BADEN POWELL, Robert Stephenson Smyth, 1st Baron (1857-1941). Autograph letter signed to Lt. Col. George Kekevich, Mafeking, 22 November [18]99, writing while under siege, 'Here they have closed round us - at a respectful distance bien entendu - and are doing us no harm. We are lying low under it waiting till we see another chance of going at them. In the few scraps we have had we have been exceediingly lucky in our bags - and from all accounts and computations, allowing for exaggerations etc, the total of killed is not under 100, and the wounded are allowed to be 450, and they have accordingly nicknamed Mafeking as 'very vicious'; referring to the need for food stuffs to be sent up from the Cape as soon as the siege ends, 'The natives here especially will be in a state of want', to morale, and the ineffectiveness of the enemy, 2 pages, 8vo, official army envelope addressed in autograph to 'Colonel Kekevich, Kimberley', endorsed in blue pencil on the face by the commandant at Vryburg and on the verso 'found on the veldt near Gunysa Bechuanaland' (postmarked 'Vryburg, Sep 8 1900' and 'Mafeking Sept. 10 1900'). Baden Powell had been despatched in 1899 to raise two regiments for the defence of Bechuanaland and Matabeleland. He was at Mafeking on the outbreak of war, when it was at once besieged by General Cronje. Baden Powell's organisation and improvisation sustained the siege for 217 days until the relief of Mafeking on 17 May 1900. Colonel Robert Kekevich (1854-1914) was the defender of Kinberley from 15 October 1899 - 15 February 1900.