166 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
fontein,
about twenty miles southeast of Pniel and Klip-drift on the Vaal. Du
Toit's pan was one of the curious natural land basins before described,
receiving the wash of the surrounding ridges, and holding pools of
water during the rainy season and sometimes during the year. The title
to the farm Dorstfontein was granted by the Free State Government to
Abraham Pauls du Toit on the 4th of April, i860. Du Toit sold the farm
to Adriaan J. van Wyk, who had built a little house near the side of
the " pan," where he was living indifferent to the rush of prospectors
to the Vaal River, until he was suddenly surprised by the finding of
diamonds a short distance from his house.
When
the news of this discovery spread, coming, as it did, so close upon the
revelation at Jagersfontein, there was an instant rush of prospectors
from the Vaal to the new field, swelled by the neighboring farmers and
the influx still flowing from the coast towns. Van Wyk demanded, at
first, a royalty of one-fourth of the value of all diamonds found on
his farm, from every prospector seeking to explore the new field; but
he soon concluded to issue licenses at a charge of 7s. 6d. monthly
for every allotted claim of thirty feet square. The Orange Free State
government was aroused to assert its claim of sovereignty by the spread
of the discoveries, and attempted to restrict the allotment of the
claims on the farm land, for the benefit of its own citizens, by an
ordinance prohibiting the issuance of licenses to any one except a Free
State burgher or farmer; but this requirement was easily evaded at
Jagersfontein and Dutoitspan by the transfer of licenses granted to
Free State citizens. Furthermore, the spread of the news of the
discovery and the resultant rush to the Diamond Fields was soon beyond
any possible restriction imposed by this little Republic.1
Van Wyk was prevailed upon without much difficulty to sell his farm to
the predecessors of the London and South African Exploration Company
for £2600, a fortune far surpassing any glitter of pebbles in the ground, in the view of this simple farmer.
Side by side with the Dorstfontein farm lay the farm of Bult-1 "South Africa," Theal, 1888-1893.
