Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1906-07-10
DIAMONDS OF AFRICA.
Discovery BY the Children of A Trek
kinaif Boer.

"The first diamond in South Africa
was found by the children Of a trek
king Boer, named Daniel Jacobs,
said Gardner F. Williams, recently
general manager of the De Beers dia-
mond mines. HE was a poor farmer
who made his home in a squalid
hovel on the banks Of the Orange riv-
er near the little settlement Of Hope
town. 1t was roughly partitioned to
form a bed room and kitchen, and its
eartfen floor was smeared weekly with
a polishing paste Of cow dung and water.
Father mother and children slept to-
gether on q rude frame over-laced
with raw hide strips. Here his chill
dren grew up about him with little
more care than the goats and sheep
that browsed on the kopjes. When
the herds were turned out Of the
kraal the children ran after them and
roamed over the pasture land all day
long like the flocks, but the instinct Of
childhood will find playthings on the
face Of the most barren karoo, and
the Jacobs children were close to the
edge of a river which was strewn
with uncommonly beautiful pebbles,
mixed with coarser gravel.
"A heap of these parti-colored
stone was so common a sight in
the yard on the floor of the farm
house on the banks Of the Or
ange or Vaal rivers that none OF
the plodding Beers gave IL a sec
ond glance But when the children
tossed the stones about, a little white
pebble was so sparkling in the sun
light, that 1t caught the eye Of the far
mers wife. She did not care enough
for it to pick 1t up, but spoke Of 1t as
curious stone to a neighbor, Schalk
Van Neikerk. Van Neikerk asked to
see it, but it was not in the heap. One
Of the children had rolled it away in
the yard. After some little search 1t
was found in the dust, for nobody on
the farm would stoop for such a tri-
fie. When Van Niekerk wiped the
dust off, the little stone glittered so
prettily that he offered to buy 1t. The
good vrouw laughed at the idea of
selling a pebble. You can keep the
stone If you want it," she said. So
Van Niekerk put 1t in his pocket and
carried 1t home. He had only a vague
notion that 1t might have some value,
and put it in the hands of travelling
trader, John O'Reilly, who undertook
to find out what kind Of a stone the
little crystal was, and whether it
could be sold.
HE showed the stone TO several
Jews in Hopetown and in Colesburg,
a settlement further up the Orange
river valley. No one Of these would
give a penny for It, 1T is a pretty
stone enough they said, probably a
topaz, but nobody would pay anything
for it,
perhaps O'Reilly would have
thrown the stone away II 1t had not
come under the eye Of the acting civil
commissioner at Colesburg. Mr.. Lo-
renzo Poyes Mr.. Boyes found on
trial that the stone would scratch
glass.
"T believe 1t to be a diamond he
observed gravely.
"O'Reilly was greatly cheered up.
You are the only man I have seen,'
he said, who says 1t Is worth any
thing. Whatever it Is worth you shall
have a share in it.
Nonsense broke In DR.. Kirsch, a
private apothecary Of the town, who
was present: I'll bet Boyes a new hat
1t is only a topaz
"In take the bet replied Mr..
Royes. and at his suggestion the stone
was sent for determination to the
foremost mineralogist Of the colony,
DR.. w. Guybon Atherstone, residing
at GERMANTOWN. 1t was so lightly
valued 1t was put in an unsealed en-
velope and carried to GERMANTOWN
in the regular post cart.
when the post boy handed the let
ter to Dr. Atherstone the little river
stone fell out and rolled away. The
doctor picked it up and read the let
ter Of transmission. Then he exam
ined the pebble expertly and wrote to
Mr. Poyes: I congratulate you on the
stone you have sent to me. 1t Is
veritable diamond, weighs twenty-one
o,.tA rnf re
$500. Sir Philip Wodehouse, the
governor at the Cape, bought the
rough stone at once, at the value fixed
by DR.. Atherstone. The stone was sent
Immediately to the Paris exposition,
where it was viewed with much in
terest, but it's discovery at first did
not cause any great sensation.
Search For Diamonds Begins.
Meanwhile Mr.. Boyes fastened to
Hometown and to Van Niekerk's farm
to search along the river shore where
the first diamond was found. He
prodded the phlegmatic farmers, and
their black servants raked over many
bushels of pebbles for two weeks, but
no second diamond repaid his labor.
Still the news Of the finding OF the
first stone made the farmers near the
river look sharply at every heap of
pebbles in the hope Of finding one OF
the 'pecius blink klippe' (bright
stones), as the Beers named the dia-
mond, and many bits of shining rock
crystal were carefully pocketed in the
persuasion that the glttering stones
were diamonds But it was ten months
from the time of the discovery at
Hopetown before second diamond
was found, and this was In spot
more than thirty miles away, on the
river bank below the junction Of the
Vaal and Orange rivers.
I'm March, 1869, a superb white
diamond, weighing S3.5 carats, was
picked up by a Griqua shepherd boy
on the farm Zendfontein, near the
Orange river. Schalk Van Neikerk
bought this stone for a monstrous
price in the eyes of the poor shepherd
500 sheep, ten oxen and a horse
but the lucky purchaser sold 1t easily
for f11,2OO to Lilienfeld Brothers OF
Hopetown, and 1t was subsequently