In the same way our own patrols continually found themselves in the middle of enemy troops. On one such occasion _Vizefeldwebel_ Schaffrath made his patrol lie down in the high grass and then opened an effective fire on the head of approaching enemy columns. Then he took cover again. In this way he succeeded in the course of a few hours in inflicting sensible losses on the enemy several times and capturing some material. I wanted to gain time by these holding actions, so that I could get my main body into the country further south, which was supposed to be fertile, according to report, and fall upon and drive away the smallish hostile garrisons we expected to find there. The first objective of this nature was the Portuguese _Boma_ Alto-Moloque. A captured map showed that this had been the seat of a higher administrative authority in peace time and the military station of a force exceeding a company. Both natives and food must certainly be there. Between us and Alto-Moloque lay the high range of Inagu. An English battalion in its entrenched camp at Inagu barred the road which led from the Boma Malema round the west side of the Inagu Mountains to Alto-Moloque. It was therefore probable that our advance by that road would be contested, and that would have been unpleasant in view of the length of our carrier columns. In any case we should have been delayed and our intended surprise attack on Alto-Moloque would have been spoilt. But surprise I regarded as absolutely essential, as we suspected the presence of ammunition and arms at Alto-Moloque. Accordingly we left the enemy in peace in his entrenchments at Inagu and marched round the east side of the Inagu Mountains on Alto-Moloque. The strategic situation was somewhat remarkable, and well described in the words of an old Boer, words that were not quite pure High German: “Is das eine Komische Orlog; ons lopt achter de Portugies an, und de Englanders lopt achter ons an” (_This is a funny war. We chase the Portuguese, and the English chase us_). We marched by native tracks or straight through the bush. Several considerable streams had to be negotiated on the way. This district, too, was fertile, and we soon came across unmistakable human tracks leading towards Alto-Moloque, not to mention kraals, the first I had ever seen. They were grass huts, very thick and carefully built. Ashes were smouldering in places and the heads of hens which were lying about were still fresh. We exchanged shots with some Portuguese patrols and a few rifles with ammunition were captured. No time must be lost, so Müller’s detachment, made specially mobile by being relieved of all its transport, went on ahead and found in Alto-Moloque only a few Portuguese officers and non-commissioned officers who were just drinking coffee on the verandah of the very fine European house. These were taken prisoner.