This is a story in a story. The author tell us about a Jewish trader Cohen who knew Strickland, a painter.
Cohen tells how he hired Strickland as a white overseer (белый надсмотрщик). The painter was starving (голодал) so he agreed to work for Cohen. When Strickland had enough money to buy paints and canvases (краски и холсты), he left the plantation job. But then he came to Cohen once again to ask for a loan (в долг) of two hundred francs. In return a year later he brought a painting. Cohen and his wife didn't think the painting was worth anything so they put it in the attick (на чердак).
Many years later Cohen's brother wrote to him asking if Cohen had known an English painter living in that place. Then Cohen found the painting among the rubbish (среди хлама) in the attick and sent it to Paris, to his brother. It turned out (оказалось) that Strickland was a genuis and his painting was bought at thirty thousand francs.