A suspicion of this kind enabled these
unfortunate men to support the horrors of their fate; they were constantly
sustained by the golden hope of discovering some rich mine, that would
produce a reversion of their hard sentence. Thus they wandered about for
nearly six years, in quest of mines; but fortune was at last propitious.
An excessive draught had laid dry the bed of the river Abaite, and here,
while working for gold, they discovered a diamond of nearly an ounce in
weight. Overwhelmed with joy at this providential discovery, they resolved
to proceed, at all hazards, to Villa Rica, and trust to the mercy of the
crown. The governor, on beholding the magnitude and lustre of the gem,
could scarcely credit the evidence of his senses. He immediately appointed
a commission of the officers of the Diamond District to report on its
nature; and on their pronouncing it a real diamond, it was immediately
dispatched to Lisbon. It is needless to add that the sentence of the three
"condemnados" was immediately reversed.
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