General Chat

At the Diggings. .................................................................................................... What an exodus of people there was from Maritzburg when the rush to the Diamond Fields at Kimberley began. Many of the friends and acquaintances of the Russells set out to seek their fortunes at the diggings and Elizabeth decided to follow suit. Her father however, turned up unexpectedly from Heidelberg and he forbade her to go. Most of the people who went from that neighbourhood left their farms and houses in the charge of native servants, and it was wonderful how trustworthy these caretakers proved to be. In one case a certain Mrs. Stansfield who was very highly connected in England had a large amount of valuable plate. This she showed to her servants, and having explained to them that it was worth a great deal, packed it in boxes and with their aid buried it in deep holes dug by them in the garden for the purpose. She gave them strict instructions to guard her hidden silver during her absence. Many months later when she and her son, Henry, returned from the Diamond Fields they found the plate intact. When Mr. Russell left for Heidelberg again Elizabeth went with him, but at Harrismith she gathered information that there were splendid possibilities there for a good private school so she decided to undertake the work and her father was agreeable. She charged a pound a month for each scholar and, as she soon secured a number of music pupils too, she managed to earn a monthly average of twenty-five pounds. She stayed there for a year and a half during which time she bought a piano for seventy-five pounds besides putting by a useful sum of money. While there she heard much talk about the Gold Diggings in the Lydenburg district and this fired her imagination. Teaching was much too tame a life for her. Towards the end of 1871 she and Tucker, who worked at a shop at Harrismith at that time, decided to try their luck at the diggings. She sold her piano and was lucky enough to obtain the same amount that she had given for it. She set to work and made a tent of heavy canvas herself. This task completed, she bought thirty bags of wheat, stores of food, blankets, picks and shovels. When all was ready the pair set out on their adventure in a wagon which they had hired from a Mr. van Rensburg. Their father was dreadfully angry about their going and forbade the rest of the family to communicate with them. He warned them that if they failed to pay their way they were not to look to him for help. Often on the journey they had difficulty in finding their way as in many places the road consisted of mere indistinct tracks. Along the way they stayed a week with some people named Viljoen who owned a mill. Here Elizabeth had her wheat ground with the idea of selling the meal at the diggings, as, owing to the difficulty of transport, provisions fetched a high price there. As they neared Lydenburg, the farm-houses became more frequent and they were able to buy large quantities of butter and dried fruit which they also intended selling to the diggers. When they reached the dorp they laid in a fresh store of groceries, after which they continued their trek until they crossed the Bly River and arrived at Pilgrim's Rest, their destination. The diggings were divided into three Camps. As soon as the number of people warranted it, a store was opened and the place was called a Camp. The diggers paid five shillings a month for the working rights of a claim and this included water rights. If a claim remained unworked for a week it was jumpable. Near Bly River the two adventurers met some old friends, Captain and Mrs. Diedericks, so they decided to pitch their tent alongside that of these people. This spot was about two miles from the Lower Camp to which Elizabeth went on a tour of investigation. Here she met ever so many old friends and acquaintances from Natal. At the store she sold some of her meal, making a considerable profit on it. She engaged eight kaffirs and took out a claim in the Creek below this Camp. The shovels she had brought with her proved to be useless as they were the ordinary short-handled ones. She found she had to buy a sluice-box, a crowbar, a gold-pan and other shovels the handles of which were about six feet long so that the soil dug out could be easily thrown from the hole. When she had made these purchases, she and Tucker together with the eight boys set to work on the ground they had pegged out and kept hard at it for a month, but by the end of that time they had obtained such a small quantity of gold that they decided to abandon this claim and try their luck elsewhere. At this juncture Mr. R----, a dandy with bold, dark eyes, offered to let Elizabeth have one of his claims to work on shares. Informing her that his ground was paying splendidly, he made his offer sound most attractive by giving a glowing description of how well he was doing, and, besides some samples of gold-dust, he showed her a number of large nuggets which he stated had been found on his ground. He suggested that she should pitch her tent alongside his so that she would be conveniently close to her work. She discussed this offer with Alec Spiers, an old friend of her childhood in Boston days, who was also seeking his fortune at the diggings. As he knew R---- to be an "outsider" he strongly advised her not to become a party to the proposed scheme, and on his counsel she decided to consult Yankee Dan about the matter. Yankee Dan, who had most pedculiar eyes which were never still for a moment and whose real name was never known by the diggers, had gained a reputation all over the Gold Fields for his absolute honesty. If he said a thing, it was so. Any digger would take Yankee Dan's word as gospel in all circumstances. Elizabeth went to his claim and asked him what he thought about the proposition. His reply was: "Now, look here, Miss Russell, you are only a young girl so I am going to talk pretty straight to you. Have nothing whatever to do with R----. He is a plausible scoundrel. The samples of gold he showed you were not found on his claims and as to your pitching your tent next to his - don't do it. He has a black woman living with him - that is the kind of man he is. See!" Elizabeth thanked him for his kindly warning. Soon after this she met an old friend, a Mr. Shires, who lived a few miles distant at Mac-Mac, where there were also diggings, and he informed her that he had more ground than he was entitled to in the Middle Camp at Pilgrim's Rest, and suggested that she should re-peg his surplus ground there and have it registered in her name. She was very glad to do so and immediately set about procuring the necessary rights to start work in that locality. A Mr. Raubenheimer who worked in partnership with several young men offered to buy her abandoned claim for thirty pounds. She, however, with her strict sense of honesty felt she could not accept payment for it because she considered it worthless, so she informed him that he was welcome to it if he would like to take it. He and his friends worked this claim for a while but with such poor results that they soon relinquished it and marked out ground at the top of a waterfall in the Creek close to the lower Camp. The old diggers called this place "Fools' Rush", but it belied its name for Raubenheimer and his mates did extremely well there. By this time Elizabeth's funds were running low, and as the boys had to be fed and their wages paid, when Tucker and seven of them went to the Middle Camp to start work there, she remained behind to try to make money. The eighth native, Shilling, stayed to work for her. It was decided that she should keep the tent and that her brother and the boys should build a couple of rondawels for themselves on the new claim. Mrs. Diedericks baked and sold bread during the week to augment her funds. On Saturdays sh

Thank you Lindy Copied and pasted along with the others. from Norah in a wet and windy Southampton.