procured
it by foul or unfair means. Amongst others Pope was supposed to point
at something of the kind in the oft-quoted lines from the Man of Ross.
"Asleep
and naked as an Indian lay, An honest factor stole a gem away ; He
pledg'd it to the Knight, the Knight had wit. So kept the diamond, and
the rogue was bit."
These
scandalous reports, to which, however much credence never seems to have
been attached, having reached the ex-governor, at that time in Norway,
he sent a letter from Bergen to the editor of the European Magazine for
October, 1710, setting forth the true facts of the case. A certified
copy of this document was carefully preserved in the Pitt family, and,
in consequence of some fresh rumours regarding the early history of the
diamond, was again published by them in the Daily Post for
November 3, 1743, that is, seventeen years after Pitt's death. The
chief passages bearing on the transaction are here subjoined from the
latter source :—
"
Since my coming into this melancholy place of Bergen, I have been often
thinking of the most unparalleled villany of William Fraser, Thomas
Frederick, and Sampa, a black merchant, who brought a paper before
Governor Addison* in council, insinuating that I had unfairly got
possession of a large diamond, which tended so much to the prejudice of
my reputation, and the ruin of my estate, that I thought necessary to
keep by me the true relation how I purchased it in all respects, that
so in case of sudden mortality, my children and friends may be apprized
