ever, turned the tables on them by exporting them from Brazil to Goa, and then offering them for sale as Indian diamonds.
On
the inhabitants of the diamond-producing districts this discovery
acted as a curse, for as soon as the government found the valuable
nature of the product, and of the treasures it had in its grasp, it
took forcible possession of the land, expelled the original
inhabitants, and declared the diamond trade a monopoly, and themselves
the exclusive proprietors. Nature even seemed to have a spite against
the expatriated exiles; the year of the discovery the. whole district
was afflicted with a dreadful drought, and, to add to the distress and
misery of the unfortunate inhabitants, a fearful earthquake took
place, in which numbers of them perished; and it was only on the 13th
of May, 1803, that the sad remnant was reinstated in their rightful
property. It seemed as if the genii, guardians of the treasure, were
indignant at the presumption of man, and tried by every means to
prevent the dispersion of their buried treasures.
The
riches of these places are incalculable; the gold is abandoned to the
slaves as unworthy the attention of their owners. Children, after the
rains, collect the grains of gold, which lie strewn over their path.
The crops of all fowls killed are carefully examined, and often found
to contain diamonds; and it is recorded that a negro once found a stone
of five carats adhering to the roots of a cabbage he had plucked for
his dinner.
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