Clyde December 1st. 1868 Dear Sir, I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letters of yesterday, I have written several times, but for reasons before stated, they have been delayed in transition. None of the messengers sent after the Force have returned, and we have no intimation whatever of the state of things at the Front, or of the present whereabouts of our people. I feel considerable anxiety about my friend, Mr. Burton, although he is more likely to travel in safety than anyone I know. It is scarcely necessary to comment further than I have already done, upon what appears to be, to me, a most extraodinary omission or oversight, - almost purposely done, as it could hardly by any possibility have oscaped notice, that means of communication was a necessity, The Force may be thrashed, cut off, or anything else under the sun, for aught we know of the matter. My repeated representations have not met with the slightest attention whatever. I am not clear that anything could be done to remedy the state of things, inasmuch as it might give rise to what occurred in Patea, with Mr. Parris and the Officers in Command. I do the best I can, under the existing conditions of things; the actual state of which Mr. Hamlin will more fully represent to you. I issued the half rations to the women, and I also wrote that the Government had agreed to do so, by