I was filled with grave anxiety about the fate of Captain Goering, of whom I had received no news. From General Wahle’s force, which had marched up the Chiulezi river, we heard subsequently that they had attacked and annihilated a force of several Portuguese companies in a strongly entrenched position in the Mkula mountains. The repeated attempts to establish communication with Wahle’s force by means of the heliograph did not succeed, although the Portuguese in the Mkula mountains had clearly observed our signals from Nangwale. The Portuguese Europeans captured by our detachment had refused to give their word not to fight against us again in this war. They had been sent north to the Rovuma by General Wahle owing to the difficulty of feeding them.
Captain Stemmermann succeeded, after several days’ siege, in capturing another very strongly held and vigorously defended fortified position. As the storming of this offered no prospects of success, the enemy’s water supply was cut off, which made his position in the trenches untenable, and forced him to surrender. Among our casualties, unfortunately, were a number of very good native non-commissioned officers. I was not present at the fighting at Nangwale, as I was occupied in dealing with delays in the rear companies and arranging that the march should be kept up to the intended standard. By a double day’s march I easily made up for the delay this had caused me, and arrived in Nangwale in time to superintend the division of the captured stores. In the most favourable circumstances we were only living from hand to mouth. At Nangwale, where six months before our troops had found such a rich neighbourhood, the position was now quite different. Apart from the captured stores there was absolutely nothing; even the game in a considerable area round Nangwale had been shot or frightened away. This was a disappointment, for I had hoped at this place to be freed from the more ordinary difficulties of supplies. The force had, therefore, to be split up. From the information of the prisoners and captured documents it appeared that the garrison in Nangwale had been fed by columns of bearers from the distant neighbourhood of Mwalis. There must, then, be something to be found there.