Discovery of the Witwatersrand Gold Fields 197 



capital, to exploit their lands, so as to keep the 

 money as much as possible in the country, and not 

 to rush off with everything to speculators, who 

 would form gigantic unworkable companies on 

 foreign capital ; which it had now been proved (as 

 in Lydenberg), did not pay dividends, and brought 

 the country into discredit. His Honour the President 

 responded, thanking Mr. Struben for the exhibition 

 of the wealth of the country, and for his statements ; 

 and assured him that he could depend upon the pro- 

 tection and assistance of the Government to those who 

 endeavoured to develop the mining wealth of the State. 



The hon. chairman of the Volksraad, Mr. 

 Hoffman, also said that it was, and would be, the 

 wish and endeavour of the Volksraad to legislate in 

 such a spirit, that industries of such importance 

 should not, as Mr. Struben seemed to fear, be crushed 

 to the ground ; but that they would be assisted and 

 protected, and the rights of proprietors of the land, 

 as well as the diggers would be so assured that they 

 would have reason to be satisfied." 



A gold-crushing battery of five stamps, which 

 I ordered from the Sandycroft foundry in England, 

 was put up in a kloof on Cliffendale farm (Wilge 

 Spruit), the first erected in that part of the country. 

 On the 12th December, 1885, we started crushing the 

 quartz in this battery; but from want of technical 

 knowledge, and also in those days having no cyanide 

 process (as it had not been discovered), we succeeded 

 in catching only a very small percentage of the 

 extremely rich but fine gold in the stone. I after- 

 wards gave the "tailings" which had run down 

 the stream after passing over the mercury-covered 

 plates of the battery to a carpenter who was work- 

 ing for us, not realizing their value. He erected a 

 brandy cask, driven by water charged with mercury, 



