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An Account of a Journey to the Diamond Fields in South Africa in 1872. Containing a full description of all the little incidents of the journey, which I think will be likely to interest my friends, or serve to refresh my own memory in the years that are to come.
New London, Connecticut, September 1876. 8vo (9.875” x 8”), three quarters black leather and coated black cloth over boards, gilt title at upper cover. 92 pp. in ink on as many leaves, most numbered. Regular corrections and annotations in ink, in Smith’s hand, on versos facing the relevant pages; occasional later pencil annotations to margins. Small newspaper clipping (1” x 1”) and Smith’s ownership stamp at front pastedown and ffep. CONDITION: Good, leather at spine mostly perished, covers rubbed at extremities, contents very good with some light spotting throughout and one 4” closed tear from top of p. 53, not affecting text. A Connecticut school-teacher’s account of his experiences in an early South African diamond field, written several years after his return and blending passages from his original journal with rich and engaging descriptions of mining, camp life, extraordinary incidents, his interactions with Xhosa and Khoekhoe laborers, and his arduous voyages to and from a camp in the area that is now Kimberly. Frederic W. Smith was born into a farming family in Lyme, Connecticut in 1838, and as a young man worked as a school teacher. In 1865 he married Emma J. Comstock (1840–1905), but by the spring of 1872 his health had become “very bad…many years of hard labor in the schools of New London and elsewhere, had brought on a severe cough, and occasional hemorrhage.” In debt and certain (despite the expert ministrations of a New York doctor) that he will die if he remains at home, Smith decides to venture to South Africa. The friend he had planned to accompany backs out, so Smith sets off from New York alone on June 8th, 1872 aboard the steamer Columbia. After stops in Londonderry, Glasgow, London, Madeira, and Cape Town—the latter involving a daring venture up Table Mountain (“American like[,] I determine to go alone, and without a guide”)—he makes the grueling trip to the Du Toits Pan mining camp. The stage journey from Cape Town (“under the control of a guard” with horses or mules and drivers “changed every four or six hours”) takes about a week. He and his fellow diamond-seekers sleep one night along the way at a Dutchman’s house (“something in our room seems to have a very peculiar smell”) but for the final four days stop nowhere at all (“We don’t mind it much the first night, but call it fun. The second night we feel tired and sleepy, and would like to get a little nap. The third night we get desperate…”). They arrive at last in Du Toits Pan on August 7th, and from a distance, Smith likens it to “a great camp like that of an army.” Up close, he writes: The streets are full of people from all parts of the world, English, Dutch, Jews and Americans, Hottentots [i.e., Khoekhoe], Kaffirs [i.e., Xhosa], Zulus, and Basutos [i.e., Sotho], constitute the colored gentry. They number about five sixths of the population. …The diamonds are found chiefly in the craters of four extinct volcanoes, called kopjes…Each kopje is surrounded by a rim or reef of rocks, about six rods wide. Within this reef the crater is filled with sand, gravel, bowlders, pebbles, ashes, lava, and other materials, and it is in this gravel that diamonds are found. During his seven-month stay in Du Toits Pan, Smith lives in tent number three in “American Row,” employs a Xhosa “tent boy,” called Jacob, along with several other Xhosa miners (six of whose English nicknames he records), and finds numerous diamonds, many of which are flawed. Lengthy passages, evidently drawn from his notebook and his memory, describe Xhosa culture and society (knowledge largely gained from Jacob, with whom he develops a close rapport); the Khoekhoe and Xhosa women and children working in the diamond fields; the claims themselves (including how they are worked and the social and legal structures that shape mining practices); the uncertainty of mining (with numerous anecdotes of their arbitrary successes and failures); the landscape, flora, and fauna around and beyond the mines; and the reaction of his Xhosa employees to his removal of his false teeth (“At noon, while I sat in my tent eating my dinner, a dark cloud overshadowed my doorway. All the Kaffirs in the camp numbering about 100 stood in front of my tent. The story of the wonderful things I could do had spread among them, and they wanted to see me do it…”). Passages quoted directly from his notebook provide a window into the daily rhythm of mining (“Mon, Sep 2nd, found a 1 karat, all full of cracks…Thurs Sep 19th found a nice stone, good shape, off color”), and report Smith’s purchase of his partner’s share of their claim; falling ill with bilious fever (“Got so weak, I could not sit up to cook anything”); receiving his first letters from home (“Six months and thirteen days since I left home and this is the first word I have heard from them”); and surviving an impressive thunderstorm and a flood of the camp (“I piled my things up…then got onto the table myself…watching the water as it rushed through my tent…”), which is followed by the most “magnificent” sunset panorama he had ever seen—“like a pathway of molten gold leading from earth to heaven.” After an accident “by which I came quite near getting killed,” and which effectively destroys his claim, Smith decides to sell out. At the invitation of his former “tent boy” Jacob, he first prepares to seek more diamonds some 600 miles northward, until news of war between the Xhosa and the Dutch makes such a plan unsafe. Despite not having made a fortune, he decides to return home. Another long ride brings him to Cape Town (“We made the journey…in six days and seven hours, stopping only seven hours for sleep on the whole journey—four at a hotel—and three on the plain where we slept on the ground”), where he boards the steamer Saxon to England, making stops at St. Helena (including a visit to Napoleon’s exile residence), Ascension Island, Tenerife (“very little grows…except cactus…cultivated extensively as food for the Cochineal insect”), and Madeira (where he returns the kiss of a pretty Spaniard—“Indulgent reader: I have recorded this incident to afford your entertainment, and ‘to refresh my own memory in the years that are to come,’ but you must never, never tell. It might make trouble in the family”). In London it is so rainy and cold that I determined to come home at once, and went to the office of the White Star Line to get my tickets. Found that their next steamer was the Atlantic. On account of the fact that Father Comstock had been wrecked several years ago on a steamer of that name I refused to come in her, and obtained tickets on the steamer Canada of the National Line Capt Webster commanding. It was lucky that I did, for on that voyage the Atlantic was wrecked on the coast of Nova Scotia, and hundreds of passengers were lost. After a terribly stormy passage, Smith lands in Sandy Hook on the morning of April 3rd (“Telegraphed my arrival to my wife, who supposed I was in Du Toits Pan, 10,000 miles from her”) and is welcomed home by his delighted friends. He later became a homeopathic doctor, and died in Connecticut in 1910. SOME REPRESENTATIVE PASSAGES Aboard the steamer Northam from Southampton to Cape Town: “My roommate was a Scotchman, named William Patterson. He had been in the Diamond Fields a long time, and was now returning after a short visit to his native country. This was a piece of good luck for me. He knew all about the route, and was going directly through. We kept together until we reached the fields, and returned home in the same ship.” Approaching Madeira, July 1: “Numerous boats surround the ship, some loaded with fruit and cigars, others with fancy boxes, and nicely embroidered linen garments which they offer for sale. This embroidery is made by the nuns, in the Convent, on the summit of the mountain. In other boats there are Portuguese boys, from 10 to 15 years of age, wearing a pair of cotton pants, and nothing more. Sheelings, mister; Sheelings! They are not beggars. Presently, some passenger throws a shilling from the deck into the water. A boy plunges overboard from his little boat, catches the shilling deep under water, and returns to the surface.” At sea, July 24: “The sailors recieved [sic] thirty days advance pay, and spent it, so they have to work a month for nothing, or, as they say, for a dead horse. And now they have found the animal. They make a horse out of sacking and stuff it with straw. In the evening the sailors drag it all over the ship singing an appropriate song. Then they hoist the horse to the yard arm, and set it on fire. While it is burning they sing another song, and when it is nearly all destroyed, they cut it loose and let it fall into the sea with a loud shout, and Jack works no more for dead horses until the next voyage. All this time the fire department stand in their places, ready for instant work in case of accident.” Cape Town: “Ever since I first saw Table Mountain I have felt a strong desire to climb it. Several others wish to do the same; but we are told that it is a difficult and dangerous undertaking, and we must not venture without a guide. This seems to frighten some of our party, and they give it up. So, American like I determine to go alone, and without a guide. If you want a man to go where no one else dares to go, hunt up an American. If Humboldt had been an American he would have scaled Teneriffe when he undertook it instead of giving it up because he found an impassable ravine near the summit.…With a light overcoat strapped upon my shoulder, some oranges and a bottle of brandy in my pocket, the long toilsome journey was begun…For a mile or more we clamber upward over broken fragments of rock which seem to have fallen down from the cliffs above. Wild oleander grows in abundance among these broken stones. And now we have reached the base of the cliff. It is a perpendicular rock, hundreds of feet high—perhaps a thousand. There is only one way to reach the summit, and that is through a wild ravine which has been formed in the ages of the past by some mighty earthquake which has rent the cliff into two parts from the summit to the bottom, and separated the two parts from each other about one eighth of a mile. Into this ravine huge bowlders [sic] and blocks of stone have fallen. Some of them are forty feet high, the ravine is wide at the base, narrow at the top. It is up this ravine that I must make my way. No vegetation here, nothing but rocks. A dry water course in the centre of the ravine is the only place were we can get a foot hold. The way is so steep that when I raise my foot as high as possible, the stones cave down under my weight. My progress is very slow, and I must look out sharp to avoid the stones from above, which are set in motion by the loosened stones under my feet. Several times I felt that I must abandon my attempt to reach the summit. I could go no further. Then I would sit down, eat an orange, climb again as far as I could and stop for another rest. So I kept on, climbing and resting, until at last, after four hours toiling I stood on the broad flat summit, 5270 feet above the place I started from, and enjoyed the view which this elevation affords…While there I found an English half penny which is still in my possession, and some broken wine bottles, indicating that the eagles do not belong to the temperance society… From Cape Town, there are two lines of stages, which run to the Diamond Fields. The Inland Transportation Co. and the Diamond Fields Transportation Co. Both of them are good.…We pay L12 or $60, for our passage, to the Inland Transportation Co. On Tuesday July 30th we depart by the Cape Town and Wellington Railway, which is the only one in Cape Colony. The stage with our baggage is carried on a platform car…” Du Toits Pan: “Friday Aug 9th bought a claim at Du Toits Pan with Mr. Flint, represented by John Asborn of Calais, Me. While unpacking my valise, I discovered a few things which my wife had placed there without my knowledge, one of which was a can of condensed milk, which, a note informed me, was a present from the Bishop children. It was given to me in the hope that it might be useful, in case I should be sick. The kind feeling which prompted this gift reminded me tenderly of the little friends I had left behind. The climate would not allow me to keep it for sickness as they desired, but it was very nice in my coffee, where I used it all. Sat. Aug 17th, commenced work on our claim. August 31st, found our first diamond, a 12 karat. A nice shaped stone, but having four ugly black specks in it. Without the specks it would be worth ƒ600. Now it is worth only ƒ130. Mon, Sep 2nd, found a 1 karat, all full of cracks Sat, Sep 14th, found a 1 karat Wed, Sep 18th, found two stones—1 karat & 1 karat. Thurs Sep 19th found a nice stone, good shape, off color.” Du Toits Pan: “The names of my Kaffirs were Jacob, Diamond, Kimmeel[?], Daddy, Slocum, Boy, and some others. Jacob was the most intelligent, and was my tent boy, while he remained with me. This position of body servant to the master is eagerly sought for. Besides getting an extra shilling a week, the tent boy gets all the bits from his masters table, and is boss of the group, when his master is away. He builds the fire for his master, chops his wood, brings his water, sweeps his tent, and does errands.…My boy Jacob, was very intelligent, learned English quite rapidly, and did me good service as an interpreter. I used to call him into my tent evenings, and talk with him about his country, and tell him about my own. He said he had three wives and two pickaninnies. He wanted to know where I came from, and how I got here. I figured up how long it would take me to walk from America to the Diamond Fields, and then by counting my fingers, showed him how many moons it would take me to do it. The distance astonished him greatly.…By drawing pictures for him, I tried to give him some idea of our houses, ships, and railroads. Then he would take the pictures, go out, and tell the other Kaffirs all about it…” Du Toits Pan: “One day while at work on my claim, I removed my false teeth from my mouth to show them to my partner, who had never seen a full sett [sic]. One of my boys who stood near seemed frightened half out of his senses, and stared at me in great terror. Observing his surprise, I called him as near to me as he dared to come, and showed them to him again but he was pretty shy. He never saw anything like that before. One by one the rest of my boys came, and wanted to see me do it. I gratified their curiosity, and thought no more about it, as they went off to work. At noon, while I sat in my tent eating my dinner, a dark cloud overshadowed my doorway. All the Kaffirs in the camp numbering about 100 stood in front of my tent. The story of the wonderful things I could do had spread among them, and they wanted to see me do it. When Jacob came into my tent, and explained the object of their visit, I told him to wait until I had finished my dinner, and then I would do it again. So they all sat down. After dinner, I went outside, sat down on a stool, and showed them my teeth in my mouth, then quickly removing them, showed them that the teeth were not in my mouth but in my hand. Replacing them and showing my mouth all sound, with the teeth in their proper place. On beholding this wonderful feat of jugglery, they expressed their astonishment in all sorts of ways. Some by screaming and making hideous faces; others by leaping into the air, or rolling on the ground, but all of them seemed to be frightened. I repeated the feat perhaps 20 times, while they performed all sorts of evolutions, grimaces, contortions, and yells, which were quite as amusing to the Americans as my exhibition had been wonderful to them. At last, I refused to do it any more, and then they called on the other Americans and wanted to see them do it. None of them could do it. Some of them thought I was a sorcerer; others thought I was much big Chief, but all were afraid of me…” REFERENCES: “Frederic W. Smith (1837 - 1910)” at WikiTree online; “Emma J. Comstock Smith” at Find A Grave online.
Item #9743
Price: $4,500.00
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