I was also inconvenienced in another way. On a reconnoitring expedition a blade of the tall grass, which grows above a man’s height, had pierced my right eye. During the subsequent treatment it was feared that the use of the lens might be affected by atropia; the result was that I could not see properly with my right eye and was unable to read hand-writing or sketch-maps. This was very awkward, as my left eye had been so seriously injured by a shot wound received during the Hottentot rebellion in South-West Africa, that I could only see through it with the help of spectacles. Suitable spectacles could not, however, be obtained, and so I was compelled to carry out various enterprises without being able to see properly. The patrols of Koehl’s detachment in the Medo-Nanungu district had meanwhile reached the coast, after taking Portuguese fortresses on, and far south of, the lower Lurio river, and carrying off a few guns and, what was more important, rifles, ammunition and considerable supplies. The natives showed themselves very friendly towards our men, whom they regarded as their deliverers from Portuguese oppression. Patrols from Otto’s detachment from Mahua had also reconnoitred as far as the region south of the Lurio. Lieutenant Methner, so experienced in the ways of the natives, and first _referant_ of our government, praised the capacity and cleverness of the Portuguese natives and the intelligence and far-sightedness of their local chiefs. Lieutenant von Scherbening, who with his patrol had taken the Boma Malema, reported that this neighbourhood was very productive. As a specimen he sent us a captured pig to Nanungu. As it refused to walk it was carried the 500 km. Unfortunately it turned out eventually not to be a European pig at all, but a Pori pig, like those we frequently shot in the bush.