This report was a revelation that transformed the despised karrooland as the grimy Cinderella was transfigured by the wand of her fairy godmother. The determination was so positive and the expertness of the examiner so well conceded that Sir Philip Wodehouse, the Governor at the Cape, bought the rough diamond at once, at the value fixed by Dr. Atherstone and confirmed by the judgment of M. Henriette, the French consul in Cape Town. The stone was sent immediately to the Paris Exhibition, where it was viewed with much interest, but its discovery, at first, did not cause any great sensation. The occasional finding of a diamond in a bed of pebbles had been reported before from various parts of the globe, and there was no assurance in this discovery of any considerable diamond-deposits.
Meanwhile Mr. Boyes hastened to Hopetown and to Van Niekerk's farm, to search along the river-shore where the first diamond was found. He prodded the phlegmatic farmers and their black servants and raked over many bushels of pebbles for two weeks, but no second diamond repaid his labor. Still, the news of the finding of the first stone made the farmers near the river look more sharply at every heap of pebbles in the hope of finding one of the precious blink klippe ("bright stones"), as the Boers named the diamond, and many bits of shining rockcrystal were carefully pocketed in the persuasion that the glittering stones were diamonds. But it was ten months from the time of the discovery at Hopetown before a second diamond was found, and this was in a spot more than thirty miles away, on the bank below the junction of the Vaal and the Orange rivers. Mr. Boyes again hastened to the place from which the diamond had been taken, but he again failed to find companion stones, though he reached the conclusion that the diamond bad been washed downstream by the overflowing Vaal.
From the Orange River the search passed up the Vaal, where the beds of pebbles were still more common and beautiful. The eyes of the native blacks were much quicker and keener in such a quest than those of the Boer, who scarcely troubled himself to stoop for the faint chance of a diamond. But no steady or systematic search was undertaken by anybody, and it was not until the next year, 1868, that a few more diamonds were picked up on the banks of the Vaal by some sharp-sighted Koranas. The advance of discovery was so slow and disappointing that there seemed only a faint prospect of the realization of the cheering prediction of Dr. Atherstone, which was scouted by critics who were wholly incompetent to pass upon it. Even the possibility of the existence of diamond-deposits near the junction of the Orange and Vaal rivers was denied by a pretentious examiner who came from England to report on the Hopetown field. It was gravely asserted that any diamonds in that field must have been carried in the gizzards of ostriches from some far-distant region, and any promotion of search in the field was pronounced a bubble scheme.
To this absurd and taunting report Dr. Atherstone replied with marked force and dignity, presenting the facts indicating the existence of diamond-bearing deposits, and adding: "Sufficient has been already discovered to justify a thorough and extensive geological research into this most interesting country, and I think for the interest of science and the benefit of the Colony a scientific examination of the country will be undertaken. So far from the geological character of the country making it impossible, I maintain that it renders it probable that very extensive and rich diamond-deposits will be discovered on proper investigation. This, I trust, the home Government will authorize, as our colonial exchequer is too poor to admit of it."
“And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
– Jesus, Matthew 28:20