THE DIAMOND FIELDS OF SOUTH AFRICA.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1291, 26 November 1886, Page 3

THE DIAMOND FIELDS OF SOUTH AFRICA.

In 1867, a trader named O, Reilly was passing through Barely, a small village on the banks of the Vaal River, where ho slept- in the house of a Dutchman named Van Niekirk, and saw 5 the. children playing with, a bright sparkling pebble The stone struck him as being something curious and he begged it from Van Niekirk, who did not like to take it away from the children,, but eventually parted with it for the sum of five pounds. He also /told O’Reilly that he seen several of those kind of had pe.libles in the hands Of the native chiefs who kept them tor charms. O’Reilly some weeks afterwards turned up in Orahamstown, and shewed the stone to Mr Galpin and Dr Atbipv stone; they both declared it to be a diamond of the first water, and it was afterwards sold to Sir Philip Wodes house, the Governor of the colony, for the sum of L2OO. It weighed about 31 carats. The. news spread, but was ijot believed at'first, and it was 1869 before any numoer of people were at Rarkly, Pneil, and Gong-Gong, dig* ging away in the River bed .removing enormous boulders, and finding dia moods in fairly large quantities amongst the most beautiful pebbles and garnets, agates, and cornelians ; tbe presence of garnets being almost a guarantee of the proximity of tbe diamond. In 1869 was found the first large diamond, called the Star of South Africa. It is pear-shaped, and weighed 83|carats in the rough. Messrs Lilinfeld Bi others, of Hope Town, purchased it for LI 1,000. They were afterwards offered L 40,000 for it in Port Elizabeth, hut thinking it was worth quite LIOO.OOO, refused to sell it, and eventually sold it to Hunt and Uoskell for L 20,500, who in their turn sold it to Lord Dudley, and about twelve years ago it could be seen in a tiara of Lady Dudley’s which was exhibited in the South Kensington Museum. Then Mr Spalding found his diamond weighing 587 carats, slightly off colored. Thousands now flacked to the river diggings, and prosperity began in all directions. It is strange but true, that all the great discoveries of minerals and precious stones have been by pure accident, and the case 1 am about to relate was no exception to the rule. The prospectors found nothing, but early in 1870 the camp was startled by a report that a shepherd named Van Wyk, on the farm Bultontein, tbe proi>erty of a Boer, bad picked up some diamonds on the ground wbeie he Was tending his master’s flocks. This was thirty miles from Darkly, due south, and on the borders of the Orange Free State. There was an exodus from Barkly ; tbe farmer and his family had to give the place up, the ground was turned over, diamonds were found in fairly large quantities, and the very house on the farm was pu led down, and diamonds found in the mud walls. The excitement increased. The Cape Town Government sent up some soldiers, and , Sic Owen Lanyon was put in command. Prospecting now went on in earnest, and almost immediately diamonds were found on the farm Dorsfontein, now known as Dutoispan and afterwards ou part of the farm Vooruitzigt, now known as De Beers. The farms wet e soon transferred; Bultfontein and Dutoitsp.in-were acquired for tbe sum of L 6,00!) by the South Africa Exploration Company— a company which for years past has paid yearly dividends. Sometimes to the extent ot LIOO,OOO. The Colonial Government purchased Vooruitzigt for LIOO,OOO in 1572, I may as well state by way of parenthesis that the Free Stale claimed the ground on which these mines are situated as part oi the Free State whilst the Colonial Government on the other hand proclaimed them to bo part of Griqualand West. Protest after protest was made by J ohn Brand tbe president oi the' Free State, to the Colonial Government, and after some five years of litigation. Brand went to England to try and get redress from the English Government, which settled his claim for she sum of LOO,OOO and the hcn’ot; of knighthood, and ever afterwards the field became the undisputed projierty of the British Crown. The whole of this part of the country is quite fiat, relieved only occasionally hv little knolls, called in Dutch “ kopje;” . It was in these risings from the surface of the plain, that the vast mineral wealtn was concealed ; the in dications which were speedily recognised being small white chalk-stones, yellow sandy bonkers, and lumps of iron stone,—G J Eathan, in Longman’s for September. •