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Discovery of the Mine.

from the river: first at Du Toit’s Pan, afterwards at Bultfontein, then at De Beer’s Farm, and lastly at a place about a mile distant from De Beer’s, called Colesburg Koppje—so named by two young men coming from Colesburg, who first discovered diamonds there.

“Colesburg Koppje” was originally, to outward ap- pearance, a layer of pebbles and sand, among which the gems lay scattered; but all this gravelly deposit has been removed, and a huge crater, 350 feet deep, and oval, or nearly round, has been excavated, whose sloping sides are covered with broken wires and other debris.

Colesburg Koppje soon became known as New Rush,” and it was not till 1878 that the more dignified name of Kimberley, was conferred upon the town which had by that time sprung up. All sorts and conditions of men” in thousands rushed to the place, and began marking out their claims. A space thirty feet square was allowed to each claim, and no individual was per- mitted to take more than ten claims. This regulation, which the diggers agreed to among themselves, was afterwards ratified by the Government, who sent down officials to keep order, and to collect a duty of 10s. per claim per month. It was soon found that many of the areas selected were valueless. As the gravel was dug out the diamondiferous area became narrower and narrower, being confined within easily defined limits by a wall, or reef, of shaly limestone encircling it,¹ which narrows gradually towards the

¹ On the 5th of April, 1884, a great catastrophe occurred, the reef of shale liniug the side of the mine slipping in, and covering nearly all the workings and machinery. At about seven o’clock in the morning the reef was seen to start, and in less than five hours most of the workings were smothered. The French and Standard Com- panies managed to save part of their plant; but the workings were c 2

Where the Diamonds are found.

bottom, at the rate of about one in five, so that a vertical section of the mine would be something like a V shape.

Suddenly the dry, sandy gravel, in which the diamonds were found, gave way to a stratum of hard blue ground, which the miners thought to be bed rock. Claims were sold for what they would fetch, and abandoned as worthless, and the diamond-fields seemed to have lost their lustre in the eyes of all but those whose gravel workings still held out. Presently, however, some men sinking a well in this blue ground at Bultfontein noticed a diamond tumble out of the bucket, and it soon became evident that the blue flint- like ground contained diamonds in greater abundance than the superincumbent gravel, though, strangely enough, not a stone was found outside the limits of the “ reef.”

The price of claims rose rapidly; the knowing ones,” who had sold what they thought an exhausted claim for a song, sang small ; the lucky ones were jubilant. In less than a year there were 10,000 people crowded together, all anxious to make their fortunes. Owners had to be very careful not to leave possession of their claims, or they would be “jumped” by the

buried, in some cases to a depth of ninety feet, with worthless reef. This has been partly removed by the Standard Company and Messrs. Stuart Brothers, but the Trench Company have abandoned the attempt to remove the fallen debris—which has slipped down twice since on their claims after they had pulled up a million loads of it,—and they are now sinking a deep shaft, distant about 1000 feet, and 1000 feet deep, from which they will drive adits to reach their claims. The Central Company, though it has not abandoned the surface workings, is following this example, and the race between the two companies is being watched with great interest.

Cheating the Revenue.

new-comers; and it became necessary to have regular surveys made and official registers of ownership kept, a fee being charged by Government on every transfer as well as on every licence. Quarters, eighths, and sixteenths became as valuable as a whole claim before, and the business of sharebroker and diamond-mer- chant became more profitable than that of diamond- digging, the number of persons engaged in it being al- most as large as that of actual diggers. The “broking” business passed principally into the hands of Jews, who, from the age of fifteen to sixty, mustered in great strength. The knowledge of diamonds on the part of many of the diggers did not extend beyond the fact that they are used to cut glass, and they fell an easy prey to the descendants of Isaac and Moses. Besides this, it was so easy for a hired digger to secrete a stone, and dispose of it surreptitiously, that the owners of claims were fleeced of a large share of their property; but they were powerless to protect themselves, till a law was passed (in 1873) to the effect that no person or firm could, under a penalty of twelve months’ imprisonment, buy a diamond without first taking out a trading licence—for which a fee of 10/. was charged —and then only from a licensed dealer or broker, or from a registered digger or owner of mining property. But this law was easily evaded. A trading licence was issued to a “firm” at the same price as to an individual, and a good story is told of an Israelite making a bet of 10l. to 1l, with a Christian that he could purchase a licence for 1l The bet was accepted, and then it was found that the wily Jew was a partner” in a “company” of ten ‘‘Koppje wallopers,” to whom a single licence was issued on payment of

Diamond cut Diamond.

10l., or 1l. per head. This Jew, however, overreached himself for once, for on this anomaly coming to the knowledge of the Government the law was altered, making it compulsory for every individual, whether a member of a ‘‘firm” or not, to pay his 10?. The sequel was that the man who had made the bet was mobbed by his brother dealers.

“Diamond cut diamond” was the motto among these modern Israelites. “Partnerships” were en- tered into for other purposes besides cheating the revenue. A good story is told of a Hebrew named I——, a well-known dealer, and of good repute as the possessor of a conscience. Now the diamond buyers of those days did not know much of the value of the gems that were offered to them, and they gauged their worth by what other people were said to have offered for them; and when old I———could not get his price for a stone, he would swear that he had been offered that price for it by another dealer. Now, it is always an accepted fact that when a Jew takes his oath he may be believed, at any rate, by his co-religionists, and many a wavering customer was induced to give the sum named on the assurance that it was a legi- timate figure. But after a time it was found that 1———’s prices were a great deal more than the market price, and the buyers could not realize any profit on their transactions with him, so several of them agreed together to price his diamonds but not buy, and they found that he asked very much more than any of them cared to give, telling each of them the same old tale that he had been offered his price by a person in the trade.” Who this mysterious person in the trade was, who was always ready to give high prices but never

Scarcity of Women in Kimberley.

bought, they could not imagine; so they at last roundly told him that they would not believe him unless he produced the individual. In fact, they boy- cotted him; until he had to confess that he and his wife were partners, and that it was she who had priced his stones for him. This explanation cleared him of perjury, but lost him a great deal of custom, and he used to complain that no one but a Jew would have found him out.

But still the illicit buying and selling continued. “Vigilance Committees” were appointed by the miners, yet some of these self-elected detectives used their position rather to do a little business on their own account than with the object of discovering illicit dealing. Every other house in Kimberley was an hotel or a “canteen,” the proprietors of which were often the greatest offenders. At that time a white woman in Kimberley was scarcer than a black swan in London, and when such a rara avis was seen she was greeted with shouts and war-dances, while the diggers gathered around her and not infrequently presented her with diamonds. But among the few ladies” in the place was a Mrs. Pound, proprietress of the Rich- mond Hotel, which was a favourite resort of diamond buyers and diggers, under whose patronage mine hostess waxed rich, bank-notes becoming as plentiful as leaves on the trees. At last, however, she became so notorious that the Government was obliged to appoint her to the office of female inspector of the inside of the prison for a term of three years.

At that time, natives as well as whites were per- mitted to hold claims, but this right was taken away from them in 1875, when the Government took this

Floating Bubble Companies.

matter out of the hands of the Miners’ Committee, and appointed an official Mining Board, with a duly quali- fied surveyor. In the following year this board, with the object of abolishing the itinerant diamond-buyer, caused the penalty on buying without a licence to be raised from one to three years’ imprisonment, with the addition of a fine of 500l. But the illicit buying still throve, and the penalty was soon afterwards raised to five years’ imprisonment.

In 1881 the “share” mania set in, and companies were floated for as much as four times the value of the mines they were supposed to buy. Useless and valueless claims were put in for fabulous prices, some of which had never been diamond grounds. The public caught the infection, and bogus companies were floated, the shareholders in which, according to the proprietors, would soon realize enormous profits. But it was all imagination, and in less than a year over half of these companies were bankrupt—the working capital being completely swallowed up by the purchase of too expensive machinery, or in the vain endeavour to find diamonds where no diamonds had ever existed. Conse- quently the deluded shareholders cried out that the prospectuses were fraudulent, and attacked the pro- moters. But the promoters were equal to the occasion, and declared that the companies would have paid handsome dividends had it not been that the diamonds were stolen. This was a splendid defence, and, as some of the promoters were members of the board for the protection of the mining interest, they demanded further legislation; the result being that every dealer is compelled to keep a register of each diamond bought and sold, with particulars of its weight and of the

Illicit Diamond Buying.

person selling or buying it, to show his books to the detectives at all times, to render a monthly account of all his dealings, and to provide two sureties in the sum of 500l. each, which will be forfeited in case of his conviction, while the term of imprisonment has been increased from five to fifteen years. If a dealer’s register shows that he has bought 5000 carats and sold 4000 carats, and the balance in his book is found on inspection to be under or over the difference of 1000 carats, he is liable to conviction, even though he may have lost some of his diamonds, or have given them away, or have had others given to him. The effect of all these restrictions is that the legitimate diamond- traders are being driven out of the place by necessity, as the illegitimate traders keep away from choice. The English element has left some time, and the trade is now in the hands of a few Germans. The number of inhabitants diminishes as the monopoly increases, and the end will be that Kimberley will subside into a one- horse town. Yet the I.D.B., as the “illicit diamond- buyer” is called, flourishes still. He does not patronize Kimberley by making that town his permanent resi- dence, but lives just over the border, where the stringent laws enforced in Griqualand do not exist, and he will never be extirpated till the Orange Free State, the Cape Colony, Natal,—in fact, all parts of South Africa,—agree to adopt the same laws.

The Orange Free State border is only two miles from Kimberley, so that there are always plenty of opportunities of getting beyond the reach of the Diamond Trade Act. Now and then one of the regular I.D.B.’s gets caught. Not long before my arrival a man was arrested, just as he was getting into

Evils of the Detective System.

his cart to drive into Cape Colony, with. 3 lbs. weight of diamonds neatly secured in his overcoat; but for one caught there are scores in the enjoyment of liberty. The chief of the suspects is a rich man who is a registered claim-owner and broker. A favourite plan among the fraternity is to form a company, and buy a cheap claim, or to work up some of the old stuff that was only hand-sorted in the early days of the industry, and put their stolen diamonds into their “wash up sometimes, however, they have been too eager to get rich, and have been found out by washing too many diamonds out of ground which was known to be poor.

The Detective Department claims to have been successful not only in overtaking thieves of diamonds and recRivers of stolen diamonds, but in capturing no less than 16,474-¹/₂ carats weight of diamonds, valued at 32,471l. 12s. 3d; but seeing that it costs 40,000l. a year, or 4l per head on a population of 10,000, this is not a very magnificent result. It is admitted, how- ever, on all hands that the captures represent but a small proportion of the diamonds successfully ‘‘run,” as may be seen in the fact that a parcel in possession of one Joseph Jacobs, weighing 7162-³/₄ carats, and valued at 12,000l., had to be returned in consequence of a legal difficulty. But if the I.D.B.’s escape them, it is generally believed that the detectives make use of their powers in a reprehensible practice of trump- ing up cases, and endeavouring to trap people into purchasing diamonds illegally. Half of the time of

² The average value of a ton of good “blue” ground is about 30s., and the cost of getting it about 2s. 6d. When the mines are in full swing, each of them will draw up 1000 loads a day.

Treatment of the Kaffir.

the police is taken up in finding out some individual whom they may choose to “suspect,” and in getting up evidence to support their theory. Having marked down their prey, they will supply a nigger with diamonds, and tell him to go and sell “them to you —taking care to search him beforehand to see that he has no money on his person. The nigger knocks at your door, and, while asking if you want to buy a horse or a cow, drops a stone on the door-mat, in payment for which he has already been told that he will find some money on the window-sill, or verandah, where the detective has accordingly secreted it. You do not want a horse or a cow, and order the nigger to be off. As he retires to pick up the money, another policeman at once searches him, finds he now has money on his person, and you are charged with having bought the diamond, which is of course found lying on the floor. On this evidence the smartest lawyer will not prevent you getting five years’ hard labour.

One effect of such operations has been to encourage the natural craftiness of a native who has just been brought into touch with the “seamy side of civiliza- tion. The Kaffir cannot understand the mixed treat- ment to which he is subjected. Those interested in encouraging the illicit diamond-trade employ him as a purveyor of stolen goods. Those interested in putting down the illegal traffic employ him as a spy to get innocent people convicted. And yet if a Kaffir happens to come into a town looking for work, and knowing nothing of the white man’s laws innocently enters the streets naked, and not ashamed,” he is imme- diately arrested and “fined.” Seeing that he wears no clothes, he cannot have a pocket, and, as he is

Martyrs to Civilization.

innocent of either current coin or a cheque-book, he is locked up for a month in default of payment. When he comes Out he profits by his lesson so far as to cover his legs with a pair of old pants, and civilization is satisfied; but, if he does not find a master the same day, he is again arrested as a “vagrant,” and gets another day or two. The poor wretch is bewildered, and falls violently in love with the white man and his customs, and takes care to get somebody to give him a piece of paper certifying that he is in a situa- tion. He then goes to seek for some Kaffir friends of his at the mines, and finds his way into a compound. Arrested for being there without permission, or with unlawful intent,” he is charged, fined, and eventually gravitates again to the prison. Having served his time, he will probably return to his “master,” but finds that as he has been away “without leave” for a week his occupation’s gone “and the joyous round of the police-station, court-house, and prisoner’s cell begins once more.

Yet with all this experience of civilization he hardly ever grumbles, but is always to be found, whether in the streets or at work, singing and laughing—an occupation, by the way, which comes much more naturally to him than manual labour of any kind.

The natives in Kimberley are principally Basutos and Zulus—fine, stalwart specimens of humanity. Seen at work in the mines, in all the sweet simplicity of their dark skins, they are living bronze statues—as fine models of the human form divine as one would wish to see; but when they go into the streets, they become supremely ridiculous: an old hat, the taller and more battered the better, is stuck on the top of a

Green Hands.

dirty rag with which they always bind up the head; and as a covering for the body there is the choice of an old sack with a hole in the bottom, and another on each side, for the head and arms to pass through, of a torn shirt, or of a dilapidated pair of unmen- tionables. Sometimes, indeed, a Kaffir may be seen in the full glory of two, or even all three, of these garments united in a complete suit; and on such a scarecrow Mrs. Grundy looks with complacency, while the British Matron” declares that in her eyes it is a “thing of beauty and a joy for ever,” with which no Andromeda or Aphrodite in the Royal Academy can compare.

But this by the way. “While the law has aimed at the recRiver of stolen goods—and the recRiver who is always worse than the thief is in this case doubly so, because he is a white man, while the thief is black—the companies are endeavouring to reach the thief by hiring “green hands,” from Natal and Zulu- land, uncontaminated by the Kimberley atmosphere, and by building compounds in which the labourers are to be required to agree to live before they are hired, so that they will be perpetually under surveil- lance.

CHAPTER III.

The blasting of the blue—Down the crater—Searching the blacks—The washing-grounds—How the diamonds are unearthed—The sorting-tables—Judging the weight of a stone—Who are the diamond thieves?—Life in Kimberley—Its climate and its moral atmosphere—The mining pioneer.

ONE day Mr. English, the manager of the Standard Company, took us to see the “blasting of the blue.”

We took our place in a large iron bucket big enough to bold a ton of earth, suspended by four grooved wheels, two on each side, from two stout iron wires, which, supported at each end by wooden props, ran in a straight line down the steep slope for the distance of some 150 yards.

The shots are fired at dinner-time, when all the men are out of the mine, and it was a curious sight to see a long line of naked blacks clambering up a narrow, steep path from the lowest depths, 350 feet below: they looked at the distance like an army of ants in single file, or rather, with their shiny skins, like a stream of black water pouring up-hill. “

“I wish I had my camera here,” said Lulu; “I should like to have a picture of that human tide.”

“I would much rather have what those black thieves are bringing out with them,” said Mr. English. “Naked as they are, and closely searched as they will be before they leave the workings, they will carry off some hundreds of pounds’ worth between them.”

Diamond Swallowing.

“But how can they secrete the stones, if they have no clothes ? “

“Their hair will be searched, their ears examined, and every man will open his mouth for inspection, and perhaps not a single stone will be found: they carry them in a pretty safe place, for they swallow them. It is as much as a man’s liberty is worth to have a diamond in his possession without a permit or a licence to purchase; but the temptation is too great. I once knew a man to have a forty-carat stone in his possession: he was arrested and searched, but it could not be found. He had swallowed it, and so was put into prison under strict surveillance, and when there managed to swallow it a second time; but on dejecting it a second time he was detected, and is now doing his ten years on Cape Town breakwater.

“Sometimes the overseers are in league with the black diggers, so that it is most difficult to detect the thieves. Once we tried convict labour, which seemed to work admirably, till one day the gun of one of the overseers was found loaded with a full charge of diamonds for shot. A favourite trick of the I.D.B.’s was to commit a trivial offence so as to get into gaol for a day or two, when they had splendid opportunities of buying from the convicts and the overseers.”

By this time the bell was ringing as a signal that the shot was ready to be fired. In a few minutes after- wards a lurid flash was seen amid a great discharge of dust and stones mingled with smoke, followed by a long, low reverberation; then two, three, four blasts followed one another m rapid succession, and some tons of hard blue clay were loosened ready to be carried to the “floors.”

Diamond Farming.

What a grand picture that would have made!” cried Lulu. “If I could only get a photograph of an explosion like that ‘taken from life’!”

“Why, the concussion would smash your plates, if not your lens,” I replied. “You might as well sit on the top of Vesuvius and wait for an eruption, and expect to get safely down again.’’

Presently the black labourers came back, and began loading the earth that had been loosened by the ex- plosion into the big iron buckets, in which it was hauled up the wire tramway, one bucket going up full and another coming down empty. We returned the same way we had come—in one of these big buckets—the usual method of ascent and descent. ‘Sometimes a mistake is made in the signals and the passengers are dumped like dirt down a shoot some twenty feet deep. I was determined not to be thus ignominiously treated if I could help it, and took the precaution of making myself as conspicuous as possible, and of seizing the wire as we approached the summit; but fortunately we were served with the respect due to animated earth, and the brake put on in good time.

The hard, flinty clay cannot be treated at once. It is left exposed for a time to the atmosphere on the ‘‘floors.” Some of these are ten or fifteen acres in extent, and each company has altogether hundreds of acres for the treatment of the earth. In the wet season the rain assists disintegration; but in the dry weather the process is hastened by frequent sprinklings with water from a hose; and when the lumps begin to get soft a harrow is run over the mass. It is just like irrigating and cultivating a farm, only the seed is gold and the crops are diamonds.

Diamond Washing.

It takes about three months before the stuff is fit to wash, when it is loaded into iron boxes running on a narrow tramway, and hauled away by horses up an incline to the washing-machine. Here each little trolly dumps its load into a hopper, from which it is passed over a grating just narrow enough to retain the large stones. Here a man stands with a hose, and gives the “blue” a good dosing, so that it falls away in the form of liquid mud into the ‘‘washers” underneath. These are circular pans about eighteen inches deep, in which revolve four paddles armed with teeth, driven by steam-power. All the gravel and stones sink to the bottom, and the mud flows off, carry- ing with it the lighter debris, into a small canal, which conducts it to a reservoir where a bucket-pump lifts the muddy water to the upper level, where it is again utilized, while the precipitated mud is carried away by trams, and goes to swell the size of the great embank- ment of debris outside.

As the rotary workers get filled with stones a little iron tram-car is drawn underneath them, and the con- tents emptied into it. The car is then locked up, run up another incline to another hopper, where it deposits its precious burden, which undergoes a second washing in another water. This consists of a long cylinder formed in sections, each about six feet long, and com- posed of wirework, the meshes of each section gradu- ally increasing in size. Above the cylinder runs a pipe, perforated with quarter-inch holes two inches apart, through which water constantly flows. As the cylinder rotates the smallest stones fall through the first section, the next size through the second, and so on till the largest stones only are left to reach the

D

Sorting the Stones.

further end, where two men are on the watch for the big diamonds.

The stones, thus roughly sorted according to size, fall from the cylinder into a row of boxes called the “pulsator,” into which water is forced through a valve in the bottom, thus carrying off all light refuse matter, leaving the diamonds and gravel at the bottom, whence they are periodically dropped into an iron box with a sieve bottom, in which they are carried by two blacks to a hydrant and subjected to a final cleansing by a strong stream of water, before being taken to the sorting-shed adjoining.

Here, at a row of tables, sit the sorters, scraping the heaps of gravel towards them with a piece of tin, pick- ing out the diamonds and putting them into the bottom of a broken beer-bottle at their side.

The very small stuff—that which passes through the finest part of the cylinder—is sorted three or four times, and even then all the stones are not secured, so small are they. I took up a handful from a refuse heap, and picked out two tiny crystals—both perfect octahedrons, though hardly visible.

It would be a great advantage if some method could be devised for treating the blue earth as soon as it is blasted, and the inventor will make a fortune who con- structs a machine that will obviate the necessity for hauling the stuff backwards and forwards to and from the vast irrigation floors. These are too extensive to be fenced in, and have to be watched night and day; and the cost of this, added to the cost of haulage, is one of the principal items of expense.

Some steps towards concentrating the various pro- cesses have already been taken, the Central Company

Diamonds Classified.

having a machine in which the rotary washer and the “pulsator” are combined; but the great desideratum is a means of doing away with what I call the “irri- gation floors.”

When the wash-up is finished, the manager comes along, picks up the broken bottles, turns the contents out into his hand, and puts them into his pocket, to take them to the office, where they are sorted and classed according to the following order:—

1. Crystals (perfect octahedrons).

2. Cape whites.

3. First by- waters (light yellow).

4. Second by- waters (dark yellow).

5. Melees (mixed, from two carats down).

6. Mackerel (flat stones).

7. Cleavage (stones with flaws, spots, &c.).

8. Chips (broken pieces).

9. Fancies (stones that are neither white nor yel- low, but brown, pink, grey, or black. Some of them are valuable, when perfect, because of their rarity.

10. Refections (rubbish).

11. Boart (a kind of compound diamond, nearly black, used for cutting and polishing other stones).

There is a stone called smoky diamond,” which nearly always breaks to pieces when exposed to the light. I saw one break in the sorter’s hands. All sorts of means have been tried to preserve them—such as putting them into potatoes, &c. —but without effect.

The average value of the stones as they come from the mine is about 1l. per carat. The crystals, some of which are equal to the best Brazilian stones, are worth from 3l. to 8l. in the rough; others from 5s. to 3l. per carat. Picking up one or two stones I asked their

D 2

Who Steals the Diamonds?

weight and value, and then guessed the weight of others, hitting it off to the sixteenth of a carat—to the astonishment of the manager, who said there were not two dealers on the fields that could guess the weight so closely.

You’d better not be too clever,” said Lulu, or you’ll be had up for an I.D.B. next.”

The minutiæ of the system of diamond-digging at Kimberley may perhaps not be so interesting to my readers as to me: one of my objects in coming to South Africa was to discover a diamond-mine—what success attended my search will be related further on— and it was necessary for me to know how to work my mine when I discovered it. Whatever else I might do, I felt competent to run “ a mine when I came across it, and I fancied I could deal even with the I.D.B. difiiculty quite easily. Having carefully watched the blacks at work in the mine and on the washing- floors, I could not bring myself to believe that they had much to do with stealing the million sterling worth of diamonds that are said to be stolen yearly. I tried to steal a diamond myself, that is to say, I looked most carefully, time after time, over the “blue” as it lay on the irrigation floors, in the hope of seeing a stone, but failed, and it did not seem to me possible, except on the rarest chance, for a nigger to find a diamond between the time of blasting and the sorting-table. Still, I came to the conclusion that anybody who owns a diamond-mine had better work it himself, if he is to be free from the nightmare of “I.D.B.” Of course, the organization of the companies has tended to economy of labour and increase of efficiency, but it has removed all the direct personal supervision of the

Tons of Diamonds.

actual owners. When one sees the nonchalant way in which the managers toss the result of the day’s wash-up into their waistcoat-pocket, one remembers the princely pay they receive, and reflects that such salaries would keep a professional thief honest. Of course, therefore, it can’t be the overseers and managers; I don’t believe it’s the niggers; so it seems difficult to understand how anything like a million’s worth of diamonds can be stolen yearly. Neither can I under- stand that in the fifteen years of Kimberley some 45,000,000l. have been dug out of the ground, and yet there are not three wealthy people in the town.

The evil of the I.D.B. will no doubt be to some extent checked by the tendency of the companies to amalgamate under pressure of the reef difficulty and of the peculiarities in the natural formation of the mine. The result of amalgamation would be that the diamonds would pass through fewer hands, and that there would consequently be fewer facilities for the operations of the I.D.B.’s. Concentration, however, means mono- poly, and monopoly means a diminution of that com- petition which has made Kimberley what it is. It has been said that “God made the country and man the town,” to which may be added that diamonds made Kimberley, for I cannot conceive of anybody making Kimberley his home who was not attracted thither by the lustre of its reputation as a sort of Tom Tiddler’s ground. Not that 1 mean to say that I.D.B.’s are a desirable, or even a necessary, institution; but that, when the whole business of diamond-mining and dia- mond-selling is under the absolute control of a small body of monopolists, the money that is eventually realized will change hands elsewhere than at Kimberley,

Price of Provisions.

and what that town gains in respectability she will lose in importance and population.

The climate, as a climate, may not be unhealthy, but the country, waterless and almost treeless, has no charms in itself. In the summer the thermometer is frequently as high as 140° in the sun, and has been known as high as 150°. The streets are in a state of nature, and when a trek-waggon, with its four-score hoofs, ploughs through the dust, you might as well be in a sandstorm on the Sahara at once. When the wind blows across the heaps of debris from the mines, the town is filled with clouds of white dust like a petrified London fog, that fairly blinds and chokes you. As for houses, the tin-kettle establishments reflect the rays of the sun outwardly, and bottle them up inwardly,, so that it is hard to say whether the stifling heat of the interior or the blinding glare of the exterior is the worse. As for provisions, the following is a list of some of the prices ruling when I was there:—

Potatoes, 225. per bag.

Oats, 325. per bag.

Maize, 525. per bag.

Large sacks of straw, used, as forage (called chaff), weighing I6O lbs., 21s.

Grapes, 1s. per lb.

Melons, from 1s. to 3s. 6d. each.

Tobacco, 2s. 6d a roll of 2¹/₂ lbs.

Wheat, 36s. per sack of 200 lbs.

Onions, 22s. per bag.

Small fowls, from 2s. 6d. to 3s.

Wood was dearer than all else. A load of about 1000 lbs. sold for 18l. to 20l., and at one time would have fetched 40l.

As to the moral atmosphere of Kimberley, what I have said will sufficiently show that it cannot be classed as very first-rate. It may be said that there

The Morals of Kimberley.

are but three really flourishing institutions in the town—the Detective Department, the cemetery, and the gaol; but, notwithstanding that I would sum up the character of the place in that way, I must join issue with the sweeping statements made by a recent writer on the subject. Mr. Stanley Little, in his book on “South Africa,” says of Kimberley, that from beginning to end the diamond-fields of South Africa have been the hot-beds of rowdyism, and all that is revolting in human nature may be found there. The libertines, forgers, bird-catchers, and outcasts of Europe have found an asylum there, as in Alsatia of old. The Houndsditch Jew and the London rough reign supreme. . .The bully is in the ascendant, he lords it over all. As to the moneyed men on the fields, is it a libel to say that most of them owe their wealth either to illicit diamond-buying or to taking advantage of the necessities or inex- perience of unfortunate diggers?. . .The social life of Kimberley has become so utterly low and repugnant, that the decent man at length flies from it in disgust, as he would from the confines of a lazar-house. The vices of drinking, swearing, cursing, bullying, lying, cheating, and all kinds of utter abomination permeate society, I was going to say from top to bottom, but in such a community one can scarcely say which is the top and which is the bottom.”

Like Denver or Leadville, San Francisco or Ba- thurst, and other great mining centres which have held out the hope of sudden wealth to the digger, Kimber- ley has attracted numbers of the very scum and dregs of mankind; but, in applying the above expres- sions to Kimberley in its present state, I am bound

The Mining Pioneer.

to say that Mr. Little somewhat lets his zeal outrun his discretion—or rather his imagination ride rough- shod over facts. The description given by him may have been true enough in the first days of diamond- digging. The class of desperado that he pictures as the sole denizen of the fields is the pioneer of all un- appropriated lands whose mineral riches hold out the prospect of immediate fortune to the first-comer. The better class of people will not rough it, or take the desperate chances of a great rush. But as the popu- lation increases, and the mining population is suc- ceeded by provision-dealers, builders, engineers, and so forth, as the success of the “rush” is perma- nently established, laws become necessary, rooting out the extreme rough and making the place tolerable for a better class of people, who come to invest as well as to dig. The single digger, working on his own luck, is tempted to surrender his claim for ready cash, and the claims get into fewer hands; the provident digger, who sees a prospect of making a profit by steady work, remains; whilst the “last chance” man rushes off” on another forlorn hope; and so order is gradually evolved out of chaos. Hence, whatever Kimberley may have been, its present condition is not so bad as is pictured by Mr. Little. It is true that the extraordinary opportunities of theft which a diamond-mine must always offer cannot fail to attract an unusual number of blacklegs and vagabonds with an eye to the off-chance. A valuable pebble can be easily secreted on the person, or even swallowed at a pinch, and hence Kimberley may be expected to always have more than its fair proportion of dregs among its humanity. But I have met there some of

Temptations.

the kindest, most straightforward, hospitable, and educated gentlemen, who are doing all they can to improve the tone of the place.

Not that there is not room for such efforts. In the anxiety to become rich even the finest consciences become dulled, the most delicate susceptibilities are blunted—and the more delicate and the finer a thing is the more likely it is to suffer from contact with the rough and the rude. “Evil communications corrupt good manners,” and though a man with gentlemanly feelings and delicate instincts is horrified at the sur- roundings of a newly developed “diggings,” yet constant contact—even constant warfare—with them can hardly fail to have a baneful effect on his normal standard of morality. Yet to apply to such men the opprobrious epithets quoted above is a libel— none the less serious because promiscuous and not individual .

CHAPTER IV.

A dangerous experiment—A mimic volcano in eruption—Packing up —Starting for the Kalahari—A Bastard encampment—A big bag of partridges—Making friends with the Boers—A good investment—A South African Crusoe—”Lots of trees”—A massacre of the innocents.

Going back to the hotel one day, after spending the morning listening to Mr. English’s explanation of the ins and outs of diamond-mining, I missed Lulu and his camera. It was about noon, the hour at which the dinner-bell rings. ‘‘He’s off after that mad scheme of photographing the blast,” I thought; and, hurrying out, met the overseer, who told me that my surmise was correct. He had warned Lulu of the danger of making the attempt; but the impetuous youth had made up his mind, and nothing could stop him. Hastening down to the mine, I reached the edge of the reef just as the first discharge took place, and the air was so full of smoke and dust that I could not see to the bottom of the crater. As the air cleared, I turned my glasses down the pit, and there, right away at the bottom, looking at that distance not much bigger than a child, stood Lulu, holding the tripod. “Boom!” went another explosion; and a perfect hail of gravel, mingled with huge chunks of clay, fell around him. When next I saw him he was on one knee, still close to the camera. He must be hurt,” I thought. “Why did he not take shelter in one of those

Photographing an Explosion.

iron tramcars into which the men who fire the time- fuse retire?” I was about to run down to him, when out thundered the roar of another charge. Once more the storm of dust and stone, rising some 300 or 400 feet into the air, concealed him from my view for some moments. Then I could see that one of the legs of the tripod was broken. Yet, holding it with one hand, he was changing the plate with the other. I ad- mired his pluck—which I had never doubted—but I did not think any picture in the world worth such a risk. There was a pile of timber beside him. Surely he would try and take shelter behind this before another explosion occurred? But no! There he stood, patiently waiting for the discharge, as calmly as if he were in his studio at home. Another tongue of flame, another cloud of dust and débris, another thundering roar, and a fresh charge, apparently heavier than all the others, was fired, I could wait no longer. Without stopping to see the result, I hurried down, fearful for his safety if regardless of my own. But fortunately this was the last discharge. He was unhurt; only the tripod was broken.

“You see that big rock there,” he said, pointing to a piece about as big as a table. That was among the lot that fell when the leg of the tripod was smashed. I thought the whole camera was gone, and what a fix we should be in, for we could not get another in this country.”

“Never mind the camera,” I said. “If it had hit you, what a fix I should have been in, I couldn’t get another Lulu in this country, or any other.”

“Ah, well! never mind that. Just hold this while I take the camera off the stand. I think I’ve got

Climbing out of the Mine.

some splendid views, especially after the last shot, with all the dust and stuff in the air. In this strong light it ought to come out splendidly. It is the only picture of the kind, and was worth a leg—let alone a tripod—to secure.”

It was terribly hot, standing in that artificial crater, the sides of which reflected the burning rays of the red-hot mid-day sun. The “trucks” would not be run- ning for an hour, and lunch would be waiting for us before then; so there was nothing for it but to shoulder the camera and plate-holders and to scramble up the steep sides, following the tracks which the bare-footed Kaffirs had trodden in their journeys up and down.

“I’m frying!” exclaimed Lulu, as, half-way up, he threw himself on a rock. We shall be quite roasted before we get to the top.”

“But think of the pictures,” I replied, trying to look cool, though I confess to never having felt hotter outside a Turkish bath.

That night the waggon was finished, and brought round to the market square, and directly afterwards the message came that the mules had been newly shod, and were all waiting at the farm, with their driver “Jan.” Jan was a half-breed “boy,” formerly in the employment of Mr. Caldecott, from whom I “bought” him along with the mules. This “boy” was flat-nosed, bald-headed, round-shouldered, of the mature age of about forty-five, small of stature, with big brown eyes set in a wrinkled face, which was fringed with lanky, unkempt black hair. He was a native of St. Helena, and at a short distance so nearly resembled a European as to clearly indicate the existence of European blood in his veins. Everything