BRITISH CENTRAL AFRICA 
118 
would expire in the summer of 1893, and I had therefore made arrangements 
with the Indian Government for their relief, but had asked on this occasion, at 
the suggestion of Captain Johnson, that when the second Indian contingent 
was sent out, all the new Indian soldiers should be Jat Sikhs and not Mazbis. 1 
Lieut. Edwards brought with him a hundred Sikhs on this occasion. A few 
months after their arrival the time expired of the Mazbi Sikhs, and the few 
Indian cavalrymen that remained were sent back to India. 
Later on in the year another hundred Sikhs arrived, under 
the command of Lieut, (now Captain) W. H. Manning, 
thus bringing up the full strength of our Indian contingent 
to 200 men, which maximum it has not since exceeded. 
In regard to black troops we had first of all tried natives of 
Zanzibar, but these men had not proved very satisfactory. 
They were nearly as expensive as the Sikhs, they were not 
all of them very brave or reliable in warfare, and they 
were difficult to procure, owing to the restrictions 
which had been placed at that time on the ex¬ 
patriation of the natives of Zanzibar ; restrictions 
rendered absolutely necessary owing to the drain 
on the population of that island caused by the 
I engagement of Zanzibaris for the many expedi- 
5 §pk tions engaged in African exploration. I had been 
much struck with the good qualities of the Makua 
of Mozambique The escort I had taken with 
me in my journeys of 1889-90 was composed of 
Makua, recruited at Mozambique. I had also 
obtained Makua for the Thomson-Grant expedi¬ 
tion to Bangweolo, and these men after Mr. 
Thomson’s return had passed into our police 
force. We were also beginning to employ as 
police the Atonga natives of West Nyasa. I 
therefore decided to pay off and send back our 
few remaining Zanzibaris, and to replace them 
by Makua and natives of Nyasaland. Meantime, 
however, at a suggestion from the late Mr. Portal, 
I tried the experiment of forming a small corps 
of Zanzibar Arabs (most of them ex-soldiers of 
the Sultan of Zanzibar’s bodyguard). These men were of poor physique, and 
we only kept them in our service from one to two years. They were very plucky 
and, contrary to some people’s anticipation, perfectly loyal. 2 
During the year 1893 arrangements which had been begun for the division 
of the British Central Africa Protectorate and the adjoining Sphere of the 
:y 
LIEUT.-COL. C. A. EDWARDS 
1 I need scarcely remind my readers that the Sikhs are not a race but merely a religious sect. They 
are really a section of the Panjab people of very varied types of humanity, some being dark coloured and 
of almost Dravidian aspect, others having faces of Greek outline and very pale complexions. The Jat 
belongs to the cultivator class and is supposed to be much more aristocratic than the Mazbi. Between the 
Mazbis and the Jats, however, I could see very little difference in general appearance, and to my thinking 
both kinds of Sikhs were equally good ; perhaps in one or two points the Mazbis had the advantage in 
regard to physical endurance, while on the other hand the Jats were more cheery in disposition, and even 
more loyally enthusiastic than the Mazbis. In the days when the Sikhs set much store by caste, the Mazbis 
were the “sweepers'” or lowest caste of all, and by some were hardly recognised as proper Sikhs. 
* A detailed description of our present military force in the Protectorate will be found in the 
Appendix to this chapter. 
