46 



A CHAPTER ON DIAMONDS. 



mel of Lis sword. Charles X. would willingly have laid claim 

 to it, and brought it to this country, but this was not per- 

 mitted. The possession of this diamond subjected the purchaser, 

 Governor Pitt, to many calumnies, and to imputations of having 

 unfairly obtained possession of the prize. One account was, that 

 a slave, having found it in his native bed, concealed the diamond 

 in a wound made in his leg for that purpose. Mr. Pitt ex- 

 plained how he became possessed of the diamond, in a let- 

 ter published in the Daily Post, dated 3d November, 1743. — 

 It appears from this, that he bought it of a native merchant, cal- 

 led Jamchund, for 48,000 pagodas. It was consigned by Mr. 

 Pitt to Sir Stephen Evance, of London, knight ; and from an ori- 

 ginal bill of lading, it appears tliat it was sent in the ship Bed- 

 ford^ Captain John Hudson, commander, 8th March, 1701-2, and 

 charged to the captain at 6500 pagodas only. The editor of the 

 " Museum Britannicum" states that the cutting and polishing of 

 the stone cost 5000/. ; and Jeffries states that it was sold for 135,- 

 000/., but 5000/. of this sum was given and spent in negotiating 

 the sale of it. The diamond is admitted to approach very nearly 

 to one of the first water. Jeffries says that it has only a foul 

 small speck in it, and that lying in such a manner as not to be 

 discerned when the stone is set. There is a model of the Pitt or 

 Eeo-ent diamond in the British Museum. 



The Sancy, or Sanci, diamond, also one of the French crown 

 jewels, weighs, according to some, 55 carats, but, according to 

 M. Caire, only 32 12-16 carats. According to Blondeau, it was 

 so called from having been brought from Constantinople by a Ba- 

 ron Sancy ; but its history is as obscure as that of other great dia- 

 monds. It is said to be the same which we before noticed as be- 

 longing originally to Charles the Bold, the last Duke of Bergun- 

 dy, who wore it in his cap at the battle of Nancy, and was found 

 by a Swiss soldier among the spoils of battle, after the defeat of 

 his army, in 1475, near Morat, in Switzerland, and in which he 

 himself was killed. The Swiss sold4t to a -priest for a florin, or 

 about 20d., and the latter again disposed of it for 2s. 6d. In the 

 year 1589 it was in the possession of Antonio, King of Portugal, 

 and by him was first pledged to M. de Sanci for 40,000 livres, 

 and subsequently sold for 100,000 livres (21,000/.) 



The family of this gentleman preserved the diamond for nearly 

 a centuiy, and till the period when Henry III. of France, after 



