ordinary enteric the inevitable concomitant of the neglect, on the part
of a crowded community, of ordinary sanitary precautions.

The character of the population soon changed. At first the ordinary
colonist predominated the kind of man who had hitherto led the simple
life, in most cases that of a farmer. He was very often accompanied by
his whole family. At that time many a farm, especially in the Eastern
Province, must have been tenantless, or else left in charge of native
servants. But as the fame of the rich and ever richer finds went
abroad, a cosmopolitan crowd of wastrels and adventurers poured in from
the ends of the earth. However, there never was in those early days
anything like the lawlessness that afterwards as much under British as
under Republican rule prevailed on the Rand. The great stay of law and
order was the individual digger, and this element of stability has
always been missing at the goldfields, except in the few instances
where alluvial mining has been pursued.

The first serious result of the changed conditions was the development
of illicit diamond-buying, "I.D.B." as it came to be called. This was
due to white men of the undesirable class tempting native servants to
steal from their masters' claims. The clearing-houses for this kind of
trade were found to be the low canteens. When the evil had reached a
certain pitch and there was no adequate law to deal with it, the better
class of diggers took the matter in hand, according to the methods of
Judge Lynch, and burnt down the more notorious establishments. This was
done calmly, judicially, and without any unnecessary violence.

CHAPTER V

My claim a disappointment--Good results attained elsewhere--A surprised
Boer--"Kopje wallopers"--Thunderstorms--A shocking spectacle--"Old Moore"
and his love affair--The morning market--Attack of enteric--I go to King
William's Town to recruit Toby once more--A venture in onions--Return to
Kimberley--The West End mess--The Rhodes brothers--Norman Garstin--H. C.
Seppings Wright--"Schipka" Campbell--Cecil John Rhodes--A game of euchre
The church bell--Raw natives--Alum diamonds--Herbert Rhodes and the cannon
His terrible end.

My "burrow" claim, which was situated near the north end of No. 7 Road,
did not turn out to be the fountain of riches I had anticipated. As a
matter of fact we never found another diamond in it. Under its thin
crust of limestone was an inconsiderable layer of very poor
diamondi