Part 5 (1/2)

Whilst affecting still to disbelieve in my find, my partners now treatedattitude They no longer tried to force rew richer and more important So far as I remember, it was on the third day that Governeneral survey of the surface of the mine Each individual had been, I think, permitted to mark out two claims But the ”rush” had been so swift that very few had been able to avail the” was attehs,” who had come in late, occasionally tried to bully those who looked ”soft” out of their ground Being quite a youngster, I was, naturally, the kind of gaht and obtained help aued scoundrels endeavored to claim my burrow on the score of prior occupation, they were soon hunted off Messrs Toe Ward were entrusted by the Landdrost with the survey Ward, who had been in the Austrian Arly handsome man He was killed in the Kaffir War of 1879, not far from the Taba 'Ndoda

I think it was on the third day after the rush that Broas the onlyus, first expressed his full belief in the mine

We were seated under a cae of the kopje, and were just about to begin our midday meal Broho had been unusually silent, put down his rosterkoek and pannikin of coffee Then he stood up, saying:

”Yes; there are diao and buy another clai very hot and ill-tempered as he threw himself down on the sand

”I' ten pounds apiece for clai so ridiculous?”

Within a feeeks it was amply proved that the new e and valuable stones were unearthed

On so-tables the finds ran up to as many as five and twenty diamonds per day People flocked in by thousands fro camps At Du Toit's Pan, Bultfontein, and De Beers claiic the vast plains surrounding ”New Rush,” as it now careat city of tents and wagons sprang up like ht There was at first no atteement; each pitched his camp wherever he listed How, eventually, streets and a market square came to be laid out is uess at the nu the mine three months after the latter was rushed, but the tents alone ured to many thousands Money literally abounded I havetheir pipes with bank-notes, thus giving the banks concerned a present of the face value One of thein this pasti caereeable in the extre as the weather was cool and dry, but later, under the suan to take its toll The epidemic was called ”diamond-field fever,” and was supposed to be a hborhood But I am convinced that it was neither more nor less than ordinary enteric the inevitable concolect, on the part of a crowded community, of ordinary sanitary precautions

The character of the population soon changed At first the ordinary colonist predominated the kind of man who had hitherto led the simple life, in most cases that of a farmer He was very often accompanied by his whole family At that time many a farm, especially in the Eastern Province, e of native servants But as the fame of the rich and ever richer finds went abroad, a cosmopolitan crowd of wastrels and adventurers poured in from the ends of the earth However, there never was in those early days anything like the lawlessness that afterwards as much under British as under Republican rule prevailed on the Rand The great stay of law and order was the individual digger, and this eleoldfields, except in the few instances where alluvialhas been pursued

The first serious result of the changed conditions was the develop, ”IDB” as it came to be called This was due to whitenative servants to steal fro-houses for this kind of trade were found to be the low canteens When the evil had reached a certain pitch and there was no adequate law to deal with it, the better class of diggers took the e Lynch, and burnt down the more notorious establishments This was done calmly, judicially, and without any unnecessary violence

CHAPTER V

My claim a disappointment--Good results attained elsewhere--A surprised Boer--”Kopje wallopers”--Thunderstor spectacle--”Old Moore”

and his love affair--TheWilliam's Town to recruit Toby once more--A venture in onions--Return to Kimberley--The West End s Wright--”Schipka” Caame of euchre The church bell--Raw natives--Alum diamonds--Herbert Rhodes and the cannon His terrible end

My ”burrow” claim, which was situated near the north end of No 7 Road, did not turn out to be the fountain of riches I had anticipated As a matter of fact we never found another diamond in it Under its thin crust of limestone was an inconsiderable layer of very poor diaravel Beneath this lay areef” The latter filled the clai it, to a depth, as it turned out, of between forty and fifty feet Below the shale the ground proved to be rich enough But within a feeeks of the rush we sold this piece of ground for 40 pounds

However, our half claim in No 9 Road paid very well indeed For several ed from three to five diae; the heaviest weighed only about fourteen carats, and the general quality was exceptionally poor

Nevertheless, we sold the proceeds of about four months' work for nearly 600 pounds Of this I received one quarter

It is curious now to reflect that we, in common with many others, were convinced that it would never pay to work to a greater depth than about ten feet At first every claiht by twelve feet The ground lifted out was then sifted on the yet unbroken portion of the claiest clods were extracted by means of a sieve with a very wide mesh, and then pulverized in a very perfunctory manner with clubs and pick-heads The result was cleared of sand in a sieve with a fine mesh, the contents of which were poured on to a table, usuallyabout five feet by four, and sorted It was in the course of this sorting thatfroenerally observed either when the ground was loosened in the claie sieve But there can be no doubt thatto the clods not being properly pulverized

I remember the case of a very old Boer, as practically a pauper, finding a 90-carat stone when scratching on the side of a rubbish heap

The finder's agitation was so great that he picked up his treasure and bolted incontinently A few people who sahat had happened gave chase, and within a fewhad increased to several hundreds The oldover the counter, and took refuge a time he could not be persuaded that the croas actuated only by curiosity, and had no furtive intent

As ined, the detritus in the claims soon became a serious embarrassment Many clai the getting rid of the rubbish, becae of the h; all they had to do was to keep one or two natives, with barrows, reravel as soon as these had been sifted and sorted But for those such as ourselves, whose claims lay more or less in the centre of the mine, the problem was a very different one It sounds hardly credible, but after consultation we caround by re in the ”paddock” we had sunk with the ground excavated therefroside We unanimously decided that the portion of the claim we had sunk to a depth of about eleven feet was done with as a paying proposition However, it was not very long before ere ridiculing ourregulations, a portion of every clai These portions, respectively, lay to the right-hand side of one claiether they forht across the mine There were, I think, fourteen such roadways They ran parallel with each other, and provided, for a tie of thethe diamond trade, so a swarm of itinerant diamond buyers were let loose on the co men, ere averse to manual labor, but whose business instincts were acute ”Kopje Wallopers” was the generic term by which such dealers were known The equipment of a kopje walloper consisted of a cheque-book, a wallet known as ”a poverty bag,” a set of scales, a ue In the course of a ht be visited by a dozen of theain circus appeared to be fair enough

During the summer months the vicinity was occasionally visited by violent thunderstor rain Such were alelco the severity of these stor However, I recall one occasion when three fatalities resulted from three successive flashes One allobular, solid looking cloud passed slowly over the mine

Otherwise, the sky was almost clear There was not a drop of rain

Within the space of about eight minutes the three strokes fell The first killed a e of the ed in stretching a wire rope at the western end of the ravel about fifty yards fro The stroke pierced his neck from back to front at the base of the skull; then it ran across the sieve which he was holding in his hands and over which he was bending It melted every third wire in its course, and ht have been h the wood The unfortunate victiue swelled enormously and protruded from his mouth for about nine inches

I well re which took place at ”New Rush” Itan enormous circus tent had been pitched, and this was hired for the occasion A dance was held in the evening, but it ended in disaster, for a heavy thunderstoruests Had a torrential rain not been falling a horrible catastrophe ht have occurred, for the reason that the festive scene was lit with paraffin lamps However, the canvas was so conite But the dancers were held, prone on the ground, by the weight of the soddentime, and the ladies afforded a sorry spectacle as they were hauled out, one by one, by their rescuers The naroom was Cooper I was destined to meet him at Pretoria a few years afterwards under very extraordinary circumstances The episode will be related in due course