayor and ex-mayor, a judge of the High Court, several members of
Parliament, the author, and other citizens were present, and it was
decided to send the following message to Lord Roberts, who was then at
Laid Roberts and General Cronje seated under the Trees on the Modder River
at Paardeberg.
Modder River. The military censor at first refused to send it, but the
officer commanding finally decided to permit its transmission in an
abridged form.
"KiMBERLEY, loth February. — On behalf of the inhabitants of this
town, we respectfully desire to be informed whether there is an intention
on your part to make an immediate effort for our relief. Your troops have
been for more than two months within a distance of a little over 20
miles from Kimberley, and if the Spytfontein hills are too strong for
them, there is an easy approach over a level flat. This town, with a
population of over 45,000 people, has been besieged for 120 days, and
a large portion of its inhabitants have been enduring great hardships.
Scurvy is rampant among the natives ; children, owing to lack of proper
food, are dying in great numbers, and dysentery and typhoid are very preva-
APPENDIX I 665
lent. The chief food of the whites has been bread and horseflesh for a
long time past, and for the blacks meal and salt only. These hardships,
we think you will agree, have been borne patiently and without complaint
by the people. During the past few days the enemy has brought into
action from a position within three miles of us a six-inch gun, throwing a
hundred-pound shell which is setting fire to our buildings, and is daily
causing death among the population. As you are aware, the military
guns here are totally unable to cope with this new gun. The only
weapon which gives any help is one locally manufactured. Under these
circumstances, as representing this community, we feel that we are justi-
fied in asking whether you have any immediate intention of instructing
your troops to come to our relief. We understand that large reenforce-
General Cronje as a Prisoner of War.
ments have recently arrived at Cape Town, and we feel sure that your
men at Modder River have, at the outside, 10,000 Boers opposed to them.
You must be the judge as to what number of British troops would be
required to deal with this body of men, but it is absolutely essential that
immediate relief should be afforded to this place."
The reply received from Lord Roberts was sent to Colonel Keke-
wich, and was as follows : —
" I beg you will represent to the Mayor and Mr. Rhodes, as strongly
as you possibly can, the disastrous and humiliating effect of surrender
after so long and glorious defence. Many days cannot possibly elapse
before Kimberley will be relieved, as we commence active operations
to-morrow. Future military operations depend in a large degree on your
maintaining your position a very short time longer."
666 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
Reception of Lord Roberts and Lord Kitchener, Kimberley Town Hall.
What message or messages were sent by the military from Kimberley
that conveyed to the mind of Lord Roberts that there was even the
remotest chance of the citizens of Kimberley surrendering to the Boers,
will probably always remain a military secret. Suffice it to say, however,
that such a thought never entered the minds of the men of Kimberley,
who would rather have died in their trenches than have surrendered, so
long as any scrap of food remained.
The saving of Kimberley from the attack of the Boers was due to
the natural strength of the position and its improvised fortifications ; to
the courage of the citizen soldiers, and the small force of Imperial
troops ; to the indomitable spirit of Cecil John Rhodes, the chairman
of De Beers Company, whose pent-up energies found vent in devising
ways and means for adding to the plans of defence ; to the forethought
of the De Beers men in charge of buying food for man and beast, who
laid in supplies far in excess of any expected emergency ; and possibly,
least of all, to the disinclination of the Boers to attack energetically a
fortified town so long invested by commandoes greatly outnumbering the
garrison under arms.
APPENDIX II
WINDING ENGINES FOR THE MAIN SHAFT,
KIMBERLEY MINE
THIS plant was designed by me for De Beers Consolidated Mines
Limited, and built by Messrs. James Simpson & Co., of London, and
consists of a pair of inverted vertical tandem compound-condensing
engines, driving two reels, which are capable of carrying 1800 feet of
flat ropes each. The principal dimensions of these engines are as
follows, viz. : —
Diameter of high-pressure cylinders, two . . 1 9. 5 in.
Diameter of low-pressure cylinders, two . 34 "
Stroke of all cylinders . . . . 48 "
Diameter of each air pump, two . . . 24 "
Stroke of each air pump . . . .16"
Diameter of steam cylinder of the reversing engine 7 "
Diameter of oil cataract of the reversing engine . 4.75 "
Stroke of reversing engine . . . .18"
Diameter of each high-pressure steam pipe . . 6 "
Diameter of each low-pressure steam pipe . . 10 "
Diameter of each exhaust pipe to the condenser . 14 "
Diameter of each high-pressure valve . . . 6 "
Diameter of each low-pressure valve . . 8 "
Diameter of each high-pressure piston rod . . 3.5 «'
Diameter of each low-pressure piston rod . . 4.5 '
Diameter of crank-pins . . . . • 5-5 '
Length of crank-pins . . . . • 7 "
Diameter of each main bearing . . . 14 "
Length of each main bearing . . . . 32.5 "
Diameter of main crank-shaft in the middle . 1 6 "
Smallest diameter of each reel . . . . 9 ft. i-J- "
Size of flat ropes used .... sfin. by^ "
Capacity of blue ground skips . . . 100 cubic feet.
667
668 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
These engines were intended to hoist six loads, each weighing 1600
Ibs., from the lOOO-foot level in 45 seconds, including filling, starting,
discharging, and stopping; but they do it in from 30 to 35 seconds.
All the steam cylinders are fitted with the Corliss valve gear, having
vacuum dash-pots, the cut-off" being effected by the same lever that works
the throttle valves.
Reversing is effected by ordinary links worked by eccentrics fitted on
the tail-shafts ; the reversing engine being fitted with a floating lever so
that the motion of the piston coincides exactly with the motion of the
small hand lever.
The two high pressure cylinders exhaust into the receiver, which is
5 ft. diameter by 18 ft. long, fitted with sixty -eight 2-inch wrought-
iron tubes, through which live steam from the high-pressure jackets, but
at a reduced pressure, is constantly circulating. The object of this re-
ceiver is to supply the low-pressure cylinders with a considerable volume
of dry steam to facilitate a quick starting away. An 8-inch balanced
throttle valve admits steam to the high-pressure cylinders, and a similar
valve, 12 inches in diameter, admits steam from the reheater to the low-
pressure cylinders.
Each high-pressure cylinder is jacketed with live steam at full boiler
pressure, the water of condensation together with a certain amount of
steam passing through a Watts pressure regulator, which reduces the
pressure in the jackets of the reheater and low-pressure cylinders to about
30 Ibs. The final water of condensation is discharged automatically by
a displacement trap into the hot well.
Each air pump of the ordinary marine type is worked off the cross-
head. The condenser, 6 ft. diameter by 16 ft. long, fitted with 125
wrought-iron tubes 31^ in. outside diameter and 16 ft. long, is situated
just outside the winding-engine house. All the water pumped from the
mine passes through this condenser on its way to the floors.
A circulating pump on the end of one of the tail-shafts supplies water
for jet injection whenever the mine pumps are not supplying sufficient
water to condense the steam.
L. I. SEYMOUR,
Mechanical Engineer for D. B. C. M. Ltd.
APPENDIX III
REPORT ON PUMPING PLANT FOR KIMBERLEY MINE
THE new plant consists of a vertical triple-expansion condensing
engine, having cylinders 15^ in., 23^ in., and 37 in. diameter respect-
ively, with a stroke of 36 in.
The high and intermediate pressure cylinders are arranged tandem,
over one crank, the low pressure working on the other, which is placed
at the opposite end of the crank-shaft and at an angle of 90° with the other.
A double acting air pump is driven by a rocking lever from one cross-
head and a feed pump in the same manner from the other engine.
A cast steel spur-wheel, 3 ft. 9 in. pitch diameter, is keyed on the
engine shaft, and drives a second shaft 27 in. diameter by gearing with a
spur-wheel 30 ft. pitch diameter made of cast iron, with teeth 6 in. pitch
by 30 in. face. The gears were made by Eraser & Chalmers, of Chi-
cago, U.S.A., the crank-shafts by Sir J. Whitworth, of Manchester, and
the rest of the work, including the pumps, by Messrs. J. Simpson & Co.
Ltd., of London. A cast-steel crank is keyed on the second motion
shaft, and drives the T bob by a pitman with 35 ft. centres.
On the nose of the bob is hung the spear rod 1250 ft. long, of hard
pine, 14 in. square for the first 500 ft., 12 in. square for the second, and
10 in. square for the remainder.
The total weight of the rod, including strapping plates and poles, is
6 1 tons, which will be partially balanced by a counterweight on the top
bob, and partly by a second bob placed at the i2OO-ft. level.
Attached to the spear rod at the 250 ft., the 500 ft., the 750 ft., the
1000 ft., and the 1200 ft. levels are cast-iron plungers 14 in. diameter,
having a stroke of 10 ft., each of which forces the water to the next
station above through a riveted steel pipe, 14 in. diameter, with joints
riveted together.
The foundations for the driving machinery are made of concrete,
with the proportion of cement to stone of I : 9 on the average.
L. I. SEYMOUR, Mechanical Engineer.
669
APPENDIX IV
THE relative values of South African coals are shown in the following
table, exhibiting tests made with the Beeley boilers at De Beers mine : —
ENGLISH COAL
1890.
April 29. Nixon's Steam Navigation coal
July 1 6. Nixon's Steam Navigation coal (ist test)
July 1 6. Nixon's Steam Navigation coal (zd test)
Aug. 4. Nixon's Steam Navigation coal
Pounds of feed-water
evaporated per Ib. of coal
from and at 212° Fahr.
. 11.67
. 10.22
. I I. I I
10.40
SOUTH AFRICAN COAL
Nov. 7. Vaal Drift Mine, Transvaal .
1891.
Feb. 12. Newcastle, Natal
March 24. Indwe, Colonial ....
March 25. Lewis and Marks, Transvaal .
June 29. Newcastle, Natal
July 20. Kroonstad, Free State .
4-515
9.520
7.090
6.734
8.520
7.084
The relative cost and service of Welsh and Indwe coal delivered at
the mines are approximately as follows : —
£ '- *•
A ton of 2000 pounds Welsh coal cost . . . 700
A ton of Indwe coal . . . . . . 1190
Welsh steam coal will evaporate about eleven pounds of water per
pound of coal from and at 212° Fahr., and Indwe coal about seven
pounds. Indwe coal is, therefore, worth about 6o|% of Welsh coal,
and costs about .£3 4*. for the same evaporating value contained in a ton
of Welsh coal costing more than double this sum.
670
APPENDIX V
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INDEX
INDEX
Abel, Sir Frederic Augustus, statistics of,
404, 405.
Accidents in mining, 384-405.
African natives, 47, 48, 60, 65, 92-98, 102-
109, 118, 178-181 ; flock to Diamond
Fields, 188, 189 ; workers in fields, 218,
219, 322, 325. 326, 39"-393. 397. 4°2-
404, 413-449.
Alexandersfontein, original grant of, 168;
searched for diamonds, 1 72 ; prospecting
discontinued, 220.
Almeida, Francisco d', first Portuguese vice-
roy, 47.
Arabia, commerce with East Africa, 35-39,
44-46, 74, 75.
Atherstone, Dr. W. Guybon, identifies first
South African diamond, 120, 121; argues
existence of diamond-bearing deposits,
122, 123; theory of formation, 487-492.
B
Baines, Thomas, expedition of, 572.
Baring-Gould, Atkins, 290.
Baring-Gould, Price & Tracy, 290.
Baring-Gould, Sir Francis, chairman Kim-
berley Central Co., 289.
Barkly, Sir Henry, Governor of Cape Col-
ony, 180, 181.
" Barnato, Barney " (see " Isaacs, Barnett "),
270.
" Barnato Diamond Mining Company, The,"
272-279.
"Barnato, Harry" (see "Isaacs, Henry "),
270.
Barros, Joano de, describes old South Afri-
can mines, 50-53.
Beaconsfield, sketch of, 469-471.
" Beau Sancy," record of, 24, 25.
675
Beit, Alfred, reaches Diamond Fields, 289;
joins Jules Forges & Co., 290; organizes
Wernher, Beit & Co., 290; cooperates
with Rhodes, 193-296; operates in
Rand, 576.
Benaauwdheidsfontein, farm of, 196, 316,
344, 661.
Berlin Mission Society, claims part of Dia-
mond Fields, 1 78 ; exacts license fees
from miners, 163.
Berquem, Ixmis de, artist in diamond cut-
ting. 533. 534. 538, 542. 544-
" Biltong," food of settlers, 135.
"Blue ground," origin of name, 199; fria-
bility of, 199, 365-367; early methods
of extraction, 223-232; diminution of
output, 242; revival of mining, 244-246;
falling of, 221, 223, 252, 307, 308, 384-
386 ; methods of concentrating, 253-
259; systematic extraction of, 314-340;
systematic concentration, 360-383; com-
position of, 484-486, 488-497, 500-510.
Boers, origin of name, 90; habits of life,
88, 89, 118, 134, 135, 183; grievances,
91; Great Trek of, 91-110; character-
istics of, 100-102, 183, 184; prospecting
for diamonds, 165; besiege Kimberley,
606-666.
Bonney, Prof. T. G., views of, 508, 509.
Borneo, production of diamonds, 524.
Boyes, Lorenzo, searches for diamonds, 121,
122; tests first South African diamond,
1 20.
" Braganza, The," discovery of, 30.
British Guiana, production of diamonds,
525-
British South Africa Company, incorporation
of, 579 ; advance of, 579-595.
Bultfontein, farm of, 166 ; sold to specula-
tors, 167; title to, 168; entry of pros-
6;6
INDEX
pectors, 172, 176; mine surface area,
220; opening the mine, 252, 253; min-
ing company absorbed, 302; controlled
by De Beers, 302; nominal valuation,
306; suspension of work, 343, 344; re-
opening, 344.
Bultfontein Consolidated Company, 302.
Bultfontein Mining Company, 302.
Bulawayo, 581 ; capital of Lobengula, 586 ;
made capital of Rhodesia, 588; reached
by railway, 593.
Central Company, see " Kimberley Central
Company."
Chaka, Zulu chief, 92-94; devastates South
Africa, 96, 97.
" Chartered Company," see " British South
Africa Company."
Coal, Wankie beds, 593 ; Stormberg district,
595-596 ; Indwe, 596-598 ; comparative
values, 670.
Cohen, Louis, partnership with Barney
Barnato, 270-272.
Colesberg, town of, 175.
Colesberg kopje, original location Kimber-
ley mine, 173-175 ; centre of camp,
«93-
Compagnie Francaise des Mines de Diamant
du Cap de Bon Esperance, 281 (see
"French Company").
Compagnie Generate, 302.
Compressed air, applied to mining, 337.
Copper ore, discoveries in Namaqualand,
62-70, 82, 83 ; in Rhodesia, 592, 593.
Crookes, Sir William, experiments of, 497-
500; conclusions of, 501, 502.
Currie, Sir Donald, heads syndicate, 281.
" Darya-i-nur," record of, 27, 28.
Ue Beers Consolidated Mines, systematic
development of, 315-322; general plan
of, 316; mining plant of, 323-338; drain-
age of, 334-339; ventilation, 338; light-
ing, 337; temperatures, 339; output of,
339. 34°; employes in, 341, 407-449;
nationalities of, 341, 407, 408; wages of,
341; depositing floors of, 360-369; dia-
mond winning plant, 360-383 ; great
fire in, 388-400; mud rushes in, 400-
404; comparative casualties in, 404;
production of diamonds, 511-521, 671;
coal supply of, 596-598; besieged, 622-
666.
De Beers Consolidated Mines Limited, for-
mation of, 297-302; acquires holding of
De Beers Mining Company, 301-302;
acquires Kimberley mine, 291-294; ac-
quires Dutoitspan and Bultfontein
mines, 294, 302, 343, 470; production of
diamonds, 304, 305; capital of, 306;
undertakes systematic development, 314,
315; sells annual production, 383; first
annual meeting, 390, 399; offices of, 460,
511-516; varied promotions of, 578-598;
supports defence of Kimberley, 614, 615,
618-621, 625, 639-658, 666.
De Beers Mining Company, origin and for-
mation, 279-280; financial operations of,
281, 286-289; amalgamation with De
Beers Consolidated Mines Limited, 290,
291, 301, 302.
De Beers mine, location of, 172; open work-
ings, 196-209, 247-259; surface area,
220; extraction of diamonds, 253, 259;
underground workings, 307-314.
De Beers mining camp, 175-177; growth of,
193-195'> life in. 210-219; fusion in
Kimberley, 259.
De Beers "Rush," 175.
De Crano, E. G., negotiates for control Kim-
berley mine, 286-288.
Dewar, Prof., experiments of, 497.
Diamond-bearing deposits, 479-510.
Diamond, romance of, I, 2, 9-11, 24-31;
identified with adamas, 14; properties
of, 2, 3, 6, 486, 487; formation of, 486-
510; varieties of, 153, 154, 207-290;
classifications in use, 510-513; earliest
discovery of, 5, 9, 12, 14-16; in Borneo,
144, 524; in Brazil, 140-144, 523, 524;
in British Guiana, 525; in India, I, 16-
21, 140, 524; in New South Wales, 524;
in South Africa, 119; Orange River
sands, 119; banks of Vaal River, 122;
on farm Zendfontein, 123; at Jagers-
fontein, 164; at Dutoitspan, 165, 166;
on farm Bultfontein, 167; at Kimberley,
173; methods of extraction, 17-19, 141-
154, 170-172, 199-206, 253-259, 360-
INDEX
677
383; production of, 206, 305, 521-525,
671; ornamental use of, 12-16, 20, 24,
526, 527; cutting and polishing, 528-551 ;
value of, 13, 20, 520, 521; market for,
511-521.
Diamond Field, The, newspaper at Klip-
drift, 191.
Diamond News, The, first South African
mining town newspaper, 162; transferred
to Dutoitspan, 191.
Diamond washing machines, first rotary, 254.
Dingaan, succeeds Chaka, 97; treachery of,
105, 106; death of, 108, 109.
Discovery of diamond, 5, 9, 12, 14-16; in
India, I, 16-21, 140; in South Africa,
114-139, 164-189; in Borneo, 144; in
Brazil, 140-144; in New South Wales,
524; in British Guiana, 525.
Dorstfontein, farm surrounding Dutoitspan,
165, 1 66; sold to predecessors of Lon-
don and South African Exploration Com-
pany, 1 66; original grant, 168.
Dunell, Ebden & Co., purchasers of Vooruit-
zigt, 1 68, 196.
Dunite porphyry, 484.
Dunn, E. J., views of, 480.
Dunsmure and Alderson, combination with
Rhodes, 279, 280.
Du Plooy, Cornelius Hendrik, owner farm
Bultfontein, 167.
Durnin, Charles, prospector, 573.
Dutch East India Company, takes posses-
sion of Cape of Good Hope, 6 1 ; urges
explorations, 61-70; stimulates indus-
tries, 78-80; drifts to bankruptcy, 84,
85 ; surrenders Cape Town, 86.
Du Toil, Abraham Pauls, original propri-
etor Dorstfontein.
Dutoitspan, discovery of diamonds at, 165,
166; opened by prospectors, 169-172;
controlled by "Diggers' Committee,"
177; growth of camp, 190-193; mine
surface area, 220; method of working,
250-252; controlled by De Beers, 302;
nominal valuation, 306; work in, sus-
pended, 343; opening of shaft, 343.
East India Company, see " Dutch East India
Company " and " English East India
Company."
Elma Company, 279.
Emerald, ornamental use of, 4, 8, 21, 22;
early descriptions of, 12, 22.
Engines, see " Steam," " Winding," " Pump-
ing,'1 etc.
English East India Company, occupies Table
Bay, 61.
F
Fabricius, discoverer of Premier mine, 345.
Fauresmith, Free State Settlement, 164.
Fire in De Beers mine, 388-400.
" Florentine, The," famous diamond, 30.
Formation of the diamond, 479-509.
Foster, Dr. C. Le Neve, reports of, 404, 405,
523, 524-
Frank Smith mine, 483.
Fraser & Chalmers, 337.
" French Company " (Compagnie Fra^aise
des Mines de Diamant du Cap de Bon
Esperance), mine workings, 239, 246;
holdings of, 281 ; united with Central
Company, 286-289, 291.
G
Genesis of the diamond, 486-509.
Goffe, Edward, 647.
Golconda, diamond mines of, 15, 16.
Gold fields in South Africa, 572-578.
Gouldie, Joseph, mine manager, 312.
Gouldie system, 312.
Graham, Robert, combination with Rhodes,
279.
" Great Mogul," record of, 27, 28.
Green, Prof. A. H., views of, 480.
Griqualand West Diamond Mining Company,
289, 302.
Griqualand West, 177; organization of
crown colony, 181.
H
Hall, W. A., holdings of, 281, 312.
Hannay, J. B., experiments of, 497, 49^.
Harris, Lieut. Col., commanding Town
Guard, Kimberley, 607.
Havilah, identification with Rhodesia, 74 75.
Hoisting record, De Beers, 329-335.
Hond, Louis, purchaser of Bultfontein 167.
Hopetown Company, purchasers ol Bult-
fontein, 167, 1 68.
" Horse Whims," first employed, 229.
6;8
INDEX
Hughes, Rev. James, establishes church,
464.
Huguenots, immigration of, 78, 79.
Illicit diamond buying, 264-266, 522, 523.
India, diamond fields of, 16-20; precious
stones of, 16, 21-31; production of,
524.
Indwe coal field, 596-598.
Isaacs, Barnett, reaches Diamond Fields,
268, 269; advance and method, 269-272,
274-279; competes with Rhodes, 288-
294; combines with Rhodes, 294, 296;
address to shareholders, 399; death of,
296.
Isaacs, Henry, enters Diamond Fields, 268;
engages in business, 270.
J
Jacobs, Daniel, children of, discover dia-
mond, 117-119.
Jagersfontein, farm of, 164; discovery of
diamonds at, 164; opening of mine, 358-
359; output of, 359; dividends of, 359.
Jameson, Dr. L. S., mission to Lobengula,
581 ; leads force into Mashonaland, 581-
583; administrator, 584, 585, 588; con-
quers Lobengula, 586.
Jeffries, David, treatise on diamonds, 5 1 7-5 2 1 .
Jones, Edward, engineering service of, 244,
245"
Kaap Valley, discovery of gold, 573.
Karoo, baffles explorations, 65-67, 81, 82;
crossing of, 131-133; "Great" or "Cen-
tral," 131, 132; basin formation, 479.
Keate, Lieutenant Governor, determines title
to Diamond Fields, 180, 181.
Kekewich, Lieut. Col. Robert George, com-
mandant at Kimberley, 607.
Kenilworth, sketch of, 471-478.
Kimberley Central Company, mine workings,
239, 245, 246, 281, 307, 308; extension
of holdings, 272, 281, 289; rivalry with
De Beers, 291-294.
Kimberley, Earl, 1 80.
Kimberley, rush to, 164-189; growth of
camps, 193-195; life in, 210-219; fusion
of camps, 259; formation of town, 259—
265; Mining Board, 235-242; miners
resident, 407-414; description of town,
450-469; siege of, 605-666.
Kimberley mine, location of, 173-175; con-
trolled by, 177; survey of, 197; method
of working, 196-209; surface area, 220;
opening the crater, 221-246; extraction
of diamonds, 253-259; underground
workings, 307-314; operating companies,
272-282; amalgamation of, 286-294;
rock formations, 479-494, 497, 502, 506-
510.
Kimberley Waterworks, 263, 264, 620.
King Solomon's Mines, traditionary location
of, 35-38; opened by Himyaritcs, 74.
Kirsten, Fred, invention of, 378-381.
Kisch, T. B., associate locator of Kimberley
mine, 174.
Klip-drift, " Rocky-ford," diamond diggers'
camp on Vaal River, 137-139; early
mining at, 145-163; declaration of in-
dependence, 159; dwindling of, 191.
"Koh-i-nOr," extorted by Runjeet Singh, I;
traditional source of, 17, 528; romantic
record of, 27, 28; cutting of. 544, 546.
" Koh-i-tur," record of, 27. 28.
Kriiger, Stephen J. Paul, becomes president
South African Republic, 183, 184.
Kunz, George F.; views of, 525, 526, 527.
Labram, George, mechanical engineer, 378;
designs "Long Cecil"; killed during
siege, 653-656.
Lawn, Prof. J. G., 461 ; report of, 483 ;
analysis of, 507.
Lewis, Prof. Henry Carvill, views of, 484,
492, 493-
Lilienfeld, Leopold, purchaser of Bultfontein,
167.
Lippert & Co., 289.
Lippert, Ludwig, assists Rhodes, 288.
Lobengula, grants concession, 581 ; forays
of, 585, 586 ; defeat and death, 587, 588.
London and South African Exploration
Company, successors of " Hopetown
Company," 168 ; leases diggings, 196 ;
lessors Bultfontein mine, 343 ; transfer
of property to De Beers, 470.
"Long Cecil," construction and use of, 647-
651.
Luzi, W., experiments of, 503-506.
INDEX
679
Lydenburg, mines of, 572, 573.
Lynch, Thomas, speculative purchaser of
Bultfontein, 167.
M
Mauch, Karl, explorations of, 53, 70-72.
Mankoroane, cedes holdings in Bechuana-
land, 285, 286.
McFarland, George, managing director, 386,
387.
Meyer, Carl, 287.
Michaelis, Max, active in Diamond Fields,
290; joins Wernher, Beit & Co., 290.
Minerals mixed with diamonds, 377, 378.
Mining claims, river diggings, 146-150;
Jagersfontein, 165; Dutoitspan, 169-
172; Kimberley, 175; Bultfontein, 176;
size determined, 177, 196, 197, 236, 237.
Modder Fontein, tirst reached by explorers,
83-
Modder River region, 136, 137.
Molengraaf, Prof., views of, 494-496.
Monomotapa, dynastic name, 54; traditional
empire of, 55-58.
Morse, Henry G., pioneer lapidary, 551.
Mosenthal, Harry, negotiates with "French
Company," 287-288.
Moulle, M. A., views of, 481.
N
New Jagersfontein Mining and Exploration
Co. Ltd., 358.
New Rush, Colesberg Kopje, original location
Kimberley mine, 173; rechristened Kim-
berley, 175.
New South Wales, production of diamonds,
524.
Niekerk, Schalk van, obtains first South
African diamond, 119.
O
Olifants River, 65, 67.
Ophir, connection with Judaea, 35; search
for, 35-70; Portuguese fort, 45; identi-
fied with Portus Nobilis, 74, 75.
Orange Free State, formation of, III; claim
to Diamond Fields, 177,178; compensa-
tion for losses, rSi , 182.
Orange River, first named " Vigiti Magna,"
69; familiarly called the Groote, 8l;
christened by Colonel Gordon, 82.
Orange River Sovereignty, formation of,
no; dissolution of, in.
O'Reilly, John, carries off first South African
diamond, 119, 120.
\Drr, Prof., 462.
P
" Pan," shallow earth basin, 135.
Panna, diamond fields of, 19, 20.
Pearls, ornamental use of, 22, 23.
Peridotite, diamantiferous, 484.
Perils in mining, 384-405.
Peruzzi, Vincenzo, invented double faceting,
538-
" P'gg°tt> The," famous diamond, 30.
Pniel, mission station on Diamond Fields,
137; diamond diggings at, 160-163.
Porges, Jules & Co., operations in Diamond
Fields, 289, 290 ; in the Rand, 576.
Portugal, explorers of Africa from, 44-46 ;
attempts to enter South Africa, 47-50,
58-60.
Potter, Ralph, expert lapidary, 550.
Precious stones, how first discovered, 5, 9 ;
emblematic service, 6, 7 ; traditional
mystic powers, 5, 6 ; use as ornaments,
7, 8, 16, 21-24; origin of, n ; measure
of value, 520 ; world's stock, 526, 527 ;
cutting and polishing, 528-532.
Premier mine, discovery of, 345 ; purchase
of, 344-347; opening of, 345-35 7 ; prod-
uct of, 347, 349, 352-357 ; value of, 357;
fossils in, 485 ; during siege, 617-621.
Pretoria, capital of South African Republic,
no.
Pretorius, Andries, attacks Zulus, 106-108;
repulses British attack, 109 ; death of,
no.
Pretorius, Marthinus Wessel, first president
South African Republic, 1 10 ; grants
exclusive license for Vaal River Diamond
Fields, 159 ; forced to resign presidency,
183.
Pulsator, combination of jigs, 375-377.
Pumping plant, De Beers mine, 336 ; Kim-
berley mine, 337, 669.
Railways, first in South Africa, 113; exten-
sion of, 556-572.
Rand, The, gold mining in, 572-578.
68o
INDEX
Rawstorne, Fleetwood, discoverer of Kim-
berley mine, 174.
" Reef," name given, 199 ; falling of, 234-
236, 238-253, 314-322. 384-386.
Reenen, Willem van, exploration of, 83.
" Regent, The," record of, 29, 30.
Rhodes, Cecil John, enters South Africa,
273; reaches Kimberley, 274; advance
and aims, 275-278; organizes De Beers
Mining Company, 279, 280; seeks con-
trol of Kimberley mine, 281, 286-293;
secures control Kimberley, Dutoitspan,
and Bultfontein mines, 294, 296; enters
Cape Parliament, 283; obtains Protector-
ate over Lower Bechuanaland, 285,286;
organizes De Beers Consolidated Mines
Limited, 297-306; suppresses riot, 442,
443; on mine formation, 482; operates
in the Rand, 576, 577; organizes British
South Africa Company, 579, 580; floats
African Lakes Company, 581; enters
Mashonaland, 581-583; founds Rho-
desia, 586-595; expansion policy, 599-
601 ; services in siege of Kimberley, 6l I,
621,624,625; death, 601.
Rhodesia, entry into, 579-585; extension of,
586-595.
Riebeeck, Jan van, leads Dutch colonizing
expedition, 6i; equips exploring parties,
63-66.
River Diggings along Vaal River, 124-139,
145-163, 178-181, 191, 522, 523.
Robinson, J. B., operations in the Rand,
576-578.
Rothschild, N. M., & Sons, financial support
of Rhodes, 286-288.
Ruby, traditional efficacy of, 6; identifica-
tion with Carbunculus, 12; found in
Ceylon, 12.
Rudd, C. D., unites claims with Rhodes,
279, 280; obtains mineral rights, 579.
Runchman, Hoskyns & Puzey, combination
with Rhodes, 279.
Rush, to Vaal River diamond diggings, 125-
139; to Kimberley, 164-189.
Sapphire, early descriptions of, 4, 15; tradi-
tional efficacy of, 6; value of, 13; iden-
tified with adamas, 15.
Saxonite porphyry, 484.
Seymour, L. I., mechanical engineer, 336,
337, 667-669.
Sheba, tribute of Queen of, 35 ; connection
with river Sabi, 45 ; kingdom of Queen,
74; supposed connection with Zimbabwe,
7'-
Shiels, Thomas, 280.
Simpson, James, & Co. Ltd., 336, 337, 667.
Skips, De Beers, 328, 329.
Smith, Hamilton, 286.
Sofala, on map of Edrisi, 39; reached by
Pedro de Covilhao, 44; goal of Vasco da
Gama, 45 ; identified with Tharshish, 74.
South African Diamond Mining Company,
302.
South African Republic, formation of, no;
conflict with miners on the Vaal, 158-
160; claims Diamond Fields, 177.
South African School of Mines, 460, 461.
Southey, Richard, Lieutenant Governor ad-
ministering Griqualand West, 181.
Spes-Bona Diamond Mining Company, 302.
"Star of South Africa," famous diamond,
123.
Steam engines, revolving sieve driver, 204;
first steam winding, 231; De Beers
plant, 323-340.
Stel, Simon van der, Commandant at the
Cape, 67; explores Namaqualand, 67-70;
governor of Cape Colony, 70; improves
botanic garden, 77.
Stelzner, Dr. A. W., views of, 479, 481, 483,
484, 497.
Stewart, James, manager of Pulsator, 381.
Stormberg coal field, 595, 596.
Stow and English, combination with Rhodes,
279, 280.
Struben, Fred, develops Rand mines, 574-
576.
Sultan Diamond Mining Company, 302.
Sumbulpur, diamond field of, 18, 19.
" Taj-e-mah," record of, 27, 28.
Telegraph, in South Africa, 572; Transcon-
tinental, 583; crosses Rhodesia, 585.
Thompson, Rev. James, sketches Kimberley,
451.452.
Topaz, ornamental use of, 4, 21 ; derivation
of, 22.
Tramways, De Beers, 361.
INDEX
681
Trucks, De Beers, 324, 325, 360-364, 369.
Turner-Scott, Lieut. Col. , service in siege of
Kimberley, 606, 626-631, 635-637.
Turquoise, traditional efficacy of, 6.
U
United Diamond Mining Company, 280, 302.
Vaal River diamond field, 122, 124-139,
145-163.
Van Wyk, Adriaan J., purchaser of farm
Dorstfontein, 166; sells to predecessors
of London and South African Explora-
tion Company, 166.
Veld, definition of, 134.
Victoria Company, 280, 387.
Visser, Cornells Johannes, proprietor farm of
Jagersfontein, 164.
Visser, Jacoba Magdalena, widow of Cor-
nells, 164, 165.
Vooruitzigt, originally part of Bultfontein,
168; entry of prospectors, 172; division
of, 175-
W
Wankie coal field, 593.
Ward, Henry A., opens Premier mine, 345-
349; lease expires, 352.
Washing Plant, De Beers, 369-373.
Waterboer, Nicholas, claim to Diamond
Fields, 178-181.
Webb, Henry Barlow, purchaser of Bultfon-
tein, 167.
Wernher, Julius, reaches Diamond Fields,
289; organizes Wernher, Beit & Co., 290.
Wernher, Beit & Co., combination with
Rhodes, 279-296; organization of, 290.
Wessels estate, 345, 346, 349, 352,
Wesselton mine, 345 (see " Premier ") ; vil-
lage of, 470, 471.
Whitworth, Sir J., 337.
Williams, Gardner F., takes charge of De
Beers mine, 312; general manager Con-
solidated Mines, 315; initiates experi-
ments, 378; handling of fire in mine, 389-
399; suppresses riot, 442-443; on forma-
tion of diamond, 487, 491-494, 500, 505,
506, 510; visits Rand, 574, 575; in siege
of Kimberley, 629, 644, 657-664.
Winding engines, first used, 231; De Beers,
523-534, 667, 668.
Winding shafts, De Beers, 323-334.
Witwatersrand, The, 573-578.
Wodehouse, Sir Philip, buys first South Afri-
can diamond, 121.
Workers in the mines, 407-449.
Wyley, colonial geologist, 117, 130, 131.
"Yellow ground," opening of, 169-171; ori-
gin of name, 198; extent of, 199; fall-
ing of, 220, 250, 251; in Premier mine,
347-349-
Zimbabwe, ruins of, 53, 72, 73.
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