RELATIONS BETWEEN WHITES AND BLACKS 131 
done without the use of authority. We must, therefore, 
so arrange the circumstances of daily life that my 
natural authority can find expression. With regard to 
the negroes, then, I have coined the formula : “I am 
your brother, it is true, but your elder brother.” 
The combination of friendliness with authority is 
therefore the great secret of successful intercourse. 
One of our missionaries, Mr. Robert, left the staff some 
years ago to live among the negroes as their brother 
absolutely. He built himself a small house near a 
village between Lambarene and N’Gomo, and wished 
to be recognised as a member of the village. From 
that day his life became a misery. With his abandon- 
ment of the social interval between white and black he 
lost all his influence ; his word was no longer taken as 
the “ white man’s word,” but he had to argue every 
point with them as if he were merely their equal. 
When, before coming to Africa, I heard missionaries 
and traders say again and again that one must be very 
careful out here to maintain this authoritative position 
of the white man, it seemed to me to be a hard and 
unnatural position to take up, as it does to every one 
in Europe who reads or hears the same. Now I have 
come to see that the deepest sympathy and kindness 
can be combined with this insistence on certain external 
forms, and indeed are only possible by means of them. 
One of our unmarried missionaries at N’Gomo — ^the 
story belongs to a period some years back — allowed his 
cook to be very free in his behaviour towards him. One 
day the steamer put in with the Governor on board, 
and the missionary went to pay his respects to the high 
official. He was standing on deck in an elegant suit of 
white among a group of officials and military men. 
