134 WAR: A SCOUTS' PATROL 



country and people were a little strange to him, 

 but he was awfully keen on capturing Maritz, the 

 arch-rebel. We scouts gravely doubted whether 

 there was much chance of getting Maritz : for one 

 thing, our crowd had become too big to be handy. 



As it happened, we heard almost at once of a 

 party of white men with wagons, said to be near 

 Bunja on the German side of the river, and these 

 men proved to be a detachment of S.A.M.R. — 

 a splendid lot of fellows, who had come up to the 

 river, via Kuringkuru, from Grootfontein. They 

 brought the official news that Maritz had been 

 arrested by the Portuguese, and that meant the 

 end of the Major's mission and our return down 

 the river. 



The scouts were a little disappointed at being 

 unable to pay a visit to Hawonga, the Ovambo 

 chief at Kuringkuru, a visit we five had originally 

 planned together ; the disappointment was the 

 greater, as some time previously we had sent 

 Hawonga a message promising to come shortly 

 to see if he had really been concerned in the 

 murder of Kajimbo and his family, and promising 

 further, in the event of our finding him guilty, to 

 hang him. On the return journey the three of the 

 old Dutch Patrol, Rensberg, Lewis, and myself, 

 kept to the Portuguese side, while the others 

 followed the German track. 



Four days later, just at dark, word reached us 

 that a party of Germans, with camels and horses, 

 had slipped through and made up the Quito. 



