Travels in India (Tavernier) 96.4

96.4

There are also in Europe two places from whence coloured stones are obtained, viz. in Bohemia and Hungary. In Bohemia there is a mine where flints of different sizes are found, some being as large as an egg, others the size of the fist, and on breaking them one finds in some of them rubies as hard and as beautiful as those of Pegu. I remember being one day at Prague with the Viceroy of Hungary, in whose service I then was, as he washed his hands with General Wallenstein, Duke of Friedland, before sitting at table, he saw on the General’s hand a ruby which he admired for its beauty. But he admired it much more when Wallenstein told him that the mine of these stones was in Bohemia; and, in fact, at the Viceroy’s departure he presented him with about 100 of these flints in a basket. When we returned to Hungary the Viceroy had them all broken, and out of the whole of the flints there were only two in which rubies were found, one weighing about 5 carats and the other about 1 carat. As for Hungary, it has a mine from whence opals are obtained; they are not found in any other place in the world.