CHAPTER VIII 



HARD TIMES 



Following our latest instructions, Henocksberg 

 and I, with about forty I.D. askaris, then went 

 south, crossing the Rovuma at Ngomano. The 

 water was at its lowest, and the big river, still 

 some 1,200 yards across, and flowing majestically, 

 was fordable chest high, and extraordinarily warm. 

 It was delightful wading across, especially as for 

 the last six months we had been in country mostly 

 watered by sand-pits. It must have been owing 

 to that crossing that I retain such a pleasant im- 

 pression of " that great river, the river Rovuma." 



Leaving the Lugenda to the west, we went 

 straight on through what must be in the dry 

 season an uninhabited and waterless belt. The 

 first early thunderstorms having brought water 

 here and there, we suffered no privation, but there 

 was neither road nor track, and for some days we 

 were continually in bamboo country. Now, to 

 march through such country is particularly 

 tedious and irritating, and I got to detest these 

 bamboo forests in P.E.A., with a sort of personal 

 hatred for the detestably noisy stuff. 



Christmas we spent in the bamboo, and, after 



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