It was a well-known fact that the fighting-men of the Zulu nation were with their army, and that the only occupants of the kraals to be raided were the women, children, and the infirm and other non-combatants; therefore the General’s following remark, “I am satisfied that the more the Zulu nation at large feels the strain brought upon them by the war, the more anxious will they be to see it brought to an end,” was of a highly Christian, wise, and soldierly nature, hardly to be matched by anything attributed to the Zulu monarch himself. Sir Henry Bulwer’s replies were temperate but decided. He pointed out that the statement contained in Lord Chelmsford’s despatch to the Secretary of State for War, implying that the Governor’s interference had (or might have) seriously interfered with the relief of Etshowe, was erroneous; Etshowe having been relieved on the 3rd of April, five days before Sir Henry even heard of the order for the Natal natives to make raids. To the General himself he observes that his interference had been limited to approval of the action of the district commander, who declined to employ his force in a manner contrary to the express stipulations under which they were raised, and concludes: “The views of this Government are very strongly against the employment, under the present circumstances, of the native levies or native population along the border in making raids into the Zulu country, as being, in the opinion of the Government, calculated to invite retaliation, and also as being demoralising to the natives engaged in raiding” (_ibid._ p. 55). The Lieut.-Governor’s views were that these native levies “were called out expressly and solely for service in the colony, and for the defence of the colony, and were placed under the colonial district commanders for that purpose only,” and that no authority had been given to employ these native levies “on any service in the Zulu country” (_ibid._ p. 54). And it seems that raids along the border had been ordered _after_ the relief of Etshowe was effected. Sir H. Bulwer writes, 16th April, that he had received, on the 7th, a copy of a military telegram written after the relief of Etshowe, showing that the General had “ordered raids to be made across the border wherever feasible,” and, on the following day, a copy of a memorandum, written from Etshowe by Colonel Crealock, the Assistant Military Secretary, and addressed to the officer commanding at the Lower Tugela, and, among other things, it contained the following instruction: “Send word up to the frontier to raid across the river wherever the river permits.” And the same evening he heard of the native levies having been required to cross (_ibid._ p. 53).