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FIRE IN THE EARTH
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was holding in his hands the largest diamond the world had ever known.
He
pushed into the office of Thomas Cullinan, President of the Premier
Diamond Mine. Experts were called in. They weighed the stone, found it
came up to 3106 metric carats or about 1 1/3 pounds avoirdupois. Not
only that, but it seemed to be almost flawless, limpid in color as
clear water in spite of the film of the ages over it. Mr. Cullinan
wrote out a check for $10,000 and handed it to Mr. Wells as a bonus.
Christened
the Cullinan, the diamond was shipped to England, after being insured
for $1,250,000. Various estimates of its value were made, some as high
as $75,000,000. It was suggested that the gem be purchased by public
subscription for $2,500,000 and given to King Edward, but the public
was apathetic. King Edward seemed to be getting along all right without a $2,500,000 diamond. But in August, 1907,
Premier Botha of the Transvaal, a former Boer general who had fought
Britain, proposed its purchase by the Transvaal as a gift to the king
in appreciation of his having granted a constitution to that conquered
colony. It is unlikely that the Transvaal government paid—in spite of
all the fantastic sums rumored—any more than a million dollars for the
stone. It was presented to the king on his sixty-sixth birthday,
November 9, 1907.
It
took nearly a year to cleave, cut, and poh'sh the stones. "When
finished the four largest were made a part of the crown jewels of
England. The smaller stones were sold to the public to meet the cost of
cutting. The crown jewels are called the Cullinans (even though King
George V later requested that they be called the Star of Africa not to
be confused with the stone, Star of South Africa, which precipitated
the Gist great diamond rush on the dark continent). Here is how the
stones shape up today:
(72)
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