He ostensibly had an uneasy relationship with the colonial authorities however, and agreed to rent grazing land from Xhosa chief Hintsa. In 1829 Louis sent his son Carolus to graze their cattle along the Black Kei River, then the northern boundary of British Kaffraria. In 1833 (or 34) Louis also crossed the neutral zone to join his son. Here a substantial boer community, at odds with the colonial government, was already living in exile. With Louis acting as their leader, colonel Harry Smith deemed him an agitator of the sixth Xhosa war, and planned to arrest him. Tregardt however moved his family and livestock to grazing land between the Caledon and Orange Rivers, just outside the colony, where he resided in 1835.