Fifteen years after the discovery Tavernier saw the gem in the hands of Aurungzeb, who was then Mogul, Shah Jehan having been deposed and placed in confinement. The distinguished traveller was allowed to examine the gem, weigh it, and make a drawing of it. It was then of the form of half an egg, and very high-crowned, and had been cut with many facets, quite regularly arranged over its superior surfaces. It was also of fine water, and disfigured by only one crack on its lower border, and a little flaw in the interior. The French traveller gives an account of the ceremony of his examination as conducted with great precision and the utmost solemnity, as though the gems were the crystallizations or the embodiments of departed spirits. The gems were brought in upon two lacquered trays covered with brocade, and were counted over thrice, and three lists made of them by different scribes. This process was not particularly flattering to the pride of the guest, but it serves to illustrate or establish the fact that the Hindoo character for deception and theft was quite as marked then as now. Since this period no further mention has been made of the gem by any authentic writer; but it is supposed to have formed a part of the plunder of Delhi, when Nadir Shah captured all the treasures accumulated during four hundred years of prosperity, and which were valued at from $150,000,000 to $350,000,000. The next largest diamond shown to Tavernier was one of only 54¹⁄₂ karats, and all the rest were much inferior. Hence it is surmised that the Koh-i-noor, the Shah, and the Daria-i-noor were then unknown, and were discovered at a later period. But it is stated that the former Mogul, who was still in confinement, retained many of the gems of his own collecting, and that they may have been among them. Or they may have been in possession of Mirgimola. At all events, the Mogul disappeared with the last Tatar invasion; and new paragons, like the Koh-i-noor, became known to the world. After the assassination of Nadir Shah his treasures were scattered among many chieftains, and all record of many of them has been lost. The fate of the Mogul is shrouded in mystery. The famous gem preserved in the Persian treasury and called Daria-i-noor, “the ocean of lustre,” which Forbes saw and described, is not the lost stone. By some it is believed to be hidden away in some obscure fortress, to appear at some future day when the possessor may display his hidden treasure in safety. This view is certainly warranted by the discovery of the large flat diamond of one hundred and thirty karats among the jewels taken from the harem of Reeza Kooli at the capture of Coocha by the Persian army in 1832. Also the finding of the celebrated crown of Chosroes by Abbas in the treasury of one of the Princes in the Lauristan Mountains near the Persian Gulf, where it had lain concealed for a thousand years.