[Letter from Nadejda Fadeeff
to Colonel Henry Olcott]
[Reprinted from Report of the Result of an Investigation into the
Charges against Madame Blavatsky Brought by the Missionaries
of the Scottish Free Church of Madras, and Examined by a Committee
Appointed for That Purpose by the General Council of the Theosophical Society,
Madras, India, Theosophical Society, 1885, pp. 94-95. For more
background information, see Koot Hoomi in 1870.]
[Translation of a letter to Col. Olcott.]
Dear Sir and Brother,
I am always ready to render service when within my power, and, above all, when, as in the present instance, it merely requires the speaking of the plain facts.
It is true that I did write to Mr. Sinnett some two or three years ago, in reply to one of his letters; and I seem to remember that I narrated to him what happened to me in connection with a certain note, received by me phenomenally when my niece was at the other side of the world, and not a soul knew where she was - which grieved us greatly. All our researches had ended in nothing. We were ready to believe her dead, when - I think it was about the year 1870, or possibly later - I received a letter from him, whom I believe you call "K. H.," which was brought to me in the most incomprehensible and mysterious manner, by a messenger of Asiatic appearance, who then disappeared before my very eyes. This letter, which begged me not to fear anything, and which announced that she was in safety - I have still at Odessa. Immediately upon my return I shall send it [to] you, and I shall be very pleased if it can be of any use to you.
Pray excuse me, but it is difficult, not to say impossible, for me, to comprehend how there can exist people so stupid as to believe that either my niece or yourself have invented the men whom you call the Mahatmas! I am not aware if you have personally known them very long, but my niece spoke of them to me, and at great length, years ago. She wrote me that she had again met and renewed her relations with several of them, even before she wrote her Isis.(1) Why should she have invented these personages? For what end and what good could they have done her if they had no existence? * * * * If I, who have ever been, and hope ever to continue, to be a fervent Christian, believe in the existence of these men - although I may refuse to credit all the miracles they attribute to them - why should not others believe in them? For the existence of at least one of them, I can certify. Who, then, could have written me this letter to reassure me at the moment when I had the greatest need for such comfort, unless it had been one of those adepts mentioned? It is true that the handwriting is not known to me; but the manner in which it was delivered to me was so phenomenal, that none other than an adept in occult science could have so effected it. It promised me the return of my niece, - and the promise was duly fulfilled. However I shall sent it [to] you, and in a fortnight’s time you shall receive it at London.
Accept, dear Sir and Brother, the expression of my sincere esteem.
(Signed) Nadejda Fadeeff,
Paris, 26th June, 1884. (2)
Notes
(1) In New York, in the year 1875.
(2) Addressed to Col. H.S. Olcott, London, and registered and stamped at the Paris P.O., June 26th, 1884.