THE SOUTH- AFRICAN DIAMOND-MINES. 46 1 



found there or in the near neighborhood. Nothing of the city is left, 

 and the mines have fallen into neglect ; but when Tavernier visited 

 the district, in 1636, he found twenty-three mines in operation, em- 

 ploying sixty thousand men and women, girls and boys, and produc- 

 ing some wonderfully large and fine stones. 



The mining district between the Godavery and the Mahanadi — 

 the Adamas River of the ancients, where, it was said, "They find dia- 

 monds in quantities " — was also visited by Tavernier in 1655. The 

 whole population were then accustomed to explore the river-bed in 

 the late winter, when the water was low, and there was no work in the 

 fields, and wash the diamonds from the sand. 



The only mines in India now worked are at Pannah — the Panossa 

 of Ptolemy — in Bundelcund. These also were in their day the most 

 important diamond-fields in the world ; now they are let by the local 

 ruler to native workers, who put on an air of deep poverty, and whose 

 greatest trouble arises from the fear that their lord may think they 

 are becoming prosperous, and increase his charges upon them. They 

 excuse their listlessness by averring that the tutelary deities of the 

 soil, being irritated by the English conquest, have deserted the mines 

 and ceased to plant them with precious stones. The rajah, however, 

 expects at least a minimum of revenue from his mines, for, we are 

 told, if it falls below a fixed sum, he beheads a chief and confiscates 

 his goods. " He is cheated all the same, but he gets an actual share 

 of one kind or another, which, without the making of an occasional 

 example, would doubtless be denied him." The diamond industry of 

 this country, whence nearly all the most famous crown-jewels of Eu- 

 rope were derived, which was once so prolific that the very mention of 

 the name of India still awakens in the imaginative visions of untold 

 wealth and glittering splendor, has fallen off till it is now estimated 

 that the whole weight of Indian diamonds exported to Europe is not 

 greater than one hundred carats a year. It was practically extin- 

 guished by the opening up of the mines of Brazil, which were discov- 

 ered in 1725, and began to send in their consignments in 1730. 



The first Brazilian diamonds were found by the gold-washers in 

 the Villa do Principe, who used the crystals for counters in playing 

 cards. A monk, who had been in India, recognized them as diamonds, 

 and sent some of them to Europe to be cut, and thereby advertised 

 their existence. In 1730 the diamond-fields were declared to be 

 royal property ; and from that time on, till diamonds were found in 

 South Africa, Diamantina, in Minas-Geraes, Matto-Grosso, and the 

 mines of the Paraguay River, were the chief sources of the world's 

 supply. Another diamond-field was discovered in 1843, in the prov- 

 ince of Bahia, which soon became the center of a population of thou- 

 sands of seekers, and for a time yielded rich returns. 



Of other famous diamond-fields — Madame Meunier records that 

 the Chinamen in the mountains of Chinkangrlino; collect diamonds 



