On the 15th January, A Company, under Captain Wheeler, arrived at Mtuge from Mkufi, having left Colour-Sergeant Hart and thirty rifles at the latter place. No traces of the enemy had been seen in the neighbourhood of Mkufi.
On the same day, I Company, under Captain Harman, was sent up the main road to establish a camp at Mahiba, a place about twelve miles from Mtuge. Here some high ground suitable for the purpose was found, in the neighbourhood of which a sufficient water supply could be obtained by digging in a sort of rocky grotto. The country all around was an undulating expanse of grassy land, set fairly thickly with small trees, and studded with patches of scrub and frequent clumps of bamboos—in a word, the usual featureless, uninteresting bush country so common in Africa beyond the limits of the belts of forest.
The country up the road as far as the Sovar River, about six miles further on, was reported by Captain Harman to be clear of the enemy.
On the 16th January I Company established a post at Sovar River; and Lieutenant Clarke reported from Sanananga that the country was occupied by the enemy as far as Bulu, a village five miles up the telegraph road from the former place.
On the 17th January the Regimental Headquarters were removed from Mtuge to Mahiba, the Pioneer Company and two Stokes guns accompanying it; and on the same day Captain Dawes reported that he had moved toward Pumone at dawn on the 15th January with the intention of attacking it. While still three miles distant from his objective, however, he had encountered an enemy patrol, and though it was driven in, it had succeeded in delaying his progress for a considerable time. Accordingly, Captain Dawes did not come within sight of Pumone till near midday, and he then found that it was a strong post, prepared for defence and with well-constructed entrenchments occupied by the enemy. Having regard to the scanty supply of small-arms ammunition in his possession, and to his distance from reinforcements, Captain Dawes did not consider it advisable to attempt an attack. He consequently withdrew to Koloi, the place from which he had started that morning, and was thence actively patrolling the country in the neighbourhood.
On the 20th January motor transport between Mtuge and Mahiba was established, for all this time every effort was being made to improve the road between Port Amelia and the front; and Lieutenant Barrett who, with twenty rifles, had been sent up the main road on the preceding day to examine Nanunya as a suitable site for a camp, reported that he had found a party of the enemy at that place, and that in the encounter which followed one of the Intelligence Department scouts attached to his patrol had been killed. Lieutenant Barrett had later fallen back to the post at Sovar River.
On the 21st January Lieutenant Bisshopp, with fifteen men of I Company, one Intelligence Department agent and ten scouts, left for Sovar River to reinforce Lieutenant Barrett; and on the same day two officers, a hundred rifles of A Company, one machine-gun and one Stokes gun were dispatched from Mtuge to reinforce Captain Dawes at Koloi. News was also received that the Depôt Company of the Gold Coast Regiment had at last arrived at Port Amelia.
On the 22nd January Lieutenant Bisshopp reached Nanunya without encountering opposition, and he there learned from the local natives that the enemy post at that place had only consisted of one German and five Askari. On his way back Lieutenant Bisshopp, in accordance with instructions, left a post consisting of Lieutenant Barrett, twenty rifles and one Stokes gun at Namarala, and brought in the men who had hitherto been stationed at Sovar River.
On the 25th January Captain Dawes, who had advanced to within six miles of Pumone on the previous day, attacked and occupied that place at noon, expelling the enemy without difficulty and capturing and destroying five tons of native foodstuffs which had been accumulated there by him. In the course of this operation one soldier and one carrier were wounded.
On this day the post at Namarala, which had been established by Lieutenant Bisshopp, was strengthened; and a detachment of the newly-formed King’s African rifles Mounted Infantry arrived at Mahiba en route for Nanunya. Instructions were then sent to Captain Dawes at Pumone to get into touch with the Mounted Infantry, and to patrol toward Ankuabe, which lies twelve miles up the main road beyond Nanunya, for the purpose of finding a suitable position for a camp within striking distance of the former place.