NYASALAND AND LOWER ZAMBESI 131 



is one of the highest stations, if not the highest 

 station, in the whole Protectorate. It nestles 

 at the foot of Dedza Mountain, from the top 

 of which a good view to Lake Nyasa can be 

 obtained at favourable times of the year, Dedza 

 is a well-laid-out station, surrounded by plenty 

 of trees, and it needs them, for cold winds blow 

 over the crest of the hill on which the Boma 

 has been built, and in winter Dedza would, I 

 should imagine, be anything but tropical. Dedza 

 is in the heart of Angoniland, and these fine 

 savages, descendants of the old Zulu stock, 

 endowed with many of the Zulu virtues, and yet, 

 because Nyasaland is further off the trail of the 

 cosmopolitan concession hunter, questionable 

 trader, and other attributes of civilization than 

 is Natal and Zululand, without many of the 

 modern Zulu vices, are to be found around here 

 in great numbers. The native population in the 

 vicinity of Dedza, N'Cheu, and the mission 

 stations around Dombole is very large, and it is 

 not to be wondered at that the Witwatersrand 

 and Rhodesian Native Labour Associations have 

 designs on Angoniland. 



Leaving Dedza one crosses some flat, open 

 country to Fort Melangeni, a military post 

 manned by Sikhs with an Indian " jemadar " 

 in charge. As in British East Africa and 

 Uganda, so in Nyasaland has our Indian Empire 

 had a considerable amount to do with the 

 foundation of our East African Colonies. The 

 first military force in the Protectorate consisted 

 of 200 Sikhs, and throughout the history of 

 British Central Africa their names are honourably 

 enscrolled. The military force proper of the 

 Protectorate, however, now consists of a battalion 

 of the King's African Rifles, a native force 



