On the Natal frontier affairs had become somewhat unsettled. The Boers who had been swept off from the Standerton line were dribbling across the frontier, and others round about Vryheid and Utrecht seemed to be waiting an opportunity to effect a concentration. At the end of July it became certain that the foe was gathering in good numbers to the east of Nqutu, and that many more might be creeping through the long grass to other parts of the country which had become more or less settled. On the 28th of July things came to a climax. Major F. A. Henderson (8th Hussars), who with 200 mounted men (8th Hussars and Natal Volunteer Composite Regiment) was scouring the locality around Nqutu, came on the foe and engaged them. The marauders were more than usually strong and more than usually tenacious. They launched themselves, in a mass of 400, with great dash against the small British force, in the hope to intercept the troops if possible during their retirement to Nondweni; but through the skill of the commanding officer and the dash of 20 men of the Natal Volunteers, who raced them for a kopje and won, the Boers were frustrated. The fighting lasted the whole day, and the Boers made frantic efforts to capture a gun of the 67th Battery R.F.A., but with great energy the piece of contention was galloped off under a brisk fusillade from the foe till it was safely out of their range. Doggedly both parties battled together, with the result that Major Jervis-Edwards, a gallant officer whose loss was much deplored, and three men were killed, and five were wounded. Soon after this, the Boers becoming still more obstreperous, it was arranged that Lieut.-General Sir H. Hildyard's command should be strengthened by the addition of the column of Colonel Stewart, whose departure for Dundee we may remember, and another under Colonel Pulteney. This column consisted of the Victorian Mounted Rifles (moved from the Delagoa line), a squadron of the 8th Hussars, the Dublin Fusiliers Mounted Infantry, and two guns. While this mobile column was sweeping from Utrecht to Kambuladraai, Colonel Stewart was marching from Dundee through Vryheid towards the same destination. A junction was effected on the 23rd of August, on which date a brisk encounter took place between Colonel Pulteney's men and the Boers who were sneaking in the west of the Schurveberg. In the engagement two of the Victorians were killed and five wounded.