Jean-Baptiste Tavernier’s Travels In India

A continuation of the Author’s Journeys to the Diamond Mines
(via Jean-Baptiste Tavernier’s Travels In India / V Ball / Edited by William Crooke)

From the fortress of Rohtas to Soumelpour it is 30 coss. Soumelpour is a large town with houses built only of clay, and thatched with the branches of the coconut tree. Throughout this march of thirty coss there are jungles which are dangerous, because the thieves, who know that merchants do not visit the mine without carrying money, attack them and sometimes murder them. The Raja lives half a coss from the town, and in tents placed on an eminence. The Koel passes the fort, and it is in this river that the diamonds are found. It comes from the high mountains to the south and loses its name in the Ganges.

This is the manner in which diamonds are sought for in this river. After the great rains are over, that is to say usually in the month of December, the diamond seekers await the conclusion of the month of January, when the river becomes low, because at that time, in many parts, it is not more than two feet deep, and much of the sand is left uncovered. Towards the end of January or commencement of February, from the town of Soumelpour and also from another town 20 coss higher up the same river, and from some small villages on the plain, about 8000 persons of both sexes and of all ages capable of working assemble.

Those who are expert know that the sand contains diamonds, when they find small stones in it which resemble those we call ‘thunder stones’. They commence to search in the river at the town of Soumelpour and proceed upstream to the mountains where it takes its rise, which are situated about 50 coss from the town. In the places where they believe there are diamonds they excavate the sand in the following manner. They encircle these places with stakes, fascines, and clay, in order to remove the water and dry the spot, as is done when it is intended to build the pier of a bridge. They then take out the sand, but do not excavate below the depth of two feet. All this sand is carried and spread upon a large space prepared on the banks of the river and surrounded by a low wall a foot and half high, or thereabouts. They make holes at the base, and when they have filled the enclosure with as much sand as they think proper, they throw water upon it, wash it and break it, and afterwards follow the same method as is adopted at the mine which I have above described.

It is from this river that all the beautiful points come which are called pointes naives (natural points), but a large stone is rarely found there. It is now many years since these stones have been seen in Europe, in consequence of which many merchants have supposed that the mine has been lost, but it is not so; it is true, however, that a long time has elapsed since anything has been obtained in this river on account of the wars.

I have spoken elsewhere of another mine of diamonds in the Province of Carnatic, which Mir Jumla, General-in-Chief and Prime Minister of State of the King of Golkonda, commanded to be closed, not wishing that it should be worked further, because the stones from it, or rather from these six mines—for there are six of them, close to one another—were all black or yellow, and not one of good water.

There is, finally, in the Island of Borneo, the largest of all islands in the world, a river called Succadan, in the sand of which beautiful stones are found, which have the same hardness as those of the river Koel, or of the other mines of which I have made mention.

General Vandime once sent me at Surat six of them, of 3 to 4 carats each, from Batavia, and he believed that they were not so hard as those from other mines, in which he was mistaken, because there is no difference in that respect; it was in order to ascertain the fact that he sent them to me. When I was at Batavia one of the chief officers of the company showed me a point naive of 25½ carats, a perfect stone, obtained in this river of Succadan. But at the price which he told me it had cost him he had paid more than 50 percent than I should have been willing to give for it. It is true that I have always heard that these stones are very dear. The principal reason which has prevented me from going to this river of Borneo is that the Queen of the Island does not allow foreigners to carry away the stones, and there are great difficulties in conveying them thence—the insignificant number which are carried away secretly are sold at Batavia. I shall be asked, without doubt, why I only mention the Queen of Borneo, and not the King. The reason is that in this Kingdom it is the women who govern and not the men, because the people are so particular about having for their sovereign a legitimate heir to the throne that, the husband not being certain that the children which he believes he has had by his wife are his very own, and wife being, on the contrary, quite certain that the children are hers, they prefer to have a woman for their ruler, to whom they give the title of Queen, her husband being her subject, and not having more power than that which she chooses to confer upon him.

Jean-Baptiste Tavernier’s Travels In India (continued)