FURTHER OPERATIONS BY ZULULAND FIELD FORCE.--ACTION AT MANZIPAMBANA.--ENEMY DECIDES TO MOVE IN FORCE TO MOME. Hitherto McKenzie's efforts to come into conflict with the enemy had met with comparatively little success, and this in spite of the fact that the Zululand Field Force had been over three weeks on the spot. Ever since the force arrived, the men had, indeed, been kept particularly busy. Reconnaissances had been carried out time after time in Insuze valley and at Nkandhla by McKenzie, and in the neighbourhood of Macala and Qudeni by Barker, four columns had made a converging movement on Cetshwayo's grave (the enemy's headquarters), then had come Sigananda's negotiations for surrender, the reconnaissance to Macala, followed by further activity in the directions of Tate, Mome and Komo. In the course of the operations, many rebels had been come across, but as they were nearly always in small parties, it was impossible for those unacquainted with the peculiar conditions to repress feelings of disappointment with the results that had been achieved by the end of May, especially as intelligence went to show that Bambata and Company were at the head of at least 1,000 men, and that these numbers were constantly increasing. Where was this ever-vanishing _impi_? What was the best way of making it fight? That was the problem McKenzie was called on to solve. He had not merely to be ready to fight when it suited him to do so, but to hunt for the rebels and make them fight, however much in favour of the latter locality and time might happen to be. His difficulties were, therefore, primarily and, indeed, almost entirely of a strategical character. He, of course, knew of the rebels' perpetually shifting from one place to another on purpose to avoid a conflict, and, at the same time, of always being on the alert to take advantage of detached sections of the troops. That such were their methods had of itself required time to ascertain. The methods were novel. There was nothing of that kind during the Zulu War.[219] Sometimes the enemy would be at Nkandhla, at others at Macala. At each of these places there were dense forests and rocky hiding-places. The intervening country, moreover, was exceedingly rough, but so well known to the rebels that they could travel over it by night with the greatest ease. In these circumstances, in addition to robbing them of all food supplies to be found about Nkandhla, the O.C. came to the conclusion that the only policy was to drive the forests in as thorough and systematic a manner as possible. But to carry this out effectively with the men at his disposal was out of the question. That, at any rate, was the view of General Stephenson and other competent authorities. Hence he was compelled to adopt procedure which he felt might easily fail in actually cornering the enemy. However, in order that the best might be done, he decided to undertake and persevere with the drives.