188 WAR: CAMPAIGNING IN EAST AFRICA 



him a great soldier, though he was still to make, in 

 the Lindi area later on, that splendid reputation 

 (amongst the men at the front at any rate) which 

 endeared him to all who served under him. Brave 

 as a lion personally, he was, above all other general 

 officers on our side, a man, who, like the German 

 leader himself, would appeal as a personality to 

 negro troops. It was a great misfortune that he 

 went back to India when the Germans later on 

 broke south across the Roouma, and so was not 

 available in the field for the campaign in Portu- 

 guese country that followed. 



The general situation in G.E.A. had not, after 

 all, changed much during the six months that I 

 had been a prisoner. We had, it is true, taken and 

 occupied the Central Railway and the enemy's 

 capital, Dar-es-Salaam, and had landed at Kilwa 

 and Lindi and occupied the country south as far 

 as the Rufigi river ; but the German Army, 

 though much reduced in numbers, was still in the 

 field and undefeated, with the moral of both 

 whites and blacks probably higher than ever, and 

 with a great stretch of country most suitable for 

 a defensive and bush warfare still in enemy hands. 

 Again the big South African Expeditionary Force, 

 including its leader, had melted like butter in the 

 sun, and another tombstone had appeared in that 

 African graveyard of military reputations. 



There was indeed one Boer General in the south 

 well able, both by natural military skill and by 

 experience, to command in this most awkward of 



