210 Dr. Atherstone — On Diamonds at the Cape. 



She laugliecl at the idea, and gave it to him at once, Mr. John 

 O'Eeilly (son of the late Civil Commissioner of Somerset, and grand- 

 son to Colonel O'Eeill}'', now in Graham's Town,) happened to be 

 returning from a hunting and trading expedition in the interior, and 

 Mr. Niekerk asked him to find out what sort of a stone it was. Mr. 

 O'Eeilly took it to Colesberg and showed it to his friend Mr. L. 

 Boyes, the Clerk of the Peace (son of Captain Boyes, an officer in 

 H.M. service), who sent it to me. The parties concerned, therefore, 

 were — a farmer's child, a Dutch Boer, Mr. O'Eeilly, Mr. L. Boyes, 

 a Government official, myself, and Sir Philip Woodhouse, Governor 

 of the colony, who purchased it. Which of these parties is the frau- 

 dulent impostor, getting up a land-jobbing speculation? since this 

 is one of the reasons assigned for the supposed planting of diamonds 

 in the colony. Mr. Gregory's theory regarding the expenditure 

 of capital in search for diamonds, carries its own contradiction with 

 it. None of them own land in that part of the country except Mr. 

 Niekerk and Mr. O'Eeilly, and the gem was not found on Mr. 

 O'Eeilly's or Mr. Niekerk's farm, nor were either of their farms for 

 sale at the time. Is it reasonable to suppose that if either Mr. 

 Niekerk, or Mr. O'Eeilly, or Mr. Boyes, had imagined it to be a gem 

 of the value of £500, it would have been trusted to the letter-bag 

 through the Post-office ? The idea is simply absurd ; and the fact 

 that twenty other diamonds have been discovered since, at spots far 

 apart, on Government ground, in the territories of native chiefs, 

 along the Orange Eiver, Vaal Eiver, and Eeit Eiver, and far beyond 

 the colony, where there is no land to sell, — and found by all kinds of 

 persons, Englishmen, Boers, Griquas, Bechuannas, Hottentots, and 

 other natives, who can have no possible connection with land 

 speculation, proves the utter absurdity and impossibility of those 

 statements. 



Of the diamonds already found, six were discovered along the 

 Orange Eiver, in the Hopetown division ; six along the Vaal Eiver, 

 three beyond the Vaal Eiver, two beyond the Orange Eiver, two 

 along the Eeit Eiver, and one in Waterboer's countr^^, and one on 

 Government land in the colony. Again, who have been the pur- 

 chasers ? Five have been sold to the Governor ; two to Mr. Hond, 

 the lapidary ; three to Mr, Lilienfeld ; one to Mr. Chapman, of Cape 

 Town ; one to Mr. M. Joseph, of Cape Town ; one to Mr. Cruikshank, 

 to send to Scotland, — none of these m. any way connected with land 

 speculations. 



It is a fact that there have been no land speculations or sales in 

 that neighbourhood since the diamond discovery was made known. 

 I think this mass of evidence must quite overthrow Messrs. Gregory 

 and Emmanuel's theory that diamonds were placed there/or a purpose, 

 and satisfy every unprejudiced person that the discovery is a hond 

 fide discovery, and one of immense importance to the colony. 



Now as to Mr. Gregory's geological facts. He states, " The whole 

 of the district from Cradock, almost in a direct line to Hopetown, 

 upwards of 250 miles, is composed of igneous or volcanic rocks ; the 

 huge piles of rounded boulders are Trap porphyries, and the Trap 



