MY ESCAPE 189 



campaigns, and in whom the troops, I believe, 

 would have had great confidence. Unfortunately, 

 his heavy responsibilities as Premier of South 

 Africa in those troubled times made this impossible. 

 As it was, it was a poor consolation to those left 

 in the field to read that our late Commander-in- 

 Chief had been acclaimed as the conqueror of 

 German East, and to read, in the papers we re- 

 ceived, that the German forces were now nothing 

 but scattered fugitives amongst their fever swamps 

 and jungles. Later on, just about the time of the 

 fight at Narungombe (when we had more casualties 

 than at Colenso), I remember being distinctly 

 annoyed by a letter from a friend, who asked me 

 why I stayed on in East Africa, ona" black veld 

 police patrolling job," now that the campaign 

 was finished there. 



Whilst I had been in durance vile, the excellent 

 Nigerian and Gold Coast battalions had arrived on 

 the scene, soon to prove themselves some of the 

 best black troops we had in the whole campaign. 

 I found that General Hoskins, our old chief of the 

 first division, had now become Commander-in- 

 Chief, and on taking over he must have had a 

 very unthankful and heart-breaking task with all 

 the straightening up and reorganising of the 

 British forces that was required. He had quite 

 lately driven Von Lettow's main force from its 

 positions around Kibata in perhaps the severest 

 engagements of the whole campaign. Just before 

 we escaped we had heard the guns at Kibata, at 



