DIAMOND MINES OF BRAZIL 179
cious stones which have never been entered up on statistic's ledgers.
To
revive the industry, the government in 1740 granted concessions, and
the fields were worked in that way, but with poor results for the
government, until 1772, when the authorities decided to work the mines
for government account, and did so until Brazil threw off the
Portuguese yoke in 1834. During that period all the best stones found
were sent to the Crown jewels at Lisbon. The others were sold to
dealers and shipped from Rio and Bahia city to Europe.
After
Brazil established her own government, mining privileges could be had
anywhere by anyone on payment of a small tax to the government, and a
proprietary tax of 25 per cent, on the gross receipts. In addition 1/2
per cent, was charged on exports. Although the laws have been modified
at various times, this general plan has been adhered to from that time
until now.
In
those early days, and until the prejudice excited by the dealers in
Indian diamonds against the Brazilian had been overcome, the diamonds
where shipped first to Goa, a Portuguese possession in India, and then
sent from there as Indian stones. The Hollanders used the prejudice
existing against Brazilian diamonds, in an effort to get control of the
entire output, but they failed to gain it, and most of the diamonds
were sent to London. Later, many of them went to Paris also.
The
early method of working the fields was about the same as now except
that slave labor was employed. Gangs of slaves gathered and washed the
cascalho under the eye of an overseer who sat among them on a shaded
elevation, armed with a long-lashed whip. When one
