quartz,
semi-precious stones of some value if cut and marketed in far-off
Europe. Among the pebbles which a little son of the Boer farmer brought
into the house was a small white stone which sparkled so in the sun
that the vrou of the Boer farmer noticed it, although she did not care
sufficiently to pick it up, and only mentioned it to a neighbour,
Schalk van Niekirk, who asked to see it. The little white pebble had
been thrown out, but the children found it in the dust of the yard. Van
Niekirk wiped the dust from the stone and found it so interesting that
he offered to buy it, which occasioned some mirth, and it was given to
him. With a vague instinct that the stone was unusual and had some
value, Van Niekirk subsequently asked a travelling trader, John
Reilly, to see if he could find out what it wras and if
anybody would give any money for it. Several merchants in Hopetown and
in Colesberg examined it, said it was pretty, and one thought it might
be a topaz, but none would give a penny for it. Reilly might have
thrown it away but for a casual exhibition of the pebble to Lorenzo
Boyes, a Civil Commissioner at Colesberg, who, experimenting, found
that the Pebble would scratch glass, and seriously said he thought it
was a diamond. A local apothecary,
