The Republican journal., 1892-08-18

puShClo, WHICH, are lowered down TO Jnem
by ropes from canoes. As might be ex-
pected from such crude system. the
prizes are few and rare; yet it must pay,
or it would not be continued in country
where ten per cent. is considered hardly a
satisfactory profit
Stories are told hereabouts of flush
times when the diamond mines were new.
which eclipse those of the palmiest days
of gold digging in California. 1t is said
that Douna Maria Machado, wife of the
original owner of the Bonn Jesus fields, re-
ceived a present from a friend in Bahia of
a certain slave whom she had long covet-
ed; and in return the grateful dame sent
half-pint cup full of diamonds. AS the
market then stood, the slave was worth
perhaps $50, and as for the value of the
diamonds-quien sdbe? An old woman,
working on her own account in some
gravel which the miners had abandoned,
found a stone of purest water, weighing
an ottawa and half, which she exchang-
ed for house worth about 5000. An
ottawa is a little more than seventeen
carats, and the diamond was afterwards
sold for So, 900.
There is a tradition of a priest who
came to Bonn Jesus in the first great rush
and did no digging himself, but never
ceased to exhort his flock that carnal
treasures are perilous to the souls well
fare, and who therefore :magnanimously
offered to relieve them of all such danger
by assuming the burden himself. There
was no near market for the diamonds and
50, for the good of their souls, he bought
them all himself-at the rate of ten dol
lars per quarter ottawa, for stones great
and small BY ordinary rules Of calculat-
ing the value OF such gems, a stone of
pure water weighing, in the rough, one
quarter ottawa would be worth not less
than $3.50, and often a good deal more.
In few months the good Friar grew so
ricl-just about the time it began to
dawn upon his parishioners that they
were being victimized-thath he ''skipped''
one night from the scene of his labors,
forgetting his priestly stole.
The largest collection of diamonds that
have yet seen in the possession of one man,
contains perhaps TWEEN five small stones,
averaging one carat each, and one rath-
time and labor that number of diamonds
represented. He replied, II and my child
rem have found them all in the last eight
months; but | have not worked more than
fifteen days during that time, and the
ninas (children), not at all-they came
across them i'll their play. The whole lot
might have been worth two hundred dol
ars,-but of course he wanted thousands;
for however guileless natives may have
been in the days of the Padre aforesaid,
they are certainly not now, The cXtraor-
binary good fortune OF a poor negro family
is Just now the talk Of Bonn Jesus. a few
weeks ago one of their half naked young
stels was playing in a gravel bank, where
he found a ''pretty stone' which he util
lied the rest of the day as marble III a
Brazilian game not unlike humble peg.
Having been 4 winner the urchin was so
lucky as to retain it, together with most
of the marbles of his companions, and he
carried them home and tossed them down
careesslv in Il corner OF the patelnal hut
His father spied the stone and immediate
ly pounced upon it. 1t proved to be the
finest diamond which has been found in
these parts for many years, and sold tor
S430,-a sum which to these people means
wealth forever. FANNIE b. WARD.