the most fascinating episodes of the war was the search for the
_Königsberg_, lost after she had destroyed the _Pegasus_ and done much
damage in the Indian Ocean. She was discovered in a most secluded branch
of the Rufiji River, and ultimately destroyed by seaplanes and monitors
in her impenetrable lair. Yet, though destroyed, she made her voice
heard over all that vast country, for her ten big naval guns, each
pulled by teams of four hundred stalwart natives, accompanied the enemy
armies in all directions, and, with other naval guns and howitzers
smuggled into the country, made the enemy in many a fight stronger in
heavy artillery than we were.

[Sidenote: Extensive enemy fortifications at the mountain gap.]

[Sidenote: The rainy season worse than imagined.]

From a strategic point of view, the northern frontier was the most
difficult of all. It passed north of Kilimanjaro, to the west of which
is a desert belt. East of this desert belt and Kilimanjaro the enemy
colony was protected by an almost impassable mountain system, with a
very narrow, swampy, dangerous gap between the Usambara and Pare
Mountains, and another gap of about four or five miles between the Pare
Mountains and Kilimanjaro. It was impossible to move an army through the
first gap; the second gap at the foot of Kilimanjaro was the place where
the enemy had located himself early in the war on British territory, and
with patience and skill had dug himself in, with very extensive
fortifications, surrounded by dense forests and impassable swamps. Here
he lay waiting for eighteen months, threatening British East Africa.
From here he was driven in March, 1916, and by the end of that month our
forces had conquered the whole Kilimanjaro-Meru areas. It was at this
stage, and after our initial success, that the rainy season set in; and