erican manager, formerly conducted engineering
operations in the southern part of America. He therefore knows the Negro
psychology and the result is that he conducts a sort of amiable and
paternalistic little kingdom all his own. The natives all come to him
with their troubles, and he is their friend, philosopher and guide.

After lunch one day he asked me if I would like to talk to a native who
had a story. When I expressed assent he took me out to a shed nearby and
there I saw a husky Baluba who was labouring under some excitement. The
reason was droll. Four days before, his wife had given birth to twins
and there was great excitement in the village. The natives, however,
refused to have anything to do with him because, to use their phrase,
"he was too strong." His wife did not come under this ban and was the
center of jubilation and gesticulation. The poor husband was a sort of
heroic outcast and had to come to Barclay to get some food and a drink
of palm wine to revive his drooping spirits.

The output in the Congo diamond area has grown from a few thousand
karats to hundreds of thousands of karats a year. The stones are small
but clear and brilliant. This yield is an unsatisfactory evidence of the
richness of the domain. The ore reserves are more than ten per cent of
the yearly output and the surface of the concession has scarcely been
scratched. Experienced diamond men say that a diamond in the ground is
worth two in the market. It is this element of the unknown that gives
the Congo field one of its principal potentialities.

The Congo diamond fields are merely a part of the Forminiere
treasure-trove. Over in Angola the concession is eight times larger in
area, the stones are bigger, and with adequate exploitation should
surpass the parent production in a few years. Six mines are already in
operation and three more have been staked out. The Angola mines are
alluvial and are operated precisely like those in Belgian territory. The
managing engineer is Glenn H. Newport, who was with Decker in the fatal
encounter with Batchoks. The principal post of this area is Dundu, which
is about forty miles from the Congo border.

As I looked at these mines with their thousands of grinning natives and
heard the rattle of gravel in the "jigs" my mind went back to Kimberley
and the immense part that its glittering wealth played in determining
the economic fate of South Africa. Long before the gold "rush" opened up
in the Rand, t