To advance to the encounter Nkessa’s was approached from the east on the Tulo-Kissaki road—a narrow, inferior road through the low country, and running westerly parallel with the southern foothills of the Ulugúru mountains, which were always visible well off to our right. The road throughout was over level grade, and passed through country of thorn-bush growth and tall, dense grass.
Approaching Nkessa’s, the foothills draw in to close proximity of the village, and, about 2,100 yards north of the road, a prominent bush-covered hill, and a long ridge trending west, rise to an elevation of about 300 feet from dense, bush-grown bases, and command the flat country south and east; over which our forces advanced to attack.
South of the prominent hill, between the hill base and the road, the low ground formation is irregular, with small nullas and mounds and the whole surface a dense tangle of bush growth and tall grass.
Adjoining this, and continuing to the eastern edge of the village, there is a square-planned rubber plantation, while above the northern boundary of it there is a low spur, on which is situated a group of planters’ buildings. From those buildings, which are clearly in view from the low ground, a narrow road runs down, between the village boundary and the plantation, to the main road.
Across the main road, opposite the rubber plantation and the low ground below the hills, there is a large level mealie-field, clear of crop, which parallels the road for 1,000 yards or so from the village, and which has a narrow width at the village, but which opens out fan-wise to a depth of 550 yards at its easterly extremity, where it is bordered by a cotton-field in crop. East of the cotton-field, where some of our forces dug in, the country is level, with a surface of tall rank grass and a few bushes.
Bordering the south margin of the mealie-field, and continuing some distance east, is a belt of dark jungle composed of tall trees and tangled bush.
Immediately south of the tree belt, at the south-west margin, there is a village of native kraals hidden by some fields of tall-stalked mealies and by the tall, rank grass common to the low ground of the Dunthumi River, which in the rains is flooded.
Farther south of this there are no decided landmarks, the country running out like prairie, low and level, and grown with tall, rank grass, and screening the Dunthumi River, which swings on to an easterly course after it has left the hills and passed through Nkessa’s village and beyond about a mile.
Turning now from the south aspect to the west aspect:
Immediately west of the prominent hill above the road, there runs north and south, across a deep parallel valley, a long ridge which, at its southern extremity, descends abruptly to the Dunthumi River, and from the ridge the course of the river is clearly seen below, in the immediate foreground, and running out south through its margins of tall grass. Across the river, and just north of the village, the country rises brokenly into low, bush-covered foothills. Those foothills were unoccupied by enemy. From the ridge Nkessa’s village is not seen, it being under cover of the large mango trees, and palms, and thick forest, amidst which it is situated. However, it is a large village of native huts, with a broad white road running through the centre of it which is shaded with avenues of great densely leafed mango trees, and lined on either side with native dwellings, grass-thatched, mud-walled, sand-floored.