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most of the contraband property is divided between the state and 

 the smuggler : but this is not all ; the diamonds are sent out of the 

 country, and real effects of value are received in return, leaving a 

 balance much in favour of Brazil. 



This illicit trade has been carried on to a very considerable extent : 

 there is strong presumptive authority for stating that, since the first 

 discovery of the mines, diamonds to the amount of two millions ster- 

 ling have thus found their way to Europe, exclusive of what the con- 

 tractors accounted for. This has been owing to the ill management 

 of the whole establishment, and to the total want of necessary regu- 

 lations, which have prevailed so long, that it will not be easy to 

 apply a remedy. Let us suppose for a moment the system to be 

 changed ; the two thousand negroes employed in the establishment 

 to be the property of the crown (whom two years' profit of the dia- 

 mond mines would be adequate to purchase); these negroes to be 

 supplied with every article for their support from a general store, 

 and to be treated as mildly as possible : they would then form a 

 society, and, knowing no other masters than their officers, would 

 have only one common interest to serve. The contraband trade by 

 this means, though perhaps not totally destroyed, would receive an 

 irrecoverable blow, and would be reduced almost to nothing. Should 

 such a change take place, the shopkeepers, and those persons who 

 subsist by hiring negroes to the works, would find the source of their 

 emoluments dried up, and, rather than remain at Tejuco, would mi- 

 grate to situations more congenial to their interests : thus the district 

 would be freed from that bane which has so long over-run it, and 

 Government would reap the advantage of having the mines worked 

 by their own negroes, whom it would be difficult for others to 

 seduce. 



. Another evil which such a change of system would be calculated 

 to remove, is the following: — Every article of sustenance required for 

 the establishment is purchased of farmers who reside a few leagues 

 from Tejuco, or who have farms at a greater distance ; and this ab- 



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