Olive Schreiner Letters Online

Letter Reference	Colenso Papers, MSS. Afr. s. 1293/8, 1-3
Archive	Bodleian Library of Commonwealth and African Studies, Rhodes House, University of Oxford
Epistolary Type	Letter
Letter Date	23 September 1908
Address From	De Aar, Northern Cape
Address To
Who To	Francis (Frank) Ernest Colenso
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 Francis (Frank) Ernest Colenso, 23 September 1908, Bodleian Library of Commonwealth and African Studies, Rhodes House, University of Oxford, Olive Schreiner Letters Project transcription’. Please also supply letter line numbers for specific quotations.

Legend
The Project is grateful to the Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, for allowing us to transcribe this Olive Schreiner letter, which is part of their Special Collections. The name of the addressee of the letter has been provided by archival reference. The content of the letter, with phrases such as 'you & my brother', suggests that Harriet Colenso, working in close association with Will Schreiner, on the defence of Dinizulu in 1908, could have been its recipient, while its provenance in the Frank and Sophia Colenso papers in Oxford support this being Frank, who although resident in Britain remained very involved in South African matters. The letter is a copy of Schreiner’s original written out in an unknown hand, and is marked ‘copy’.

1:  de Aar
2:  Sept 23rd Sept 1908
3: 
4:  My dear Friend
5: 
6:  Thank you for your letter.
7: 
8:  I don’t think you can dream how my thoughts are with you in this
9:  matter. If ever you & my brother think I could be of any use by
10:  writing anything please let me know. It has been rather hard for my
11:  brother to give up the conference, & I feel deeply that we need at
12:  least one man there whose strength as well as his good intentions will
13:  tend towards justice to our dark races. But undoubtedly at this moment
14:  the trial comes comes first: & whatever the result we shall all feel
15:  that whatever could be done was done. I cannot understand their not
16:  being willing to let Dinuzulu remain longer in the hospital, there is
17:  no possibility or danger of his escaping. But perhaps there are some
18:  who would not grieve if he quietly passed out of the way.
19: 
20:  I am feeling very very anxious about this Convention. I believe the
21:  darkest times South Africa has yet seen lie yet before us. If with so
22:  much else to think of, you could send me the papers now & then when
23:  this trial is on I should be so glad. I doubt much whether the Cape
24:  papers will report fully. Judging from my terrible experience at a
25:  trial of a so called rebel after the Boer War, I should strongly
26:  advise you to have your own verbatim reporter in court, & one on whom
27:  you can depend. I got a man up from Capetown on purpose, & at the last
28:  moment he was “got at” & refused to report. So no account of the trial
29:  is in existence, but the shamefully lying reports wilfully mistaken by
30:  the ordinary newspaper reporters. We may need in future to refer to
31:  what took place at the trial.
32: 
33:  It is such a comfort to me that you have my brother, & that I know all
34:  that can be done will be.
35: 
36:  Yours ever with warmest sympathy
37:  Olive Schreiner
38: 

Notation
A comment in an unknown hand has been written at the end of the letter as follows: ‘We must not publish Olive Schreiner without her brother’s sanction in the circumstances, but shew her letter to me (enclosed) to e.g. Miss Browne, Porchester Terrace.’