BACK TO DUTY 195 



shouting in the bush, and at the end of a fort- 

 night we were back at Chemera. I reported that 

 owing to the bare state of all that belt of country, 

 it was most improbable that anything more than 

 a very small raiding party of Germans could 

 work round to do mischief. 



Orders now came from my chief for a more 

 definite piece of work — to discover and then 

 destroy the enemy's little post and store at Mtundu, 

 about forty-five miles north-west of Chemera. 

 Two ruga-ruga (armed local natives) came to me 

 as guides, and I was lucky to get them. The main 

 guide, Abdulla, from a village called Mpotora, 

 was a grand figure, a young man of perhaps 

 twenty-six years ; a really nice fellow too, and a 

 born gentleman, straight, tall, and lithe as a 

 panther, but, as his yellowish colour indicated, 

 not a pure negro. Of all the aboriginal peoples 

 that I have come across, this man was the smartest 

 and bravest of the lot, and never have I liked any 

 native African so much. Thanks to Abdulla, who, 

 of course, knew all the inhabitants around Mtundu 

 (his own village Mptora being in the same dis- 

 trict), we had an easy job. A copy of my telegram 

 to my chief will be the best and shortest way to 

 describe the work : 



" At Mptora found nothing ; at Mtundu caught 

 two German whites, one Feldvebel, one Konigs- 

 berg deck officer, and one askari (Tanga company) . 

 Found little in magazine, some few bags each rice, 

 beans, matama, and dried meat ; some ammuni- 



