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DIAMOND
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MINES OF INDIA.
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The accepted diamond countries of history and commerce are India, Brazil, and South Africa.
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
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