CHAPTER VIII.

The Diamond Mines.

T T is certainly somewhat remarkable that the circum- stances which attended the discovery of diamonds in South Africa appear to be only imperfectly remembered to-day. There are various accounts; but these accounts differ from each other in some material particular, and that, too, although the events to which they refer happened less than thirty years ago.

This much, however, would appear to be established. In the year 1867, a hunter or trader, named O’Reilly, was enamoured of a white stone which was shown him among a collection of river pebbles at a farmhouse in the Hopetown district of the Cape Colony. This white stone proved to be a diamond, and was sold eventually to the Governor, Sir Philip Wodehouse, for ^500. Two years later, in 1869, the farmer himself, Van Niekerk, purchased a similar stone from a Griqua Hottentot for cattle and goods of the estimated value of ^400.

This second stone was bought by Messrs Lilienfeld of Hopetown for 10,000 pounds or guineas. It was appropriately christened “ the Star of South Africa,” and subsequently came into the possession of the Countess of Dudley, who paid ^25,000 for it.

This was exciting news, and before long a number of persons were searching for similar treasures over the district at the confluence of the Vaal, the Modder, and and the Orange Rivers. As the white pebbles had been river stones, the diggers first of all directed their attention