Ball — A Geologisfs Contribution to the History of India. 105 



addressed to Signer Gruliano de Medici, Duca di Fiorenza, is dated 

 Cochin, 6t]i January, 1515 ; it contains only a few unimportant 

 facts bearing upon this subject. 



Another of these au.thors is Ludovico Barthema, whose infor- 

 mation is almost identical with that already quoted from Lewes 

 Uertomannus. The precise date of Barthema's work I have been 

 unable to ascertain. 



From the book of Odarodo Barbosa, which refers apparently 

 to a period about the year 1519, and to a voyage to India made 

 by way of the Cape of Grood Hope, we learn that at Bisnagar, 

 i. e. Yijayanagar, jewels brought from Pegu and Ceylon were on 

 sale in great abundance, as also were diamonds from Narsinga. 

 This author gives also a full account of the values, &c., of a 

 number of precious stones, namely, rubies, spinel, diamond, 

 sapphire, topaz, turquoise, hyacinth, and emerald, and mentions 

 the localities where they were obtained, but these details are too 

 voluminous for reproduction here. 



Garcias ab Horto. — Our next authority is Garcias ab Horto, 

 a physician resident at Goa, who, in 1565, produced a work in 

 Portuguese, containing a considerable amount of interesting and — 

 much of it, though not all — obviously accurate information on our 

 present subject.^ 



He tells us that there are two or three localities near Bisna- 

 gar (Yijayanagar) where diamonds were obtained, the industry 

 being a considerable source of revenue to the king, as all stones 

 above 30 mangelis ( = 150 grs. ?) became his property. Another 

 mine also in the Decan produced excellent diamonds. It was 

 situated in the lands of a native prince, near the territory of 

 Imadixa {i. e. of Ahmed Shah ?). This last was probably identical 

 with the mine at Wairagarh, in the Central Provinces. 



Garcias treats with scorn the old fable of the valley inhabited 

 by serpents, and moreover points out that a Jesuit father, Francois 

 de Tamara, who had repeated it, was therefore not worthy of 

 credence, when he stated that diamonds were to be found in 

 Brazil. The statement is of importance when it is remembered 

 that the first diamond mines in Brazil were not opened up tiU 

 1728, or more than 160 years later. It may be added that the 

 version of the fable just alluded to is that one where the serpents 



1 De Arom. et Simp. Histoiia, a Latin version by Clusius of Antwerp, 1567. 



