THE SHANGANI PATROL, 723 Wilson had come close to theking's bivouac inthe dark, andhad shouted to thenatives near that he wouldnot harm them, and that all he wished to do was to speak with the king;but the Matabele came crowding round the little party in large numbers, and at that moment a driving shower of rain made it difficult to see what was happening. Wilson therefore turned and rode back half a mile to get clear of the enemy. Then he halted for thenight. On hearing that Wilson meant to camp on the other side of the river, Forbes sent off there was deep water at the ford and a strong current. They told how at dawn Wilson and his patrol had ridden up to the king's camp, calling out that they wished to speak with Lobengula. They had been fired upon, and returned the fire. Then finding they were hopelessly outnumbered they began to retreat.

The Matabele pressed on upon all sides and were trying to surround them, when Wilson told Burnham and the two troopers, the best mounted men in the patrol, to ride hard for the ford and bring back reinforcements. As Burn-Captain Borrow and some twenty troopers to his aid, with a message that he himself would come on with the rest of the column and the Maxim guns at daybreak. Borrow joinedWilson without meeting with any of the enemy At dawnonDecember 4th Major Forbes marchedoff. Toreach the ford of the Shangani he had to go for somedistance between theriverbank and the edge of a dense mass ofbush. Hehadhardlystartedwhenfiring was heard across the river, showing that Wilson's party was already in action. Shortly after, hamandhis comrades approached the river theyhad to dash throughagreatcolumn of Matabele that had already interposed between Wilson and his only line of retreat.

It may be,asked why did not the rest of the patrol join in this dash for the ford. It was impossible. Several horses had been shot, the rest were mostly tiredout, and there wereseveral wounded and dismounted men who could not be left behind. Forbes now had to lai e a terriblesituation. The Maxims couldnot begot across the swollen river, and a heavy fire was opened on Forbes's column from t.he bush on the left. The party halted and brought the Maxims and their rifles to bear on the points where the puffs of smoke in the bush showed the enemy were in ambush.

After a hard sight, in which five men were wounded, the enemy's fire gradually ceased, and the little party fell back to a better ion near the river. While the fight was in progress three men from Wilson's party— Burnham, an American and trooper-. and Ingram— had swum their horses across the river and joined Forbes. They brought terrible news. "Ithink Imay say," said Burnham, " that we an last survivors of that party." They had tried rd that had been easily crossed the night before, but the river was rising rapidly, and to send a handful of troopers to swim across wouldbe only to throwawaymorelives inahope-■iitcrprise. So he remainedtillnext dayby theShangani,hopingthat someof Wilson's party might get down to the river bank, or that the river might fall. Next day all hope was abandoned, and he began his retreat along the river bank, sending back Burnham and Ingrain with a message to Buluwayo, asking for a relief column to be seni to his assistance.

He was already short of supplies, and during the retreat his men lived chiefly by killing and eating the horses, only a few at last being left for the sick and wounded to ride upon. He had in the first days of the retreat more than one sight with the .Matabele who hung upon his flanksand rear. The iainj i ason had begun, and the ceaseless downpour made the march