39* A FARMER'S YEAR 



As the subject has been touched on, a short account of the 

 issue of the fight may be interesting. After hours of struggle 

 during which the Soudanese made five separate advances, Major 

 Macdonald, the officer in command, finding that the available 

 ammunition was reduced to a few rounds per man, followed the 

 example of the great Duke at Waterloo, and ordered a charge. 

 The enemy, not being aware of our desperate straits as regards 

 cartridges, gave way, and retired to the fort, where they brutally 

 murdered their three white prisoners Major Thruston and 

 Messrs. Wilson and Scott. Thus victory upon that terrible field 

 remained with the white men and those of the indomitable Sikhs 

 who were left alive. It is another recent instance, if after Chitral 

 one is wanted, of what Englishmen can effect when they are put 

 to proof, whether they be trained to arms or mere undisciplined 

 civilians. When it is needed, the innate martial spirit, the 

 endurance and determination that are bred in their blood, answer 

 to the calls of circumstance and duty, and they do what must be 

 done or die in the effort. It is, I think, this resourceful and un- 

 quenched spirit which, from generation to generation, has made 

 our race so great. 



The man who shot Mr. Jackson, it is believed, was himself 

 shot or very seriously wounded. Under the tree where he had 

 taken up his station were found two heaps of cartridge cases 

 for he had a spare gun and a loader and a pool of blood. His 

 body, however, was not found ; probably he was severely hurt, and 

 had been carried away by his comrades. 



To turn to a subject which, if less warlike and exciting, has 

 more to do with farming interests, Mr. Jackson gave me some very 

 interesting details as to the working and ravages of rinderpest. 

 This dreadful cattle disease, as many readers will remember, is 

 supposed to have begun in East Africa, whence it travelled south, 

 destroying kine, and even game, by the million, and spreading 

 ruin with an even hand among Kaffirs and white men. The plague 

 first struck East Africa in the year 1890, and having killed 

 everything there was to kill the Masai and other tribes were 



