Olive Schreiner Letters Online

Letter Reference	Olive Schreiner BC16/Box1/Fold3/1896/35
Archive	University of Cape Town, Manuscripts & Archives, Cape Town
Epistolary Type	Letter
Letter Date	Thursday December 1896
Address From	The Homestead, Kimberley, Northern Cape
Address To
Who To	Betty Molteno
Other Versions

The manuscript of this letter by Olive Schreiner belongs to the Archive referenced above; its ownership of the original should be acknowledged by referencing the letter as indicated: Copyright transcription: © Olive Schreiner Letters Project. This transcription can be freely used as long as copyright is acknowledged and it is referenced using the following citation: ‘Olive Schreiner to Betty Molteno, December 1896, UCT Manuscripts & Archives, Olive Schreiner Letters Project transcription’. Please also supply letter line numbers for specific quotations.

Legend
The Project is grateful to Manuscripts and Archives, University of Cape Town, for kindly allowing us to transcribe this Olive Schreiner letter, which is part of its Manuscripts and Archives Collections. The month and year have been written on this letter in an unknown hand. The name of the addressee is indicated by content. Schreiner was resident in Kimberley from early August 1894 to November 1898. She was in Britain and Europe from January to September 1897.

1:  Thursday
2: 
3:  I wish I knew more what the trouble about the school was. I shall hear
4:  fo about it in Cape Town when we meet. You are going first class for
5:  my sake so its quite right. I can’t go below. I had a cabin below
6:  once, & when I was nearly dead the ships Captain Doctor had to turn
7:  out of his cabin & give it me or I should have died. You know it
8:  isn’t sea-sickness I have most it’s one long attack of asthma from
9:  the time I go on the sea till I get off it. I couldn’t even go down
10:  to see you if you were in the second class so you must go first for my
11:  sake!! The second class passengers would be much nicer than the first,
12:  but their quarters are always stuffie. Thank you for your letter dear
13:  Heart. I have a dream of you & Miss Green starting a great training
14:  school for native women in
15: 
16:  ^Basutoland but I don’t suppose it will ever be realized.^
17: 
18:  Olive
19: 
20:  ^I asked them to keep cabin near us for you till they heard from you.
21:  Write & tell them which you have taken please. Cron will be in Port
22:  Elizabeth on Wednesday for a few days. He is delegate to the "Bread"
23:  conference. He’ll come & see you. Much love to both. So busy. ^
24:  Olive
25: 
26:  NB. Of course you need not have that cabin. I only asked him to keep
27:  all he could near us till he heard from you.
28: 

Notation
Schreiner has written the insertion beginning 'I asked them to keep...' on line 20 on an attached letter dated 5 December 1896 which she had received from Colonial Mail Line confirming cabins on the ship Dunvegan Castle, departing 6 January 1897.