I Rumours have been spread all the week that Captain Wilson,
of the Bechuanaland police, with forty men, half of them in the employ of the Chartered Company, have been cut off by the Matabele. Up to Friday afternoon, however, there was no confirmation of this intelligence, which rests entirely upon the absence of news, and the fear that Captain Wilson's stock of munitions could not have lasted through so many days. The defect of news may be explained by the swollen state of the rivers, and the want of ammunition would have induced Captain Wilson to retreat either towards the Shangani, or in a longer but easier direction towards Fort Salisbury. There is just a possibility, moreover, that the party are not slain, but taken prisoner by Lobengula, and held as hostages. There is, in fact, grave reason for apprehension ; but none as yet for the despair expressed in some of the private telegrams to London,—a despair not shared by Captain Wilson's superior, Sir Henry Loch.
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