When F.E. van Rooyen, Chief Leader of the Krantzkop Reserves, heard on the 6th that Leuchars proposed operating at Mpanza on the following day, he arranged with about twenty of his men, not then mobilized and but few of them armed, to go and watch the operations. They left an hour before dawn. Just after sunrise, they ascertained that a body of Natives had been seen the same morning making towards the Dimane stream. On further investigation, it transpired that the party consisted of Bambata's people. The Magistrate, on being advised, wired the information to headquarters. Van Rooyen volunteered, if reinforced, to follow up and contain the rebels. The offer was accepted, and support promised. He was accordingly instructed to mobilize. At 9.30 a.m. on the 8th, the fifty-four men that had come in, left and, crossing the Tugela at Watton's drift, were not long in finding unmistakable traces of the fugitives. It seemed at first as if they had made for the Qudeni forests.[152] Van Rooyen went on to Ntingwe store, actually crossing, without knowing it, the route that had been taken the day before by Bambata. He at once communicated his intelligence to the Magistrate, Empandhleni, and, leaving Ntingwe at 2 a.m. on the 9th, reached Empandhleni with his men at 6 a.m. Shortly after his arrival, word came that Bambata was encamped at the Mome gorge. By this time, about thirty of the Z.M.R. had mobilized and were at Empandhleni. Van Rooyen proposed that the rebels should be at once attacked. To this course, the commanding officer (Major W.A. Vanderplank), who arrived in the evening, would not agree, on the ground that the local Chiefs had not been ordered to arm. Van Rooyen made other efforts in the direction of aggressive action by European troops, but, meeting with no success, left with his men on the morning of the 10th to protect the European families at Krantzkop against a possible rising in that part of the country.