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from an anecdote in Tacitus, respecting Nero becoming the dupe 

 of fortune, and incurring the derision of the public, from believing 

 the visionary schemes of Cesellius Bassus, a native of Carthage; 

 a man of a crazed imagination, who relied on whatever occurred 

 to him in his distempered dreams. This man arrived at Rome, 

 and, by the influence of money well applied, gained admission to 

 the emperor. The secret, which he had to communicate, was, that 

 on his own estate he had found a cavern of astonishing depth, in 

 which were contained immense stores of gold, not wrought into 

 coin, but in rude and shapeless ingots, such as were used in the 

 earliest ages: besides these were vast heaps and massive columns 

 of pure gold; which were supposed to have been deposited there 

 by Dido, when she fled from Tyre, and founded the city of Car- 

 thage. The result of the story is well known; I have only men- 

 tioned the anecdote in corroboration of existing circumstances in 

 India; where, from time immemorial, it has been the custom for 

 sovereigns and great men to make immense collections of gold and 

 precious stones. The treasures belonging to some of the ancient 

 Hindoo rajahs almost exceed belief. Nadir Shah's plunder at the 

 court of Delhi excites our wonder; and the treasuries of the late 

 Tipoo Sullaun afford a recent instance of these accumulations. 

 The Iliad and Odyssey abound with descriptions of royal wealth; 

 and sacred history informs us, that Hezekiah, king of Judah, shewed 

 the ambassadors of the Babylonish monarch all the house of his 

 precious things; the silver, the gold, and the spices; the precious 

 ointments, and all the house of his armour. 



But what comes nearest to the point in my own adventure is, 

 an anecdote related by d'Herbelot, of a Persian king who, from 



