It will be quite May before we hear of serious
operations in Zululand, unless indeed Colonel Pearson bursts out of Ekowe, or Lord Chelmsford endeavours to relieve him. Colonel Wood even waits for reinforcements, unable to drive Umbelini from his position on the hills in front. The reinforcements ought to be in Natal by the first days of April, but will hardly have been collected on our side of the Tugela before the 15th. There will then, according to the Times, be 1,200 cavalry, 14.000 infantry, all whites, and 35 guns, in readiness for action ; but the crops in Zululand will have been reaped, and the grass burned, and the want of supplies and forage will necessitate enormous trains of waggons, and conse- quently very slow movements. Cetewayo, it is stated, has chosen an almost inaccessible position, thirty miles north of Ulundi, in which to make his final stand, and will then retreat further into the Swazi country, which his forefathers left. The British army will this time be carefully handled, but we must not expect to hear of their arrival at Ulundi before the middle of May, at the earliest.
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