The pace of the ox-waggon is about a mile and a half an hour, and drifts and hills cause frequent delays. Take for instance the train of No. 1 Column: it accomplished the march to Etshowe, a distance of thirty-seven miles, in between five and six days—from daylight on the 18th to 10 A.M. 23rd—having only been detained by the enemy at Inyezane for about two hours: the train was necessarily some six miles in length, an element of the utmost danger had the swift-footed Zulus been a little more enterprising. Two or three thousand Zulus might easily have prevented Colonel Pearson reaching Etshowe _with_ his train, in spite of all the precautions he might and did take. The commanding officers of the various columns had no option in the matter of waggon-train, and as far as they were concerned the transport under their control worked well. The difficulty of moving with a long train of waggons during the summer, or rainy season, can scarcely be exaggerated. Double spanning over drifts and soft places, making bad places good with brushwood, oxen getting tired owing to the length of time they were yoked, rather than from the distance travelled, all gave endless trouble and anxiety, and entirely upset all calculations as to distances to be traversed. The transport duties of No. 1 Column were admirably carried out by Captain Pelly Clarke and Assistant-Commissary Kevill Davis.[167] The force advanced from the Tugela in two columns—the first crossed the Inyoni and encamped—weather very wet and trying. The second column started on the following day (19th) and joined its leader at Umsundusi. At this camp the troops remained during the 20th. The reconnoitring parties had reported the Amatikulu impassable, and Colonel Pearson pushed forward engineers (native pioneers), with a strong working-party and guard, to render the drift practicable, which, after a day’s hard work, was done. On the 21st the column again advanced, and, crossing the Amatikulu, encamped in the evening at Kwasamabela, four miles from Inyezane; during the day a reconnoitring party burnt a military kraal near Ngingindhlovu. Up to this time only a few of the enemy’s scouts had been seen, and nothing had occurred beyond an occasional nocturnal alarm. On the 22nd the column marched at 5 A.M., crossed the Inyezane River, and halted for breakfast, and to outspan the oxen for a couple of hours, in a fairly open spot, though the country round was a good deal covered with bush. The halt here was unavoidable, as there was no water for some distance beyond, but the country had been previously carefully scouted by the mounted troops under Major Barrow.