The _Königsberg_ had already put to sea from Dar-es-Salaam several days before, and the surveying vessel _Möve_, which was in harbour, had been blown up by us on the 9th August. This brought the land forces a valuable military increase, as the captain of the _Möve_, Lieut.-Commander Zimmer, now came under my orders. Lieutenant Horn at once proceeded with a few seamen to Kigoma, where he manned and armed the small steamer _Hedwig von Wissmann_. On Lake Tanganyika he chased the Belgian steamer _Delcommune_, which he surprised and shot to pieces after a few days, thereby securing to us the extremely important command of the lake. The ability rapidly to transfer troops from the Central Railway towards Bismarckburg or Usambara depended entirely upon unimpeded transport on Tanganyika, and played a part in the later course of the operations. In the north of the Colony, the 1st Company at Arusha had been reinforced by the 13th Company, coming by rapid marches from Kondoa, and by another company formed at Moshi from Police Askari. Further, a large part of the Europeans of the northern districts had combined to form a detachment under Captain von Prince. Most of those troops were in the neighbourhood of Moshi. Taveta, which lies to the eastward, in English territory, was held by the enemy, who thereby secured a valuable sally-port against our European settlements in the north; it was, therefore, an urgent matter for us to capture this important point without delay. It took considerable time before we were able to set the force in motion for this purpose. Many people believed that on the strength of the Congo Act we were bound to remain neutral, and naturally had little confidence in the instructions they received from the new Commandant. It was not until the 15th August that the weakly-held place was taken. The course of the fight proved that the force still required much further training to render it fit to carry out combined operations in unison in the dense bush. In this area the command was assumed by Major Kraut, who happened to be in the north-eastern frontier district for the purpose of frontier delimitations. During the next few days the holder of the supreme military power was successfully persuaded to agree to moving the bulk of our forces to the Northern Railway. Simple as was this movement in itself, under the conditions then existing, it required considerable preparations. There were few Germans to be found who were so well acquainted with the whole country between Dar-es-Salaam and Morogoro on one side, and Tanga and Mombo on the other, that they could give reliable information about roads and conditions of subsistence. It was necessary to send out reconnaissance officers in order to determine the roads on which a suitable quantity of supplies could be found. But we could not afford to await the results of all these reconnaissances; the marches had to be begun. According to European ideas the country