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154 ANNUAL REGISTER

appeare, that one is unworthy of my esteem after such a fault as yours; this only remains, that I can doe for you: and you are also to remember, that it is to yourselfe only that you own this disgrace which id befallen you, and that I have the same equity for you as I shall ever have for all others." 

Account of a May-day Collation, given by Whitelocke in the English manner, to the Queen and Some of her favourite Ladies and Courtiers. 

"THIS being May-day, Whitelocke, according to the invitation he had made to the queen, putt her in mind of it, that, as she was his mistris, and this May-Day, he was, by the costume of England, to waite apron her to take the air, and to treate her with some little collation, as her servant. 

The queen said, the weather was very cold, yett she was very willing to beare him company after the English mode. 
 
With the queen were Woofseld, Tott, and five of her ladyes. Whitelocke brought them to his  collation, which he had commanded her servants to prepare in the best manner they could,and altogither after then English fashion. 

Att the table with the queen sate La Belle Comtesss, the Countesse Gabriel Oxenstierne, Woolseldt, Tott, and Whitelocke; the other ladyes fate in another roome. Their meate was such fowle a could be gotten, dressed after the English fashion, and with English sawces, creates, puddlings, custards, tarts, tansies, English apples, bon chrêtien pears, cheese, butter, neats tonges, potted venison, and sweet meats, brought out of England, as his sacke and claret also was, his beere was also brewed, and his bread made by his own servants in his house, after the English manner; and the queen and her company seems highly pressed with this treatment: some of  her company said, she did eate and drinke more att it then she used to doe in three or four dayes att her own table. 

The intertainment was as full and noble as the place would afford, and as Whitelocke could make it, and so well ordered and contrived, that the queen said, she had never seen any like it: she was please so farre to play the good huswife, as to inquire, how the butter could be so fresh and sweet, and yett brought out of England? Whitelocke, from his cookes, satisfyed her majesty's inquire; that they putt the salt butter into milke, where it lay all night, and the next day it would eate fresh and sweet as this did, and any butter new made; and commended her mamade; and commended her majesty's good huswifry; who, to expresse her contentment in this collation, was full of pleasantnes and gaity of spirit, both in suppertime and afterwards: among other frollickes, the commaunded Whitelocke to teach her ladyes the English salutation; which, after some pretty defences, their lips obeyed, aud Whitelocke most readily. 

She highly commended Whitelocke's musicke of the trumpets, which sounded all supper time, and her discourse was all of mirth and drollery, wherein Whitelocke indeavoured to answer her; and the rest of the company did their parts. 

It was late before she returned to the castle, whither Whitelocke 

waited 

For the YEAR 1772.      155 

waited on her; and she discoursed a little with him about his busines, and the time of his audience, and gave him many thankes for his noble treatment of her and her company." 

Our author informs us, that two days after this entertainment, " Mons. Woofeldt, being visited by Whitelocke, told him that the queen was extreamly pleased with his treatment of her: Whitelocke excused the meanness of it for her majesty; Woolfeldt replyed, that both the queen and all the company esteemed it as the handsomest and noblest that they ever saw; and the queen, after that, would drinke no other wine butt Whitelocke's and kindly accepted the neats tounges, potted venison, and other cakes, which uppon her commendation of them, Whitelocke sent unto her majesty."

Some Account of the Diamond and Gold Mines in the Brasils; from Bougainviles's Voyage.
RIO-Janeiro is the emporium and principal staple of the rich produce of the Brasils. The mines, which are called general, are the nearest to the city; being about seventy-five leagues distant. They annually bring in to the king, for his fifth part, at least one hundred and twelve arobas of gold; in 1762 they brought in a hundred and nineteen. Under the government of the general mines, are comprehended those of Rio das Mortes, of Sabara, and of Sero-frio. The last place, besides gold, produces all the diamonds that come from the Brasils. They are in the bed of a river; which is led aside, in order afterwards to separate the diamonds, topazes, chrysolites, and other stones of inferior goodness, from the pebbles, among which they lie.
All these stones, diamonds excepted, are not contraband: they belong to the possessors of the mines; but they are obliged to give a very exact account of the diamonds they find; and to put them into the hands of a surveyor*, whom the king appoints for this purpose. The surveyor immediately deposits them in a little casket, covered with plates of iron, and locked up by three locks. He has one of the keys, the viceroy the other, and the Porvador de Hazienda Reale the third. This casket is inclosed in another, on which are the seals of the three persons above mentioned, and which contains the three keys to the first. The viceroy is not allowed to visit its contents; he only places the whole in a third coffer, which he lends to Lisbon, after putting his seal on it. It is opened in the king's presence; he chooses the diamonds which he likes out of it; and pays their price to the possessors of the mines, according to a tariff settled in their charter.
The possessors of the mines pay the value of a Spanish piastre or dollar per day to his Most Faithful Majesty, for every slave sent out to seek diamonds; the number of these slaves amounts to eight hundred. Of all the contraband trades, that of diamonds is most severely punished. If the smuggler is poor, he loses his life; if his riches are sufficient to satisfy what the law ex-
*Intendant.
acts,

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