The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1900-11-12
Missouri Man Says He Dis
covsrei Heaps Of Diamonds.
ONLY TOOK ABOUT A SCORE.
Gems Suddenly DISAPPEARED In 4 Crsv'c, Of
the Mountains "A Remarkable Story
is Told BY Jswstt

Nathan II. Jewett, formerly a horse
shoer of st. Joseph, Mo. has returned
from South Africa with dozen large
diamonds and tale that Is like one from
the Arabian Nights brought up to date.
Jewett says he found more than bushel
of diamonds In pocket in the Draken-
berg mountains of Cape Colony. But he
obtained only handful of them.
Jewett left st. Joseph four or five years
ago, went to Chicago, where he met Frank
Evans. whom he had known when they
were boys in Atchison county, Missouri.
Evans ran away from home when very
young, and had travelled all over the
world. He was sick when Jewett met
him In Chicago and Jewett sent him to
a hospital.
Two weeks later Evans said that he
was going TO die, and he told Jewett that
he knew where there was a diamond
pocket in South Africa. He gave Jewett
a map that purported TO show the loca-
tion OF the diamonds, and exacted a prom
ise from him that, il they were found,
the aged mother OF Evans. IL still living,
should have part OF the wealth.
THOUGHT EVANS INSANE.
Il thought at the time" said Jewett,
that Evans was insane, put / still kept
the papers he had given me- In short
time went 10 Indianapolis TO work and
while there decided to go 10 South Africa.
The location of the diamond pocket was
not very clear 20 me, and after landing
at Durham l worked my way over into
the Drakenberg hills ABOUT 100 miles
northeast OF Harrismith. That Is a dia-
mond country, but l found nothing
there.
"I found one place in the Orange Free
State that answered the description of
the spot indicated in the papers, but
the diamonds were not there. After stay
ing two or three months i went OF Cape
Town, and from there 10 Beaufort, strik-
ing into the Drakenberg range IS miles
from there.
THE hardships of such search are al
most indescribable, and many times l al
most made up my mind that Evans must
have been insane when he told me aYout
his great discovery. I did not know
whether he had seen them himself or had
heard OF them from somebody else. Aie
was feverish toward the last, and did
not make himself clearly understood.
FOUND DIAMOND POCKET
after a long search / found the pock-
ct OF diamonds. down I'm little gorge
thats would be easily overlooked. ---ere
must have been nearly two bushels of
them, and the sight made me wild with
joy. All at once | realized that 1 was
the richest man in the woi d. with that
treasure there before me, and al OF IN
mine. The diamonds had been washed
into the pocket year after year, perhaps
for a thousand years.
THE pocket was in solid rock, except
that there was a crack at the bottom.
where the water seeped out. Some worth
less stones were there, but the pile was
nearly all diamonds took handful of
them. and they were all ! got OF that
wonderful pile Of wealth, richer by far
than the accumulations OF any one man
on earth.
II have no idea how I acted during the
next two or three days, or why l did
not carry the diamonds away. / know
that 1 was not In my righ, mind, and
that l could not eat or sleep. A ter
rible fear overcame me that somebody
else would find the pocket OF diamonds.
and I hung about the place night and
day, undecided as to wnat move should
make. When / regaIned my senses I
was close to the diamonds, and felt the
earth trembling. IL was something like
an earthquake.
II ran to the rock where the diamonds
lay, and at that instant saw the rocks
split apart a distance OF several hundred
feet, making a creyice a foot wide IL
ran through the pocket In which the dia-
monds lay, and they rolled down into
the crevlce before my eyes,
MADE HIM INSANE.
ut was impossible for me TO move
while the terrible catastrophe was going
on I stood there and saw the fabulous
wealth disappear. A hot vapor was
coming out of the crevice with a kissing
sound. and l left the place, sick at heart
and certainly insane.
IT have no idea how long I wandered
around the hills, and IL was several days
before I remembered that had nut some
OF the diamonds I'm my pockets. thought
at that time that the rocks could be
blasted away and the diamonds taken
out, and with that idea in my head I
went back to Beaufort and procured
blasting materials.
II was under suspicion by that time
and had to hide in the hills several DAYS
before dared 10 go back TO the place
where the diamond pocket had been I
found few diamonds stll clinging TO
the sides of the pocket, and let a line
with weight on the end OF Il down
in the crevice. IL was thousands OF feet
deep, and my diamonds were gone for
ever. Puffs of hot air were still coming
out OF the place.
II was seized with the idea then that
I may have taken out more OF the dia-
monds I'm my haif-insane condition when
I first found them, and spent several
days looking for them. The first handful
I took was all 7 ever obtained OF that
great and vanished wealth"
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