174 
TRAVELS ON THE RIO NEGRO. 
\March, 
were a good number of foreigners in Barra, so we had a 
little company. Two traders on the Amazon, an Ame- 
rican 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 na- 
turalist, 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 tra- 
velling, probably as the only means of furnishing through 
his one sense the necessary amount of exercise and sti- 
mulus to his mind. He had travelled alone through 
Peru and Chile, across to Brazil, through Para to 
Barra, and now proposed going by the Rio Branco 
to Demerara, and so to the United States. He sup- 
ported himself by selling the deaf and dumb alpha- 
bet, with explanations in Spanish and Portuguese. He 
carried a little slate, on which he could write anything 
in English or Erench, and also a good deal in Spanish, 
so that he could always make his wants known. He 
made himself at home in every house in Barra, walk- 
ing in and out as he liked, and asking by signs for what- 
ever he wanted. He was very merry, fond of prac- 
tical jokes, and of making strange gesticulations. He 
pretended to be a phrenologist ; and on feeling the head 
9 , 
I 
