Lettow-Vorbeck and his caravan of Europeans, Askaris, porters, women, and children marched on, deliberately bypassing the tribal homelands of the native soldiers in an effort to prevent desertions. They traversed difficult territory. "Swamps and jungles ... what a dismal prospect there is in front of me," stated the Allied commander in pursuit, General J. C. Smuts, whose new approach was subsequently not to fight the "Schutztruppe" at all, but to go after their food supply. When the end of the campaign eventually came, Smuts was in London and General J. L. van Deventer commanded East Africa.