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This river, and other streams in its vicinity, have been in washing 

 many years, and have produced great quantities of diamonds, which 

 have ever been reputed of the finest quahty. They vary in size ; some 

 are so small that four or five are required to weigh one grain, conse-. 

 quently sixteen or twenty to the carat : there are seldom found more 

 than two or three stones of from seventeen to twenty carats in the 

 course of a year, and not once in two years is there found through- 

 out the whole washings a stone of thirty carats. During the five 

 days I was here they were not very successful ; the whole quantity 

 found amounted only to forty, the largest of which was only four 

 carats, and of a light green colour. 



From the great quantity of debris, or worked cascalhao, in every 

 part near the river, it is reasonable to calculate that the works have 

 been in operation above forty years ; of course there must arrive a 

 period at which they will be exhausted, but there are grounds in the 

 neighbourhood, particularly in the Cerro de St. Antonio, and in the 

 country now inhabited by the Indians, which will probably afford 

 these gems in equal abundance. 



After residing here five days, we visited a diamond work called 

 Montero, about two miles up the river, and went a league further to 

 a gold-work called Carapata. The cascalhao at this work was taken 

 from a part of the river eight feet deep, which formed an eddy under 

 a projecting point ; I was shewn a heap of it, that was estimated to 

 be worth 10,0001. In removing this heap from its bed, four hun- 

 dred negroes had been employed three months ; and to wash it, 

 would occupy one hundred men for three months more, the expence 

 of both operations amounting to perhaps 1,5001. We arrived at this 

 place at eight o'clock in tlie morning ; six negroes were employed 

 four hours in washing two troughs, containing together about a ton 

 of cascalhao, when, to my great surprise, after the water ran clear, 

 and the large stones were thrown out, the black oxide of iron, of 

 which there was great abundance, was fringed with grains of gold, a 

 novel and very agreeable sight to a stranger. The gold was takeq 



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