1850.] 



RETURN TO BARRA. 



119 



a short time it became very active, and when he brought it me 

 was as strong and fierce as if it was quite uninjured. I put it 

 in a large wicker basket, but as it would take no food during 

 two days I fed it by thrusting pieces of banana down its 

 throat ; this I continued for several days, with much difficulty, 

 as its claws were very sharp and powerful. On our way to Barra 

 I found by the river-side a small fruit which it ate readily ; 

 this fruit was about the size of a cherry, of an acid taste, and was 

 swallowed whole. The bird arrived safely in the city, and 

 lived a fortnight ; when one day it suddenly fell off its perch 

 and died. On skinning it, I found the shot had broken the 

 skull and entered to the brain, though it seems surprising that 

 it should have remained so long apparently in perfect health. 

 I had had, however, an excellent opportunity of observing its 

 habits, and its method of expanding and closing its beautiful 

 crest and neck-plume. 



I had now a dull time of it in Barra. The wet season had 

 regularly set in ; a day hardly ever passed without rain, and 

 on many days it was incessant. We seized every opportunity 

 for a walk in the forest, but scarcely anything was to be found 

 when we got there, and what we did get was with the greatest 

 difficulty preserved ; for the atmosphere was so saturated with 

 moisture that insects moulded, and the feathers and hair 

 dropped from the skins of birds and animals so as to render 

 them quite unserviceable. Luckily, however, there were a good 

 number of foreigners in Barra, so we had a little company. 

 Two traders on the Amazon, an American and an Irishman, 

 had arrived. Mr. Bates had reached Barra a few weeks after 

 me, and was now here, unwilling, like myself, to go further up 

 the country in such uninviting weather. There were also three 

 Germans, one of whom spoke English well and was a bit of a 

 naturalist, and all were good singers, and contributed a little 

 amusement. 



There was also a deaf and dumb American, named Baker, a 

 very humorous and intelligent fellow, who was a constant fund 

 of amusement both for the Brazilians and ourselves. He had 

 been educated in the same institution with Laura Bridgman, 

 as a teacher of the deaf and dumb. He seemed to have a 

 passion for travelling, probably as the only means of furnishing 

 through his one sense the necessary amount of exercise and 

 etimulus to his mind. He had travelled alone through Pe^u 



