Note: Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive. See https://archive.org/details/thoughtsonsoutha00schruoft Transcriber's note: Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). Small capitals have been transcribed as ALL CAPITALS. A list of corrections can be found at the end of the document. THOUGHTS ON SOUTH AFRICA * * * * * * OTHER BOOKS BY OLIVE SCHREINER STORIES, DREAMS AND ALLEGORIES DREAMS DREAM LIFE AND REAL LIFE TROOPER PETER HALKET WOMAN AND LABOUR T. FISHER UNWIN LTD LONDON * * * * * * THOUGHTS ON SOUTH AFRICA by OLIVE SCHREINER T. Fisher Unwin Ltd London: Adelphi Terrace First published in 1923 (All rights reserved) To MY HUSBAND THESE STRAY THOUGHTS ON THE LAND WE BOTH LOVE ARE INSCRIBED BY HIS WIFE OLIVE CRONWRIGHT SCHREINER HANOVER, CAPE COLONY, _October 11, 1901_. FOREWORD "Stray thoughts on South Africa, by a Returned South African" (as they were originally entitled) were left by my late wife almost exactly as they now appear. She went to England for the first time early in 1881 and returned to South Africa towards the end of 1889. Cape Town not suiting her asthmatic chest, it was not long after her return that she made Matjesfontein her home. Matjesfontein is a railway-station on the main line, 195 miles from Cape Town and 2,955 feet above the sea-level. The climate suited her on the whole, and Cape Town,--where her family, friends and social interests were,--was not too far away. Here she leased a cottage which Mr. Logan, the owner of the little village and the large hotel, called "Schreiner Cottage." It was here apparently that most of the "Stray Thought" articles were written (as well as "Our Waste Land in Mashonaland," which is included in this volume). This would be from 1890 to somewhere towards the end of 1892; for she again went to England in 1893, returning the same year.