cept
the brothers has written it, De Beer—who had paid the Orange Free State
Government fifty pounds for it in i860, not thinking at the time that
they were doing a good stroke of business. For some reason, Johannes
Nicolaas de Beer has always been remembered and his brother, Diederick
Arnoldus, has not —possibly because there is still a picture of
Johannes Nicolaas in the Kimberley Museum. (He was a long-jawed,
whiskered, dour-looking man.) The De Beers themselves dabbled a bit in
digging, and at first they attempted to hold down the number of
prospectors on their farm. In May 1871, a mining-camp newspaper
reported:
An instance
of Yankee ingenuity comes to us from De Beers'. Everyone knows that it
is next to impossible to procure a claim at that place, owing to the
determination of the proprietor to open it only to a few individuals.
It appears that a Mr. Bedee—a lately arrived American military man,
holding high testimonials from President Grant—was at De Beers'
the other day to see if by any means he might obtain a footing there.
He was followed about by an agent of De Beer's, who, after some time,
appeared determined to show fight. "Shame," cried the Yankee. "Is that
the way we treated you when you sent over to the United States,
requesting to have your independence recognized?" Their feelings thus
adroitly appealed to, the bystanders took up the cudgels on behalf of
the American. Just then, up came old De Beer with a subscription list
for a Dopper Church. Seeing a long list of half crowns, the American
guessed the nature of the document, although he had no conception to
what it referred. Putting his hand in his pocket, he gave the old
gentleman two-and-sixpence. "Hurrah voor de Amerikanerl"
