On the next day, the Conde de Linhares sent for me, and related all the circumstances which had come to his knowledge respecting this famous jewel, adding, in a low tone of voice, that he had his doubts about its proving a genuine diamond. His Excellency directed me to attend at his office in a few hours, when letters from himself and the other ministers to the Treasury should be given me[33], for permission to see this invaluable gem, in order to determine what it really was. Readily accepting a charge of so interesting a nature, I prepared myself, and attended at the hour appointed, when I received the letters, which I presented at the treasury to an officer in waiting, I was led through several apartments, in which much business seemed to be transacting, to the grand chamber, where presided the treasurer, attended by his secretaries. Having my letters in his hand, he entered into some conversation with me relative to the subject; I was then shewn through other grand apartments hung with scarlet and gold, and ornamented with figures as large as life, representing justice holding the balance. In the inner room, to which we were conducted, there were several strong chests with three locks each, the keys of which were kept by three different officers, who were all required to be present at the opening. One of these chests being unlocked, an elegant little cabinet was taken out, from which the treasurer took the gem, and in great form presented it to me. Its value sunk at the first sight, for before I touched it, I was convinced that it was a rounded piece of crystal. It was above two inches in diameter. On examining it, I told the governor it was not a diamond; and to convince him I took a diamond of five or six carats, and with it cut a very deep nick in the stone. This was proof positive; a certificate was accordingly made out, stating, that it was an inferior substance of little or no value, which I signed.
Other boxes were now unlocked, from one of which they showed me two large slabs of diamond, each a full inch on the superficies, and about the eighth of an inch in thickness, of a very bad brown color. When found, they formed one entire piece, which, being amorphous, was not known to be a diamond, until the administrator or chief of the working party, after keeping it by him many days, had recourse to the old experiment of placing it on a hard stone and striking it with a hammer. The result of this experiment is, that if the substance resist the blow, or, separate in laminæ, it must be a diamond; the latter was the case in the present instance, and the man having thus made two diamonds from one, transmitted them to the intendant.
