CHAPTER VII 
SOCIAL PROBLEMS IN THE FOREST 
Written while on the River, July ^oth- — Aug. ind, 1914. 
I AM again fit for work, and the skipper of a small 
steamer, which belongs to a trading firm at N’Djoli, has 
been kind enough to take us with him to Lambarene, 
but our progress is only slow, as we have a heavy cargo 
of kerosene. This comes in square tins, each holding 
four gallons (eighteen litres), straight from the U.S.A. 
to the Ogowe, and the natives are beginning to use it 
freely. 
I am profiting by the long voyage to arrange and clear 
my ideas as to the social problems which, to my astonish- 
ment, I have come across in the forest. We talk freely 
in Europe about colonisation, and the spread of civilisa- 
tion in the colonies, but without making clear to our- 
selves what these words mean. 
But are there really social problems in the forest ? 
Yes ; one has only to listen for ten minutes to con- 
versation between any two white men, and one will 
certainly hear them touch on the most difficult of them 
all, viz., the labour problem. People imagine in 
Europe that as many labourers as are wanted can 
always be found among the savages, and secured for 
very small wages. The real fact is the very opposite. 
Labourers are nowhere more difficult to find than 
