Page:An account of a voyage to establish a colony at Port Philip in Bass's Strait.djvu/106

( 81 ) hence comes the sarsaparilla and balsam copaiba. The most minute precautions are taken to prevent the concealment of diamonds, by persons of every description coming from the mines; they are not only stripped naked, and minutely searched, but even their horses and mules are purged: this strict scrutiny sets ingenuity to work to evade it, and the attempts are often successful. A Friar coming from the mines has been known to conceal three superb diamonds, in the waxen figure of the Virgin, which he carried in his pocket; the superstition of his examiners held the divine Image sacred, and kissing it with greater devotion, than they would probably have felt for the loveliest female of mere flesh