upon
which the few Dutch settlers raised cattle, sheep, and goats, in a
primitive and Oriental way. The country lay west of the territory in
which the Free State had practically established the routine of
governmental functions, and within an undefined stretch of land
sparsely inhabited by a mongrel tribe called Griquas, of whom one
Waterboer was the chief. As there were, however, a few Boer settlers
scattered about, to that extent the land may be considered properly to
have been a part of the Free State in embryo, or a territory in the
wilds within the scope of the Free State's influence, to which that
State might rightfully lay claim, and establish within it the functions
of government when the inhabitants called for it, and they and their
possessions were of sufficient importance to warrant it. By the rapid
influx of men from the English Cape Colony and from England, however,
together with the investment of English capital, the preponderating
element became English and called for English governmental control.
Griqualand West, as it was called, therefore eventually became a part
of the Cape Colony.
Of
the four mines discovered in that neighborhood and which have been
since known as the Kimberley mines, the name of this one has on that
account become more generally known. With the general public it stands
not only for all the mines of the De Beers consolidation, but to most
people, it is a name for all diamond mines of South Africa.
It
is the smallest of the four Kimberley mines, but has proved the
richest, from its discovery until the present time, the percentage of
diamonds to the load
