 The towns now in existence were then mere small villages or did not yet exist.But in 1870 Kimberley began to attract attention; diamonds had been first discovered about three years previously by John O'Reilly, and immigration brought to South Africa and especially to Kimberley multitudes of Europeans, most of them Irish and English.By the time Kimberley was leaping into existence there was already a priest in Bloemfontein, Father Hoendervangers of the Order of Saint Norbert, who had followed the troops as Military chaplain during a war between the British and Boers in 1854.