PROTESTANT AND ROMAN CATHOLIC MISSIONARIES.
[To ins EDITOR OF THE PECTATOR."1
Sra,—In his letter in last week's issue referring to your review of " From Ruwenzori to the Congo," your correspondent " R. B." asks for an explanation of my remark that the Roman Catholic missionary was more likely than the
Protestant to get to the heart of the country. The meaning which I intended to convey was that the Roman Catholic, travelling simply and unencumbered and resting at the houses of the natives, was more likely to come closely-into contact with the people, and so become intimate with them and familiar with their ways of thought, than the Protestant missionary, who went hampered with all the paraphernalia of camps like any other European who travels for business or pleasure. The suggestion that, if he does not purchase, the mis- sionary only receives presents in anticipation of favours to come is, I think, an unworthy one. The natives of Uganda are sufficiently far removed from savagery to have a very shrewd appreciation of the character of a European, whether his coat be black or white. It is impossible to suppose that the "Peres Blanes" have existed in Uganda for thirty years on the fruits of promises which can only be fulfilled in a future life. The speech—" Yes, you are stingy. All missionaries are "—could not have been addressed to a Roman Catholic missionary, because they have no money to offer, and nothing is expected from them by the natives ; but, though they have nothing, their lives can yet not be called ascetic, as any one who has visited their stations will testify. I have good friends in both camps—according to Bishop Tucker's recently published book, it appears that they are still, unhappily, opposite camps—and I should be very sorry if, by drawing attention to their different methods, I had done anything to hinder their better relations.—I am,
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