The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

160 SOUTH AND EAST AFBICA.was nn immediate rush to the district ofHopctown, whore the first finds had beenmade, but where, strnngo to say, no deposits have yet been discovered. Then thesands of the Orange were carefully examined as far as the confluence of the Vaal,the banks of which river were also explored. At last the groat diamantiferousdeposits were reached in a district 06 miles above the confluence, which was at onetime probably studded with lacustrine basins. Now began the great rush, adventurersof all kinds flocking towards the new Eldorado, which was at that timealmost uninhabited. Soldiers, sailors, deserters, farm-labourors, blacks, whites,mere striplings, arrived in crowds, every shijJ from Europe bringing a fresh con-Fig. 45.—RlTEB DiOOINOS IN THE VaAL BaSIX.Scale 1 : 55,0Ck).r^^^e^lWebster's Kopje />Kevy's Kopje /'Lj,-DuToifs PanEa^toFGreenw.chtingcnt of eager fortune-hunters. Miners, traders, and speculators hastened to crossthe mountains and desert plains of the Karroo in the direction of the new diamondfields. The more fortunate possessors of waggons and carts of any descriptionwere able to get over the rough ground in a few days, while the pedestriansplodded along night and day, guiding their steps by the indications obtained fromthe local squatters and Hottentot grazers. But many failed to reach the goal.Hundreds of wayfarers, worn out by hunger, thirst, disease, and hardships ofallsorts, or perhaps losing their way in the wilderness, perished in the attempt totraverse a route over GOO miles long, and their bodies were devoured by rapacious