50 



A CHAPTER ON DIAMONDS. 



, The embassy had scarcely recrossed the Indus when Shah Shu- 

 ja was expelled from Cabul, though he contrived to make this far- 

 famed diamond the companion of his flight. After many vicissi- 

 tudes of exile and contest, he at length found an equivocal refuge 

 under the protection of that powerful chieftain who had now con- 

 solidated the dominions of the Sikhs into a royal inheritance for 

 his own family. Runjeet Singh was fully competent either to the 

 defence or the restoration of the fugitive, but he knew or suspect- 

 ed the treasure in his possession, and his mind was bent upon ac- 

 quiring it. He put the Shah, under strict surveillance, and 

 made a formal demand for the jewel. The Doorannee prince 

 hesitated, prevaricated, temporized, and employed all the artifices 

 of oriental diplomacy, but in vain. Runjeet redoubled the strin- 

 gency of his measures, and at length, the 1st of June, 1813, was 

 fixed as the day when the great diamond of the Moguls should 

 be surrendered by the Abdallee chief to the ascendant dynasty of 

 the Singhs. The two princes met in a room appointed for the 

 purpose, and took their seats on the ground. A solemn silence 

 then ensued which continued unbroken for an hour. At length 

 Runjeet's impatience overcame the -suggestions of Asiatic decorum, 

 and he whispered to an attendant to quicken the memory of the 

 Shah. The exiled prince spoke not a word in reply, but gave a 

 signal with his eyes to a eunuch in attendance, who, retiring for a 

 moment, returned with a small roll, which he set down upon the 

 carpet midway between the two chiefs. Again a pause followed, 

 when, at a sign from Runjeet, the roll was unfolded, and there in 

 its matchless and unspeakable brilliancy, ghttered the Koh-i-Nur. 



In this way did the Mountain of Light" pass in the train of 

 conquest, as the emblem of dominion, from Golconda to Delhi ; 

 from Delhi to Mushed ; from MusJied to Cabul ; from Cabul to 

 Lahore ; from whence it has now come, in the third centenary of 

 its discoverv, " as the forfeit of oriental faithfulness, and the prize 

 of Saxon valour," to the distant shores of England. 



The arrival of a gem so precious and so rare, whose history is 

 so full of strange vicissitudes, and with such not uninteresting su- 

 perstitions attached to it, is an event of no small importance, and 

 has fairly merited on our part these few pages devoted to the con- 

 sideration of a very curious subject, and necessary to be developed 

 to understand the true position of the " Mountain of Light" as a 

 mineralogical curiosity, and as a gem of value, among the few oth- 



