Seven Legs Across the Seas Part 11

Returning to Johannesburg, we pa.s.sed through Bulawayo, then over the Matabeleland borderline into Bechua.n.a.land, through the Kalahari Desert, next into Cape Colony, and thus into Boerland.

Perhaps the prettiest and most shapely mountains in the world are those in South Africa. Though not so high as those in other countries, their shapeliness attracts, most of them bearded with brush at bases and sides, the tops being round and gra.s.sy. With the deep blue sky above--the sun nearly always shining on the high veld, except during a shower of rain--and the same colored horizon all round, together with the rays from a bright sun lavishly diffusing the summits, there is a tone and finish to Boerland mountains which, in other countries, rocks, snow and timber do not bestow. The highest mountain is Mount Aux Sources, rising 10,000 feet, located in the Drakensburg range.

CHAPTER VII

From the Gold City we traveled southward to the Diamond City.

"You haven't been in town long?" a Kimberley policeman addressing me, remarked, as he stepped in front. As a matter of fact, I had only got about a hundred yards from the railway station. I surmised that I had been taken for an "I. D. B." (illicit diamond buyer), having been told a bird can scarcely alight in Kimberley without coming under police surveillance. "We're from the same country, I believe," the officer continued, when I felt easier. "My native town is St. Louis," he added. "Come to my home this afternoon and have dinner with us, after which we'll call on an American living in a house a few doors below,"

he went on kindly. This courtesy allayed all suspicion that I would be asked to establish my ident.i.ty before staying longer in the diamond fields. The invitation was accepted, his hospitality being generous.

The second American had been on the diamond fields for more than 30 years, but local interest was a secondary consideration to meeting some one just come from the United States. He had been in British territory so long that he had acquired the British accent, but that was the only thing foreign about him, as one would not know where to find a more patriotic son of America. On a second visit to the "Diamond City" every kindness was shown me by these two "exiles."

Kimberley, with a population of about 35,000, one-third of this number being white, is the capital of Griqualand West, a section of Cape Colony. Before diamonds were discovered, the territory embraced in the Kimberley district was understood to be a part of the Orange Free State. When the diamond fields promised rich returns, Cape Colony officials claimed this tract as being part of that province. The matter was finally adjusted by the Free State surrendering its claim to the Cape authorities upon payment by the latter to the Boer republic of several million dollars. The Diamond City has evidently stood still while other places in the sub-continent have kept pace with the progress of the times. Its newspapers are inferior; only one building reaches three stories; there is very little street paving, practically no sidewalks, and public buildings are quite ordinary; the shacks standing not far from the business center, built by colored people out of American oil cans, are a disgrace; church bells even are suspended from a crosspiece resting on the top of two posts, 10 feet high, in the churchyard; the parks do not amount to much, most of the shade trees in these being fine-bearded pine, through which the sun beats down on one. If there was anything of a creditable character here, save for a modern street car system, we did not observe it. To Alexandriafontein, a fenced-in private pleasure resort, an electric line runs, but it costs 25 cents to reach this park.

Were one in need of an object lesson to understand thoroughly what a trust means to a munic.i.p.ality, he would learn that lesson in Kimberley. A number of diamond mines are in operation in the Kimberley district, but there is but one diamond mining company--the De Beers.

Diamond mining is the only industry in Kimberley. Mine officials are very kind to visitors who wish to look about the works.

"Ho! that's Kimberley rain," shouted a friend. Looking from a window, the width of the street appeared a solid ma.s.s of dust, if the term may be allowed, extending far above the roofs of the houses. "That's the sort of 'rain' we get in Kimberley," he explained. No rain had fallen for six months.

The depth of the diamond mines runs from 1,000 to 2,600 feet. The color of the soil in which the diamonds are found is blue--blue dirt, it is called--which is removed by explosives. Dirt, pebbles and stones are moved in iron trucks with iron covers, and locked. On coming to the surface it is started on gravity railways which extend from two to four miles from the mine. The truck of dirt, weighing about a ton and containing an average of one-third of a karat of diamond, is here dumped on the ground. The "dirt field" contains 1,400 acres of s.p.a.ce.

Three high barbed wire fences form the inclosure, and police--mounted, on bicycles, and on foot--see that no stranger gets inside the triple barbed-wire fence.

The blue dirt remains in the field from three to six months until, by exposure to the air, it crumbles. A harrow, with teeth 10 inches long, is drawn over the section of field ready for use, when any remaining lumps are broken into fine dirt. The diamond soil is next loaded into trucks and started back to the head of the mine. The dirt is here dumped into a revolving screen, which contains holes for pebbles of certain sizes to drop through. These drop into a revolving round tank, or vat, 14 feet in diameter and about a foot deep, into which water runs. Inside the vat are two large stationary rakes, around which the tank revolves. This is called the washery. The dirt runs out as muddy water, and the rakes serve to move the pebbles to a point in the circular vat where there is an opening. Connecting with this opening is a pipe, down which the stones pa.s.s into a steel truck below. When the truck is filled with pebbles, the door is closed and locked.

The truck is now started on a gravity railway to what is called the pulsator, where the nuggets and diamond-bearing stones are separated from those of no value. Here the contents of the truck also are emptied into a revolving screen with graduated holes to allow the pebbles to drop out. The stones of the various sizes now drop into compartments 4 feet long and 18 inches wide--called jigs--which move back and forth. Water runs over the pebbles in the jigs, the light-weight ones washing out and the heavier remaining at the bottom.

The pebbles that remain in the jigs are taken out later and put into still another revolving screen. Under the grade sizes of this screen are inclined tables, over which water runs, these having a thickly greased floor, or bottom, on to which the stones drop. The nuggets and diamond-bearing stones stick in the grease, but the non-diamondiferous pebbles pa.s.s over. To emphasize how strongly grease acts as a magnet to the precious stones, of the millions and millions of pebbles that are washed over the greased bottoms, which are carefully inspected by experts, rarely is a diamond detected among the culls.

The little lumps on the greased tables--the diamonds covered with grease--might resemble a hand with big warts. The table is cleaned, when the sc.r.a.pings are treated by a liquid, which renders the diamonds free of grease. They then pa.s.s to a sorting room. The sorters are native prisoners, but a white man is over them. Then one negro, very expert in detecting diamonds, examines the stones sorted by the prisoners. From him they pa.s.s to a room where two white men again examine them. They are then put into steel cups little larger than a teacup. The cup has a lid to it and a lock. The lid is closed, locked, and the cup labeled. The locked cups next go to the Kimberley office.

Every Monday the output of the diamond mines is taken to a train headed for Capetown. That train makes connection with a steamship leaving for Europe on Wednesdays. From England most of the diamonds are sent to Amsterdam, Holland, to be refined.

The reducing character of the diamond mining industry is apt to astonish one. Over 200,000 trucks of dirt are treated daily, and the product from this great quant.i.ty of soil is less than a cubic foot.

Twenty-three thousand men are engaged in digging, and the diamonds mined by that large force are examined by but four eyes and handled by only four hands in the examining room at the pulsator. The yearly output of the Kimberley diamond mines is from $35,000,000 to $40,000,000.

Credit for bringing to light the first stone found in the Kimberley district, in 1870, is given to an Irishman named O'Reilly. A Dutch boy, whose father's name was Van Niekerk, was playing jackstones.

O'Reilly's eye being attracted by a bright stone among those with which the boy was playing, he told the boy's father he thought that particular one was a diamond. O'Reilly's judgment proved to be good, as, when weighed, it was found to be of 22 karat. The stone was sold for $2,500, O'Reilly and Van Niekerk dividing the money.

On the wagon containing the weekly output of diamonds of the Kimberley mines, and which meets the train that goes to Capetown every Monday afternoon, is seated a white man and a native driver. No attempt has yet been made to rob the wagon while going from the head office of the diamond company to the railway station. This alone may serve to emphasize the grip which law and order has on that community.

A week before a native quits the diamond mines he is kept under strict surveillance. The natives live in compounds, as the kafirs do in the Rand mine compounds, but, unlike the "boys" working in the gold mines, mine "boys" of Kimberley are not allowed outside of the compound except when going to and coming from work, and then only under guard.

They are hired for from three months to a year, and are paid from $15 to $30 a month and board. There are seven mines in the Kimberley district, which give employment to 20,000 natives and 3,000 Europeans.

Three eight-hour shifts are worked.

Those engaged in the diamond diggings along the banks of the River Vaal carry with them during life a characteristic by which they may be picked out from among men following different pursuits. A fortune--which they all hope for--may escape them if their eyes are raised from the ground for even so brief a time as that required for the wink of an eyelash, as they might thus have missed the fleeting flash of a precious stone just peeping through the soil. For this reason, when engaged in the diamond diggings their eyes are constantly looking downward. After they leave the diggings--when they have spent their savings and become practically starved out--they walk about with bent head, looking at the sidewalk or ground as they did when hand-screening soil and digging alluvial dirt. Some have made fortunes in the diggings, but these are few and far between.

Bloemfontein, next visited, is known as the Convention City. Because of its location, being the most important city in the center of South Africa and well provided with hotels and railway connections, together with its good public buildings, it has become the favored place for national gatherings.

After the Boer War the name of this province was changed to Orange River Colony, against the burghers' wishes. In May, 1910, when the Dutch again a.s.sumed power, its former name, and its present one--Orange Free State--again came into use.

Located between hills on two sides, having good streets, shady walks, electric light, good buildings, and a broad, treeless veld to the east, with poverty seemingly absent, an inviting air pervades Bloemfontein. The homes of that city, a great many of them built of red brick, with their vari-colored painted roofs and tidy yards filled with flowers, all nestling under and some built on the side of the kopjes, or hills, put one in mind of that other Dutch capital--Pretoria.

Unlike Kimberley, no tin shanties were to be seen here, neither were the streets swarming with half-castes and Hindus.

As in other places in South Africa where there are no mines, smokestacks are few here. The Orange Free State is said to be a good farming section, and from that source, and the general commercial and official business linked with a metropolis and State capital, spring the main a.s.sets of the city. Newspapers, a good gauge by which to measure a center, are in advance of the Free State capital.

The marketplace in Bloemfontein is typical of the Dutch, being located in the center of the town, business houses and hotels standing on the four sides. The long ox teams, led by natives with rawhide strips tied to the horns of the leading yoke; the big transport, with its tent at the rear, a Boer sitting in the doorway or opening, smoking his calabash pipe filled with Boer tobacco, and his frau, behind him, knitting; the auctioneers jabbering above a pile of farm produce; the group of farmers, with their wide-brimmed hats and full beards, arguing in the Dutch language, are all in evidence. It was interesting to walk about observing the product of the soil and the people who cultivate it, and the means in use to bring it where it might be profitably sold. With the tent at the rear end of the transport, and "scoff," coffee and cooking utensils, hotel expenses are eliminated, and one may stay as long as one wishes. A great number of Boers pay a couple of days' visit to old acquaintances when they come to this marketplace.

Bi-lingualism, a nightmare to some of the British in South Africa, has its fountainhead in Bloemfontein. Bi-lingualism here means the teaching of the Dutch and English languages in the public schools.

When the conditions of consolidation were drafted, dual languages--Dutch and English--to be taught in schools was one of the provisions, and this clause was agreed to by the British representatives at the convention at which the act of federation was ratified. The Minister of Education is from the Orange Free State, and is Dutch through and through. He insists on the dual language clause being carried out to the letter. The Dutch, as spoken in South Africa--it is called the Taal--is not so pure as the Holland Dutch.

While one might not agree with the Minister of Education in forcing English scholars to study Dutch, when either French, Spanish or German would be better, his fighting for the perpetuation of his mother tongue must command admiration. Cabinet Ministers of South Africa, by the way, are not cheap salaried men. The Premier receives $70,000 a year, the other members $48,000 a year.

Hotel expenses are from $3 to $5 a day. House rent is rather high, too; but the wages paid mechanics are fair, running from $4 to $5 a day.

In the evening one sees very few black people about the streets.

Bloemfontein has a munic.i.p.al "location"--a place where natives must live--about three miles from town. Except as a servant, the Indian coolie, although a British subject, is not allowed to cross the Free State border. No adverse feeling is entertained for the native, but the line is drawn on Asiatics.

The veld is so bare of any vegetation, save gra.s.s, in that part of South Africa that there is not a native tree growing in a radius of a hundred miles from Bloemfontein.

While traveling through farming districts in South Africa one misses the grain elevators seen at every station, and even sidings, when pa.s.sing through agricultural sections in the United States and Canada.

Southward we headed for Capetown, pa.s.sing through Modder River and then Naauwpoort. Later we entered a stretch of country known as the Karoo. Rain does not fall in this district for a period of nine or ten months. For hundreds of miles there is not a blade of gra.s.s to be seen, yet goats, sheep, and ostriches abound, and grain is a product of that strange stretch of land. Cradock, the metropolis of the Karoo, is an oasis, because good shade trees are numerous. A small bush grows, called karoo, on which goats and sheep feed, and do well, if they do not die from thirst. The climate of the Karoo is very favorable to persons suffering from lung trouble. One of the best churches of Dutch design in South Africa is found in Cradock.

We had now reached the Cape of Good Hope Province. Southeast of Cradock is Kaffraria, at one time a separate colony. Natives are numerous through that section. One of the tribes of Kaffraria is the Fingo, a good native for the mines. Hence, mine labor agents are to be found at every turn seeking help. It is in that district where the traders do so well in furnishing "boys" to the mines. Natives owning land, and wishing to sell it, are not allowed to sell to a white person, but may sell the land to a native.

Unlike Zulus, the natives throughout Kaffraria live in colonies. The huts are princ.i.p.ally made of mud and roofed with straw. Different tribes are known to strangers by the blankets they wear. One tribe wears a brown blanket and goes bare-headed, while another wears a dark-colored cotton blanket, with black cloth over their heads. This mode of dress pertains to the native women.

Order is maintained in these settlements by a native appointed by the government. When violations of law occur, the police authorities go direct to this native, as head of the settlement, who is held strictly accountable for any infraction. Cornmeal, or mealy meal, the staff of life to natives of South Africa, costs $7 a bag, and 200 pounds provide "scoff" for four natives for a month.

Africa, as generally known, is the home of the ostrich. In South Africa alone they exceed 700,000, and this southwest corner comprises merely one-twenty-fourth of the area of the "Dark Continent." The territory lying between Kaffraria and Capetown, however, is the section in which the ostrich industry has reached its highest state of development. The feathers are picked at periods of 18 months, the average yield being three pounds, although some ostriches grow six pounds of feathers in a season. These are mostly disposed of by auction at Oudtshoorn, the clearing house for this product of the sub-continent. Buyers representing leading feather merchants of the world attend these sales. The price of feathers varies a great deal, a common quality bringing only $25, while a good grade sells for $100 a pound. The annual exports from this industry amount to $15,000,000. A pair of ostriches sell for $500 to $800. Fifteen eggs is the average composing a sitting, and six weeks' hatching is required to bring forth the young. Hatching devolves mainly on the male bird, he sitting at least four weeks out of the six. The two weeks the female devotes to sitting are objectionable ones to her, being whipped to her task by the male bird from time to time to take even this unequal part in bringing their brood into existence. The law prohibits both shipping from, or taking out of South Africa, eggs of this, the premier bird.

"Will you have some shiverin' jimmy?" asked a compartment companion as he began unwinding a cloth from a bundle. "I'm from Grahamstown," he continued, "where there is nothing but 'pubs' (saloons) and churches.

Have some shiverin' jimmy," he concluded. By that time the cloth was off the "parcel." What he called "shiverin' jimmy" proved to be animated headcheese.

The train crept slowly down a steep grade, as we had left the high veld behind. Mount Matroosburg, a thin sheet of snow on its summit, was on our right, and on reaching Hex River Valley we were in the sea zone, and not far from Capetown.

The interest a.s.sociated with Table Bay, by reason of its early explorers, ma.s.sacre of early settlers, and the fighting with the Hottentots of those who finally got a footing, comes to mind when in this section. It was about 1653 that Johan van Riebeek, a Hollander, started a settlement. Several attempts to establish a white colony had been made earlier, but attacks by the natives drove those daring men back to their ships. Van Riebeek, however, succeeded. Cape Colony remained Dutch for some years, afterward coming under British control, reverted to the Hollanders again, then to England once more, and has remained an English possession ever since.

To find a city to compare with Capetown, from a point of unusual attractiveness, would be difficult. In front, Table Bay, a charming sheet of blue water, spreads out to a good width, and beyond rises the Drakenstein and Hottentots Holland ranges of mountains, their castle-like peaks lending solemn charm when viewed from a distance; above the city rises Table Mountain, the feature of Capetown, with its two flanking towers--Devil's Peak (3,300 feet) and Lion's Head (2,100 feet)--forming the semi-circular valley in which the city rests so picturesquely. The commanding, frowning and scarred front of this unique mountain proves an object of admiration. Table Mountain is three miles long and three-quarters of a mile wide. The top is as level as a table, and, like other mountains in South Africa, is barren of timber. Rising to a height of nearly 4,000 feet, a view from its broad, flat top is of unusual interest. Antonio de Saldanha, in 1503, is said to have been the first white man to scale its sides.

The Town Hall, Parliament buildings, a splendid public garden, good museum, art gallery, colleges and other commendable public inst.i.tutions are fully in keeping with the natural attractiveness of the Cape Peninsular. Creditable business buildings and good docks are also prominent.

Durban's wide-awake business men, together with Capetown's high charges to shippers, have taken from Table Bay the maritime prestige she once enjoyed. The majority of ships going to India and Australia do not come into Table Bay for coal, but keep steaming until they have reached Port Natal.

Smokestacks about the sh.o.r.e of the bay are not numerous enough to cla.s.s the place as a manufacturing center. One often wonders what people do to earn a living in some of the cities of South Africa, in view of blacks doing so much of the work. Wages in Capetown, the lowest paid in South Africa, are not enough for comfortable living.

Clerks, bookkeepers and clerical help generally are offered $7 to $10 a week. House rent is very cheap, however.

The blacks and colored of the Cape Province partic.i.p.ate in the franchise, and a native of Tembuland was a member of the provincial Parliament. Strict laws in the old Boer provinces prohibit selling liquor to natives. While all natives here cannot vote, all voters have a right to drink liquor. So, if a native has money to buy whisky, he need merely say he is a voter and the saloonkeeper will take his word for it. When a black man can drink all the whisky he can pay for, and has a vote, that means insults and danger to life for the white of both s.e.xes. This is the deplorable stage reached, to a noticeable degree, in Capetown. The white population is decreasing and blacks are becoming more insolent. The native of Capetown is not like the Zulu, nor the Barotse. He is copper colored, lower intellectually, of uninviting features and meanly inclined. Instances are frequent when the black of Capetown will not share the sidewalk--the white man must step off or get into a fight with half a dozen of these drunken natives.