July 1, 1889.J THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
5 
buys it, the messenger receives. " noe money on 
that account in a fforeign Countrey, for fear they 
Strip him of it before he gets out of it." Soon 
he becomes suspicious that he is being cheated in 
the cutting, the pieces sawn off being valued at so 
much less than he had hoped. Next he hints 
that "if we are lucky to put Charles on the 
throne of Spaine, I know nothing he can purchase 
to make his acknowledgments to our Queen so 
acceptable " as " the diamond," but he reiterates 
his resolve never to sell it for less than fifteen hundred 
pounds the carat. Sir Stephen Evance next falls 
under his ban, and John Dolben is the repository 
of his hopes and fears and anxieties. He hears 
that, upon the Union with Scotland, it is proposed 
to " present the Queen with the Eoyall title of 
Empress." If so, " the diamond " is assuredly the 
proper gift for the occasion. But fifteen hundred 
pounds a carat is his figure, and at that, he 
adds, with more vigour than truth, it is " as 
cheap as Neck beef," and " let any Potentate 
by it, and next day 'tis worth a million of pounds 
sterling." Al 1 negotiations, however, proving idle, 
Pitt comes home himself. Meantime, both in India 
and in England, stories about the great stone had 
been in circulation. " It had been snatched out 
of the eye-socket of Jauggernaut," though how a 
rough stone would have any value as a brilliant 
it is hard to see. The man who stole it concealed 
it in a gash in his leg, and — so ran the coffee- 
house tattle — was murdered by an English captain 
for the sake of the plunder. In time, the tale 
came to be that Pitt was the robber, and, to this 
day, this story is embalmed in more than one 
popular history of the celebrated diamonds of the 
world. Pope seemed to have got hold of one of these 
libels, and gave currency to it in the history of 
" Sir Balaam." " Asleep and naked as an Indian 
lay, An honest factor stole a gem away : He 
pledged it to the Knight, the Knight had wit, So 
kept the diamond, and the rogue was hit." That 
the Poet had Pitt in his mind when he penned 
these lines is proved by Mr. Oourthorpe's discovery 
that the first version ran, " So robbed the robber, 
and was rich as P — ." " The Knight " was probably 
Sir Stephen Evance. It is questionable whether the 
subjeot of all these tales knew much about 
them until he arrived in Europe, when he made 
a solemn declaration in writing at Bergen, in 
Norway, affirming on oath the utter falsity of 
the calumnies. Why he was in Norway at all 
has never been clear, and this circumstance has 
hitherto thrown doubt on the bona fides of the 
documents. But Colonel Yule shows that he had 
been carried there by taking passage at the Cape 
on board a Danish vessel, which landed him at 
Bergen. 
The real facts, as now revealed, show that two 
or three years after his arrival in Madras Pitt first 
heard of the diamond, and, in 1701, was ap- 
proached by Jaurchund, a great dealer, with the 
object of inducing him to buy it for two hundred 
thousand pagodas — a pagoda varying in value from 
six to nine shillings sterling. But the Governor 
refused more than thirty thousand. Finally, after 
a long haggling, which affords a vivid picture of 
Oriental chicanery, it was acquired for forty-eight 
thousand pagodas, and certain people then living 
are mentioned as witnesses to the transaction. 
There is thus no ground for the long-lingering 
libel, or for the supposition that Pitt, rough blus- 
tering character, and greedy of money though he 
was, without much delicacy when gain was con- 
cerned, did not come honestly by his gem, though 
where Jaurchund obtained it is still a mystery. 
It is even doubtful considering the high rate 
of profit ready money brought in India, the 
commissions and other payments he had 
to make, and the long time which elapsed 
before he realised on his venture, whether Pitt was 
very much in pocket. It is certain that the pos- 
session of the stone yielded him nothing but un- 
happiness. Nobody was permitted to see it, and 
when he set put for France, to carry it to the 
Begent's Agent, a jocular hint of the landlord of 
the inn in which he passed the night at Canter- 
bury, that he had a " pebble " with him, threw 
the Nabob in such a violent rage that he was 
not appeased until he obtained a guard of soldiers 
to Dover, and had even persuaded two of the 
officers to accompany him to Calais, where the 
Royal jeweller met him to inspect the gem. The 
Begent, it would seem, by John Law's advice, 
bought the diamond for two million livres — the 
value of the livre being at that date one shilling 
and fourpence sterling — depositing forty thousand 
pounds of the one hundred and thirty thousand 
pounds in England before Pitt left with it. But 
the balance was never paid, though three boxes 
of jewels were handed over as security. When 
the debt was claimed from the Fiench Govern- 
ment, it was fully admitted, but the Ministry 
declared it impossible to enter into the past 
transactions of the Begent. Accordingly, the 
sum really received by Pitt must have depended 
on the value of the jewels pledged as security, 
though of this part of the business we know 
nothing. The after-history of the Begent Diamond 
is, however, tolerably familiar. It formed one of 
the French Crown jewels. At the Bevolution it was 
stolen, but recovered, and duly pawned with 
Vanderberg, the Amsterdam banker, for money to 
buy "horse furniture for the Army of Italy." The 
banker, M. Ba£>st tells us, exhibited it in an 
ordinary glass case. On some friend suggesting to 
him that this was a rather risky proceeding, the 
Dutchman answered, with a twinkle of his eye, 
" The Begent that is in the glass case is a worthless 
sham ; the real Begent is in my wife's stays." 
Napoleon mounted the diamond in the pommel of 
his State sword. At the debacle in 1814 Marie 
Louise carried it off to Blois ; but it was restored 
by her father, and, after figuring in many pageants, 
lies at this moment in the Treasury cellars m 
Paris, waiting until it can be transferred to a safe 
receptacle, where, with the Dey of Algiers's watch, 
the Dragon Buby, and other precious objects 
reserved from the sale of the Crown jewels in 1886, 
it can be exhibited to the public. — London Standard. 
NOTES ON THE DRUG MARKET. 
(From Messrs, Gehe'd- Co.'s Half-yearly Circular,) 
Cinchona. — As regards druggsists' barks Maracaibo 
and Porto Oabello barks have throughout been in 
good demand at comparatively far too elevated prices ; 
these very poor barks are still frequently bought in 
some parts of the Levant and in Russia from old 
habit. Succirubra has of course been very cheaply 
obtainable from Java. The grey Guayaquil, Loxa, 
and Huanoco barks have continually been scarce and 
dear ; genuine Loxa bark especially is very seldom 
met with. Red bark was inquired for from Holland 
and Italy, but thp selection is a most unsatisfactory 
one, and it seems that the trees which yield 
this bark are in the expiring stage. 
Otto of Kosb. — T be production of otto of rosy in the 
Balkan mountains, iu the neighbourhood of Krzanlik, 
yielded about 500,000 meticals last year, i.e., nbout the 
same quantity as in 1887. Nevertheless, the. price was 
quoted a little lower than in the latter year, and 
almost equalled that of the cheapest seasons on record ; 
partly because good supplies were still left iu stock from 
1887, partly beoauee increasing attention is now being 
