28 DIAMONDS IN SARAWAK. 



which he had seen, but that a crystal is shown to 

 strangers, as the sultan, who has been already robbed 

 of his territory, fears that this last emblem of royalty 

 will be also taken from him by his powerful and 

 avaricious neighbours at Pontianak. 



The mines which I have seen at Sarawak are of the 

 most simple construction : shafts are sunk in the 

 earth to the stratum that contains the diamonds 

 (which varies in thickness from two feet to much 

 more), at the distance of about twenty feet apart ; the 

 soil is then extracted from each by the miner, who 

 excavates it for ten feet on each side of the shaft, so 

 that the workers in the different shafts communicating 

 with each other ; the whole of the gravel is removed ; 

 this is passed up in baskets and washed in troughs, 

 as already described, in the gold mines, or rather 

 ditches, as the native word signifies (parit). 



The Malays of Banjarmasin and Landak are very 

 anxious to work the diamonds at Sarawak, but being 

 generally very bad characters, the government has not 

 thought proper to encourage their immigration. 

 Many diamonds are, however, obtained by the people, 

 who wash for gold in the river ; and on one occasion 

 I saw a person get three small ones at one washing, 

 together with a considerable portion of gold. With 

 capital, and proper superintendence, it would pro- 

 bably turn out a gainful speculation if properly con- 

 ducted, more particularly as gold is found in the 

 same soil, though not in such abundance as in some 

 other kinds of earth. 



Though in the neighbourhood of Siam and the Birman 



