On the following day we reached Lake Utungi, where Captain Feilke was awaiting us, and we refreshed ourselves with bread, coffee and sausage made from antelope flesh. There was still no trace of the troops. They had lost us in Pori, and almost all completely lost their bearings. One detachment did not get into touch with us until several days later, when they came upon our telephone line in the neighbourhood of Utete. In view of the difficulty of communication, it had hitherto been impossible to get an accurate estimate of the state of our supplies. I had expected to find well-filled depots at Mpanganya on Lake Utungi and in the neighbourhood of Madaba. This was why I had pressed on out of the fertile country north of the lower Rufiji through Mpanganya to the line-of-communication area. The question of supplies had developed quite differently from my expectations. In the line-of-communication area, in addition to the large numbers of bearers necessary for the transport of war material to the south, a numerous _personnel_ was maintained, who were employed on road-making, building grass huts and for other purposes. Even in the small depots there were always a number of men who, whenever possible, did nothing but fetch supplies, which they ate themselves. Often the supplies were even fetched by others who, in their turn, had to be fed. In many places it was almost the case that a load of supplies collected and forwarded by the fighting troops in the north finally landed in a small depot, and were devoured by these people who had nothing else to do. In view of the difficulties of transport, and the great distances, even the energy and thoroughness of Captain Stemmermann, who had taken charge of the depots, did not succeed in detecting and putting a stop to these abuses. Further, there were too many people in Africa whose propensity for diverting valuable energy to non-essentials to the prejudice of the really important things that it would take a very strong broom to sweep them away. The general result of all these obstacles was that thousands and thousands of useless mouths were devouring the supplies which had been collected with great effort in the region occupied by the fighting forces. The depot did nothing for the supplies, but, on the other hand, lived on them, and the most serious point was that the moment was at hand when the areas from which the supplies were drawn would have to be evacuated by the fighting forces. It was a difficult situation. It was necessary to lose no time in putting under cultivation the territory we were then occupying—that is to say, the country round Madaba and Livale, and in the southern parts of the Protectorate, which were likely to be the scene of the subsequent operations. But months must elapse before any results could be obtained from these measures. During these months we should have to remain on the Rufigi and live there. Here, it is true, some hundreds of