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CHAPTER V.
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BRAZILIAN DIAMONDS.
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Ν
washing the sands of some of the Brazilian rivers, for sake of the gold
which, they contained, the natives in the early part of the last
century occasionally lighted upon little hard stones of pecular shape,
which they regarded as of no value ; and therefore either threw them
away, or used them as counters in card-playing. It was not until 1727,
that Bernardo da Fonseca Lobo, an inhabitant of Serra do Frio in the
gold district of Minas-Geräes, accidentally discovered the true nature
of these stones. He had seen rough Diamonds in India, and the likeness
to these was so striking that he took a number to Portugal for sale,
and thus drew general observation towards the new Diamond mines. Such
at least is the story told of the discovery of the "Brazilian Diamond
fields".
The
European merchants, who up to that time had obtained their Diamonds
from India, were frightened lest this discovery should cause a fall in
the. price of the gems in their possession. They consequently spread
the report that the Brazilian Diamonds were only the refuse of the
Indian stones, forwarded to Goa, and then to Brazil, just as when the
South African Diamond fields were discovered, it was said that they
yielded only yellow stones, of little or no value.
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