Page:A treatise on diamonds and precious stones including their history Natural and commercial.djvu/99

 Rio de Janeiro in the charge of a captain of cavalry, with a sufficient convoy, and are delivered to the treasurer and officers of government at that capital. Here the gems remain until it is determined to send them to Europe. During the last fifteen years they have been transmitted to England, but they will now probably revert to their former channel, and go to Lisbon. It was customary for the monarchs of Portugal to make choice of any rough Diamonds which pleased them, above the weight of twenty carats: and thus has been accumulated that costly suit now belonging to the present king of Portugal.

I conclude this section, it may be proper briefly to describe the manner in which the diamond-merchant proceeds to make his estimate in buying a bolsa or lot of Diamonds, whether of fifty carats, or five thousand. He first places them in a good light, on a sheet of white paper laid on a table, and then divides