1850.] Eastern Districts of the Soulah of Hydrabad. 185 



The diamond districts are not properly in the Nizam's country, 

 being enclaves bounded on every side by the territory of the Ho- 

 norable Company, which yielded them to the Nizam by special trea- 

 ty, as monuments of the world fame of his dominions. Purteal on 

 the road from Hydrabad to Masulipatam and about fifty miles dis- 

 tant from the latter is the principal village of the chief diamond 

 district ; along with the other enclaves, three or four in number it 

 yields not from its diamonds but from the usual sources an annual 

 revenue to the Hydrabad state of fourteen thousand rupees, and 

 is held in Jagheer by Gnoolam Hyder Khan, a personal favourite of 

 the Mzam, and recently a candidate for the vacant Dewanship. 

 The search for diamonds is limited enough but from this no such 

 inference should be drawn as that the Nizam's Government is ne- 

 cessarily harsh or oppressive, for in truth the mines are all but ex- 

 hausted, especially at Purteal, where the numberless knolls and 

 pits hollowed down to the underlying granite fully attest the ex- 

 tent and strictness of the search. 



So struck was Dr. Voysey with this fact, that he suggested that 

 the present villages should be removed from the sites they now oc- 

 cupy and thus afford a virgin ground, but Terminus would not 

 move for Jupiter himself and the idea thrown out, though a good 

 one could scarcely be acted on, with the Indian veneration for the 

 mighty Grod of land-marks and boundaries. 



There were, when I visited Purteal in May last, two cisterns or 

 houges as they are called at work. One let to a Mussulman, the 

 other to a Telinghee peasant at eight annas a month for each cis- 

 tern, two of which find their way into the pocket of the Havildar 

 of the village, and six are credited to the Jagheerdar, such is the 

 amount of rent derived from the Grolcondah mines, scarcely eigh- 

 teen pence a month, and not a pound sterling a year, if we exclude 

 the occasional fines obtained from Soucars of the neighbouring town 

 of Kondapilly who for the sum of a few rupees are permitted the 

 privilege of digging for the gem. The diamonds found are of a 

 very small size, and if the searcher realizes four or five rupees a 

 month for his trouble, he deems himself fortunate. The diamonds 

 are in the language of the searchers, black and white, a rupee is 

 given for the weight of a grain of Jowarre for the first sort, and 

 two rupees for the second. 



Such is now the state of this valley of diamonds, the steward of 

 which the Havildar of the village of Purteal was well pleased to 



