216 SYSTEMATIC DESCRIPTION OE PRECIOUS STONES 



Boutan also remarks on the lowness of these prices which were consequent on a 

 commercial crisis ; they reached their lowest level in 1885, having fallen 20 per cent., and 

 after this date began to rise again. In the following table is given the average value per 

 carat, calculated from the weight and value of the total export dm-ing the years 1883 

 to 1891 : 



s. d. 



1888 . . . 19 11 



1889 . . 29 4 



1890 . . 30 7 



1891 ... 25 2 



It should be remarked here that during the period in which the Cape deposits have been 

 M'orked, the average quality of the diamonds has remained practically the same, so that the 

 above numbers represent approximately the mean market value for each year. 



It will be readily understood that with objects like diamonds, so costly and, yet at the 

 same time, so easily hidden, there are possibilities for very considerable illicit trade. 

 Those engaged in the mining, washing, and sorting of diamonds, especially the Kaffirs, 

 constantly find opportunities for secreting stones, in spite of the strict supervision to which 

 they are subjected. Although the mining employees each time they leave work have to 

 undergo a rigorous personal search, yet diamonds are continually being smuggled through 

 and placed on the market by illicit diamond buyers (I.D.B.). It is estimated that 30 per 

 cent, of the total output is thus diverted into illegitimate channels. 



The strictest of laws and regulations have from time to time been devised and rigidly 

 enforced with the object of suppressing theft of, and illicit trade in, diamonds. Thus a 

 man convicted of diamond stealing or illicit diamond buying was sentenced to several years 

 of penal servitude ; under no circumstances were natives allowed to sell stones, and white 

 men were obliged to procure a written licence before engaging in the trade of buying and 

 selling diamonds, and to submit for the inspection of the authorities a properly kept 

 register of all transactions. The difficulty of obtaining witnesses, and therefore of convicting 

 a person of an illicit transaction, made the enforcement of these and similar regulations 

 somewhat of a dead letter ; moreover, the profit attending an illicit transaction successfully 

 earned out was so large that the risk of conviction failed to act as a deterrent. Since 

 March 1, 1883, still more stringent regulations have been in force ; a person suspected of, 

 and charged with, the illicit possession of diamojids, must defend himself against the charge 

 by furnishing a satisfactory explanation of the circumstances leading to his arrest. Moreover, 

 search-warrants are now granted in the case of white men as well as of natives. 



These regulations are in force not only in the diamond-fields but in the whole of Cape 

 Colony, and they were also adopted in the Orange Free State. The illicit trade has, 

 therefore, been checked, but not altogether stamped out. The cunning and ingenuity 

 shown by Kaffirs in concealing and disposing of stolen stones is unexampled. As an 

 illustration we may quote the case of a native who, in 1888, was suspected of being in the 

 unlawful possession of diamonds. On the approach of his pursuers he shot one of his oxen 

 with a rifle loaded with the stolen stones, and after the police had made an unsuccessful 

 search he extracted the diamonds from the dead body of the ox. In the same year another 

 native, who died in a mysterious manner, was discovered to have swallowed a 60 carat 

 diamond, which proved itself too much for the constitution even of a Kaffir. 



The comparatively recent introduction of the compound system has resulted in making 

 the robbery of diamonds by natives almost an impossibility. The native workers in the 



