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THE GREAT WHITE CAMPS
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Only
a few months from the day when the first diamond was picked up near du
Toit's pan, the camp at Dorstfontein was proudly claiming the title of
the " City of the Pan." A spacious market square was laid out on the
ground between the pan
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and
the ridge covered with diamond diggers, and around this square were
ranged the white walls of the aspiring camp. Streets radiating from the
central square gave open access to the market-place, and the white tent
blocks were soon dotted near the square with shops of brick and iron
and wood, rivalling the pioneer diamond-digging town of Klip-drift on
the Vaal.1
Klip-drift
struggled on with the best face possible, making much of its position
of vantage as the distributing market of all camp supplies from the
South African Republic; but its day of ascendancy soon flitted away
never to return. In September, 1871, its chief standard-bearer, the Diamond News, moved
to the " City of the Pan," and there was no question from that time of
the preeminence of the " dry diggings," although a rival paper, the Diamond Field, bore
up for a time under the sinking fortunes of Klip-drift. Before the end
of the year 1871, Dutoitspan boasted " many large hotels," " immense
stores,"
1 "The Diamond Diggings of South Africa," Charles Alfred Payton, London, 1872.
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