cording
to the people at home, there weren't any diamonds in South Africa—not
indigenous diamonds, that is. Probably the majority of Hatton Garden
merchants knew where the new supply of stones was coming from, but the
general public remained skeptical for years. Most of them persisted in
declaring that it was all a hoax. The Times and other papers,
while carrying quotations of Cape diamond prices in their financial
columns, sturdily refused to accept this information as evidence. The
so-called South African diamond mines, they insisted, were salted with
stones brought from Brazil. Everybody knew that tricky fellows abounded
in the colonies. The whole thing, they said, was obviously a ramp
designed to lure unwary investors into sinking capital in African real
estate. "A land swindle," said The Times. Nobody
remembered—well, after all, they could hardly be expected to
remember—that at the beginning of the eighteenth century, when diamonds
were first discovered in Brazil, exactly the same kind of story went
the rounds among jewel merchants. It was said that the Brazilian stones
could not possibly be genuine diamonds because, as everybody knew,
diamonds came only from India. Then when tests proved that they were
as hard as Indian stones, it was claimed that if they were indeed
diamonds, they must be the sweepings, or refuse, of Indian mines, sent
over to Brazil and sold to foolish traders as first-rate gems. For a
long time the Brazilian miners had to smuggle their stones into Bengal
by way of Goa and sell them as Indian produce. When this was done they
were snapped up. It took years to overcome the rumors; years before
Brazilian diamonds were bought for their proper worth in Brazil.
Here was the same thing happening again, only this time the South African diamond was the victim. In vain did an earnest
