ORIGIN lOF THE AMERICAN NEGRO. 132 



The early Cape governors were not remarkable for their sym- 

 pathy or friendliness for the Dutch settlers, and the grievances of 

 the latter were seldom listened to. The fathers of the preesnt Dutch 

 population in the Transvaal and Orange Free State quitted their 

 home in the Cape Colony, and trekked into dangerous and unknown 

 deserts to avoid what they conceived to be gross and burning 

 wrongs. 



The desperate struggle of the Boers v;ith the British was so 

 recent that it needs nothing more than a mere mention here. The 

 former Dutch Republic is now a British posession, but unusual 

 liberties and independence have been granted all classes living there. 



THE DIAMOND MINES OF KIMBERLEY. 



The five diamond mines are all contained in a circle three and 

 one-half miles in diameter. They are irregularly shaped, round or 

 oval pipes, extending vertically downward to an unknown depth, 

 retaining about the same diameter throughout. They are said to be 

 volcanic necks, filled from below with a heterogeneous mixture of 

 fragments of the surrounding rocks, and of older rocks, such as 

 granite, mingled and cemented with a bluish colored hard clayey 

 mass, in w^iich famous blue clay the imbedded diamonds are hidden. 



In the first days of diamond mining there was no idea that 

 diamondiferous earth extended to any particular depth, and miners 

 were allowed to dig holes at haphazard, and prospect where they 

 liked. When the Kimberley mine was discovered, a new arrange- 

 ment was made, and in July, 1871, it was cut up into about 500 

 claims, each 31 feet square, with spaces reserved for about fifteen 

 roadways across the mine. No person at first could hold more than 

 two claims, a rule afterwards modified. 



The system of underground working in recent years is as fol- 

 lows : Shafts are sunk in the solid rock at a sufficient distance from 

 the pipe to be quite safe against reef movements in the open mine. 

 The main shaft at De Beers starts about 540 feet from the north 

 side of the mine, and is now over 1,500 feet deep. Tunnels are 

 driven from this shaft at different levels to cross the mine from 

 west to east, about 120 feet apart. These tunnels are connected 



