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Brazilian Diamonds. 113
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stone
he is crowned with a wreath of flowers, led in procession to the
manager, and formerly his freedom was bestowed upon him. If a negro
finds a Diamond from eight to ten carats weight, he receives two new
shirts, a suit of clothes, a hat, and a handsome knife. This, at least,
was formerly the case.
For
unfaithfulness the negroes are beaten with sticks, or have iron bands
fastened round their throats ; and on repetition of the fault they are
not admitted to the works again. Notwithstanding all these rewards and
punishments, one-third of the produce is supposed to be
surreptitiously disposed of by the labourers. Manifold are the tricks
used by the negroes to appropriate and barter the gems they discover.
In the very presence of the overseers they manage to conceal them in
their hair, their mouths, their ears, or between their fingers ; it has
been said that not unfrequently they will throw them away, and return
for them at the dead of night.
The
discovery of these Precious Stones in 1746 proved a great curse to the
poor inhabitants on the banks of the Diamond rivers. Scarcely had the
news of the discovery reached the Government ere they tried to secure
the riches of these rivers for the Crown. To effect this the
inhabitants were driven away from their homes to wild, far-away
places, and deprived of their possessions, while a dreadful drought,
succeeded by a violent earthquake, increased their distress. The
Diamonds were found in great numbers, and under curious circumstances.
After a heavy shower the children would find Diamonds in the streets,
and in the brooks which traversed them, and would often take home three
or four carats of Diamonds. One negro found a Diamond at the root of a
vegetable in his garden. Poultry, in picking up their food, swallowed
Diamonds, so that their
viscera required searching before being disposed of.
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