While the troops were absent, Baden-Powell did not leave his prairie-dog-holes and come out, because he was afraid the Boers might catch him out, and that would be the end of Baden-Powell and his letter writing. A Boer commando had to be formed and kept near the border to protect the women and children from these savages armed by the English. All of the many thousands of Kaffirs in the Rustenburg district were so armed, and at times General de la Rey would have to abandon all operations against the English and go and fight them, to drive them far from the women and children. All the thousands of Kaffirs between Pretoria and Pietersburg and those to the north of Pietersburg were also armed by the English, and General Beyers had to fight them much more than he did the latter, in order to save the women and children from being outraged and murdered. Armed Kaffirs were stationed all along the Pretoria-Pietersburg railway line and did all the work that Joe Chamberlain told the British Parliament the English soldiers were doing. Northeast of Pretoria, north of Middleburg and all about Lydenburg and Pilgrims' Rest, were thousands of England's savage allies who murdered hundreds of men, women and children. In the east, about Komati Poort and along the Swazie-land border, the same conditions prevailed and the outrages committed are too sickening to put in print. Nearly sixty men were attacked, murdered and cut into pieces at one place. All the blockhouses along the eastern border were manned with armed Kaffirs. About thirty women and children who had their homes burnt on the Piet-Retief border by the English and were left to starve to death, started out on foot to find some Boer commando, and get food and relief. They had to pass through this line of blockhouses manned by the armed Kaffirs. The savages seized and outraged all of them, and then drove them into the high veldt, where they were abandoned. They were found by the Boers, and a more sickening sight or characteristic picture of English brutality and savage outrage could not be imagined. In the face of all this, Lord Kitchener, Lord Milner and Joe Chamberlain swore to the world that no armed Kaffirs were employed by the English troops! There were between 30,000 and 40,000 Kaffirs armed by the English, and instructed to kill off the Boers. The Kaffirs had always been friendly to the Boers but the English went to them, and told them that if they did not take up arms against the Boers, they would destroy all their food and not allow them to grow any more as long as the war lasted. The Kaffirs in the mountains near Lydenburg were not to be so threatened because the English knew them and were afraid of them. In order to get them to fight the Boers, the English promised to give them all the Boer farms in their section at the end of the war. Many of my good friends were murdered in cold blood by these same Kaffirs.