A Winter Tour in South Africa | Page 6

conversazione held later,
and which was attended by over four hundred ladies and gentlemen, the
following address was presented to me by the Fellows of the Royal
Colonial Institute resident at Kimberley and Beaconsfield:--
"Kimberley, _June 1st_, 1889.
"To SIR FREDERICK YOUNG, K.C.M.G.
"A Vice-President of the Royal Colonial Institute.
"DEAR SIR,--We, the Fellows of the Royal Colonial Institute, resident
in the towns and mining centres of Kimberley, and Beaconsfield, South
Africa, cordially welcome your arrival amongst us.
"We are persuaded that your visit to this distant part of Her Majesty's
Dominions has been undertaken, not merely for personal pleasure, but
also on behalf of the great and growing need for the consolidation and
expansion of colonial interests throughout the Empire.
"We feel that your own career has been an important factor in the
formation of a sound public opinion on this subject, and that it is
largely through your patient and far-seeing efforts, that the Royal
Colonial Institute has attained its present proud position amongst the
various, influences, moulding, organising, and guiding the life and
destinies of Her Majesty's Colonial Empire.

"We believe the present time to be vitally important in the history of
Her Majesty's Dominions in South Africa. The tide of confederation,
and corporate union is manifestly rising, the wave of extended British
influence is flowing northwards, the various nationalities and states of
this vast country are educating themselves by experience to see the
folly and sterile weakness of isolation, and are learning to realise the
inherent strength, and vitality of mutual co-operation, based on a self
respecting, yet unselfish responsibility to South Africa as a whole.
"We venture to suggest that this growing feeling for co-operation will
prove a valuable element in the growth, and formation in the near
future, of one Grand Confederation of all countries and peoples, owing
allegiance to, or claiming corporate alliance with, Her Britannic
Majesty's Empire.
"We rejoice, as members of the Royal Colonial Institute, that your
personal merits and public career have been recognised by Her Majesty
in the honour conferred upon you, which we trust you will enjoy for
many years.
"Coming amongst us as a Vice-President of our own Institute, your
presence symbolises to us the aspiration, radiant in hope, and prophetic
in promise, which animates all true and loyal subjects of Her Majesty,
and which is alone worthy of our past history, and present
responsibilities--the aspirations of a strong and united people for a
vigorous, and progressive 'United Empire.'"
To anyone visiting, for the first time, this great centre of the diamond
industry of South Africa the scene is most extraordinary. The
excitement and bustle, the wild whirl of vehicular traffic, the fearful
dust, the ceaseless movement of men and women of all descriptions,
and of every shade of complexion and colour, are positively
bewildering. The thoughts of everybody appear to be centred in
diamonds, and the prevailing talk and speech are accordingly. Being
the recipient, myself, of the most kind attention and genial and
generous hospitality, my stay was most agreeable, and pleasant. Great
facilities were afforded me for seeing everything connected with this
wonderful industry, and satisfying myself, that there are no present

signs of its being exhausted or "played out." Indubitable evidences
were given me, that diamonds continue to be found in as large
quantities as ever. They appeared to me to be "as plentiful as
blackberries."
At the Bultfontein Mine I descended to the bottom of the open
workings in one of the iron buckets, used for bringing up the "blue
ground" to the surface. This is rather a perilous adventure. To go down
by a wire rope, some five or six hundred feet perpendicular into the
bowels of the earth with lightning rapidity, standing up in an open
receptacle, the top of which does not approach your waist, oscillating
like a pendulum, while you are holding on "like grim death" by your
hands, is something more than a joke. It certainly ought not to be
attempted by anyone who does not possess a cool head and tolerable
nerve.
Here I saw multitudes of natives employed,--as afterwards in the De
Beer's, the Kimberley, and other diamond mines,--with pickaxes,
shovels, and other tools, breaking down the ground at the sides of the
mine, perched at various spots, and many a giddy height. Diamond
mining at Kimberley is altogether a very wonderful specimen of the
development of a new industry. In this mine I had explained to me the
various processes, by which diamonds are discovered in the rocky
strata which is being constantly dug out of the enormous circular hole,
constituting it.
I also visited the celebrated De Beer's Mine. This vast mine, where
some thousands of workmen, white and coloured, are employed, is
carried on much in the same way as the Bultfontein, as far