Lindi, a town of some 4,500 native inhabitants, is about sixty miles north of the Portuguese border, and about eighty-five miles south of Kilwa (Kivenje). Lindi, before it fell into our hands, had been the southern head-quarters of the Protectorate, and at the north end of the town there is a large, stone-built fort and extensive barrack buildings. Along the shore front, facing the sea, there are a number of large, colonial, commercial buildings and residences: otherwise the town, which extends inland from the sea, is comprised of palm-shaded streets of grass-roofed, mud-walled huts, with an odd whitewashed hut inset here and there—the barter-den of an Arab or Goanese trader. Lindi is low-lying and unhealthy, as is the Lukuledi Valley, south of the town, where the broad swamp estuary of the Lukuledi River flows into the bay. Moreover, the brackish-flavoured well water of the town was very bad, and added to the tremendous difficulty that was experienced in maintaining the health of white troops in this area. Behind Lindi the ground rises to a low hill-crest, the ridge of which runs north parallel to the coast line, and it was along this crest, overlooking the roads inland, that our present line terminated. In pre-war days sisal, palm oil, and rubber had been the chief products developed in this area by settlers, and large, carefully cultivated estates were plentiful in this neighbourhood. [Sidenote: VON LETTOW’S FORCES] At Lindi we were soon fully occupied preparing for active operations. The main force of the enemy—excepting the smaller force near Mahenge under Tafel, and opposed to General Northey—were now confined to a limited area in the south-east corner of the Colony, and were facing our forces at Lindi and Kilwa. This force, under General von Lettow-Vorbeck, was estimated to be 4,000 to 5,000 strong. Against these forces a new offensive began under the command of General Van Deventer, who at the end of May relieved General Hoskins; and from June onward was carried on relentlessly, while the enemy, with their backs to the wall, as it were, fought desperately. Behind the Kitulo hill, which rose immediately west of Lindi, lay a broad flat swamp through which crossed the Mtupiti and Ngongo Rivers on their course to the Lukuledi estuary. Across this waste the enemy were holding a strong line, on a nine-mile front, in the rubber plantations and bush, with particularly strong fortifications at Schaafer’s Farm and Mingoyo village on this line.