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chap, xv THE GOVERNOR OF THE MINES 49
others.
Young as they are, they know the value of all the stones so well that
if one of them has bought a stone and is willing to lose a half per
cent., another gives him cash for it. You can seldom show them a parcel
of a dozen stones, among which they will not discover four or five with
some flaw, point, or defect at the angles.1
It remains to be said that these Indians have a high regard for strangers, and especially for those whom they call Franks.2 Immediately
on my arrival at the mine I went to call upon the Governor of the
place, who also rules the Province on behalf of the King of Bijapur. He
is a Musalman, who embraced me and assured me I was welcome—not
doubting that I had brought gold with me—for at all the mines of
Golkonda and Bijapur they speak but of new pagodas,3 which
are golden coins—and that I had only to place it in my lodging, where
it would be safe, and he would be responsible for all I had. Besides
the servants I brought with me he allotted me four others, and
commanded them to keep watch on my gold by day and night, and to obey
all my orders. Shortly after I had left him he recalled me, and on my
return : ' I sent to seek you', he said, ' in order to assure you again
that you have nothing to fear—eat, drink, and sleep, and have a care
for your health. I have forgotten to tell you to be careful not to
defraud the King, to whom 2 per cent, is due on all your purchases. Do
not attempt', he continued, ' to do as some Musalmans did, who came to
the mine and combined with the merchants and some brokers to withhold
the royalties of the King—-saying that they had only purchased to the
value of 10,000 pagodas, while they had invested more
1
' The Gentoo merchants too use the same method with their children,
initiating them, with the first dawn of their reason, into all the
mysteries of their trade and contracts, insomuch that it is not
uncommon to see boys of ten or twelve years of age so acute and expert
that it would not be easy to over-reach them in a bargain.' (J. H.
Grose, A Voyage to the East Indies, 1757, p. 238.) For the method by which children of the Bania or mercantile castes are trained in mental arithmetic see Russell, Tribes and Castes, Central Provinces, ii. 128.
1 Fringuis for Franguis in the original, for Franks, i.e. Europeans. (See vol. i, 5.)
* They were worth about 8s., more exactly 3 J rupees. (See vol. i, p. 329.)
II
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