CHAPTER XXI.

THE KIMBERLEY DIAMOND MINE.

THE singular appearance of the great mine of Kimberley has been so often described that I will not dwell upon it. It is about the size of the New Square of Lincoln's Inn, and twice as deep as the houses there are high. The whole area from its sides to the bottom was interlaced with countless wire-ropes ; buckets ascending and descending. At the edge were thousands of black natives, some attending to the buckets on their arrival, others employed at small windlasses in wheeling the blue clay to the surface. All seemed noise and confusion.

At the bottom of the mine was what appeared to be a ruined city of roofless houses. The claims had been measured into exact rectangular blocks, and the miners in digging had left their party-walls between their respective areas. The clay is stiff, and will stand many feet in height, so that this is the cause of the singular appearance.

Thousands of natives were working on the margin of the crater. These men at first sight appeared like a body of soldiers; in fact, they constituted a part of the British army. Every one of them was clothed, as far as his jacket went, with a cast-off tunic-the Royal Artillery, Hussars, Guardsmen, and Horse Artillery being all represented. What added to their curious appearance was their tight-fitting black pantaloons, which, however, on a nearer inspection were evidently those of nature. At the dinner hour, when they temporarily ceased work, the scene was very singular, for many of them, having

just arrived from the far interior, had no ideas of civilisation. It was amusing to see how they employed their leisure. Their general occupation seemed to be to attend to their hair, on which they had been accustomed to expend a great deal of their superfluous time in the wilds. I was much amused by observing a native from Lo Benguela's country undergoing the operation of being shaved by his companion, the substitute for soap being his moistened finger, and the razor being a piece of a broken bottle. The march of civilisation amongst the natives has since made great strides, for now not only nigger dining-halls and canteens, but nigger billiard-tables, all of which are said to be in constant use, are frequent amongst the corrugated iron dwellings.

On my subsequent visits large horse windlasses and iron buckets of great size had replaced the smaller ones. The adaptation of this horse machinery, and in some cases of steam windlasses, reduces the number of the natives employed at the upper edge, so that, instead of the hill appearing like a huge ants' nest when disturbed, it subsequently bore a look of order and regularity.

The matrix in which the diamonds lie imbedded is a species. of blue clay deposited in the large caverns of rock; once therefore this clay is removed, it is assumed that no more diamonds will be found there, as there would be nothing to hold them. It is impossible they should exist in the rock itself. Here therefore lies one of the speculative elements of this industry. As yet the bottom has nowhere been reached, except where the rock is shelving inwards. Symptoms have occasionally shown themselves which were supposed to indicate that a bottom would shortly be arrived at, but these have again disappeared, and still greater riches rewarded the diggers. Not only is a better diamond now extracted than at first, but less of the yellow or tawny-coloured stones are dug out.

The word "digger" does not imply that he is the working

labourer; in fact to dig is just what the "digger" does not do. It is he who superintends natives in this work, warily watching as far as he can that they do not conceal such stones as show themselves when breaking the clay at the bottom of the mine; for although by far the larger portion of the diamonds are found in the clay which is taken out of the mine and sorted at the top, yet it naturally will happen (more especially with the larger, and consequently more valuable stones) that some will reveal themselves to the spade and pick at the bottom. This is a fertile cause of many of the thefts which occur. The natives frequently conceal such stones, and there are many persons who make a trade of purchasing diamonds surreptitiously from those who have done so. The prices they pay are not, perhaps, a fraction of the real value; but even at this reduced rate the native who a few months before in the loftiest flight of his imagination could not have conceived the possibility of possessing enough to purchase even one Birmingham musket, might suddenly find himself able to purchase a whole stand of arms. It thus becomes requisite to make the severest enactments, not so much against stealing the diamonds as against inciting others to do so; and cases have occurred in which when the crime has been committed, though the guilty parties have succeeded in reaching Australia, they have been followed and brought back to justice.

Some few instances have occurred in which harshness and even great cruelty have been exercised towards the natives to cause them to confess their concealment of stones. There was

a case of this kind shortly before my first arrival.

Some persons were accused of beating a Kafir by slow degrees to death; and so clear did the evidence appear that an offer is stated to have been made by one of the accused of 10,0007. for bail, which was indignantly refused.

The temptation to these poor black fellows is very great, but the profits by the illicit buyers are so large as to be quite irre

sistible. For instance, a case is well authenticated of a diamond having been sold by a native for 157., which was again sold for 3507., and eventually realised the sum of 11607.

These frauds reminded me of an amusing anecdote which I read in an American paper, showing that diamond smuggling is not confined to South Africa.

A New York Jew, who was reputed to be in the business of smuggling diamonds, used to cross the water on the Cunard line from three to four times a season. Two years ago, in the early part of the season, he was seized upon his arrival and taken to the searcher's room. Nearly a thousand dollars' worth of precious stones were found secreted in the lining of his boots. He returned to Liverpool by the same steamer, and four weeks afterwards again landed upon the Company's wharf on North River. He was again seized and subjected to the same rigorous search, but with no success. The Jew took it smilingly and philosophically. When he took his leave, he said, "Better luck next time, gentlemen; I shall go back by the same steamer on business, and when I return you can try it again." The officers mentally determined if he did they would try it again. Upon inquiry it was found that he really had engaged a return passage, having

kept his state-room for that purpose. Two hours before the sailing of the steamer he was driven down to the pier in his carriage, his wife and daughter with him to see him off. When they returned they carried with them over ten thousand dollars' worth of diamonds which had lain secreted in his state-room during the whole time the steamer had remained in port. Before his return to New York the collector was notified by one of the revenue agents abroad that "Max Fuscher would return with several thousand dollars' worth of diamonds by the steamer which would leave Liverpool October 25th." In due time the Jew arrived, and for the third time he was escorted before the searcher. He was

evidently not prepared for such persistent attention; he seemed nervous and agitated, and finally attempted to compromise. He was politely informed that that was out of the question. He was again put through the searching process. His pocket-book, which was first investigated, revealed a memorandum showing the purchase of eighteen diamonds of various sizes and prices, amounting in all to about twelve thousand dollars. When this came to light the Jew begged with tears to be allowed to compromise. A deaf ear was turned to his entreaties. His coat was removed, and the lining examined. Nothing there. Then the waistcoat. As the searcher passed his practised fingers along the lining his heart gave a tremendous thump as he recognised the "feel of something pebbly, like little rows of buttons." The garments were hastily ripped, a strip of chamois skin withdrawn and unrolled, and there lay one, two, three-eighteen! All there. "You can put on your coat and waistcoat again, Mr. Fuscher," said the searcher, blandly. "Good day." Without a word the Jew departed, took a horse-car home, kissed his family, ate a rousing dinner, repaired to the bathroom, and after soaking a rather capacious plaster across the small of his back for a few minutes in warm water, peeled it off, and with it "eighteen diamonds of various costs and prices." What the searcher and collector may have said or thought when they found their seizure to be nothing but clever glass imitations, worth from ten to thirteen cents each, nobody knows. Although the seizure was loudly heralded, the finale was never made public.

Perhaps there is no property so fluctuating as diamonds. Many instances have been stated of their having increased or diminished in value as much as 50 per cent. in one week; and those who one day perhaps refused three or four hundred pounds for a stone have been glad on the following week to accept the half of it.