About the Discovery of the Regent of Portugal Diamond

THE REGENT OF PORTUGAL.

The Slave and the Diamond--Punishments and Rewards in Mining--How Bahia became famous--Discovery of the Regent by a Negro--He is Pensioned and obtains his Freedom.

A leading figure in the history of Brazilian diamonds is the slave. Negro and negress, they both appear as discoverers of some of the most remarkable of the great gems. This arises from the fact that the miners were chiefly slaves. In the early days of diamond hunting on the Rio-das-Velhas, as a means of encouraging honesty, if a negro found a stone of 17 1/2 carats, he was crowned with a wreath of flowers, and led in procession to the manager. His freedom was given to him, and he was dressed in a new suit of clothes. For "unfaithfulness," which meant the crime of appropriating diamonds the slaves were beaten with sticks, and subjected to other physical torture. But in spite of all kinds of precautions and punishments a third of the produce of the mines was supposed to be stolen, and it is so to this day. It was a "cunning slave" who revealed the treasures of Minas-Geraes, and established the fame of Bahia. He was of the former province, though he worked as an agricultural labourer in the last-mentioned district. Diamonds had been found here, but the Portuguese minister, Marquis de Pombal, would not permit a regular exploration for them, fearing that mining might eclipse agriculture, which he esteemed as of the first importance. Noticing that the soil of this region and that of his native place were similar in appearance, the slave went home, and found Minas-Geraes yielded diamonds in abundance. He fled from his master, and offered 7,000 carats of diamonds for sale in a distant city, whereupon he was arrested on suspicion of having stolen them. He would not confess whence he had obtained them. It was soon concluded that he had found them in some spot, the whereabouts of which was unknown except to himself. His master outwitted him by restoring him without punishment to his occupation at Bahia. Then he had the slave watched, and the immense diamantiferous value of Bahia and Minas-Geraes was discovered, and within a year afterwards 25,000 diamond hunters were at work in the former district, and for a long time they collected as much as 1,450 carats a day.

It was a slave who discovered the diamond known as the Regent of Portugal. The history of the stone is very obscure, and has been rendered more so by those writers who have confused it with the Braganza. Like that gem of doubtful reputation, it seems to have been found in the year 1775, in, or near the river Abaite, a few miles north of the Rio Plata. The finder was a poor negro, who was rewarded with his freedom, and a yearly pension of pound 50. The gem is of round shape, weighs 215 carats, and its value has been estimated at 396,800 guineas.