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unlocked, an elegant little cabinet was taken out, from which the 

 treasurer took the gem, and in great form presented it to me. Its 

 value sunk at the first sight, for before I touched it I was convinced 

 that it was a rounded piece of crystal. It was about an inch and 

 a half in diameter. On examining it, I told the governor it was not 

 a diamond, and to convince him I took a diamond of five or six 

 carats and with it cut a very deep nick in the stone. This was proof 

 positive ; a certificate was accordingly made out, stating, that it was 

 an inferior substance of little or no value, which I signed. 



Other boxes were now unlocked, from one of which they shewed 

 me two large slabs of diamond, each a full inch on the superficies, 

 and about the eighth of an inch in thickness, of a very bad brown 

 colour. When found, they formed one entire piece, which, being 

 amorphous, was not known to be a diamond, until the adminis- 

 trator or chief of the working party, after keeping it by him many 

 days, had recourse to the old experiment of placing it on a hard 

 stone and striking it with a hammer. The result of this experiment 

 is, that if the substance resist the blow, or separate in laminae, it 

 must be a diamond ; the latter was the case in the present instance, 

 and the man having thus made two diamonds from one, transmitted 

 them to the intendant. 



The river Abaite, from whence these pieces came, has produced 

 one of an octaedral form, which weighs seven-eights of an ounce 

 Troy, and is perhaps the largest diamond in the world. It was found 

 about twelve years ago by three men who were under sentence of 

 banishment for high crimes ; but on presenting this valuable gem to 

 the then Viceroy, they were pardoned and rewarded. It is now m 

 the private possession of the Prince Regent. 



I was afterwards favoured with a sight of the remaining diamonds 

 in the Treasury ; they appeared to be in quantity about four or 

 five thousand carats. The largest did not generally exceed eight 

 carats, except one of a fine octai^dral form, full seventeen. Among 



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