to colonize Kaffraria". Officially, Stockenström was also beset by the problem that, as lieutenant-governor, he was still legally dependent on Sir Benjamin d’Urban, the overall Governor of the Cape, who resented the fact that he had been overlooked when the British parliament authorised Stockenström to take over the frontier. An additional problem was that he also still lacked authority over the military. Under immense pressure from the frontier settlers' press campaign, Stockenström became increasingly drawn into a series of bitter legal battles. In February 1838 he started a libel action, after being publicly accused of murder, and requested the new governor, Sir George Napier, to launch a full inquiry. Stockenström was exonerated by the court of inquiry in June 1838, but nonetheless felt his position hopeless, and travelled to Britain to consult Glenelg. Glenelg refused to accept Stockenström's resignation, but his successor, Lord Normanby, dismissed Stockenström in August 1839. Dispirited, Stockenström returned to the Cape in May 1840 and retired to his farm Klipkraal (in the Swaershoek Valley near Somerset East), making only occasional trips to Uitenhage and Cape Town. In 1842, a severe drought effected the region, causing an increasing in cross-border cattle raiding. This, together with the growing neglect of Stockenström's treaty system, began to lead to growing violence along the frontier. In 1844, the new governor of the Cape, Sir Peregrine Maitland, abolished Stockenström's treaty system altogether, imposing instead a unilateral system of more severe treaties. Certain provisions of the new treaty system, such as those allowing frontier settlers to counter-raid their Xhosa neighbours if they believed that cattle had been stolen, led to a sharp increase in violence. Maitland's system also involved building a system of military fortifications on Xhosa lands so as to secure the frontier militarily. The new governor also began to settle Mfengu in frontier Xhosa territory, and opened parts of it up for permanent white settlement. Aware of impending war, in 1845 Stockenström moved to his farm Maasström, at the foot of the Kaga Mountains, where he remained until April 1846 when the Seventh Frontier War broke out. The 7th Frontier War (1846-1847) When the Seventh Frontier War (the "Amatola War") erupted, the conventional imperial troops soon suffered setbacks in the rough frontier terrain. Their long troop columns were slow and easily ambushed by the elusive Xhosa gunmen. Faced with increasing losses and a full-scale invasion of the Xhosa armies across the