Africa,
and it is doubtful if there was one who had ever examined a diamond
field personally or compared one field with another. Even with this
special experience an expert student of general mineral formations
might survey this particular field closely without suspecting the
existence of diamonds. This was demonstrated in the visit of the
colonial geologist Wyley to the Orange Free State in 1856, when he
investigated the alleged discovery of gold in thin veins of quartz
lining the joints and crevices of the trappean rocks at Smithfield. In
the course of his exploration he went to Fauresmith, where diamonds
were afterward picked from the town commonage, and stood on the verge
of the farm Jagersfontein, later the seat of a prolific diamond mine,
yet it does not appear that he had even a surmise of the existence of
diamonds in the field of his investigation.1 It is but fair
to him to observe, however, that the section which he visited had no
such close resemblance to any known typical field as that which led
Humboldt and Rose to the revelation of the diamonds of the Ural from
the similarity of the ground formations to those of the Brazilian
diamond districts.
As
a matter of fact nobody who entered the Vaal river region conceived it
to be a possible diamond field or thought of searching for any
precious stones. Probably, too, there was not a person in the Orange
Free State, and few in the Cape Colony, who was able to distinguish a
rough diamond if he found one by chance, or would be likely to prize
such a crystal. For the discovery of diamonds under such conditions it
was practically necessary that a number of prospectors should enter it
who would search the gravel beds often and eagerly for the prettiest
pebbles. Were any such collectors at work in the field?
One
of the trekking Boers, Daniel Jacobs, had made his home on the banks of
the Orange River near the little settlement of Hopetown. He was one of
the sprinkling of little farmers who was stolidly content with a bare
and precarious liv-
1 "Among the Diamonds," by the late John Noble, Clerk of the House of Assembly, Cape Town.
