The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-12-13
INFERRED

MASARDIS, Me, Dec. S.-Everybody
who has worked in the Maine logging
camps has heard the story of Jacques
Dupont and the great bag of glitter
ing diamonds which he hid away in his
daughters grave somewhere along the
headwaters of the Aroostook river. 1t
is a creepy tale of cunning and covet-
BUSINESS, such as the residents of Maine
and Canada liked to tell a hundred
years ago. 1t was related so often that
everybody believed it, and it was hand
ed down from generation to generation
until it retains all its youthful vigOr
today. Though few pee pie of the pres
ent generation take much stock in the
narrative at least one diamond of the
hoard has been found within twenty
years. 1t was taken to a Boston jewel
err who offered $500 for the gem, but
Jerry Harper, the man who found it,
suspected the stone was worth more
and carried it until he had taken a few
more glasses of liquor and then left
1t in a fremont street bar room as Sc
curity for the drinks. When he called
Later to recover his property the bar
e. tender had gone and taken the dia-
mOnd with him.
According to all accounts-and they
agree remarkably well-Jacques Du-
pOnt was a gem merchant of Paris who
went to Quebec about 1850 to sell dia-
monds and other precious stones to the
French army officers of the garrison
He sold a large number of diamonds,
taking his pay in gold and beaver
skins, which were just as good Later
his daughter Lucy came across, bring
ing more gems and a beautiful face,
which latter set all the officers half
wild with admiration. 1t is claimed
that Gen. Wolfe would never have
climbed to the plains of Abraham in
the darkness of a September morning
IN 1859 if the officer of the guard had
rot been asleep with an overdose of
wine, taken at a party given in Lucys
honor the night before.
After the fall Of Quebec Dupont took
mis- daughter and his diamonds and
struck south through the wilderness,
hoping to reach the Acadian settle
ments at Grand Falls and dispose Of
the balance of his stock. Though the
woods were full of painted and war
like Indians at the time, they were all
friendly to the French, so the party
travelled the whole way under an es-
cort of admiring savages. All went
where Mile Lucy was taken with
smallpox. ThereupOn every redskfn
turned upon the old man and his
daughter and drove them out of the
settlement, forcing them into the I'm
explored woods along the Aroostook
river. Six months later Dupont came
ont to Grand Falls alone, saying that
Lucy had died from exposure and that
he had buried her in a stone tomb near
a waterfall and had covered her body
with gold coins, diamonds and beaver
skins Soon after this he returned to
France, where he died.
The exiled Acadians Of Grand Falls
liked wealth and the good things which
money would buy as well as people
who had more means. If they could
find Dupont's riches they would be able
to wear good clothes and live in fine
houses. they reasoned. For the next
~Century the French-Canadians sent
many expeditions into northern Maine
after Dupont's Diamonds. They explor>
ed the ArGostoCk and Allagosh rivers
ana their tributaries they hunted the
EIIs and mountain sides for cavities
shat might serve as tonbs. They dis
covered the series of caves in the hill
On tie side of Allagosh lake, but they
"ever found Lucy's grave, and never