ould have sacrificed if Jackson had remained alive, were it
only for his company; I would have forgiven him anything. I even then
felt as if, in the murderer of my father, I had lost a friend.

That day I was so unsettled I could not do anything; I tried to read,
but I could not; I tried to eat, but my appetite was gone. I sat
looking at the ocean as it rolled wave after wave, sometimes wondering
whether it would ever bring a fellow-creature to join me; at others I
sat, and for hours, in perfect vacuity of thought. The evening closed
in, it was dark, and I still remained seated where I was. At last I
returned to my bed, almost broken-hearted; but fortunately I was soon
asleep, and my sorrows were forgotten.

Another morning was gladdened with a brilliant sun, the dark blue ocean
was scarcely ruffled by the breeze that swept over it, and I felt my
spirits much revived, and my appetite returned. After taking a meal, I
remembered what Jackson had told me about the belt with the diamonds,
and I went up to his bed-place, and turning out the birds' skins and
feathers, I raked up the gravel, which was not more than two inches
deep, and came to the board. I lifted it up, and found underneath a
hole, about a foot deep, full of various articles. There were the watch
and sleeve-buttons of the mate, some dollars wrapped in old rags, a
tobacco-box, an old pipe, a brooch with hair forming initials, some
letters which were signed J. Evelyn, and which I perceived were from my
grandfather, and probably taken by Jackson after my mother's death. I
say letters, because they were such, as I afterwards found out, but I
had not then ever seen a letter, and my first attempt to decipher
written hand was useless, although I did manage to make out the
signature. There was in the tobacco-box a plain gold wedding-ring,
probably my mother's; and there was also a lock of long dark hair, which
I presumed was hers also. There were three or four specimens of what I
afterwards found out to be gold and silver ores, a silver pencil-case,
and a pair of small gold ear-rings. At the bottom of the hole was the
belt; it was of soft leather, and I could feel a hard substance in it
sewed in every square, which of course I presumed were the diamonds, but
I did not cut one of the divisions open to see what was in them. It had
on the upper part of it, in very plain writing, "The property of Mr J.
Evelyn, 33, Minories, London." I examined all these artic