106 WAR: A SCOUTS' PATROL 



rendered or run away without fighting. This 

 naturally had created amongst the natives a 

 feeling of great respect for the detestable Germans. 

 " Look here/' the Germans had said ; " you see 

 what we have done to the Portuguese because 

 they are friends of the English, and you can see 

 how the English have not been able to help them." 



A good deal of tact and courage was required 

 in those days for two Britishers to hold their own 

 out there, and make the natives believe that 

 plenty of Englishmen would come later on if 

 they were wanted. Johnson was a particularly 

 experienced man with native peoples, especially 

 with these particular savages. A splendid shot, 

 a straight and honourable man, never wanting to 

 bustle or hurry a native, yet possessing a pair of 

 blue eyes that looked " no nonsense " when occa- 

 sion demanded. He was an ideal intelligence 

 scout for a job like this, and West was just such 

 another. From first to last we had the truest 

 comradeship from both men, and our little patrol 

 of three out on the advanced post at the Quito 

 always felt that we could rely on those two men 

 behind us, even though seven days away, as 

 though they were a dozen. 



Johnson and West came as far as the river 

 with us, and there together we sent for and inter- 

 viewed old Libebe, the paramount chief of all the 

 Mombakush. I had met the old man on a former 

 journey through that region, and our recognition 

 was mutual. Old Libebe wore a worried look 



