The Moving Drama on the Banks of the Vaal

Today’s installment concludes Diamonds Discovered in South Africa,
our selection from The Diamond Mines of South Africa by Gardner F. Williams published in 1902.

If you have journeyed through the installments of this series so far, just one more to go and you will have completed a selection from the great works of eight thousand words. Congratulations! 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

When a settler was fortunate in getting a tract of land with a pan or a water-spring, he almost invariably gave the name to his farm, as Dutoitispan, Dorstfontein, Jagersfontein, Bultfontein — names of inconsiderable little patches on the face of South Africa, which were destined to become memorable by approaching revelations.

Attracted by the good pasturage and water and the sight of flowers, fruits, and birds, even the eager diamond-seekers were not loath to linger for a day at one of these oases and rest themselves and their cattle before pushing on to the Vaal. As they drew near to their goal the face of the country began to change. After passing the Modder River, the grassy plains stretched out wider and longer and more gently undulating, and the mirage was more greatly magnifying and illusive. Herds of wild game, chiefly springbok, blesbok, hartebeest, wildebeest, and koodoo, were now frequently seen, and the ears of the travelers were tickled with the cheery “karack-karack” of flying korhaan and the pipes of red-legged plover.

There were great numbers, too, of the paauw (or Cape bustard) near the Modder River, and red-winged partridges and Guinea fowl that gave a welcome variety to the meals of the travelers.

Over the rolling ground the prospectors pressed rapidly to the diamond-fields and soon reached the river-border where the plains ran into the barrier of ridges of volcanic rocks. Jolting heavily over these rough heaps and sinking deeply in the red sand-wash of the valleys, the heavy ox-wagons were slowly tugged to the top of the last ridge above Pniel, opposite the opened diamond-beds of Klip-drift, where the anticipated Golconda was full in sight. Here the Vaal River winds with a gently flowing stream, two hundred yards or more in width, through a steeply shelving oblong basin something over a mile and a half in length and a mile across. A thin line of willows and cotton-woods marked the edge of the stream on both banks. On the descending slope toward the river stood the clustering tents and wagons of the pilgrims waiting to cross the stream.

In the dry season the Vaal was easily fordable by ox-wagons at a point in this basin, and the ford, which the Boers call “drift,” gave the name to the shore and camp opposite Pniel -— “Klip drift” (“Rockyford”).

How stirring were the sights and sounds from the ridge at Pniel to every newcomer while the swarming diamond-seekers were crossing the river and spreading out over the northern bank — the confused clustering at the ford -— the rambling of stragglers along the shore — the gravel cracking and grinding under the hoofs of the horses and ponies racing along the bank and rearing, plunging, and bucking at the check of the bits and prick of the spurs -— the outspanning and inspanning of hundreds of oxen — the swaying and creaking wagons -— the writhing, darting lash of the cracking whips of the drivers -— the sulking, balking oxen, driven into long, straining lines that dragged the ponderous canvas-arched “prairie-schooners” through the turbid water and over the quaking sands —- the whistling, shouting, yelling, snoring, neighing, braying, squeaking, grinding, splashing babel — the scrambling up the steep Klip-drift bank -— the scattering of the newcomers -— the perching of the white-topped wagons and the camp-tents like monstrous gulls on every tenable lodging-place on bank, gully, and hillside -— the scurrying about for wood and water — the crackling, smoking, flaming heaps of the camp – fires the steaming pots and kettles swinging on cranes -— the great placer-face, pockmarked with holes and heaps of reddish sand, clay, and gravel -— the long stretches of the miners’ rockers and troughs at the water’s edge —- and chief of all in interest, the busy workmen, sinking pits and throwing out shovelfuls of earth, filling buckets and hauling them up with ropes, loading and shaking the rockers, driving carts full of heavy gravel to the water-troughs, returning for new loads, scraping and sorting the fine, heavy pebbles on tables or flat rocks or boards spread on the ground!

No labored, crawling recital can compass and picture in print any approach to the instant impress on the eye and ear of the moving drama on the banks of the Vaal. Observer after observer groped vainly for graphic comparison. “Klip-drift is a swarm of bees whose hive is upset,” said one “a bank lined with ant-hills,” wrote another, prosily; “a wild-rabbit warren scurried by a fox,” ventured a third; “an insane-asylum turned loose on a beach,” sneered a fourth. It was a mushroom growth of a seething placer-mining camp in the heart of the pasture-lands of South Africa. To old Australian and American miners it had a patent likeness to familiar camps and diggings, but its local coloring was glaringly vivid and unique.

This ends our series of passages on Diamonds Discovered in South Africa by Gardner F. Williams from his book The Diamond Mines of South Africa published in 1902. This blog features short and lengthy pieces on all aspects of our shared past. Here are selections from the great historians who may be forgotten (and whose work have fallen into public domain) as well as links to the most up-to-date developments in the field of history and of course, original material from yours truly, Jack Le Moine. – A little bit of everything historical is here.

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