Two Boxes of Diamonds Found in a Fish.

Auckland Star, Volume XIX, Issue 194, 18 August 1888, Page 1 (Supplement)

Two Boxes of Diamonds Found in a Fish.

About a month ■after i the divers, had been discharged, art immonso sWord-hsh .was cast up dead on tho, soa-beaoh souie■ few imiles from'Aboukir-' a victim, perhaps,1 my informant suggests; ' to the^cholera i then being ioverely felt : in ; Eftypt.': i The Egyptian authorities,,alive to the danger of permitting such an. immense.mass toiester and decay iii a broiling sun, and; by.-its effluvium to onhanoo, the probability pf_extending tho epidemic; despatched a brigadier of police, with, astrong party, of imen, to cut.up the unwbloome : c'agtawayi and burn it. Mr Ponsonby was ; present person1-, ally; and witnessed tho disgusting sight as ■we'll as the ■ denouement of the, tragedjj;. for on opening: tho fish, it;was found to contain, :in addition to somfe, 'women's bangles' and: other articles, 4wo. .xopoim boxes, about eight or ten inches .,) in; 'sizk. On tho lids :being Tetoo^cd, they ; were, soon to bo filled to tho brim with rough diamonds. NopnepreseptjlioVovor^ with the.solo- exception offeMr-Ponsonby. (who had previously had frequent.^oppp'W tunitios'of closely .inspecting,;and; indeed, of manipulating, uncut stones on.the' South African diamonds fields), appeared to rocogriiee their: value. -He. Boat'certainly did ; and io -use- his own expression, he subsequently touch regretted i, ho had 'not filled his pOeketfs;witK the gems,.instead ;of permitting them, to bo retained by an avaricious Egyptian, official, whojwould live 1 in clover' nil the rest of his life upon their prq-jeeds.—From 'TheSunkeftFrench Fleet at Aboukir Bay,' by Honr^G. >Fi zgerald, .in 'B!ackwood's Magazinojl:.' •'-,,,: ■ ■~