writer. Speaking of the Coulour or Gani diamond-mine, Tavernier says:
"
There are still found there large stones, larger than elsewhere, from
ten to forty carats and sometimes larger, among them the great diamond
which weighed nine hundred carats ( an evident slip for ratis) before
being cut, which Mirgimola presented to Aurungzeb ( another slip for
Shah Jehan ) as I have said before."
To
explain these slips of Tavernier's pen it will be well to state that
the great Frenchman, though speaking all European and many Asiatic
languages, was yet unable to write in any, not even in his own. He
therefore borrowed the pen of two different persons to write his
delightful travels which give us such a living picture of Indian life
two centuries ago. The Coulour mine, here spoken of, was discovered
about a century before Tavernier's time, in a very singular manner. A
peasant when preparing the ground to sow millet, unearthed a sparkling
pebble which excited his attention. Golconda was near enough for him to
have heard of dia-
