Rough Bloody Diamonds — Tony Waters

Pat van Zyl is a blacksmith/gunsmith and shottist whose trophies fill a mantlepiece back in his home in Ladysmith Natal. It is on the riverboat, Kimberley on the first leg of his journey up the Pungwe River to Umtali on the eastern border of Mashonaland that he meets two others. Brian Wood-Gush, whose family of Bristol accountants are happy to pay him to be somewhere else. Colin Grieve is a reporter/photographer with The Times of London sent out to write a feature story on Mashonaland. The three decide to join forces in their search for opportunities in this savage new land. On arrival at Umtali they are caught up in preparations to attack the Portuguese garrison just over the border at Massi-Kessi. The ingenuity of the three results in the garrison surrendering and the commandant and his officers taken prisoner. This victory settles the long-standing dispute over the border boundaries between the two countries. Circumstances resulting from this action sees Pat in possession of a map to Siakonza's diamond diggings on the banks of the Nyanyadzi River in the east of Mashonaland on the border with Mozambique. The three following the map find the diggings and the indications are that they are onto something big. Lacking the wherewithal to exploit the mine, Cecil Rhodes is invited to join the syndicate in return for the commodities and his expertise. Barney Barnato another of Kimberley's millionaires, always with an ear to the ground, has cunningly discovered the mine's whereabouts and wants to peg a claim of his own. It is his scheming that includes the involvement of President Kruger and his general together with his attempts at bribing king Lobengula that create the intrigue. However he is up against the resourcefulness of Cecil Rhodes and the ingenuity of Pat van Zyl.