Finally, after a tedious journey, we reached Windhuk, where we were
taken straight to the jail, and all seven of us placed in a small cell.
Immediately after entering it we heard voices calling us in English
from surrounding cells, and, looking through the bars of the windows,
we saw many anxious faces. All the men were shouting to us to know
where we came from, what regiment we belonged to, and if we could give
them any news how the war was going.
During our stay in Windhuk prison we were rather badly treated, not
being allowed out of the cell for more than ten or fifteen minutes,
morning and evening, and never allowed to communicate with the other
prisoners. On the sly, when the warders were not watching us, we
sometimes managed to get a few words with them through the windows, but
that was all.
About a day or two after Christmas, while I was looking through the
bars of my cell window into the jail yard, one of the political
prisoners--a British subject taken in German South-West after the war
broke out--whispered to me that there was great excitement amongst the
Germans down town owing to the receipt of news that a British force
had landed at Walfish Bay and had occupied Swakopmund. I might here
explain that the political prisoner referred to enjoyed the privilege
of going down town under escort for the purpose of making purchases
for those prisoners who were fortunate enough to have money or banking
accounts. His information was very useful to me, as this was how I
first discovered our forces were at the northern German seaport.
The prison food here was very bad. It consisted of a quarter-loaf
of bread (to last all day), a cup of black coffee in the morning,
without sugar, and the same in the evening. At midday we got an enamel
basin with some dirty-looking meat and mealie soup, and sometimes a
little rice or macaroni. We were given to understand that this was the
same food as the Kafir convicts got. There were from thirty to forty
Britishers in the prison, mostly "politicals"--British subjects taken
in German South-West Africa after the war broke out, the balance being
soldiers belonging principally to the Union Defence Force. There was
also in this prison a captain of the Royal Fusiliers named Limfrey,
who had been on a shooting trip in the country, and who was arrested
by the Germans as a spy. Not being able to prove anything against him,
however, they kept him as a prisoner of war.
On January 8th we were taken from the prison with fourteen other
prisoners, making seventeeen in all (the four Dutchmen being left
behind), and marched through Windhuk to another prison at the military
barracks, where we remained for the night. The following morning we
were given some kit, consisting of a shirt, blanket, mess tin, knife,
fork, spoon, and towel, and then taken to the railway station, where
there were a large number of people congregated to look at us.
From Windhuk we went to Karabib and Okanyande, and were then told to
prepare for yet another journey.
On the day following--January 16th--all the soldier prisoners,
forty-seven in all, including six officers, left in four ox-wagons for
Franzfontein. We travelled by night, and slept by day. Water was very
scarce _en route_, and was obtainable only from boreholes on the farms,
which were few and far between.
The escort consisted of German soldiers on each wagon; also a mounted
party under the charge of an officer.
We arrived at Outju, a large and important military post, on January
19th. Here we found nearly all of the officers of the Union Forces
who were prisoners. We remained for a couple of hours, and I had the
opportunity of speaking to several of them, and amongst them Captain
Turner Jones. With him I discussed the possibility of the information
which I had gleaned at Keetmanshoop being conveyed to our forces, but
he told me that he did not think there was the least chance of anybody
getting away. However, I gave him the information in case anybody
managed it. We then proceeded on our journey, having left the six
officers behind and taken up three men.