Originally, the diamond deposits were the property of the
Orange Free State; but a judicious "rectification" of the
boundary line shifted them over into the British territory of
Cape Colony. A high official of the Free State told me that
the sum of $400,000 was handed to his commonwealth as a
compromise, or indemnity, or something of the sort, and that
he thought his commonwealth did wisely to take the money
and keep out of a dispute, since the power was all on the one
side and the weakness all on the other. The De Beers Company dig out $400,000 worth of diamonds per week, now. The
Cape got the territory, but no profit; for Mr. Rhodes and the
Rothschilds and the other De Beers people own the mines, and
they pay no taxes.
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SEARCHING FOR GEMS.
In our day the mines are worked upon scientific principles, under the guidance of the ablest mining-engineering talent procurable in America. There are elaborate works for reducing the blue rock and passing it through one process after another until every diamond it contains has been hunted down and secured. I watched the "concentrators" at work—big tanks containing mud and water and invisible diamonds—and was told that each could stir and churn and properly treat 300 carloads of mud per day—1,600 pounds to the carload—and reduce it to 3 carloads of slush. I saw the 3 carloads of slush taken to the "pulsators" and there reduced to a
