when
he bought a farm, Langlaagte, from a widow and paid her fifteen hundred
pounds for all rights, mineral as well as surface. (This was necessary,
as otherwise he would have been able to claim ownership only of the
produce grown and the animals grazing on the land.) Like most of these
farms it was a huge expanse of not very fertile land and the widow had
not bothered to have it surveyed, since she had an old survey chart
that dated back to her family's purchase. She said she thought the
chart was more or less correct, and the contract was drawn up with the
acreage as represented on it. Later, when Robinson had the farm
surveyed, he discovered that there was less land than the widow had
said, and though it was already known that the place was full of gold
he deducted a certain sum from his purchase price. Robinson's farm is
estimated to have produced gold worth from one hundred to two hundred
million pounds sterling.
Robinson
himself used to tell with amusement and pride of another deal he made
with an old couple. He had had to work on the man for a long time,
arguing, persuading, and tempting, until the Boer at last agreed to
sell the farm complete with surface and mineral rights or, as he
himself put it, "everything on and in it." Robinson was in the act of
writing out the contract when the old woman burst into tears. They
discovered after some questioning that what was really breaking her
heart about leaving the farm was the thought that she must give up a
favorite pot plant of which she was very fond. Robinson didn't reassure
her by saying he had no desire for the plant. On the contrary, he only
gave it up after long argument and a reduction in his purchase price.
After the First World War, Robinson, who by then had been
