and
a large number of miners from all parts of the world were engaged in
searching for stones. Their methods, however, were very crude. The
famous rush to Kimberley began in 1870, when a fine fifty-carat diamond
was found on the Jagersfontein farm. The thrifty widow who was then the
owner of the farm let the right to dig diamonds at £2 per month for
a-claim of twenty feet square. Important diamonds were next discovered
on the Dutoits-fontein farm, and soon diamonds were also found on the
Bulfontein farm located just across the highway.
The
Kimberley mines were discovered in 1871, and the DeBeers and Wesselton
about the same time. It is needless to say that the system of leasing
claims did not last very long, and that these various farms were soon
bought by miners. For some time, however, the various claims were
worked by one or two men to each claim, then by larger partnerships,
and later by large French and English mining companies.
In
1872 Cecil J. Rhodes, then a student at Oxford University, on account
of ill health went to South Africa. He went first to the plantation of
his brother, Herbert Rhodes, who had also become interested in diamond
mining. A
