gether
into a conglomerate mass. All the above, however, are known by the
generic name of Cascalho. The masses of stone themselves, which rarely
exceed a cubic foot in size, contain Itacolumite jasper, and often
peridots and garnets. The Itambe, the highest mountain in the
diamond-producing district, giving rise to the rivers Copay and
Jequitinhonha, is about 5598 feet above the level of the sea, and
diamonds are sometimes found on its highest peaks.
Diamonds
were found in the Brazils when searching for gold, but their true
nature was unsuspected, and they were thrown away or used as counters
for card-players. Bernardo Fonseca Lobo, an inhabitant of the Minas
Geraes, who had seen rough diamonds in a previous visit to the East
Indies, first discovered their true nature and value. He brought some
to Lisbon, and established their identity with diamonds. The European
traders, who had never seen or dreamt of any other bat the Indian
diamond, and who feared that if an infinite number were thrown on the
market by this discovery of new mines, their stocks would thus be
depreciated, and perhaps become valueless, endeavoured by ever)' means
to discourage their sale, and spread a report that the so-called
Brazilian diamonds were only the refuse of the Indian mines, exported
from Goa to Brazil, and thence to Europe;* and at first succeeded in
preventing the sale. The Portuguese merchants, how-
* In the work published by David Jeffries, a.d. 1750, he indorses this belief, and endeavours to prove it by several arguments.
