Travels in India (Tavernier) 102

102

Remarks upon the largest and most beautiful Diamonds and Rubies which the Author has seen in Europe and Asia, the figures of which are here given, together with those of large Stones which he sold to the King on his return from his last Journey to India, with a representation of a magnificent Topaz, and the largest Pearls in the World.
I SHALL follow the order of the figures as they are arranged by their numbers, and I shall commence with the heaviest diamond of which I have any knowledge: —
No. 1. This diamond belongs to the Great Mogul, who did me the honour to have it shown to me with all his other jewels. You see represented here its form after having been cut, and, as I was allowed to weigh it, I ascertained that it weighed 319-1/2 ratis, which are equal to 279-9/16 of our carats. When in the rough it weighed, as I have elsewhere said, 907 ratis, or 793-5/8 carats. This stone is of the same form as if one cut an egg through the middle.
No. 2 represents the form of the Grand Duke of Tuscany’s diamond, which he has had the goodness to show me upon more than one occasion. It weighs 139 carats, but it is unfortunate that its water tends towards the colour of citron.
No. 3 is of a stone weighing mangelins, which amount to 242 of our carats. The mangelin, as I have said, is the weight used in the Kingdoms of GOLCONDA and Bijapur, and it amounts to of our carats. When at Golconda in the year 1642, I was shown this stone, and it is the largest diamond I have seen in India in the possession of merchants. The owner allowed me to make a model of it in lead, which I sent to Surat to two of my friends, telling them of its beauty and the price, namely 500,000 rupees, which amount to 750,000 livres of our money. I received an order from them, that, if it was clean and of fine water, to offer 400,000 rupees, but it was impossible to purchase it at that price. Nevertheless, I believe the shape of half an egg, cut longitudinally, but this difference of form, as I shall explain, was the result of the mutilation to which it was subjected. (See Appendix I.) that it could have been obtained if they would have advanced their offer to 450,000 rupees.
No. 4 represents a diamond which I bought at Ahmadabad for one of my friends. It weighed 178 ratis, or 157½ of our carats.
No. 5 represents the shape of the above mentioned diamond after it had been cut on both sides. Its weight was then 94½ carats, the water being perfect. The flat side, where there were two flaws at the base, was as thin as a sheet of thick paper. When having the stone cut I had all this thin portion removed, together with a part of the point above, where a small speck of flaw still remains.
No. 6 represents another diamond which I bought in the year 1653 at the Kollur mine. It is beautiful and pure, cut at the mine. It is a thick stone, and weighs 36 mangelins, which are equal to 63 of our carats.
Nos. 7 and 8. The two pieces represented are from a cleaved stone, which, when whole, weighed 75⅝ mangelins, or 104 carats. Although of good water, there appeared so much impurity inside it, that, as it was large and high-priced there was no one among the Banians who dared to purchase it. At length a Dutchman named Bazu ventured to do so, and, having had it cleaved, he found inside it about 8 carats weight of impurity like decomposed vegetable matter. The small piece was clean, save for a nearly imperceptible flaw; but as for the other, where the flaws traversed right through, it had to be divided into seven or eight pieces. The Dutchman risked much in cleaving this stone, and it was a great piece of good luck for him that it did not break into a hundred fragments. Still, for all that, it did not repay him; this makes it sufficiently plain that where the Banians refuse to bite there is nothing to be hoped for by the Franks.