Chancellor von Bismarck was never a man to share his intentions indiscriminately, but during the course of 1885 it became very clear that he was no longer content to leave European imperial expansion to the French and the British. The British had become increasingly isolated within Europe, but the German government nevertheless had reason to welcome - and quietly to endorse - Britain's obsessive concern over Russian expansionism which had been on display since before 1855. On the world stage, too, German governments had reason to welcome British imperial expansion and a counter-weight to French ambitions. In East Africa, therefore, the rivalry inherent in the unfolding overlapping ambitions of the British and the German governments between 1885 and 1914 would be disguised under a curiously collaborative cloak. However, if Bismarck's government remained diplomatic low-key over plans for colonising large parts of East Africa, Carl Peters was not operating under the same constraints. He and his fellow company directors, appreciated that the twelve week Ussagara expedition at the end of 1884 had left their colonisation project unfinished. During 1885 numerous further expeditions were sent inland from the East African coast. One of these took Jühlke as far as Mount Kilimanjaro. During most of 1885 he remained in Zanzibar City, leaving expeditions to explore the African interior to others, but on 10 May 1885 he set out for the interior from Pangani, accompanied by a Premierlieutenant Weiß, in response to an order received, via the recently installed telegraph, from Berlin.