LETTERS FROM BRAZIL 77 



encourage me, so after all I was not so very heroic as 

 I seem ; but still the path was too narrow for two, so he 

 could only go before and give me occasional directions 

 about my horse, and then I knew that if he came to 

 any place he thought really dangerous he would help 

 me to dismount, if there was time. However he really 

 did commend me very much, and said for a person 

 quite unaccustomed to riding it was a pretty good 

 feat. You see, my dear, I must brag a little because 

 by nature I am such an awful coward. I confess I was 

 glad when the steepest part of the descent was over. 

 But still I did enjoy almost the whole; the woods were 

 so fragrant and so rich in color and foliage, the glimpse 

 of view as we went along so enchanting and then the 

 culminating view at the summit so impressive that 

 enjoyment overpowered fear. 



Rio de Janeiro, May 16, 1865 

 We have just returned from an enchanting journey, 

 about which I meant to have written you my freshest 

 impressions, but on our return we are received with 

 such an extraordinary avalanche of public news, good 

 and bad, that it drives everything else out of mind. 

 Richmond and Petersburg taken, Lee defeated at 

 every point, the war virtually over — this was our 

 first news as we neared the city on our return. And 

 then came the terrible close giving an account of this 

 wholesale assassination in Washington, which reads 

 like the last scene in a five-act tragedy and seems 

 utterly incredible. That three members of the Seward 

 family should be left for dead in their own house with 



