On the morning after the return of Colonel Glyn’s Column to Rorke’s Drift, “Commandant Lonsdale mustered the Contingent and called out the indunas, and told them in the hearing of all that he wanted to find out the men who were courageous and would stand by their officers and die with them if necessary, and that those who were willing to do this were to come forward. At this time the mounted infantry and volunteers were moving off to Helpmakaar. The general reply of the Contingent was that they were willing to go over to fight along with the white people, their shield against Cetywayo; but that now that they saw their shield going away they would not go over by themselves, and that no one could say he was not afraid.”[153] “They were then dismissed, but in the afternoon they were all disarmed (of their guns), and their belts and puggaries and blankets taken from them by their officers. Each company had a flag, which they asked to take home with them; some were allowed to do so, but others were not. They were then all told to go home, and to keep together till they reached the Umsinga, and then to divide each for his own home.” On January 24th, Colonel Glyn wrote to Lord Chelmsford: “The whole of the Native Contingent walked off this morning. Their rifles were taken from them; all the hospital-bearers then went, and now the Native Pioneers are going. I am now left without any natives.” The General immediately forwarded Colonel Glyn’s letter to Sir Henry Bulwer, with the remark: “Unless these men are at once ordered back to their regiments, or punished for refusing to go, the most serious consequences will ensue” (_ibid._ p. 3).