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Diamond Mine (Weight of carats much ceremony)

of the weight of 174 carats, much ceremony immediately takes place; he is crowned with a wreath of flowers, and carried in procession to the administrator, who gives him his freedom, by paying his owner for it. He also receives a present of new clothes, and is permitted to work on his own account.

When a stone of eight or ten carats is found, the negro receives two new shirts, a complete new suit, with a hat, and a handsome knife. some knife. For smaller stones of trivial amount, proportionate given. During my stay at Tejuco, a stone of 164 carats was found: it was pleasing to see the anxious desire manifested by the officers that it might prove heavy enough to entitle the poor negro to his freedom; and when, on being delivered and weighed, it proved only a carat short of the requisite weight, all seemed to sympathize in his disappointment. "Many precautions are taken to prevent the negroes from embezzling diamonds. Although they work in a bent position, and consequently never know whether the overseers are watching them or not, yet it is easy for them to omit gathering any which they see, and to place them in a corner of the trough for the purpose of secreting them at leisure hours; to prevent which they are frequently changed while the operation is going on. A word of command being given by the overseers, they instantly move into each others' troughs, so that no opportunity of collusion can take place. If a negro be suspected of having swallowed a diamond, he is confined in a strong room until the fact can be ascertained. Formerly, the punishment inflicted upon a negro for smuggling diamonds, was confiscation of his person to the state: but it being thought too hard for the owner to suffer for the offence of his servant, the penalty has been commuted for personal imprisonment and chastisement. This is a much lighter punishment than that which their owners, or any white man, would suffer for a similar offence. "There is no particular regulation respecting the dress of the negroes: they work in the clothes most suitable to the nature : they work in the clothes most suitable to the nature of their employment, generally in a waistcoat and a pair of drawers, and not naked, as some travellers have stated.

Their hours of labour are from a little before sunrise until sunset, half an hour being allowed for breakfast, and two hours at noon . While washing, they change their posture as often as they please , which is very necessary, as the work requires them to place their feet on the edges of the trough, and to stoop considerably. This posture is particularly prejudicial to young growing negroes, as it renders them in-kneed. Four or five times during the day, they all rest, when snuff, of which they are very fond, is given to them. "The negroes are formed into working parties, called troops, containing 200 each, under the direction of an administrator and inferior officers. Each troop has a clergyman and a surgeon to attend it. With respect to the subsistence of the negroes, although the present governor has in some degree improved it, by allowing a daily portion of fresh beef, which was not allowed by his predecessors, yet I am sorry to observe that it is still poor and scanty; and that in other respects they are more hardly dealt with than those of any other establishment which I visited notwithstanding this, the owners are all anxious to get their negroes into the service, doubtless from sinister motives. "The officers are liberally paid, and live in a style of considerable elegance, which a stranger would not be led to expect in so remote a place. Our tables were daily covered with a profusion of excellent viands, served up on fine Wedgewood ware, and the state of their household generally corresponded with this essential part of it. They were ever ready to assist me in my examination of the works, and freely gave me all the necessary information respecting them " Having detailed the process of washing for diamonds, I proceed to a general description of the situation in which they are found. The flat pieces of ground on each side the river are equally rich throughout their extent, and hence the officers are enabled to calculate the value of an unworked place, by comparison with the amount found on working with the part adjoining. These known places are left in reserve, and trial is made of more uncertain grounds. The following observation I often heard from the intendant: That piece of ground (speaking of an unworked flat by the side of the river) will yield me ten thousand carats of diamonds, whenever we shall be required to get them in the regular course of working, or when, on any particular occasion, an order from government arrives, demanding an extraordinary and immediate supply.' "The substances accompanying diamonds, and considered good indications of them, are bright bean -like iron ore, a slaty flint-like substance, approaching Lydian stone, of fine texture, black oxide of iron in great quantities, rounded bits of blue quartz, yellow crystals, and other materials entirely different from any thing known to be produced in the adjacent mountains. Diamonds are by no means peculiar to the beds of rivers or deep ravines; they have been found in cavities and watercourses on the summits of the most lofty mountains. I had some conversation with the officers, respecting the matrix of the diamond, not a vestige of which could I trace. They informed me, that they often found diamonds cemented in pudding-stone, accompanied with grains of gold, but that they always broke them out, as they could not enter them in the treasury, or weigh them with matter adhering to them.