Meanwhile the outposts, commanding the drifts leading from the colony into Kaffirland, were so weakly manned, from the want of a sufficient military force on the frontier [Note 4], that the Kaffirs passed beyond the range of the guns, but clearly in sight, driving flocks of sheep and cattle in thousands before them. At Block Drift, they brought their plunder to a sunny slope, and shouted in derision their usual cry of "Izapa!" "Come on!" They exchanged shots with the fort, and drove off a number of "slaughter cattle." Had Major Campbell (of the 91st) permitted a sufficient number of men to leave the defences for the purpose of re-capturing the animals, there would have been a grand rush from the reserve of the enemy, who were concealed in the neighbouring kloofs and villages. Almost all the outposts were similarly assailed, and all were well defended by the military. A general order was issued, in which Lieutenants Cole, Dixon, Metcalf, and Mill, and Ensign Thom, 91st Regiment, and Lieutenant Bourchier, R.E., were commended for the able stand they had made against the enemy. His Excellency Sir Peregrine Maitland again took up his quarters at Graham's Town, on the 9th of May. One of his first arrangements was to appoint Major Armstrong, Cape Mounted Rifles, to the command of the district to Bathurst, with a view to protect the colonists there, and enable them to recommence the cultivation of that beautiful and fertile locality. Major Armstrong is an officer of long standing and great experience in the Colony, and fully worthy of the trust reposed in him. The inhabitants of Bathurst, whose only place of refuge was the church, hailed the arrival of Major Armstrong and his force with great joy and satisfaction. Fort Peddie, a large military station under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Lindsay, 91st Regiment, had in the meantime become the scene of Kaffir warfare. The I'Slambie tribes in its neighbourhood had professed to remain neutral, until they found the Gaikas were enriching themselves with the plunder of the Colony. These very I'Slambie and Congo tribes received the thanks of Government with praises and presents of money only two years before, in consideration of their peaceful dispositions towards us. The Gaikas may be considered a more worthy foe than these treacherous wretches paid and petted by us. The Gaikas have ever professed an utter abhorrence of the white man; and, although Sandilla, their chief, has occasionally been coaxed or frightened into sending to our authorities persuasive, humble, and pathetic messages, he has frequently retracted them, or followed them up by some daring acts of violence or aggression.