155 OlilGlU OF THE AMERICAN NEGRO. 



worthy white men; for here the danger of robbery is greatest. 

 Sweeping the heap of gravel to the right, the sorter scrapes a Httle 

 of it to the center of the table by means of a flat piece of sheet zinc. 

 With this tool he rapidly passes in review the grains, seizes the 

 diamonds, and puts them into a little tin box in front of him. 



The stuff is then swept off to the left, and another lot taken, 

 and so on till the sieveful^ of gravel is exhausted, when another is 

 brought in. The stuff the sorter has passed to his left as tem- 

 porarily inspected, is taken next to another part of the room, where 

 it is again scrutinized by native convicts again and again, and as 

 long as diamonds can be found in quantity sufficient to repay the 

 cost of convict labor, it is passed under examination. 



The diamond has a peculiar luster, and on the sorter's table 

 it is impossible to mistake it for any other stone that may be present. 

 It looks somewhat like clear pieces of gum arable, with a sort of 

 luster which makes a conspicuous shine among the other stones. 



NATIVE LABORERS OF THE CONVICT CLASS. 



In the pulsator and sorting house most of the native laborers 

 are long-sentence convicts, supplied with food, clothing and medical 

 attendance by the company. These men are necessarily well 

 guarded, and all the white men in the works carry revolvers. Apart 

 from the hopelessness of a successful rising, there is little induce- 

 ment to revolt; the lot of these diamond workers is preferable to 

 life in the government prisons, and they seem contented. 



Sometimes as many as 8,000 carats of diamonds come from the 

 pulsator in one day, representing about $50,000 in value. Prod- 

 igious diamonds are not so uncommon as is generally supposed. 

 Diamonds Vv^eighing over an ounce (151. 5 carats) are not unfre- 

 quent at Kimberley, and, were it necessary, there would be no diffi- 

 culty in getting together a hundred of them. 



Just as very few are familiar with the fact that Egypt was 

 once a Christian kingdom, for 259 years ending A. D. 640, so there 

 arc fewer still outside the circle of missionary enterprise, who know 

 or care aught for the existing Christian Empire of Abyssinia, 

 beyond its more recent political records. Yet Abyssinia has been 



