Diamond Mines of India

First of all, for size and beauty, the Indian diamonds are famed: "diamonds of Golconda" have become a synonym for preciousness and brilliancy. These gems were brought, not from the immediate vicinity of the fortress of Golconda, but from the mines of Raolconda and other localities situated in the territory of the Golconda kings. The mines were many years ago ceded to the English, but they have long since been abandoned; and it is believed that they are exhausted. Their treasures, however, shine in the coronets of every nation of the globe.

Diamond localities are numerous in Hindostan, and in Borneo, whose "Landak" diamonds have been especially prized; but many of these localities have ceased to be productive, and their names are becoming obsolete. In Tavernier's time the Golconda mines employed 60,000 people, and had already proved so rich that, as Ferishta records, the Sultan Mahmoud (A.D. 1177-1206) left in his treasury more than four hundred pounds weight of these precious gems.

It is from the descriptions of Tavernier, a French jeweller who travelled through Turkey, Persia, and the Indies in the latter part of the seventeenth century, that we derive the most vivid accounts of the Indian mines.

"I visited first," he writes, "a mine in the territory of the kings of Visapoor, in a place called Raolconda, five days from Golconda, and eight or nine from Visapoor.

"All around the place where the diamonds are found the ground is sandy and full of rocks, and covered with coppice, somewhat like the environs of Fontainebleau. In these rocks are numerous veins, sometimes half a finger, sometimes a whole finger wide; and the miners have little iron rods, crooked at the end, which they thrust into the veins to dislodge the sand or earth in which the diamonds are found... After this part of the work is done, the earth and sand is passed through two or three washings, and is carefully searched to see if it have any diamonds. It is from this source that the clearest stones and those of finest water are taken. The only evil is, that to render more easy the extraction of the sand from the rocks, such strong blows are given with a great lever of iron, that they shock (etonne) the diamond and produce flaws."

Tavernier visited also the mine of Garree, seven days east from Golconda, and the diamond-yielding bed of the river Gooel, in the kingdom of Bengal.

He relates, with very picturesque and lifelike details, his various affairs with the diamond merchants; and announces the somewhat remarkable fact, that the chief negotiators in the sale of diamonds in India were boys not over sixteen years of age.

"It is pleasant," says Tavernier, "to see the children of these merchants, and of other people of the country, from the age of ten to that of fifteen or sixteen, coming every morning and seating themselves under a large tree in the market-place of the town. Each has his diamond weights in a little pouch hanging at one side, and at the other side a purse attached to his girdle, and containing, in some cases, as many as six hundred gold pagodas. There they sit and wait until some one comes to sell them diamonds, it may be from the vicinity, or from some other mine. When anyone comes with something for them he places it in the hands of the eldest of the boys, who is, as it were, the chief of the band. He looks at it, and hands it to the one next him, and so it passes from hand to hand till it return to the first, not a word being spoken by any of them; the eldest boy then asks the price, in order to make a bargain, if possible, and if he happen to buy it too dear he has to take it on his own account."

When evening comes the boys bring together all the stones they have bought, examine them, and arrange them according to their water, their weight, and their clearness. Then they put upon each its price, as near as possible that at which they would sell to the merchant and by the latter price they see how much profit they will have. They now carry them to the large merchants, who have always great numbers of stones to assort, and all the profit is divided among the boys, the one who acts as their chief receiving one-fourth per cent. more than the others. Young as they are, adds Tavernier, they know the price of every stone so well that if any of them have made a purchase, and is willing to lose a half per cent., another will give him his money.

He describes the devices resorted to by jewel-dealers to conceal any defects there might be in their merchandise; and the skilful manner of planning the cutting so as to dispose of flaws.

From the very moment of its recognition, it would seem that the diamond quickened the wits of its possessor, and aroused an ambition of brilliant gain. Even the poor slave in the mines managed occasionally to elude the sleepless vigilance of the overseers, and conceal a valuable gem. Tavernier saw in one of the Indian mines a poor wretch who, to appropriate to himself a fine diamond of the dimensions shown in Fig. 27, had forced it into the corner of his eye in such a way as to conceal it completely.