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CHAPTER V
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THE CAMPS ON THE VAAL
EFORE
calling to view the spreading of the diamond seekers along the line of
the Vaal River, the rearing of successive camps, and the growing
pursuit of gems in the gravel, it is essential to trace the progress of
diamond mining from its original development on the water-shed of the
Indus, and to account in great measure for the blundering, confusion,
and failures in the new Diamond Fields by showing how crude and
imperfect were any known methods of winning the precious stones at the
time of the South African discoveries.
From
earliest history there had been no change and no prospect of change in
the diamond mining of India (described in Chapter I). In the Deccan
diamond fields, as in the other congested districts, there was such an
influx of poor natives that no labor-saving contrivances were sought
for, and the diamond-bearing gravels were lifted and washed by hand as
they had been by the first generation of workers. There had been no
competition with the Deccan field, and no considerable production
outside of it, until the diamonds of the Brazilian fields were made
known to the Portuguese in the year 1728. As soon as the Home
Government learned of this discovery, the diamonds in Brazil were
declared to be State property, and for a hundred years diamond mining
was a Crown monopoly. This condition was a clog to any possible
advance in the methods of mining. There was a constant drain on the
industry without any effort to develop it systematically, thoroughly,
or economically.
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