our casks. Such a request would never
be refused. After the first well in the vicinity of the mine had been
sunk, water was sold from it at the rate of a shilling per bucket, and
at morning and evening the crush was so great that people had to wait
perhaps half an hour before they could be served. I recall one occasion
when, the need for a sudden superficial ablution having arisen, I ran
over to the liquor-shop tent and bought a bottle of soda-water for the
purpose.

I have a very clear recollection of the first case of diamond stealing
on the part of a servant that came under my notice. A certain Major
Bede, an American, who worked at the north end of the mine, caught a
Hottentot in his employ in the act of secreting a stone. The major
recovered his property, but the thief wrenched himself from the grasp
of his captor, bolted like a rabbit between the sorting-heaps, and
gained the open veld. A general view hallo was raised; I should say at
least a hundred and fifty men streamed out and joined in the pursuit.

The Hottentot easily distanced them all, but unfortunately for him a
man mounted on a small pony appeared on his right front. This man,
seeing that a chase was in progress, headed the fugitive off. The
latter was brought back, tried on the spot, and sentenced to receive
fifty lashes. He was triced up to the wheel of a wagon; an elderly man
he had been in the Royal Navy appeared with a cat o' nine tails. At
every stroke the culprit called out, in derision, "Hoo-lay." Although
terribly punished he never uttered a cry. I remember being struck by
the curious circumstance that the ex-seaman should have taken the
trouble to bring his "cat" with him to a mining camp. He must have had
an affection for the horrible thing.

I will now relate how I very nearly became the discoverer of the
world-famed Kimberley Mine. Being somewhat slightly built, I was not
of much use at heavy work in the claim, so it was arranged that our
Hottentot boy, David, should take my place, I taking his in the matter
of herding the twelve oxen. This arrangement suited me exactly. Small
game abounded, and I had the use of a gun. My favorite pasturage area
was the big shallow basin to the westward, within the perimeter of
which was a low, oblong rise covered with long grass, and at the
eastern end of which stood a grove of exceptionally large camel thorn
trees. This rise afterwards came to be known as "Colesberg Kopje";
eventually it was named "Kim