Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 4.djvu/198

 was an immediate rush to the district of Hopetown, where the first finds had been made, but where, strange to say, no deposits have yet been discovered. Then the sands of the Orange were carefully examined as far as the confluence of the Vaal, the banks of which river were also explored. At last the great diamantiferous deposits were reached in a district 96 miles above the confluence, which was at one time probably studded with lacustrine basins. Now began the great rush, adventurers of all kinds flocking towards the new Eldorado, which was at that time almost uninhabited. Soldiers, sailors, deserters, farm-labourers, blacks, whites, mere striplings, arrived in crowds, every ship from Europe bringing a fresh contingent

of eager fortune-hunters. Miners, traders, and speculators hastened to cross the mountains and desert plains of the Karroo in the direction of the new diamond fields. The more fortunate possessors of waggons and carts of any description were able to get over the rough ground in a few days, while the pedestrians plodded along night and day, guiding their steps by the indications obtained from the local squatters and Hottentot grazers. But many failed to reach the goal. Hundreds of wayfarers, worn out by hunger, thirst, disease, and hardships of all sorts, or perhaps losing their way in the wilderness, perished in the attempt to traverse a route over 600 miles long, and their bodies were devoured by rapacious