The news from Natal, received this week, extends only to
Febru- ary 28th, and includes only one item of importance. The Zulus have not entered the colony, and confine their military operations -to an effort to close Colonel Pearson's communications. He is still safe, but an effort will, it is stated, be made to bring away part of his force, an expedition being organised at Fort Pearson, which will include all available mounted men and the reinforce- ments landed from the Shah,' and will march without waggons. The Boers, both in the Transvaal and the Orange Free State, re- main tranquil, though neutral; and the natives have not risen, but a section of the Basutos have threatened attack on Palmfontein, and mounted men have been ordered up from Fort Beaufort and Queenstown to meet them. The feeling against Lord Chelms- ford in the colony appears to be very bitter, though partly caused by his demand for preparations which the citizens think unnecessary, and the inquiries ordered into the disaster at Isandlana afford very little light as to its causes. It only remains certain that Lord Chelmsford did not entrench the camp, that he made no effective arrangements to keep up com- munication with it, and that he knew nothing of the country he was invading. The evidence that Cetewayo intended to destroy his column rather than to invade Natal, and that the attack on Rorke's Drift was made in defiance of orders, increases ; but there is no certain information from Ulundi, whence we obtain news only from deserters.
