CHAPTER IX 



A FRESH START 



After getting some new equipment for my askaris 

 and porters and trying to get some sort of fresh 

 kit (precious little could I get) to replace all I 

 had lately lost, we marched back again to 

 Ankuabi, where the column was still halted — for 

 the rains now made all transport from Pemba 

 very difficult — waiting to push on to Meja, another 

 Portuguese boma previously taken and burnt by 

 the Germans, whose advanced post was now quar- 

 tered there. I started a day and a half ahead of 

 the column with my party of I.D. askaris, and 

 my orders were to go round through the bush and 

 cut the main road west, behind Meja, and leading 

 back to the main German force facing the Pemba 

 Column, then known as " Pamforce." We hoped 

 to pick up something if the enemy retired that 

 way from our main force. Lewis went with the 

 advance guard of the main column, which was 

 mostly comprised of the Gold Coast Regiment. 

 On the fourth morning we reached the road behind 

 Meja, and on that day the Gold Coast troops, if 

 all had gone well, should have been close at hand 



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