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The Star of the South

Found by a Negress.--A stone of singular beauty.--Sold for pound 3,000, ultimately to realise pound 80,000.--A lovely tint.--The lion of two International Exhibitions, it is afterwards sent to India.--Purchased by the ruler of Baroda.--The Prince's other Treasures.--Diamond Dust poisoning.--Nemesis.

LYING west of the mountains of San do Espinaco is a vast plain. Here the river Velhas has its source, and the New World's largest diamond its origin. It was picked up in July, 1853, by a negress at work in the mines of the province of Minas-Geraes, Brazil.

The diamond, when found, presented the general form of a rhombic dodecahedron with very obtuse angles, and twenty-four natural facets, besides certain faint streaks, pointing at a possible octahedric cleavage. In one of the facets there appeared a somewhat deep depression, in which was formerly inserted an octahedral crystal, which from other symptoms, was evidently a true diamond. On the lower surface were two other indentations of a similar character, but not so deep, one of which revealed traces of from three to four different crystals. On the same side was a flat space, where it had probably been removed from the matrix by diluvial action. There were also perceptible a few black specks, due apparently to the presence of titanic iron or volcanic sand. All these circumstances showed plainly enough that it originally formed one of a group of adamantine crystals, fixed in the crevices of certain metamorphic rocks, characteristic of the Brazilian mountain systems. Such, at least, is the commonly accepted view. But it is unhesitatingly rejected by Barbot, who has made a special study of this gem, and whose opinion is certainly entitled to consideration. "We are certain," he writes, "that this large hollow was merely a solution of continuity in the crystalline layers, and that the other depressions of a slighter character are due to the same cause. The flat part, which seems and really is cleaved by an accidental cause, formed the point of contact with the matrix." The late M. Dufrenoy supposed that this diamond must have formed part of a group of diamantiferous crystals. In this he was mistaken, for diamonds are produced isolated, in the various parts of the matrix, rarely agglomerated or superimposed, nor grafted one on the other, like the pyrites and crystals of spar and quartz. This stone which, according to the usual method of valuation, ought to be worth nearly pound 44,000, was sold in the rough for pound 35,000 (302 contos de Reis), and reduced by cutting from 254 1/2 to 125 carats, at an expenditure of close upon pound 500. In the process it assumed an elegant oval form, in which the light is well refracted. It is of unusual length, 35 millimetres by 29 millimetres broad, and 19 in thickness. These measurements, as Barbot remarks, might seem to imply a magnitude superior even to that of the "Regent." Yet this gem is really 13 carats lighter, a fact explained by the perfect harmony of proportions exhibited by the "Regent," and which are missing in the "Star of the South." Nevertheless, it is a pure stone and has, on the whole, been handled with great judgment, although the best possible advantage has not perhaps, been taken of its natural forms. The cutter was Voorsanger, of Mr. Coster's establishment at Amsterdam, and in his hands the diamond lost rather more than half of its original weight. The reflected light is perfectly white, but, strange to say, it assumes by refraction a decided rose tint, very agreeable to the eye. This probably unique phenomenon is due, no doubt, to the peculiar prismatic form imparted to the crystal, perhaps unconsciously, by the cutter.