54 The Diamond 



were familiar with the diamond. To Chao Ju-kua of the Sung period, 

 India was known as a diamond-producing country, though what he re- 

 lates about the stone is copied from the text of Pao-p'u-tse, quoted 

 above (p. 21). 1 



Judging from Marco Polo's report, 2 the best diamonds of India found 

 their way to the Court of the Great Khan. 



The Annals of the Ming record embassies from Lu-mi (Rum) in 1548 

 and 1554, presenting diamonds among other objects. 3 In the Ming 

 period eight kinds of precious stones were known from Hormuz, the 

 emporium at the entrance of the Persian Gulf; the fifth of these was the 

 diamond. 4 At the same time diamonds were known on Java. 6 



the year a.d. 428 of the Liu Sung dynasty, the King of Kia-p'i-li (Kapila) in India 

 sent diamond rings to the Chinese Court (Sung shu, Ch. 97, p. 4). The Nan Jang 

 i wu chi (Account of Remarkable Products of Southern China, by Fang Ts'ien-li 

 of the fifth century or earlier: Bretschneider, Bot. Sin., pt. 1, No. 544) relates 

 that foreigners are fond of adorning rings with diamonds and wearing these (T'ai 

 p'ing yii Ian, Ch. 813, p. 10); and Li Shi-chfin (above, p. 40) is familiar with diamond 

 finger-rings. The Records of Champa (Lin yi ki) relate that the King of Lin-yi 

 (Champa), Fan-ming-ta, presented to the Court diamond finger-rings (T'u shu tsi 

 ch'ing, Pien i tien 96, hui k'ao 1, p. lib; ,or T'ai p'ing yii Ian, I. c). Daggers and 

 krisses are set with diamonds in Java, and they are used for inlaying on lance- 

 heads (Int. Archiv fur Ethnographie, Vol. Ill, 1890, pp. 94-97, 101). The ancients 

 already employed the diamond as a ring-stone (BLtJMNER, Technologie, Vol. Ill, 

 p. 232). 



1 Hirth and Rockhill, Chau Ju-kua, p. 111. 



2 Edition of Yule and Cordier, Vol. II, p. 361. 



* Bretschneider, China Review, Vol. V, p. 177. 



* Si yang ch'ao kung tien lu, Ch. c, p. 7 (ed. of Pie hia chai ts'ung shu), written in 

 1520 by Huang Sing-ts6ng (regarding this work see Chinese Clay Figures, p. 165, 

 note 3; Mayers, China Review, Vol. Ill, p. 220; and Rockhill, T'oung Pao, 1915, 

 p. 76). 



* Ibid., Ch. a, p. 9. — It is somewhat surprising that the Chinese were not 

 acquainted with the diamonds of Borneo; at least in none of their documents touching 

 their relations with the island is any mention made of the diamonds found there. 

 A good description of the Borneo mines, their sites, working-methods, output, etc., 

 is given by M. E. Boutan (Le Diamant, pp. 223-228, with map, Paris, 1886), 

 M. Bauer (Edelsteinkunde, 2d ed., pp. 274-281), and in an article of the Encyclo- 

 paedic van Nederlandsch-Indie (Vol. I, pp. 445-446). None of these sources, how- 

 ever, bears on the question as to when these mines were opened, or when the first 

 diamonds were discovered, and whether this was done by natives or Europeans. As 

 nearly as I can make out, Borneo diamonds were known in the European market in the 

 latter part of the seventeenth century. In a small anonymous book entitled The 

 History of Jewels, and of the Principal Riches of the East and West, taken from the 

 Relation of Divers of the most Famous Travellers of Our Age (London, 1671, printed 

 by T. N. for Hobart Kemp, at the Sign of the Ship in the Upper Walk of the New 

 Exchange) I find the following: "Let me therefore tell you, that none has been yet 

 able in all the world to discover more than five places, from whence the diamond is 

 brought, viz., two rivers and three mines. The first of the two rivers is in the Isle 

 Borneo, under the equator, on the east of the Chersonesus of Gold, and is called 

 Succadan. The stones fetched from thence are usually clear and of a good water, 



