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two
churches, a hospital, and a theatre, and might have mentioned,
besides, its less distinguished billiard room, "canteens," and dance
halls.1 It was surely a wonderful birth of a smartly growing
infant city on the face of scrub-covered prairie in the heart of South
Africa.
The
rise of the camps at De Beers and Kimberley was even more rapid than
the growth of the camp on Dorstfontein and Bultfontein farms. There was
no regular working in the De Beers diggings before May, 1871, but the
diggers could buy
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Kimberley, 1873.
Christmas
presents that year in rows of brick and iron stores on the main
roadsides, intermingled with "hotels "and saloons, and a great white
canvas town was spread out in a picturesque medley of tents and
marquees, straggling far over the veld, and seeking the shelter of some
stubbornly rooted mimosa or camel-thorn.'2 Kimberley's
growth was still more surprising. Three months after the rush began,
the Colesberg Kopje was the centre of an immense encampment in whose
heart streets were irregularly laid out, and neat stores built of iron
and brick. In December, 1871, there were, by actual count, on the lower
street of Kim-
1 "The Diamond Diggings of South Africa," Payton, 1872. 2 Ibid.
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