About the Dudley Diamond: Star of South Africa

THE DUDLEY, OR STAR OF SOUTH AFRICA.

A Strange History--The Vicissitudes of a Diamond--A Child's Toy worth a King's Ransom--The Discovery of Diamonds at the Cape--A Great Stone thrown away in Africa to be afterwards Sold for over pound 11,000 in London.

The story of the "Star of South Africa" (now better known as the "Dudley") is the history of the beginning of diamond mining at the Cape of Good Hope. Apart from its interest in this respect it is quite a little romance of accidental discovery. Mr. B. W. Murray narrated it one evening last year to the Society of Arts. We cannot do better than reproduce the leading facts from his graphic paper which has been published in the Society's Journal:--

"In the course of that year, 1867, just as things were at the very worst, and men had come to regard the whole of South Africa as God-forsaken, Mr. John O'Reilly, a trader and hunter in the interior, was in Albania. Here I had better explain that Albania is a portion of the province of Griqualand West. It was a portion of the territory of the Griquas, who were under the chieftainship of Nicholas Waterboer, who afterwards ceded his territory to the British authorities. That territory, which became a Crown colony, and in which are the diamond diggings and mines, is situated between the Cape Colony, the Free State, the Batlapin territory, and that which is set down in the old maps as occupied by Hottentot tribes, and in which the copper mines are found. I shall endeavour to avoid embarrassing you with more of such details than are unavoidable. The latitude and longitude are not at all essential to the subject with which I am dealing. It will be sufficient for you if I state that Griqualand West is about 600 miles from each of the sea ports, and that it is approached by various routes; those most frequented are the western, or Table Bay route, the eastern, from Port Elizabeth, the frontier, or the East London route, and the Durban or Natal route.

"Albania, of which I commenced to speak, was a portion of the Griqua territory, settled by colonists, under terms made with Waterboer, some two years before the discovery of diamonds had been heard of. One of the colonists who had helped to form the settlement was a Mr. Van Niekirk. Mr. O'Reilly, who was returning from the interior to Colesberg, called upon Van Niekirk, and remained with him the night. In the course of the evening, one of Van Niekirk's children, a little girl, was playing on the floor with some of the pretty pebbles which are common in the neighbourhood of the Vaal River. Mr. O'Reilly's attention was directed to one of the stones, which threw out a very strong light, to which Mr. O'Reilly's eyes had been unaccustomed. He took it up from the floor and offered to buy it, asking what Van Niekirk would take for it. The simple-minded Boer could not understand what the meaning of purchasing a stone could be, and he said he would take no money for it, but that if Mr. O'Reilly had a mind to it, he could have it.

"The colonial trader is generally represented as a verneuker of a most designing and unscrupulous kind, but there are men amongst them whose right dealing and high character would stand comparison with those of any men in the world, and no men have a better footing amongst the Boers than the old-established traders. Mr. O'Reilly is one of them. He told Van Niekirk that he believed it to be a precious stone and of value; he would, therefore, not take it for nothing. It was ultimately agreed between them that O'Reilly should take the stone, ascertain its value, and, if found to be a diamond, as O'Reilly suspected it was, that it should be sold, and the money divided between them. Mr. O'Reilly took the stone to Colesberg, where he showed it, and he confidently stated to the people he met at the bar of the hotel that it was a diamond. He wrote his initials on the window-pane and cut a tumbler with the stone, and was laughed at for his alleged foolishness, as many a discoverer had been before him. One of the company took the stone out of O'Reilly's hands and threw it into the street. It was a narrow chance that the stone was found again, and, had it not been, it is quite a question whether the Diamond Fields of South Africa had yet or ever been discovered in our day. However, the stone was found, and O'Reilly sent it to Grahamstown, to Dr. Atherstone, to be tested, and and the doctor and Bishop Ricards, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Grahamstown (one of the most scientific men in South Africa) both pronounced it to be a diamond of 22 1/2 carats. From Grahamstown the stone was sent to the then Colonial Secretary, the Hon. Richard Southey, afterwards Lieutenant-Governor of Griqualand West, who submitted the stone to the best authorities at hand, and they all decided it to be a diamond. It was then forwarded to the Queen's jewellers, Messrs. Hunt and Roskell, who confirmed the decisions obtained in the colony, and valued the stone at pound 500. At this valuation, it was purchased by his Excellency, Sir Philip Wodehouse, who was Governer of the colony at the time. Mr. O'Reilly, as soon as he had ascertained for certain that his first stone was a diamond, set out to see if he could not find others, and was not long before he found one of 8 7/8 carats, and this too was purchased by Sir Philip Wodehouse for pound 200. This led to a good deal of excitement throughout the country. Small diamonds were brought in by natives. Then flashed the startling intelligence through the country that a diamond of over 83 carats had been discovered. This turned out to be true, and this is how it came about. Mr. Van Niekirk, from whom Mr. O'Reilly obtained the first stone, hearing that it had turned out to be a diamond, remembered that he had seen one of a similar character in the possession of a native, and set out to find it. A Boer is not long in getting hold of a native when he wants him, and Van Niekirk soon had his man. The native had kept the stone, and Van Niekirk gave him nearly all he possessed for it--about 500 sheep, horses, &c.--but at whatever the price, he obtained the stone, and set off with it to Messrs. Lilienfield Brothers, of Hopetown, merchants of long standing in South Africa, and now represented in Hatton-garden. They purchased the stone for pound 11,200, and christened it the "Star of South Africa," forwarded it to England, and it ultimately became the property of the Countess of Dudley, who purchased it of Messrs. Hunt and Roskell."