Colonel Durnford reached the camp, and received all the information Lieut.-Colonel Pulleine could afford, finding the situation to be:—Lonsdale’s natives on outpost duty on the hills to the left, the guns in position on the left of the camp, and the infantry under arms. The oxen were driven into camp and—Mr. Brickhill says—tied to the yokes, but not inspanned. Constant reports were coming in from the hills to the left—“The enemy are in force behind the hills.” “The enemy are in three columns.” “One column is moving to the left rear, and one towards the General.” “The enemy are retiring in every direction.” The enemy’s force was given at 400 to 600. On hearing these reports, Colonel Durnford sent one troop Natal Native Horse to reinforce his baggage guard; two troops to the hills to the left (under Captains G. Shepstone and Barton)—one to move along the crest of the range, one to search the valley beyond—and determined himself to go out to the front “and prevent the one column joining the ‘impi,’ which was supposed at that time to be engaged with the troops under the General;” he asked Lieut.-Colonel Pulleine for two companies of the 24th, to which Colonel Pulleine replied, “that two companies could ill be spared, but that if Colonel Durnford ordered them, of course they should go.” On consideration, Colonel Durnford decided only to take his own men,[126] and moved out with his remaining two troops Natal Native Horse, followed by Major Russell’s rocket battery, with its escort of a company of Native Contingent, under Captain Nourse. A company 1-24th, under Lieutenant Cavaye, was sent out as a picquet to the hills about 1200 yards north of the camp, and the remainder of the troops dismissed to their private parades, where the men were to lie down in readiness to turn out if required. At this time there was no expectation of an attack during the day, and no idea had been formed regarding the probable strength of the enemy.[127] The two troops sent on the hills to the left “to ascertain the enemy’s movements,” had proceeded “about five miles from the camp,” when “the Zulu army came forward, advancing straight on towards the camp.” Captain Shepstone ordered a retreat on the camp, and himself rode in with the warning that the “whole Zulu army was advancing to attack it.”[128] Captain Shepstone met Captain Gardner on reaching the camp, and both officers then went to Colonel Pulleine, but, says Captain Gardner, the enemy were “already on the hill on our left in large numbers.”