"Stop! Who goes there?" The militiamen raised their guns, cautiously aiming at the newcomers.
Tullio Penny stepped forward, handed his gun to the team member behind him, raised both hands, and said to the Mitomoni Village militia in Portuguese, "I am Officer Tullio Penny of the Mozambique colony of the Kingdom of Portugal. I wish to speak with your commander."
After a burst of rapid Portuguese... the Mitomoni Village militiamen were even more bewildered, gripping their guns tighter.
At that moment, Gile Cioni, the chief of Mitomoni Village, came to the front of the village after hearing the commotion.
Looking at Tullio Penny and his group, Gile Cioni asked in German, "Who are you people?"
Seeing Tullio Penny's utterly baffled expression, Gile Cioni, whose hometown lay on the Prussian-French border, asked again in French.
At last, someone in Tullio Penny's party understood. This man's mother was French, so he understood French.
He walked to Tullio Penny's side and repeated Gile Cioni's words to him.
With an intermediary serving as translator, the two sides could finally begin communicating.
After understanding Tullio Penny and the others' purpose, Gile Cioni did not make things difficult for these Portuguese.
For the time being, East Africa's policy toward the Portuguese remained: if they did not offend us, we would not offend them. East Africa was also relatively restrained regarding the lands to the south, halting its southward advance at the Ruvuma River.
Unlike the east, the western parts of the two colonies actually had no clear border. With no mountains or rivers serving as geographical boundaries, the eastern shore of Lake Malawi was a vast, level plain.
Gile Cioni received the Portuguese, but only allowed a few unarmed men to enter Mitomoni Village. The rest could only remain outside the village.
One month after