Travels in India (Tavernier) 39.5.4

39.5.4

On the morning of the 10th [September] he sent to summon us, and as soon as we were seated in his tent, close to him, the attendants brought him five small bags full of diamonds, and each bag contained about as many as one could hold in the hand. They were all lasques, but of very dark water and very small, and for the most part were only 1 carat or half a carat in weight, but otherwise very clear. There were very few which amounted to 2 carats. The Nawab, when showing us these stones, asked if such goods were saleable in our country. We replied that one might sell them provided the water was white, because in Europe we do not esteem diamonds if they are not clear and white, and that we made no account of other kinds of water. When he first began to contemplate the conquest of this Kingdom for the King of Golconda, he was told that it had diamond mines, and he sent 12,000 men to work them, who in the space of a year only found those which he had in the five bags. The Nawab, seeing that they only found stones of very brown water, tending much more to black than white, rightly considered that it was loss of trouble, and forbidding further mining, sent all these poor people back to tillage. After the Nawab had closed up his diamonds again, and we had dined with him, he mounted his horse, accompanied by many nobles, to go hunting, and desired to take us with him; but we begged him to excuse us, and we left without his speaking to us of our pearls.