THE AFRICAN GOLD FIELDS.

Grey River Argus, Volume VII, Issue 489, 4 March 1869, Page 3

THE AFRICAN GOLD FIELDS.

THE " VICTORIA" DIGGINGS. (From the Natal Mercury, Dec. 19. ) Our first impression on receipt of a telegram from Maritzburg yesterday, announcing the discovery of gold, was that the news might be too good to be true. This morning the overland mail is to hand, and we have been favored with the following letter from Mr Davenhill to, Major Er^kine. Mr Davenhill left for the Tatin about three' months ago : — « Tatin, Nov. 2, 1868. " Dear Sir^— Corbet and I arrived here (the place, where Black was working) on the 20th of last month, and have been joined by eleven diggers from Potchefstroom. Two of the party volunteered to go up to the head men of the Matabele, to ask permission to dig, and while they were away the rest of us sank several shafts in a small gully near old quartz workings. We were successful in finding alluvial gold in small quantities in every place we tried. The gold is very fine, and will require quicksilver to save the whole of it. Even without cradle or quicksilver, we got a number of small specks in every pan washed. Out of ten buckets of washdirt from the bottom of one shaft, we got two grains of alluvial gold, and should have washed thrice the | quantity out of the same stuff with cradle and quicksilver. While engaged in making a cradle yesterday morning, our messengers returned with orders for us to clear out immediately, as the Matabele will not allow gold digging in their territory. Moselekatse, the Metabele King, is dead, and is succeeded by his son Kuruman, and of course it is not yet known whether he is friendly to the whites or not. Matchen's territory extends only to Shashi, so his compelling us to pay a gold digging licence of Ll was a robbery, this country undoubtedly belonging to the Matabele. You must bear in mind that we have only tried one small gully, and found alluvial gold ; and if we were allowed to go on prospecting a few miles further, 1 have not the slightest doubt but we should find it in payable quantities. We go back across the Shashi (the boundary) to-morrow, and the diggers will track home again, as they are not in a position to remain idle long. Corbet and I, however, will remain to prospect in the ' fly,' towards the Limpopo, which country is claimed by Matchen. We have been unlucky enough to lose our oxen, so the tsetse will not trouble us much, as we shall have to be on foot. We intend remaining till we hear from Natal. The country beyond the Tate looks more likely for gold than any we have seen south of it. The Matabele will take no notice of private individuals, but if a man were sent by Government with power to treat with them for the right of prospecting and digging for gold in the gold-yielding district, I am sure it would be easy to come to some arrangement with fiem ; as they (the Matabele themselves) express it —-'They would consider a message from Queen Victoria, but will have no talk with children and poor men.' The great obstacle is the fear the natives have of persons—especially Boers — settling in and eventually taking their country from . them. I hope the Government will see the advisability of taking immediate steps in the matter, as without there is no chance of obtaining further information. P.S.— The failure of Pink's, the second prospecting party, is entirely owing to their looking in only the most unlikely places. We have, found near the Tate numbers of old gold workings, from which quantities of quartz have beenremoved." OurPotchefstrooracorrespondent,under date 9th inst., writes: — " After a long interval, we have received some good news again yesterday. Mauch is safe, and the next Marico post may bring information whether he succeeded in discovering the much talked of ruins. Be that as it may, he certainly has explored a tract of country hitherto totally unknown. From the Victoria diggings the news is that, alluvial gold lias been found at last, before the arrival of any ofj the quartz-crushers."

Corbet further writes : — ' ' Now, tho only thing to be done is, use every endeavor to get tho Government (English) to take it up. Davenhill and I remain in Matchen's country until we hoar from Natal if Government will talce it up." Luckily, the apprehension of Kaffir interference turned out a false alarm. Everything is quiet at Mqselekatse's. Thp new king is as reasonable as could be expectpd, and he. had not even yet arrived at the " head 'kraal" to take up the reins of government. Jleassured by this news, Davenhill and Corbet, together with Villiers and Chapman, aud all %\iq other parties from Natal, will now be quietly at work again. Villiers is said to have made a capital find, aud Davenhill had stacked a huge pile of "washdirt" towards the first rain.

In a conversation we had yesterday with the Australian party, they appear to entertain fears as to supplies at the Victoria diggings, wl>ich we scarcely think wellfounded. At first, possibly, there might be a little difficulty with a rush, but once thg field proves a paying one, provisions will be ample. Com being the natural production of the neighboring republic, the staff of life at all events is within reach ; whilst the Transvaal, Cape, and Natal merchants and traders will find their interest in furnishing other provisions, apparel, &c. Still, we find it a, duty to reiterate the note of warning that experience has. taught the newcomers to sound.' They say in effect that since there appears to be a possibility of paying diggings being opened, the commercial community principally should be alive to their own inteiests as wejl as. the interest of the colony. If the later news as to alluvial diggings bo confirmed as to quantity, it will be necessary for their speedy development that the merchants of Durban and Maritzburg should send up supplies and open stores at the diggings. Tlie gain to the individual miner is not proportionate to his expenses, neither has he, generally speaking, means to provide himself except from hand to mouth. He is prepared to undergo hardships to reach the diggings, but needs the assurance that he will there be supplied with provisions, even at high prices. The miner would then be able to start from Natal with limited means, because once on the gold fields he knows he could purchase what he wants out of his weekly earnings. The storekeeper would command good prices with little risk, and there would be no plea for loafers to lag behind in this colony. The influx of miners into Natal cannot but confer eventful benefit on the colony ; at the same time are we preparing for the contingency? We have before pointed to it, and the desirability of an organisation to meet it. With the experience of Australia and California before us, we ought not to be taken unawares if the rush should come. We do not say that there i 3 anything yet to warrant such an inroad in this direction, but once the " gold fever" sets in, there will be no stopping it. Captain Black, of the Potchefstroom Pioneer Party, has arrived in Durban. He came down here to await the arrival of the mail steamer in which the members of the London and Limpopo Company are coming up. He has reiterated to us his belief in the richness of the gold fields at the Tatin ; says his party found alluvial gold there^ but only in small quantities, as they were obliged to return to Potcheistroom sooner than they intended on account of their provisions becoming scanty, and partly because of the petty disagreements amongst some members of the party. He intends to return to the gold fields as soon as possible, but he will then go six days' journey beyond the scene of his former operation down to the Shash, where there are small rivers more easily prospected than the larger ones at the Tatin. He is not at all surprised at the news that alluvial gold has been discovered at the Tatin, because he fully believed it existed in the locality.

TUGELA DIGGINGS, (From the Times of Natal.) We have received the following letter from Mr F.. B. Hill :— " We arrived all safe at the Kaffir chiefs' with the waggons, after three days' trekking, and found a good road all the way. We did not go through Greytown, but crossed the old drift on the Umvoti, and after getting to the. top of the cutting on the Fort Buckingham-road, took the first road to the left, which brought us straight to the place, and I think is nearer than by Greytown. It is the direct road to Philip Nel's farm, which is not far from Som-_ hase's kraal. We commenced a hole on Monday afternoon, and in a couple of days got through the boulders to the bed. rock. The boulders were large, but our machinery worked well, and we got them out without much trouble. Immediately on the bed we came on a reef of quartz lying alongside of the slate. Mr Deas and Mr Hill were present at the time, being just about to, sjart for their farms, and they took specimens of the quartz along with them. I must tell you that we have not seen the slightest indications of gold, although the formation would lead us to suppose that gold may yet be turned up. There are quartz reefs cropping up in many places about here, but it will be some time before they can be thoroughly examined. We have for the present stopped digging, as we find it necessary to put up a hut. Mr Button is busy making a canvas boat, as the Kaffirs report large quartz reefs a short way up the Buffalo, which joins the Tugela about a quarter of a mile above this, but the Tugela has to be crossed to reach them. Mr Button and Mr Bell will take a trip in that direction, while I go on with the diggings here. We have some specimens of different kinds of rocks, which will be sent for inspection to Tattersall's the first opportunity we have; but we don't send .them as containing gold, as we can see none in them ourselves. Besides our party and Stewart's, there is another here under Mr Lake. They have found nothing yet, but have not got far down. We got all our things carried safely through the bush by the Kaffirs ; it took upwards of eighty, and our large tubs are at present left at the Kaffir chief's, as the Kaffirs know the best path, and will save a great amount of rough walking and riding. The weather here is generally very hot during the day, but a breeze generally springs up towards evening, when it is nice aud cool. We are just sending a few specimens to the committee at Greytown-Hjome from our reef, some from the bottom of Stewart's hole, and some from the reef 3 which crop up in the neighborhood. "Since writing tho above, wo have suc-

ceeded in finding gold in the small pieces of quartz which we took fronr your reef. It has been seen by all the good folks of Greytown. Of course, from such a small quantity of quartz the quantity of gold is small, but still it proves the rcof to be gold-bearing." On this su bj ect a Greytown c< >rrespond enl. writes us: — " With reg;ird to the reported gold discoveries in our locality, some 31b. of quartz weve crushed on Saturday evening, and our hopes raised to the highest pitch by discovering a small quantity of something resembling, but what turned out not to be, gold. Dr. Armstrong has distinctly pronounced it not to be the precious metal."

A digger who has just returned to Melbourne from Natal desires to warn miners from leaving for those African fields. He say 3 his own experience was unfavorable. He had seen Mr Black, the leader of one of the prospectiug pai-ties, who said he should not return to the diggings on any account. He and a party of thirteen men had been there for six months, and only got one halkounce of gold. He had fever twice, and was glad to get back alive within the settlements. Stories were told in Natal of washdirt being stacked, but that was unlikely, as the rainy season was then on. He encloses an extract from the Natal Mercury, which writes unfavorably, saying :-^" Writing now in the middle of December, and many months after the news of the { dazzling' richness of the Tatin gold fields first reached Natal from tho interior, we have to say that as yet gold lias not been obtained in quantities sufficient to pay for the labor expended. It has been dug at the Tatin, in the interior, and at the Umtwalumie and the Tugela in Natal under somewhat promising circumstances. What the future may develop we know not, but hope for the best. Of one thing we are certain — we are neither prepared for an indiscriminate rush of gold-digger 3to our shores, nor has anything as yet been proved to warrant guch a rush, Jf men choose to come here — knowing these things, and desirous of ascertaining what is the true value of the recent gold discoveries — they will be welcome, and we shall all wish them God speed, and assist them to the utmost ot our power ; but if they come misled by romantic speculations about the ancient Ophir —by prophecies, after the fact, of scientific men greedy of notoriety — by false aud exaggerated newspaper reports, we can only pity their illfortune."