arrest could be effected.

It was a fortunate circumstance that I knew Major Macdonald, the Gold
Commissioner, fairly well, and that he was owing to a successful game
of poker the previous night in an unusually good temper. He penciled an
order for John's release. After some difficulty I found the gaoler and
got him although with a bad grace, for John had acted in a really
outrageous manner to obey the order.

All nationalities were represented among the diggers, but English South
Africans predominated. Soon, however, an increasing population of
Australian, New Zealand, and Californian miners poured in. The "field"
was a rich one. The "lead," which zigzagged perplexingly down between
the valley terraces, carried plenty of gold. It was, of course, uneven,
some parts of it being much richer than others but I do not think that
there was any portion of the lead which it did not pay to work. But the
lead and the bed of the creek in which the water actually ran zigzagged
quite independently of each other. That is to say, at the time when the
gold was carried down and distributed by water along the bottom of the
valley countless ages ago, the stream then flowing although it followed
the same general direction took in detail a course quite different from
the one it followed when the busy gold seekers defaced its banks in the
days I write of.

Much more gold was found than is generally supposed. I remember four
very quiet, reticent men who worked out three and a half rather shallow
claims just in front of what was known as the Middle Camp. They never
spoke of what they were finding and it would have been a most serious
breach of local etiquette to make any inquiry upon such a subject but
upon leaving they authorized the manager of the bank to make public the
fact that they had divided, on dissolution of the partnership, gold to
the value of 35,000. Many others also did well, but none to the same
extent as the partnership referred to. Some very large nuggets were
found. I personally handled one which weighed 10 lb. It was unearthed
by the late John Barrington, afterwards of Knysna.

The wild peaches which grew so plentifully in the vicinity of the Blyde
River Valley were a godsend to indigent "Pilgrims." How the trees
originated is a mystery. But there they were, on the "flats" of
Pilgrim's Creek, along the Blyde River terraces and in many of the
surrounding Valleys, groves of trees bearing luscious peaches of the
yellow clin