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THE RUSH TO KIMBERLEY
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ered
on the same farm, lying on a gently sloping kopje, at a distance from
the first location roughly reckoned at a mile. This kopje had been
searched twice by prospectors, it is said, without success, and one
report says that the deposit was finally discovered through the sinking
of a well on the ground.1 The diggers drove their well down
seventy-six feet without finding water, but at this depth one was
amazed to see a diamond of eighty-seven carats sparkling on the wall of
his dry pit.
So
many conflicting statements have been made as to the discovery of the
first diamond at this location, called New Rush or Colesberg Kopje,
and afterward famous as Kim-berley Mine, that I have been perplexed to
decide to which story the most credence should be given. The difficulty
in obtaining trustworthy data arises from the fact that few of the
original diggers are still alive, and that most of those who are still
living are scattered to all parts of the world. Moreover one cannot
always rely upon the accuracy of the memory of the old diggers now
living upon the Fields as to dates and details after the lapse of more
than thirty years. After diligent sifting of all reports and records,
however, the following conclusion may be said to be well determined.
Through
the courtesy of Mrs. Grimmer, the widow of Dr. Grimmer, a practising
physician at Colesberg when the Diamond Fields were discovered, I was
enabled to meet Mrs. Raw-storne, the mother of Fleetwood Rawstorne,
then (1900) living at Cape Town. She is a fine-looking old lady, as her
portrait 1 "The Diamond Diggings of South Africa," Pay ton, 1872.
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