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THE DE BEERS SAGA
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excavated vertically downwards 20, 50, and 100 feet or more. The falls of reef killed off many workers. Within a few months, however, the price of claims rose from $500 to as much as $20,000, and the news of the discovery kept spreading farther.
But
what all these people did not realize was that diamonds do not
necessarily rest within a few inches or a few feet or a few dozen feet
of the surface; the rivers, they were to find, are merely the
repositories and the transit-ways of the stones which have been washed
into them by countless floods from the old craters or vents of dry
mines. These vents were the true sources; engineers realized that.
Engineers began to profit because of their knowledge.
The
diggings went on and with them the inevitable disputes, fights,
rebellions. With the claims at so many different levels there were
ceaseless falls of ground, encroachments, and serious accidents. None
had anticipated that diamonds would be found down so far. Diggers,
syndicates, and companies constantly amalgamated, to lessen their
difficulties, to fight others, to better their chances of purchasing
the more expensive equipment now required, to secure titles to their
claims.
Soon
they were confronted with the diamond thief. It was found that there
were receivers for the goods, and the black workers became interested
in this. Indeed, it became so bad that a special court had to be
established in what is called Griqualand West, in 1880, to try cases of
illicit diamond buyers and their suppliers. There still are illicit
diamond buyers. That great historical medium, the motion picture, is
still dramatizing them. But, without indulging in dramatic criticism,
it must be said that the problem is not so great now as it was in those
days, equivalent to the Wild West days of the United States.
(43)
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