As the converging hostile columns were now approaching each other in the direction of Morogoro, it became necessary to consider our future plan of operations. The enemy expected us to stand and fight a final decisive engagement near Morogoro, on the northern slopes of the Uluguru Mountains. To me, this idea was never altogether intelligible. Being so very much the weaker party, it was surely madness to await at this place the junction of the hostile columns, of which each one individually was already superior to us in numbers, and then to fight with our back to the steep and rocky mountains, of which the passes were easy to close, and which deprived us of all freedom of movement in our rear. I thought it sounder so to conduct our operations that we should only have to deal with a part of the enemy. Knowing that the enemy, and General Brits in particular, had a liking for wide turning movements, I felt sure that one column would move off from Dakawa, where large hostile camps had been identified, or from Kilossa, in order to reach our rear by working round the west side of the Uluguru Mountains. This possibility was so obvious that I cycled out every day to the mountains west of Morogoro, so as to get the reports from the patrols in good time, and to supplement them by personal observation of the clouds of smoke and dust. The latter soon put it beyond doubt that a strong column was moving from near Dakawa towards the railway between Morogoro and Kilossa. Patrols identified enemy troops that had crossed the railway and were marching further south. The observers on the mountains reported the clouds of dust to be moving towards Mlali.