The new accounts of the skirmishes between Colonel Wood and
Umbelini on 28th and 29th March represent them as very serious affairs. The details are still imperfect, but Colonel Wood appears to have been beguiled into an attempt to seize a quan- tity of cattle on the top of a flat hill, called variously " Mlobane " and " Zlobane." He obtained the cattle, but CetsWayo had either led or sent a heavY division of his army to the assistance of his ally; and Colonel Wood found himself surrounded. He was completely in a trap. He cut his way through by dint of hard fighting;-bht" lost seven-Officers and ninety-one men, and on the 29th his camp itself, on Kambula Kop, was attacked by the enemy in force. The Zulus behaved with their usual courage, renewing the attack four times, in spite of heavy losses ; but they were.: at:last beaten back, and- pursued for some distance. Two more officers, Lieutenant Nicolson and Lieutenant Bright, were killed on this day and many wounded, and the total loss on both days, by the smallest accounts, was eighteen officers and 220 men killed and wounded. - Nor is it as yet quite cer- tain that this attack would not be renewed, the destruction Of Colonel Wood's force being evidently an object with Cete- sva.yo, even if he was not personally present on the 29th. It is stated in some accounts that Colonel Wood's attack on Mlobane was intended as a diversion, but this must be inaccurate, as he was wholly unaware of the neighbourhood of Cetewayo's army. He more probably wanted the cattle.
