After another long night in the railway train, at noon on the second
day, after leaving Cape Town, I reached the celebrated diamond town of
Kimberley, the population of which consists of about 6,000 Europeans,
with a native population estimated at about 10,000, chiefly concentrated
in the mining area.
On my arrival at the railway station, I was met by the Mayor, and a
deputation of the residents of the town. At a conversazione held later,
and which was attended by over four hundred ladies and gentlemen, the
following address was presented to me by the Fellows of the Royal
Colonial Institute resident at Kimberley and Beaconsfield:--
"Kimberley, _June 1st_, 1889.
"To SIR FREDERICK YOUNG, K.C.M.G.
"A Vice-President of the Royal Colonial Institute.
"DEAR SIR,--We, the Fellows of the Royal Colonial Institute,
resident in the towns and mining centres of Kimberley, and
Beaconsfield, South Africa, cordially welcome your arrival amongst
us.
"We are persuaded that your visit to this distant part of Her
Majesty's Dominions has been undertaken, not merely for personal
pleasure, but also on behalf of the great and growing need for the
consolidation and expansion of colonial interests throughout the
Empire.
"We feel that your own career has been an important factor in the
formation of a sound public opinion on this subject, and that it
is largely through your patient and far-seeing efforts, that the
Royal Colonial Institute has attained its present proud position
amongst the various, influences, moulding, organising, and guiding
the life and destinies of Her Majesty's Colonial Empire.
"We believe the present time to be vitally important in the history
of Her Majesty's Dominions in South Africa. The tide of
confederation, and corporate union is manifestly rising, the wave
of extended British influence is flowing northwards, the various
nationalities and states of this vast country are educating
themselves by experience to see the folly and sterile weakness of
isolation, and are learning to realise the inherent strength, and
vitality of mutual co-operation, based on a self respecting, yet
unselfish responsibility to South Africa as a whole.
"We venture to suggest that this growing feeling for co-operation
will prove a valuable element in the growth, and formation in the
near future, of one Grand Confederation of all countries and
peoples, owing allegiance to, or claiming corporate alliance with,
Her Britannic Majesty's Empire.
"We rejoice, as members of the Royal Colonial Institute, that your
personal merits and public career have been recognised by Her
Majesty in the honour conferred upon you, which we trust you will
enjoy for many years.
"Coming amongst us as a Vice-President of our own Institute, your
presence symbolises to us the aspiration, radiant in hope, and
prophetic in promise, which animates all true and loyal subjects of
Her Majesty, and which is alone worthy of our past history, and
present responsibilities--the aspirations of a strong and united
people for a vigorous, and progressive 'United Empire.'"
To anyone visiting, for the first time, this great centre of the diamond
industry of South Africa the scene is most extraordinary. The excitement
and bustle, the wild whirl of vehicular traffic, the fearful dust, the
ceaseless movement of men and women of all descriptions, and of every
shade of complexion and colour, are positively bewildering. The thoughts
of everybody appear to be centred in diamonds, and the prevailing talk
and speech are accordingly. Being the recipient, myself, of the most
kind attention and genial and generous hospitality, my stay was most
agreeable, and pleasant. Great facilities were afforded me for seeing
everything connected with this wonderful industry, and satisfying
myself, that there are no present signs of its being exhausted or
"played out." Indubitable evidences were given me, that diamonds
continue to be found in as large quantities as ever. They appeared to me
to be "as plentiful as blackberries."
At the Bultfontein Mine I descended to the bottom of the open workings
in one of the iron buckets, used for bringing up the "blue ground" to
the surface. This is rather a perilous adventure. To go down by a wire
rope, some five or six hundred feet perpendicular into the bowels of the
earth with lightning rapidity, standing up in an open receptacle, the
top of which does not approach your waist, oscillating like a pendulum,
while you are holding on "like grim death" by your hands, is something
more than a joke. It certainly ought not to be attempted by anyone who
does not possess a cool head and tolerable nerve.
Here I saw multitudes of natives employed,--as afterwards in the De
Beer's, the Kimberley, and other diamond mines,--with pickaxes, shovels,
and other tools, breaking down the ground at the sides of the mine,
perched at various spots, and many a giddy height. Diamond mining at
Kimberley is altogether a very wonderful specimen of the development of
a new industry. In this mine I had explained to me the various
processes, by which diamonds are discovered in the rocky strata which is
being constantly dug out of the enormous circular hole, constituting it.
I also visited the celebrated De Beer's Mine. This vast mine, where some
thousands of workmen, white and coloured, are employed, is carried on
much in the same way as the Bultfontein, as far as the different
processes are concerned, of treating the material in which the diamonds
are found. It is much richer, however, in "blue ground," and
consequently far more valuable results are obtained from it. For
instance, the average value of each truck load of stuff from the
Bultfontein is said to be about 8s., while from the De Beer's it is
28s. or 30s. The latter mine is now worked underground, in the same way
as copper and coal mines are worked in England. Excellent arrangements
are made for the protection and well-being of the native workmen,
especially by the introduction of "compounds" during the last year or
two. These are vast enclosures, with high walls, where the natives
compulsorily reside, after their daily work is done during the whole
time they remain at work in the mine. This system has been attended with
the most satisfactory results. I went over the De Beer's "compound,"
where I saw an immense number of natives, all appearing lively,
cheerful, and happy. A large number were playing at cards (they are
great gamblers), and others amusing themselves in various ways. No
intoxicating liquor is permitted to be sold within the "compounds." The
weekly receipts for ginger beer amount to a sum, which seems fabulous,
averaging from £60 to £100 a week. The natives can purchase from the
"compound" store every possible thing they want, from a tinpot to a
blanket, from a suit of old clothes to a pannikin of mealies. Before the
establishment of the "compounds," when the natives had the free run of
the town, and could obtain alcoholic liquor--on Saturday nights
especially, after they had done their work and received their weekly
wages--Kimberley was a perfect pandemonium.
An interesting visit was one to the central offices of the United
Companies, where I saw the diamonds, as they are prepared ready for
sale, lying on a counter in small assorted lots, on white paper. This is
a most remarkable sight. The lots, varying from half-a-dozen to twenty,
or thirty, or more diamonds, are spread out arranged according to their
estimated value. I took up one, which I was told would probably fetch
£1,000, and of which there were several similar ones in the different
parcels on the counter. The manager showed me a paper of a sale to the
buyers, a day or two before, of a parcel, which was calculated to
realise £14,189, and which actually was sold afterwards for £14,150;
showing the surprising accuracy of the previous estimate on the part of
the experts.
Another day I went to the Central Kimberley Diamond Mine. After going
over the mine, my party and myself all "assisted" at the counter in one
of the large sheds in picking out diamonds from the heap of small stones
just brought up and laid out from the day's washings. It is rather a
fascinating occupation, turning over the heap with a little triangular
piece of tin held in one hand, and continually "scraped" along the
board. I found several diamonds. We were told, after we had been
working diligently for an hour or two--there were six of us--that the
value of the diamonds we had found, and placed in the manager's box, was
probably £1,200. This seemed to us a good afternoon's work. The entire
district of Kimberley seems to teem with diamonds, and yet there is no
cessation in the demand for them, and they are still rising in price.
Accidents are frequent at these mines, but excellent provision for
meeting these misfortunes is made in the admirably conducted Kimberley
Hospital (where there are no less than 360 beds for patients), which I
visited during my stay. It is under the management of a very remarkable
woman, Sister Henrietta, and reflects the greatest credit on everyone
connected with its conduct, and support. The number of native cases
treated at the Hospital during the year 1887 was 2,975.
Kimberley has risen with immense speed, commencing from what is
generally known as a "rush," to a large and prosperous centre of wealth,
trade, and commerce. There, where only a few years since, was to be
found a collection of tents and small huts, I found a city with handsome
buildings, churches, stores, institutions, and law courts, and, above
all, a well ordered society. Some of the buildings which I might
specially mention, are the Town Hall, the Post Office, the High Court,
and the Public Library, which has been in existence about seven years,
and is superintended with such excellent results and most gratifying
success by the Judge President. One noticeable fact connected with this
Library is that the number of works of fiction annually taken out by the
subscribers, exceeds, per head of the population, that of any Public
Library in the United Kingdom.
The Kimberley Waterworks, which I also visited, have proved a great boon
to this part, of the Colony. They were erected at a cost of £400,000,
the water supply being obtained from the Vaal River, seventeen miles
away.
After spending a most pleasant and agreeable week there, I left
Kimberley at six o'clock on the morning of June 7, in a wagon drawn by
eight horses, and accompanied by five friends, for Warrenton, _en route_
for Bechuanaland and the Transvaal. This mode of travelling was quite a
novelty to me. Although in this journey of altogether three weeks'
duration, we occasionally put up at one or two hotels, at some of the
towns, and sometimes at the farmhouses on our way, we frequently "camped
out" on the open veldt, and, after finishing our evening meal of the
rough-and-ready provisions we carried with us, supplemented by the game
we shot, we wrapped ourselves in our karosses, and slept for the night
under the canopy of the starlit sky. I occupied the wagon, my more
juvenile companions lying on the ground beneath it.
This was my first experience of sleeping in the open air in a wagon, and
this, too, in the depth of a South African winter.
The town of Warrenton is situated on the banks of the Vaal River, and is
forty-three miles north of Kimberley. It is at present an unimportant
town, but diamond diggings have been recently opened, and it is a good
cattle district. It took its name from Sir Charles Warren. Soon after
leaving Warrenton we crossed the Vaal River on a pontoon. Here a trooper
of the Mounted Police joined us, who was said to be a very crack shot.
He rode a charming and well-bred grey horse, and had two admirably
trained pointers with him. He offered me his horse to ride, he taking
my place in the wagon. I had a most enjoyable morning's ride on one of
the best little hacks I ever mounted, cantering over the veldt in the
track of the wagon for about eight or ten miles--through a charming
country with a superb view towards Bechuanaland, the veldt being more
wooded and picturesque, than I had hitherto seen.
We slept that night at Drake's Farm. Before starting the next morning, I
had a long conversation with Mr. Drake. He was born and brought up in
London, and was in business with the firm of Moses & Son, of Cheapside,
as a traveller. He came out here nine years ago with £10 in his pocket,
and travelled up from Port Elizabeth. Mr. Drake is evidently a man of
great energy, and perseverance. He has a high opinion of the country,
and a great idea of its future. His farm and store are situated on the
borders of Bechuanaland; but he now wishes he had settled there, even in
preference to where he is. He laughs at the idea of there being no
water. He says there is plenty to be found at from seventeen to
twenty-five feet below the surface. But he says it must be dug for. If
properly irrigated, it is his opinion that thousands and thousands of
tons of mealies might be grown. He is enthusiastic about the beauty of
Bechuanaland, and spoke of having seen parts of it in which the charms
of English scenery are to be found, and even greater attractions than in
many gentlemen's parks in the Old Country. His opinion of the climate is
very high. He told me he would on no account exchange his present
location, with its dry, pure, and bracing air, so healthful,
invigorating, and free, for the chill, and damps, and fogs of England.
Mr. Drake was in England during the year 1887 (the Jubilee year), but
he was glad to get back again to his home on the border of
Bechuanaland--a very comfortable one, as I can testify from my own
personal experience.
[Illustration: Decorative]
[Illustration: Decorative]