Initial Search for the Diamonds

It was ten months from the time of the discovery at Hopetown before a second diamond was found, and this was in a spot more than thirty miles away, on the bank below the junction of the Vaal and the Orange rivers.

Continuing Diamonds Discovered in South Africa,
our selection from The Diamond Mines of South Africa by Gardner F. Williams published in 1902. The selection is presented in eight easy 5-minute installments. For works benefiting from the latest research see the “More information” section at the bottom of these pages.

Previously in Diamonds Discovered in South Africa.

Time: 1867
Place: Orange River, South Africa

Meanwhile Mr. Boyes hastened to Hopetown and to Van Niekerk’s farm, to search along the river-shore where the first diamond was found. He prodded the phlegmatic farmers and their black servants and raked over many bushels of pebbles for two weeks, but no second diamond repaid his labor. Still, the news of the finding of the first stone made the farmers near the river look more sharply at every heap of pebbles in the hope of finding one of the precious blink klippe (“bright stones”), as the Boers named the diamond, and many bits of shining rock crystal were carefully pocketed in the persuasion that the glittering stones were diamonds. But it was ten months from the time of the discovery at Hopetown before a second diamond was found, and this was in a spot more than thirty miles away, on the bank below the junction of the Vaal and the Orange rivers. Mr. Boyes again hastened to the place from which the diamond had been taken, but he again failed to find companion stones, though he reached the conclusion that the diamond had been washed downstream by the overflowing Vaal.

From the Orange River the search passed up the Vaal, where the beds of pebbles were still more common and beautiful. The eyes of the native blacks were much quicker and keener in such a quest than those of the Boer, who scarcely troubled himself to stoop for the faint chance of a diamond. But no steady or systematic search was undertaken by anybody, and it was not until the next year, 1868, that a few more diamonds were picked up on the banks of the Vaal by some sharp-sighted Koranas. The advance of discovery was so slow and disappointing that there seemed only a faint prospect of the realization of the cheering prediction of Dr. Atherstone, which was scouted by critics who were wholly incompetent to pass upon it. Even the possibility of the existence of diamond-deposits near the junction of the Orange and Vaal rivers was denied by a pretentious examiner who came from England to report on the Hopetown field. It was gravely asserted that any diamonds in that field must have been carried in the gizzards of ostriches from some far-distant region, and any promotion of search in the field was pronounced a bubble scheme.

To this absurd and taunting report Dr. Atherstone replied with marked force and dignity, presenting the facts indicating the existence of diamond-bearing deposits, and adding:

Sufficient has been already discovered to justify a thorough and extensive geological research into this most interesting country, and I think for the interest of science and the benefit of the Colony a scientific examination of the country will be undertaken. So far from the geological character of the country making it impossible, I maintain that it renders it probable that very extensive and rich diamond-deposits will be discovered on proper investigation. This, I trust, the home Government will authorize, as our colonial exchequer is too poor to admit of it.”

There was no official response to this well-warranted suggestion, for it had hardly been penned when the news of a great discovery aroused such excitement, followed by such a rush to the field, that no government exploration was needed. In March, 1869, a superb white diamond, weighing 83.5 carats, was picked up by a Griqua shepherd-boy on the farm Zendfonstein, near the Orange River. Schalk van Niekerk bought this stone for a monstrous price in the eyes of the poor shepherd — 500 sheep, 10 oxen, and a horse — but the lucky purchaser sold it easily for 11,200 pounds to Lilienfeld Brothers, of Hopetown, and it was subsequently purchased by Earl Dudley for 25,000 pounds. This extraordinary gem, which soon became famous as “the Star of South Africa,” drew all eyes to a field that could yield such products, and the existence and position of diamond-beds were soon further assured and defined by the finding of many smaller stones in the alluvial gravel on the banks of the Vaal.

Alluvial deposits form the surface on both sides of this river, stretching inland for several miles. In some places the turns of the stream are frequent and abrupt, and there are many dry water-courses, which were probably old river-channels. The flooding and winding of the river partly account for the wide spreading of the deposits, but there had been a great abrasion of the surface of the land, for the water-worn gravel sometimes covers even the tops of the ridges and kopjes along the course of the river.

This gravel was a medley of worn and rolled chips of basalt, sandstone, quartz, and trap, intermingled with agates, garnets, peridot, and jasper, and other richly colored pebbles, lying in and on a bedding of sand and clay. Below this alluvial soil was in some places a calcareous tufa, but usually a rock of melaphyse or a clayey shale varying in color. Scattered thickly through the gravel and the clay along the banks were heavy bowlders of basalt and trap which were greatly vexing in after days to the diamond-diggers.

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