222 WAR: CAMPAIGNING IN EAST AFRICA 



perhaps by that time had come to believe it 

 themselves : 



u We heard tremendous firing. There were great 

 numbers of Germani ; we saw them ourselves ! 

 The two Bwanas were completely surrounded 

 and fighting when we left ; they must both have 

 been killed or captured. The Germani chased 

 me for miles, when I finally just had to drop my 

 load and escape/ ' 



As we worked down the Msalu river we began 

 to pick up stragglers, but we could not find any 

 villages or get any food on our side of the river. 

 There were villages on the other side, but the river, 

 being in high flood, we could not get over. Lewis, 

 Moosa, and Abdulla, the I.D. corporal, swam to a 

 shamba on the second day, and, having made a 

 raft, piled it with green mealies and pumpkins. 

 But the current was too strong when they tried 

 to get back, and the raft, laden with these good 

 things, gradually beat them, to be swept hopelessly 

 away, accompanied by many groans of disappoint- 

 ment from our side, groans that came straight 

 from our hungry stomachs. The current was 

 really so strong that I was glad to see Lewis and 

 the men get back safely, even without the raft. 

 We had no food whatever for the first two days, and 

 consequently were hungry. 



At noon on the third day we struck two mon- 

 gopla trees with heaps of fruit on them. These 

 trees were new to me, and I never saw any others, 

 though Moosa said they were fairly common on 



