Chapter Eighteen 
TANGANYIKA (II) 
S the autumn of 1938 advanced and the first icy blast of 
winter gave us a foretaste of what was ahead if we lingered 
longer, our thoughts turned to lands of sunshine, and Delys and 
I decided to go south as soon as possible. This time it was to be 
Tanganyika; not the mountainous northeast where I had been 
before, but the rather flat central district on the line that runs 
from the port of Dar-es-Salaam right across Tanganyika to the 
lake of the same name. 
We took a German boat for cheapness, as we found that by 
catching one at Genoa and travelling there via Germany we were 
entitled to pay the fare in travelers’ marks, thus effecting a great 
saving. This was at a time when it was not only a crime to be a 
Jew in Germany, but was equally degrading for a full-blooded 
German to be married to one. We had such an unfortunate on 
board. He was a German of good stock and was, to all intents 
and purposes, driven out of his country because of his marriage; 
the poor fellow was now on his way to Tanganyika to try his luck 
at farming. The strain of it all was too much for him and he drank 
to excess, so the captain had him quartered in the isolation hos- 
pital where he was guarded and forbidden to have any more 
drink. This was also too much for him. At nine o’clock one night 
he burst through the hospital door and jumped overboard. A 
self-illuminating life-buoy was thrown into the sea, and the blast 
of the ship’s sirens brought all hands on deck. The ship began a 
circular turn which seemed incredibly slow, and in fact took 
twenty minutes to reach the lighted buoy. In the meantime a 
236 
