The Arizona sentinel., 1886-05-01
CEYLON'S CAPITAL.
The Chief Center of the Jewel Trade oi
 the Oriental World.

The Chief Center of the Jewel Trade of
 the Oriental World.
 Colombo is in some respects more favored than other tropical cities, and it is as healthy as can reasonably be ex- pected, owing to its long extent of sea- shore and its constant exposure to sea winds. The site is low and forms sort of cape, with the open sea on one side and the bay on the other. An elevated region also, with temperature far diff ferent from that of the coast, offers its advantages at distance of three or four hours by rail. Still the merchant who has made a fortune in Colombo, the civil official or the army officer who has dutifully accepted his exile to Bishop Heber's paradise, rapturously halls the opportunity which permits him ito re- turn to his native land, either to spend his life, to pass brief leave of absence among his friends, or, if he is an officer, to be assigned to post less purgatorial. From Ceylon, as elsewhere, the long ab- sent returns to England with the bile in the cuticle instead of in the liver, giving that old parchment look which Thack- cray and other English novelIsts have so often described. and a complication of disorders which even full purse and a regiment of physicians fail to put to flight. The chief center of the jewel trade of the East is at Colombo, princi- pally in the hands of Cingalese and Mo hammedan merchants These, with their long-haired runners and cappers, | 4a hot even personal chastisement is some times an insufficient hint that one de- sires to be disembarrassed of their so- ciety. Their ways are wary and spider like when they once see the traveller be- ginning to be entangled in their web. Only the least valuable of their wares are displayed in cheap showcases, and they usually begin by selling some trifing article, like a fan, or some little per sonal ornament. From these they pro- ceed to handsome moonstones and cat S. eyes, and then they draw forth from un- seen table drawers or perhaps from some old-fashioned safe fine emeralds, fine rubies, sapphires and diamonds, for which they ask three or four times as much as they expect to receive. Some times they will sell some pretty small jewel at a bargain to tempt the pur- chaser; then they will offer large en- erald or sapphire, for which they ask perhaps eight hundred or one thousand dollars. If the visitor seems indisposed to purchase, but still fingers, they grad ually lower the price, often selling what they may at first have asked from four hundred to one thousand dollars for seventy-fve or possibly for two hundred dollars. Some of the merchants are prosperous, but most of them are con- stantly in trouble, having brought their misfortunes and liabilities with them from Point de Gales at the time of the commercial change of base.
 Great bargains always await the skilled purchaser at Colombo if he has the requisite means. Unfortunately good judgment and a long purse do not always go together, and mistakes are often made, stones that are absolutely worthless being purchased for genuine. Good cat's-eyes can be bought for from five to ten dollars, and exceedingly handsome ones for fifteen and twenty dollars. So sapphires and rubies begin the scale at fifteen and twenty dollars and end at any figure the purchaser chooses to pay. Small stones of the three or four most valuable kinds, such as are used for setting larger ones, can be bought for from few cents to dollar or two, and sometimes at nom- inal figure by weight. It is safe to say that almost any jewel can be bought in Colombo for from one-tifth to one-tenth of the amount for which it is afterward sold in America.-C SGn Francisco Chronicle