jurisdiction,
and supposedly within the undefined western territory of the Orange
Free State, it lay really in the land of the Griqua chief Waterboer,
over whom the British Government exercised some kind of protectorate.
Until the arrival of the diggers, the entire country round about for
many miles, was practically uninhabited. The miners therefore were a
law unto themselves. When a number gathered at any particular locality,
their usual method of procedure was to appoint from their number a
committee of three or five, who under certain by-laws, rules, and
regulations agreed upon, were empowered to grant licenses to diggers,
preserve order, and punish offenses. These men received a small fee for
the performance of their duties, and their authority was generally
respected and sustained. Punishments were quite primitive; there were
no jails. Natives were whipped for stealing. White men were put over
the river, and occasionally got several duckings on the way. The
license varied in the different localities, ranging from 2s. 6d. to ten
shillings per month. The claims were thirty feet by thirty feet, a
measurement which was maintained in all the fields later, when they had
grown very considerably in importance. To prevent an idle speculation
in claims the owner was obliged to work his claim continuously. If he
failed to pick it at least once in three days, another might jump it
and acquire ownership.
V
When the Free State government found that the business of digging for
diamonds was assuming a degree of importance, it sent on magistrates,
and officers to impose and collect taxes on the miners and shopkeepers,
but these refused to pay them until the question of jurisdic-
