Due to being starved after the siege, the Basotho signed a treaty in April 1866 in which they agreed to surrender 3 000 cattle. They also surrendered more than two-thirds of their arable land. At the time, Basotho faced large scale starvation and thus Moshoeshoe and his subjects agreed to the Orange Free State's terms. The land they forfeited during this treaty included conquered territory on the west of the bank of the Caledon River and Orange River. This left Basotho with a significantly reduced cultivable area close to Thaba Bosiu, as well as 32km of arable soil on the east bank of the Caledon River. Villagers, however, did not vacate the surrendered territory and in March 1867, Orange Free State President Johannes Henricus Brand ordered both a resumption and intensification of Free State military action.