16 THE LUNG PLAGUE OF CATTLE. 



clear, distinct instance where the sickness had been brought from the interior, three 

 hundred miles, and in the last case it was carried twenty miles. 



Another instance: Two natives were trading, and brought the disease from the country 

 where they went, two hundred miles, and set it down in a perfectly healthy region, in a herd 

 of about eighty cattle, and there it spread, and they were every one carried off. 



Another fact, one with which I had to do myself: A native, a stupid heathen 

 native was working for an Englishman in an infected region ; he took his pay in cat- 

 tle, two calves, I think, a year or a year and a half old. He carried them into a 

 healthy district, where the disease had been kept out, and within twenty miles of 

 which it was not known Presently these calves fell sick and died, and the cattle 

 with which they were placed began to be sick. I had in my service a young man be- 

 longing to that village, that was twelve miles from where I lived ; a messenger came 

 to this young man to say, your cattle are sick. When I heard that I inquired if any cat- 

 tle had been brought from the infected region to his kraal. He said such a one, nam- 

 ing the native before mentioned, had been working with a man and had taken two 

 head of cattle for his pay; he came back a little over two mouths ago with these cat- 

 tle, and they took sick and died, and now our other cattle are sick. I saw at once 

 what the matter was, for I knew that the region where these two cattle were taken 

 from was wholly contaminated. I said, your cattle will all die; you ought to tell your 

 neighbors to keep their cattle away from you. I asked him if his cattle had mixed with 

 other cattle, and he said, there are three kraals that have mixed with ours. So it ivas too 

 late, and the result was they all died. I suppose that in these four herds there were from 

 one hundred to one hundred and thirty head of cattle, and they every one died. Well, I told 

 the young man whom I sent to go and warn his neighbors ; he did so, and they took 

 their cattle in an opposite direction to grass, and, for two years before I came away, 

 not a single head of the cattle around there had taken the disease. Just those that were 

 exposed to the contagion, and no others, died. The neighbors' cattle continued in a state of 

 perfect health for two years after those four herds, one hundred or one hundred and 

 thirty head, had died right out there in the heart of a healthy region, a region as large 

 as a county. I cannot doubt that the disease was communicated by contagion, and if 

 the animals can be cut off the disease will be kept off. It was kept off in the region 

 in which I lived in this way. The chief with whom I lived occupies a considerable 

 extent of territory, and he is fortunately fortified on one side by a range of mountains, 

 and on the other by a precipice some hundred feet in height. He had assembled his 

 tribe for another purpose, and wanting my advice in reference to some political diffi- 

 culties, he sent a messenger to tell me of his trouble. I went to him, and after that 

 matter was settled I took occasion to tell him that the sickness was within some forty 

 miles of us. I told him what the disease had done and would do, and I said to him, 

 there is just one thing to do, and that is, to keep your cattle where they are and not allow 

 any to go out or ccme in. Well, the people there love their cattle, as they say, better 

 than they love their lives. They took the alarm, and every effort that was made on 

 the part of any one to bring cattle into the country was immediately and stoutly re- 

 sisted. The intruder was met with spear and shield and threatened with death and 

 destruction to himself and his cattle if he came a step farther, and so was made to 

 go back. Only half a mile off, within sight of these cattle, dead animals were lying 

 nuburied that had been exposed to this contagion. The disease was brought there by 

 the oxen of an individual wljo had been into the interior, and when he came home his 

 oxen died. They communicated the disease to all the cattle in that neighborhood, 

 and I never saw more complete destruction. There was not a single head left in all 

 those kraals. Those cattle came up to within half a mile of our boundary, and you 

 could look down and see herds of them lying dead. That was three years ago, and 

 yet when I came away the disease had not got one inch over that line. 



These are facts that I have seen and know, and in that country, if yon should 

 ask us, is the disease communicated by contagion ? we Avould say yes, and we ivouldjust as 

 soon doubt that the sun made daylight. There are thousands. upon thousands of facts to 

 prove it. We have no more questions to ask 011 that subject. You will see how widely 

 the disease might spread in a country like that, where cattle are so abundant, where 

 the travel is continued day and night, and where thousands of oxen are on the road 

 every twenty-four hours. It has been to that country a great scourage. Thousands 

 and hundreds of thousands of cattle have died, and many of the people have been 

 made poor by the ravages of the disease, and the only hope they have of securing a 

 comfortable subsistence, and recovering a comfortable position in respect to property, ' 

 is through sheep. They have given up all idea of grazing cattle, and are now turning their 

 attention to sheep ; for the disease is so widely spread that they have no hope that it will ever be 

 exterminated. 



The especial value of this narrative lies in its testimony to the identity 

 of this disease in the northern and southern hemispheres; to its terrible 

 fatality in a warm climate, a matter lull of dread significance to us ; to 

 its rapid diffusion where circumstances favor contact of the sick and 



