DIAMOND: OCCURRENCE IN SOUTH AFRICA 179 



contraband product to have been at least as large as the legitimate output, while other 

 estimates place it at one-fifth or one-third of this. 



The same authority, W. L. von Eschwege, estimated the yearly production between 1730 

 and 174'0 at 20,000 carats, but for the first twenty years he gives the annual production as 

 144,000 carats, probably in this estimate making an allowance for smuggled stones. 

 According to the official returns, the total production between 1740 and 1772 was 1,666,569 

 carats, corresponding to an average yearly production of about 52,000 carats, while between 

 1772 and 1806 the total of 910,511 -J- carats, corresponded to a yearly average of about 

 26,800 carats. For the latter period, 1772 to 1806, F. dos Santos gives the total produc- 

 tion as 1,030,305 carats. The production even thus early had therefore considerably fallen 

 off, and was still further diminished during the period between 1811 and 1822, when it stood 

 at 12,000 carats. The total legitimate production of diamonds in Brazil from 1730 to 

 1822 is estimated by von Eschwege to be 2,983,691^ carats. From the first discovery to the 

 year 1850 the total output is given as 10,169,586 carats, or about two tons, and is valued at 

 ■£15,825,000. Of this, at least 5,844,000 carats, valued at ^"9,000,000, that is, more than 

 half, has been contributed by the State of Minas Geraes alone. 



In 1850 and 1851, in consequence of the discovery of the Cincora mines, there was a 

 very heavy production, namely, 300,000 carats per annum, but in 1852 it had sunk to 

 130,000 carats. From 1851 to 1856 the average yearly yield was 196,200 carats; from 

 1856 to 1861 it was 184,200 carats; and during the following years remained about the same 

 in amount. In 1858 the leading diamond merchant of the country estimated the average 

 annual output for all previous years at about 90,000 carats, of which 36,000 came from 

 Minas Geraes and 54,000 from Bahia. In 1860 and 1861 the yield appears to have again 

 risen. 



For more recent times Boutan gives the following totals compiled from information 

 derived from various sources: Diamantina from 1843 to 1885, 1,500,000 carats; other 

 localities in Minas Geraes, together with Goyaz, Matto Grosso, &c., up to 1885, 1,500,000 

 (?) carats. Chapada in Bahia from 1840 to 1850, 100,000 carats ; from 1850 to 1885, 

 1,500,000 carats. Since diamond-mining ceased to be a Government monopoly, no official 

 records of the production have been kept ; the data given above ■ have therefore been 

 compiled from the records of the amounts paid as export duties on diamonds and may be 

 regarded as coming somewhere near the truth, since the number of diamonds exported does 

 not differ widely from the number mined. 



The marked fluctuations in the yearly averages, which will be observed on studying the 

 numbers quoted above, are due to the exhaustion of old deposits and the discovery of new 

 ones. Thus the rise in the yield which has recently taken place is due to the discovery of 

 the Canavieiras mines, and it may be reasonably expected that in the future similar new and 

 rich deposits will be discovered, which will have the effect of again raising the total yield. 

 TTie enormous and steady production of the South African diamond-fields naturally makes 

 the pi'ospector less eager to start in search for new Brazilian deposits. Such, however, may 

 be at any time accidentally discovered, as has, in former times, frequently happened, 

 especially in Bahia. 



3. SOUTH AFRICA. 



The diamond mines of South Africa are, at the present day, by far the most important 

 and richest in the whole world ; at least nine-tenths of the diamonds now marketed being 

 the so-called Cape stones. The diamond markets of the world are now completely controlled 



