THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM MAGAZINE. 



75 



Some Famous Diamonds and their Story. 



By the Editor. 



Probal)ly few of onr readers have 

 ever seen a diamond weighing moi'e 

 than a few carats; large dia- 

 monds are either the property of 

 monarchs or are jealously , guarded 

 among the treasures of the world's mil- 

 lionaires. But all of us may inspect 

 glass models, whieli, though they lack 

 the fire of the originals, faithfully re- 

 present them in size and shape, and, 

 approximately at least, in colour. A 

 collection of such models is exhibited in 

 the Museum, and in this article an at- 

 tempt is made to sketch the stirring his- 

 tory of some of the more famous dia- 

 monds counterfeited in the collection. 

 Truth is stranger than Action, we say, 

 and even the writers of fiction, sadly 

 lacking in a sense of iiumour, often use 

 this trite phrase in relating* the imagin- 

 ary events of their romances. Certainly 

 the tragic happenings narrated by Wil- 

 kie Collins in The Moonstone, or by Arthur 

 Morrison in The Green Eye of Goonah 

 are not more strange than the real ad- 

 ventures which make up the history of 

 such diamonds as the Koliinoor or the 

 Hope Blue. The beginning of the story 

 is usually shrouded in mystery. We 

 know not where, or when, or by whom, 

 the diamonds were found; they appeared 

 like meteors and flamed across the pages 

 of history leaving a trail of blood and 

 ruin in their wake. Most of them, like 

 the sun, took tlieir rise in the east, for, 

 up to the beginning of the eighteenth 

 century, India was the only known 

 source of diamonds. 



THE MOUNTAIN Or LIGHT. 



Perliaps tlie best known of all dia- 

 monds is the Kohinoor, wliich we first 

 hear of in the fourteenth century. It 

 had been held as an heirloom in the 

 family of the Rajahs of Malwa from 

 time immemorial, and when, in 1304, the 

 reigning Rajah was defeated by the Sul- 

 tan, Alaeddin, it became, the spoil of the 



*A carat is now fixed at 200 milligrams 

 and 1 oz. avoirdupois is equal to 141^ 

 carats about. 



conqueror. In 1526 it is found in the 

 possession of Sultan Baber, a direct 

 descendant of the warlike Tamerlane, 

 and the founder of the Mogul Empire. 

 It remained the property of the Mogul 

 dynasty until the invasion of India by 

 the Persian conqueror, Nadir Shah, in 

 1739. The terrible Aurungzeb was the 

 most powerful of the Mogul emperors, 

 and it is related that the Kohinoor, 

 which, however, was not yet known by 

 that name, formed one of the eyes of 

 the peacock in his famous peacock 

 tlirone at Delhi, which was the capital. 

 Delhi was sacked by the Persian invader 

 during the reign of Mohammed Sliah, 

 the last of the Moguls. The conciueror 

 was very anxious to possess himself of 

 the famous gem, but the luckless Mo- 

 hammed was just as anxious to retain 

 it, and Nadir's efforts to secure it were 

 baffled for a long time, until one of the 

 'faithless ladies of the harem revealed 

 its liiding place in the folds of Moham- 

 med's turban. It is said that Nadir, on 

 first seeing the splendid stone, exclaim- 

 ed, "Koh-i-nur," that is, ("Mountain of 

 liglit"), and the diamond has been 

 known by this name ever since. 



At Nadir's death the Kohinoor be- 

 came the property of Shah Rokh, to 

 whom it brought nothing but misfortune. 

 However, he clung desperately to his 

 treasure, enduring the most fiendish tor- 

 tures, even blinding, rather than part 

 with it. In 1751 he concluded a treaty 

 with Aluned Shah, founder of the Dur- 

 ani Afghan dynasty, and made the fatal 

 gem over to him. Its possession proved 

 disastrous to the Durani line, and it sub- 

 sequently became the property of Run- 

 jit-Singh, the "Lion of the Punjab," 

 wlio removed it to Lahore. There it 

 remained till the Punjab was annexed 

 by Britain in 1840, when it was con- 

 fiscated by the East India Company and 

 presented to Queen Victoria the follow- 

 ing year, since when it has remained 

 one of the British crown jewels. The 

 story is told that Lord Dalhousie, the 

 then Governor-General of India, who 

 took charge of the diamond fot trans- 



