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with society so select and agreeable ; this may certainly be called 

 the court of the mining district. In their manners there was no cere- 

 monious reserve or courtly refinement, but their whole demeanour 

 was genteel and well-bred, enlivened by an ease and good humour 

 which the affability of the chief and his amiable lady and daughters 

 ever tended to promote. The company all dressed after the English 

 mode, and in dresses of English manufacture : the gentlemen were 

 almost all distinguished with stars, yet they formed a constellation 

 far inferior in brilliancy to that of the ladies. 



I was invited to pay a visit to the treasury, which can only be 

 viewed when a meeting of officers is called, as the treasure is kept in 

 chests, under three distinct locks, the keys of which are entrusted to 

 three several officers, who are all required to be present at the open- 

 ing. They here shewed me the diamonds taken from the iropero 

 at Concep^ao, which were in general much better than those from 

 the mines worked by Government. One about eleven carats was a 

 very fine stone, perfectly crystallized, in the form of an octaedron. 

 The unfortunate man from whom they were taken, I was informed, 

 was very ill in prison. I was then shewn about eight hundred carats, 

 found in the regular course of washing; they were in general very 

 small, not one exceeding five carats. I observed one perfectly round, 

 and several coloured. Those with a dark green crust upon them 

 were, they informed me, when cut, of the purest water. 



Here the diamonds found in the district are deposited monthly, as 

 they are received from the difi^erent works. They are carefully 

 weighed, and some selected and kept separate. The average quan- 

 tity obtained may be estimated at from 20,000 to 25,000 carats an- 

 nually, which are sent under a military escort to Rio, and there 

 lodged in the treasury. • 



The diamonds are tied up in black silk bags, and deposited in 

 elegant inner cabinets, the whole of which are locked up in strong 

 chests bound with iron. 



