The governor's campaign continued into May, when a second round of reinforcements arrived. The rebellion was extended to the Oecussi enclave, but without any coordination with the rebellion elsewhere. During the second phase of his offensive, da Câmara divided his reinforced army into four columns. His own column set out from Maubisse and comprised twenty Europeans, two hundred Africans and five hundred moradores. Including the arraias of allied chieftains, it contained over 4,000 troops. It also had a modern Krupp 75 mm field gun. The second column, comprising an Indian company with a Nordenfelt mitrailleuse and several hundred moradores, marched from Soibada; the third, with two Europeans, seventy Africans and two hundred moradores armed with another Nordenfelt, from Suru; and the fourth, a flying column with one hundred moradores, from the Dutch border. By the time of the final assault, da Câmara's force, the largest foreign army ever assembled at the time in Timor, contained 8,000 irregulars, 647second-line troops, 500 first-line troops and 34 officers. Something of the weakness of the native opposition can be gleaned from the record of what weaponry the Portuguese captured: 36 rifles and 590 flintlocks with a few cartridges, plus 495 swords. In general, the native Timorese possessed more spears than guns and were usually short of powder. They avoided close combat, where they were the discrepancy in guns was acutely felt, in favour of hit-and-run guerrilla tactics.

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