Not
only has the yield of the African mines been great, but the diamonds
have been of much larger average size than those from any of the old
mines. The finding of a 17-carat stone in the Brazilian diggings was
sufficient to secure the freedom of the fortunate slave who found it;
but stones of this size are found by the hundred here. A 100-carat
stone scarcely creates as much excitement as a stone of one-fifth the
size did in Brazil.
It
is estimated that from one-fifth to one-quarter of all the yield never
reached the proper owners, as the native diggers swallow and conceal
the diamonds in every possible manner. Hence it became necessary for
the companies, in self-defense, to take extraordinary precautions
against this great loss, and overseers or special searchers were
appointed, who made the most thorough examination of all who left the
mines. Thenatives use most ingenious methods for the concealment of the
gems. On one occasion some officers, suspecting that a kafir had stolen
diamonds, gave chase and caught up with him just after he had shot one
of his oxen. No diamonds were found upon the kafir, it is needless to
say, for he had charged his guu with them, and after the disappearance
of the officers he dug them out of his dead ox. Diamonds have been fed
to chickens, and a post-mortem recently held over the body of a kafir
revealed the fact that death had been caused by a 60 carat diamond
which he had swallowed. Early in the history of the mines a detective
force, consisting of men, women, and children, was formed, and the
severest punishment is still inflicted on transgressors of the diamond
act. None but those authorized by law, termed patented agents, less
than fifty in number, are allowed to purchase or even to possess rough
diamonds at Kimberley.
The
actual loss of diamonds would not have been so great but for the
irregular diamond buyers, or " I. D. B.s," as the " fences " are
called, who sent the stones to England and undersold the company in the
London market. It was a question at one time whether the mines could be
profitably worked under such disadvantages. Within the last two years,
however, this pilfering has been in great measure checked by the
adoption of what is known as the compound system, by which the " boys"
are housed and fed under contract for a certain term, provided with
amusements and liquor, and thus kept apart from the influences of the
vicious whites. Now the visitors who buy from native diggers what they
suppose to be valuable diamonds and secrete them until they have passed
beyond the reach of the officials, find to their disgust that they have
purchased fac-similes in glass, perfect even to the characteristic
yellow tint peculiar to many diamonds from this locality.
Diamonds
weighing 38,000,000 carats, or over 7-1/2 tons, have been found here.
In the rough their aggregate value is £50,000,000, and after cutting,
£100,000,000, or nearly $500,000,000 more than the world's yield during
the two preceding centuries. Of the whole yield not more than 8 per
cent, can be said to be of the first water, 12 per cent, of the
