THE VICTORIA GOLD-FIELDS

Southland Times, Issue 1114, 26 February 1869, Page 2

THE VICTORIA GOLD-FIELDS

(FROM THE " NATAL MERCTTET." DEC. 19.)

I Our first impression on receipt of a telegram from Maritzbur:? yesterday, announcing the discovery of sold, was that the news m'urht be too good to be true. This mornin g the overland mail is to hand, and we have been favoured with the folio wiug letter from Mr Davenhill to Major Er3kine. Mi 1 Davenhill left for the Tatin about three months ago : — Taun, Nov. 2, 186 S. " Dear Sir, — Corbet and I arrived here (the place where Blick was working) on the 20th of last month, and have been joined by eleven dig {era from Potchefstroom. Two of the -party volunteered to go up to the head men of the Mafcabele, to ask permission to dig, and while they wore away the rest of us sank several sha r ts 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 wrhoufc cradle or quicksilver, we got a number of small specks in every pan w ished. Out of ten buckets of washdirt from the bottom of one shaft, we got two grains of alluvial gold and should have washed thrice that qufin'iy o-i» of the same stuff with cradle and quicksilver. While engaged in making a cradle yesterday morning,, our messengers returned with orders for U3 to clear out immediately, as tha llifcabele will not allow gold-digging in their territory. Moselekaste, the Maf.abale King is dead, and is succeeded by his son Kuruman, and of course it is nor yet known whether he is friendly to the whic-.-s or not. M-itchens territory extends only to Shashi, so his compelling us to pay a gold-digging licenoe of JSL was a robbery, this country undoubtedly belonging to the Matabsle. You must bear in mm I that we have onlf tried one small gully, and found alluvial gold ; and if we were allowed to go on prospecting a few miles further, I have not the slighest doubt but we should find it in payble quantities. We go back across the Shashi (the boundary) to-morrow, an i the diggers will track home again, as they are not in a gosition to remain idle loag. Corbet and I, however, will remain to prospect in the ' fly' towards the Limpopo, which country is claimed by Itutchan. Wb 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 Matabale will take no notice of private individuals, but if a man were sent by Government with power to treat with them for the righi of prospecting and digging for gold in the gold yielding district, I am sure it would be eth-iy to come to some arrangement with them ; 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-iettling in and eventually taking their country from them. I hope the government will see the advisability of takiug immediate steps in the matter, a3 without j there is no chance of obtaining further informa- | tion. P.S. — The failure of Pink's, the scoud prospecting party, is entiiely owing to their looking in at the most unlikely places. We have found near the Tate numbers of old gold workings, from which quantities of quartz have been removed. Our Potchefstroom correspondent, under date ■ 9th inst., writes :— "After a long interval, we re« ceived some good news again yesterday. Maucb. is safe, and the next Mirico 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 'hat alluvial gold has been found at last, before the arrival of any of the quartz-crushers." Corbet further writes : — " Now the only thing to ■ be done is, use every ondeavour to get the Government (English) to take it up. . . . . Daven- * hill and I remain in Matchen's country until we 1 hear <rom Natal if Government will take it up." ( Luckily, the apprehension of Kafir interfrence turned" out a false" alarm. Everything is quiet at Moselekaste's. ' The new king is as reasonable as . could be expected, and he ha 1 not even yet arrived ■ at the " head kraal " to tako up the reins of government. Reassured by this news, Davenhill j and Corbet, together with Villiers and Chapman, and all the other parties from Natal, will now be , quietly at work again. • Villiers is said to have made a capital find, and 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, "which we scarcely think well-founded. At first, possibly, theiv might be a little difficulty with a rush, but once the field proves a paying one, provisions will bo ample. Corn being the natural production of the neigbouring republic, the staff of life at all events is within reach ; whilst the Transvaal, < ape, and Nutal 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 Ito 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 interests a3 wOl as the interest of the colony. If the latter news a3 to alluvial diggings be confirmed as to quantity, i it will be necessary for their speedy development that the merchants of Durban and Maritzburg should send up supplies and open stores ab the diggings. The gain to the individual miner is not proportionate to his expences, 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 provis ons, 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 hu cou'd 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 colouy. The influx of miners into Natal cmuot but confer eventual benefit on the colony ; at the same time •re we preparing for the contingency ? we hare before pointed to it, and the desirability of an organisation to meet it. With the experience of Australia and California before U3, we ought not to be taken unawares if the rush should come. We do not say that there is anything yet to warrant sucti an inroad in this direction, but once the " gold fever " sets in, there wi'l be no stopping it. _. Captain Black, of the Pofcchefstroom Pioneer parry, has arrived in Durban.. He came down thereto 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 quanties, as they were obliged to return to Potchefstroom sooner than they intended on account of their provisions becoming scanty, an 1 partly because of the petty disagreements amongst some members of the party. Ke 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 operations, 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.