ing in accordance with their orders, the Commander-in-Chief wrote:
'I believe that the success of systems depends more on the men who
work them than on the systems themselves; but I cannot accept without
protest a decision to throw such a body of men as the drivers of our
transport animals will be (if we get them) on an expedition in a
foreign country without a very complete organization to secure order
and discipline.' Eventually Sir Robert got his own way, but much
valuable time had been lost, and the corps was organized on too small
a scale;[2] the officers and non-commissioned officers were not sent
to Zula in sufficient time or in sufficient numbers to take charge of
the transport animals as they arrived.

A compact, properly-supervised train of 2,600 mules, with serviceable,
well-fitting pack-saddles, was sent from the Punjab; and from Bombay
came 1,400 mules and ponies and 5,600 bullocks, but these numbers
proving altogether inadequate to the needs of the expedition, they
were supplemented by animals purchased in Persia, Egypt, and on the
shores of the Mediterranean. The men to look after them were supplied
from the same sources, but their number, even if they had been
efficient, was insufficient, and they were a most unruly and
unmanageable lot. They demanded double the pay for which they had
enlisted, and struck work in a body because their demand was not at
once complied with. They refused to take charge of the five mules
each man was hired to look after, and when that number was reduced
to three, they insisted that one should be used as a mount for the
driver. But the worst part of the whole organization, or, rather, want
of organization, was that there had been no attempt to fit the animals
with pack-saddles, some of which were sent from England, some from
India, and had to be adjusted to the mules after they had been landed
in Abyssinia, where there was not an establishment to make the
necessary alterations. The consequence was that the wretched animals
became cruelly galled, and in a few weeks a large percentage were
unfit for work, and had to be sent to the sick depot.

Other results of having no properly arranged transport train, and
no supervision or discipline, were that mules were lost or stolen,
starved for want of food, or famished from want of water. The
condition of the unfortunate animals was such that, though they had
been but a few weeks in the country, when they were required to
proceed to S