THE FINDING OF THE DIAMOND The Statement of SERGEANT CLIFF'S MAN (1849)
On the twenty-seventh of June last, I received instructions from
Sergeant Cuff to follow three men; suspected of murder, and described as
Indians. They had been seen on the Tower Wharf that morning, embarking
on board the steamer bound for Rotterdam.
I left London by a steamer belonging to another company, which sailed
on the morning of Thursday the twenty-eighth. Arriving at Rotterdam,
I succeeded in finding the commander of the Wednesday's steamer. He
informed me that the Indians had certainly been passengers on board his
vessel--but as far as Gravesend only. Off that place, one of the three
had inquired at what time they would reach Calais. On being informed
that the steamer was bound to Rotterdam, the spokesman of the party
expressed the greatest surprise and distress at the mistake which he and
his two friends had made. They were all willing (he said) to sacrifice
their passage money, if the commander of the steamer would only put them
ashore. Commiserating their position, as foreigners in a strange land,
and knowing no reason for detaining them, the commander signalled for a
shore boat, and the three men left the vessel.
This proceeding of the Indians having been plainly resolved on
beforehand, as a means of preventing their being traced, I lost no time
in returning to England. I left the steamer at Gravesend, and discovered
that the Indians had gone from that place to London. Thence, I again
traced them as having left for Plymouth. Inquiries made at Plymouth
proved that they had sailed, forty-eight hours previously, in the BEWLEY
CASTLE, East Indiaman, bound direct to Bombay.
On receiving this intelligence, Sergeant Cuff caused the authorities at
Bombay to be communicated with, overland--so that the vessel might be
boarded by the police immediately on her entering the port. This step
having been taken, my connection with the matter came to an end. I have
heard nothing more of it since that time.