THE STORY OF DE BEERS DIAMOND COMPANY

The site upon which Kimberley is built has had several names. First, as farmland, it. was known as Bultfontein, When sub-divided, one portion 1 retained the original name, the other being re-named Vooruitzicht. Both portions neighbour Dorstfontein farm, better known as Du Toits Pan. Vooruitzicht was dubbed De Beers by diggers when that mine was first discovered on the farm in 1871, it being easier to pronounce than Vooruit­zicht. When, in July, 1871, yet another mine was discovered only a few hundred yards distant from De Beers diggings, it promptly received the name De Beers New Rush. This proved Loo much of a mouthful and within weeks it had been shortened to New Rush. Just under what circumstances diggers came to call it Colesberg Kopje, other than that Fleetwood Rastornc, from Colesberg Town, discovered the new diggings, is uncertain. Though a lew diggers attempted to give it the name of Gilfillan, because a man of that name had earlier on pitched his tent under a large spreading kameeldoorn tree just after De Beers was discovered, the name never stuck. It remained Colesberg Kopje insofar as diggers were concerned until the township of Kimberley was established.
As the town grew, and the mines deepened, Colesberg Kopje gave way to the Kimberley Mine, though De Beers on the same farm retained its name. Gradually all the names previously in use were dropped. Today the world knows only of Kimberley, the diamond city in the Republic of South Africa. It is doubtful whether the majority of its citizens know of the various names it has had.
Few even know of more than the five mines, Kimberley Mine, De Beers Mine, Du Toits Pan Mine, Bultfontein Mine, and the Wcsselton Mine-which once was called the Premier Mine - yet scattered in a close group around the city are a number of others, among them St. Augustines, Otto's Hope, Taylors Kopje and Kamfers Dam. This last was earlier known as Roodedain. The first Premier Mine later became the Wesselton Mine, the name Premier being given to the great diamond mine close to Pretoria, from which the largest diamond ever found anywhere in the world, the -f. Cullinan, was recovered. There were other mines of lesser importance scattered around Kimberley.
The Governor, after his hasty visit to the diamond country, returned to the Gape, stopping overnight at Hope Town, where the citizens of that small plaec entertained him royally. They arranged yet another dance in his honour. Sir Henry, when thanking them, said he had enjoyed himself, but wondered why the ladies were so modestly and chastely dressed for such an
100
Many fine diamonds were found in (he rich gravels of the De Itccis mine in 1073.
The earlier openwork Dii Toil's Pan Diggings give place lo an ever deepening dia­mond mini-
and butten,at from 2s. 6d. to 5s. a pound, depending on its quality. Gi> was always plentiful and, therefore, cheap, springboks selling at 7s. Gd. am. 8s. and wildebeest at from IOs. to 15s. each. Boer meal cost 42s. per 200 pounds weight, mcalic-mcal 30s., and kaffircorn meal 25s. per 200 pounds.
Forage could never be fully supplied, and farmers received up to 2s. 6d. per bundle of four pounds in weight if of good quality. Lemons were cheap at 10s. a hundred, and these were bought on a large scale by hotels and canteens. There were buyers other than diggers, and great quantities of wool, hides and skins were bought by traders. Diggers spent their money on karosses and leo­pard skins. Well breyed jackal skins found eager buyers. Men returning home were the chief purchasers of the skins and feathers, to show to their folks at home.
Although there were a great many fistic encounters - and the blood often flowed freely - nobody seemed io use firearms for settling disputes. ..■ The salerooms were overstocked with discarded revolvers which had been brought to the diamond fields by newcomers who had probably read about the bad old days on the California^ goldfields. Men arrived on the diggings carrying them openly, but within an hour or two after descending from the mall carl discarded them for good. It did not take longer than that short period of time for them to realise they were drawing attention to themselves as being raw hands. They were ragged unmercifully by the older diggers and frequenters of the canteens they ventured into, their goodnatured tormentors advising them to get rid of their "hardware" as quickly as possible. Among the many men arriving on the diamond fields was a photographer named Gray, who had a studio, if it could so be called, ■•-in a building on the Market Square. The world is indebted to him for many hundreds of excellent photographs he took over a number of years which today enable us to see what the various diggings, the camps, and the growing townships of Kimberley and Beaconsfield were like then.
Among the photographs he took in 1872 was a scene of Main Street, Kimberley, showing a sodden earth roadway, a few galvanised iron houses, stores, and business places of the buyers and professional men. Wagons and carts stand around, horsemen move along the roadway, natives laze and sit smoking big pipes, and dogs slink about seeking food. In 1876, during an < excessive snowstorm, he photographed streets and houses covered with snow. The road is still rough, and there are no trees visible. One of his pictures shows the home of the De Beer brothers to be flat-roofed, galvanised, lacking a verandah or stoep, and the front wall arising cleanly from the surrounding
206
open veld. Today this old building has a verandah and stoep, and the front wall has been raised a few feet higher than its original level and this addition has the appearance of a roughly built parapet.
Though he was not the Erst of the diamond buyers Moritz linger was an early comer to ihe diamond fields. On arriving in South Africa he first established himself in Port Elizabeth as a buyer. It is likely he found the competition of the Petits and A. Mosenthal too much for him. At one period on ihe diggings he annoyed diggers, and probably lost on the deal, by them not coming to him with their diamonds, when he meanly asked them to pay him a fee of one shilling on each letter he carried with him on his several business trips to the seaport.
In the early days men were very independent, no matter what their social position was. They held that every man was equal. A man could be down on his luck one day, and by the help of a twist of a spade, or the stroke of a pick, he might be a rich man next day. All men on the diggings were gamblers, and gamblers as a rule don't put on side with each other. Life on the diamond fields was one great gamble for them all.
The ill-dressed individual was often the better born and bred. The gaily caparisoned "gentleman" was more often than not a prig and scum, an illicit diamond buyer and seller, a gambling rogue who fleeced the innocents, who salted worthless claims then disposed of them to newcomers, or jumped good ones whenever the opportunity offered.
In the Blue Post bar, kept by Wilson, Beit and Rhodes every morning took their mixture of champagne and stout. "Ah", Rhodes was often heard to say as he quaffed his draught with enjoyment, "Ah! It makes a man of you". It was in this bar that a rather disconsolate digger was standing moodily leaning against the counter, looking as doleful as an undertaker's shop with the shutters up, and evidently very low in the purse at the moment. There entered a gloriously arrayed fellow, a very great swell indeed, just arrived from England, who thought no end of himself. He was, no doubt, a goodhearted man, for after eyeing the sad-faced digger he went up to him and said, "You poor devil. Have a drink".
The moody one said unenthusiaslically, "All right", and had it.
"Poor devil. Have another", repeated the Englishman.
The digger again consented. This went on until the recent arrival had treated the man to seven tots. Yet the new chum was game, and for the eighth time gave the same polite invitation.
"Pooi devil. Have another?1'
207
THE STORY OF DE BEERS
wirh both elbows on the table and his mouth slightly open. " He had a habit when thinking, of tubbing his chin gently with his Forefinger. His manner and expression suggested that the larger part of his brain was dealing with some­thing of which nobody else had cognizance. . . ,"
Gradually, however, camp life had focused his ideas on three objectives : (a) the necessity of bringing all the diamond claims under one control, thus not only making mining safer but also regulating the industry by equating the diamond output with world demand;
(b*) the acquisition of great wealth to enable him to prosecute large territorial schemes, (While not entirely Imperialistic at first, these schemes cer­tainly became Imperialistic) ; and (f) the achievement of political power so that the objectives involved in
(a) and (£) might be the more easily realized.
The average worker in the mines at Kimberley, limited as to outlook, per­turbed by the gradual fall in the price of diamonds but ignorant of the cause of it, still went on over-producing, working his claims strenuously against his neighbour and, as already indicated, by digging into his foundations, making diamond finding difficult and dangerous. The need for combination, centraliza­tion, increased from day to day.
In 1873, Rhodes had linked his De Beers holding with that of Rudd, and the two bought up other claims. In 1874 they were joined by Robert Graham, who participated in the purchase of Baxter's holdings in De Beers with Runch-man, Hoskyns and Puzey, who came in later, Orhers who combined in the purchase of claims in De Beers were Dunsmure and Alderson; also Stow, Compton and English. These three combines spread themselves gradually over the best De Beers claims. Their eventual union, advocated by Rhodes, led to the formation of the De Beers Mining Company, Ltd., with a capital of £200,000." In the meantime there remained outside, among others, the
1 The first activities of the Dc Beets Mining Company which took step* leading to the con­solidation of the four mines, De Beers, Kimberley, Bultfontein and Duroitspan were concerned with the De Beers Wine. Included in its early holding were the claims in De Beers Mine owned by Stow, English and Compton, who remained on its board of directors during the whole of its life, and when it was absorbed hy De Beers Consolidated Mines, they joined the board of the Utter 48
RHODES AS DIAMOND MAGNATE AND POLITICAL POWER
Victoria Company in which J. Ferguson was prominent, the Elma Company 1 which belonged to Thomas Shiels and others, and the United Diamond Mining Company,
The De Beers Mining Company prospered. By March, 1885, it was the outstanding company at Kimberley and the leading concern within die De Beers Mine. Its capital was then £841,550. It seems strange to think that at one time the Rhodes-Rudd partnership had the offer of the whole of the De Beers Mine for £6,000 hut were unable to finance it and therefore dropped the scheme.
To sum up : In pursuance of Rhodes's first objective, he and Rudd had sponsored the preliminary combines which led to the formation of the De Beers Mining Company with a capital of £200,000.
Rhodes, now twenty-seven, took a step along the road towards the attainment ;. of his third objective, namely the achievement of political power. Griqualand West was formally annexed to the Cape Colony, and Rhodes was elected to represent the diamond constituency of Barkly West in the Cape Parliament.
In the Cape Parliament he soon stamped his will on current political thought.
The new-comer evinced no undue deference to the tried champions of debate.
Like young Disraeli facing the veteran Palmers ton he flashed a compelling sword.
1 He brought a broader vision into Parliament. He became a herald of new power.
Not long was it, indeed, before his ranging spirit—ever broadening and advancing—measured itself against the full strength of the prejudices of the British and the Cape Governments. He saw that Kruger, in pursuit of not unnatural ambitions of territorial expansion, intended to block the road that led to the north by annexing territory which extended across it, an early symptom of this being the establishment of the small Scellaland and Goschen republics, the latter containing the town of Rooi Grond, where Mafeking now is. Public men were presently to witness with wonder the extraordinary persistence with which this young man fought the President's intention, gradually compelling Downing Street to recognize that unless a Protectorate were declared by Britain over Bechuanaland, all the east-west territory immediately north of the Cape
Company. To-day chc sons of two of them—R. Philipson-Stow and Dr. A. G. W. Compton— are on the board, as is also H. P. Rudd, son of Rhodes's partner, C. D. Rudd, Wtd one of the founders of the I k Beers Mining Company.
To mark (he fact that the De Beers Mining Company was tht leader in die policy of the con­solidation of the diamond mines, the name " Pe Beers " is perpetuated in the ritte of De Beets Consolidated Mines.
49
a. I*