The earliest and best accounts of the mines of Golconda are to be found in the narrative of Tavernier, who visited them in the middle of the seventeenth century. At this time they were in prosperous condition and furnished occupation to many thousand men. There were but four mines then worked in Hindostan, and more than sixty thousand miners were employed at the mine of Gani, or Couleur, alone. About thirty years after the last visit of Tavernier, the Earl Marshal of England, who had previously examined the diamond mines on the coast of Coromandel, visited those in Bengal. He found that diamond mines occurred everywhere along the slope of the hills extending through the country; but that very few of them were worked, and that nearly all of the diamonds then supplied to commerce were obtained from the kingdoms of Golconda and Visapour. He gives descriptions of twenty-three mines in Golconda and fifteen in Visapour. The most famous of these at that time was called Currure, and was worked by the king for his own use. Several very large gems are said to have been found at this locality. It is related that a Portuguese gentleman from Goa, having received permission to explore a part of this mine, had the good fortune to discover a diamond of two hundred and six karats, which so overjoyed him that he erected a large stone over the spot with an inscription in Hindoo commemorative of the event. Near this place there was another famous mine which yielded stones of fine form and water, occurring in black earth, which is regarded in India as a singular formation. In all the mines of Visapour the diamonds are found in red and yellow earth, and this is generally the color of the matrix elsewhere. William Methold visited the mines of Golconda at a later period, and relates that at that time they gave employment to about thirty thousand laborers. The means for exploration were then exceedingly simple, and no mechanical contrivances were adopted for excavating the pits or bailing out the water. Shafts were rudely sunk in the earth to the depth of sixty or seventy feet, and the cascalho found at even that depth. It appeared to be reddish, mixed with white and yellow chalk, and was rich in diamonds. Rarely, stones of one hundred and twenty to two hundred karats were found, while those of ten to fifteen karats were quite abundant; but by far the greater number were so minute that it required from eight to twenty of them to weigh a karat. Within the present century Dr. Buchanan and Mr. Voysey visited the mines of India, and have left interesting and accurate descriptions of their examinations and observations.