At 4.30 a.m. all stood to arms. Half an hour later, a troop under Lieut. J.H.C. Nuss was sent out, with orders to reconnoitre in the direction in which the _impi_ had been seen the previous evening. If it was not in sight, he was to go to a suitable hill and try and get into communication with Mackay by heliograph. About 6 a.m., however, Nuss and his troop, after firing a couple of shots by way of alarm, rode back to report that the enemy was approaching in force and was close at hand. As he spoke, the latter could be heard shouting their war-cry "Usutu" as they advanced. In a few moments, a dark mass could be observed in the half-light of early dawn,[216] streaming rapidly over a small neck some 700 yards north-east of the square. They moved at once into the bed of the stream where, it so happened, the cattle seized by Leuchars on the preceding day had been left for the night. A smaller force (left 'horn') could, about the same time, be seen sweeping along the foot of Mpukunyoni in rear of the bivouac, as if to attack from the _donga_ on the west. Another force, evidently the right 'horn,' detaching itself from the 'chest,' came down the stream to engage the north side of the square. The attack opened at 6.15 a.m. on the eastern face, by the enemy causing the cattle, which they had driven ahead of them, to rush wildly at the square on emerging from the _donga_ referred to. The order was thereupon given to fire, when, at the first volley, fifteen of the cattle fell within 15 or 20 yards of the troops. Two or three of those rebels who were advancing under cover of the cattle were also killed. This had the effect of checking the enemy's rush for a time. The rebels then proceeded to encircle the square, keeping well under the excellent available cover. Repeated attempts were made to rush at the bivouac through the open ground between it and the _dongas_, but, on each occasion, the attack was overwhelmed by steady, well-directed fire. The fight had by now assumed practically all the characteristics peculiar to South African warfare. There were the Militia Reserves, the majority of them Dutchmen, their horses already saddled, prepared, in accordance with the practice of their forefathers, on being too hardly pressed, to mount and retire to the next ridge and again contend against overwhelming odds. There, too, were the Active Militia, most of them the descendants of Scotchmen or Englishmen, who, true to the custom of _their_ ancestors, had, with saddles planted on the ground, taken shelter behind them, having come to stay and fight to the bitter end. The enemy, again, delivered his attack in true Zulu style. The 'horns' had deployed from the 'chest' to right and left in the ancient orthodox manner with the idea of encircling, closing in on, and eventually massacring, their opponents to a man. Sibindi and his men, too, were there, though only at a later stage did they get a chance of exhibiting the martial instincts of their tribe.