The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1896-01-11

purchaser.
1t is to be noted that much as the
Transvaal republic has benefited from
gold mining, the Beers were at first much
ayerse to it, and threw all the obstacles
they could in the way Of the miners And
it was this attitude of the Beers, specially
toward the Lydenburg pioneers that led
to the next development.
One OF the tributaries Of the Crocodile
River (Which flows into Delagoa Bay is
the Kaap River, called also the River of
the Little Crocodile, which waters a wide
deep valley into which projects the spur
| of hill which the Dutch pioneers called
Dc Kaap (the eapel. Beyond this cape
like spur the hills rise to d height of 5000
feet and carry q wide plateau covered
with innumefabie powders of fantastic
shape-the Duivel's kantoor The mlsts
gather in the vallty and dash themselves
against De Kaap like surf upon a head
land; and the face of the hills is broken
with caves and galleries as if by the action
OF the sea, but really by the action of the
weather Upon the high-lying plateau
of the Duivel's kantoor were a nun Der of
farms, the chief of which was held By
one g. P. Noodle.
One day Natal trader named Tom
Mclaughlin had occasion to cross this
plateau in the course of long trek, and
be picked up with curiosity some of the
bits of quartz he passed Or kicked aside
on the way. On reaching Natal he showed
these to an old Australian miner, who
instantly started up country and found
more. The place WAS rich in gold, and
machinery was as quickly as possible got
up from Natal en- to Noodles farm. On
this farm was found the famous Pioneer
Reef, end Noodle who at one time would
gladly have parted with his farm or atfew
hundreds, sold his holdings to Natal
company for something like quarter of
a million. Then there was rush of dig
gers and prospectors back from the Ly-
denburg district, and the De Kaap
boom" set in. The beginning was in
1888, and TWO years later the whole kaap
Valley and Kantoor Plateau was declared
a public gold field. Two brothers called
Barber came up and formed the center
OF settlement now the Town of Barbar-
ton. Every now reef sighted or vein dis
covered was the signal for launching a
new company-no6 now in Natal only.
but also in London, to which the gold
fever began to spresd (bnt was checked
again by the De Kaap reverses).
Some fifteen Natalians formed a syn
ipe Ia 20 ttoyutnit,J
own account. Some were storekeepers in
the colony, some wagon traders, and some
merely walters on fortune. Only eleven
of them had any money, and they sup
piled the wherewithal for the other four,
who were sent up to prospect and dig
After six months of fruitless toll the
money was all gone, and word was sent
to the four that no more aid could be
sent to them. They were ssdown on
their luck, " when, as they returned to
camp on what was intended to be their
last evening there, one Edwin Bray saw
agely dug mis- pick into tho rock as they
walked glooinily along. But with one
swing which he made came turf in the
fortunes Of the band. and Of Che land, Tor
he knocked off a bit Of quartz SO richly
veined with gold az to betoken the exis-
tence of something super-excellent in the
way of q reef.'' All now turned on the
rock with passionate eagerness and in a
very short time pegged out what was des-
tined TO be known as "BTay's Golden
Hole"
But the syndicate was by this time
pretty we'll cleaned out, and capital was
needed to work the reef, and provide ma
chinery, etc. So small company was
Sored in Natal under the name Of the
Sheba Reef Gold Mining Company, diyid-
ed into Is. 90 shares of pound each, the
capital of 1874 600 pounds being equitably
allotted among the fifteen members of
the syndicate. Upon those shares they
raised enough money On loan to pay for
the crushing of 200 tons of quartz, which
yielded ounces of gold to the ton, and
at once provided them with working
capital. Within very few months the
mine yielded 10000 ounces of gold, and
the original shares Of pound each ran
up by leaps and bounds until they were
eagerly competed for at 100 eaoh Within
year the small share capital us, 00o
poupds) Of the original syndicate was
worth in the market 1900, 600 pounds
This wonderful success led to the floating
of vast number of hopeless OF bogus
enterprises, and worthless properties
were landed on the shoulders of the Brit
ish public at fabulous prices Yet, sur
rounded as it was by crowd of fraudu-
ent imitators, the great Sheba mine has
continued as one Of the most wonderfully
productive mines in South Africa. Mill
ions have been lost in swindling and i'm
possible undertakings in De Kaap, but
the Sheba Mountain. in which was Bray g
Golden Hole, has really proved noun
tain Of gold.
The De Kaap gold field had sunk again
under cloud of suspicion, by reason of
the company swindling and share gamb-
ling which followed upon the Sheba sue
cess. when Notwithstanding incident gave
a fresh impetus to the golden madness.
Among the settlers in the Transvaal in
the later '7Os were two brothers called