Memoirs of Anne C.L. Botta,: written by her friends. With selections from her correspondence and from her writings in prose and poetry.

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ment, dear reader, is this: I belong to the gentler sex. It is a little singular that while it is so common for women to wish, with
Desdemona, that Heaven had made them men, men on the contrary seem to be always entirely self-satisfied, and never wish to
change places with us. The idea of a pedestrian excursion in
search of the picturesque was first proposed in a pleasant circle
among whom were several artists and amateurs, who were in the
ha bit of meeting frequently. "Charming!"-" delightful!"was heard on all sides; but when the moment came for putting the
idea into execution, it was found that only two had given it serious
thought; my friend Mr. Cushman the artist and myself alone remained firm in the resolution of making theattempt. I had heard
of William and Mary Howitt making the tour of Germany on foot,
and of the pedestrian capabilities of English ladies in general; and
wishing to emulate them, as well as being pleased with the novelty
of such an enterprise, we decided to make the experiment. After
due deliberation, it was finally agreed that our destination should
be Niagara, and that we should take the canal at Schenectady, by
which we could walk or rest, as we chose, or give up walking
entirely, should we find it necessary. My dear mother, finding
expostulation vain, at last consented to this arrangement, and to
making one of the party, for the purpose of matronizing me;
though, being in delicate health, she could not anticipate any of
the pleasure we promised ourselves from the exercise of walking.
I should premise here that Mr. Cushman and myself are believers
in the water cure, and the positive benefit we both expected to
derive from this change of ordinary habits was proportioned to our
faith in the system. As the time appointed for our departure drew
near, we found it very difficult to obtain any information beyond what was put forth in a flaming advertisement in the
papers, announcing that passengers for Buffalo could obtain
tickets at the office in this city, which would take them the
whole distance from here to Buffalo in fine packet-boats, duly
pictured in the paper as attached to horses galloping at full speed,
for the astonishingly small sum of four dollars! To the less unsophisticated there would have been something suspicious in this
extraordinary cheapness; but innocent of any thought of im
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