still belongs, its value was estimated at 12,000,000 lire ; but this price is evidently exaggerated.
The
largest diamond known would certainly be that said to belong to the
King of Portugal, and which is included in the imperial treasure of
Brazil, if there was not a reasonable suspicion that it may be really
but a white topaz.
Guarded
with jealous care, no exact description of this gem has ever been
obtained ; and this secrecy gives more foundation for the opinion that
it is not a true diamond.
It
is said to be of a yellowish colour, and in size nearly equal to that
of a hen's egg ; but in form similar to the chick-pea, and concave at
one side.
It
was found in Brazil, at a place called Cay-de-Merin, near the river of
Malho verde. According to Ferri, it weighs 1,730 carats, and, according
to Marve, 1,680. It is valued at seven thousand million lire. The slave
who discovered it was set at liberty, from which fact is corroborated
the aphorism that " liberty is inestimable." Besides this, the Emperor
of Brazil possesses two other diamonds of less dubious quality but of
much smaller size; the largest of these two weighs 215 carats. They
possess rare beauty, and were found by three bandits near Abayte, a
river that runs in the province of Minas-Geraes. Marve saw them, and
states that they are rough, and have a surface of 28 millimetres, and 9
in depth. Marve also affirms that he saw there two octahedral diamonds,
weighing—one, 134 carats, and the other, 120.
