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THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
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of transportation and supply to warrant the undertaking of mining.1
Van
der Stel was fitly rewarded, four years later, by an appointment as
the first governor of the Cape Colony, in recognition of his exploring
enterprise and other displays of energy ; but his pricking of the
painted bubble of Vigiti Magna was a bitter disappointment to the Dutch
East India Company, and a grievous thing to all adventurers filled with
the conceit of a century of tradition. It was true that Davaque or
some other glittering city might lie farther to the east and north
than any point yet reached by Dutch explorers, but with the growing
familiarity with the land and natives of southern Africa there was a
swelling discredit of the fine tales of the Dutch and Portuguese
romancers. The myth of the realm of Monomotapa was practically starved
to death at the close of the seventeenth century, and unfortunately the
greatly persistent daring of the Dutch explorers grew cold with its
impulse. When adventurers began to disbelieve in the marvellous empire
and even doubt the location of the mines of Solomon and the throne of
Sheba, there was no very potent lure in the dusty karroos and rocky
ravines of South Africa« No discovery of ore, except possibly of the
precious metals, was likely to be of any reward to a prospector, and it
was even questionable whether rich veins of gold or silver could be
successfully opened and worked at any considerable distance beyond the
narrow range of the Dutch settlement at the Cape.
So
the credulous search for Ophir and the mythical realms in Africa came
to an end, and for more than one hundred and fifty years there was
little life in the tradition of King Solomon's mines, until its embers
were rekindled by the daring advances and glowing fancies of the
intrepid explorer, Karl Mauch. In 1858 Mauch marked the Lydenburg
district as a probable gold-
1 "South Africa," George McCall Theal, Vol. I, pp. 370-380.
These copper mines came into possession of an English company known as the Cape Copper Company in 1853, since which time copper to the value of £1,000,000 has been produced.
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