CHAPTER XXIII. 



DISCOVERY OF DIAMOND FIELDS AND 

 EARLY KIMBERLEY DAYS. 



In 1870, Mary, Fred and I went to Aliwal 

 North, with a load of ivory and a large drove of fat 

 oxen which I sold to Richard Harvey and Graham, 

 partly for cash and partly in exchange for sheep, as 

 I intended to start sheep farming. Money was very 

 scarce, and I took sheep in part payment at 3/6 

 to 4/- for good merino ewes, and I bought sheep on 

 the way home as low as 2/6. At this time I heard 

 of the discovery of diamonds on the lower Vaal 

 River, so I hurried back to "The Willows," sold the 

 sheep, packed some wagons with provisions, and 

 went to the Diamond Fields to try my luck. It was 

 an exceptionally wet season, and all the rivers were 

 full. Near Loskop the oxen got lost. After much 

 riding about in the rain I found them on an island, 

 surrounded by the swollen spruit ; but I could not 

 find the native herd anywhere and concluded that 

 he had run away. The poor fellow must have been 

 drowned as he never returned to his kraal. 



We could not cross the Vaal River at Lindeque's 

 Drift, but found that a Boer had a pontoon boat 

 a little lower down, he said that he could 

 ferry our two wagons across. He had a Kaffir 

 caulking the boat with "pot clay"; when I said 

 that it did not look very safe, he said that he had 

 taken numbers of wagons over with the boat in that 

 condition. I put some ivory in for the first trip, and 

 took off my clothes and went into the boat. We had 



