Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1883-03-10
TIE DIAMOND Fl Ids,
LETTER PROM CUR SOUTH AFRICAN
C3kREsPoTDEEf.
Christmas in Summer Climate ard Pre-
vatl,ng Diseases Diamond hining-
habits Of the EatiTes-Etc.

Habits Of the Eatives-gtc.
KIMBERLY, South Africa, Nov. 20, 1882.
The summer, which occurs here in the
came months as Your winter, is Just CON-
mencing. It consists of very hot weather,
alternating with severe showers, which
come upon us with scarcely moments
warning. 1t would seem curious to your
readers to have Christmas in midsummer,
but that IS the way the world works out
here. Among our places Of interest and
resort in this vicinity is the Vale river,
about fifteen niles from Kimberly, but the
charges at very Indifferent hotels are ten
English shiilings and upwards per day. 1t
is the place where diamonds were first dis.
covered in South Africa, and the class of
diggings there might be termed
TIE PLACER DIAMOND MINES.
The word placer is not used here, but it is
denominated "alluvial," and "reef" for
quartz. The gems are scattered and gen.
orally very thinly distributed in the gravel
on the banks and in the bed of the river.
Mining for them there is lottery, with
more blanks than prizes, as have found out
from costly experience. l got away with
Els in about four months time there, or
rather it got away from me, and during the
time found f2l worth of stones-one of
g. carats and one of 3 carats. The large
one was light yellow or " off color" as it is
termed, but perfect beauty as to fire and
shape. Received f3 los. carat for it. If
it had been white it would have been worth
5000. Gems from the river are far more
valuable than those from dry diggings, and
experts say are heavier than those of the
same size. The celebrated diamond known
as Star of South Africa, was found in Vale
river also one of 10 csrats, supposed to
have been bought for eco, but valued at
$50, 600. The search for diamonds, al
though extremely uncertain of results, is
nevertheless weirdly fascinating, and not-
withstanding my previous experience l
may try again before | leave Africa. A
boy of the native tribe there picked up a
diamond Of 800 carats, of the kind called
bort, which is of no value for jeweIry, but
worth about 2s. 81. a carat. The large
sIOuSS aIG EbhCIAlly Otl SlSEST SpOH'
ted or fawed in some shape, while
some quite small are sold st very high fig
ures l saw one of s.. carats sold for over
el00. 1t was of fine shape and pure as q
drop of water, and had been left so perfect
by the hands Of nature as to scarcely need
cutting.
CLIMATE AND DISEASE.
The summer seasons here are generally
unhealthy. Camp fevers, a sort of typhus,
and dysentery, ara very prevalent. just
at present, as you will gee by the papers,
we are having a regular panic over small
pox. The sanitary authorities have kept
it out thus far, but we are afraid it will
come here to Kimberly yet. The Malsys
seem bent upon introducing it if possible.
They are very filthy in their habits. At
Cape Town they resisted vaccination and
isolation, and would conceal Themselves.
They also played the religious dodge to per.
lection. Being Mohammedans, they assert
the dogma of fatality (' kismet" as they
call it), that is, that what is to be will
be-" The authorities there gave in to
them, and now the disease is raging furi-
ously, and they are in devil of fix gem
orally, as the fruits of their bigotry. II it
gets into Kimberly among the native labor
ing class we will be in a worse fix. These
natives are crowded into rude quarters like
so many sheep-and such crowding
would be death on the sheep. A chance
for the 500 cubic feet air ordinance" l pre-
sumo you will say. Bat that would not
pay, with these natives as the objective
point of the philsnthropic effort and be-
sides it would be against the proper order
of things as provided by nature for the
"survival of the fttest," as determined by
modern science. The Malsys at Cape
Town were so enrsged that the smallpox
was more prevalent and fatal with them
than with the white people, that they
were known to throw the clothing taken
from the bodies of deceased smallpox
patients into the white peoples houses for
the purpose of spreading the plague among
them. Should they try the came game
here at Kimberly, the Malay Camp, as the
locality where they live by themselves is
as a thing of the past. The authorities
successful All goods and passengers are
stopped twenty miles out, and if infected
are quarantined, and if not, are fumigated
anu GlltMG0 " CO1iG III, 1ADOUS -O,OOO
people-natives and all-have been vaccin-
ated. Several cases of varioloid, resulting
therefrom, have proved fatally. The cause
is attributed TO impure lymph. All our
letters even, which we receive, are fumi-
gated.
MINES AND HABITS OF MINERS.
The diamond mines, especially at Kim.
berry, are worked at an enormous expense,
and which increases year by year as they
grow deeper. They pay the boys (boys is
the term applied to all natives of whatever
age, the came as to the Chinese in Cslifor-
nis) thirty English shillings per week. Ose
good white man will do the work of three
of them, and then go fishing" part OF the
time. The expenses of working she mines,
outside of these wages, are hesAy-so heavy
even that competent Judges predict that at
no distant day the expense of running
them will leave no margin for the pro-
prietors. For this reason the mining COM
panies cannot afford better houses and ac-
commodations for the laborers; and even
If they could they would not be appre-
ciated, but, scripturally speaking, be like
Jewel in q swine's snout The majority of
them are but a small remove from the
brute, aud | often think it difficult to de-
termine which way the remove stands.
When they make their first appearance
coming in from the interior, naked, puuy,
half stsrved,looking wretohes, they are
sight, assure you. TO behold and espe-
cially if the beholdsr is ferveEt believer
in the dogma OF the universal equality
and brotherhood of man" Those are the
times when the ardent disciple of thathighly
esthical theory is seized with a quick in
tuition to step around the corner and kick
himself into an unconscious state, or q
more conscious one, and take new reck-
oning from his moral compass to see upon
what disastrous shoals and rocks :" the
latest current opinions" in their broad
philanthropy, are driving him.
NATIVE DRESS AND .UEDRRss.
Those Of the natives living here are in q
4 -