But more was to follow. About the end of the late War, through importation at Beira, it has been supposed, of fresh blood in the shape of cattle from Australia to re-stock Rhodesia, a fresh disease--even more disastrous than rinderpest--also previously unknown in South Africa, made its appearance among such stock as remained in that part, and thereafter slowly but surely spread in different directions. Rinderpest had, like a hurricane, swept through South Africa (leaving patches here and there unaffected), and eventually spent itself at the sea at Cape Town. The new disease, known as East Coast Fever, or Tick Fever, by reason of infection being carried by a species of tick, common almost to the whole of South Africa, was much more searching and destructive in its effects. It crept steadily south-ward, affecting European and Native cattle alike. After causing vast and widespread losses, it is still unconquered at time of writing, though, especially since the Union Government assumed control, the possibilities of its spreading have been greatly reduced. Entering the Colony on the eastern section of its northern boundary, it moved from place to place, striking down herds wherever it appeared with a suddenness that hardly seemed possible from the slowness of its march. The Natives of Zululand were the first to feel the blow, but the still more numerous black and white population of Natal, though having greater time to organize resistance, did not suffer less. A fundamental characteristic of human nature showed itself in the complacency with which the disease was viewed whilst at a distance, and alarm and even panic when it actually invaded the Colony. Every precaution which science or quackery could suggest was adopted. Thousands of pounds were spent on a device, only a few weeks later to be displaced by another, even more expensive. Parliament passed one law after another, whose aggregate effect scarcely abated the evil, whilst the inconvenience to Natives through enforcement of regulations amounted, in some instances, to actual provocation. That they were unable to see eye-to-eye with the Veterinary Department or other controlling authority in the restrictions imposed within infected or supposed infected areas was due not to fictitious, but to genuine, belief. However, it was clear from the outset that European cattle were no more immune than their own. If their race suffered, so also did that of the white man. Irritating though the precautions were, the fact remained that Natives' cattle were being swept off wholesale, leaving the people in a greatly impoverished condition. But there was another matter, and one of long standing, regarded by them as a still greater affliction. To this we must now turn.