To return to Nkandhla. When he received intelligence to the effect that a number of rebels were in hiding in a small, though dense, forest at Ensingabantu, near Qudeni, at which place there was a small store, McKenzie planned a night march, on the 24th, with the object of surrounding the forest before daylight the following morning. Guided by Sergt. E. Titlestad, Z.M.R., the force[202] left at dusk. It proceeded by a narrow footpath along the extraordinarily steep sides of the Devil's Gorge, where a false step might easily have resulted in man or animal being precipitated forthwith into the Insuze, 1,000 feet below. A pack-horse, indeed, carrying ammunition did miss its footing, when it instantly rolled headlong into the vast, yawning gulf below. Merely to cross the drift at the bottom took three hours on that cold, dark and memorable night. Ntingwe was reached at 2 a.m. "Although a misty morning," says McKenzie, "the movement of surrounding the position was most accurately carried out, and when day broke, and the mist had lifted, the bush in which the rebels had been reported to be located was completely surrounded by a cordon of troops. Unfortunately, however, the enemy were not there, and although the bush and adjacent country were thoroughly searched, none of them could be found, although there was every trace of recent occupation of the ground."[203] The same day, Inspector Dimmick, with 105 N.P., made a reconnaissance in the direction of Komo and Fort Yolland. Returning to Nomangci on the 27th by the waggon road viâ Calverley's store, McKenzie, as a preliminary to attacking the rebels known to be concealed in the Nkandhla forests, moved the following day a few miles to the high and comparatively flat country at Dhlabe. Although the campaign was being conducted without the direct assistance of the Imperial Government, the mother-country did not permit the proceedings to go on without taking a special interest therein. Major-General T.E. Stephenson, C.B., Commanding the Transvaal District, was deputed to witness some, at any rate, of the operations. He arrived at Nomangci, with his staff officer and aide-de-camp, on the 27th, when, as Colonel McKenzie's guest, several opportunities occurred, during the three weeks he was in the district, of observing what took place.