Ch. 6: The Rush to Kimberley

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	THE RUSH TO KIMBERLEY	181

	warmly denounced as partial in sweeping aside the claims of the Orange Free State and the Transvaal Republic, and confirming the alleged title of Waterboer and other native chiefs to a tract

	Bultfontein, De Beers, and Kimberley diamond mines, as well as



	the diggings along the Vaal. Four days after this award had been made, Sir Henry Barkly proclaimed the grant to the native chiefs a part of the British dominions, as the Crown Colony of Griqualand West, which was placed under the administration of a Lieutenant Governor, Mr. Richard Southey.¹ Thus the control of the Diamond Fields was finally determined, and it is impossible to doubt that this settlement was greatly contributory to the extraordinary advance of diamond mining in these fields, as well as to the uplifting and development of the Colonies, and to the push of civilization into the heart of the dark continent. It has been contended that the award was unjust to both of the Boer Republics, and this contention has been supported by the citation of a court decision rendered several years later, and the allowance of £ 90,000 to the Orange Free State by the London Convention of 1876, in compensation for losses sustained ¹ " South Africa," Theal.

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