Page 288 - Early English Adventurers in the Middle East_Neat

288 EARLY ENGLISH ADVENTURERS IN THE EAST

place, for that in a little time I hope the place will be able to
subsist of itself without much dependence upon the country,
for that in the late long siege (by Daud Khan) we were not i
a little pinched for provisions.” The spectacle of the arch !
interloper cultivating his cabbage patch in the vicinity of
Fort St. George must have had its diverting side for those
who were closely associated with him in his earlier roving
career.
Pitt, amongst his less estimable qualities, had a capacity
for accumulating wealth which his enemies were not slow
to denounce as avarice. His name in this connexion will
always be associated with the acquisition of the famous
Pitt Diamond which is one of the historic gems of the world.
A scandalous story current at the time relative to the
circumstances in which the stone came into Pitt’s posses­
sion suggested the well-known lines of Pope—

“ 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 bit.”
It was clearly proved, however, that the conditions under
which the purchase was made reflected no discredit on Pitt.
The stone was discovered at the diamond mines on the
Kistna by a slave, who secreted it in a wound in his leg.
It was stolen from him by an English captain, who disposed
of it to a Madras dealer named Jamchand. Pitt, who was
an extensive buyer of precious stones, was offered the
diamond by Jamchand in the ordinary course of business.
After protracted bargaining the gem changed hands for
£20,000. It was then sent home and placed in the hands of
skilled diamond cutters, who by their processes reduced the
weight from 410 carats to 136 J carats. From the workshop

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