306 



DIAMOND REGION. 



teen thousand oitavas, worth about one million seven hundred and fifty 

 thousand dollars. 



"Thus the amount of diamonds drawn to the present time from the 

 province of Matto Grosso will amount to about eighty thousand oitavas, 

 worth ten millions of dollars. 



"I do not doubt that this region may one day furnish, if it is sub- 

 mitted to a well-conducted exploration, an infinitely larger quantity. 

 Unfortunately, as we have already said, the search for these stones is 

 accompanied with great danger ; and I am convinced that these baubles 

 of human vanity have already cost, to Brazil alone, the life of more than 

 a hundred thousand human beings." 



M. Castelnau has given the value of diamonds and gold in the Por- 

 tuguese currency of reis, and occasionally in francs. In turning the 

 reis into dollars, I have estimated the dollar at two thousand reis. 

 When I left Brazil, the Spanish dollar was worth nineteen hundred and 

 twenty reis, and the Mexican eighteen hundred : so that my values are 

 under the mark ; but there is probably less error in this* than in any 

 estimate that Castelnau could form from his data. 



One will readily perceive, from these estimates, that diamond-hunting, 

 as a business, is unprofitable. But this, like all mining operations, is a 

 lottery. A man in the diamond region may stumble upon a fortune at 

 an instant of time, and without a dollar of outlay ; but the chances are 

 fearfully against him. I would rather depend upon the supplying of 

 the miners with the necessaries and luxuries of life, even by the long 

 land-travel from Rio Janeiro, or by the tedious and difficult ascent of 

 the Tapajos. 



M. Castelnau, speaking of this trade, says that, taking one article of 

 merchandise with another, the difference of their value at Para and 

 Diamantino is eight hundred and fifty per cent., the round trip between 

 the two places occupying eight months ; but that the profits to the trader 

 are not to be estimated by the enormous difference of the value of the 

 merchandise at the place of purchase and the place of sale. He esti- 

 mates the expenses of a boat of nine tons (the largest that can ascend 

 the river) at eight hundred and eighty dollars. Her cargo, bought at 

 Para, cost there but three hundred and fifty-five dollars : so that when 

 it arrives at Diamantino it has cost twelve hundred and thirty-five dol- 

 lars ; thus diminishing the profits to the trader to about two hundred 

 and forty-four per cent. 



I do not find in Castelnau's estimate of the expenses of a canoe the 

 labor and time employed in shifting the cargo at Santarem from the 



