berley," after Lord Kimberley, who was
Secretary of State for the Colonies at the time of the annexation of
the diamond-fields. On it were usually to be found hares, Namaqua
partridges, korhaan, and an occasional steenbok. Ant-bears and jackals
had been at work at various places. One burrow was exceptionally deep,
and the gravel thrown up from it looked exactly like that of the claim
in which I had been working. I determined to do some prospecting on my
own account at this spot.

Unfortunately, however, I mentioned my intention at the camp. One of my
peculiarities as a youngster was a morbid sensitiveness in respect of
anything like chaff. This was so marked that the least attempt at
teasing was enough to send me away in a state of misery. My mates knew
this, and accordingly often made me the butt of their cheap witticisms.
When I spoke of the burrow and the resemblance of the gravel at its
mouth to the diamondiferous soil in which we were working, this was
made a pretext for derision.

Day by day I was bantered about my supposed diamond-mine; mockingly I
would be asked how many carats my last find weighed, and so on.
Consequently, I was afraid again to mention the subject. Had it been
possible secretly to obtain the necessary appliances for prospecting,
and to get them away without the knowledge of my mates, I would have
done so. I often thought of asking some of my friends in the other
camps to lend me tools, but the dread of my enterprise becoming known
and being made the subject of more chaff deterred me, so I kept putting
the thing off.

However, I never abandoned the intention of one day carrying out the
"prospect." But I delayed too long; the clue dangled by Fortune within
my reach was grasped by other hands.

One day when I drove my oxen to their usual pasturage I noticed that
the camel thorn grove had been invaded. A tent had been pitched there,
and the smoke of a fire arose from the camp. This annoyed me
exceedingly; not because it in any way interfered with my intention of
prospecting I could still have done that freely, and the tent was
nowhere near my burrow but for the, to me, more important reason that
the advent of a camp right in the middle of my preserve was bound to
spoil my shooting. The camp turned out to be that of Mr. Ortlepp, of
Colesberg, and his party. Mr. Ortlepp I afterwards got to know, but at
that time we had not met. So for the future I avoided the area in which
I had been accustomed