CAPE DIAMOND MINES.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume II, Issue 109, 31 March 1871, Page 3

CAPE DIAMOND MINES.

We have Natal papers to January 21, but they contain little news except relative to the diamond mines on the Vaal. The Port Elizabeth diggers were mostly returning from the diamond fields until the hot season was over. They pronounced the heat to be intense, and some had nearly lost their eyesi.-.hi. from the glare of the sun. .Some of the returned diggers give deplorable accounts of the poverty and distress occasioned, as it seems, by j many goingto the diggings utterly un- ' provided with the means of waiting for fortune, A good deal of uneasiness was expressed owing to the news that thousands of people were reported to be leaving England for the diamond fields, and it was feared that, should such an influx take place, a great deal of misery would be the result. A paper called the ' Diamond News.' has come into existence, which contains many items that remind one very much of the early days of the Victorian diggings. Thus we observe that quite a feature is ,made of the arrival of the first piano on | the fields. Mr. Rodtrnan, the fortuj nate finder of an 81 carat diamond, had ! been working nearly six months without any luck, and, having worked downi to the bottom of his provision supply, was thinking of quitting the fields, when suddenly he struck upon this fine stone. The end of the old year was celebrated by wild orgie«, men drinking, guns firing all night, and all kinds of uproar.