THE SOUTH AFRICAN GOLDFIELD

Grey River Argus, Volume IX, Issue 707, 30 July 1870, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE SOUTH AFRICAN GOLDFIELD

[BRISBANE EXPRESS.]

A few days ago a gnld digger, named Henry Lund, on his way from South Africa to Gympie, looked in on us. ' He called in passing to give us his opinion of the Scriptural Ophir, the Eldorado of the Portuguese and the Quatin gold diggings of the Land Colonisation Society of Natal, and his opinion of this famous place is a very bad one. It appears that Mr Lund, who was digging at Gympie, heard of Herr Manchs extraordinary discoveries, and carried away, as were a great many more in various parts of the world, by the startling news in the Natal papers, he formed one of a party of diggers that left a very satisfactory certainty in Australia in search of a very magnificent, but, as it turned out delusive prospect in South Africa. Lund and his mates landed at Durban, and after some delay in Natal, pushed on for the " Laud of Promise," . which, after leaving the British settlements, passing through a Dutch Boer Republic) and many eventful days and nights, they found at last, nine hundred miles from the sea coast, in the Baauto country. There were thirty-four in the party to which Lund belonged, and they left Durban provided with waggons drawn by bullocks, on which were curied their rations, digging tools, arms, and ammunition. Before starting, however, it seems that they had already learned that many of the tales told in the Natal papers were considerably in excess of the truth, and a man named Watson, at one time a digger in Australia, so far fell under their displeasure, that he was ducked at the town pump in Durban. A party of the Cape Mounted Rifles, called out to preserve the peace, witnessed the

proceeding, but did not interfere. One of the preliminaries to starting for the Quatin was that each man should procure a "protection" or passport, from His Excellency the Lieulenant-Governor of Natal. " . The country passed through, and even the changes of climate endured in getting to the Quatin, varied very considerably. Part of the route lay across mountains such as the Draschenberg, at an elevation of 6000 feet, and a good deal of it in the Dutch Free State, was through a country entirely timberless. Mr Lund says that not even a bush is to be found and that for fuel recourse is had to the droppings of the cattle passing over the country. From Durban to Rusteriberg, 450 miles inland, water was plentiful all the way ; beyond that a supply was not easily obtained. On a river called the Warisco, a tributary of the Limpopo, traces of gold were found. This river is the boundary, as it were, of white settlement, and after passing it, the party got into the Basuto country. On the banks of the creeks and rivers, their most troublesome opponent was a small poisonous fly called the tsetze. Cattle are particularly affected by its bite, and sometimes die from the iuflammation it produces. Shortly after entering the Basnto country, they arrived at a native settlement called Matchen's Kraal, where a sort of first lieutenant of the chief, a whitejman, demanded toll of LI per head from the men. This they refused to pay, and passed on, Mr Gordon not earing to try force with them. Of tho Quatin itself, which they arrived at little the worse for their journey, Mr Lund speaks in any but favorable terms. ' The locality represented to the explorers as gold-bearing is of considerable extent, and, geologically considered, is rather " likely country." It appeared, however, to have been worked both lor alluvial gold and quartz reefs at some distant period. In many places large patches of ground have fallen in as though old shafts previously sunk had given way. Mr Lund prospected the country for four months, but neither he nor any of his party got any gold, and he says he does not know of anyone who was more fortunate. He denounces the representations of the Natal newspapers as lies from first to last, and says that more than ten ounces altogether of native gold has never found its way to Durban. He with other Australian diggers returned to these colonies last month in a vessel called the Tein Esser, having spent a good deal of money and gained some curious experience. No doubt he is by this time at Gympie, where we wish him better luck.