BREV

Brev från Charles Llewellyn Andersson till sin faster daterat 30/10 1877.

"Cape Town
30th October 1877.
My dear Aunty,
Mamma received your last kind letter, and i very sorry not having answered it sooner. I have lots to tell you how I am getting on in the Telegraph Department. We have a new Manager Mr. Sivewright. He has come out here from England, to inspect our lines & will be here for about two years only. He is introducing altogether a new system of working. The same as used in England. He is a very nice gentleman. We all like him very much. He is now at King Williams Town, and has been there for some time, as it is the principal town near the Kafir war. We have had lots of work lately, and have had to keep the office open day & night, (otherwise it is only open from 8 a.m. to 6 p m), and I have come in for my share of night work. Several lots of volunteers have gone from here and other places to the frontier, and are now trying to catch the Chief Kreli, who has been causing Gov-t a great deal of trouble and annoyance. I hope they will catch him. About this time last year, we had a war on the frontier with another Chief named "Langalebelele" who they caught and he is now staying an a small place near Capetown with a few wives. It is altogether too good a life for him and I daresay he enjoys it. They should send Kreli to Robben Island (a small island in TableBay with a lunatic asylum on it), it is what he deserves. He has caused a great deal of mischief & expensive to Gov-t. How I should like to go to have shot at him. Well, as I was saying when the thought of Kreli came and interrupted me- We are now making a line to Natal, passing a long the boundary of Kreli's country. We have a nice Chief clerk Mr. Duff, who acts while Mr. Sivewright is away on line and then we have a nice Inspector, Mr. Bayly. The three of them are liked very much by the clerk. Mr. Sivewright is getting rid of all the lazy and good-for-nothing clerks - So that we are getting a nice lot of clerks in our office. There is a nice new office being built for us. It will be finished in about a year's time. Mr. Sivewright has made a few alterations in the plan when he came out here. So that we will have a very nice office; as it will be fitted up like the English offices. We have lots of room in it and he will encourage to set up nice things such as lectures on telegraphy which I daresay he, & Mr Bayly will give us - and a reading room and library; and he is going to start a small journal of a page or two to begin with; it will be written with the electric pen. (which he brought out with him). One copy is written on a stencil with the pen, from which between two & three thousand can be made from at the rate of about 400 an hour, in a press made for it.
I am now 3rd. Telegraph Operator and am getting L 100 per annum from this month, which is a great help to mamma.
I am very glad to be able to help her now because she has worked hard for the last 10 years for myself, sister & 3 little Brothers to give us a good education. The three of them are still at school and Annie got a beautiful piano a present from Mr. Axel Ericson.
I have often wished to ask grandpapa a few things about papa, and I would be very glad to know them, if you think right to tell me. Mama could never tell me why papa's name was altered from Lloyd to Anderson? And what sisters & brothers papa had? As I should like to know them all, as I may one day, when grown up, visit Europe. If poor papa had only lived we would all have seen papa's relatives. It was his intention to take mamma and us to Europe, when he went up to settle affairs in Damaraland before he left, but we never saw him again. I should also like to know about the notes and papers of papas that grandpapa had to write books from. "The Lion & Elepahnt" and "Notes of Travel" I have read them both, and like them very much, especially the last. They were a great help to mamma. She has still a few of each left.
I often wish to follow in papas footsteps, and I daresay I would have already commenced travelling, if it was not that I know mamma and Annie are all alone och require me. Several Gentlemen have offered to take me up to Damaraland & Mr Buxton wished me to go with him, when he was out here, on a shooting excursion to Natal and then round through the Suez canal to England but mamma did not like to lose me, I was so young also. But I hope one day when mamma & Annie are not dependent on me to be able to go about and travel. Mr Stanley the Great African explorer who found the true source of the nile & made other discoveries arrived at SimonsBay a few days ago with 113 followers, who went through with him from the East to the West coast (overland). He came to CapeTown and will be here tomorrow to a public luncheon and remain for a little while, when he will proceed to Zanzibar in the man-of-war "Industry" which brought him here from the West coast.
Forgive my asking you those questions above, but we know & saw such a little of papa and mamma does not either. My youngest brother Ernest never saw him, papa only knew he was born.
With love from us all to yourself and pap's friends in England & Sweden.
I remain
Your affectionate
Nephew
C. Llewellyn Andersson -