else does the European name stand at so low an ebb; but what can be expected?  Few Portuguese women are ever taken to the colonies, and here I did not observe that honorable regard for the offspring which I noticed in Angola.  The son of a late governor of Tete was pointed out to me in the condition and habit of a slave.  There is neither priest nor school at Senna, though there are ruins of churches and convents.

On passing the Shire we observed great quantities of the plant Alfacinya, already mentioned, floating down into the Zambesi.  It is probably the ‘Pistia stratiotes’, a gigantic “duck-weed”.  It was mixed with quantities of another aquatic plant, which the Barotse named “Njefu”, containing in the petiole of the leaf a pleasant-tasted nut.  This was so esteemed by Sebituane that he made it part of his tribute from the subjected tribes.  Dr. Hooker kindly informs me that the njefu “is probably a species of ‘Trapa’, the nuts of which are eaten in the south of Europe and in India.  Government derives a large revenue from them in Kashmir, amounting to 12,000 Pounds per annum for 128,000 ass-loads!  The ancient Thracians are said to have eaten them largely.  In the south of France they are called water-chestnuts.”  The existence of these plants in such abundance in the Shire may show that it flows from large collections of still water.  We found them growing in all the still branches and lagoons of the Leeambye in the far north, and there also we met a beautiful little floating plant, the ‘Azolla Nilotica’, which is found in the upper Nile.  They are seldom seen in flowing streams.

A few miles beyond the Shire we left the hills entirely, and sailed between extensive flats.  The banks seen in the distance are covered with trees.  We slept on a large inhabited island, and then came to the entrance of the River Mutu (latitude 18d 3’ 37” S., longitude 35d 46’ E.):  the point of departure is called Mazaro, or “mouth of the Mutu”.  The people who live on the north are called Baroro, and their country Bororo.  The whole of the right bank is in subjection to the Landeens, who, it was imagined, would levy a tribute upon us, for this they are accustomed to do to passengers.  I regret that we did not meet them, for, though they are named Caffres, I am not sure whether they are of the Zulu family or of the Mashona.  I should have liked to form their acquaintance, and to learn what they really think of white men.  I understood from Sekwebu, and from one of Changamera’s people who lives at Linyanti, and was present at the attack on Senna, that they consider the whites as a conquered tribe.