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 
