DIAMONDS IN THE DESERT.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3129, 7 August 1922, Page 7

DIAMONDS IN THE DESERT.

(By Charles Dawbarm).

There is not on the globe’s surface an area possessing more weird fascination for the human spirit than the sandy desert crossed by the railway two hundred miles in length from Keetraanshoop to Ludentzbucht, in the new protectorate of German Southwest Africa.. The ownership, resources and future of this desert are subjects of controversy at the present time, partly because of the political uncertainties incidental to mandated country which has no mandate and winch is still under martial law. That one should have interest at all in a desert sounds a little paradoxical, vet this particular desert has peculiar and even unique attractions. Years ago the late Lord Salisbury referred scoifinglv to “a little light soil” that had accrued to France as the result of an agreement with Great Britain; he might well have imagined a territory sucii as this. ’ , Human eye never ranged oter a more desolate region—a nightmare country, full of sand (moving mountains of sand) and bleak places o\ei which the southern trades blow with incredible violence. Clauds of choking particles arise, stinging and revengeful, striking face and 1 hands with a thousand whips. At its worst, hors will not face it, but glissade to the offside of a dune—those mysterious, implacable dunes, which are forever on the march over this .howling wilderness. Not easily are they kept m check, even by armies of black laborers shovelling perpetually to keep clear the tracks. For soon the lines would he subjected to the: monstrous appetite of the sand for all clear y defined things that represent the work of man. And so the war goes on between obliteration and making clear. Looking out of my carnage window, I am enthralled by the scene. What Gehenna is this, whitened with the bones, I doubt not, of intrepid pioneers who, in times past, tried to wrest the secrets from its stony bosom? Later, when I penetrate its fastnesses by the modern method of an electric railway, I find only \\ halebones bleaching in the sand valuable and yet valueless because the freight is heavy in these parts and transport difficult. . , • Dead men have been placed m graves with wooden crosses above them —a tiny cluster. Some have recumbent crosses, stone-made, with stonemarked earth about them. But here is a bushman’s skeleton with grinning skull, which must present a tale. Kecords sneak of sliver workings in this region, so that the resistless sand must surely cover the last traces ot early miners seeking fortune in the weirdest region of the world. Impossible that-riches can be heie . The eye ranges the vast extent or sand and stones, the mere apology for vegetation that exists m stunted) plants of greeny-grey and tiny bushes, stripped and shrivelled by the wind. Riches in the appalling picture ot* bleak nothingness, framed by kopjes! Yes, the truth is stranger than any fiction. . , , .r As the train proceeds with true African leisurelinoss towards Ludentzbucht and the sea, the landscape never changes. There is no let up. Always the sand, always the environing lulls. The sunset comes, glorious in its coloring and incandescent glow, tne stonv kopjes are made beautiful, catching the reflection from a sea of golden fire. The sands solten into seductive shades of greys, hills grow purple. Then the sun sinks andi the stars shine clear upon this vast expanse of nothingness, peopled with, shadows—a land of gloom, of an abiding desolation, a< hind ot gnomes, of haunting spirits, a land ' of mocking dreams of wealth beyond all imagining. Mocking dreams ! And yet some have had their dreams come true' and. to-day, sit in purple and fine linen when, but a dozen years ago, their shirt-sleeves were tucked up and’ the khaki-colored trousers were kept in place by a stout brown licit, with good Boer tobacco. To-day the fortunes have crystallised into the purest crystals. The diamonds have materialised. , Shimmering under the moon light in the living rack and waste ot sand, sought for by native Ovambos a-grope on all fours, they were gathered into match-boxes—a true history of diamond beginnings an the.old German South-west, now the Southwest Protectorate. These diamonds seen in dreams, shyly glimmering from the cruel face of the desert, have been transformed into “blue-white” or yellowish realities. I saw them a. while ago: astounding mass! Some, six or seven thousand were gathered m canisters. which usually are kept lockeu behind formidable doors, with combination locks to move them. One dav, battling with sand-storms and trying to keep the rails clear from their paralysing grip. Herr Stanch, "anger of native labor, was suddenly accosted by one of his hands, a Cape bov who had worked at Kimberley. The half-caste, showing «■ stone, which glowed in his brown palm, exclaimed, “Boss, a diamond!” Stanch realised at once the meaning of it; how Fortune had come to him in sudden and alluring guise. He seized upon it at once, not concealing his interest in the discovery. But he Controlled his excitement and merely said. “Bring me others, if you find them.’ And yet he was almost stifled with emotion. The native, urged on with promises of reward, went again to his search for the precious white stones 1 . Left to himself, Stanch, practical and hard-headed Gennaii, tried the stone upon his watch-glass. With the sensations of Columbus sighting the New World from the prow of his ship, ho noted the tell-tale scratch. Thereupon the stone journeyed to Cope Town for assay. When it returned with “first water” as the verdict, Stanch’s mind was made up. Other stones had come to: his hands. He glimpsed now the El Dorado that lay at his feet. His imagination was fired, though his caution did not desert him. He was both secret and speedv in big methods. Only to trusted friends did he communicate the great news. With them he trekked into the wilds', this bleak, howling hinterland, this No Man’s’ Land which would starve a sparrow, as it seemed. Ho pitched his tent in the midst of a wild expanse of schist, granite, gleaming white iiuo.rtz, shale and geological formations which, in their constant change and variety, make the wonder of this grey am? grisly land. When the camp was pitched it was ji I ready night. TJmiible to wait, St-aiiiich and his associates, who were men with prospectors’ knowledge, sent forth their black emissaries into the night. Ovanibos crept over the field, holding m one band a match-box, into which they dropped the beautiful crystals which lay on the surface, under the cold' Iveams of the moon. . A fabulous fortune (said to lie Cl/o 000) was gained in five months. Without machinery, without digging, simply with superficial search, this wealth dropped into the lap of the ex-foreman of a railway gang. It was a® wonderful as the stories in “The Arabian Nights. ’ One of the magical valleys in this thirsty land he called after his wife, “Ida. Tal.” To: another portion of the

claim he gave thei name “Hexenkeesel” (The Witch’b Kettle). It is appropriate, tor only a witch could conjure such riches from the sand. Another productive patch he called 1 “Maereihiental”: literally, “The Fairy Story Valley.” A fairy story indeed! And the whole claim is now known as Stauch’s' Lager. It was staked' out twelve years ago, and still it yieildls exactly half of all the treasures found upon these barren lands, over which roam the hyena, and the jackal, with the shrieking seabird overhead. To-day it still furnishes the largest stones', as if the genius and good fortune of Herr Stanch still hung about the soil. Herr Stanch is managing director of a group of companies which sprang from his discoveries, mid its now known as the Consolidated Diamonds l Com-' pany. During the war the assets were acquired for three and a. half million pounds by an Anglo-American corporation, but no change is likely for the moment either in the working policy or the personnel of the Helds. Life in the desert is strange enough, yet not wholly divorced from Contact with human beings, thanks to the electric railway, which puts the folds into touch with Luderitzbucht, the southern sea-port of the Protectorate. In the palmy days of the first rush much money was spent at Luderitzbucht by successful prospectors. They poured out deep libations to the god of pleasure, and hotel-keepers thus profited from violent reaction from desert loneliness. Something of the old spirit remains. Whisky and! champagne flow freely in week-end currents' in the little town, which is as dusty as the surrounding Sahara, and owed its existence to the Bremen merchant whose name it bears. He bought it from the Hottentots for a sum of £(SO, sundry gorgeous uniforms and an armoury of ancient weapons. During the intervening years the population has grown to a thousand souls. Diamonds, it is said, have crept into the very superstructure of the buildings, which are usually of cement and tone' reared upon the hard rock. Decomposed granite forms the covering of the pathless streets. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that the railway line is ballasted with gems, for at tliis hour white faces and black are poring over sieves shaken by the hand, in the hope of discovering a king's ransom. Railway men are trying to emulate the exploit of Stanch and to become millionaires in a few passionate months of searching for the little white stone, which has hypnotised humanity with its effulgent fires. “Washes” are frequent along tuo railway line. It is the only spot in the diamond territory where the outsider mav look tor the precious pebbles. Elsewhere, each stone is earmarked by the lords of the industry. On Ooniona fields is a tower on a rock, where formerly strict watch was kept on those who worked. Any infraction of the rules led to acts of discipline. Since no worker knew who was Ins neighbor, he became by instinct cautious and gave no cause lor offence. Thefts' of diamonds have been, indeed, verv few and far between . The processes are simple, consisting of sifting on the field, for which a rotary sieve is used. Then comes projection up a tower and eastnigs dowi and ceaseless siftings and shakings. The gravel comes at last to the sortinghouse, the most interesting stage ot alt for here sharp-eyed Ovamfos-nat ve eves arc better than the white man s, because unspoiled by reading print—pick out the diamonds with pincers hk S "SeSo.Kk have gravitated by tl|S time into the middle of the mass The gravel is washed by being plunpod mto a pan of water, and any diamonds the c may be stick upwards when the coi - tents of the sieve are reversed Iron phcoTapart 1 and Swards, the reother mine!” is the prayer ot mine directors. “The world must be kci hungry for diamonds,” they say. Exactly how many diamonds this desert could provide I do »ot pre end to know, but the syndicate, \v Inch is an powerful never over-baits the hook. There is no glut of precious stones. That, is why the diamonds are hoarded' “tommy paid all the «!>««“ revenue of a million and a halt pounds the other revenue did not amount seventh of that. And now ag.toi to day the Administration will recoup itself for State expenses by sharing the sale of the little stones. In general, the diamonds fraction of a carat m size J h j- avex_ age is perhaps three 01 tom sm tones a larger sort is uncovered be the sands- it may exceed even twenty carats’. A stone of twenty-tour carats has been found this year; the giea es_ tone of all «. thirtydwo carats, wtach is preserved as a cunositc in the Uex 11 AUnvUvn diamonds are, of course won hy methods far less compl.cated than the stone that has to be oxtiacled hrnte force from the haid, icluc . S Asto how it ca.ne.to be™ too SB* i2°bS lei« Pcious deposits, for stones glint from the 1 °Foi° the most S pa H they are found m what are evidently the stony beds ol ocemi currents that have long since ceased to flow. That was ii fon •strange sea-monsters lurked m the nm ingplaces of ungainly rocks which no lie tumbled upon the land. ' looking, then, upon the floor ot a 1€ ceded sea. Whence came the dramoids. The most learned do not know, borne think they came from thei sea itse f, where lies the “pipe ; others tnat roc pipe is southward on the land, not jc discovered. In any case, the exact value of this dry and sandy sea is >et beyond the calculation ot prospectois, who are here with lateral trenches and, little mounds which betoken then activities. For a vast area lies beyond, their ken, closed to enterprise by an exclusive Government, which tear. , p haps, to lower the price ol diamonds bv discovering more. ' But the soil, ungrateful, hideous in its outward seeming, frightening m its contours of rock and endless sand, which moves as the wind lists in perpetual petulance, as if resenting man s presence in the lonely land, vet clasps to its parched breasts gems of no common splendour. Amethysts are here, rubies, turquoises —I know not what beside of crystal loveliness shrouded in desert bonds. Indeed, the sand is a-ghmmer with the dew of unutterable wealth. 'hit yet all is not gold that glitters. Alaybe the sparkles upon your coat mown by the hasty wind are just the tinsel or the banquet, mere fairy gold to tempt you from sober ways of thought to the inad pursuit of the unattainable. But gold there is, none the less, to be plucked from glistening rocks —just as silver is there, tin, lead and copper. What compensatory scheme of Providence to have placed in the* fearful solitudes precious metals to embellish or serve mankind I

Solitary and sinister is the wilderness particularly during the prevailing winds that blow eight months in the year, scoring cheeks, filling air passages and: trying the temper so that even the genial and well-balanced grow neurasthenic and hateful in each other’s sight, it is not utterly unpeopled. Little colonies dwell therein. On each field there are, probably, half a hundred Europeans with their wives and children, and five times as many Ova,mhos, drawn from their kraals in their distant country. Three hundred miles or more the natives have tramped to' the nearest railhead, and needs must return the same way, at the conclusion of their contract, wiser men and generally weightier in body, for they have grown fat on the mealie meal and. soup (varied with Kaffir beer) of the diamond service. Judging by savoury odours, these staples are well made. In the compound the black man is at least better housed than at home, and probably than most sailors in their cramped fd’c’les. As to what the Ovambo learns or does not learn, that scarcely belongs to our tale of diamonds. of his peril by the way, one may speak of the ambushed Bushman with his poisoned arrows, which lie is ever ready to embed in Ovambo flesh. Life on the fields, bound together by the thread of a narrow-gauge railway, is not altogether sterile—in spite of the desert. There are social distractions to vary the monotony of diamond sifting and washing and perpetual trekking into tbe dun fastnesses. In flio house no method seems quite adequate to exclude the sand. It blows through every crevice on the back of the blizzard. The best-laid schemes do not succeed. Here comes the dance and evening party to relieve the mind and restore its gaiety. The “social hour” is indefinitely prolonged, and thirst in this well-less land is not wholly assuaged by water from the condenser. For the sea is near at hand, always behind the steady walls of rock and the perambulating hills of sand, and hero and there, as at Bogenfels (practically the present limit of the fields) sea water is robbed of its salt, by the condensing process. Brackish water, too, is obtained by boring into the desert; it serves to wash the diamonds. But neither dance nor distillery quite banish thoughts of the cinema, or even of the school! Diamonds turn to dust, when you try to exist on. them spiritually. soldiers who camped in the desert during the local war, which made a German colony into the British Protectorate of South Africa, carried off pickle-jars of the stones. Everywhere in this 1 fantastic country is the whisper of wealth to shame Croesus and to excite the imagination of the most perfevid) novelist. Pomona, Bogenfels, Stauch’s Lager, Granite Berg! These arc names that beckon the stay-at-homes from their humdrum task to lead the monward into the ghostly, glimmering twilight of a great adventure. My last impression is of black men, be-gogglecl to protect their eyes from the sand, rising like wraiths from a world of shadows.