THE CAPE BUFFALO 93 



swept Eastern Africa in a ghastly tornado of desola- 

 tion, spreading everywhere, through wild game and 

 tame cattle, through buffalo and eland, through 

 giraffe and wart-hog, through Nuer heifer and Galla 

 ox. 1 By 1 890 the scourge had appeared in British 

 East Africa and in the adjoining German territory. 

 So severely did the wild buffaloes suffer that it is 

 said that in one day an English official saw about a 

 hundred sick animals in various stages of the disease. 

 The great herds which had enlivened the Kawenda 

 district with their lowing were all but wiped out, and 

 in many parts of the Uganda Protectorate the buffalo 

 became entirely extinct. Eland and wart-hog also 

 suffered severely ; elephants and hippopotami, 

 rhinoceroses and wildebeest remained unharmed. 

 In 1892 the plague had reached the north of Nyassa, 

 causing a mortality of over ninety per cent ; in 1895 

 it entered Matebel eland. At last, in Cape Colony, 

 the rinderpest came into contact with the forces of 

 civilisation, and the services of a distinguished 

 scientist were called in to endeavour to stay the 

 scourge. 



A remarkable consequence of this visitation was 

 the ruin of the once dreaded Masai, a warlike race 

 of nomads inhabiting East Africa. Their sole 

 wealth consisted in their great herds. Despising 



1. Post mortem examination of a banteng (Javan wild ox) calf which 

 died of rinderpest at Calcutta revealed extensive congestion of the 

 larynx and windpipe, which were full of frothy mucus ; there was 

 ulceration in the large intestine but not in the small ; the liver and spleen 

 were healthy. 



