Meanwhile Captain Müller’s detachment had succeeded in crossing the Likungo river, near the confluence of the Lugella, at a ford. It had been able to give an apparently severe drubbing to a Portuguese battalion which had rushed up from the south to protect it. Several machine guns were captured. The great depot of the Lugella Company fell into our hands. It was possible to distribute a large amount of food and clothing. The buildings themselves, which had been adapted for defence, and about 300,000 kilograms of food were burnt. As no other remunerative objective presented itself Captain Müller considered he had fulfilled his mission for the time being, retired to the southern bank of the Likungo and there awaited my arrival. I was afraid that our wonderful captures of the last few weeks would tempt some of our Europeans to help themselves to things improperly, and I took advantage of the occasion to point out the evils of such behaviour. It must not be forgotten that war booty belongs to the State, and that the individual soldier has to notify to his superiors if he happens to want any particular object he has captured. An estimate is then made of the value of the object and he has to pay the amount. It was important for me to maintain the _moral_ of our troops unconditionally if I was to be able to appeal to their sense of honour and make calls on their endurance. A certain amount of ammunition was captured here and there, and, further, a small Portuguese gun had fallen into our hands, but the great haul of cartridges for which we had hoped and striven had not materialized. I thought it extremely doubtful whether there ever had been such large stocks at Alto-Moloque and Ili, and suspected that the whole thing was a case of exaggeration of the approved native type. That did not imply evil intentions on the part of those concerned. On the contrary, the natives were well-disposed towards us. For example, they brought back of their own accord one of our captured Portuguese officers who had escaped. They also brought us some German black boys who had been enjoying themselves looting, and had been caught and well beaten by the natives, excusing themselves on the ground that they had taken them for Portuguese! It is an extremely difficult matter even for a European to estimate, for example, the numerical strength of a detachment on the march. The native finds it much more difficult, especially when it comes to larger numbers. The words he so frequently uses, _mingi_ (much) or _kama majani_ (as thick as grass) can mean 50 just as well as 5,000. CHAPTER IV ON TO THE SOUTH