This illicit trade has been carried on to a very considerable extent: there is a strong presumptive authority for stating that, since the first discovery of the mines, diamonds to the amount of two millions sterling have thus found their way to Europe, exclusive of what the contractors accounted for. This has been owing to the ill management of the whole establishment, and to the total want of necessary regulations, which have prevailed so long, that it will not be easy to apply a remedy. Let us suppose for a moment the system to be changed; the two thousand negroes employed in the establishment to be the property of the crown (whom two years’ profit of the diamond mines would be adequate to purchase); these negroes to be supplied with every article for their support from a general store, and to be treated as mildly as possible; they would then form a society, and, knowing no other masters than their officers, would have only one common interest to serve. The contraband trade by this means, though perhaps not totally destroyed, would receive an irrecoverable blow, and would be reduced almost to nothing. Should such a change take place, the shopkeepers, and those persons who subsist by hiring negroes to the works, would find the source of their emoluments dried up, and, rather than remain at Tejuco, would migrate to situations more congenial to their interests: thus the district would be freed from that bane which has so long overrun it, and Government would reap the advantage of having the mines worked by their own negroes, whom it would be difficult for others to seduce.
Another evil which such a change of system would be calculated to remove, is the following:—Every article of sustenance required for the establishment is purchased of farmers who reside a few leagues from Tejuco, or who have farms at a greater distance; and this absurd practice is the cause of much unnecessary intercourse. There are thousands of acres of excellent land in the vicinity of the diamond works, having choice of situation, and fit for the growth of every species of produce. How well might a part of the force above-mentioned be occasionally spared for a few days only, to be employed in the first operations of husbandry, which would be, to inclose a sufficient quantity of ground in various parts for the maintenance of the establishment. A certain number of negroes would be allotted, in proportion to the land under cultivation, and on particular occasions, as in harvest, an auxiliary force would be always at hand. This would be farming with double advantage; the plough would work instead of the hoe; after-crops would be sown to be eaten off the ground, which would thus be enriched and kept in good condition. Numbers of acres would be planted with artificial grass, subject to irrigation where that was practicable, and thus, contrary to the general practice, the cattle would be provided with subsistence in the dry season. Indian corn, wheat, mandioca, feijones, potatoes, &c. would be cultivated, and, under proper management, would yield crops equal to the most sanguine expectation. Storehouses, with requisite conveniences, would soon be erected, in which the grain might be kept without spoiling. Thus would the first principles of husbandry be introduced into the district, and prove a source of more lasting benefit to the state than mines either of gold or diamonds, for when the latter were exhausted there would remain an active and industrious population. It seems, indeed, to have been the purpose of nature, in distributing these precious substances in these remote and almost unknown parts, to allure civilized men to settle upon them.