About the year 1895 South Africa was invaded from the north by a plague of locusts. A succession of several abnormally dry seasons, peculiarly favourable for hatching the young, resulted in the swarms increasing to alarming proportions. Immense clouds of them swept over the land in all directions, sometimes so vast as to render dimmer the light of the sun. Natal, euphemistically though not untruly styled the Garden Colony, suffered, if anything, more than other parts, and this owing to the very abundance of her crops and almost tropical vegetation. Recurrent devastations of crops lasted until 1903 or 1904 when, through determined and systematic co-operation among Europeans in the several colonies, involving heavy outlays of public monies, the pest was successfully counteracted and stamped out. The Natives of Natal and Zululand, accustomed as they are to cultivating but small patches of maize and corn, barely sufficient for their wants even in plenteous seasons, suffered most. In connection with this "invasion" came a year of scarcity among them (1896), necessitating distribution by the Government, for their relief, of large supplies of grain at cost price and under,--in some cases, free of charge. In 1897 a new cattle disease, known as rinderpest, began to make its appearance, and this, whilst the older and well-nigh endemic one, called lung-sickness, was still afflicting the cattle of white and black alike. It, too, had gradually come down from the north. More virulent in form than lung-sickness, it soon spread to all parts of Natal and Zululand, destroying large percentages of the herds wherever permitted to enter. Again did the scourge press more heavily on Natives than on Europeans, especially in Zululand, for the reason that, being a pastoral people, they were peculiarly dependent in many ways on cattle. It will, for instance, be recollected that cattle are used as an essential constituent in every marriage contract. Milk, moreover, is extensively used for feeding infants and children. The price of stock advanced 500% and more; even where sufficient money was earned by hard labour, the necessary _lobola_ cattle could not be purchased. It, therefore, became difficult for the young men to obtain wives. That a certain spirit of restlessness and discontent gradually grew up in them cannot be wondered at. Indeed, it is generally admitted these misfortunes, coming one on top of the other and closely affecting the life of the people, were, on the whole, met by them with singular fortitude and forbearance.