and wide, unbridged rivers in the regions of the mountains, and
insufficient surface water on the plains for the needs of an army; with
magnificent primeval forest everywhere, pathless, trackless, except for
the spoor of the elephant or the narrow footpaths of the natives. The
malaria mosquito is everywhere except on the higher plateaus; everywhere
the belts are infested with the deadly tsetse fly, which makes an end of
all animal transport; and almost everywhere the ground is rich black or
red cotton soil, which any transport converts into mud in the rain or
dust in the drought. Everywhere the fierce heat of equatorial Africa,
accompanied by a wild luxuriance of parasitic life, breed tropical
diseases in the unacclimatized whites. These conditions make life for
the white man in that country sufficiently trying. If in addition he has
to perform hard work and make long marches on short rations, the trial
becomes very severe; if, above all, huge masses of men and material have
to be moved over hundreds of miles in a great military expedition
against a mobile and alert foe, then the strain becomes almost
unendurable. And the chapter of accidents in this region of the unknown!
Unseasonable rains cut off expeditions for weeks from their supply
bases. Animals died by the thousand--after passing through an unknown
fly-belt. Mechanical transport got bogged in the marshes, held up by
bridges washed away, or mountain passes obstructed by sudden floods. And
the gallant boys, marching far ahead under the pitiless African sun,
with the fever raging in their blood, pressed ever on after the
retreating enemy, often on reduced rations, and without any of the small
comforts which in this climate are real necessities. In the story of
human endurance this campaign deserves a very special place, and the
heroes who went through it uncomplainingly, doggedly, are entitled to
all recognition and reverence. Their commander-in-chief will remain
eternally proud of them.