No further explanation of the disaster at Insandusana has been
published in this country. The colonial belief is that the camp was wrongly pitched, in a place where it could be commanded from all sides, and that precautions had not been taken to post the great waggons so as to form a defence. This theory, however, is at variance with Lord Chelmsford's distinct statement that the British were enticed a mile and a half out of camp ; and another story is at least more probable. This is, that the officer in command pursued the small body of Zulus who at first showed themselves ; that the remaining troops, seeing him surrounded, advanced to his aid ; and that when the Zulus finally charged, the men, who had exhausted their ammunition, found it impossible to reach the reserve ammunition which was in the waggons. The most extraordinary feature in the story, the way in which the Zulus removed the waggons without an attack from Lord Chelmsford, remains, as before, inexplicable. The waggons cannot by possibility have been two miles away when he returned.
