Early diamond days : the opening of the diamond fields of South Africa / Oswald Doughty

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The early days of diamond mining in South Africa presents a fascinating and little known way of life that began with the first chance discovery of a diamond in the bed of the Orange River and ended with the foundation of the mammoth De Beers organization in 1888. After the few diamonds of the 'river diggings'' had been exploited, the far more profitable 'dry diggings' were discovered. These were concentrated on three farms, the most famous of which is now the fabulous Kimberley, the goal of the most hectic of the 'great rushes'. The author describes the day-to-day life on these diggings, the long hard treks the diggers made to get there, the kind of people they were and the kind of people they became, the way they worked, what kind of communities they formed, how much money they made and how they spent it - from the freebooting early days to the organized town life that soon sprang up. Much life is given to the book by liberal quotations from first-hand accounts, both of visitors attracted by the mines, notably Anthony Trollope, and of the diggers themselves, a strange and colourful collection of men, some of whom later achieved fame and vast wealth.

Marika Reiff W017706