Eureka Diamond

Discovered: 1867

Location: Hopetown

Eureka diamond (De Beers)

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Notes

In 1867, on a farm named 'De Kalk' near Hopetown on the Orange River, a 15-year-old boy named Erasmus Jacobs found a shiny pebble. Jacobs gave it to his neighbor, farmer Schalk van Niekerk, a collector of unusual stones, who suspected its value and entrusted it to John O'Reilly.

John O'Reilly

Erasmus Jacobs in c.1907. (De Beers)

Schalk van Niekerk. (Geni)

O’Reilly lived at ‘Rooikop’, some hours away. He seldom stayed in one place for long, as he usually travelled about by ox-wagon, trading and hunting, and often shot lions on his trips to the north.

Schalk mentioned that he believed the stone to be a diamond on account of its hardness and weight. O’Reilly showed the stone to Jewish storekeepers at Hopetown who ventured that it might be a topaz. At Colesberg he was about to throw it away when the acting Civil Commissioner (town clerk), Lorenzo Boyes, suggested trying it on a pane of glass. Boyes then sent it in an envelope to Dr. W.G. Atherstone in Grahamstown, who identified it as a 21.25-carat yellowish-brown diamond and valued it at £500. Atherstone in turn passed it to Sir Richard Southey (1808 - 1901), the Colonial Secretary.

• Lorenzo Boyes (1836 Grahamstown - 1918) had a long career as a magistrate in various locations including Colesberg and later at Springbok.
• Dr. William Guybon Atherstone (1814 England - 1898 Grahamstown) immigrated to the Cape Colony with his family as part of the 1820 British Settlers. He became a qualified medical practitionerand practiced in Grahamstown for decades, serving as District Surgeon. He was also a passionate naturalist, geologist, botanist, and amateur mineralogist - one of the leading experts in the Cape Colony on minerals and gems at the time.
• Sir Richard Southey (1808 England - 1901 Cape Town) arrived in the Cape Colony with his family as part of the 1820 Settlers. He became a prominent British colonial administrator, cabinet minister, and landowner in South Africa.

Sir Richard Southey.

Het Volksblad ("Een Kaapsche diamant," April 30, 1867) carried the story that a diamond cutter from Holland, Louis Hond, on request of Colonial Secretary Richard Southey, had identified a pebble "found by a Mr. O'Reilly somewhere along the Orange River as a genuine diamond of 21.3 ct.

• Louis Hond (or de Hond) was a prominent 19th-century Dutch lapidary, diamond cutter, and expert based in Hopetown and Kimberley, South Africa, during the early diamond rush. He is best known for cutting the "Star of South Africa" diamond and for his expert identification of early South African diamonds, including the Eureka diamond.

It remains unexplained why an experienced diamond cutter, such as Louis Hond, would have moved from Holland to Cape Town before it became known that diamonds were actually found in South Africa. Perhaps the knowledge of earlier diamond finds was more widespread than has been reported.

The actual location of the discovery was first mentioned in the Colesberg Advertiser ("Diamond mining," July 16, 1867) as a farm named "De Kalk." That article stated that Mr. Hond and his partner (a Belgian named Mons) were prospecting there and had found more diamonds. At least 20 other diamonds turned up during the next two years, found by Griquas and Boers poking around in the gravels of the two rivers.

The confusion surrounding the discovery of the diamond stems from conflicting historical accounts about who exactly found it, the precise date, and the roles of key figures. Fifteen-year-old Erasmus Jacobs is traditionally credited with picking up the pebble while playing, which he gave to his mother who then passed it to neighbor Schalk van Niekerk; however, some recollections by trader John O'Reilly suggest it belonged to "Daniel Jacobs' little Bushman boy" or that O'Reilly himself selected it from van Niekerk's collection. Dates vary between February and March 1867, with van Niekerk's visit to the Jacobs homestead cited differently, and accounts evolved over time leading to debates over whether Jacobs or an indigenous shepherd was the true finder, though van Niekerk's recognition of its potential and O'Reilly's authentication are consistently acknowledged as pivotal in sparking the diamond rush.

In late 1867 the diamond, later named the Eureka Diamond, was sold to Sir Philip Wodehouse, the Governor of the Cape Colony, for £500 - following its display at the Paris Exhibition earlier that year and its return to South Africa. Wodehouse purchased it privately (becoming an early diamond speculator in his personal capacity), took it to the United Kingdom upon his return there around 1870-1871, had it cut into a 10.73-carat cushion-shaped brilliant (brownish-yellow), and later sold it onward (exact buyer unknown). It remained in England for about a century before De Beers bought it in 1966-1967 and donated it to South Africa, where it is now exhibited at the Kimberley Mine Museum.

Sir Philip Wodehouse (Wikimedia Commons)

O'Reilly and van Niekerk collaborated again in 1869 when van Niekerk acquired another large stone (83.5 carats uncut, later cut to 47.69 carats) from a Griqua shepherd for 500 sheep, 10 oxen, and a horse; O'Reilly helped authenticate and sell it as the Star of South Africa for £11,200, further fueling the rush to Colesberg Kopje (renamed Kimberley).

O'Reilly's story was later recounted by his daughter U.Z. Woodruff in a 1965 article titled "How My Father Found South Africa's First Diamond."

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Sources

•  Cape Town Diamond Museum
• A History of Diamond Sources in Africa. 1995. Janse, A.J.A.