He organized an expedition and set out across the Kalahari Desert—the Great Thirst, they call it—until he came to the sand dunes and salt lagoons of the desolate coastal region.
There were no other human beings, white or black, within hundreds of miles. Continual sandstorms blew. Water was so scarce that death by thirst was a constant menace.
But Merensky's idea drove him on He started exploring the desolate bays along the coast near the Orange River estuary.
He found a place called Alexandra Bay and took a bucketful of' sand and pebbles out of it. Then he washed the contents. And they weren't ordinary pebbles. They were diamonds.
That one bucketful was worth £5,000. The beach itself was made not of sand but of diamonds.
Merensky made his way back to Johannesburg and proved his claim But he didn't work it. The diamond combines bought him out for a fabulous sum. The cheque-is said to have been about £2.000,- 000. There was more after that. Now you can't get near Alexandra Bay Electric wire fences encircle it. A big force of armed police patrol it constantly. At night powerful searchlights sweep over it.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.