More and more cases of captured ammunition were brought into our camp. The Intendant, Lieutenant Besch (retired naval officer), was in despair because he did not know where he was going to get enough carriers to remove such vast stores. They included more than 300,000 kilograms of food and the stocks from the Kokosani sugar factory. The amount of booty enabled all our coloured men to receive as much clothing material as they wanted, and my boy, Serubili, said to me: “This is a very different matter to Tanga; we’re all getting as much sugar as we want now.” It is a fact that the whole camp was littered with sugar. Each of the blacks was so well-off for food and clothing of all kinds that they stopped stealing, as if by word of command. Everyone knows what that means where blacks are concerned. The booty included large quantities of European food and preserves. Every European found himself well provided for for months ahead. Unfortunately it was not possible for us to get away the whole stock of excellent wine we had captured. After a sufficient quantity had been set aside as a restorative for the sick, the rest had mainly to be drunk on the spot. The risk of a wholesale “jollification” _that_ involved was gladly taken, and everyone was allowed to let himself go for once, after his long abstinence. In addition there was some fine schnapps in a large number of casks in the Kokosani factory. These were being stored ready for the English troops. With the best will in the world it was impossible to drink it all, so we had to empty a large number of the casks into the Namacurra. Column after column of carriers arrived in the camp with booty, and the Intendant became more and more desperate. Affairs reached a climax when a telephone message came from the station that a river-steamer had arrived. An English medical officer, all unsuspecting of what had happened at Namacurra, disembarked from it and closer examination of the boat revealed the presence of a considerable consignment of cartridges, exceeding three hundred cases. In all we had captured about three hundred and fifty modern English and Portuguese rifles, a welcome addition to our resources, which brought our armament once more up to requirements. We were able to discard our ’71 pattern rifle almost entirely. CHAPTER V BACK NORTH TO THE NAMACURRA RIVER