then,' said the Basuto, 'I knew that there was indeed a God, for He
had preserved me.'"

Before leaving the subject of diamonds, it may be interesting to
note the material increase of the products of the mines year by
year. The following is a table of statistics of the De Beers
Consolidated Mines, Limited, since its formation, 1st April 1888:--

TABLE OF STATISTICS.

[Transcriber's Note: In order to fit into the limits required by
Project Gutenberg, this table has been split into three parts.]

+----------+----------------+---------+---------+-------------+---------------+
| |Year Ending | Number | Number | Number of |Amount Realised|
| | |of Loads |of Loads | Carats of | by Sale |
| | |of Blue |of Blue | Diamonds | of Diamonds. |
| | |Hoisted. | Washed. | Found | |
+----------+----------------+---------+---------+-------------+---------------|
| {|March 31, 1889, | | | | L s. d.|
| {|prior to | 944,706| 712,263| 914,121 | 901,818 0 5|
| {|consolidation | | | | |
|De Beers {|March 31, 1890 |2,192,226|1,251,245|1,450,605 |2,330,179 16 3|
|and {|March 31, 1891 |1,978,153|2,029,588|2,020,515 |2,974,670 9 0|
|Kimberley{|[A]June 30, 1892|3,338,553|3,239,134|3,035,481 |3,931,542 11 1|
|Mines {|June 30, 1893 |3,090,183|2,108,626|2,229,805 |3,239,389 8 6|
| {|June 30, 1894 |2,999,431|2,577,460|2,308,463-1/2|2,820,172 3 9|
| {|June 30, 1895 |2,525,717|2,854,817|2,435,541-1/2|3,105,957 15 8|
| {|June 30, 1896 |2,698,109|2,597,026|2,363,437-3/4|3,165,382 1 4|
| {|June 30, 1897 |2,515,889|3,011,288|2,769,422-3/4|3,722,099 3 3|
| | | | | | |
|Premier | | | | | |
|Mine |June 30, 1897 | 271,777| ... | ... | ... |
| | | | | | |
|De Beers | | | | | |
|and | | | | | |
|Kimberley | | | | | |
|Mines |June 30, 1898 |3,332,688|3,25