Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1868-12-26

rights again in less than ten minutes.
The affair was a mere joke among the men,
for they fancied it was one Of the high IT,
dal waves which are common in the Pacific.
They continued their voyage, but toward
midnight were alarmed by an extraordinary
light which appeared in the heavens, and
was first noticed on the larboard side which
the ignorant and supcrstitions attribAtcd to
supernatural causes. The captain, who
seems to be an intelligent and courageous
man, steercd his vessel right in the direc-
tions Of the light, and just before sunrise
sight of maguifcence-such as no human
eye had ever rested on-met his gaze. 1t
was no-lcss than group of islands formed
of huge masses of solid diamonds Of every
color, and, in some places, of purest bril-
liancy. The sailors fell into ecstacies, and
one man, a half.breed from the Sandwich
Islands, lost his senses 30 far that he would
have thrown himself overheard if he had
not been tied down. They sailed among
the group the entire day, and found it to
consist, on rough calculation, at from
twelve to twenty in number; but the exact
number or their relative size, there was no
time to ascertain. They consist of large,
white flint rocks of crystalized shape, ,(somc
places nearly transparency which raise to
a height of about one hundred and fifty
feet from the water. Thick layers Of vari-
GUS metals are embedded into them, and
the diamonds form thick layers beside
these latter. This is the general sforma.
ton, but some of the smaller islands are
composed nearly altogether Of diamond, in
which the emerald prevails. There arc
agate, opaque topaz, ruby, and indeed, dia-
monds Of every hue; but one island, which
he describes MS being almost seventy miles
long by fifteen wide, consists Of an entirely
pure emerald without any admixturc offar-
cign substance. 1t was difficult to effect
a landing on any of the group. At length
somc of the men succeeded but the cap
tain himself, satisfied with what he had
seen, did not leave the vessel.
The men describe the interior of the is.
land on which they landed as consisting al
most entirely of mud. which is gradually
congulating under the heat of the sun. A
curious thing was that the brilliants were
seen in the muddy quarters Of the island,
lying about like huge boulders, the small
est ones they saw being two hundred tons
in weight; but there were number Of 9th.
ers considerably larger. OF course there
was no watcr, no vegetation to be seen.
The most effect tho sight had on the men,
those in the vessel as we'll as those who
visited the island, was that the extraordin.
ary brilliancy sickened their stomach, and
vomiting, followed by copious discharge
from the bowels, was tho consequence.
All efforts to detach portions of the dia-
mond rock proved abortive; and it was
out of hequestiou, to attempt removing
any Of the great brilliant boulders. They
made an attempt to detach portions of the
rock by means ofa crowbar and slcdgc, but
twas so hard all efforts were useless, and
though they had powder enough on board
they had no implements with which to drill
the holes for blasting. The captain would
have proceeded on his voyage to valparai-
80; but them mutinied and obliged him
to put back to Panama. He afterwards,
with the consent Of the crew, run the YES.
sci ON the northern coast of Columbia, and,
telegraphing to the owners that she was
lost, came on a. fur a. Aspinwall, from
which city he wrote to his brother in St.
Louis. He desired his brother to como
along at once and bring with him the finest
and best tempered Implements for blasting
purposes, and, if possible, a quantity Of
nitro-glycerine. The brother departed for
New York Immediately, but before going
he communicated the secret to conf.
dental comrade, through whom tho news
leaked out only as late as yesterday even.
ing. I am told it has already reached the
ears ofs rich jeweler in this city who is
about to start IN expedition which he pro-
poses to carry on himself II is more than
probable that tho crew of the abandoned
ship have anticipated hip; and if they
were lucky enough tokeep their secret and
at out small craft with whatever they re-
quired on board, are now probably quarry.
ing in the diamond archipelago. The
United States should at once look to this
extraordinary discovery, for should Bri-
tiSh or French lnan-ofwar touch on them,
they would probably set up claim 10 one