THE DIAMOND DIGGINGS OF SOUTH AFRICA

With a brief notice of the new gold fields.

240 pages, map as frontispiece 'Showing the Routes to the Diamond Fields from the Chief Ports of the Cape Colony,' original red cloth, blind stamped with a gilt vignette of miners working their claim on the upper cover, titled gilt on the spine – which is starting to fray, worn at the hinges, the endpapers have commercial advertisements printed on them, corners slightly bumped, a good copy.

From the Introduction page iii: Payton mentions that he wrote this book when it was realised that the Kimberley diggings were '...far surpassing in richness everything that had gone before...no risky speculation, no exaggerated humbug, but a source of great profit..'

Mendelssohn (Sidney) South African Bibliography, volume 2, page 146: Perhaps the best account of the early days on the Diamond Fields. The author sailed for South Africa on February 23, 1871, and arrived at Du Toit's Pan on May 30th. He remained on the Fields for about six months, and he gives an interesting description of the mines and the social life of the diggers. The author was not successful as a digger, and being prostrated with camp fever, quitted the Fields, arriving in England in January, 1872'.