192 A POPULAR TREATISE ON GEMS.
positions
practised were so great, that it took the superintendence upon its own
account in 1722, and has guarded the diamond districts along their
lines by strong sentinels, who will not allow strangers to pass through
without the permission of the general superintendent; and even the
inhabitants, when crossing the line of the diamond districts, have to
procure written permissions from the above authority ; and everybody
must, on leaving the district, submit to a personal and strict
examination and search by the soldiers; foot-passengers are always
arrested by sentinels and spies continually on the alert. St. Antonio
de Tejuco, forty leagues from Villa Rica, is the capital of the diamond
district, and the seat of the superintendence of the Junta Diamontina,
consisting besides of a confiskal, two cashiers, one inspector-general,
and a book-keeper. Ail the diamonds procured are delivered up yearly to
the government at Rio Janeiro.
From
four to five thousand negroes were engaged in the years 1772 to 1775;
in the year 1818 but one thousand : among them were the feitorcs or
surveyors, one hundred in number, in the latter year; likewise ten
superintendents, whose business it is to conduct the mining department
and the collection of the diamonds.
In
"order to encourage the negroes, presents of tobacco, cloth, &c,
are awarded, according to the price of the diamonds which they find ;
the one who finds, for instance, an eighth (seventeen carats and two
grains) receives his entire liberty; they are severely punished for any
offence, and if repeated are not allowed to be at this work.
Notwithstanding the most rigorous regulations and the most watchful
attention of all the officers, the frauds in stolen diamonds are very
considerable ; and it is estimated that the smuggling amounts to one
third of the whole income". The smugglers, who are runaway slaves,
examine the most remote parts of
