The profits thus lawfully or unlawfully made they generally spend in drinking, a slave but very rarely saving money for the purpose of purchasing his freedom. In the Portuguese times, while the mines were still worked on account of Government, a negro who was fortunate enough to find a stone weighing an oitava (17½ carats) was at once rewarded with his liberty; at present only small rewards are given. Formerly most diamonds were found in the district of Tejuco, the capital of which received in 1831 the significant name of Diamantina; but in 1844 new mines were discovered in the Serro do Sincora, in the province of Bahia, whose richness eclipses that of the most brilliant times of Tejuco.
The total produce of Brazil is estimated at about 300,000 carats, annually worth on the spot from 300 to 500 milrees the oitava (17½ carats). The miners rarely make a fortune, as their expenses are very great; the chief profits of the diamond trade fall to the share of the merchants, who purchase the stones in the mining districts and then sort and export them. The price of diamonds is subject to considerable fluctuations, which, proceeding from the markets of London, Paris, and Amsterdam, are most sensibly felt in the diamond districts, for the great European houses in whose hands the trade of the rough stones is concentrated, and who dispose of considerable capital, are able to wait for better times, while the small Brazilian trader or miner is soon obliged, for want of money, to sell his stones at any price. After the breaking out of the Crimean war, diamonds were very much depreciated at Diamantina. They were offered for sale at absurdly low prices, and even then a purchaser was rarely to be found. The market improved very slowly; but when the war was at an end, the prices once more rose to a height which had never been known before. The commercial crisis in North America and Europe at the end of 1857, and in the beginning of 1858, caused a new reaction, the effects of which Tschudi was able to note during his stay at Diamantina. ‘Good ware’ (fazenda regular e boa), consisting of stones averaging a vintem[[71]] in weight, which a few months before had been paid with 500 milrees the oitava, were now offered for 300. A stone of six vintems was sold in March 1858 for 170 milrees; six months before it would have been worth 240 or 260.
While the price of the smaller stones of about a vintem or less is regulated by the exporters in Rio, conjointly with the European houses, fancy prices are asked at Diamantina for larger stones of several carats. A fine diamond of an oitava sells for about three contos of rees (360l.), and one of two oitavas, or thirty-five carats, is often sold on the spot for ten to twelve contos (1200l.-1440l.).
During the last thirty years, diamonds have risen about forty per cent. in price in Europe, a natural consequence of the increase of wealth and luxury while the supply of the article continues to be limited. As, however, many large stones have recently been found in South Africa, and Australia now adds the diamond to her many sources of natural wealth, its value will probably once more decline.
When cut and polished, a brilliant of the first or purest water in England, weighing one carat, is valued at 12l., a rose diamond of the same weight at 8l., while the value of all those of a larger size is calculated by multiplying the square of the weight in carats by twelve or eight, except for those exceeding twenty carats, the price of which increases at a much more rapid rate. The enormous value ascribed to large diamonds is, however, merely fanciful, for they are worth neither more nor less than what purchasers may be inclined or able to give for them. According to the above valuation, stones weighing 100 carats would be worth at least (100 × 100 = 10,000 × 12) 120,000l.; a sum which has probably never yet been paid for a diamond of that weight. A very trifling spot or flaw of any kind lowers exceedingly the commercial value of a diamond. The number of large diamonds is very small. Among ten thousand stones, the Brazilian mines furnish but one that weighs ten carats; diamonds above twenty carats are very rare, and in all Europe there are but five diamonds of more than one hundred carats.
The largest of these is the magnificent gem of the first water, without fault or blemish, which sparkles in the Imperial sceptre of Russia. It weighs 194¾ carats; its largest diameter is one inch three lines and a half; its height ten lines. It is of East Indian origin, and once figured with another similar stone in the throne of Nadir Shah. When this tyrant was murdered, it was stolen, and ultimately came into the possession of an American merchant named Schafrass, who purchased it with several other valuable stones of an Afghan chieftain in Bagdad, for the round sum of 50,000 piasters. In 1772 the Empress Catharine II. bought the diamond of Schafrass, who had meanwhile settled in Amsterdam, for 450,000 silver roubles and a patent of nobility.
Of somewhat smaller size, but of unparallelled beauty, is the magnificent diamond called the Pitt or Regent, which Mr. Pitt, grandfather of the famous Lord Chatham, into whose possession it had come while governor of Madras, sold to the Duke of Orleans, Regent of France, for 135,000l. having himself paid 12,500l. for it to Tamohund, the most famous native dealer in India. It originally weighed 410 carats, but has been reduced to 136¾ by cutting it into a brilliant—an operation which is said to have lasted two years. It is now the first among the jewels belonging to the French Government; Napoleon used to wear it in the hilt of his sword.
During the five years the stone remained in his possession, Governor Pitt is said to have lived in such constant dread of having it stolen, that he never made known beforehand the day of his coming to town, nor slept two nights following in the same house. If this story be true, great indeed must have been his relief when he parted with his gem, which, though small in weight, was to him a true millstone in anxiety.
The diamond of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, which weighs 139½ carats, and is consequently a trifle larger than the Regent, once belonged to Charles the Bold of Burgundy, and at the battle of Nancy fell into the hands of an ignorant trooper, who plucked the gem from the helmet of the unfortunate duke and sold it for a crown. At a later period it came into the possession of the Court of Tuscany, and is now the first crown jewel of the Emperor of Austria.
The most celebrated diamond in the world is undoubtedly the Koh-i-Noor, or ‘mountain of light,’ which, according to Hindu legend, was worn by one of the heroes of the Great War which took place about four thousand years ago, and which forms the subject of the epic poem the Maha-Bhârata. After numberless vicissitudes and peregrinations, we find it in the possession of the Grand Moguls, and in 1739 in that of Nadir Shah, who, on his occupation of Delhi, compelled Mohammed Shah, the great-grandson of Aurungzeb, to give up to him all the valuables contained in the imperial treasury. According to the family and popular tradition, Mohammed Shah was imprudent enough to wear the Koh-i-Noor in front of his turban at his interview with his conqueror, who being