. . . Trading is and has been for months entirely suspended in this
district. The fields are unplanted, no ploughs or Kafir-picks at
work--all are in a state of excitement, not knowing the moment a
collision may take place. Hunger will stare many in the face next year,
and all the men yelling to their chiefs to be let loose and put an end
to this state of uncertainty."

Mr. Nunn encloses an account by an eye-witness of a battle which took
place on the 2d October 1881 between Oham's army and the Maquilisini
Tribe. The following is an extract:--"On the 2nd there was a heavy mist,
and on moving forward the mounted party found themselves in the midst
of the enemy (the Maquilisini), and on hearing a cry to stab the horses,
they rode through them with no casualty (except one horse slightly
wounded with a bullet). The army, moving in a half circle, now became
generally engaged in a hand-to-hand fight, and our men were checked
and annoyed by a number of the enemy armed with guns, who were in a
stone-kraal and kept up a constant fire. Amatonga, now at the head of
the mounted party, charged and drove the enemy out of the kraal, from
which they three several times charged the enemy on the flank, assisted
by a small infantry party, and cut paths through their ranks. The fight,
which had now lasted nearly an hour, commenced to flag, and Oham's army
making a sudden rush entirely routed the enemy, and the carnage lasted
to the Bevan river, the boundary of the Transvaal. No women or children
were killed, but out of an army of about 1500 of the enemy but few
escaped" (sic) . . . . "The men, as they were being killed, repeatedly
exclaimed, 'We are dying through Umnyamana and Umlabaku.'"

In the "Natal Mercury" of the 13th March occurs the following:--

"_Zulu Country._--As to the state of the country it is something we