CABLE NEWS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 36, 10 May 1906, Page 3

CABLE NEWS.

J Natal Rising.

A SHARP ENGAGEMENT.

Pietermaritzburg, May 6.

Colonel Mansell has reached Fort Yolland, eighteen miles west of Eshowe. He reconnoitres towards Cetewayo’s grave. Whilst the force was travelling through a forest several shots were fired, wounding a trooper. A troop descending a hill in single file on entering more open country met two hundred Zulus, who desperately charged the vanguard of the Natal Mounted Rifles and almost got in amongst the troopers. The Natal supporters rushed up and the attack was repelled. Sixty Zulus were killed and many wounded. A thousand rebels were seen, the indications being that while a portion made the first onslaught, they engaged in an encircling movement which proved premature.

Colonel Mansel reports that the Native Police attached to the Natal Mounted Rifles behaved courageously and did good work during the engagement. Colonel Mansel captured 200 cattle and burned many kraals.

On emerging from the forest and on returning to the fort, small bodies of the enemy followed him, sniping him. The fire was returned, the Zulus losing several of their number. Colonel Mansel commands the Durban Light Infantry, whose steadiness at a critical stage prevented serious casualties.

Only Colonel Hansel’s prompt disposition of his forces prevented the assailants from completing the identical cresent formation employed at Isandlwana, where a British force was overwhelmed in 1879. Colonel Mansel is trying to keep the rebels together and then crush them. FANATICAL ZULUS. The rebels were prepared by a witch-doctor before the fight. Believing they were invulnerable they desperately, sustaining losses. The result has Undermined the witch-doctor’s prestige. The Maxims demoralised the waverers. Bambaata, mounted on a white horse, led the attack. The rebels checked the British column’s advance by firing the grass. The infantry spent eighteen hours marching and fighting before they regained Fort Yolland.