Adamantia : the truth about the South African diamond fields : or, a ...

~ATERBOER'S PLEASANT PROSPECTS. 103mercies of both the Orange Free State and the Transvaalor South African Republic, the Kafirs andKoranas he seeks to ~ong and rob. I kno~ that, in~ay, 1812, just before I left the country, great excitementprevailed amongst the latter tribes, and thatnothing but the presence of the British authorities andmounted police at the diamond fields preserved Waterboerand his fe~ dissipated slothful fono~er8 from anactive demonstration of their ~ath. The Batlapingand Korana allies could, mth the greatest ease, putseveral thousand stal~art, ~en-armed men into the field,and he could not muster as many hundreds. Moreover,the quality of his men, in my opinion, is not nearlyequal to that of his opponents--every man of whomcould muster mth a good gun, thanks to the unlimitedsupply sold to natives on the diamQnd fields.Then every man of the allied tribes is expert in theuse of the a888eai, a weapon unkno~ amongst theGriquas, but not to be despised even by Europeantroops, as our Kafir wars have shown, if once it comesto fairly close quarters. In three days Waterboer andhis people would be exterminated, root and branch.The diamond fields will not last for ever-in allprobability, but for few years. When the diamondsare finished, the end of the British protectorate willnot be far off, and the most transitory of populatiQD8-a digging community-will be on the .wa.y to"other fields and pastures new." Waterboer willbe left to the society of his loving neighbours.Digitized by Goog Ie