INTELLIGENCE DEPARTMENT 159 



from the Masai, were continually coming back. 

 The natives were friendly, and guided us safely. 

 We always told them we were just the eyes of 

 the big columns of English, looking out for water 

 and roads, and that the big Safaris would soon 

 be coming to eat up the Germans. 



The work was interesting and care was neces- 

 sary. It was usually hard to get natives to take 

 notes back to our chief, though they were willing 

 to guide us, each taking his turn for a day or so, 

 and then handing us over to others. They 

 naturally disliked the job of taking our informa- 

 tion back to the columns, for they feared to be 

 caught carrying a note by the enemy, which meant 

 being promptly hanged. 



We next worked through another chain of 

 German outposts running south from a round 

 mountain called Geira. It was near there that a 

 rather amusing incident happened. Brown, being 

 in front, had stopped and questioned some natives 

 at a small kraal, and as I rode up I noticed, when 

 about ioo yards off, one of the natives (the jumbe, 

 as it happened) speak to a youth, who immediately 

 ran off up the slope and disappeared. On reaching 

 Brown I asked why the deuce that nigger had 

 been sent off in such a hurry. Brown said he 

 had not noticed him. " Well, I did/' was my 

 answer, and told him (he was the only one who 

 could then speak Swahili decently) to ask the 

 headman why he had sent the boy away like that. 

 " Why," said the jumbe quite innocently, " there 



