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The Pitt or Regent: Jamchund

No doubt Pitt drove rather a hard bargain with Jamchund; but there was otherwise nothing dishonourable or even unusual in the transaction. It will be noticed that in this account there is no reference to the story of the slave, about which neither Pitt nor Jamchund were likely to know anything. The governor was evidently under the impression that the dealer had brought the stone with many others down from the diamond-fields, while the dealer, if he picked up such a gem for pound 1,000 from a sea-captain on the coast, would naturally abstain from asking any indiscreet questions, whatever his suspicions might be. The fact that Jamchund ultimately closed for 48,000 pagodas, or a little over pound 20,000, after asking 200,000 pagodas, or pound 85,000, would almost imply that he was glad to get rid of the diamond "at a sacrifice," because conscious that the circumstances attending its purchase would not bear any severe scrutiny.

Pitt's account of his share in the transaction was afterwards fully confirmed by Mr. Salmon who was present on the occasion. Yet it appears that the stone, which had been consigned by Pitt to Sir Stephen Evance, of London, and sent home in the ship Bedford, (Captain John Hudson), was charged in the original bill of lading at 6,500 pagodas only. This might have been done either to save freight, or more probably to avoid attracting attention to the stone, and thereby exposing it to the risk of being stolen.

The diamond was cut very skilfully in London, and in the process, which lasted two years, it was reduced from 410 to 136 3/4 carats. The editor of the Museum Britannicum stated at the time that the cutting and polishing cost pound 5,000, and Jeffries, who points out the mistake made in the operation, and shows how it might be improved, remarks that there is only one small speck, and that placed in such a position as not to be detected in the setting. He also says that another pound 5,000 was spent in negotiating its sale to the Regent, Duke of Orleans, who purchased it in 1717, during the minority of Louis XV., for pound 135,000. The cleavage and dust obtained in the cutting were also valued at from pound 7,000 to pound 8,000, so that Pitt must have netted at least pound 100,000 by his venture. With this he restored the fortunes of the ancient house of Pitt, which was destined later on to give to England two of her greatest statesmen and orators, for the governor of Fort St. George was grandfather of the great Earl of Chatham, father of the illustrious William Pitt. He was born at Blandford, in Dorsetshire, where he was buried in May, 1726. In the funeral oration preached on the occasion by the Rev. Canon R. Eyre, the following reference was made to the "diamond scandal:"--"That he should have enemies no wonder, when envy will make them, and when their malice could reach him in no other way, it is as little to be wondered at that they should make such an attempt upon his credit by an abusive story as if it had been by some stretch of his power that he got that diamond which was of too value for any subject to purchase, an ornament more fitly becoming an Imperial crown, which if it be considered, may be one reason why it was brought to the governor by the merchant who sold it in the Indies, and it was brought to him once or twice before he could be persuaded to part with so great a sum of money for it, as it cost him." Even after refuting the calumnies of his enemies, Pitt knew little rest until he was quit of his costly jewel. He was constantly haunted by a morbid fear of losing or being robbed of it, so that it was with great difficulty he could ever be induced to exhibit it even to his most intimate friends. The German traveller, Offenbach, when visiting England in 1712, anxious to see all the sights of the metropolis, made several vain attempts to get a view of the gem, which had already become famous throughout the West. While it remained in his possession the ex-governor never slept two nights running under the same roof. He moved about capriciously, or in disguise, and never gave previous notice of his arrival to, or departure, from town.