TWO YEARS’ CAPTIVITY IN GERMAN EAST AFRICA [Illustration: GERMAN EAST AFRICA.] Two Years’ Captivity in German East Africa _Being the Personal Experiences of Surgeon E. C. H., Royal Navy_ [Illustration] LONDON: HUTCHINSON & CO. PATERNOSTER ROW PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY THE ANCHOR PRESS LTD. TIPTREE ESSEX. PREFACE This little book relates my experiences as a prisoner of war in German East Africa. In the writing of it and the casting into book form I have received invaluable assistance from one conversant with literary methods, but the substance remains a plain, unelaborated narrative of facts. I have tried to avoid dwelling unduly on the privations, discomforts and insults endured, and considerations of space forbid more than a passing reference to the wretched state of the native population. But I do not hesitate to state my conviction that if East Africa ever again comes under German rule it will be a lamentable disaster for the native races. German rule in Africa is “the rule of the kiboko.” Kiboko is a word probably unknown to the majority of Englishmen ... it is but too well known to every native ... it means “the lash.” E. C. H. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. THE LOOM OF WAR 1 II. IN TROPIC SEAS 16 III. TREACHERY 22 IV. TAKEN PRISONER 38 V. EN ROUTE FOR KILIMATINDE 52 VI. MY FIRST PRISON 62 VII. SHATTERED HOPES 75 VIII. OUR FIRST CHRISTMAS IN CAPTIVITY 86 IX. THE MAJOR’S VENTURE 90 X. NEW ARRIVALS 100 XI. MORE ATTEMPTS AT ESCAPE 110 XII. TYPHOID AT THE BOMA 120 XIII. GERMAN CRUELTY TO NATIVES 132 XIV. TRANSFERRED TO TABORA 142 XV. ON SAFARI 158 XVI. MAHENGE 168 XVII. HOPE RENEWED 184 XVIII. A NIGHTMARE CAMP 203 XIX. RELEASED 217 XX. HOME AT LAST 228 Two Years’ Captivity in German East Africa CHAPTER I THE LOOM OF WAR In the Officers’ Mess at Portsmouth—no less than in every Chancellerie in Europe—the one topic of discussion in the last days of July, 1914, was the possibility of WAR.