MA ROBERT. 
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nished with a small steam launch, carried in three sections, 
and called “ Ma Robert,” after Mrs. Livingstone, to whom 
the native Africans, according to their custom, had given 
the name of Ma (mother). After exploring the mouths of 
the Zambesi, they proceeded up the stream. The country 
was rich and well adapted to growing sugar cane. But 
few inhabitants were met, and they were all blacks, and 
the majority of them Portuguese “ colonos,” or serfs. They 
manifested no fear of white men, and stood in groups on 
the land, gazing in astonishment at the steamers. All were 
eager traders, and in their light canoes brought supplies 
of every kind of fruit and food they possessed : honey, 
beeswax, fowls, rice and meal. When the channel became 
too shallow for the Pearl, that vessel returned, and the 
expedition pushed on its way. For sixty or seventy miles 
before reaching Mazaro, the scenery is tame and uninter- 
esting, but on approaching Mazaro it improves. The Lan- 
deens or Zulus are the owners of the right bank of the 
Zambesi, and every year appear to receive their tribute 
from the Portuguese. At Shupanga they wooded up with 
African ebony and lignum vitae. This last tree here attains 
an immense size, sometimes as much as four feet in dia- 
meter. The India-rubber tree is also plentiful, and the 
indigo grows wild on the banks of the stream. On the 17th 
of August, 1858, the expedition started for Tette. The 
channel wa3 a difficult one, and the black pilot, John 
Scissors, frequently ran the vessel aground. The furnaces 
of the Ma Robert consumed so much wood, that obtaining 
the supplies caused constant detentions. Steam was no 
labor-saving appliance, and boats or canoes would have 
done much better at half the expense and labor. At Shir- 
ambe Dembe, on the right bank, was a ruined settlement. 
Near was a magnificent Boabab tree, its trunk hollowed 
out into a good-sized hut, with the bark growing in the in- 
side as well as on the outside. This is a peculiarity of this 
tree, when it is hollowed out, the bark grows so as to line 
the inside of the cavity, as well as the outside of the trunk. 
