HE
story of the " Star of South Africa " (now better known as the " Dudley
") is the history of the beginning of diamond mining at the Cape of
Good Hope. Apart from its interest in this respect it is quite a little
romance of accidental discovery. Mr. B. W. Murray narrated it one
evening last year to the Society of Arts. We cannot do better than
reproduce the leading facts from his graphic paper which has been
published in the Society's Journal:—
"
In the course of that year, 1867, just as things were at the very
worst, and men had come to regard the whole of South Africa as
God-forsaken, Mr. John O'Reilly, a trader and hunter in the interior,
was in Albania. Here I had better explain that Albania is a portion of
the province of Griqua-land West. It was a portion of the territory of
the Griquas, who were under the chieftainship of
